#HTE

Toshi Omagari’s Visual History of Arcade Game Typography from the ‘70s, '80s and '90s

Typography nerds among you: What is the Helvetica…of video game fonts?

According to London-based typeface designer Toshi Omagari, it’s the 1970s creation known as “Atari Quiz Show:”

“It was a standard-looking sans serif originally designed in 1976,” Omagari told the Better Letters Co. blog, “and went on to be the most frequently used typeface in video game history.”

Omagari, who works at Monotype UK, should know; he recently published a book documenting the typography of arcade games from the 1970s, '80s and '90s. “I was always sensitive to video game graphics in general when I was young,” he says, “but it was when I started typeface design professionally that I noticed the artistry of pixelated fonts, especially coloured ones, which were virtually unknown among the professional designers.” Omagari gathered 250 such fonts for his book, Arcade Game Typography:

Arcade Game Typography can be purchased in either softcover or hardcover.