It’s a Towering Inferno of a Font! It’s a Poseidon Adventure, an Earthquake and a Sharknado of Devastating Proportions! Don’t Look Up -- these cracked and chunky letterforms are signifiers of a Magnificent Disaster! A Perfect Storm of Tip Top Type by Comicraft's Starkings & Roshell with artist Lisa Davighi. Dante’s Peak has exploded and the Deluge has begun. Don’t save this font for the Day After, when worlds collide — Armageddon is Now!

Hey, friends! How often do you share your social media posts? Modern man is already so used to them that he shares his emotions and feelings in them without hiding anything. We have begun to trust them. How to show a good mood? Of course, with a photo with a smile and a signature. This font is great for expressing your emotions. Good luck and love to you!

The history of this font is those. Once I assorted the old children's books which have stayed from times of my childhood. On one of them I have seen a trade mark of a printing house consisting of two Russian letters "L" and "B". From they were begun also with my font. And though finally from these letters a little that remained, elements of these letters can be seen in font D-block B.

The DF Dudok is a minimal bitmap typeface which works very well in small sizes both on your screen and on paper. I am connected in a culinary way with the architects’ name W.M. Dudok. It was the first restaurant where I cooked under the critical eye of my chef Gerhard Braun. (Now La Stanza in Rotterdam) Well, it is incidently getting into my typeface work, the cook, the architect, his wife and...who knows

Suffragette, an all-caps typeface introduced for the branding of the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, is inspired by the Hotel’s Beaux-Arts architecture injected with a healthy 2020’s aesthetic. This unique roman capital design, with its sans serif-medium contrast shapes and slightly pronounced serifs, is the perfect match for luxury packaging and high-end couture. If your brand wants to project elegance with a playful edge, Suffragette is the font for you!

I’m not particularly fond of beans. I do eat them, but they’re not my idea of a delicacy… But this font has ‘fairy tale’ feeling to it, and I liked the name Beanstalker. Beanstalker is a hand made font (I used a fineliner to draw the glyphs). It is quite neat and organized, but does come with some rough edges and a bit of texture.

Café Brasil is a font designed to represent coffee, especially for use in packaging, brand titles, logos and menus. Based on the shape of a coffee bean, Café Brasil has delicate details and ligatures that represent the liquid, foam and steam of a good cup of coffee. In March 2014, Café Brasil was chosen to be part of the main exhibition at the “Tipos Latinos 2014”.

Mission Accomplished is a fast and furious kind of font. I started jotting down letters with a marker pen as fast as I could to see what would come out. Well, this font came out. Mission Accomplished can be used virtually anywhere, but single origin coffee bean packaging and artisan marmalade labels come to mind. Comes with a bunch of cute discretionary ligatures as well!

A new year has begun, new resolutions have been made. Fresh ideas are popping up and a new life is about to begin. All in all, I figured New Beginnings was the perfect name for my first font in 2016. It is a very happy, very original typeface. All caps, but upper and lower glyphs differ and can be interchanged. New Beginnings font can be used virtually anywhere, but children’s books and product packaging spring to mind. Comes with an abundance of diacritics.

Designed by Russell Bean between December 2020 and August 2023 as a pandemic project, Forecast takes cues from past geometrics notably Futura, Tempo even Avant Garde. ideal for a multitude of uses – text, display, web, wayfinding. The objective of Forecast is to present a practical, swiss-army, use-everywhere design where readability is paramount. Available in 7 weights with italics a total of 14 styles all kerned to perfection. LatPro encoded, supporting 90 languages.

By the late 1920s, lettering and design had already begun to feel the influences of what would become the Art Deco Movement. The sheet music for the 1927 song "Without You Sweetheart" had its title hand lettered in a block style letter with rounded corners – with the exception of the 'S' and 'R' in "Sweetheart"; reflecting design elements of both styles. For consistency, those letters were changed to fit the rest of the design, and the result is the digital font College Nouveau JNL, available in both regular and oblique versions.

Stick-A-Round started as an attempt to domesticate the wild ​Daft Brush font. During the process, though, it begun taking its own shape and personality, with friendly rounded terminals, dynamic interlock pairs and lots of alternates. There are at least 4 variations for each letter and 2 for the numbers and ​for ​some punctuation marks, plus a​n extra​ set of stylistic alternates. Besides showing up such a good humor​, this font brings a lovely mate loaded with handy ornaments to jazz up your designs. ​​Stick-A-Round, And ​Have ​Some ​Fun. I bet you will!

The Sword has been Drawn! The Quest for the Holy Grail has begun! When Arthur took the mighty sword of Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake, little did he know of the stories that would be spun, the myths that would be built around him, the Legend of Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table! And The Font. Merlin might have been King Arthur’s sage advisor, a font of wisdom and magicks, but never was Merlin available in postscript, truetype and opentype formats, nor was Lancelot, Arthur’s First Knight suitable for Celtic Display Lettering! See the families related to Excalibur Sword: Excalibur Stone.

