Berlin Sans is a three-weight sans serif typeface with a strong character. The very heavy Bold weight is best used for titles or headlines at large sizes, so that its tiny counters (the spaces within the letters) don’t get lost. The Regular weight, however, works well in short passages of text. Even the Regular is fairly heavy, so it gives a dark character to a paragraph. The Demi Bold sits in between the Regular and Bold and can be used either for emphasis within text or as a display typeface.
The most distinctive features of Berlin Sans are the slight bowing or roundness of the straight strokes, which make it lively, and the curving diagonal strokes of letters like ‘v’ and ‘w’, which give it a sense of being closed in on itself.
Berlin Sans is based on a single-weight typeface designed by Lucian Bernhard for the Bauer type foundry in 1930. David Berlow of Font Bureau, along with Matthew Butterick, digitized that font and expanded it into a family of nine styles. Three weights are included.
