The classic modernist FS Alvar grew out of a library of pure modular shapes gathered by Fontsmith’s master of the abstract starting point, Mr Phil Garnham. “It was a collection that just had to be explored and brought to life in a typographic voice. “We debated long and hard about this. It was big decision to make a shift away from the typefaces that people knew us for. And we didn’t want to compromise our reputation of well crafted typographic quality”. Modular forms A headline font that’s both graphic and functional, in the modernist tradition, FS Alvar focused Fontsmith’s eyes on the bigger issue of what makes a font show its age. “Looking at those fonts from the 1980s that were supposed to represent the ‘future’,” says Phil, “they looked so dated now. With Alvar, we weren’t concerned with creating future-thinking typography but with exploring form for form’s sake, and how that can evolve to create letterforms. Modular forms with a typographic eye.” Stencilled The concept for Alvar first materialised back in 2001 with some sketches Phil made while still at Middlesex University. Eight years later, something made him dig them out again. “There was something really nice about the proportions of that first design. Working on it again, I thought about it properly, but it still needed something to give it that edge. “Jason stood up in the studio and supplied the missing link: ‘Why don’t we make it stencilled?’ He didn’t mean in an obvious way, but by building a kind of architectural stencil into the form. It worked and the idea of using an architect’s name (Alvar Aalto) to describe the font felt perfect.” Featured in... The three weights of FS Alvar are made for standout headlines in advertising campaigns and magazines. Alvar has had a starring role in campaigns for brands from Nike to Amnesty International, as well as on CD covers, record labels and packaging.

Typography enters the Space Age! Dynascript brings the ease of “Pushbutton Automatic” to your typesetting experience. Dynascript is actually Two fonts in One–without switching fonts you can instantly change from Dynascript’s connecting font to the non-connecting italic with the simple push of a button. For more details download “The Dynascript Manual” from the Gallery Section. What is Dynascript? Dynascript is the slanted script cousin of Dynatype. It shares many of the characteristics of it’s sibling, but is drawn entirely from scratch and has it’s own unique character. To some it may be reminiscent of various mid-century neon signage, and of sign writing, Speedball alphabets and even baseball scripts. The design of Dynascript also takes some cues from a historical typographic curiosity that began in Germany in the ‘20s and which lasted into the ‘60s—when Photo-Lettering gave it the name "Zip-Top". Basically it was believed to be the wave of the future—that by weighting an alphabet heavier in its top half, one could increase legibility and reading speed. The jury’s still out on whether or not there’s any validity to this claim, but I think you’ll agree that in the context of this design, the heavier weighting at the top of the letters helps to create some uniquely pleasing forms, and a script unlike any other. Typesetters across the planet will also be able to set copy in their language of choice. Dynascript’s 694 glyphs can be used to set copy in: Albanian, Basque, Catalan, Cornish, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Kalaallisut, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Maltese, Manx, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Oromo, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, and Welsh—and of course English. Sorry! Off-world languages not yet supported. PLEASE NOTE: When setting Dynascript one should ALWAYS select the “Standard Ligatures" and “Contextual Alternates” buttons in your OpenType palette. See the “Read Me First!” file in the Gallery section.

