The unusual, thin line hand lettering on the cover of the sheet music for 1936's "If You Love Me" was the basis for Light Line Deco JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

On occasion, when seeking retro source material for font designs, one can unearth interesting examples of typography that bridges decades with its ahead-of-its-time style. The songwriter credits on one particular piece of vintage sheet music had both the Art Deco influence but took on more of a techno look that was popularized in the 1980s. This hybrid of generations is the basis for Deco of Tomorrow JNL.

Spotted amongst the online page scans from a vintage lettering book, the typeface originally called “Didot Moderne” served as the basis for Dual Line Roman JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. Caps Only Fonts.

In the early years of the 20th Century, singer-dancer-actor-composer-playwright George M. Cohan was known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway". In 1904, Cohan was enjoying success with his latest creation, "Little Johnny Jones". Cohan gave America what would become a number of iconic songs, and both he and his compositions were immortalized in the 1942 biographical film "Yankee Doodle Dandy" starring James Cagney. The Art Nouveau-influenced hand lettering of the title on the cover of the sheet music for "The Yankee Doodle Boy" was the model for its namesake digital typeface design and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Mailbox Letters Two JNL is the second typeface from Jeff Levine inspired by metal lettering used on mailboxes and homes. Each cast letter or number sat on a lower "rail" which was then slipped into a slot that held them firmly in place. Jeff's Inventory JNL looked close enough to the original type style to use as a model for this font, and for typographic purposes there are certain punctuation and other glyphs that "float" above the rail. Limited character set.

An advertisement in a 1936 issue of “The Film Daily” for the movie “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” had much of its copy set in an extrabold typeface similar to the Beton/Stymie/Karnac group of slabserif designs. This is now available digitally as Serif Formal JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Online auctions offer a treasure trove of lost or forgotten merchandise, and many items pertaining to lettering just beg to be digitized into a typeface. Case in point is a partial set of brass stencils that were the visual model for Ultra Thin Stencil JNL. While most of the brass interlocking stencils available now and in the past have bold lettering for easy readability, this particular set consisted of condensed letters with thin lines. Available in both regular and oblique versions, they join a long list of stencil designs available from Jeff Levine Fonts.

Sign and Display JNL is a long-overdue companion font to 2009’s Sign and Poster JNL. The original design models were Art Deco influenced die-cut cardboard letters and numbers manufactured by the Duro Decal Company of Chicago. Square in shape with rounded corners, the thick cardboard letters were used for making show-cards and other display signage. Subsequently, Duro used the same style of lettering to manufacture water-applied decals for boat identification and other uses. It was a set of these decals (with a black outline and yellow interior) that inspired the outline typeface Sign and Display JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Library Book Initials JNL was modeled from examples of Sidney Gaunt's Publicity Initials; originally sold in metal type by Barnhart Brothers and Spindler as a companion to the Publicity Gothic typeface. The smoothed-down lines of the original characters allow for these initials to balace better when set against complementary type faces. A regular version is on the upper case keys, with an oblique version on the lower case keys.

Big Display Sans JNL is an all-caps version of Ludlow’s metal type “Samson”, originally designed by Robert Hunter Middleton in 1940. This digital version is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Popular music of the early 1900s included a genre called two step; round dances utilizing a sliding step with a tempo in either march or polka time. 1911's "Daughters of the American Revolution" was one such march/two step. The cover of the sheet music had the title hand lettered in a slightly rounded sans serif type design in the Art Nouveau style popular during that era. It is now available as Two Step Nouveau JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Re-drawn from a screen capture of a vintage newspaper front page, Late Breaking News JNL is a traditional sans serif that's perfect for headlines, titling and other forms of announcements.

A circa-1920s book on lettering entitled "Book of Alphabets" by Regan Publishing displayed an example of a Grotesk typeface (a popular style of sans serif of the time). This design was re-drawn digitally as Not So Grotesk JNL and is available in four varieties - regular, oblique, condensed and condensed oblique. Not So Grotesk JNL is the perfect companion font family to use alongside Simply Grotesk JNL.

Sign and Poster JNL is modeled after a popular style of die-cut letters and numbers that was used for making signage and show cards. A strong Deco influence is seen in these letterforms and blends well into most design projects.

French Serif Moderne JNL gives a slab serif treatment to the lettering comprising Jeff Levine's French Art Initials JNL. The font - containing a full character set - was inspired by a page from an early 20th Century French alphabet book posted online at an image sharing site.

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.

According to Wikipedia, Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The name originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Manhattan. With this in mind, Tin Pan Alley JNL, a typeface based on the bold hand lettering from a vintage piece of sheet music is aptly named.

Pointing hands, floral embellishments, a World War II "Victory" emblem and an old telephone are but a few of the classic images redrawn from vintage source material for Print Shop Relics JNL. Lovers of pre-digital clip art from the letterpress era will find these embellishments useful, charming and helpful.

Parfum de Paris JNL is an all lower case Art Deco-inspired design that features counterless letters in a thick-and-thin style reminiscent of 1930s text styles. Casual and at the same time elegant, this font is perfect for perfume labels, menu headings and other 'stylish' titling evoking the look and feel of the 'Streamline Era'.

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.

