Jesus Saves is a font based on the familiar old logo that has “JESUS” hidden within a maze-like set of multi-branched vertical bars. The characters appear to be an alien, cryptic language at first sight, perhaps even a Japanese, Chinese, or Korean language, thanks to the unusual figures created by the combinations of various letters. It is a teaser for the eyes, as well as a visual feast of De Stijl-type art. It is an attention-getting font that is cool to look at, an eye puzzle that is enticing to decipher. It’s a great font to use for striking logos (see Gallery Images) by the judicious use of ligatures, where in word settings ligatures may be used at the beginnings of words, the middle or the endings of words. Jesus Heals is the missing spaces from the Jesus Saves font, sort of like a doughnut hole font! If you use this font to fill in the spaces in the Jesus Saves font, it becomes whole, or healed, thus the name. Jesus Lives is a raised block/3D or three dimensional version of Jesus Heals. For color combinations in apps that support layering, Jesus Lives synchs and has perfect kerning register with Jesus Heals, as Jesus Heals has with Jesus Saves. The digitization was done by fontmeister John Bomparte.

Genki Desu is one of those Japanese expressions that are used a lot and don’t really mean what you think they mean. You can use it as a greeting: O Genki Desu Ka? (お元気ですか - how are you), or to say you’re feeling fine (元気です - Genki Desu). The word Genki also means ‘energy’ or ‘vigor’. I am not an expert, in fact, there’s so much Japanese I can actually speak (shame on me), but Genki Desu is one of my favourites. Maybe just because it sounds so nice!

Hesse Antiqua is the very first typeface designed by Gudrun Zapf von Hesse. It was a pioneering project originally created by her over 70 years ago as a set of brass punches to stamp into leather book covers and spines at the Bauer Type Foundry in Germany. In celebration of her 100th birthday on 2 January 2018, Ferdinand Ulrich and the Monotype Studio team collaborated with her to bring her brass punches to live as a digital font. Hesse Antiqua was developed with careful considerations and decisions to capture the nuance of the beautiful letterforms as they originally appeared in gold and blind stampings. We are pleased to introduce this modern OpenType typeface featuring a proper set of capitals and small capitals, figures, punctuation and some ornaments as well. Hesse Antiqua is best used at 36 points and above, as the designer intended.

A very rare metal face made a brief appearance in Lanston Specimen books and has all but vanished from use. In fact no examples of the font in use seem to exist. It shares some of the hand-rendered casual feel of Nicholas Cochin, but much heavier and well suited for bold headlines and package design.

Originally designed by Sol Hess as just a roman and italic for Lanston Monotype, circa 1920-23.

The family tree of this friendly face runs deep. Its primary inspiration is Twentieth Century, designed by Saul Hess as a monoline version of Paul Renner’s Futura. The design was reinterpreted by Herb Lubalin as Avant Garde in the 1970s. This version softens the harsh geometry of the original designs with rounded line endings: the result is a warm, inviting face that is elegant, confident and inviting. All versions of this font include the Unicode 1250 Central European character set in addition to the standard Unicode 1252 Latin set.

Originally designed by Morris Fuller Benton for ATF in 1927, Sol Hess added a lower case in 1929. Hess also drew Broadway Engraved in 1928 for Lanston Monotype. Broadway has become somewhat of a classic icon as an "Art Deco" typeface.

Almost every type designer feels the need, from time to time, to interrupt his or her serious work on complex text type systems for something more playful. In Luc(as)'s case this has often meant designing more typefaces. In the early 1990s, while working on Thesis, Luc(as) drew several display faces which were based on the shapes of TheSans but were either de(con)structive versions or experimental variations. Jesus Loves You All is a heretic thorny typeface vaguely based on the outlines of TheSans. Jesus Loves You was given a remarkable three-dimensional treatment in Abbott Miller's Dimensional Type project.

Giambattista Bodoni created this modern typeface in 1790 which served as the structural model for Sol Hess’s faithful rendition. Hess made necessary adjustments for mechanical typesetting on Lanston’s Monotype composition system. Remastered in 2006 by Paul Hunt.

The sketches for this font were made while listening to "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. I wanted a ghoulish and creepy looking font, and strangely the font was completed while listening to "Jesus Christ Superstar" Talk about creepy!

Designed by Sol Hess in 1940 as a variation of Stymie Extrabold but with squared corners where round shapes would normally be. This striking display face is found in only some Lanston Monotype catalogs and specimens are somewhat hard to find.

This is the Bruce Foundry’s Old Style No.20, which was loosely based on the Miller & Richard Old Style. It was recut at Lanston under Sol Hess’ direction in 1909, and survives as the second text face in the Sears Roebuck Catalogue.

For many type lovers, Broadway is the quintessential Art Deco typeface. Designed as an all-caps typeface in 1927 by Morris Fuller Benton for ATF, it was expanded two years later with a lower case designed by Sol Hess, who also drew the inline version, Broadway Engraved.