SK Parnik is a modern display font inspired by the culture of vegetarianism. This font is based on the shape of a bean pod, which gives the symbols a unique playful character, perfect for working with the branding of companies that are aimed at a children's audience, as well as engaged in restaurant activities. The character composition consists of uppercase and lowercase letters and supports extended Cyrillic and Latin letters. This allows you to expand the scope of this font. Despite the pronounced decorative component, thanks to its tools, the font will fit perfectly into the collection of any designer.

Prior to 500 AD the 24-rune Elder Futhark was used in Sweden. From 500 AD until 800 AD there were many Futharks which were transitions from the 24-rune Futhark to one of the 16-rune Futharks. By the end of this period the 24-rune Futhark was completely out of use , and only 16-runes Futharks were in use. By 900 AD two different types of Shorttwigs-Futharks had been born. One was popularized in Norway and the other was used in the west (the British islands). By 1000 AD the adjustment of the runes to the Latin alphabet had begun, and several versions are found up until the Dalrunes, about 1700-1800 AD.

Fruit and Veggie Doodles is a 33-picture clipart font. Use them as dingbats or enlarge the small pictures and use them as clipart. Lots to choose from potatoes, tomatoes, avocado, eggplant, fig, watermelon, radish, peppers, broccoli, asparagus, corn on the cob, green onions, carrots, peas, lettuce, mushrooms, onion, olives, garlic, okra, beans, lemon, pear, pineapple, grapefruit or orange, pumpkin, apple, strawberry, grapes, cherry and banana. This is the companion font to Food Doodles Too. Also works nicely with Coffee & Tea Doodles. And if you need some fancy cakes check out Party Doodles. All in the same line drawing style to mix and match.

Nightlife is a neon style font family reminiscent of Broadway, Hollywood, Las Vegas and the bright lights and razzamatazz of show business. Not that I want to typecast it. It’s a fluid type style that is equally at home on food and drink, confectionery and fmcg packaging: my original working title for it was ‘Jelly Bean’, for reasons that should be obvious! (Note to designers: to create the neon glow effect in Photoshop, make a duplicate of the type layer, rasterize it and add a Gaussian blur filter of approx. 50%. Then bring the original type layer to the top and offset it as required).

Bonhomme Richard evokes the cursive penmanship of Chevalier John Paul Jones (1747–1792), celebrated Continental Navy commander during the American Revolution, in letters from the late 18th century. The font’s name comes from Jones’s famous frigate, lost during his victorious engagement with the British in the Battle of Flamborough Head in 1779. During this battle Jones is said to have exclaimed, when urged to surrender, “I have not yet begun to fight!” (In fact, his likely words were, “I may sink, but I’ll be damned if I strike!” – i.e., surrender.) A legible script, Bonhomme Richard has an elegance about it while also conjuring the colonial era of its source material. Use to simulate historical handwriting in film props, games, formal invitations, product labels, and the like.

I have always been fascinated by the ‘Full English Breakfast’. A Full English usually consists of toast, baked beans, sausages, fried eggs, fried tomatoes, fried mushrooms and sometimes blackpudding (a kind of sausage made from pig’s blood). When I lived in England, my friends were always quite happy to stow away a big full breakfast, but I, on the other hand, could not really set myself to eating one. Full English is a hand made stencil font. If you own a pub and you serve breakfast, you could use it for your signs, but I guess this font looks good on anything that needs a bit of attention. For attention, it will get!

Arkeo BT is designer Brian Sooy's first typeface family published by Bitstream. Given very few design elements to work with, Brian has designed a bitmap font that is unique and very readable. There are three widths, Condensed, Regular and Extended. In our opinion, pixels never looked so good. Arkeo performs equally well on screen and as on paper. The OpenType versions include an extended character set featuring oldstyle figures, fractions and additional f-ligatures. Design was begun in late 2001 and completed in 2002. Sooy asked Bitstream to critique, which we did gladly. We also added additional characters for OpenType. This included alternate figure set, an extended set of fractions and additional f-ligatures. Sooy used preliminary versions for setting parts of the TypeCon 2002 material and website.

In May of this year, I went to Japan with my (then 11 year old) son Sam. It was his dream to visit Japan, probably because of my tall tales, stemming from the time I was a tour guide! Sam really wanted to try all kinds of Japanese delicacies and one day, when walking around Tokyo, we came across a little stall selling Taiyaki. Taiyaki are fish-shaped waffle/cakes with a red bean or sweet potato filling. They are really delicious! This nice ‘oriental looking’ font was made with a broken popsicle stick and Chinese ink. You are now wondering why I always use Chinese ink and not Japanese ink. Well, I have a stash of the Chinese stuff and it’ll last me a lifetime!

