I made a visual audit of ten sans-serif typefaces: Arial, Akkurat, Akzidenz, DIN, Franklin Gothic, Grotesque MT, Helvetica Neue, Unica, Univers, and Verdana. I altered the x-height so that all the typefaces could be layed over each other, and with layers of transparencies, it was possible to see the differences and similarities of each typeface. It immediately became obvious that most of these san-serifs shared the same skeleton but with subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) differences. The letters that had the most dissimilar elements were the uppercase G, J, K, M, Q and R and the lowercase g, j, k and w. However, I began to think that my methodology was flawed: I had chosen typefaces that were similar and whilst my visual audit had revealed differences I wasn’t sure that I was any closer to understanding the meaning that the typefaces were transmitting.