Type Gallery - Linotype Ergo

Font Designer: Gary Munch, 1997

Linotype Ergo, designed by Gary Munch and a winner in Linotype’s 1997 International Digital Design Contest, was conceived as a blend of traditional and modern type concepts. It works as a legible text family as well as a lively display or headline selection. Now, 14 new styles have been added to the family, making it more useful than ever! Five condensed weights, each with a companion italic, are now available in both OpenType Pro and Com formats, as are two compressed weights, each with their own italic fonts.

What helps make Linotype Ergo so legible? The strokes of its characters accommodate the tendency of the eye to enlarge horizontals and perceive verticals as lighter. The lowercase forms have open, friendly counters and are enhanced by small quirks, such as the slightly leaning “s” and the wide “t.” The deep branching of curves from main strokes helps this humanist sans to be very readable at smaller sizes.