No prizes for guessing this font family was inspired by the 1950s - the sounds (Buddy, Eddie, Elvis), the styles (polka dots, petticoats and Dior's New Look), and the kitsch, from furry dice above the dashboard to plaster ducks over the mantlepiece! A particular point of reference is the furnishings and fabrics of the Fifties (with their distinctive kidney shapes and angular curves) as showcased in the Festival of Britain 1951. See also my other fun fonts Barrowboy, Calypso and Pier Arcade.

Linotype Balder is a part of the Take Type Library, winners of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contest. Designed by Lutz Baar, Balder is reminiscent of advertisement and poster typefaces of the 1950s and 1960s. It is composed of only capital letters, making it perfect for initials and headlines. Balder looks as though it were written with a broad tipped pen. Its light serifs at the tops of the characters and the slant of some of the strokes give Balder a dynamic feel.

Feltboard JNL was drawn from images of letters and numbers contained in a felt board (also known as a flannel board) sign kit from the 1940s or 1950s. The irregularity of stroke widths and character shapes is representative of the actual shapes of the die-cut pieces found within this kit. Note: The cap height is slightly smaller than normal for the respective point size. This will give the effect of wider line spacing - similar to that of hand-made signs.

British designer Bob Newman's Horatio family is a delightful look back into the modernists experiments of the 1920s. This geometric sans serif design was created in 1971, and was originally released by Letraset. We are please to offer the family in digital form, in light, medium, and bold weights. Many designers during the 1920s were interested in reforming the alphabet, and wanted to reconcile letterforms with the machine and manufacturing technology of the age. Herbert Bayer at the Bauhaus was one of many designers who developed a universal alphabet," creating letters using only the simplest of geometric forms. Similar experiments in 1920s-style revivals were also created during the 1970s, most notably Herb Lubalin's ITC Avant Garde Gothic."

Modeco is a merge of modern and art deco styles. Its shown elegance, classy, ??and glamour look as 1920's visual trends, blended with geometrical sans serif in a functionality approach and complete font family styles. Its consist of 9 styles from Thin to Black with each matching oblique. It's contain 400+ glyphs that covered broad latin language.

Thannhaeuser’s mid-1930s display blacklettr font as a fresh and extended redesign called Staufer Gotisch. This font contains a bunch of useful ligatures, and it is recommended to activate both Standard and Discretionary Ligatures. To reach the numero sign, type the combination N-o-period und activate the OT feature Ordinals. The # key is occupied by the round s.

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.

Braggadocio is a very black typeface. Braggadocio is a strange hybrid with characteristics of both sans serif and modern faces; and it belongs very much to its time. Like high society in the 1920's, it should not be taken too seriously. Use the Braggadocio font for display lines in advertising, magazines and light hearted communications.

Beaumont is a modern take on classic 1920's type, playing with stroke contrast and art deco forms. The result is a 10 font family, providing options for setting readable body copy or high impact display headings. With full multilingual character support, stylistic alternates and a range of open type features, Beaumont is perfect for a variety of situations.

Zenia, offered in regular and bold weights is a homage to the streamline era of the later 1930s. It's a distinctive display family, glyphic yet still intuitive and easy to read. Use it anywhere you want that 30's streamlined feel, or perhaps in science fiction inspired work particularly those that have a 'past inspired future' feel...

Modakshar was inspired by traditional Indic handwriting scripts which ‘hang’ from a common upper horizontal bar. Adapting this motif to Latin letterforms was challenging. The typeface was first conceived in the 1970's as a design project in school. The current digital design was completed in 2002. Basic motif was inspired by traditional Indic script handwriting.

A typeface named Times Gothic, which made its first appearance in the 1905 ATF specimen book, inspired this headline sans. Use it to add a bit of quirky visual interest to headlines and subheads. Both versions include the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets, with localization for Lithuanian, Moldovan and Romanian.

Here’s a typeface with a stance as big as Texas. It’s based on Vincent Pacella’s 1960s oeuvre for Photo-Lettering, Inc. called Pacella Vega Extended 10, and named for a county in Central Texas, home of Possum Kingdom Lake. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode Latin 1252 and Central European 1250 character sets.

A 1930s luggage tag from an eponymous hotel provided the inspiration for this face. The uppercase letters lean to the left and the lowercase letters lean to the right, so aLtErNaTiNg the two will give your headlines a little bounce. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

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.

Fire the retro rockets! Here's a decidedly different take on techno type, patterned after Robert Williamson's Program 32 from the 1970s. Despite its machine-readable pretensions, it renders remarkably warm headlines. Both versions of this font include the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets, along with localization for Lithuanian, Moldovan, Romanian and Turkish.

Artist Colony JNL is the third type design inspired by some online examples from an early 20th Century French book of decorative hand lettering. While Arte Critique JNL and French Art Initials JNL embrace the Art Noveau style, Artist Colony JNL leans more toward the emerging Art Deco Movement of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Here's another gem from Samuel Welo's perennial classic, The Studio Handbook, originally called Goddard Classic. Welo's inimitable penwork manages to be both worldly and whimsical, and remains as fresh today as when it was first introduced in the 1920s. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets.

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.

Inspired by handlettering used on many WPA posters of the 1930s, this monocase display font has stylish lines and graceful curves that will add period charm to any project they grace. Available and normal and bold weights. The Opentype versions of these fonts support Unicode 1250 (Central European) languages, as well as Unicode 1252 (Latin) languages.

