Sans-serif

A letterform stripped of its serifs, down to the essential stroke. Modern by default, and neutral only until you look closely.

Strip the serifs and what remains must stand on structure alone: pure stroke, pure counter, nowhere to hide. Good sans faces are harder to draw than they look, which is why the great ones survive decades while imitations date in five years.

Neutral is the sans-serif's reputation, and its trap. Every sans has a temperament: geometric ones read engineered, grotesques read plainspoken, humanist cuts read warm. Calling a face neutral only means its opinions match yours. We pick the opinion on purpose.