Franklin Gothic and its related faces are a large family of sans-serif typefaces in the industrial or grotesque style developed in the early years of the 20th century by the type foundry American Type Founders (ATF) and credited to its head designer Morris Fuller Benton.

The typeface continues to maintain a high profile, appearing in a variety of media from books to billboards.

Despite a period of eclipse in the 1930s, after the introduction of European faces like Kabel and Futura, they were re-discovered by American designers in the 1940s and have remained popular ever since.

Benton's Franklin Gothic family is a set of solid designs, particularly suitable for display and trade use such as headlines rather than for extended text.

It draws upon earlier, nineteenth century models from many of the twenty-three foundries consolidated into American Type Founders in 1892.

Historian Alexander Lawson speculated that Franklin Gothic was influenced by Berthold’s Akzidenz-Grotesk types but offered no evidence to support this theory[4] which was later presented as fact by Philip Meggs and Rob Carter.

[6] Many years later, the foundry again expanded the line, adding two more variants: It can be distinguished from other sans serif typefaces by its more traditional double-storey a and especially g (double-storey gs, common in serif fonts, are rare in sans-serif fonts following German models, but were quite common in American and British designs of the period), the tail of the Q and the ear of the g. The tail of the Q curls down from the center of the letterform.

Monotype’s copy kept the name Franklin Gothic, but because of the demands of mechanical composition, their version was modified to fit a standard arrangement.

These included:[8] Digital copies have been made by Adobe, International Typeface Corporation, Monotype Imaging, and URW.

While ITC Franklin Gothic is the most common release, it has been criticised for modifying the structure of the family considerably.

[15] Public Sans is based on Libre Franklin with numerous modifications by the United States Web Design System (General Services Administration).

[16] Public Sans is the official font of the government of New South Wales, Australia's most populous state.

[17] Raph Levien began work on an adaptation of the heavy variant of Franklin Gothic found in a 1941 specimen, copying its irregularities.

Levien had stated at the time of abandonment that he planned on switching to a cleaner 1912 specimen if and when the project is completed.