A 1920 art magazine from Great Britain entitled “Pan” had its three letter name hand lettered on the cover in a style that had elements of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and what would eventually be called Techno in the 1980s. This inspired the typeface Art Magazine JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Birch Beer JNL comes from lettering spotted on a European business sign found in some stock footage that was used for an old black and white film about World War II. The name is derived from a popular root beer-like soda sold by the Royal Castle Restaurants that were popular in Florida from the 1930s through the 1970s.

The 1900 specimen book of the Leipzig foundry Schelter & Giesecke featured this curious hybrid of blackletter and Art Nouveau, under the name Petrarka. Its narrow footprint and large x-height make it an ideal choice for headlines which harken both forward and back. Both versions contain the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets.

This curious little gem is patterned after a typeface named "Bloomsbury", released by P. M. Shanks & Sons, Ltd. of London in the 1920s. Its gentle curves and somewhat quirky construction combine to create a warm and friendly, if slightly offbeat, antique charm. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

This charming, disarming, roly-poly typeface is based on handlettering discovered on a Sabena Airlines travel brochure of the 1930s. Include it in your next project, and a good time will be had by all. Both versions of this font contain complete Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

This elegant titling face is based on an American Type Founders release from the 1920s named Sterling. Hairline serifs and graceful curves give this typeface a certain grace and charm that will brighten up any project. All versions of this font include the Unicode 1250 Central European character set in addition to the standard Unicode 1252 Latin set.

At first glance, this unusual display face might appear to be a product of the 1960s, with its highly unconventional letterforms and its plastic, fantastic highlight treatment. However, this font is in fact inspired by a ca. 1930 poster for a Belgian beer of the same name. The uncredited Flemish designer was clearly a head of his time (ouch!).

This delightful semiscript is based on an offering from a 1930s specimen book from the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, originally called, simply, "Card Italic". Elegant without being stuffy, it is equally “at home” announcing anything from formal occasions to casual get-togethers. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

Based on the typeface Sculpture, designed by Charles Allen in the 1960s for Photolettering, this font is an intriguing exercise in implicit letterforms, using cast shadows to suggest, rather than delineate. Both sublime and subliminal, it’s an excellent choice for commanding headlines. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

A sign in a London storefront, ca. 1930, pitching—surprise!—Smart Frocks provided the visual cues for designing this typeface. Singularly stylish, hip and haughty and decidedly Deco, this is the smart font to use! This font contains the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus support for Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

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.

Here's a stencil version of another Nick's Fonts typeface based on Chic, a Morris Fuller Benton creation for American Type Founders from the 1920s. Stylish and sophisticated as always, and now with an arts-and-crafts flair. Both versions of this font include the Unicode Latin 1252 and 1250 Central European character sets, with localization for Moldovan and Romanian.

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.

A 1905 poster for the Austrian National Highway by artist Gustav Jahn inspired the letterforms for this typeface. In the spirit of comity, Barnhart Brothers & Spindler's Publicity Gothic Initial Caps inspired the uppercase treatment. Both versions of this font contain the Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

A playful Art Deco face from master penman Samuel Welo is combined with design elements used in 1930s signage to create this architectural face. End caps are created with {brackets} and spaces with the design elements are _underscores. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

Roadbrush was inspired by the mid-20th-century hand lettering of Albert Eckhardt, Jr., that I found in a 1950’s sign painting book. Roadbrush is a retro brush-style script that I re-designed and completely re-mastered. Roadbrush is a powerful font that can be used for logotype, packaging, posters, T-shirts, signage & design projects with a retro & vintage feel. Roadbrush comes with four styles that contain all upper and lower case characters, punctuation, numerals and mathematical operators, as well as all accented characters.

Jetlab is a typographic time machine that drops you squarely into the techno-futuristic optimism of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s! While certain weights may conjure familiar space race-era logos from the sci-fi movies, board games, sports teams, new wave bands and sneaker brands of the late 20th century, the complete 45-weight Jetlab font family is loaded with modern features to power your retro-futuristic designs with near-infinite versatility. Features: 45 weights provide widths from squeezed to stretched and weights from light to heavy, plus reverse-stress (that's thick horizontal strokes with thin verticals) high, medium and low crossbar options upper and lowercase letters provide two distinct styles a four-axis variable font provides precise control of width, vertical & horizontal weight, and crossbar height 500 glyphs support 223 languages, including Western & Central Europe and Vietnamese

Kanona JNL is modeled from one of the numerous alphabets created by the late Alf R. Becker for Signs of the Times magazine from the 1930s through the 1950s. Thanks to a wealth of source material provided by Tod Swormstedt of ST Media (and who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio), Jeff Levine has been redrawing many of these alphabets and presenting them in digital form. The original variations in letter widths from Becker’s hand-painted alphabet have been left intact.

ITC Avant Garde Gothic¿ was designed by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase in 1970. They based it on Lubalin¿s logo for Avant Garde Magazine - an exciting construction of overlapping and tightly-set geometric capitals. ITC Avant Garde is a geometric sans serif; meaning the basic shapes are constructed from circles and straight lines, much like the work from the 1920s German Bauhaus movement. The early versions of ITC Avant Garde became well-known for their many unique alternates and ligatures that still conjure up the typographic aura of the 1970s. These fonts contain the basic alphabets (without the old unusual ligatures). Still strong and modern looking, ITC Avant Garde has become a solid staple in the repertoire of today's graphic designer. The large, open counters and tall x-heights seem friendly, and help to make this family work well for short texts and headlines. The condensed weights were drawn by Ed Benguiat in 1974, and the obliques were designed by Andr¿ G¿rtler, Erich Gschwind and Christian Mengelt in 1977. ITC Avant Garde¿ Mono is a monospaced version done by Ned Bunnel in 1983.