A condensed type design with Art Deco influences was used for titles within the February, 1938 issue of Modern Screen Magazine. The digital version is named for the famous “Tinsel Town” street intersection. Hollywood and Vine JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Antique Price Tags JNL is a collection of fifty-two decorative price cards recreating the look and charm of turn-of-the-last-century mercantile shops. The design is a hybrid of the decorative frame and dollar sign of antique price cards spotted in an online auction, and prices modeled from some gummed numerals once made by the Tablet and Ticket Company of Chicago under the brand name “Willson’s Gummed Letters” (after the company’s founder). Also included in the font are blank price cards with only a dollar sign, a cents sign or an empty frame, as well as a solid black frame for creating a backfill color. A companion font is available with the numbers in white on black panel backgrounds.

Show Card Sans JNL (available in both regular and oblique versions) is based on a chart showing the basic construction of sans serif lettering in the 1922 instruction book “Modern Show Card Writing”.

Another example of 1930s French Art Deco lettering from the 1934 publication L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre (which roughly translates to “The Rational Path Art of the Letter”) resulted in the digital typeface French Slab Serif JNL. This bold and slightly eccentric slab serif design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Print Shop Stencil JNL was created from the few letters spotted on the packaging of a 1960s-era toy printing press set.

A set of rounded Art Deco initials set inside circular borders was found amongst the pages of the vintage French lettering book "Modèles de Lettres Modernes par Georges Léculier”. Now made into a digital font called Deco Spot Initials JNL, these classic letter forms are available in both the original white-on-black version and as a black-on-white alternate design.

Still more vintage letterpress cartoons, cuts, dingbats, ad enhancers and embellishments comprise Printers Stock Cuts JNL.

Nouveau To Go JNL is the digital version of the hand lettered title found on the 1915 sheet music for the song "Don't Bite the Hand That's Feeding You", and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A set of oil board stencils from Great Britain (probably from the 1950s) was the model for Sussex Semi Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. Because many of the characters are ‘solid’ rather than containing the breaks [known as ‘islands’] of a traditional stencil letter, this is why the type design was given the ‘semi stencil’ designation.

An extra-bold, hand lettered type design with a casual feel was used for the 1942 movie poster “Tortilla Flat”. This served as the inspirational model for Movie Ad Deco JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Let Me Call You Sweetheart was one of the most popular songs of the early 20th Century, and a piece of vintage sheet music for this tune had its title hand lettered in a square, narrow block lettering style. With a few adjustments and adaptations, this led to the creation of Tall and Narrow JNL, a digital version of the type design which is a perfect alternate to the more conventional condensed faces.

On the Town JNL is a reworking of Parks Department JNL, giving it a classic "solid black Art Deco treatment". The wide monoline font of the original design was inspired by hand lettering on a WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster. Art Deco typography and the streamlined style it embraced often conjures up images of New York City in the 1930s and 1940s, thus On the Town JNL is named for the classic MGM musical starry Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munchen that was filmed on location in "the city that never sleeps".

It seems only fitting that Pleasant Valley Sundae JNL, a typeface re-drawn from hand lettering on a piece of vintage sheet music, should take its name as a pun on another song's title from a different era. "Pleasant Valley Sunday" was a 1967 hit for the Monkees and was written by the legendary songwriting team of Carole King and the late Gerry Goffin; inspired in turn by a street they'd lived on named Pleasant Valley Way, in West Orange, New Jersey. The record made it to #3 on the pop charts.

Printing Press Elements JNL contains an eclectic assortment of printer's elements. From a set of dice (in both black and white faces) to cartoon embellishments to border and decorative elements there's something to fit numerous uses. Also included is an extendable bracket. The left-facing elements are on the (greater than) keys. The right-facing elements are on the [ (left bracket), \ (backslash) and ] (right bracket) keys.

Billing and Shipping JNL is the perfect dingbat font for replicating rubber stamps and labels used in the transit of packages.

A set-aside work file featuring a bold sans serif typeface that may or may not have had a vintage source history was given a new treatment. Initially, the solid design was converted to a stencil format and an experiment was undertaken to see what the alphabet would look like with a dual line treatment. Surprisingly, it turned out quite well and the end result is Dual Line Stencil JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

Inspired by a sample of a vintage wood type supplied by a fan of Jeff Levine fonts, Western Wood Type JNL is a traditional Clarendon-style condensed typeface from the era of letterpress and the Old West.

Some vintage 1960s-era packaging for dive gear (masks, swim fins, etc.) manufactured by the Voit division of AMF had various merchandise boxes hand-lettered [with some variation of design] in an interesting sans stencil. These packages formed the inspiration of Dive Gear Stencil JNL. Thanks once again to Gene Gable, whom on many occasions has provided Jeff Levine material for type design inspiration.

The source for these hand-drawn initials was an early 20th Century French alphabet book whose pages were displayed online at an image sharing site. This style typifies the Art Nouveau period, and makes a wonderful paragraph starter or "drop cap" for your printed projects. Some users may still want to compose headlines with this font, but be aware there are no punctuation marks, accents or kerning - just the twenty-six initials.

Print Shop Classics JNL is comprised of twenty-six decorative letterpress ornaments from vintage source material along with the words "Welcome" and "Introducing" on the period and comma keys.