Copperplate Gothic, a small cap typeface, was designed by Frederic W. Goudy in early 1901 and released to American Type Founders (ATF). The label “Gothic” is interesting, because Copperplate is not a true Gothic (sans-serif) at all: its strokes have tiny serifs at the ends. These, however, are not intended as a stylistic feature, but serve simply to emphasise the corners of the type in the printing process, thus ensuring that the characters appear “sharp” on paper.



Open forms and hairline serifs make Copperplate Gothic easy to read, even at small font sizes

This feature gives a particular elegance to the typeface, which was used on business cards at small font sizes for decades.

Clarence C. Marder at ATF expanded Copperplate to include several more fonts, extending its suitability to official documents, book covers and even newspaper typesetting.