American graphic designer William Addison Dwiggins' (W.A.D. for short) first typefaces were the Metro family, designed from 1927 onward. The project grew out of Dwiggins' dissatisfaction with the new European sans serif typefaces of the day, such as Futura, Erbar, and Kabel, a feeling he expressed in his seminal book Layout in Advertising. Urged by Mergenthaler Linotype to create a solution for the problem, Dwiggins began a professional relationship that would span over the next few decades. The first Metro family typeface to be released was Metroblack, brought to market by Linotype in 1929 (Metroblack #2™ the only one of the two versions that Mergenthaler Linotype eventually put into production which is available in digital form). With more of a humanist quality than the geometric styles popular in Europe at the time, Dwiggins drew what he believed to be the ideal sans serif for headlines and advertising copy. Metroblack has a warmer character than the Modernists' achievements, and the type is full of mannered curves and angled terminals (Metroblack also has an astoundingly beautiful Q). The other weights of the Metro family, Metromedium #2™ and Metrolite #2™, were designed by Mergenthaler Linotype's design office under Dwiggins' supervision. Despite having been created more than three-quarters of a century ago, the Metro family types have aged well, and remain a popular sans serif family. Although spec'd less often than other bestsellers, like Futura, Metro continues to find many diverse uses. The typeface has appeared throughout Europe and the North America for decades in newspapers and magazines, and can even help create a great brand image when used in logos and corporate identity. Dwiggins ranks among the most influential graphic designers and typeface designers of the 20th Century. He has several other quality fonts in the Linotype Originals, including the serif text faces Electra™ and New Caledonia™, as well as Caravan™, a font of typographic ornaments."

Emulating real handwriting has always been an aim of font designers in the digital age. The standard mainstream scripts and doodles that were available for the longest time have not successfully reached that goal. A letter always looked the same wherever you placed it. Some workarounds, such as letter alternates and ligatures, were used in many fonts, but they were a bit inconvenient to use, and in some cases didn't work correctly because they had to be placed in separate fonts from the main character set. Not until now, with OpenType technology, have we been able to emulate real handwriting, by including multiple character sets in the same font and programming it for smart form changes through letter sequence counting. Secret Scrypt was the first Canada Type font to make it to the bestseller list in the summer of 2004. In early 2005 a New York restaurant chain picked Secret Scrypt to use on its menus and internal signage, but they wanted to look even more like real handwriting, where two or three instances of the same letter used in one word would automatically change and look different from each other. Using OpenType technology, Canada Type produced a Secret Scrypt Pro for that restaurant chain under the direction of Mucca Design in New York City. That initial version contained three different character sets in the same font, and some intelligent programming that determines the sequence of the letters and change their shapes accordingly. Now the retail version of Secret Scrypt Pro is available, with four character sets built into the font for even more variety on the real handwriting theme. Make sure to check out the Secret Scrypt Pro PDF in the MyFonts gallery for tips on using Secret Scrypt Pro. Secret Scrypt is perfect for menus, handwritten notes, theater programmes, charity organization posters, and any design that attempts to get close to people with the personal magic of real handwriting.

In the course of the re-vitalization of its Typoart typeface inventory, Elsner+Flake decided in 2006 to offer the “Kis Antiqua” by Hildegard Korger, in a re-worked form and with an extended sortiment, as an OpenType Pro-version. After consultation with Hildegard Korger, Elsner+Flake tasked the Leipzig type designer Erhard Kaiser with the execution of the re-design and expansion of the sortiment. Detlef Schäfer writes in “Fotosatzschriften Type-Design+Schrifthersteller”, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 1989: No other printing type has ever generated as far-reaching a controversy as this typeface which Jan Tschichold called the most beautiful of all the old Antiqua types. For a long time, it was thought to have been designed by Anton Janson. In 1720 a large number of the original types were displayed in the catalog of the „Ehrhardische Gycery“ (Ehrhardt Typefoundry) in Leipzig. Recently, thanks to the research performed by Beatrice Warde and especially György Haimann, it has been proven unambiguously that the originator of this typeface was Miklós (Nicholas) Tótfalusi Kis (pronounced Kisch) who was born in 1650 in the Hungarian town of Tótfal. His calvinistic church had sent him to the Netherlands to oversee the printing of a Hungarian language bible. He studied printing and punch cutting and earned special recognition for his Armenian and Hebrew types. Upon his return to Hungary, an emergency situation forced him to sell several of his matrice sets to the Ehrhardt Typefoundry in Leipzig. In Hungary he printed from his own typefaces, but religious tensions arose between him and one of his church elders. He died at an early age in 1702. The significant characteristics of the “Dutch Antiqua” by Kis are the larger body size, relatively small lower case letters and strong upper case letters, which show clearly defined contrasts in the stroke widths. The “Kis Antiqua” is less elegant than the Garamond, rather somewhat austere in a calvinistic way, but its expression is unique and full of tension. The upper and lower case serifs are only slightly concave, and the upper case O as well as the lower case o have, for the first time, a vertical axis. In the replica, sensitively and respectfully (responsibly) drawn by Hildegard Korger, these characteristics of this pleasantly readable and beautiful face have been well met. For Typoart it was clear that this typeface has to appear under its only true name “Kis Antiqua.” It will be used primarily in book design. Elsner+Flake added these two headline weights, which are available besides a separate font family Kis Antiqua Now TB Pro. Designer: Miklós (Nicholas) Tótfalusi Kis, 1686 Hildegard Korger, 1986-1988 Erhard Kaiser, 2008

