There are thousands of pieces of vintage sheet music available for collectors and curiosity seekers. Prior to the 1930s, a large percentage of them had wonderfully hand-lettered titles on the covers, but gradually there was a shift by music publishers to utilizing metal type for the bulk of their output. Normally set in an all-caps format, certain type faces reappeared in growing frequency and familiarity. Composer JNL is one such example of a “workhorse” font, and has been re-drawn and reinterpreted by Jeff Levine Fonts in both regular and oblique versions. It is based on the design "Glamour", released by Lanston Monotype in 1948; which in turn was based on "Corvinus", designed by Imre Reiner.

The collection of letterpress cuts included in Printers Helpers JNL offers a generous helping of billing and accounting helpers along with the usual assortment of pointing hands, stylized arrows, cartoon embellishments and other miscellaneous images.

Those who design books for young children should consider the different needs of their readers. When laying out pages for young readers, particular care should be taken over word spacing. Don't forget that justifying short lines disrupts spacing. Justification should be used only when absolutely necessary. In the research undertaken with young readers the importance of consistent spacing was clear. It also appeared that the poorer readers profited from wider word spacing, while spacing that suited the poorest readers, positively annoyed the better readers. These typefaces have built-in letter spacing because of their exit strokes, as well as extra clarity designed into them. Sassoon Primary Medium Condensed is a compact style for headlines combining the right amount of weight, yet in a friendly style. When used at large sizes the friendliness of Sassoon types really shines. Why not use it for headings throughout a book. You can find many other new ways to use this typeface. Ideal perhaps for the masthead or a magazine? Free to download resources: How to access Stylistic Sets of alternative letters in these fonts

Snack Shop JNL draws its basic influence from the capital letters of Jeff Levine's Two Reeler JNL, but is a bolder, outline design - looking more like sign lettering than a title font from a silent movie.

Flivver JNL takes its name from the slang term applied to Model T's in the 1920s, and it's design is a first-cousin to Two Reeler JNL (inspired by lettering on titles from a Charlie Chaplin silent film).

Plak is a typeface originally created by famous German designer Paul Renner in 1930. Paul Renner is also the designer of the Futura typefaces. Like Futura, Plak is a sans serif design. But its unique qualities include its heaviness, and its un-geometric lowercase a.""

The Ouido typeface has tastefully narrow characters with enough default spacing for comfortable reading at small sizes. Equipped with features like letter-spaced small caps and conservatively drawn italics for emphasizing words that maintain the reading speed—providing the reader a pleasant overall experience. Ouido (pronounced as “widow”) is derived from the Portuguese word OUVIR which means to hear or to listen. Ouido refers to the ability to play a song on any musical instrument after listening to it a couple of times and without reading the notes. The Ouido typeface is a modernized nostalgia for music enthusiasts, a whimsical revamp of the classic serif font. It bears resemblance with printed classical music scores, characterized by each letter’s rounded strokes like how one drew clefs with passion. Each dot is a twin of the quarter note minus the stem, so weaving sentences together could feel like composing a melody. Inspired by the astounding phenomenon of absolute pitch, the visual appeal of this typeface may hone your imaginative ability to embellish your creation without needing a reference.

The term "podunk" usually refers to a small, insignificant town. In this case, Podunk JNL refers to a bold and brash font that resembles cut-paper characters.

Freestyle Script is the work of designer Martin Wait. It is an informal display typeface which perfectly renders the spontaneous qualities of hand-rendered brush lettering. Its capitals can be used alone in word settings and are complemented by an extensive lower case alphabet which includes ligatures of every imaginable variety.

Klute references stylised forms of writing; historic Germanic, blackletter letterforms and graffiti and tagging. Its references are based on a personal idea of lettering - the action of writing is more personal and human than the craft of calligraphy or the mechanics of typing. These references suggest the idea of saying something particular and personal.

Ornaments 5 are based on the Amsterdam Primula ornaments designed by Imre Reiner, 1949.

Sina is a strong, sturdy and self-confident serif accented face. Distinct ascenders and descenders in classical proportions ensure pleasant reading. Robust but assertively warm, it recalls and references the virtues of early classical printing types but presents a distinctly contemporary look. With its even text flow it works very well for long texts. It is also great for headlines and in larger styles. An extended, fine-tuned range of weights renders it suitable for almost every application. Sina comes in 12 styles and in OpenType format. All styles contain standard and discretionary ligatures, small caps, proportional lining figures, tabular lining figures, proportional old style figures, lining old style figures, matching currency symbols, fractions, and scientific numerals. Sina supports West European, Central and East European languages.

Trivette is an ‘All Capitals’ calligraphic display face, where all upright strokes are rendered as curves and where everything approaching the vertical are rendered in threes. That’s probably as clear as mud, but the results combine charm and legibility with a decorative period air. Recommended for poster work where a sense of dignified fun is important.

