ITC Avant Garde Pro released, but . . .

[ktinkel]

ITC has released an opentype Pro version of Avant Garde Gothic, that iconic ad face from the 1970s. This new font includes custom ligatures and other details that have been missing from most digital versions (as well as some brand new ones). A PDF catalog of the new font is available at the ITC link above.

We can also read criticism of aspects of the OT font’s quality. Type designer Mark Simonson points out in a discussion on Typographica — Ain’t What ITC Used to Be — that the new font has adopted mechanically slanted upright characters for the obliques (like those in the Adobe versions of Avant Garde) rather than return to the well-crafted, optically-balanced obliques of the original ITC fonts.

On Typophile, the discussion takes another turn. The use of computer obliques was in part because Adobe did them that way in early PostScript days, and the assumption was that users would be accustomed to them (!!). Beyond that, Adobe has also defined the OT “Pro” format as matching prior Type 1 fonts, and Agfa Monotype/ITC wanted to comply with that. There were also cost considerations.

BTW, Simonson has a very good description of the difference between mechanically slanted and optically balanced (i.e., designed) obliques on his web site: Fake vs. True Italics. When he criticises the new ITC AG font, he knows whereof he speaks.