Gudrun Zapf von Hesse designed the first sketches of Alcuin in 1986. The namesake of this typeface was an advisor of Charlemagne and was responsible for the writing reform of the Carolingian era. Alcuin was born in 735 in England, became an abbot in Tours and died there in 804. It was the idea of Zapf von Hesse to develop a modern text type based on the forms of the Carolingian minuscule. To create a text type that is excellent for a wide variety of applications, typical handwritten elements had to be discarded while still retaining the flow and character of handwriting. Alcuin with its strong calligraphic expression may be used in books, magazines, and also in the area of printed office communication.

Diotima was designed by Gudrun Zapf von Hesse in 1948, the italic even earlier, in 1939. Diotima is a festive font particularly well-suited to invitations, programs and poems. The delicate italic draws attention to text which should be emphasized. Zapf von Hesse’s Ariadne Initials and Smaragd are perfect complements to Diotima.

LTC Spire with alternate caps was designed by Lanston’s type director Sol Hess in 1937. Spire Roman was designed without lowercase. But it includes alternate rounded caps which transform this extra condensed “fat face” into more of an art deco titling face. Spire Roman has been used within department store logos, luxury hotel signage, perfumes, etc, etc.

Colombine is based on the handwriting of Gudrun Zapf von Hesse. The dynamic forms of Gudrun Zapf von Hesse's Colombine express the dance, the lightheartedness and the liveliness of Commedia dell'Arte. The type is an excellent choice for artistic as well as festive applications. The different weights make Colombine perfect for certificates and other celebratory texts.

Tourist Gothic is a Lanston Monotype adaptation of Modern Condensed Gothic (a design from the late 1800s.) Rounded alternate caps were designed by Sol Hess in 1928. The alternate version is offered as LTC Tourist Gothic Alt. Tourist Gothic Pro combines both variations and includes a full Central European character set and several other OpenType features. Digitized in 2006 by Paul Hunt.

Twentieth Century Poster, designed by Sol Hess for Lanston Monotype in the 1940s, provided the inspiration for this family of faces. Although, historically, the design falls outside the time period normally considered the Art Deco era, its sensibilities are pure Art Moderne. Both versions of this font contain the Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

Obelysk Grotesk was designed by the Lanston Drawing Office in the late 1980s. This face is a reconstruction of Spire (1937) drawn by Sol Hess. The skeleton of Spire Roman stands with the serifs removed. Like Spire, this font has no lower case, but does offer alternate cap styles in some of the lower case positions. Spire and Obelysk have both been used prominently in the fashion industry.

Originally designed by Sol Hess for the Lanston Monotype Foundry in 1938, this revival was designed by Ann Pomeroy in the early 90s. Spire is a condensed serif with a very 1930s retro look. PLEASE NOTE: Each Spire font (Regular, Extra Light and Monoline) include a companion Expert font in the download. The Experts feature several alternate glyphs. The Family includes three Styles and three Expert styles. 6 fonts all together.

A personal calligraphic series commissioned by Bitstream from Gudrun Zapf von Hesse. Although Carmina BT is a neutral design, optimized for use in digital publishing, Zapf von Hesse’s unique calligraphic spirit is still quite visible in the family’s letterforms. This is not surprising, as all of Zapf von Hesse’s typefaces are calligraphic in nature. Yet Carmina BT is suitable for almost any conceivable digital text application, from book design up through signage use.

Diotima Classic is a total upheaval for the 21st century of Gudrun Zapf von Hesse's mid-20th-century Diotima, one of the most beautiful types ever cast in metal. Its roots lay in a calligraphic sheet written by Gudrun Zapf von Hesse. The text was the Hyperion to Diotima" by Friedrich Hölderlin; Diotima is the name of a Greek priestess in Plato's dialogue about love. In the philosopher's imagination, she should appear slim and beautiful. In 1948, Gudrun Zapf von Hesse finished the typeface's Roman. The Diotima family was released as a metal typeface for hand setting by D. Stempel AG in 1951-53. This original Diotima is a festive design particularly suited to invitations, programs, and poems. The delicate Italic drew attention to text passages that should be emphasized. Linotype's previous digital Diotima only had one weight, which looked great in display sizes, but was too thin for text setting. Diotima Classic has four weights. The new Regular has more robust serifs and thicker hairlines, making it more appropriate for text sizes. The Diotima variation with finer serif remains under the name Light. Gudrun Zapf von Hesse also took the opportunity in 2008 to add an extremely heavy weight to the family. In comparison to the old Diotima, letterforms of the Diotima Classic are more harmonious and balanced. The rhythm of the Italic letters in Diotima Classic is more consistent. The lining figures of the Diotima Classic align with caps, and the letter spacing of the tabular lining figures in Diotima Classic is significantly better. The forms of the figures have been improved as well."

Artscript was Sol Hess's "attempt to convert into rigid metal the graceful penmanship of the ancient scribe". This type of script is more common in digital from but when originally released in 1948, it required special handling to avoid breakage. Extensive alternates were added based on original Hess drawings and additional sources. Both versions are combined into the Opentype version along with an expanded Central European character set as well as ligatures, Swash/Alternates, fractions, superior/inferior numerals and ornaments.

