Athenaeum was released in 1945 by Alessandro Butti and Aldo Novarese, probably for the Niebolo foundry in Turin, for whom this duo designed many successful types. Athenaeum is an Old Style face with strong calligraphic influence. The Athenaeum font family includes a set of decorative initials illustrated with a symbol beginning, resembling early paper watermarks.

The cover of "Intermediate Steps to the Band" (an instructional book for marching band originally published by Mills Music in 1947) featured the title in a hand lettered multi-line sans serif with Art Deco influence. Re-drawn as a digital typeface named Marching Band JNL, it is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Originally made in seven sizes, 6 to 48 point. Our font was digitized from the 24 point which we found in 1947 in a Sparks, Nevada, newspaper shop. Typical of the late nineteenth century types for job printers, where the rule was “never start a line with a font used in the line above”.

The 1912 American Type Founders specimen catalog carried the pattern for this typeface, under the rather unimaginative name of "Pen Print". Its irrepressible insouciance makes it equally suitable for downtown or down home applications. Both versions of this font include the complete Latin 1252 and CE 1250 character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

Trencher JNL is based on hand-cut stencils spray-painted onto a vintage 1947 Cleveland Trencher acquired by the Marine Corps Mechanized Museum at Camp Pendleton, California. Restoration volunteer Brian Platzer supplied to Jeff Levine the images of the stencil markings - and they were quickly re-drawn and turned into a digital type face.

Printed Letters JNL is from stamped impressions made by a children's sign making set by the Superior Marking Equipment Company of Chicago - circa the 1940's. The set consisted of individually mounted rubber stamps - easy enough for happy kiddies to print signs, name plates or (unfortunately for their parents) on the walls... Limited character set.

Graphique was originally created by Swiss designer Hermann Edenbenz in 1945, and issued as hot metal font by Haas'sche Schriftgie�erei, Switzerland.German type designer Ralph M. Unger digitally remastered and expanded the typeface for profonts, and the digital OTF Pro version comprises of more than 400 characters including the complete Latin and Cyrillic glyph sets.

A travel poster from the 1940s for Mexican tourism provided the inspiration for this voluptuous font with a strong architectural feel. A few unexpected idiosynracies in the letterforms add to its charm. Both versions of this font contain the Unicode 1252 Latin and Unicode 1250 Central European character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

Saracen is the Latin (wedge serif) member of The Proteus Project, a collection of four interchangeable type families designed in different nineteenth century styles. The Saracen typeface was designed by Jonathan Hoefler in 1992. Saracen is a design in the ‘latin’ style, characterized by wedge-shaped serifs, a genus of type that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century. A part of The Proteus Project, the typographic theme-and-variations based on related Regency styles, Saracen was created for Rolling Stone, in whose pages the typeface first appeared in 1993 . From the desk of the designer: Though the wedge serif printing type is a nineteenth century innovation, Saracen does not resemble any font from this era. It’s mysterious that typefounders of the Victorian age who sought the extreme and fanciful in their work — exploring all manner of serif treatments, and creating extra-condensed and super-expanded designs — never made a latin font of this straightforward proportion. <

This typeface is based on lettering by Carl Marx (1911?1991), designed during his first semester at the Bauhaus in Joost Schmidt?s class, in 1932. Although the letter proportions are based on Schmidt?s teachings, the forms are not constructed from compass and ruler, but drawn with brush and marker, lending the words a warm and lively touch. Hidetaka Yamasaki redrew the letters from scratch and added all missing characters for today?s needs. A set of hanging figures, alternates for some critical letterforms (such as f, r, and t) as well as several ligatures make CarlMarx especially suitable for use in body text. As suggested by Marx, Yamasaki captured two weights from the original drawing and perfectly adjusted light and bold to highlight words and create hierarchy in headlines ? without losing or adding space. True to the original, Yamasaki captured the wobbly contour in CarlMarx, preserving warmth in the condensed geometric style of the early 1930s.

