A 1942 photograph showing the exterior of the famous Hollywood restaurant Sardi’s and it’s unusually lettered sign was the inspiration for Fine Food JNL. Classically Art Deco, the Sardi’s sign had an ‘S’ looking like an inverted ‘J’ with a flat tail, a traditional ‘A’ replaced by a triangle and the ‘R’ composed of a ‘D’ with a diagonal extension. These elements were balanced against more traditional [but complementary] characters to retain the novel charm of the original signage. Fine Food JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Metalet Modern JNL was based on the letters found within the Metalet Movie Titling Set manufactured by the Modern Display Advertising Company of Hollywood, California circa the 1940s. Each stamped metal letter would be affixed to the background surface via the use of miniature magnets. Once in place, titles for home movies or slides could be photographed, the letters then returned to their storage area in their box. The character shapes show unusual stroke movement, which means the original models used for these letters were most likely hand-drawn.

Goudy Sans Bold was originally designed by Fredric Goudy in 1922 as a less formal "gothic" and finished in 1929. The light was designed in 1930 and the Light Italic in 1931. Alternate letterforms are included in these three Goudy designs which are digitized true to their original design. In 2006, designer Colin Kahn drew "LTC Goudy Sans Regular" which is a medium weight version intended for text purposes. Kahn has also designed an experimental "LTC Goudy Sans Hairline" which has a skeletal almost mono-width stroke and results in a surprisingly elegant display face.

Designed at Polygraphmash type design bureau in 1946-51 by Galina Bannikova, inspired by Russian Grazhdansky early- and mid-18th century typefaces as well as Roman Humanist typefaces of the Renaissance. With the archaic features of some characters the face is well recognized because of unique shapes. It is one of the best original typefaces of the Soviet typography. The typeface is useful in text and display composition, in fiction and art books. The revised, improved and completed digital version was designed at ParaType in 2001 by Lyubov Kuznetsova.

Cat Burglar is another off-kilter sans-serif font by Pink Broccoli, this time inspired by the titling of a 1961 Looney Tunes cartoon called "The Pied Piper of Guadalupe". As with some of my previous type designs, it is a typographic drunken stumble, wonderfully and awkwardly stumbling across designs, surprising with each letter typed. With an extensive character set, and offbeat letter weighting, Cat Burglar is fun to typeset with, with a collection of double letter ligatures, as well as discretionary ligature combinations that add to the quirky playfulness.

The calligraphy font Banner was designed by Martin Wait in 1986 and mixes the character of the 1940s with that of the 1980s in its forms. The round and somewhat reserved lower case letters make a balanced basis for the generous capitals. Black outer contours surround a white inner area and are heavier on the right side of the figures, making the characters look as though they have shadows. Banner should be used in point sizes of 18 and larger and is meant for lighthearted short texts or headlines.

Robert E. Smith designed this typeface for American Type Founders in 1942. Brush Script is perfect for display work where an informal, handwritten style is desired, for example in signage and on posters. SoftMaker’s Brush Script Pro typeface comes with a huge character set that covers not only Western European languages, but also includes Central European, Baltic, Croatian, Slovene, Romanian, and Turkish characters. Case-sensitive punctuation signs for all-caps titles are included as well as many fractions, an extensive set of ligatures, and separate sets of tabular and proportional digits.

Koala was originally designed in 1999 by Eric de Berranger with an individual, independent character. A distinguishing characteristic of this sans serif font is its marked stroke contrast, typical of Modern Face fonts. The open, airy forms are reminiscent of ancient Roman capitals. The lower case letters display traits similar to those often seen on posters and in advertisements of the 1930s and 1940s. The lively Koala is particularly good for shorter texts and headlines in larger point sizes and combines well with fonts with little stroke contrast.

