Commercial Type has released Guardian Sans Text, the final missing piece of the Guardian collection originally designed by Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz for that daily newspaper’s iconic redesign in 2005. Assistance with filling out the complete character set to support both a full range of languages, and typographic features like small caps, oldstyle figures, tabular figures, fractions, and the like, was provided by Vincent Chan.
Narrower and looser than the Sans Headline, but not so narrow and exaggerated in the details as the Agate Sans, Guardian Sans Text occupies the middle ground for reading lengthy texts. Its square bowls ensure that the characters remain very open and readable, and some characters have been redrawn to improve legibility, such as the tailed lowercase l. Its weight range and extensive character set match Guardian Egyptian Text, making it especially suited to a supporting role in a type paletter, solving the problems of complicated information. The Guardian has typically used the Sans Text for sidebars, info graphics, and maps, as well as captions in some sections.
As in Guardian Egyptian Text, the Regular and Medium weights of the Sans Text are duplexed onto the same widths, allowing them to be substituted for one another without affecting overall copyfit or even individual line breaks.
