It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that these letter shapes are familiar. They have the unmistakable color and weight of Cooper Black, Oswald Cooper's most famous typeface from 1921. What should be a surprise is that these letters are actually from George Auriol's Robur Noir (or Robur Black), published in France circa 1909 by the Peignot foundry as a bolder, solid counterpart to its popular Auriol typeface (1901). This face precedes Cooper Black by a dozen of years and a whole Great War. Cooper Black has always been a bit of a strange typographical apparition to anyone who tried to explain its original purpose, instant popularity in the 1920s, and major revival in the late 1960s. BB&S and Oswald Cooper PR aside, it is quite evident that the majority of Cooper Black's forms did not evolve from Cooper Old Style, as its originators claimed. And the claim that it collected various Art Nouveau elements is of course too ambiguous to be questioned. But when compared with Robur Noir, the "elements" in question can hardly be debated. The chronology of this "machine age" ad face in metal is amusing and stands as somewhat of a general index of post-Great War global industrial competition: - 1901: Peignot releases Auriol, based on the handwriting of George Auriol (the "quintessential Art Nouveau designer," according to Steven Heller and Louise Fili), and it becomes very popular. - 1909-1912: Peignot releases the Robur family of faces. The eight styles released are Robur Noir and its italic, a condensed version called Robur Noir Allongée (Elongated) and its italic, an outline version called Clair De Lune and its condensed/elongated, a lined/striped version called Robur Tigre, and its condensed/elongated counterpart. - 1914 to 1918: World War One uses up economies on both sides of the Atlantic, claims Georges Peignot with a bullet to the forehead, and non-war industry stalls for 4 years. - 1921: BB&S releases Cooper Black with a lot of hype to hungry publishing, manufacturing and advertising industries. - 1924: Robert Middleton releases Ludlow Black. - 1924: The Stevens Shanks foundry, the British successor to the Figgins legacy, releases its own exact copies of Robur Noir and Robur Noir Allongée, alongside a lined version called Royal Lining. - 1925: Oswald Cooper releases his Cooper Black Condensed, with similar math to Robur Noir Allongée (20% reduction in width and vectical stroke). - 1925: Monotype releases Frederick Goudy's Goudy Heavy, an "answer to Cooper Black". Type historians gravely note it as the "teacher steals from his student" scandal. Goudy Heavy Condensed follows a few years later. - 1928: Linotype releases Chauncey Griffith's Pabst Extra Bold. The condensed counterpart is released in 1931. When type production technologies changed and it was time to retool the old faces for the Typositor age, Cooper Black was a frontrunning candidate, while Robur Noir was all but erased from history. This was mostly due to its commercial revival by flourishing and media-driven music and advertising industries. By the late 1960s variations and spinoffs of Cooper Black were in every typesetting catalog. In the early- to mid-1970s, VGC, wanting to capitalize on the Art Nouveau onslaught, published an uncredited exact copy of Robur Black under the name Skylark. But that also went with the dust of history and PR when digital tech came around, and Cooper Black was once again a prime retooling candidate. The "old fellows stole all of our best ideas" indeed. So almost a hundred years after its initial fizz, Robur is here in digital form, to reclaim its rightful position as the inspiration for, and the best alternative to, Cooper Black. Given that its forms date back to the turn of the century, a time when foundry output had a closer relationship to calligraphic and humanist craft, its shapes are truer to brush strokes and much more idiosyncratic than Cooper Black in their totality's construct. Robur and Robur Italic come in all popular font formats. Language support includes Western, Central and Eastern European character sets, as well as Baltic, Esperanto, Maltese, Turkish, and Celtic/Welsh languages. A range of complementary f-ligatures and a few alternates letters are included within the fonts.

As a former typographer / lino and calligrapher, Abdallah NASRI had recourse to the nature of the idea of ​​an "INTERCHANGEABLE" collection for types who in reality offer a police collar parallel to the complex typeface of the variable. Our fashion is outlined by a simple calculation defined by superimposed geometric circles where we used only its ¼ to fill the need for the angles of each of our letters. Always with the idea of ​​having in the same allocated space, the same letter nested as many times as fat example from Hairline to Ultrabold. It was in this way that I was able to obtain a large number of styles, with a very interesting kerning which prompted me to extend the font to other languages ​​with +1000 characters and +600 glyphs. I have always been treasured by the all in "1". I assure you that I sought to obtain the maximum of Visibility for a use S / Titling TV, WEB Pages and Typography Typo; once the difficult thing was done, I was rewarded by a font that has countless typographic openings for the world of graphics with 10 styles of weights in hand, and again I am happy to have personalized the charm of each letter by new details; I do not regret the time spent on thinking about it so that it is useful and at the same time pleasant as a working tool, finally profitable in all sectors and more multilingual, without forgetting that it is a family of inter change c ' is to say: All the types occupy the same height of the body and it is their fats which differs in the same space width of each of the letters, therefore no interference in spacing. Here, an additional alternative, a participation of a septuagenarian in the service of the love of modern digital typography. • TEST: At 50% screen in a body of 12 pixels, the A10 STAR Alphabet subjected to a test, has a clear Readability / Visibility. • P.S: A10 STAR integrates Diacriticism in all its forms. Texte d'origine : Abdallah NASRI a eu recours en étant ancien typographe/lino et calligraphe à la nature de l'idée d'une collection "INTERCHANGEABLE" pour les types qui en réalité offre un collier de police parallèle à la fonte complexe du variable. Notre mode est esquissé par un calcul simple défini par des ronds géométrique superposés où on a utilisé seulement son ¼ pour garnir le besoin des angles de chacune de nos lettres. Toujours dans l’idée à avoir dans le même espacement alloué, la même lettre imbriquée autant de fois de graisse exemple du Hairline à Ultrabold. C’est de cette manière que j’ai pu obtenir un grand nombre de styles, avec un crénage très intéressant ce qui m’a incité à étendre la police à d’autres langues avec +1000 caractères et +600 glyphes. J’ai toujours été prisé par le tout en « 1 ». Je vous assure que j’ai cherché à obtenir le maximum de Visibilité pour une utilisation S/Titrage TV, Pages WEB et Maquette typo ; une fois le difficile fait, j’ai été récompensé par une police qui possède d’innombrable ouverture typographique pour le monde du Graphisme avec comme atout en main 10 styles de graisses, et encore je suis content pour avoir personnalisé le charme de chaque lettre par des détails nouveaux ; je ne regrette pas le temps passé dessus à réfléchir pour qu’il soit utile et à la fois agréable comme outil de travail, enfin profitable tous secteurs confondus et en plus multilingue, sans oublié que c’est une famille d’inter change c’est-à-dire : Tous les types occupent la même hauteur du corps et c'est leurs graisses qui diffère dans un même espace largeur de chacune des lettres, donc aucune interférence dans l’espacement. Voilà, une alternative supplémentaire, une participation d’un septuagénaire au service de l’amour de la typographie numérique moderne. • TEST : A 50% d'écran dans un corps de 12 pixels, l'Alphabet A10 STAR soumise a un test, présente une nette Lisibilité / Visibilité. • P.S : A10 STAR intégre la Diacritique dans toutes ses formes.