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Karnak is a slab-serif typeface designed by R. Hunter Middleton for the Ludlow Typograph company.
Karnak is a "geometric" slab serif, reflecting the style of German geometric sans-serifs (in particular Futura) which had attracted considerable attention in the United States and adapting the design to the slab serif structure. It copies the German geometric slab-serif Memphis. Middleton also designed a loose copy of Futura, the sans-serif Tempo, around the same time. It and other similar designs were popular in American printing during the hot metal typesetting period.
Like Memphis, Karnak has a name, after the Karnak Temple Complex in Egypt, in reference to the fact that early slab serifs were often called "Egyptians" as an exoticism by nineteenth-century typefounders.
Karnak was an influence on the design of the popular 2009 slab serif Neutraface Slab. It is an adaptation of the sans-serif Neutraface designed by Christian Schwartz, influenced by Middleton's Tempo. Archer is another well-known modern geometric slab serif in this style with a less strictly geometric design.