Historical typography makes a comeback. A revival of one of the most popular of a number of rugged typefaces used around the turn of the century, Croft revives the creation of Lewis Buddy III, known as "Roycroft" in 1912 ATF catalogs. It also, according to ATF, was designed "partly" by Morris Benton, around 1898. The original typeface might be considered an early form of grunge fonts. This typestyle maintains historical flavor, while also being relevant today. It has been expanded to have more discretionary ligatures and numerals sets for versatility, and maintains the original stylistic alternates and standard ligatures. See the 5th graphic for a comprehensive character map preview. Opentype features include: Full set of Inferiors and Superiors for limitless fractions. Tabular, Proportional, and Oldstyle figure sets. A small collection of Discretionary & Standard Ligatures. Stylistic Alternates for variations of several characters such as R, u, t, etc. Approx. 482 Character Glyph Set: Croft comes with a glyphset that includes standard & punctuation, international language support, and additional features.

The PM Doorbuster Collection is based on retro hand-painted paper signs primarily seen in grocery stores from the 1940s through today. We meticulously hand-drew each font, modeling the spacing and uneven baseline found in vintage sign painting. The purposely organic ascenders and descenders, along with a huge set of ligatures/contextual alternates to avoid the same letters repeating when paired, give it a real hand-lettered look. PM Doorbuster Casual is perfect for both vintage-inspired and contemporary marketing, branding, and packaging designs. It's a classic uppercase sign painter font that has been used from the 1950s thru today. You've probably seen hand-lettered versions used in tattoo studios, workshops, and chalkboard menus. Now it's available in a digital format with all of the authentic look and feel of actual hand-painted letters. Check out a few of the samples included in the thumbnails to see what can be done with it.

What intrigued me about Buslingthorpe was the virtuoso challenge it presented, of designing a typeface that would, despite a ridiculously tiny x-height, still possess a coherent harmony betwen upper and lower case, and read confortably. At the same time, beyond pure plastic formality, I was aware that there are strong connotations of historicism in this noble style, with overtones of regal magnificence, on account of the extravagant leading and generous point size required for adequate visibility—in traditional letterpress printing such proportions, with so few characters per square inch, were pricey and devoured resources. There are two iconic early 20th century designs in the genre: Koch Antiqua (Rudolf Koch, Klingspor Foundry, 1922) and Lucian (Lucian Bernhard, Bauer Foundry, 1925). Both these have x-heights smaller than fifty percent of ascender height, which nominally defines the category. So I made these my benchmarks, and determined to outdo them in dramatic fashion. —Nick Shinn, Orangeville, March 2021

Sirba, a serif typeface family with a friendly personality, was conceived especially for the demands in complex text environments like dictionaries, academic texts, annual reports, novels and magazines. It has many design features that were particularly designed with Sirba’s purpose in mind. Because of its open counters, the large x-height and its short ascenders and descenders, this typeface conveys a pleasant reading experience and high legibility even in small sizes. Sirba is a low-contrast typeface, contemporary but with a classical touch, revealing its beauty in design details, such as the asymmetrical bottom serifs, curved bracketing and calligraphically reminiscent terminals. Furthermore, the capitals appear integrated into the text, thanks to the low cap height, and the constant width of all tabular numbers between the weights make this typeface very usable in annual reports and tables. Sirba is available in the four classic styles plus a special heavy (Black) version, which is particular in that its proportions are designed so the counters remain big enough when set in very small text sizes. This means that Sirba Black’s spacing and letter width are rather generous in comparison to other typefaces of that colour. This ensures excellent legibility. During the design of the typeface family, much attention was given to the italic and regular as counterparts of each other. The italic distinguishes itself just enough while reading without creating strange spots within the text when looking at the text as a whole.

