Century Oldstyle is Linn Boyd Benton’s and Morris Fuller Benton’s renovation of Phemister’s Miller & Richard Old Style for ATF forty-five years later, using the Century name for marketing purposes.

A variation of ”Helvetica according to the blur principle.“ The underlying typeface is ”Helvetica“, the only true ”run-of-the-mill“ typeface of the twentieth century. The distortion principle used simulates the photographic effect of halation and/or overexposure. The light weight, »DeFonte Léger«, nearly breaks on the thin points, whereas on those points where the lines meet or cross, dark spots remain. The characters are ”nibbled at“ from the inner and outer brightness. On the normal and semibold typestyles, »DeFonte Normale« and »DeFonte Demi Gras«, the effect is limited almost exclusively to the end strokes and corners, which appears to be strongly rounded off. The bold version »DeFonte Gros« is especially attractive. As a result of ”overexposure“, counters (internal spaces) are closed in, while characters become blurred and turn into spots; new characteristic forms are created which are astoundingly legible. The fat version »DeFonte Gros« is particularly appealing. “Overexposure” leads to drifted counters, letters blur into spots; new characteristic forms emerge, which are surprisingly easy to read.