An ad found within the pages of the Sept. 7, 1939 issue of Motion Picture Daily for "The Man They Could Not Hang" had the film's title hand lettered in a slightly stylized bold sans serif design. This is now available as Criminal Trial JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

When master letterer Hugh Gordon and his student, Ross F. George developed a set of lettering pens between June 16, 1913 and Sept. 1, 1914, they had no idea that their invention (which they named Speed-Ball®) would still be in use nearly a hundred years later. The C. Howard Hunt pen company [originally of Camden, New Jersey] became the original (and sole) distributor of these pens. By 1915 an instructional booklet entitled "Modern Pen Lettering" was produced, and it was copiously illustrated with examples of layouts, lettering techniques and an assortment of alphabets for the user to learn. Nouveau Poster JNL is Jeff Levine's interpretation of a sanserif design found within the pages of this vintage publication.

The font is inspired by the history of the native land - a city that blossoms on a high mountain, surrounded by the blue ribbon of the Unava River. The swift rapidity of the river, the important slow flow of its reservoirs, golden beaches and steep banks of which remember the glorious times of Cossack glory. Times when bright flags flew over the Cossack army, which swiftly swept the green meadows with lightning cavalry, and dusty paths under the scorching sun. To go out to defend their homes, to cross the cold steel of ringing sabers with the enemy, and, bravely going into battle, to fight back the invaders. The font combines the straight lines of sharp steel sweeps, the broken lines of jousting blows, and the refinement of the accent of undulating flag lines.

Have you ever seen lettering that you can connect with but have no clue where you've seen it before? It strikes a chord with certain feelings but you don't know why. Slim Pickens was inspired by the lobby card and poster titling from the 1949 Doris Day film "My Dream is Yours", and keys into the look and feel of vintage handwritten film poster titling. Something about that era in film made it easy to tie visuals with getting swept up in all sorts of emotions, good and bad. A narrow font, full of life and wonderfully hand-drawn, Slim Pickens is an accent font you'll want to have in your font collection for those tight fits, so buy it today and fill in the gaps of your designs with a little nostalgia!

I happened to mention to the proprietor of an antique barn near here that I'd be interested in any old typewriters she happened to come across. A conversation ensued, the proprietor withdrew into a back room, and she re-emerged with an old handwritten letter, dated 18 Sept. 1825 and spanning nearly three pages. The letter, penned by Samuel Clarke, a Princeton, Mass., pastor, sought donations for the victims of an accident at sea. I thought his script unique, stylistic, and definitely something worth digitizing, so I bought the old letter and took it home. Had to come up with several uppercase characters to round out the set, but the results seem good and proper. Full release has complete character set.

We named this font Scholz Secession. Fin-de-siecle Vienna, Austria is the source of this Jugendstil design from Schriftgiesserei Eduard Scholz. The original release was under the name Reklameschrift Secession. Most of the curve strokes look like commas to me. The letters are as soft and plump as the comforter on the bed I slept on in a Salzburg B&B many years ago. I was traveling with a college buddy and our next stop was Vienna. There a kind, young student named Hanna and her boyfriend took us under their wing. One of the places Hanna proudly showed us was Otto Wagner’s Majolika Haus, built in 1898, and only about 8 blocks from Secession Hall. Hanna explained to us that the style was called Jugendstil and represented Art Nouveau as interpreted within the framework of their culture. I even took a picture. After all, memories are part of who we are. Figures are old-style for text use. This font would not be my first choice for a spread sheet. Included are German ligatures ch (alt-0123) & ck (125), two period ornaments (135, 175) and lower case o and u with Hungarian long umlaut (215, 247)). A very likeable and easy-to-use font.