Kate Greenaway was a very famous British (1846-1901) author and illustrator of childrens books. Her books were an outstanding success in English publishing during the Victorian period. Recently I found these sweet Mignonettes in an old foundry specimen book. Mignonettes is derived from the French word "mignon" which stands for lovely, charming, sweet, delightful, pleasant and that does exactly describe these little drawings. I already published a Kate Greenaway's Alphabet a couple of years ago. So here is my second installment. Yours, Kate Greenaway fan Gert Wiescher

Frederic W. Goudy (1865-1947) created over 100 typefaces during his lifetime. Like most type designers, he is known principally to most people only through his eponymously titled faces such as Goudy Modern, Goudy Old Style etc. This set includes one of Goudy's rarest Arts & Crafts styled faces, a font known as Aries. The font was originally created by Goudy for a private press in Eden, New York in 1926. Also included in this set are two decorative fonts: one font of 52 decorative Ornaments & one font that contains 52 Ampersands.

Portsmouth Second Fleet is the rag tag, wild bunch companion to Portsmouth. It is a strong, sturdy typeface with historical character. Its inspiration comes from the height and strength of the wooden tall ships that sailed into port in their day. With caps and small caps, this typeface is great for headlines or subheads for design projects that need a historical or retro feel, such as from the 1940s and earlier. Two different styles that can be layered allow for different colored drop shadows, outlines and fill for even more customization.

The evocative and original Retrofit is based on typefaces of the 1940s and 50s, which extolled the virtues of American products in glossy magazines for the new suburban consumer. Oversized terminal bulbs and occasional slab serifs lend a rhythm and a bouncing baseline provides just the "zing" to spice up that bland typographic treatise. Retrofit's easy familiarity can be seen on children's books, games, food packaging, and other places where a kid friendly note is needed. Retrofit has been adapted by Quickutz for their punched letter cutting tool, and re-named "Maggie".

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.

An interesting hand lettered example of Art Deco lettering (minus the letter ‘L’) was spotted on Pinterest and served as the inspiration for Deco Sketch JNL. Because there was no attribution as to the age or source of the alphabet, it can only be surmised that it was a scan from a 1930s or 1940s source. The original showed many of the irregularities of pen lettering, and had rounded terminals. The digital version has been redrawn more uniformly with flat terminals. Deco Sketch JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Fiery Sun is a fun and bold display font. Carefully handcrafted to fit most of your projects, this font is going to become your favorite in no time! Its organic-style is suitable for creating any branding, product packaging, quote, t-shirt, label, poster, logo that you wish to develop. Fiery Sun contains 194 glyphs. Supporting more than 66 languages, from English to Zulu. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks

The talented designer of the well-known Formata typeface, Bernd Möllenstädt was born on February 22, 1943 in Germany. He has lived in Westfalia, Berlin and Munich, Germany, and now permanently resides in Munich. From his earliest years he was interested in typography, first studying as a typesetter (1961-64) and then a student of graphic design (1964-1967). In 1967 Möllenstädt joined the Berthold typefoundry and his career as one of the leading type personalities began. One year after joining Berthold, he became the head of the type design department. For 22 years he worked as the head of that department, under the leadership of Günter Gerhard Lange. Upon Lange’s retirement in 1990, Möllenstädt ascended to the type directorship of Berthold where he was responsible for type design and font mastering. Möllenstädt designed two typeface for the Berthold Exklusiv Collection, Formata (1988) and Signata (1994). Under license from Berthold, Adobe marketed Formata as part of the Adobe Type Library. Formata is now one of the most successful sans serifs in the world, used both in American and European magazines, as well as newsletters in the Far East (Gulf New Kuwait). Formata also was chosen as the corporate typeface of Postbank, Allianz, VW Skoda, Infratest Burke, etc. In addition to his work for Berthold, Möllenstädt has lectured at local Munich schools on typography and graphic design, and designed corporate type identities and diverse logos for major corporations, including Allianz, Commerzbank, Mauser Officer and Hoepfner. Möllenstädt continues his association with Berthold as a designer. He most recently completed small caps and fractions for Formata. He also has substantially contributed to Berthold's Euro symbol program (e.g. adding the Euro symbol design-specific to the most popular families). Möllenstädt currently is working on a new Berthold Exklusiv design.