Orgon Slab complements the Orgon family with its clear, unexcited appearance. It offers high readability both for desktop and web applications. The Orgon Slab consists, as does the Orgon family, of 16 styles and is well suited for ambitious typography. It comes in OpenType format with extended language support. All weights contain ligatures, small caps, superior characters, proportional lining figures, tabular lining figures, proportional old style figures, lining old style figures, matching currency symbols, fraction- and scientific numerals and matching arrows.

Carat is a contemporary interpretation of a classic serif type. Fresh and clean in appearance. Straight, unsentimental and objective. Ideally suited for text but also with crisp details in display.  Well-equipped for ambitious typography, the Carat family consists of 12 styles, comes in OpenType format with extended language support for more than 40 languages. All weights contain small caps, proportional lining figures, tabular lining figures, proportional old style figures, lining old style figures, matching currency symbols, fraction- and scientific numerals.

Equip Slab, a new hardline, serif dominated face designed on the same geometric base as the rest of the Equip family. With its clarity it appears strong, imperative and straight forward. The Equip Slab family comprised 16 styles and is well suited for ambitious typography. It comes in OpenType format with extended language support. All weights contain ligatures, proportional lining figures, tabular lining figures, proportional old style figures, lining old style figures, matching currency symbols, fraction- and scientific numerals and matching arrows.

In October 2010 I released a font called “Zanoix” It was based upon a an old horror movie poster. I looked through and old folder, and found the font that served as a base for this the grungy font. Zonaix is opposite to Zanoix, because it is super clean, pointy and is made entirely of straight lines! With the sharp pointed serifs and whacky lines, it is a good choice for a legible seriffed font - not necessarily for anything scary!

Cala is a reflection of Venetian Renaissance types but with a contemporary look. It has an energetic profile, achieved through soft outlines and a flowing rhythm. It is lively, remains stable in small sizes and is beautiful in display sizes. Cala comes in eight styles, in OpenType format and with extended language support. All weights contain standard and discretional ligatures, small caps, proportional lining figures, tabular lining figures, proportional old style figures, lining old style figures, matching currency symbols, fraction- and scientific numerals.

Foro Sans is the matching friend of the popular Foro family (Foro and Foro Rounded). It comes with the same number of styles and the form displays the same characteristic features. Foro Sans consists of 16 styles and is well suited for ambitious typography. It comes in OpenType format with extended language support. All weights contain ligatures, superior characters, proportional lining figures, tabular lining figures, proportional old style figures, lining old style figures, matching currency symbols, fraction- and scientific numerals and matching arrows.

Mangan Nova is the semi-condensed version of Mangan. Designed for strong headlines but with slender and economical proportions, it fosters space saving text applications while permitting very pleasant reading. Mangan Nova, as does also Mangan, comprises 14 styles and is well suited for ambitious typography. It comes in OpenType format with extended language support. All weights contain small caps, ordinals, ligatures, proportional lining figures, tabular lining figures, proportional old style figures, lining old style figures, matching currency symbols, fraction- and scientific numerals.

