Cirkulus is an experimental display face, constructed using combinations of hairline circles and straight lines. The typeface was designed by Michael Neugebauer in 1970. The letters exude a constructivist aura, reminiscent of both the revolutionary 1920s, and the digital experiments of the 1990s. Cirkulus is a unicase alphabet, with a very lightweight appearance, and should be used solely in large display sizes.

ITC Outback was designed by Bob Alonso, a contemporary typeface with a distressed" look. It combines the rustic 1920s look of Rudolph Koch's Neuland with the proportions of a 1960s headline typeface, then roughens the edges 1990s style. The crude, rough ITC Outback is clearly intended as a display typeface but reads surprisingly well even in sizes as small as 18 point."

The unusually-shaped hand lettering of Penny Wise JNL was modeled from the cover of the 1936 sheet music for "You Dropped Me Like a Red Hot Penny", and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Although it was drawn during the Art Deco period, this type of lettering design style was revived during the Hippie movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

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.

Sheet music for the 1910 composition "Good-By Betty Brown" has its title hand lettered in a thick and thin, condensed sans serif design reminiscent of lettering found in later comic strips and books of the 1930s and 1940s. Transcending both the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles, Funny Papers JNL gets its name from the slang reference Americans of the early 20th Century gave the Sunday comics pages in their local newspapers, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Samuel Welo was a sign painter who had published in the 1920s and again in 1960 editions of his “Studio Handbook – Letter and Design for Artists and Advertisers”. In-between, in 1930 Welo also published “Lettering - Practical and Foreign”. Within the pages is an Art Deco outline slab serif design using multiple thin lines to create an “incised” or “engraved” look within the characters. This intriguing type style is now available as Guest Invitation JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Nouveau Era JNL was adapted from the title of a hand-lettered advertisement found on the back of a 1920s-1930s piece of vintage sheet music.

A new take on the perennial Art Deco favorite, Broadway, interpreted by 1930s lettering artist Harold Holland Day, and named after a 1960s R&B song.

The typefaces Largo Mager (Light) and Largo Halbfett (Medium) were cast for the first time in 1937 by Ludwig & Mayer based on the designs by Hans Wagner. One weight Largo Licht (Outline) was added in 1956. All fonts were only configured with capitals. The digital version of Largo has pointed serifs and not the slightly rounded ones seen in the hot metal versions which gives the typeface a more elegant note. Largo is often used for fine printing jobs as business cards or formal invitations, or in the fashion and cosmetics fields. Hans Wagner was born in Munich in 1894 and died in 1977 in Altenburg where he had worked as a painter, graphic designer and book designer. In addition to the Largo typeface, he developed, among others, the Altenburger Gotisch (1928), the Welt-Antiqua (1931-1934) and the Wolfram (1930).

At first glance, Transcendental JNL looks like a 1960s or 1970s-era "Hippie" type face, hence its "love generation" name. However, the actual inspiration comes from a piece of sheet music from the early 1900s with Art Nouveau influences. It is often proven that what goes around certainly does come around in art, fashion and lettering. Transcendental JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Oakland is a Streamline era design inspired by some hand-drawn lettering on a 1930's French poster advertising a certain brand of Car (Automobile for our American cousins). It's ideal for giving poster and design work that late 1930s to mid 1950s feel. Make a bold statement with this all capitals typeface!

Monoline Deco JNL is a thin, elegant typeface that is reminiscent of the Art Deco Streamline influence of the 1930s and 1940s, complete with angular and truncated characters.

After the Second World War, the Ionic style replaced Modern Face as the favored typeface for newsprint. A couple decades later, it was in turn replaced by the next generation of newspaper fonts, a mix of Old Face, Transitional and Modern Face forms. Rotation was designed by Arthur Ritzel and presented by Stempel/Linotype in 1971 and named for the rotation newsprint machine for which is was particularly suited. The font displays the influence of Old Face design and gives newsprint a feeling of lightness and elegance.

Love songs are the perennials of music, outlasting all other popular fads and styles that come and go. The 1920s through the 1940s is considered by some to be the Golden Age of the American love song. Thousands upon thousands of copies of popular sheet music sold, and the cover lettering and art on many titles were from some of the finest illustrators of their time. Love Song JNL recreates the Art Deco-flavored design found on one such piece of sheet music from the 1930s.

From the pages of a small book entitled “A Portfolio of Alphabet Designs for Artists, Architects, Designers & Craftsmen” [Irene K. Ames, 1938] comes a bold Art Deco sans poster display face. The digital version is called Throughway JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions. [To note, throughway (or sometimes spelled thruway) is a popular term from the 1950s and 1960s for a major road or highway.]

A handsome German art deco design that fits in well with other types of the 1920s and 1930s. Originally without a lowercase, so we drew one for it, extending its usefulness.

Moving Van JNL is a classic sign painter's block Roman with angled [instead of rounded] corners and slab serifs. This style of lettering was most popular in the 1920s and 1930s.