Introducing Melody Party – a brand new serif with all the nostalgic vibes! I've started seeing classic, tightly-spaced serifs of the 80s & 90s making a comeback, and wanted to create the perfect one for you too! Melody Party is a beautifully nostalgic upper and lowercase typeface and has 191 Special Alternates that looks incredible in both large and small settings as a display and body text. I've been loving combining the Regular and Outline, whether all in word or in body text! What's Included? Melody Party Main File 191 Special Alternates Regular and Outline version Instructions (Access special characters in all apps, even in Cricut Design) Unique Letterforms Works on PC & Mac Simple Installations Accessible in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word even Canva! PUA Encoded Characters. Fully accessible without additional design software. Language Support: Danish, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Galician, German, Gusii, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Luxembourgish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Nyankole, Oromo, Portuguese, Romansh, Rombo, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss-German, Uzbek (Latin) Thank you Dharmas Studio

The basic letterforms of this typeface were found in a lettering book, Rotalución Decorativa, published in Barcelona in the 1940s. Add a lowercase and a few flourishes suggested by a hand-painted sign seen at a neighborhood tavern on Staten Island, and you have a seriously fun face. To add even more spice, the font also contains alternate characters in the Logical Not, ASCII circumflex and tilde positions. It also contains a few alternate characters in the ASCII circumflex and tilde positions to perk things up. Both versions of the font contain characters to support all major European languages.

Gothamburg is a blackletter or square gothic face. The shapes of many of the letters were inspired by sets of letters in Oscar Ogg’s The 26 Letters (Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1963, 1948) illustrating the gothic style of the middle ages. The Plain and Bold versions differ not just in pen width, but also in pen angle. The Plain version has less contrast between the thin and thick strokes. The ShadowedInside style has the letter shapes of the plain style but the spacing of the shadowed style. It can be layered with the shadowed style to easily create two-color lettering.

An unsold 1973 TV pilot for the series “Catch 22” (based on Joseph Heller’s 1961 book and the subsequent 1970 movie) had its title hand lettered in an extra bold stencil type style. Heller coined the phrase as a satire on absurd military rules and bureaucracy. Although the show’s title provided only five characters to work with, there was enough inspiration there to create the military styled Enlisted Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. According to Wikipedia: “A catch-22 is a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations.”

Skope is an experiment in horizontal stress and also a recreation of the extreme lettering style of comic masters such as Josep Coll or Manuel Urda from his cartoons in the pages of the classic TBO (Barcelona, Spain, 1917-1998) or our contemporary favorites Francesc Capdevila -Max- and Joost Swarte. The proportions and some of the fundamental features of Skope are drawn from the features of the masthead of the magazine Triunfo (Valencia, Spain, 1946-1982). The inspiration for the numbers comes from a kitchen clock from the 70’s photographed in the distance in a second-hand shop.

Hey guys! Once I got a book "Letters From Father Christmas" by J.R.R. Tolkien. He wrote them for the children every December from 1920 to 1943. I totally fell in love with the calligraphy in those letters. Now I created a font and you can use it to write your own letter from the North Pole. I've also redrawn stamps and patterns from that book, so you can decorate your blank. It's Icons font style. You'll get: Regular and Icons styles Numbers and symbols Multilingual support and alternative symbols Thanks! Feel free to request to add characters you need: kaer.pro@gmail.com

A 1930s advertising poster for the Inman Brothers Flying Circus offered up an interesting hand lettered Art Deco design that’s a cross between both squared and rounded character shapes. Because of it's 'futuristic look', the resulting type style can also lend itself to 1970s and 1980s retro projects as well as those from the 1930s and 1940s. Now a digital font, Air Circus JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions. A “Flying Circus” is a troupe of ‘barnstormers’ (stunt pilots) who performed aerial tricks either individually or as a team along with selling airplane rides to the general public.