Prepare to be swept away by the mesmerizing allure of Oceania, the font that will transport your designs to a world of elegance and beauty. Say goodbye to dull and uninspiring typography because Oceania is here to revolutionize your creative endeavors. With its graceful curves and enchanting letterforms, this gorgeous curvy typeface exudes sophistication and charm. Each letter is meticulously crafted to perfection, forming a harmonious dance of curves that will captivate the eyes of your audience. Whether you're designing wedding invitations, crafting stunning logos, or adding a touch of class to your branding materials, Oceania is the secret weapon that will make your designs shine. Dive into the depths of this exquisite font and let its timeless elegance elevate your creations to a whole new level of visual splendor. Get ready to make waves in the design world with the irresistible allure of Oceania!

Conrad X. 'Cobb' Shinn (Sept. 4, 1887- Jan. 28, 1951) was a Fillmore, Indiana-born post card illustrator who sold a series of successful novelty postcard lines which included (among others) Charlie Chaplin, automobiles and the Dutch culture in the beginning years of the 20th Century. After serving in World War I, Shinn found the market for novelty postcards dwindling, and he also lent his artistic skills to cartoon features and illustrating many children's books [including his own, under the nickname 'Uncle Cobb'] which taught easy step-by-step drawing methods. Some time in the 1920s, he eventually migrated into the field of supplying electrotypes and stereotypes of 'stock cuts' of photos and line art to the printing trade. In the days of letterpress printing, this was the forerunner of paper clip art and its successor, electronic clip art. Purchasing many of his designs from 'journeyman' artists of the time, the diversity of Cobb Shinn's stock cuts library grew with the passing years, reflecting changing times, styles and topics. Some of the illustrators whose signed works were presented in Shinn's 'CUTalogs' [as he called his stock cuts catalogs] include Mary Clemmitt, Louis H. Hippe, E.C. Klinge, Nelson White, Harvey Fuller, Bess Livings, Lois Head, Harvey Peake and Van Tuyl. Upon his passing in 1951, it's not known how long the Indianapolis-based company existed before finally closing its doors. One of the more popular series of cartoons were the line illustrations of men and women affectionately called 'little big head guys' by many modern fans of these cuts because the heads of the characters were drawn somewhat larger than the rest of their bodies. Shinn Kickers JNL is a collection twenty-six of these illustrations, and just like a kick in the shin (as the pun in the name implies), these charming cartoons get your attention.

Tomato is the digitization and quite elaborate expansion of an early 1970s Franklin Photolettering film type called Viola Flare. This typeface is an obvious child of funk, the audio-visual revolution that swept America and put an end to the art nouveau period we now associate with the hippy era. Funk is of course little more than jazz with a chorus and an emphatic beat. Nevertheless, it became the definition of cool in the 1970s, thanks to blaxploitation movies with excellent soundtracks like Shaft and Superfly. Funk began as a commercial audio experience, then later expanded its signature to cover everything, from design to fashion to the later birth of disco, which is really a further simplification of funk. Funk had very strong and unique typographical elements, particularly a kind of titling with an essentially western, wooden core that suddenly changed and flared in unexpected areas until a very individual brand was achieved. Everything that can be tacked on to the alphabet was used towards that individuality. Things like curls, swirls, swashes, ligatures were always plentiful in funk, sometimes giving the titling a specific gender, sometimes bulging, sometimes speeding, sometimes fading in the distance, sometimes doing nothing but crazily aligning with other design elements, but the result was always a fascinating creature that seemed to invariably want to dance and have fun. Tomato was built in exactly that spirit. The original film type certainly had enough swashes and curls to be an unmistakable funk font in itself, but our further expansion of it cements it and makes it the definite font for the genre. With as many as 12 different possibilities for some letters, the designer's choices for a titling set in Tomato are virtually limitless. The Postscript and True Type versions of Tomato come in five fonts, including two fonts for alternates, one font for ligatures, and one font for swashes. These are split into two affordable packages. The entire family package is also available at an even more affordable price, and includes complimentary Cyrillic, Greek, Turkish, and Central European versions of Tomato. A Tomato Pro OpenType version is also available. It is a single font that includes over 650 characters, glued together with extensive programming for convenience of use in OpenType-friendly applications, where you can watch the letters morph and dance as you push the buttons and change the options of your OT palette. Now you know which font will come to mind when someone says the word "funky".