The different fonts in the Why Square family are an extension of the designs begun in Zoran Kostic's Just Square family. Why Square's lowercase letters are all more condensed versions of Just Square's letters, and in some of the fonts, the uppercase letters are wider. The first five fonts are the different weights of Why Square (UltraThin, UltraLight, Thin, Light, and Regular). Here, all of the characters--both upper and lowercase--are more condensed versions of the geometric letters from the Just Square family. The next five fonts (UltraThin, UltraLight, Thin, Light, and Regular weights) include identical lowercase letters to those from the first five fonts in the family, but their capitals are considerably wider. These may be used as initials, either with the other fonts in the Why Square family, or with the Just Square family.

I started Rainmaker Script by hand sketching a huge amount of letters to find the right tone. After having enough I picked the characters that I liked and begun composing a font out of them. With this method I ended up with the Rainmaker Script - an elegant signature style connected script with natural variation in the rhythm. Rainmaker Script is great for branding, headlines and packaging. It’s equipped with (automatic) Contextual Alternates that keep the flow natural and variable. There’s also Swash, Stylistic and Titling Alternates, and even more alternates can be found for some characters from the Glyph Palette. From the Glyph Palette you’ll also find a handful of ending swooshes and ornamental strokes that can be combined with the font. All the extras in Rainmaker Script are PUA encoded so you can access them in most graphic design software.

Blend is a hand drawn collection that takes its cues from the visual universe of bakeries and coffee shops. The name refers to the combining of different kinds of coffee beans to get a balanced taste, and Blend does just that, although here each typographic flavor can also be enjoyed separately. Projects such as branding, children’s books, wedding invitations and labels are sweetened with this cute family. The bouncing informal Script programmed with Open Type offers a wide range of features like ligatures, swashes, endings, initial forms and lots of alternates. Use professional software that widely support Open Type features. Otherwise, you may not have access to some glyphs. Keep the Standard Ligatures feature always active. For further information about features and alternates, see the User Guide Blend has extensive Western, Central and Eastern European language support. Make some coffee and enjoy!

Dez Now Sans is a humanistic typeface family that was begun in 2005 by Chris Lozos of Dezcom. Since then, it has been nurtured, revised, and expanded to include 12 weights in both upright roman and true italics totaling 24 variations. This allows the user to choose the weights which best work for type-size, output device, and reproduction process. There is often a difference of opinion on what the best weight to use for normal text when setting type. The truth is, there is more than one answer. When you consider the size, weight, leading and set width—along with paper and ink specifications, you may find the need for several. The subject matter of the text with the specifics of the target audience, also increase the demand for expanding choices. Dez Now Sans was designed with several potential text weights to address any circumstance. Dez Now Sans gives you a full and varied toolbox of fonts to choose from.

The font Geomatrix is an original design by Alex Kaczun. It is a dynamic stencil interpretation based on his extremely successful Contax Pro family of geometric sans typefaces. Geomatrix is a contemporary stencil typeface based on generous proportions and clean, crisp lines.The stencil treatment is balanced visually with the stem weight of the font which creates a uniformity and harmony within the design. Geomatrix makes for easy reading and is ideal for long lines of copy. It exudes a strong sense of sophistication for a true stencil design. However, this is no ordinary stencil typeface. That's putting it mildly. Geomatrix is a font on STEROIDS! This unique OpenType font incorporates hundreds of CAPITAL alternate letter forms and glyph substitutions, automatically and on the fly, within InDesign and other Open Type applications. To turn this feature on, just typeset ALL CAPS and go into InDesign's OpenType>Stylistic Sets and select Set 1 from the menu. Turn character kerning from Metrics to Optical, adjust tracking to minus 20-30, and start typing to create some visually interesting letter substitutions and unique word combinations. Geomatrix was specifically designed to take advantage of the OpenType format, allowing the Graphic Designer a unique tool to achieve the desired degree of possible visual typographic effects. And finally, the character sets in Geomatrix have been expanded to include old-style figures and all Eastern European accented glyphs. Strap in and hold on to your seats. A revolution in new font technologies has begun! GEOMATRIX IMPORTANT PLEASE READ HOW TO ACCESS "ALTERNATE" STYLISTIC "SET 1" LETTER FORMS: Geomatrix is a unique OpenType font which incorporates hundreds of CAPITAL alternate letter forms and glyph substitutions, automatically and on the fly, within InDesign and other OpenType applications. To turn this feature on, just typeset ALL CAPS and go into InDesign\'d5s OpenType>Stylistic Sets and select "Set 1" from the menu. Turn character kerning from Metrics to Optical, adjust tracking to minus 20-30, and start typing to create some visually interesting letter substitutions and unique word combinations. This feature "stylistic set 1" can be toggled "on" or "off" anytime, allowing you to go back and forth, or select only the letters that you want to change. Geomatrix was specifically designed to take advantage of the OpenType format, allowing the Graphic Designer a unique tool to achieve the desired degree of possible visual typographic effects. And finally, the character sets in Geomatrix have been expanded to include old-style figures and all Eastern European accented glyphs. Strap in and hold on to your seats. A revolution in new font technologies has begun!