F.W. Woolworth was once one of the giants of the variety store chains, along with the likes of Kress, S.S. Kresge, McCrory’s, Neisner Brothers, Ben Franklin and others. In 1960, the company brought out a new corporate logo with a type design harking back to the Art Deco style of the 1930s and 1940s. A photo of one of their old store fronts (despite having only eight letters to work with) inspired the digital interpretation of the signage as Bargain Shopping JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Rundfunk Grotesk was produced together with Rundfunk Antiqua by the Linotype Design Studio in 1933-1935. The combination was originally intended for small point sizes and shorter texts. Unfortunately, this typeface was never completed and consists only of Antiqua roman and Grotesk bold. This unusual combination was chosen because small newspaper ads often use a semi bold for the headlines and a regular antique for the text. Rundfunk Grotesk is intended to be used exclusively in headlines and reflects in its unique character the spirit of the 1930s.

Although the Art Deco movement is generally attributed to the 1930s and 1940s, a number of design influences were showing up during the late 1920s in what is referred to as the Art Nouveau period. The Dutch illustrator Anton Kurvers’ hand lettering on the front cover of the (1927) magazine “Het Vlaamsche Volstooneel” clearly shows the clean lines and Avant Garde geometrics that foreshadow Art Deco. This attractive pre-Deco lettering has been recreated digitally as Dutch Deco JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The French publication “La Lettre Dans le Decor et La Publicite Modernes” (“The Letter in the Modern Décor and Advertising”) was a 24-page booklet showcasing the then-current trends of the time (circa late 1930s-early 1940s). On one page was found a squared, extra bold sans serif alphabet set with strong Art Nouveau influences, yet it was ahead of its time by taking on the look and feel of 1980s techno typography. They say “everything old is new again”, and Nouveau Techno JNL is now available digitally in both regular and oblique versions.

Roundpoint Pen JNL is based on instructional lettering found in an old Speedball® Pen textbook. The effect of a round nib pen letter evokes the charm of the 1920s or 1930s.

From a vintage textbook on "modern" lettering circa the 1930s or 1940s comes a simple chamfered sans with oddly irregular shapes. Amateur Lettering JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

This font was inspired by lettering found on an old newsprint periodical from the 19th century.

Gramercy Eight JNL is an outline and drop shadow treatment of Crestview Six JNL, inspired by some 1930s-1940s era Art Deco hand lettering spotted on a sales flier for some decorator decals.

The lettering for Fine Dining JNL was inspired by the opening titles for the 1940 Barbara Stanwyck-Fred MacMurray film "Remember the Night". A stylized Art Deco sans, the typeface conjures up images of elegant dining, being out on the town and all we warmly associate with the night life of the 1930s and 1940s.

Latin music was all the rage in the United States from the 1930s through the 1950s and songs with a “South of the Border” or “Old Mexico” theme were plentiful. The 1940 sheet music for “Make Love with a Guitar” evoked the idea of serenading one’s lovely lady on horseback while strumming the guitar. ..at least if you went by the by the illustration under the song’s name. As the hand lettered title was rendered in an Art Deco design, it became the basis for Jazz Guitar JNL [which seemed a more befitting name], and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Mocombo JNL is a slightly modified version of one of the numerous alphabets created by the late Alf R. Becker for Signs of the Times Magazine during the period of the 1930s through the 1950s. Tod Swormstedt of ST Media—who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio—supplied Jeff Levine a wealth of source material from which this font is derived. The angular style of this typeface was originally referred to as “German Poster Lettering” by Becker, but it can represent many styles from 1940s night clubs to African safaris and just about anything in-between.

A vintage set of die-cut letters and number by Village Toys (circa 1930s or 1940s) featured a playful, bold serif typeface. This is now available digitally as Toy Letters JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Bannertype is – at least for my feeling – the most German of all fonts. It was used heavily mostly in newsprint and advertising in the early 1900s. I designed a dirty version of the narrow font in 4 stages of dirtiness, plus one free shadow font. Since the font has too many points I cannot generate a OTF-version, I am over the limit for that. But I have tried this TrueType version and it works like a jiffy in MacOS 10.8.2!

Westbrook JNL is a simple monoline all-caps font with a strong Art Deco feel. It's light, delicate appearance is great for announcements, ads and retro materials that wish to evoke the elegance of the 1930s and 1940s.

This circa 1910 European face was introduced into the United States by a German type foundry traveling salesman during the great depression of the 1930s. We have used it quite successfuly in sizes as small as 10 and 12 point.

A piece of sheet music for “Broken Blossoms” circa the 1920s or early 1930s has its cover title hand lettered in a wide thick-and-thin Art Deco design. This is now available as Flower Shop JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

The look and feel of pen lettering is captured in this nostalgically-styled font from Jeff Levine. Add a touch of the 1920's or 1930's to your projects with Pendraw JNL to evoke the look of old-time show cards and signs.