From today's point of view Katarine has a rather unusual origin. Initially an all-caps display face, what was to become the Medium weight of the family was augmented with a lower case, then the character set was completed by adding all the missing glyphs. The next step was the creation of the Light and the Bold weights with matching Italics. This working method compromised the relationships between the characters across the different weights After some consideration the decision was made to start over and draw the complete family from scratch. This time the "conventional" process was followed — first the Light and Bold weights were designed. Those extremes were used to interpolate the Regular, Medium and Semibold weights. When compared to the original, the glyphs of the new fonts are slightly wider. The construction of the letters is sturdy, with an x-height that varies from the heaviest to the lightest weights. The relationship of the stem weight between the horizontal and vertical strokes is carefully balanced. Characters are open and firm; the italics have room to breathe. The original fonts included two sets of small caps — Small Caps and Petite Caps. However neither set were suited for emphasis, with the Small Caps being too tall and the Petite Caps too short. We decided to replace them both with one set of traditional small caps, slightly taller than the x-height, perfectly suited for emphasis in text usage. The original version of Katarine was partly incorporated into the new OpenType versions. Thus most of the original arrows, frames and boxes can be found in the new Katarine. Each individual weight now contains 830 glyphs, nine sets of numerals, small caps, numerous ligatures and fractions. An additional font named Numbers contains numerals in circles and squares, and is now augmented with accented caps and a number of terminal alternatives, which can easily be accessed through stylistic sets. We also added two extra variants, Experts Regular and Experts Black (in inverted form). Katarine Std preserves the solid construction and excellent legibility of the original family, but has now become a fully featured OpenType typeface. Katarine is suited for a broad range of applications, from simple layouts to intricate corporate systems. It is the typeface of choice where the cold, austere character of modern sans serifs are inappropriate, yet simple shapes and good legibility are required.

Earlier this year I visited a bakery in Newport Beach, CA and fell in love with the organic design and typography of the place. Hand-drawn menus, table cards, chalkboards, and wall quotes surrounded the charming spot. It inspired me to create a new font family based on the combination of hand drawn fonts. Included in this package are 5 font families, with 2 graphic ornament fonts. Each font family contains at least a light, medium and bold. Here is a breakdown of what's cookin' at Catalina's Bakery: Catalina Anacapa: Tall and skinny, this font comes in 3 weights for both sans and slab serif styles. It includes contextual alternatives (giving 3 versions of each letter), stylistic alternatives for select letters (A, K, P, Q, R, Y) and also includes Small Caps. Catalina Avalon: Based off Anacapa, this sub family has a high contrasting line weight. It comes in light, regular and bold as well as an inline alternative for both sans and slab serif styles. Avalon also includes opentype features such as contextual alternatives (giving 3 versions of each letter), stylistic alternatives for select letters (A, K, P, Q, R, Y) and small caps for each letter. Catalina Clemente: In a more standard width, Clemente is one of the two sub families that can be used for paragraph text as well as headlines. It's organically geometric in style and comes in ALL CAPS and lowercase, includes upright and custom italics, and has the opentype feature giving 3 versions of each letter. Catalina Script: A great compliment with the display sub-families, Catalina Script rounds out the package with a hand-drawn cursive flair. It includes contextual alternatives (giving 2 variations to each letter) as well as stylistic alternatives for many of the capital and lowercase letters. It has special ligatures for some letter combinations, and titling alternatives for all the capital letters. Catalina Typewriter: The second of the paragraph text sub-families, this typewriter inspired hand-drawn font family works great as either a display or paragraph text. It has contextual alternatives with 3 versions of each letter, and comes in both upright and custom italics versions. Catalina Extras! These two fonts go perfectly with the Catalina Family. They includes borders, frames, arrows, banners, flourishes and more. Catalina Flourish has all of it's options in a light and bold style, to use the light version type all lowercase letters, then to make something bold, used it's uppercase (or shift+) characters. For a breakdown of graphic/letter correlation, see the breakdown PDF. All of Catalina was drawn by the same hand, using the same ink and technique. While they contrast in their type styles, they work together perfectly to create one cohesive font family.