Johann Neudörffer the Elder's 1538 writing manual fascinated the German designer Helmut Bomm for years. Together with Albrecht Dürer and Hieronymus Andreä, Neudörffer helped create Fraktur, perhaps the most Germanic of all the blackletter styles. As a tribute to this master, and bringing its letterforms to a 21st century public, Boom released the Neudoerffer Fraktur family through Linotype in 2009. Neudoerffer Fraktur's appearance is based very much in handwriting, and Bomm had already begun using letters from prototype versions of this typeface as early as the 1990s. For years, Neudoerffer Fraktur'sletters would appear secretly and seductively in design projects like historical sign restorations or heraldry pieces. The sources that Bomm used while drawing the typeface were images from Jan Tschichold's Treasures of Calligraphy" and Albert Kapr's "Schriftkunst." The Neudoerffer Fraktur family has four separate fonts. Any user of Adobe CS applications should consider licensing Neudoerffer Fraktur Regular (the font without any numeral suffixes). This font contains three different OpenType stylistic sets. Users can pick and choose which versions of the letters that they would like to set. Anyone using Quark XPress, Microsoft Word, or other applications without support for Stylistic Sets should license Neudoeffer Fraktur Regular 1, Neudoeffer Fraktur Regular 2, and Neudoeffer Fraktur Regular 3. Each of these three fonts has letters with slightly different style of flourish, and all three may be combined with each other. Neudoerffer Fraktur Regular 1 is optimal for longer texts; Neudoerffer Fraktur Regular 2 contains alternate letters, and well as more ornamented capitals; Neudoerffer Fraktur Regular 3's letters have a stronger calligraphic accent."

Oddsorts is delighted to present Bradley Wayside and Bradley Chicopee as its début offerings. Begun in 2000 as a wedding gift for the designer’s wife and used privately for years, they’re finally available to the public. The fonts were inspired by the masterful art nouveau lettering of Will H. Bradley, whose posters for Ault & Wiborg printing inks and Victor Bicycles continue to draw collectors after more than a century. Wayside and Chicopee expand the twenty-odd characters Bradley drew into a comprehensive multiscript system that includes modern Greek and extended Cyrillic alphabets, ordinals, automatic fractions, and ornaments. Bradley Wayside and Chicopee derive much of their charm from an organic mix of shape and spacing intrinsic to hand drawings. Mimicking that spirit in type used to mean painstaking substitution and adjustment of characters. The Bradley fonts make imaginative use of OpenType’s power to achieve the same effect — minus all the work. Wayside and Chicopee contain alternate forms for every letter — up to seven for some characters. Part of what makes these Bradley types delightfully “smart” fonts is that the fonts themselves actually choose the variation best suited to a letter’s place in a word. All you need to do is turn on your software’s “Ligatures” or “Contextual Alternates” option and the Bradleys do the rest. The alternates even work in most word processors. Bradley Wayside and Chicopee are available in “Standard” and “Pro” editions. The Pro editions sport all the bells and whistles, including the alternates. They support over one hundred forty languages and include localized forms especially for setting Bulgarian, Serbian, Polish, Romanian, and Turkish. The Standard editions are geared toward casual use and are ideal for license as webfonts, where streamlined character sets mean faster load times.

The Bauer Typefoundry first released the Beton family of types in 1936. Created by the German type designer Heinrich Jost, the present digital version of the Beton family consists of six slab serif typefaces. First developed during the early 1800s, by the 1930s slab serif faces had become one of many stock styles of type developed by foundries all over the world. Because of their distance from pen-drawn forms and their industrial appearance, they were seen as “modern” typefaces. (Their serifs kept them from being too modern.) The first slab serif typefaces were outgrowths of didone style text faces (e.g., Walbaum). As newspapers and advertising grew in importance in the western world (especially in “Wild West” America), type founders and printers began to create bigger, bolder typefaces, which would set large headlines apart from text, and each other. Through display tactics, businesses and industry could begin to visually differentiate their products from one another. This craze eventually led to the development of monster sized wood type, among other things. By the 20th Century, the typographic establishment had begun to tame, categorize, and codify 19th Century type styles. It was in the wake of this environment that Jost developed Beton. The Beton family is a type “family” in a pre-1950s sense of the word. Although six styles of type are available, only four of them fit in logical progression with each other (Beton Light, Beton Demi Bold, Beton Bold, and Beton Extra Bold). The other two members of the family, Beton Bold Condensed and Beton Bold Compressed, are more like distant cousins. They function better as single headlines to text set in Beton Light or Beton Demi Bold, of as companions to totally separate typefaces.

