Algerian (typeface)

Algerian

Category	Serif / Display
Classification	Decorative
Designer(s)	Alan Meeks and Philip Kelly
Foundry	Scangraphic
Date released	1988

Algerian is a decorative serif digital font family, based on the Keystone Foundry's nineteenth-century face Glyphic. The design for the typeface is owned by Linotype, while the name 'Algerian' is a trademark of the International Typeface Corporation. Algerian comes in two styles: 'Algerian' (regular) and 'Algerian Condensed'.

Algerian (regular) was created for Scangraphic at Letraset. Algerian Condensed was created by the Linotype library designer Alan Meeks. Although Algerian is reminiscent of Victorian era woodcut types, both styles were created in 1988.

In a similar way to Comic Sans, Algerian is reviled for its overuse.^[1][2][3] Originally, the Algerian font only had capital letters, but Michael Hagemann, with the FontMesa publisher developed in 2005, a complete typeface which includes lower case letters with the name of Algerian Mesa (as seen in the image).^[4]

Earlier use of the name

The name Algerian was earlier used for a foundry type cast by Stephenson Blake in 1908. The current Algerian family has no relation to this face.

References

1. Blog posts documenting inappropriate usage of Algerian
2. Article about most overused fonts, including Algerian
3. Article about bad fonts, including Algerian
4. "MyFonts". April 21, 2005. Archived from the original on 21 October 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-29.