A classic, narrow and clean sans serif family with seven weights, Roman and Italic, all with Old Style Numerals and Small Caps, for both headlines and body text use.

Koch Antiqua is based on forms of old Roman writings, chiseled in marble thousands of years ago. This contemporary version is more playful and reminiscent of the Roaring 20s.

Mingray Mono is a stylish Monospaced family in three weights. It contains old-style figures, small caps, fractions, ligatures, pictograms and arrows. Mingray Mono supports 85 Latin-based languages.

Kiner is a typeface designed by Jorge Mercado, inspired in old western letters used in many industries. Kiner support most latin languages, and the set includes uppercase and lowercase.

Cul De Sac is a beautiful cartoon-like font. It was hand drawn, using an old fashioned pen and India ink. Use it for your ads, posters and websites.

Rock Wood is a fresh version of old western wood type. With its strong and sinuous lines it has a taste of vintage and modern at the same time.

Inspired by the decayed lettering on the signs at Siesta Key beach painted on weather-worn old wood in Florida, these letters are made to look like peeling paint.

Welcome to the world of Divulge—a modern grotesque that echoes the refined beauty of nineteenth and early twentieth-century sans-serif metal type. With its austere and nuanced voice, Divulge exudes an old-fashioned charm that feels both familiar and fresh. In a world of cookie-cutter fonts, Divulge is a standout. Its idiosyncrasies are generously peppered throughout, giving your message a unique and memorable character. But fear not—these quirks are not distracting. Rather, they add just the right touch of personality without overwhelming your reader. Divulge comes in three weights—light, regular, and bold—and two widths, allowing you to choose the perfect style for your message. And if you really want to make a statement, the elegant italics add a touch of class and sophistication. So whether you’re crafting a classic, old-fashioned design or looking to add warmth and personality to a modern project, Divulge has you covered. Try it out today and see how it elevates your message to new heights. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Dormitory Decals JNL is a set of Greek letters placed on the standard keyboard positions of A-X and a-x. The design (based on Jeff Levine's Juneway JNL) emulates the gold and black water-applied decals used by college kids in the 50s and 60s.

Dragonflight Pro is a script collection of four modern calligraphy fonts. Each glyph was hand-drawn with a brass folded pen dipped in ink. The tip of the folded pen resembles the shape of a dragonfly’s wing, hence the name. By tilting the pen variations in line width are made. This produces fun, expressive letters with a spontaneous personality. The regular and rough version of Dragonflight Pro have alternate glyphs that can either be accessed by the swashes feature, stylistic set 1, or the glyphs panel, depending on the application you are using. There are lots of discretionary ligatures that offer even more variation. By typing _1 to _10 you can access bonus swashes that are part of Dragonflight Pro Regular and Rough. Both fonts have 567 glyphs. Dragonflight Pro Sans is an all caps font with 402 glyphs, also hand-drawn with the folded pen, that compliments the other styles perfectly. Dragonflight Pro Extra offers an additional 117 swashes, doodles and ink splatters. With Discretionary Ligatures activated you can type an underscore in front of a letter and (when available) this gives you the rough version of the glyph.

Czerny is a display typeface with clean contours and carefully cut-off edges. It combines the classical feel of old serif fonts with the sleek, minimalist aesthetics of contemporary design.

The Zigfrid family was made after my visit to Deutschland and impression of old typography on the streets of Berlin. Zigfrid contains 5 different styles with a geometric, “trendlist” feel.

A little bit of thick-and-thin Art Deco hand lettering is offered up in Wonderful JNL, based on some promotional text found on an old piece of sheet music.

Adieu is an old-fashioned display font traced and modified from a group of Victorian fonts. It is very stylized, but it is very attractive to many of my clients.

Small family called Bartender, for the lovers of retro style typefaces. Ideal for product names, packages, labels, old fashioned coffee shops, bars and everything with specific characteristics of past times.

Ulsteros was inspired by old horror movie posters. It comes in OpenType with more than 250 different ligatures! You will need to use OpenType supporting applications to use the autoligatures.