The Legibility Group

Carl Shank • July 29, 2026

The Legibility Group. This group of typefaces comes from the the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, a company founded in the United States in 1886 to market the Linotype machine, a system to cast metal type in lines (linecaster) invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler. The company became the world's leading manufacturer of newspaper and book typesetting equipment. The Legibility Group is a series of serif typefaces intended for use in newspapers on Linotype's hot metal typesetting  system. They were developed in-house by Linotype's design team, led by Chauncey H. Griffith and released from 1925, when the first member, Ionic No. 5, appeared.


The family became a large group due to the creation of slightly different designs for different printing conditions, such as levels of inking used in different newspaper production processes and versions with different x-heights. It consisted of Ionic No. 5, Textype, Excelsior, Opticon, Paragon and Corona. Although not part of the family, Linotype marketed its sans-serif family Metro and slab serif face Memphis as effective complements for headings.

Ionic No. 5 — the first in the family and extremely successful. Sometimes criticized for having too high an x-height  making lower-case letters very wide and reducing the difference between an "n" and an "h". Bitstream’sNews 701 typeface is an unofficial digitization.


The face features a large lowercase with short ascenders and descenders, with no fine lines or serifs to break down in stereotyping, and no small openings to fill up with ink. This is one of a few typefaces made in many closely graded sizes: 5-, 51/2-, 6-, 61/2-, 63/4-, 7-, 71/2-, 8-, 9-, 10-, and 12-point.  Ionic Condensed was designed by Griffith in 1927, also for Linotype. It is a refinement of traditional designs, intended for newspaper headings, and has most of the general characteristics of the text face. The Variable font was recently developed by CARE Typography.

Textype — similar but with a lower x-height, giving a more delicate structure with more contrast between letters with and without ascenders.


Excelsior — reduced x-height and intended for rubber-roller presses. Linotype has described its use as most common "in Europe, where newspaper columns are wide."


Opticon — heavier, to compensate for printing that deliberately underinks to favour halftones. Opticon (1935, Linotype). From Mac McGrew — Opticon was designed in 1935 by C. H. Griffith for Linotype. It is a member of what that supplier calls its Legibility Group of typefaces designed primarily for newspaper use. It is essentially the same as Excelsior, but with stems and thick lines weighted slightly, for printing on hard-surfaced paper.


Textype Sample

Paragon — lighter, to compensate for newspapers that deliberately overink to favour text and headlines. 


Corona — condensed and large on the body. Walter Tracy praised it for carrying "the design of newspaper types to a new level." 


Although not part of the family, Linotype marketed its sans-serif  family Metro and slab serif  face Memphis as effective complements for headings. (For more information see my blog on "Sans Serif Fonts" at https://www.caretypography.com/about-sans-serif-fonts and "Slab Serifs" at https://www.caretypography.com/slab-serif-font-history)


Successful Layout & Design

Typeface Characteristics: Which Type Where?

By Carl Shank • September 9, 2026
Typeface characteristics are the visual and structural features that distinguish one typeface from another. They determine a typeface’s historical appearance, readability, personality, and appropriate use. Useful Ways to Analyze Any Typeface. When examining an unfamiliar typeface, ask these questions in order (provided by ChatGPT) — Does it have serifs? What kind of serifs? How much thick/thin contrast is present? What is the stress angle? What is the x-height? How wide or narrow are the letters? How are the counters constructed? What do the terminals look like? What are distinctive letters such as a, g, e, R, and Q doing? How does the typeface behave in a paragraph—open, dark, dense, airy, mechanical, or calligraphic? What historical or technological process does its construction suggest? What personality does the combination of these characteristics produce? There are a number of online sources to help identify typefaces ( See Feb. 6, 2022 Blog for more explanation and use.) Sources include — MyFonts ( www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont ), FontSquirrel ( www.fontsquirrel.com/matcherator ) WhtFontIs ( www.whatfontis.com ) Identifont ( www.identifont.com ) is one of the best. Here are the questions it will ask you — Does it have feet (serifs) or not (sans-serifs)? What style is the tail on uppercase Q? What style is the ampersand (the &)? Is the numeral “4” open or closed? What style of vertical line does the Dollar sign ($) have? How high is the center vertex of the uppercase M? Sit on the line or not? What type of bar does the uppercase G have? How far below the baseline does the uppercase J extend? What about the uppercase R? How far does the center bar extend? Is there a gap with the vertical part of the letter? Does it meet or cross the vertical? What about the question mark (?) What shape is the dot at the bottom? Is it circular, square, triangular, rectangular or even missing? The important point is that a typeface should not be identified by a single characteristic. Its identity comes from the interaction of serifs, contrast, stress, proportions, counters, terminals, spacing, and letterform construction.

More on Variable Fonts (2)

By Carl Shank • September 5, 2026
Google’s variable font selection includes IBM Plex Sans, Inter, Newsreader, Open Sans, Playfair Display, Express Fraunces and Roboto. FF Meta Variable is now a licensed font from Monotype (myFonts.com). Formata Variable is a demonstration only font from CARE Typography. We consider two Google Variable typefaces here — Playfair Display and Express Fraunces. Playfair Display Playfair Display is a high-contrast transitional/display serif typeface designed by Claus Eggers Sørensen and released through Google Fonts in 2011. It was designed primarily for large display sizes, especially headlines, titles, and editorial typography. Its appearance draws inspiration from the late eighteenth-century transition from traditional broad-nib writing toward pointed steel pens, as well as from the elegant typefaces associated with the European Enlightenment and neoclassical period. Playfair Display is a contemporary high-contrast serif designed primarily for display typography. Its visual ancestry lies in the 18th-century transitional period, particularly the movement from broad-nib calligraphic forms toward the sharper, more vertical forms that ultimately produced Didot and Bodoni.
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