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.

Rapier, designed by Martin Wait for ITC in 1989, is an impulsive, energetic script font with strong ties to the brush and advertisement typefaces of hte 1940s. The zestful capitals contrast with small, narrow lower case letters, lending the font its dynamism and liveliness. Desinger Wait reached the energetic, almost aggressive feel of Rapier with snappy base forms and especially with ascending strokes. For an optimal look it is advisable to set Rapier's forms near to one another, so that the ends of the strokes of one figure touch the beginning of the next. Rapier is best used for headlines and short texts.

Eckhardt Informal JNL was found in a Dan Solo alphabets book under the name "Circus Wagon". This hand-lettered design with a playful inline is reminiscent of the show cards of the 1940s and 1950s. The Eckhardt series of typefaces is named in honor of the late Al Eckhardt, Jr. - a good friend of type designer Jeff Levine whose talents in hand-crafting attractive lettering was appreciated by many. His work, like the others before him is fast become a lost art in today's technology-driven world. Eckhardt Informal JNL is available in it's regular (inline) version and also as a solid version.

The original design came from Berthold Herold typeface, designed by Hermann Hoffmann during 1913 (Art Nouveau style) in Germany. This project started from flyer printed during 1947 with movable type, the specimen was scanned as a source to development some of the uppercase letterforms. However the most unusual and tricky element from this sample is the leg from the uppercase (R) which is different from the original Herold design, until now I didn’t found where this version originally came from. This expanded version only contain the bold weight, however there are also stencil (Nouveau LX Stencil) and condensed version (Nouveau LX) available.

The original design came from Berthold Herold typeface, designed by Hermann Hoffmann during 1913 (Art Nouveau style) in Germany. This project started from flyer printed during 1947 with movable type, the specimen was scanned as a source to development some of the uppercase letterforms. However the most unusual and tricky element from this sample is the leg from the uppercase (R) which is different from the original Herold design, until now I didn’t found where this version originally came from. This font family only contain the bold weight, but there are also a stencil and expanded versions available.

MVB Gryphius is a digitization of uncommon type from an era normally associated with the work of Nicolas Jenson. Produced by Otto Trace, the fonts come from types used by Sebastian Gryphius in Lyon in the early 16th century. The italic appears in a book from 1524 and the roman and small caps appear with the same italic in another book printed by Gryphius in 1541. Retaining the rough contours and uneven texture of its source, MVB Gryphius is best used at text sizes from 12- to 15-point, but its old world character can work in display settings too.

A 1964 piece of sheet music entitled “Old Soldiers Never Die (They Just Fade Away)” was based on the farewell speech General Douglas MacArthur gave to Congress on April 19, 1951. This particular edition of the song sheet had part of his speech (as well as its title) hand lettered in a free-form sans serif reminiscent of the lettering done by such noted lettering artists as Paul Coker and Saul Bass. The casual and playful style of this type design became the inspiration for Swing Vote JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Architype Universal is a collection of avant-garde typefaces deriving mainly from the work of artists/designers of the inter-war years, whose ideals underpin the design philosophies of the modernist movement in Europe. Their ‘universal’, ‘single alphabet’ theory limits the character sets. Architype Bill was developed from the few letterforms created by Max Bill for a 1949 exhibition poster. All the forms, with the exception of the letter ‘o’, were constructed using only straight lines and triangles on a purely mathematical basis, that showed the continued influence of his earlier Bauhaus training, and the universal alphabet principle.

