A vintage rubber stamp alphabet and star printing set had a package header with Art Deco-inspired lettering describing the product. Sold by a company called Elvin [circa late 50's-early 1960s], these Japanese-made sets were one of many distributed by independent toy importers and made in various configurations including [at times] tiny animal stamps. The type design on this particular item was the model for Retro Packaging JNL, available in both regular and oblique versions.

Amongst a batch of antique sheet musical instruction booklets offered for sale online was a piece with Art Nouveau hand lettering on the cover entitled “Seven Musical Travelogues for Piano”. This design served as the inspiration and model for Ragtime Gal JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. The font’s name comes from the line ‘Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal…’ from the 1899 song “Hello Ma Baby”; a tune that found a new burst of popularity in an odd way within a 1955 Warner Brother’s cartoon [“One Froggy Evening”].

A style of die-cut cardboard letters and numbers used for signs, displays and show cards was the basis for Haute Couture JNL, an Art-Deco flavored typeface from Jeff Levine. A direct cousin to Signboard JNL, this font shares some similar characteristics in letterforms. Both styles of die-cut lettering were manufactured by a number of companies, and were most popular from the 1940s through the mid-1960s.

Jungle Drums JNL is based on the hand-lettered title on the 1929 sheet music of its musical namesake. A bold, free form design with a hint of the Art Deco movement of the coming decades, this casual typeface has the vintage charm to enrich many design projects. Jungle Drums JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The title hand lettered onto the 1933 sheet music cover for “Yours is My Heart Alone” represents the classic Art Deco typographic features of unusual character shapes and widths, yet at the same time it projects simplicity in geometric design. This served at the basis for Deco Diva JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Deco Signage JNL was inspired by the cast metal letters of a German wall sign “Kaspar Stanggasinger-Haus” in an online display of European signage photography - and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Although the original age of the sign is unknown, the tall, thin monoline font it’s based on evokes a definite 1940s Art Deco design influence.

The spurred serif style of Roman lettering has long been a favorite of sign painters and show card writers. Spur Handlettered JNL from Jeff Levine gives this classic design an ultra-casual look, complete with all of the nuances of hand-lettering.

Tall, condensed and square in shape... Slim James JNL balances well against bolder Deco-style sans or novelty type faces.

A vintage British lettering stencil was the inspiration for Sandwell Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. This pleasant and condensed stencil font was originally a semi-stencil – many of the characters were made as solid letters ,while the others had a traditional stencil treatment. For the digital version, the stencil treatment was applied to previously solid characters to create a consistency in the overall design.

Built in 1928 in Wichita, Kansas, the Uptown Theater started out as a movie house, but today still exists as a dinner theater. Online images of this vintage venue’s perpendicular wall sign show the theater’s name in an Art Nouveau influenced angular style with rounded terminals – similar to that of pen drawn sign lettering of the era. Adapted as a digital type font, Silent Film JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Chinese Herbs JNL gives an outline and cast shadow treatment to the lettering found in Chinese Menu JNL. Based on some old signage.

An older typeface belonging to a family of sans serif fonts known as Grotesque (or Grotesk in the classic spelling) has been re-drawn by Jeff Levine and released as Album Cover JNL. The font's name is derived from the fact that this typeface was found on many long-playing record jackets during the 1950s and 1960s. To add a look closer to that of hand-set type, there are minute variants in some of the heights of the characters.

From 1958 to 1964, one of ABC-TV’s popular shows was the detective series “77 Sunset Strip”. Based in Los Angeles, the fictional detective agency was located next door to Dino’s Lodge, (partly owned by Dean Martin and actually located at 8532 Sunset). It was originally known as the Alpine Lodge. The adjacent building where Stuart Bailey and Jeff Spencer’s private detective service was located in fact housed a popular modeling agency. The ‘77’ address did not exist outside of the realm of the series. However, a wonderful sign with Art Deco-influenced lettering graced the set (on the wall of the office foyer) saying “Bailey & Spencer Private Investigators Suites 101-102”. A screen capture of this sign served as the working model for Private Eye JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Letterpress Ornamentals JNL collects twenty-six decorative embellishments, corner pieces, borders, separators and ornaments for enhancing your print project.

Samuel Welo’s “Studio Handbook – Letter and Design for Artists and Advertisers” was a go-to source of inspiration for generations of layout artists, graphic designers and sign painters. An interesting example of free-form pen lettering was found amongst the pages of one edition and it has now been recreated as a digital typeface called Nouveau Cartoon JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

The 1930 sheet music for “A Peach of a Pair” from Paramount Pictures’ “Follow Through” listed the stars and production credits in a wonderfully casual, free-form Art Nouveau hand lettering. This has been recreated digitally as Casually Nouveau JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions. For another Art Nouveau typeface with a free-form look, try the similarly named Casual Nouveau JNL.

Engine Company JNL is a slab serif font based on a set of wood type. The design emits an image of strength and purpose, and fits well into any project where a word or phrase must be conveyed forcefully without seeming overly imposing.

Federal Case JNL is a stencil version of Government Issue JNL... adding the feel of industrial, military or high-level government espionage... From the lettering on a shipping crate to the cover of a secret folder of undercover plans, this font fits like a hand in a glove.

Modeled from a set of individual painting stencils, Mess Hall JNL is named for the armed services cafeteria where thousands of enlisted men endured bland, boring meals day in and day out for years.

