This font’s story goes back to the early 1920s, which is when Eric Gill met a typographer named Stanley Morison. That encounter changed the trajectory of Gill’s life. He’d previously been a sculptor and a sign painter\u2014both professions he wouldn’t abandon\u2014as well as a budding social reformist. But that meeting with Morison led Gill down the road of type design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was hired by the Monotype Corporation based on Morison’s recommendation and set to work on whatever the independent Surrey-based type foundry needed. That work started with finding a way to revive several classical fonts, with the goal being to introduce them as a collective into Monotype’s typeface library. Morison oversaw that work. But he also had something different in mind. He wanted Monotype\u2014and Gill, in particular\u2014to design a modern typeface he could use to compete with the likes of Futura, which was gaining popularity at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gill was Morison’s key. Having seen Gill’s letterforms used for various signage projects, Morison realized that a typeface designed around the characters Gill used would strike gold. So Gill had his new job\u2014transform what he’d put down on signs into a brand-new font.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He succeeded, creating the Gill Sans font in the process. Often known as a humanist font, his typeface hones in on legibility, making it perfect for display work (hence why the BBC used it as its default font). And with Gill’s success, Morison and Monotype finally had a font that they could advertise as their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, where does this article come in? You may already love the Gill Sans font. But you also want to find fonts similar to Gill Sans, just with a twist or something unique to set them apart. That’s what you’ll find here\u2014at least one alternative out of 10 suggestions that you’re free to use for your next project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n