Design work started on Franklin Gothic in 1902 although it was not issued, by American Type Founders, until 1905. Designer Morris Fuller Benton is thought to have been influenced by the Akzidenz Grotesk series which had been cut by the Berthold foundry, in Germany, in 1896, and was being sold in the USA under the name 'Standard. Typical of the Grotesque style of the late nineteenth, early twentieth centuries, Franklin Gothic quickly became popular and has remained so to this day. The Franklin Gothic font family is used widely in newspapers and advertising for headline and display work.