A vintage brass stencil for an individual or company named ‘Rodrigues’ was spotted in an online auction. The hand punched, condensed Roman lettering inspired the digital typeface Nameplate Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Thin, elegant and thoroughly Art Deco is the thick-and-thin (slightly flared) alphabet found on page 31 of Samuel Welo’s 1930 instructional book “Lettering Practical and Foreign”. Redrawn digitally as Evening Dress JNL, it is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A 1940s Australian song folio featuring tunes performed by singer-actress Deanna Durbin had her name hand lettered in an interesting Art Deco style sans. This became the basis for Song Folio JNL, capturing all the nuances of the original in digital form.

Dollar Tree Stores imports a number of items from China, and many times these are limited-run products only available until the existing supplies run out. One such item was a sans serif stencil lettering guide with rounded ends that takes on the look of 1980s-influenced techno lettering. This is now available as Import Stencil JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

The vintage sheet music for "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" yielded another bit of Art Deco-era lettering perfect for developing into a digital font. This time it wasn't the song title, but rather the name of the show it was from serving as the type inspiration - the Cotton Club's 1931 revue "Rhythm-Mania". Harlem's Cotton Club was an "exclusive, whites only" club; both famous for its talent and shows, yet infamous for hiring black acts but not allowing black patronage. On the sheet music, the show title was hand lettered in a bold, slightly stylized fashion which became the basis for Rhythmic Revue JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

Amateur Printer JNL is comprised of letters and numbers from one of the rubber stamp sign printing sets that were popular with children up until about the 1960s. The letters were printed out on paper, then scanned and converted into a font... leaving all of the rough edges and defects intact to give the look of authentic rubber stamp impressions.

The movie poster promoting the 1962 James Cagney comedy "One, Two Three" had it's text done in free-style hand lettering. Starting with an auto-trace in order to have an isolated version of the black letters separated from the red poster background, the tracing kept the basic forms intact, but with limited accuracy. Cleaning up and digitally reshaping the letters manually to form a more correct version [closer to the original movie poster], additional figures, foreign characters, accents and punctuation were drawn from scratch. This is now available as Handwritten Note JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Art Topic JNL is a round-cornered square sans serif in the Art Deco style, and was modeled from a 1930 WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster for the Federal Arts Project.

In 1962, the late Robert Libauer of the Stenso Lettering Company (of Baltimore, MD) revised two of his popular stencil lettering guides to offers users two choices: “traditional” stencil letters and numbers and "solid" letters for tracing and coloring. Solid Stencil JNL was modeled from one of those lettering guides, and contains all of the character anomalies found within that vintage stencil.

Utlity Signage JNL is a collection of fifty-two various "all purpose signs" we've all seen in hardware and variety stores is perfect for spot illustrations in ad copy, making one-off images for props in a stage play or production or even for novelty jokes or gags. NOTE: Usage of this font to create printed or digital "stock signs" for resale is not part of, nor allowed under the terms of the standard Jeffrey N. Levine Software License Agreement. A separate license for the manufacture and distribution of derivative products is required by contacting the font author directly. Please refer to the EULA for further details.

The inspiration for Brattleboro Stencil JNL was found within a reproduction of a sales catalog for stencil punch dies manufactured by S.M. Spencer & Co. (originally of Brattleboro, VT), circa 1868. Basically a sans serif letter, the font's unusual feature is its "split tail" design where the letters take on a bit of a "Western" look in appearance.

Here's another stencil font designed from and inspired by the lettering guides used for years by teachers, school children, merchants and others.

Instead of being directly based on classic wood or metal type examples, Mule Train JNL takes a roundabout route in its development. Images of a set of letters and numbers cut from plywood (which in turn were based on a vintage type design) served as the work models. Mule Train JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

What has become a rite of passage at baseball games got its start in 1908 when lyricist Jack Norworth and music composer Albert Von Tilzer wrote "Take Me Out to the Ball-Game" (which was published by Von Tilzer's York Music Company). The Art Nouveau hand lettered title on the cover of the sheet music was eccentric and attractive enough to warrant being turned into a digital type face, and in honor of its namesake song is called Ball Game JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

An ad in the May 27, 1939 issue of "Motion Picture Herald" for the film "Young Mr. Lincoln" featured the film's title hand lettered in a squared, bold pen lettering with rounded terminals along with an incised 'engraving' line. This formed the basis for Political Trend JNL, which available in both regular and oblique versions.

Eckhardt Embellishments JNL collects a number of vintage pointing hands, ribbons, panels and embellishments from an early 1900s sign painter's manual and misc. type sources. This font is a continuation of the series named in honor of the late Albert Eckhardt, Jr. - a Miami area sign painter and close friend of type designer Jeff Levine.

Vintage sheet music for the song "Just Once for All Time" (from the United Artists release "Congress Dances") provided the bold sans that served as the model for Dance Number JNL. This 1932 film was the English language version of the German comedy "Der Kongrefl tanzt" The movie's plot is based around the Congress of Vienna. There, an Austrian commoner is mistakenly thought to be the Tsar of Russia.

With electronics taking over virtually every aspect of manufacturing, packaging and shipping, it's almost difficult to envision a time when wooden crates were marked for identification by using brass stencils. Many of these stencils were hand-cut or manufactured with special punches that perforated the brass sheets with pre-formed letters and numbers. One such stencil was the design model for Marking Stencil JNL.

From cartoons to ad helpers to embellishments and ornaments, Letterpress Pieces JNL is another collection of vintage imagery from the pre-computer era of printing and advertising.

An interesting hand lettered sans serif type style with a “brush stroke” feel was used for various article headlines in the October, 1938 issue of “Radio Stars” magazine.

For a pulp magazine called Spicy Western Stories, it was unusual that the January 01, 1939 issue had its cover title hand lettered in an extra bold Art Deco style rather than Western influenced lettering. This did not stop the lettering from being used as the design model for a digital type revival. Pulp Magazine JNL, is available in both regular and oblique versions.