For much of the world, the last half of December encompasses the beginning of winter and the a season of gift-giving, marked by Hanukkah and Christmas. It is generally accepted that the tradition of giving of gifts at this time was begun by The Three Wisemen. As described in The Gospel According to Matthew, the wisemen, led by a star from a distant land to the east, found the baby Jesus. First, they worshipped him and then, "they presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh." (Matthew 2:11). Thus began the tradition of celebrating the birth of Christ with the giving of gifts. There is a parallel tradition in the Jewish faith of the giving of gelt or gold at Hanakkuh to help support poor students, in keeping with the rich history of scholarship that is fundamental to the rabbinic system. Inevitably, in our secular culture, there has been a blending and a secularization of these traditions. The reasons have gotton lost in the “gimme.” What is often overlooked is what Paul realized when he told Timothy, “Neglect not the gift that is in thee.” The most importent gift is the gift inside of us, the gift of sacrificial love for others. When we let that gift be diminished in our minds amid the clutter of modern day material seeking, we can recall the prophesy of Micah over 2800 years ago, But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel: whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Micah 5:2 KJV) Never underestimate the impact you have on others. Words of kindness can change people’s lives. The Talmud says that the highest form of wisdom is kindness. Be wise this holiday season. The font BETHLEHEM STAR was originally designed for the church to which I belong, The Star Bethlehem Church of Ansonia, Connecticut, USA and is based on the typeface Accent with the permission of URW++ of Hamburg, Germany. You might choose BETHLEHEM STAR for your personal greetings as well as for flyers and programs at your church this holiday season. Like most display fonts, it is most effective at 18 points and larger. Like most script fonts, it is most effective when set with both upper and lower case. All caps with this font is like eating two pieces of pecan pie — too much of a good thing.

The Posterama™ typeface family contains 63 fonts and is a true journey through space and time. Designed by Jim Ford, each Posterama family contains 7 weights from Thin to Ultra Black, in 9 distinct families. What makes Posterama so unique and versatile are the eight alternative display families. By making use of a collection of alternative glyphs, Posterama sets an evocative flavor to visualize an entire century of futuristic reference points from art, architecture, poster design and science fiction into one family. Posterama Text is the base family. It has the most robust character set including upper and lowercase glyphs and pan-European language support (including Greek and Cyrillic). Note: all the other Posterama variants described below do not have lowercase letters or Greek and Cyrillic support. Posterama 1901 recalls the decoratively geometric style of Art Nouveau from the turn of the 20th century. Letterforms such as the slender, snaking ‘S’, the high-waisted ‘E’ and the underlined ‘O’ revive the spirit of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the designers of the Viennese Secession. Posterama 1913 pays homage to the Armory Show, or 1913 Exhibition of Modern Art, which brought the revolutionary work of European artists such as Picasso, Duchamp and Kandinsky to the US for the first time to the shock and astonishment of press and public. Near-abstract, angular characters such as the ‘A’, ‘E’ and ‘N’ hint at cubism’s jagged and clashing planes. Posterama 1919 uses a small, but important, variation to set a tone when the Bauhaus was founded, and the surge in radical European typography that followed. The straight-sided, roundheaded ‘A’ adds a flavor of 1919 – this style of ‘A’ can still be seen in the Braun logo, designed in 1934. Posterama 1927 captures the year of Metropolis, The Jazz Singer and Paul Renner’s pioneering, geometric Futura typeface from 1927, which had a profound influence on design in the US and Europe. Posterama 1933 – With its low-waisted, sinuous designs, the Posterama 1933 typeface family echoes lettering of the Art Deco period, which in turn had its roots in Art Nouveau, the key influence on Posterama 1901. The two fonts make a great team and can be used interchangeably. Posterama 1945 features a few Cyrillic characters to conjure up an era when Russian art and political posters made their mark in cold war propaganda, espionage and also giant aliens and monsters. Posterama 1984 takes its typographic influences from George Orwell’s classic novel, publicity for the dystopian action and sci-fi movies (Blade Runner, Videodrome and Terminator) and games like Space Invaders and Pac-Man that made an impact at that time. Posterama 2001 was inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction masterpiece, which made extensive use of the Futura typeface. Posterama 2001 finds its cosmic orbit with its nosecone-style ‘A’ from NASA’s much-missed ‘worm’ logotype. There’s an echo, too, in Bauhaus designs from as early as 1920, whose minimalist, geometric lettering also featured a crossbar-less ‘A’.

