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Television Signal Analysis

Contributed by Grant Hutchinson on Nov 21st, 2018. Artwork published in
May 1955
.
    Television Signal Analysis
    Photo: Grant Hutchinson. License: CC BY-NC.

    Title page from Television Signal Analysis, a booklet published by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (otherwise known as the original AT&T) in 1955. The headline face is a version of Phenix American featuring rather intriguing alternate g and y glyphs.

    The 1957 version of this booklet is available from the Internet Archive.

    Typefaces

    • Phenix American
    • News Gothic Extra Condensed
    • Times

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    2 Comments on “Television Signal Analysis

    1. Thank you for your contribution, Grant!

      I checked Mac McGrew’s American Metal Typefaces Of The Twentieth Century—a fabulous resource that never ceases to amaze me—and learned that Phenix is a spin-off of News Gothic Extra Condensed, “with several characters redesigned in the ‘round’ fashion of the time.” And indeed the g and y appear to be taken from News Gothic Extra Condensed. You could just as well say that this is News Gothic XC with the E, A and N taken from Phenix. In today’s OpenType format, Phenix would probably be packaged as a stylistic “Art Deco” set of News Gothic.

    2. Thanks for the additional background, Florian. I was familiar with News Gothic Condensed, but had no idea it was so similar to Phenix.

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