A Style
𐑱 𐑕𐑑𐑲𐑤
The rather generically named A Style (as opposed to the condensed C Style) is one of the most prolific typefaces that even most graphic designers haven't heard of.
It was created by British photographic lens manufacturer Taylor, Taylor & Hobson in 1894, as a means to consistently engrave simple lettering onto metal. As such, it isn't strictly a typeface, so much as the default font for a pantograph engraver.
It's since been modified by US companies Gorton and Leroy. In the twentieth century, one A Style variation or another, often Gorton's, was used wherever clearly engraved lettering was required, from intercoms and lifts to nuclear reactors and spaceships.
As moulds were also engraved, it ended up being used in various plastic items too, such as the doubleshot keycaps of many typewriters and keyboards.
Yet more derivatives of it made their way onto paper too, even ending up as a Letraset font. One was canonised as US military standard MIL-SPEC-33558, another as ANSI standard Y14.2M.
Further reading
Deep dives
- "The Hardest Working Font in Manhattan" Marcin Wichary, Aresluna, Feb 2025
Downloads
Documentation
Patents
- "Engraving-Machine" William Taylor, US Patents, May 1894
ANSI standards: A Style | SCSI
De facto standards: ADAT | A Style | MX switch | SysEx file | ZX Spectrum
Typefaces: A Style
US military standards: A Style