Blackletter typefaces follow certain fixed rules, both in respect to their forms and to the orthography. Possibly, they were a reaction to the half-developed Carolingian minuscule which was soon to end in the Latin script. Narrow, ordered script was to replace the round, hesitant and shattered shapes of letters in order to simplify writing, to unify the meaning of individual letters, and to save some parchment, too. Opposed to the practice common in monasterial scriptoriums where Uncial, Irish and Carolingian inspiration flew freely and as a result, the styles of writing differed in each monastery, the blackletter type was to define one, common standard. It was to express spiritual verticality, in perfect tune with the architecture of the Gothic era. Typography became an integral part of the overall style of the period. The pointed arch and the blackletter type were the vanguard of the spectacular transformation from the Middle Ages towards the modern era, they were a celebration of a time when works of art were not signed by their makers yet. Some unfortunate souls keep linking blackletter solely with Germany and the Third Reich, while the truth is that its direct predecessor, the Gothic minuscule, evolved mostly in France. Even Hitler himself indicated blackletter type obsolete in the age of steel, iron and concrete – thus making a significant contribution to the spreading of the Latin script in Germany. Once we leave our prejudice aside, we find that the shapes of blackletter type have exceptional potential, unheard of in sans-serif letterforms. The lower case letters fit into an imaginary rectangle which is easily extended both upwards and sideways. In its scope and in the name itself, the Moyenage type family project is to celebrate the diversity of the Middle Ages. I begun realizing the urge to design my own blackletter when visiting the beer gardens of Munich and while walking through the villages of rural Austria. The letters from the notice boards of inns are scented with spring air, with the flowers of cudweed, with white sausage and weissbier. The crooked calligraphic hooks and beaks seem to imitate the hearty yodeling of local drinkers and the rustle of the giant skirts of girls who distribute the giant wreaths of beer jugs. Moyenage is, however, a modern replica of blackletter, so it contains some otherwise unacceptable Latin script elements in upper case. I chose these keeping the modern reader in mind, striving for better legibility. The font is drawn as if written with a flat pen or brush, and with the ambition to, perhaps, serve as a calligraphic model. In medium width, the face is surprisingly well legible; it is perfect for menus as well as posters and CD covers for some of the heavier kinds of music. It has five types of numerals and also a set of Cyrillic script, symbolising the lovelorn union of Germans and Russians in the 20th century. Thus, it is well suited for the setting of bilingual texts of the German classic literature, which, according to the ancient rules, must not be set in Latin script.

Over the past few years, every designer has seen the surprising outbreak of blackletter types in marketing campaigns for major sports clothing manufacturers, a few phone companies, soft drink makers, and more recently on entertainment and music products. In such campaigns, blackletter type combined with photos of usual daily activity simply adds a level of strength and mystique to things we see and do on a regular basis. But we couldn't help noticing that the typography was very odd in such campaigns, where the type overpowers all the other design elements. This is because almost all blackletter fonts ever made express too much strength and time-stamp themselves in a definite manner, thereby eliminating themselves as possible type choices for a variety of common contemporary design approaches, such as minimal, geometric, modular, etc. So extending the idea of using blackletter in modern design was a bit of a wild goose chase for us. But we finally found the face that completes the equation no other blackletter could fit into: Leather is a digitization and major expansion of Imre Reiner's forgotten but excellent 1933 Gotika design, which was very much ahead of its time. In its own time this design saw very little use because it caused problems to printers, where the thin serifs and inner bars were too fragile and broke off too easily when used in metal. But now, more than seventy years later, it seems like it was made for current technologies, and it is nothing short of being the perfect candidate for using blackletter in grid-based settings. Leather has three features usually not found in other blackletter fonts: - Grid-based geometric strokes and curves: In the early 1930s, blackletter design had already begun interacting back with the modern sans serif it birthed at the turn of the century. This design is one of the very few manifestations of such interaction. - Fragile, Boboni-like serifs, sprout from mostly expected places in the minuscules, but are sprinkled very aesthetically on some of the majuscules. The overall result is magnificently modern. - The usual complexity of blackletter uppercase's inner bars is rendered simple, geometric and very visually appealing. The contrast between the inner bars and thick outer strokes creates a surprising circuitry-like effect on some of the letters (D, O, Q), wonderfully plays with the idea of fragile balances on some others (M, N and P), and boldly introduces new concepts on others (B, F, K, L, R). Our research seems to suggest that the original numerals used with this design in the 1930s were adopted from a previous Imre Reiner typeface. They didn't really fit with the idea of this font, so we created brand new numerals for Leather. We also expanded the character set to cover all Western Latin-based languages, and scattered plenty of alternates and ligatures throughout the map. The name, Leather, was derived from a humorous attempt at naming a font. Initially we wanted to call it Black Leather (blackletter...blackleather), but the closer we came to finishing it, the more respect we developed for its attempt to introduce a plausible convergence between two entirely different type categories. Sadly for the art, this idea of convergence didn't go much further back then, due to technological limitations and the eventual war a few years later. We're hoping this revival would encourage people to look at blackletter under a new light in these modern times of multiple design influences.