German type designer Verena Gerlach created this sans FontFont in 2008. The family has 8 weights, ranging from Regular to Black (including italics) and is ideally suited for festive occasions, editorial and publishing, logo, branding and creative industries as well as sports. FF Chambers Sans provides advanced typographical support with features such as swashes, ligatures, small capitals, alternate characters, case-sensitive forms, and stylistic alternates. It comes with a complete range of figure set options – oldstyle and lining figures, each in tabular and proportional widths.

German type designer Achaz Reuss created this display and sans FontFont in 2004. The family has 26 weights, ranging from Extra Light to Black in Compressed, Condensed, Normal, Semi Extended, and Extended and is ideally suited for advertising and packaging, logo, branding and creative industries, poster and billboards as well as sports. FF QType provides advanced typographical support with features such as ligatures, alternate characters, case-sensitive forms, fractions, super- and subscript characters, and stylistic alternates. It comes with tabular lining and proportional lining figures.

The orthography was invented in 1952 by a Sufi Sheikh, named Hussein Sheikh Ahmed Kaddare. A phonetically robust writing system, the technical commissions that appraised the Kaddare alphabet concurred that it was the most accurate indigenous script and orthography for transcribing the Somali language. Kaddare uses both upper and lower case letters, with the lower case represented in cursive.

Presenting a condensed Art Deco sans serif font with rounded corners and squared inner lines, based on the hand lettered title on the cover of the sheet music for 1944’s “Just A Little Fond Affection”. Allerton JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions, and was named after a neighborhood in the Bronx, New York.

This heavyweight poster sans is based on the typeface Samson, designed by Robert Hunter Middleton for the Ludlow Type Foundry in 1940. The slanted uprights suggesting brushwork make this face a perfect choice for casually commanding headlines. Both versions include the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets, with localization for Lithuanian, Moldovan and Romanian.

Squared letters with rounded corners – Deco stylized letter forms – some characters with ‘hook’ semi-serifs – such is the mixed styles that comprise the hand lettered title “United We Stand” on a 1940s-era piece of sheet music. This unusual conglomeration of character shapes inspired the aptly named Hybrid Deco JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Venecian Old Face fonts had a strong influence on typeface design in the 1930s and 1940s in England. Such influence is evident in the font Electra, designed by William A. Dwiggins for Linotype in 1935. Electra combines its classic roots with the Zeitgeist of the 1930s, also displaying characteristics of the Bauhaus and Art Deco styles.

In the MGM musical "Broadway Melody of 1940", a new stage production has its gala opening at the fictitious Lafayette Theater on the Great White Way. The front of the theater is resplendent with classic neon signage, and the theater's name is in an interesting Art Deco design. Musical Number JNL recreates this lettering in digital form.

Alan Meeks designed Cancellaresca Script, a decorative, almost cheerful script typeface, in 1982. The details that grace Cancellaresca Script's forms, both capital and lower case, give the typeface its unique appearance. Its generous and flowing capitals are complemented by a more reserved lowercase. This font's elegance offers a variety of possibilities for headline or display use.

Mechanized JNL is a solid interpretation of Jeff Levine's stencil font Trencher JNL. Both fonts were based on a photo of hand-cut stencils found on a 1940's trenching machine in the collection of the Marine Corps Mechanized Museum at Camp Pendleton, California. Thanks to restoration volunteer Brian Platzer for providing the images of those stencils.

Hofstad is a font which was modeled on a poster designed by Dutch graphic artist Jan Lavies (1902 - 2005). Lavies became famous for the posters he designed for the Holland America Line of cruise ships. Hofstad font was named after the theatre group "Vereenigd Rotterdamsch - Hofstad Tooneel" for which Jan Lavies designed a poster. Hofstad comes with all diacritics.

Figural is the work of Michael Gills, developed under the direction of Colin Brignall. It is based on an original 1940 design of Czechoslovakian designer Oldrich Menhart. All original characteristics were carefully retained in this distinguished typeface family. Figural is highly legible, making it perfect for both short pieces in advertising text or larger applications in magazines or books.

