Payson JNL is based on a vintage sans serif wood type from the 1800s.

This font began as an attempt of draw alternatives to the images of Microsoft’s Wingdings, but then grew beyond that. This new version from late 2010 has over 1400 characters, including almost all of the geometric shapes in unicode 2500 and 2B00 ranges, almost all of the arrows in the unicode 2100, 2700, 2900, and 2B00 ranges, almost all of the dingbats and symbols in the unicode 2600 and 2700 ranges, many of the pictures, symbols, and emoticons in the 1F300 to 1F600 ranges, and a few of the miscellaneous technical items in the 2300 range. There are also pictures on the standard open type letters, most of which can be accessed from the keyboard. However, most of the characters in this typeface have to be accessed using their unicode designation. In Windows this is done with the alt key and the unicode hex number. On the Macintosh the easiest way (and for the five digit unicode characters, perhaps the only way) is to use the “Special Characters” window under the Edit Menu in the Finder. A unicode index of the font is provided in a pdf file that was generated using FontLab. However, it only has four of the unicode digits for the five-digit elements. Almost all of the unicode numbers starting with F should have a 1 in front of the F.

Retra is unusual serif high-contrast font family in Bodonian style. Some elements has not classical forms, so the font looks interesting and unusual. It is suitable for headlines and some texts. Font family Retra has as bright a display font style and a relaxed textual font styles, and sans-serif font styles. There are many OpenType features, also all the 104 European languages and all Slavic languages. Retra also has an alternative set of Slavic natural lowercase. Text, typed Retra, of course, attracts attention. Overall, Retra leaves a memorable and attractive experience.

THE DANISH RUNES Prior to 500 AD the 24-rune Elder Futhark was used in Denmark. From 500 AD to 800 AD there were many transitional futharks, reflecting a change from the 24-rune Futhark to the 16-rune Futharks. By the end of this period, the 24-rune Futhark went completely out of use and the 16-rune Futharks had prevailed. From 900 AD some of the runes changed, visually and phonetically. This occurred again about 950 AD and 1100 AD due to language changes. Runes dated to 1300 AD show evidence of being influenced by the Latin alphabet. Runes found in Skåne, Halland and Blekinge in Sweden, and runes found in Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, is counted among Danish runes, because in the Runic period, this was Danish land.

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!