Romantic, decorative Adios Script is one of Alejandro Paul’s most elaborate and technically refined faces to date. Inspired by designs in “how-to” commercial lettering guides of the 1940s, it has been refined and brought into the 21st century through a huge variety of ornate swash letterforms. The lowercase “h” alone offers 43 variants. Hundreds of ornamental ascenders and descenders allow a beautiful interplay of strokes and combinations, while avoiding overlaps or conflicts. Adios Script features a mind-boggling 1,470 characters in total, in OpenType format. Adios Script received a Certificate of Excellence from the Type Directors Club.

Number Five is pure Americana, suitable for titling, display, logo, signage, and editorial work. Its bold and casual down-to-earth lettering evokes the spirit of the 1940s and 1950s in America. Number Five has 433 alternates, including a set of unconnected letters (the default set is all a connected script), and 10 ornaments. See what’s included! Rough • Smooth *NOTE* Basic versions DO NOT include swashes, alternates or ornaments These fonts have been specially coded for access of all the swashes, alternates and ornaments without the need for professional design software! Info and instructions here: http://lauraworthingtontype.com/faqs/

Timernis is humanist multilingual contrast sans serif available in eight weights from thin to black. All caps have this super elegant, classic proportions old school look and is based on 1940 stone engraving commemorative plaque. The engraving itself boasted sophisticated clean look and was a joy to look at. All caps: Would suit display usage such as: signage, titles, headers, engravings, high end packaging. Do try putting space between the letters in your selected word for suave and chic feel. Expanded round shapes are prevalent in lowercase, which is legible in small sizes and pleasant to the eye.

The lettering for Stencil Box JNL was found on the packaging of a children's toy stencil set circa the 1940s. Popular for years, Pencil Stencils were a series of "connect the line" stencils where a series of dashed lines were traced from the cutouts and the lines connected to complete pictures of animals or other subjects. Although the packaging itself was often updated to reflect the current times during the life of the product, it was this hand-lettered example of stencil-meets-Art Deco from the 40s that proved worthy of saving as a digital typeface.

In the 1949 Paramount comedy "My Friend Irma" (a film based on the popular radio series that introduced America to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis), an opening gag set-up involving excavation work utilizes street barricades which inspired Work Crew Stencil JNL. Placed along the site, different advisories are stenciled upon barricades warning of the work in progress. The scatterbrained Irma (Marie Wilson) walks straight through the construction, oblivious as to what's going on around her and steps right into the open hole dug into the sidewalk (a scene she reprises in 1950's "My Friend Irma Goes West").

Ritz Slab Serif JNL is a bold display face which shares a lot of similar design traits to Stymie and other similar metal type of the 1930s and 1940s, but in actuality was modeled from only four letters. On the sheet music for the 1937 song "Sweet Varsity Sue" [from the 20th Century Fox Film "Life Begins in College"], there is a picture of the Ritz Brothers - a popular comedy team from 1925 through the late 1960s. The hand lettered name "Ritz" became the basis for Ritz Slab Serif JNL, which 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.

In 1948, Joseph Struhl pioneered an innovative do-it-yourself sign kit for retail merchants. Die-cut letters and numbers made from flexible sheets of vinyl with the ability to adhere to smooth surfaces by static electricity; his "Magic Master Interchangeable Sign Kits" became a great success. Jeff Levine has paid tribute to this innovative method of in-store advertising with Sign Maker JNL. Because of their die-cut shapes, the design style of the static cling letters have unique characteristics. Companion fonts (based on other Struhl sign kits) are Cling Vinyl JNL and Cling Vinyl Clear JNL.

One of the most enduring type styles of the Art Deco era is Huxley Vertical. Its clean lines and stylish appeal have transcended changing times and tastes. Many typefaces have been inspired by the original, including the model used to create this font. The design was found in the book "Lettering and Alphabets", first published in 1946 by J. Albert Cavanagh. By re-drawing it from scratch, the missing numerals, punctuation, special characters and accents were added. Hagemann JNL and its oblique version are named in honor of one of Jeff Levine's friends within the type design community -- Michael Hagemann of Font Mesa.