Another wonderful collection of vintage cartoons, sales helpers, decorations and embellishments comes to you in Letterpressers JNL.

Oak Ridge JNL gives a Westernized treatment to Flivver JNL; which in turn is a serif derivative of Two Reeler JNL. Although all three fonts come from the same root source—inter-title cards from an old Charlie Chaplin movie, they each take on a personality of their own.

Proofreader JNL and its companion oblique version give a serif treatment to the rounded-end, architectural -style lettering of Rendering JNL.

SketchCaslon Italic is a hand-rendered display typeface with its formal base in the structure of the types of William Caslon.

Letterpress Illustrations JNL is another collection of dingbats, cartoons, catch words, embellishments and ad helpers all re-drawn from vintage source material.

This font was actually designed by trying to teach my helper-monkey, Philip, to cut Helvetica out of a piece of cardboard.

Printing Press Cuts JNL gathers vintage cartoons, sales helpers and decorative ornaments into one handy collection for embellishing any retro-oriented project.

I designed this font because it didn't exist - it’s based on hand rendered type created for black and white line marker scamps used in the advertising industry. I use it that way and it’s saved me a LOT of hand-rendering time over the years. Of course, Scamps works as an informal marker script in its own right too. I’ll be interested to see what you do with it.

Cresci Exemplar™ was originally designed by Giovanni Francesco Cresci, the 16th century Milanese writing master. These letters from his book Essemplare are some of the most elegant capitalis monumentalis ever produced and served as a model for later inscriptions on statues and monuments all throughout Italy. Painstakingly made from multiple high-resolution references, Cresci Exemplar™ Pro, accurately matches the master’s original lines. It can be used at large sizes without sacrificing elegance. Cresci’s attention to detail and delicate curves allow his titling capitals to stand out and elevate text. The numbers of Cresci Exemplar™ Pro have been professionally designed to match and complement the letterforms of Cresci’s original alphabet. Symbols have either been faithfully transcribed or thoughtfully designed both to be pleasing to today’s reader and congruent with classic lines. Released for the 450th anniversary of Cresci’s Il Perfetto Scrittore.

A design reminiscent to school script and handwriting, yet slightly off beat, with a gracious and elegant motion. Originally designed for invitations for a book store, the typeface likes to think it refers refers to book typography of the 40s and 50s of the last century.

Perfect for teachers, this font has enough glyphs to cover 80+ languages and extra math symbols! It is neat and legible for early readers!

Plant Assortment was inspired by plant renderings from historic sources. This font contains an assortment of 47 plants located under the character set keys.

This teacher-friendly polka-dotted font is perfect for kids and teachers. It is fun but still perfectly neat and legible for little readers.

Lend a little Jazz Age elegance to your next project with this tasty typeface, a faithful rendering of Eduard Ege's eponymous Ege Schrift, released by the Genzsch and Heyse foundry of Hamburg in 1921. For best results at large sizes, choose the TrueType version, rendered at a full 2,048 UPM. Both versions include the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets, as well as localization for Moldovan and Romanian.

Penna is a calligraphic type system designed by Pedro Leal. Amidst the four available styles you get four different ascender and descender styles, two different styles of starting and ending swashes, a plethora of ligatures and several other features. Choose between regular, swashes, unconnected and connected versions or mix them all up for a deeper calligraphic feeling.

Childlike on the surface, Gongo hides the maturity and wisdom of age. Flowing freely across the page with a graceful ease, Gongo manages to make its mark with every letter, resonating deeper than first appearances. For authority backed up in a friendly tone or wisdom imparted in light hearted words, Gongo is the go to font.

Garish was inspired by how trees curl and twist their roots into the ground. At how they stretch up desperate to scratch up into heaven.

Authentic rendering of the original font called Vanden Houten from the Keystone Foundry in Phaladelphia. Very popular among job printers of the early twentieth century.

Handegypt resulted from playfully hand-rendering Egyptian style fonts from memory. Its playful nature is ideally suited for whimsical designs and anything aimed at children.

No frills. No fluff. Still friendly. Keep your look clean and simple with the utilitarian but gentle Ultine. This font with a slightly extended geometric architecture gets straight to the point without pushing your reader away with too firm an approach. Ultine covers a large set of multi-Latin languages. It includes a wide range of other OpenType features, too, including ligatures and contextual alternates. Moreover, small caps of Utline and titling alternates are available for deepening your design capabilities with this basic face. The Ultine family consists of 42 fonts with three different widths and italics counterparts for every style. The design is well suited for graphic design and any use of the screen. It can easily operate as a webfont, as text for banner ads and for branding as well as editorial design. And just to show you how simple and friendly the font can be, the regular weight is free, so you can use it to your heart's content.