Revision as of 16:07, 21 June 2026

The real typeface you want is ITC Avant Garde Bold. You'll need to kern it closely. Avant Garde Bold is a classic design typeface, one you'll see crop up over and over if you develop an eye for it. It was particularly prevalent in the mid to late 1970's, an era which Boards of Canada has referenced over and over in its design language, and recently got a large boost in popularity when the Rock Band series of video games started using it heavily. The Avant Garde Alternate glyphs show up a lot, too, though they tend to be abused a bit - I haven't seen Boards of Canada use them. Avant Garde shows up a lot in designs of related genres and record labels because it is such an iconic, no-nonsense typeface without a lot of the humanism that Helvetica brings to the table.

Zebramatic POW is a distressed typeface - the stripey business is part of it, hence the name. Zebramatic POW. It's just ITC Avant Garde Bold with some cheap distress effects.^[1]

Boc Maxima

• Boc Maxima:
  • On the cassette edition, likely Helvetica (built into macOS), stretched slightly.
  • On the CD edition, Eurostile (paid).

Hi Scores

• Hi Scores:
  • OCR A Extended (built into Windows and Mac)

Twoism

• Twoism:
  • Artist, album and track titles are handwritten.
  • On the original 1995 version, the font used for the credits is Gill Sans (built into Windows).

Music Has the Right to Children

• Music Has the Right to Children:
  • ITC Bauhaus by Edward Benguiat and Victor Caruso.

Downloads:

• Bauhaus @ MyFonts
• Bauhaus @ Ffonts

Geogaddi

• Geogaddi:
  • VAG Rounded

The Campfire Headphase

• The Campfire Headphase:
  • Strasua Regular (free), which definitely gets some style cues from Avant Garde Alternate.^[2]
  • Miasm Infection, a freeware font by andi jones / angelwerks / channel zero! type foundry.^[3][4]

Downloads:

• Strasua @ MyFonts
• Strasua @ 1001 Fonts
• Miasm Infection @ Legion Fonts

Trans Canada Highway

• Trans Canada Highway:
  • Title: Custom, the closest you can get to it easily is probably Neo Sans Ultra.
  • Subtitle: Avant Garde.

Tomorrow's Harvest

• Tomorrow's Harvest:
  • A modified version of ITC Avant Garde Gothic LT Bold

Inferno

• Inferno:
  • Blippo by Ed Benguiat and Victor Caruso, with some custom modifications. Blippo is a geometric sans-serif typeface that was designed in the 1970s and is known for its bold, rounded letterforms. The modifications made to the original Blippo typeface for the Inferno album likely include adjustments to the letter shapes and spacing to create a unique look that fits the aesthetic of the album.^[5]

References

1. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/boardsofcanada/comments/1d240h/i_decided_to_make_a_boards_of_canada_wallpaper/c9mafog/
2. ↑ Strasua Regular, a freeware font by designer Ray Larabie
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/19990224174939/http://www.angelwerks.com/channelzero/download.htm
4. ↑ Discovery by Happy Cycling Association Discord server member Michael Sandison/ehrmantraut.[1]
5. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/boardsofcanada/comments/1ssuvtk/the_font_used_is_called_blippo/

External link

[2]