Comix Gorilla GABRIEL BAUTISTA is the artist of John JG Roshell's CHARLEY LOVES ROBOTS series. His incredible watercolors graced the pages of ELEPHANTMEN #50. In some circles he is known as "Galvo" or "Gabo" and he has brought his brofu color skills to the pages THE SPIRIT, ALL STAR WESTERN and also illustrated JESUS CHRIST, IN THE NAME OF THE GUN. He is also the creator of comic battling site ENTERVOID.COM and indy press PULPOPRESS.COM. He loves his girl, his dog lulu and his font.

Havel is an updated interpretation of a Czech type design from the 1930s. It is powerful and very condensed. At a quick glance you might find kinship with other condensed typefaces of the same period, like Spire (Sol Hess, 1937), Onyx (Gerry Powell for ATF, 1937) or Quirinus Bold (Alessandro Butti, 1939). But Havel has its very own look, rooted in the rapidly disappearing "Eastern European Type", a typographical tradition where poster and packaging design were the highlights. Torbjörn Olsson has revived this classical Czech beauty, and the Open Type version, Havel Pro, can also be used for Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian.

Twentieth Century was designed and drawn by Sol Hess in the Lanston Monotype drawing office between 1936 and 1947. The first weights were added to the Monotype typeface library in 1959. Twentieth Century is based on geometric shapes which originated in Germany in the early 1920's and became an integral part of the Bauhaus movement of that time. Form and function became the key words, unnecessary decoration was scorned. This clean cut, sans serif with geometric shapes was most appropriate. The lighter weights of the Twentieth Century font family can be used for text setting; the Twentieth Century bold and condensed fonts are suitable for display in headlines and advertising. Commonly spelled 20th Century.

Hermann is one of our most readable typefaces so far. Since last year, the W Design team had been examining closely the possibility of developing a text font. Thus, we dug into concepts within some of our favorite novels, such as The Steppenwolf and Brave New World, written by Hermann Hesse and Aldous Huxley respectively. Ideas like duality, surrealism, and wildness mainly appeared. With these concepts in mind, we analyzed carefully the typefaces used in both Hesse’s and Huxley’s creations; Sabon and Garamond showed up catching our attention and, of course, awakening our admiration. Consequently, the challenge was to combine the key features of these fonts with the concepts already identified. At first, we made a text font which was suitable to compose long texts. However, we realized that we needed to refine some characteristics to convey all the ideas. A full set of capital discretionary ligatures was designed, which convert Hermann in a display font when is required. We also designed swashes (from A-Z) and final forms (in letters h, k, m, n, r and x in romans, and in letters a, d, e, h, i, l, m, n, r, t, u, x and z in italics), conveying more dynamism and versatility when it comes to composing visually. Hermann was designed not only to be accurate in terms of legibility but also to be wild and bold. That is why we took a big leap and designed from the beginning a font that is inspired by the world of 20th-century novels, using the name of one of its greatest exponents, Hermann Hesse.

Century Gothic™ is based on Monotype 20th Century, which was drawn by Sol Hess between 1936 and 1947. Century Gothic maintains the basic design of 20th Century but has an enlarged x-height and has been modified to ensure satisfactory output from modern digital systems. The design is influenced by the geometric style sans serif faces which were popular during the 1920s and 30s. The Century Gothic font family is useful for headlines and general display work and for small quantities of text, particularly in advertising. The Century Gothic family has been extended to 14 weights in a Pan-European character set from Thin to Black and their Italics. The already existing 4 weights of Regular and Bold with their Italics are additionally still available in the STD character set. The W1G versions featuring a Pan-European character set for international communications supports almost all the popular languages/writing systems in western, eastern, and central Europe based on the Latin alphabet including several based on Cyrillic and Greek alphabets. Looking for the perfect way to complete your project? Check out Aptifer™ Slab, ITC Berkeley Old Style®, FF Franziska™, Frutiger®, ITC Legacy® Square Serif or Plantin®.

Century Gothic™ is based on Monotype 20th Century, which was drawn by Sol Hess between 1936 and 1947. Century Gothic maintains the basic design of 20th Century but has an enlarged x-height and has been modified to ensure satisfactory output from modern digital systems. The design is influenced by the geometric style sans serif faces which were popular during the 1920s and 30s. The Century Gothic font family is useful for headlines and general display work and for small quantities of text, particularly in advertising. Century Gothic family has been extended to 14 weights in a Pan-European character set from Thin to Black and their corresponding Italics. The already existing 4 weights of Regular and Bold with their Italics are additionally still available in the STD character set. For international communication, the W1G versions offer the appropriate character set. They contain Latin, Greek and Cyrillic characters and thus support all languages and writing systems that are in official use in Western, Eastern and Central Europe. Century Gothic Variable is features two axes: Weight and Italic. The Weight axis has preset instances from Light to Black. The Italic axis is a switch between upright and italic. Looking for the perfect way to complete your project? Check out Aptifer™ Slab, ITC Berkeley Old Style®, FF Franziska™, Frutiger®, ITC Legacy® Square Serif or Plantin®.