Flashes is a striking display font based on Enric Crous-Vidal's design from 1953. Unger redesigned the font based on artwork from old font books, and extended the character set to cover not only standard Western but also the Central European character set. It has been a tremendous amount of meticulous work to digitize and edit all the flashes!

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.

Theater Tickets JNL was inspired by a photo of the marquee signage for Detroit’s Majestic Theater (built in1934), and is available in both regular and oblique versions. The theater was renovated and restored in 1987 and its marquee replicated the original one. What’s interesting is that the signage actually resembles squared pen lettering with rounded corners.

This typeface appeared in the William H. Page Woodtype specimen book as Gothic Tuscan Condensed Reversed—quite a mouthful. Banner elements appear in the brace and bracket positions, and reversed spaces can be found in the underscore and bar positions. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

This engaging headline face is based on a rather pudgy typeface named “Bullion Shadow”, which was originally released somewhere on the cusp between the hippie and disco eras, and was equally at home in both. Now available in shaded and plain. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

In 1913, Leipzig-based foundry C. F. Ruehl released a hot-metal font called Caesar-Schrift which was cut by the engraver and medalist Georg Schiller (1858-1937). This humanist sans combines successfully traditional classic forms with the flowing lines of the Art Nouveau period. Now revived as Caesar Pro, this font was carefully extended and made multilingual.

Inside the pages of the April, 1937 issue of the fan magazine “Hollywood Now” is an unusual bit of hand lettering used for the titles in a number of featured articles. A narrow thick-and-thin Art Deco alphabet with many stylized characters, this type design is now available as Now Showing JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

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.

German type designer Joachim Müller-Lancé created this sans FontFont in 1997. The family contains 3 weights and is ideally suited for advertising and packaging and sports. FF Lancé provides advanced typographical support with features such as ligatures and case-sensitive forms. It comes with proportional lining figures. In 1993, FF Lancé received the Morisawa award.

This font was inspired by the embossed lettering on cigar boxes. The letters, or entire words, are often surrounded by raised dots, and that was our idea here. We drew this about 1997, and have been refining it ever since. All letters are on the lowercase keyboard; the end pieces and spaces are on the caps.

One of the type examples found within the pages of “Lettering” by Harry B. Wright (1950) is a bold hand lettered serif typeface with a unique twist – the slab serifs had rounded corners, looking very much like show card lettering of the early 1900s. This design is now available digitally as Maybrook JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

The prolific hand lettering of Samuel Welo is showcased in his “Studio Handbook for Artists and Advertisers” (published in both 1927 and 1960). A thick and thin Art Deco design in the 1960 edition – somewhat reminiscent of Futura Black (but with significant differences) is now available as Sign Work Deco JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Movie Night JNL was modeled from one of a number of ceramic home movie titling kits on the market that were popular during the 1950s and 1960s. The camera buff would set up the letters against a colored background and photograph clever titles to describe their 8mm home movies of vacations, sightseeing or their darling children (or grandchildren).

Tradewinds JNL is based on one of many innovative alphabets designed by the late Alf R. Becker for Signs of the Times magazine between the 1930s and 1950s. Thanks go to Tod Swormstedt of ST Media (who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio) for supplying the reference material used to make this font.

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.

The original name for Ambigue was “Confidence”. This font family received the first prize at the German Kurt Christians-Foerderpreis in 1997/98. Its interpolated weights offer a subtle differentiation in the grey levels. A special “Small” weight is available that offers better readability in very small sizes. The work was supported by Professor Jovica Veljovic.

This elegant face with a few semi-script flourishes is based on Morris Fuller Benton’s Announcement Roman, designed for American Type Founders in 1917. It’s perfect for invitations, programs and all kinds of formal ballyhoo. All versions of this font include the Unicode 1250 Central European character set in addition to the standard Unicode 1252 Latin set.

Gerry Powell, typographer, industrial designer, and director of typographic design for American Type Founders, designed Onyx font for ATF in 1937. A very popular advertising type in the 1940s, Onyx resembles an extremely condensed, bold member of the Bodoni family. Onyx is a good display font, with proportions that make it readable even when space is at a premium.

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.

The Greek-influenced hand lettering on a 1930s WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster for the Federal Theater presentation of "Trojan Incident" inspired Euripedes JNL. The play was based on Homer and Euripedes, and was presented at the off-Broadway St. James Theatre (which opened in 1927 at 246 W. 44th Street on the site of the original Sardi's restaurant).

Vintage packaging for Frosty Stencil Flock contained the hand lettered term “spray flock” which served as the basis for Flocking Stencil JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions. Commonly referred to as “Spray Snow”, these kits of holiday stencils and spray cans were a popular item in the households of the 1950s and early-to-mid 1960s.

