Both Univers and Helvetica came in for some criticism from Karl Gerstner: as being too smooth and producing too even a colour. If this was a ‘graphic’ advantage, it was not a ‘functional’ one: ‘what has ocular clarity may appear monotonous when read’.

This is an irrelevant criticism when addressed towards display faces, but a book face that doesn’t serve the reader is a failure. Adrian Shaughnessy’s book (How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul) is beautifully set in Akzidenz Grotesk, but fuck if my eyes weren’t bleeding while I read it.