Varidox, a variable typeface design, allows users to connect with specific design combinations with slightly varied differences in style. These variations in design enable the user to reach a wider scope of audiences. As the name suggests, Varidox is a paradox of sorts--that is, a combination of two disparate forms with two major driving influences. In the case of type design, the conflict lies in the age-old conundrum of artistic expression versus marketplace demand. Should the focus center primarily on functionality for the customer or err on the side of advancing creativity? If both are required, where does the proper balance lie? Viewed as an art, type design selections are often guided by the pulse of the industry, usually emphasizing unique and contemporary shapes. Critics are often leading indicators of where the marketplace will move. Currently, many design mavens have an eye favoring reverse stress. However, these forms have largely failed to penetrate the marketplace, another major driving factor influencing the font world. Clients now (as well as presumably for the foreseeable future) demand the more conservative forms of monoline sans serifs. Typeface designers are left with a predicament. Variable typefaces hand a great deal of creative control to the consumers of type. The demands of type design critics, personal influences of the typeface designer and the demands of the marketplace can all now be inserted into a single font and adjusted to best suit the end user. Varidox tries to blend the extremes of critical feature demands and the bleeding edge of fashionable type with perceptive usability on a scalable spectrum. The consumer of the typeface can choose a number between one and one-thousand. Using a more conservative style would mean staying between zero and five hundred, while gradually moving higher toward one thousand at the high end of the spectrum would produce increasingly contemporary results. Essentially, variable fonts offer the ability to satisfy the needs of the many versus the needs of the few along an axis with a thousand articulations, stabilizing this delicate balance with a single number that represents a specific form between the two masters, a form specifically targeted towards the end user. Practically, a user in some cases may wish to use more conservative slab form of Varidox for a more conservative clientele. Alternatively, the same user may then choose an intermediate instance much closer to the other extreme in order to make a more emphatic statement with a non-traditional form. Parametric type offers a new options for both designers and the end users of type. In the future, type will be able to morph to target the reader, based on factors including demographics, mood or cultural influences. In the future, the ability to adjust parameters will be common. With Varidox, the level of experimentality can be gauged and then entered into the typeface. In the future, machine learning, for example, could determine the mood of an individual, their level of experimentality or their interest and then adjust the typeface to meet these calculated parameters. This ability to customize and tailor the experience exists for both for the designer and the reader. With the advent of new marketing technologies, typefaces could adjust themselves on web pages to target consumers and their desires. A large conglomerate brand could shift and adapt to appeal to a specific target customer. A typeface facing a consumer would be more friendly and approachable, whereas a typeface facing a business to business (B2B) customer would be more businesslike in its appearance. Through both experience, however, the type would still be recognizable as belonging to the conglomerate brand. The font industry has only begun to realize such potential of variable fonts beyond simple visual appearance. As variable font continues to target the user, the technology will continue to reveal new capabilities, which allow identities and layouts to adjust to the ultimate user of type: the reader.

