Weiss® Rundgotisch Font Family

Weiss® Rundgotisch Regular (Assorted Collection) More details ... Add to shopping cart Price from: US$ 26.00

Emil Rudolf Weiß – born 12. 10. 1875 in Lahr, Germany, died 7. 11. 1942 in Meersburg, Germany – graphic artist, painter, typographer, type designer, poet, teacher. 1893–96: studies at the art academy in Karlsruhe, from 1896–97 at the Académie Julian in Paris and from 1897–1903 at the art academies in Karlsruhe and Stuttgart. 1894: contributes to "Pan" magazine. 1895: starts producing work for various publishing houses, including Cotta, Suhrkamp, S. Fischer, Cassirer, Insel and Rowohlt. [...]

The German designer Emil Rudolf Weiss originally created Weiss Rundgotisch for the Bauer typefoundry in 1937. In their catalog for the typeface, Bauer began with this quote from Leonhard Wagner: "The round gothic (rundgotisch) script is the most beautiful kind of script; she is called the mother and the queen of all the rest."

While designing Weiss Rundgotisch, Weiss was inspired by Renaissance types cut by the Augsberg printer Erhard Ratdolt. Ratdolt had spent some time in Venice, which is most likely where he became familiar with round gothic letters. This sort of letterform was never as popular in Germany as Fraktur or Gotisch may have been, but round gothic types were used there for centuries to represent arts and craft feelings, as well as old-fashioned handwork.

For a blackletter typeface, Weiss Rundgotisch is very similar to normal serif and sans serif designs, especially its uppercase letters, which seem to have some uncial influence in them as well. Therefore, Weiss Rundgotisch is more legible for contemporary readers, making this an excellent choice for anyone looking to set text, logos, or headlines with in blackletter.

Weiss Rundgotisch was apparently quite a difficult typeface to design, even for a master designer like Weiss. He began work on the face in 1915; Weiss Rundgotisch's development took over 20 years to complete.