A British boxing film from 1953 called “The Square Ring” had its titles and credits hand lettered in a slab serif type style commonly referred to as “Egyptian”. Other familiar type fonts which share this influence are Karnak, Stymie and Beton. Sporting Event JNL was modeled from the film’s titles and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

DINosaur is the typographical mise en scène of a calligraphic standard for technical writing, found in a 1967 manual. Although its base is a regular grid and its main reference is the DIN norm, it is full of a multitude of small original features. The microtypographic details refer to the tools originally used for its reproduction.

Cuadrifonte was freely inspired by the lettering from a 1917 poster – the only recorded poster designed by the architect and furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld. It is a hand-drawn bold and boxy typeface, available in 3 handcrafted styles. The family also comes with a very nice picture font, loaded with illustrations that match the typeface look and feel.

German type designer Critzla created this display FontFont in 1997. The family contains 3 weights and is ideally suited for advertising and packaging, festive occasions, logo, branding and creative industries as well as music and nightlife. FF Bionic provides advanced typographical support with features such as ligatures and case-sensitive forms. It comes with proportional oldstyle figures.

Inspired by German grotesk from XIXth century. Driven by the spirit of 1950s Swiss Style. Designed with a hint of constructivist approach. Neue Alte Grotesk is a minimalistic typeface with a distinct character. It is created to connect both new and old. It will look good in juxtaposition with retro-styled illustrations and ultra-modern graphics.

Beata is a delicate, attenuated design with elegant proportions, modeled on the fifteenth-century inscription by Bernardo Rossellino for the Tomb of Beata Villana in Santa Maria Novella, in Florence. The font, consisting of caps and small caps, was designed by Garrett Boge and Paul Shaw in 1997. Beata is part of the LetterPerfect Florentine Set.

A set of rubber stamp letters, figures and punctuation used for marking electrical or communications equipment [and made in Japan] is the basis for this serif typeface. Varying widths and some letters in more of a block style than rounded are typical of Japanese packaging text from the 1950s and 1960s. Available in regular and oblique styles.

Linotype Reducta is a part of the Take Type Library, selected from contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. It was designed by Austrian artist Herbert O. Modelhart with only a small number of constant form elements. The cool and technical Linotype Reducta is intended exclusively for headlines in large point sizes.

Record Title was designed by Frederic Goudy in 1927 as a proprietary commission for the Architectural Record magazine. Based on classic Roman letter proportions, Goudy considered this one of his most successful commissions ever. It is an all caps titling face originally digitized by Jim Rimmer for Lanston in 2001. It was remastered in early 2007.

In the December, 1947 issue of Modern Screen magazine, a feature article showcased actress Deborah Kerr with the title “Imported”. The typography used for the headline of the article was a hand lettered, extra-bold, sans serif stencil design. This lettering became the inspiration for Imported Goods JNL, which is now available in both regular and oblique versions.

The hand lettered film credits for 1937’s “Make Way for Tomorrow” were done in a sans serif design with an ever-so-slight flare and a slightly semi-calligraphic look. Unusual in both style and varying character thicknesses, the lettering has been digitally redrawn as Retirement JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The Buro is a text font, monospace, sans-serif with rounded endings. It is characterized by its monolinear outline (slight optical corrections) and its discontinuous Roman structure. He tries to reproduce the outline of a letter drawn with a pen. The design of the Buro is inspired by the cursive letters used in Olympia typewriters of the 1950s.

Dance Lesson JNL is a reinterpretation of the popular "Latin Bold" typeface. The font's name is a reference to the Latin dance craze of the 1950s, when the Cha-Cha, Meringue, Tango, Mambo and even the "Chalypso" - a hybrid of Cha-Cha and Calypso rhythms had everyone moving to the beat of Central and South America.

Linotype Auferstehung is part of the Take Type Library, selected from contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. German designer Johannes Plass was influenced by historic broken letter faces, particularly Caslon Gotisch, although the rounded corners give the font a handwritten look. Linotype Auferstehung is particularly good for headlines in larger point sizes.

La Bamba is the work of British designer David Quay and heavily influenced by the style of the 1950s. It comes with complete upper and lowercase alphabets as well as a set of decorated initialling capitals for added variety. La Bamba is a casual design with wedge-shaped serifs and radiates a gay, light-hearted mood.

American type designer Joel Decker created this script FontFont in 1997. The family contains 2 weights: Regular and Bold and is ideally suited for advertising and packaging, poster and billboards as well as software and gaming. FF Inkling provides advanced typographical support with features such as ligatures and case-sensitive forms. It comes with proportional oldstyle figures.

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.

Telegram is the work of British designer Timothy Donaldson, a casual style influenced by the ball and rod, or atomic, imagery popular during the 1950s. Donaldson called the typeface Telegram because it reminds him of dots and dashes. Telegram is a play alphabet which communicates an almost childlike innocence and is ideal for work directed at younger people.

Printing Set JNL by Jeff Levine comes from a toy rubber stamp printing set imported from Japan in the 1950s and 1960s that's been revived, but is now imported from China. The font has a serif letter so typical of import toys of the day, but actually reads quite nicely in short headlines and specialty ad copy.