In March 2011, the Society of Typographic Aficionados began organizing a collaborative project that would unite the typographic and design communities. The goal of Font Aid V: Made for Japan was to raise funds to expedite relief efforts after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Nearly 300 contributors from 45 countries sent in over 500 glyphs in a single week. Behind the scenes, volunteers Neil Summerour, Silas Dilworth, Delve Withrington, and Grant Hutchinson were up to their elbows in Adobe Illustrator and Fontlab assembling the typeface. The sheer number of submissions coupled with the complexity of some of the designs caused unforeseen delays in completing the typeface. The team not only managed the immense influx of submissions, it also had several technical hurdles and multiple content reviews to mitigate before the final font could be produced. Several months after the project was initiated, Font Aid V: Made for Japan was finally ready for distribution. With the help of Sogo Japan, all proceeds from sales of this typeface will be delivered directly to organizations in Japan, such as Second Hand and AMDA International (Association of Medical Doctors of Asia). Sogo Japan strives to help circumvent regular international charity channels and the inefficiencies associated with them. Thanks to everyone who participated and helped us spread the word about the Font Aid V: Made for Japan project. In particular, we would like to acknowledge the following individuals and groups for their participation and involvement: Jonathan Abbott, Rui Abreu, Frank Adebiaye, Tim Ahrens, Anonymous, Eero Antturi, Leonardo Aranda, Hector Carrillo Aspano, Danielle Atnip, Alejandro Cabrera Avila, Christophe Badani, Joanne Gyo Young Bae, Ben Balvanz, Cynthia Bataille, Priyanka Batra, Donald Beekman, Hannes Beer, David Berlow, Kevin Beronilla, Fabian Bertschinger, Nicole Bittner, Bart Blubaugh, Dathan Boardman, Andrew Boardman, Joel Vilas Boas, Konstantin Boldovskiy, Scott Boms, Michael Browers, Vickie Burns, Matt Burvill, Daniele Capo, Seymour Caprice, Mauro Caramella, Matevž Čas, Eli Castellanos, Sarah Castillo, Tom Censani, Pinar Ceyhan, Ivette Chacon, Hin-Ching Chan, Sarah Charalambides, Karen Charatan, Sinde Cheung, Todd Childers, Justin Chodzko, Felipe Coca, Antonio Coelho, Jefferson Cortinove, Alan Lima Coutinho, Nick Cox, Nick Curtis, Girish Dalvi, Christopher DeCaro, Thomas C Dempsey, Matt Desmond, Chank Diesel, Anum Durvesh, Suzie Eland, Engy Elboreini, Craig Eliason, Emi Eliason, James Elliott, Grace Engels, Exljbris, Hillary Fayle, Carol Fillip, Jeff Fisher, Scott Fisk, John Foley, Stuart Ford, Mathias Forslund, Brock French, Anina Frischknecht, Eric Frisino, Chiyo Fujimori, Kaela Gallo, Ayesha Garrett, Harald Geisler, Alfonso Gómez-Arzola, Adriana Esteve González, Richard Gregory, James Grieshaber, Grupoingenio, Kemie Guaida, Carlos Fabián Camargo Guerrero, Rachel Han, Erin Harris, Stefan Hattenbach, Magnus Hearn, Marissa Heiken, Georg Herold-Wildfellner, Jamie Homer, Ed Hoskin, Dav[id Hubner], Jonathan Hughes, Rian Hughes, Grant Hutchinson, Xerxes Irani, Masayuki Izumi, Jan Janeček, Hyun Kyung Jang, Julien Janiszewski, Dušan Jelesijevic, Cal Jepps, Meghan Jossick, Evamaria Judkins, July Twenty Fourth, Erica Jung, William K, Claes Källarsson, Kapitza, Asutosh Kar, Arno Kathollnig, Sami Kaunisvirta, Hajime Kawakami, Scott Kaye, Richard Kegler, Anna Keroullé, Bizhan Khodabandeh, Lara Assouad Khoury, Ilona Kincses, Becky King, Sean King, Megan Kirby, Max Kisman, Keith Kitz, Romy Klessen, Akira Kobayashi, Kokin, Kozyndan & Silas Dilworth, Atushi Kunimune, Andreas Kuschner, John Langdon, Ray Larabie, Jess Latham, Kelly D Lawrence, Matic Leban, Chien-Hao Lee, Bryan Levay, Enrico Limcaco, Andreas Lindholm, Andrew Loschiavo, Chris Lozos, Ian Lynam, John Lyttle, Gustavo Machado, Jonathan Mak, Ricardo Marcin, Jeannie Mecorney, Steve Mehallo, Cristina Melo, Martin Mendelsberg, The Midnight Umbrella Studio, Goro Mihok, Ojasvi Mohanty, Ahmed Mohtadi, Alixe Monteil, Veronica Monterosso, Dani Montesinos, Masanobu Moriyama, Misa Moriyama, Pedro Moura, John Moy Jr, Marc Marius Mueller, Shoko Mugikura, Joachim Müller-Lancé, Diane Myers, John Nahmias, Yoshihisa Nakai, Hiroshi Nakayama, Reiko Nara, Nathoo, Titus Nemeth, Nathanael Ng, Ngoc Ngo, Antoninus Niemiec, James Ockelford, Kunihiko Okano, Naotatsu Okuda, Toshi Omagari, Onikeiji, Ozlem Ozkal, Jason Pagura, Hrant Papazian, Brian Jongseong Park, John Passafiume, Patrick Griffin, Alejandro Paul, Vian Peanu, Dylan Pech, Rebecca Penmore, Peter Brugger, Jean François Porchez, Carolyn Porter, Andrew Pothecary, James Puckett, Rachel Hernández Pumarejo, James Random, Liam Roberts, Tom Rogers, David Jonathan Ross, Sumio Sakai, Sana, Stuart Sandler, Rafael Saraiva, Riccardo Sartori, Ai Sasaki, Yee Wen Sat, Agnes Schlenke, Giovanna Scolaro, Roland Scriver, Alessandro Segalini, Shawn Semmes, Jane Sheppard, Josh Sherwood, Paulo Silva, Mark Simonson, Luis Siquot, Greg Smith, Owen Song, James L. Stirling, Nina Stössinger, Tanya Turipamwe Stroh, Kevin Strzelczyk, Neil Summerour, Superfried, Shiho Takahashi, Shuji Takahashi, Yusuke Takeda, Naoyuki Takeshita, Bruno Tenan, Chung-Deh Tien, Tom, Ryoichi Tsunekawa, Alex Tye, Matthew Tyndall, TypoVar, Virginia Valdez, Beatriz Valerio, Tom Varisco, Brayden Varr, Catarina Vaz, Andy Veale, Yvette Claudia Velez, Marie-Anne Verougstraete, Abbie Vickress, Ray Villarreal, Pat Vining, Courtney Waite, Hoyle Wang, Viola Wang, Jim Ward, Grace Watling, Terrance Weinzierl, Robert Weiss, Stuart Weston, Kevin Wijaya, Dave Williams, Beau Williamson, Delve Withrington, Katherine Wood, Neil Woodyatt, Jesvin Yeo, Yokokaku, Kazuhi Yoshikawa, YouWorkForThem, Matt Yow, Charlton Yu, Yuriko, Ron Za, Jayson Zaleski, Víctor Zúñiga