A handwritten decorative font with brush characteristics This attractive decorative script is found in a pamphlet of script samples from around 1900 which was issued by Otto Maier publishing house in Ravensburg/Germany. The forms and flow of Maier’s Nr. 42 are obviously influenced by Art Nouveau. In the original sample, only the Latin alphabet appears. All other characters, especially the Greek and Cyrillic letters, were modeled on elements of the original. A typeface can first reveal a true "handmade" character when the letter forms do not continually repeat themselves – a completely normal occurrence with handwriting. Thanks to OpenType, some key letters of Maier’s Nr. 42 appear in various alternative forms depending on the combination of letters. For example, the difference is obvious between an e followed by i and an e followed by l. Using this principle, a number of letter combinations are presented with alternative character forms so that overall a very lively impression is created.

A handwritten ”font for technicians“ from ca. 1900. Very geometrical, rigid forms borrowed from the typical characteristics of Jugendstil / Art Nouveau. This script is found in a magazine from the Otto Maier publishing house, Ravensburg, which was issued sometime in the years shortly before WWI. The magazine is entitled ”Schriften-Sammlung für Techniker: Verkleinerte Schriften der wichtigsten Alphabete“ (Collection of scripts for technical specialists: reduced scripts of the most significant alphabets) and published by Karl O. Maier. The original copy, produced by means of a galvanized plate, is just 7 centimeters wide. It served as the model for technical professions in which, at that time, the captions of drawings were still done by hand. The characters have been scanned, digitized and greatly magnified. Special attention was given to ensure the ”uneven“ edges, typical of handwritten script, remained effectively noticeable even in the digitized form. As a result, this ”technical“ font retains a handmade touch. Especially worthy of note are the Jugendstil forms characteristic at the turn of the19th century. In comparison, many alleged ”ultramodern“ font types of today suddenly look quite old-fashioned. Maier’s Nr. 21 Pro is suitable for all European languages. It includes ”Latin Extended-A,“ for Central and Eastern Europe incl. Turkish, and even Cyrillic and Greek, too. The font includes several stylistic alternates as well as a number of ligatures.