Venus (typeface)

Venus or Venus-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface released by the Bauer Type Foundry of Frankfurt am Main, Germany from 1907 onwards. It was very popular in the early-to-mid twentieth century, particularly in Germany; it was also imported to other countries such as the United States.

Like other "grotesque" typefaces of the period such as Akzidenz-Grotesk of the Berthold Type Foundry, Venus has a minimal, 'neutral' design, with a monoline structure and an absence of flourishes. Walter Tracy however describes it as carrying the influence of Art Nouveau and Secessionist lettering in some of its capitals which have a high waistline, such as the 'R', 'G' and 'E'. The x-height is relatively low, suitable for body text, and the 'g' single-storey. Compared to many later sans-serifs it has a more irregular design, with stroke terminals at a variety of angles rather than mostly exactly horizontal or vertical. A prominent use of it was Jan Tschichold's second book, Eine Stunde Druckgestaltung, (1930), which used it for body text. It was also used in other avant-garde printing of the period. Monotype's Monotype Grotesque, created for their hot metal typesetting system, was reportedly loosely based on it.

A number of digitisations have been released based on some styles of the family.

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