Celluloid JNL was modeled from a few samples shown in a 1947 sales catalog for changeable letter directory boards and the various styles available for these signs. Prior to modern plastics, celluloid was the material used for these molded letters. Aside from the Regular and Oblique versions, there is also Celluloid Highlight JNL and Celluloid Highlight Oblique JNL.

Ask any typical New Yorker about subway directions and they'll tell you to take the "uptown line", "downtown line" or "cross-town line". Uptown Line JNL is yet another variation of the Art Deco monoline style of lettering prevalent during the 1930s and 1940s, and is based on titling from vintage sheet music for a Johann Strauss classical piece.

If it's at all possible to "Deco-ize" an Art Deco font even more, it's been done with Roney JNL. Named for one of the classic hotels built during the heyday of Miami Beach, this font is a stylized version of Jeff Levine's Metalet Modern; a design derived from an actual 1940s home movie titling set.

The hand lettered cast credits for the 1932 George Arliss film “The Man Who Played God” inspired Lobby Poster JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. A bold and playful Art Deco poster alphabet, its nonconformist character widths and shapes are casual enough for informal designs yet bold enough to get any point across.

A 1932 fan magazine from Spain entitled “Films Selectos” (“Select Films”) had those words hand lettered in a decorative Art Deco type style that was a cross between the “Futura Black” style of stencil influenced display lettering and “Fiesta” lettering. This hybrid design is now available digitally as Dance and Sing JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

During the 1940s and 1950s, the Miller Music Corporation issued a number of its songs with a stock cover design for their “Miller Series of Piano Solos” but the song titles were hand lettered in an Art Deco dual line design. Recreated digitally as Music Lesson JNL, this type design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A 1947 timetable for—who’d a-thunk it?—Arizona Airways provided the pattern for this unusual, yet endearing, face. Its Art-Deco-meets-Apache vibe ensures that your headlines will be warmly received. Both versions include the complete Unicode Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets, as well as localization for Lithuanian, Moldovan and Romanian.

Otto Weisert was a German type founder who ran his own foundry in Stuttgart during the early years of the 20th Century. In 1902, he created Kalligraphia, a cursive Art Nouveau display script face. Kalligraphia has a unique stroke contrast model; the tops and bottoms of its letterforms are thicker than the verticals on its sides.

MVB Bossa Nova is based on unattributed hand-lettering found in an old book, circa 1946. Yet unlike many scripts based on a vintage source, it feels fresh and dynamic. This is due to the skilled hands of Holly Goldsmith, who gave the forms a contemporary vigor despite their age. Alternate glyphs with extended ascenders offer extra flair.

A quirky and unusual Art Deco monoline typeface can be found within the pages of the Esterbrook Drawlet Pen instruction book [circa the 1940s]. Drawlet was the direct competitor to Speedball Lettering pen nibs. This unusual type design of varying width and character shapes is now available digitally as Oddly Deco JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Night Life JNL follows the classic lettering forms of the Art Deco era of the 1930s and 1940s. On the upper case letters, the A,B,E,F,H,K,P and R have extended horizontals, while the lower case a,b,e,f,h,k,p and r have those extensions removed and are more traditional in design.

Eat More Fruit JNL is an odd name for a typeface, but then again the lettering style of the font is just as unusual. Named for a 1940s-era poster espousing "Put more pep in your step... eat more fruit", the lettering (although Art Deco in nature) also evokes images of 1960s and 1970s hippie-era concert posters.

An Art Nouveau, hand lettering on a Good Housekeeping magazine cover from the 1920s inspired Monthly Issue JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. Prior to the 1940s, it was not unusual to find the covers of many popular magazines hand lettered with either their names and/or content information; often in different type styles.

This older, somewhat funkier relative of the classic face, Engravers Roman, made its last appearance in the 1912 ATF Specimen Book. Here, it has been revived to do yeoman-like duty in a new century. This font contains the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus support for Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.