Samuel Welo’s “Studio Handbook for Artists and Advertisers” (published in both 1927 and 1960) showcased this talented man’s hand-lettered alphabets; used as inspiration for the sign trade and for graphic designers. A particularly interesting slab serif from the 1960 edition has many unusual character shapes, and served as the model for Casual Slab Serif JNL – available in both regular and oblique versions.

A 1918 lettering instruction book by William Hugh Gordon presented a number of lettering styles that were geared toward sign and show card painters along with tips and tricks regarding the correct construction of such signs for maximum effect. One pen lettered Roman alphabet with a beautiful set of numerals has been recreated digitally as Pen Elegant JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. To note, Gordon was the co-inventor of the Speedball lettering pen with Ross F. George in 1915.

Art Nouveau serif capitals and numerals in the 1917 instructional book “A Roman Alphabet and How to Use It” were the inspiration for Show Card Roman JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

1920s-era sheet music for "Tangos Pour Manon" from Brussels, Belgium had the title hand lettered in an unusual style. The alphabet was square, had serifs and the thick-and-thin stroke weights that were more popular in the upcoming Art Deco years of the 1930s and 1940s. This became the working model for Torrid Tango JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Found within the pages of the 1927 edition of the “Welo Studio Handbook - Letter and Design for Artist and Advertisers” is an elegant Art Deco multi-line alphabet. Digitally redrawn as Theater Alley JNL, it is available in both regular and oblique versions. The font takes its name from that of a street in New York, although the street’s name uses the old-fashioned spelling of “theatre”.

Many alphabet style examples from the Speedball Textbook on pen lettering have offered amateurs and professionals a source of inspiration since its first publication in 1915. A 1940s edition presented a simple sans serif design rendered with the style ‘B’ round nib pen point, and has been recreated as the digital type face Pen Sans Rounded JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The French publication “La Lettre Dans le Decor et La Publicite Modernes” (“The Letter in the Modern Décor and Advertising”) was a 24-page booklet showcasing the then-current trends of the time (circa late 1930s-early 1940s). On one page was found a squared, extra bold sans serif alphabet set with strong Art Nouveau influences, yet it was ahead of its time by taking on the look and feel of 1980s techno typography. They say “everything old is new again”, and Nouveau Techno JNL is now available digitally in both regular and oblique versions.

An interesting hand lettered example of Art Deco lettering (minus the letter ‘L’) was spotted on Pinterest and served as the inspiration for Deco Sketch JNL. Because there was no attribution as to the age or source of the alphabet, it can only be surmised that it was a scan from a 1930s or 1940s source. The original showed many of the irregularities of pen lettering, and had rounded terminals. The digital version has been redrawn more uniformly with flat terminals. Deco Sketch JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Most folks might picture wood type lettering as the fancy styles of the 1880s which so perfectly evoked images of the Old West. Occasionally there is an exception to that rule, as an online image of some vintage wood letters with an Art Deco influence inspired a revival as a digital type face. Wood Lined JNL features a bold alphabet with an engraved line throughout the characters, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Designed by M. Fahrenwaldt for the Schriftguss foundry in 1929, Minister font is a contemporary design based on Garalde types. The letters have an oblique stress, capitals are wide, serifs are prominently concave. Minister font has obvious calligraphic overtones, making it a good informal text face.

Occasionally a type design is started - then set aside for whatever reason - before eventually being completed. More often than not, the original source material is forgotten, so proper attribution cannot be made. Such is the case for a hand lettered Art Nouveau alphabet likely found within the pages of an early Speedball lettering book from around the 1920s. This playful and casual design is now digitally reproduced as Nouveau Signage JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Clarinetist Milton ?Mezz? Mezzrow (1899-1972) was a remarkable jazz musician, as becomes evident upon reading his autobiography Really the Blues. His sharp tone and serpentine lines inspired English lettering artist and jazz lover Michael Harvey to create a condensed, oblique display typeface with the look of a chiseled alphabet in the musician's honor. Vertical formats such as book jackets and posters will be invigorated by Mezz as the display face.

Within the pages of “The Essentials of Lettering” by Thomas E. French and Robert Meiklejohn (circa 1912) is an example for creating a sans serif alphabet and numerals. The lesson plate is entitled “Upright Single-Stroke Gothic”; a basic monoline font most useful for architectural and drafting plans because of its easy-to-read properties. This type design is now available as Drafting Class JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Silly Behavior JNL is based on a hand lettered alphabet found within the pages of the vintage lettering book “100 Alphabets Publicitaires” (100 Advertising Alphabets). The fun, haphazard arrangement of the letters and numbers convey a casual approach to titling.

Redrawn from lettering found on a British publication circa the 1930s, Retail Price JNL is an extra bold display inline sans that’s great for catchy headlines, price cards, banners or any other attention-getters. Retail Price JNL is offered in regular, oblique, solid and solid oblique versions. Caps only Fonts.

An elegant, yet informal Roman alphabet with Art Nouveau influences was found amidst the pages of the 1922 edition of “The Expert Sign Painter”. It is now available digitally as Sign Expert JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Eckhardt Relaxed JNL was modeled from an example of a casual, hand lettered alphabet from a page of a vintage textbook. This style of freehand lettering always lends itself well to posters, show card and sign work, but is equally at home in ad design or titling. The typeface is an addition to the group of type styles inspired by sign lettering, and is named for Jeff Levine's good friend, the late Al Eckhardt; whose shop turned out quality hand lettering from 1959 until his passing in 2005. Eckhardt Relaxed JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A wide and thin hand lettered Art Deco design from the vintage French lettering book "L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre" was the inspiration for French Deco JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

The cover of the 1907 sheet music for "I'd Rather Twostep Than Waltz, Bill" was hand lettered in an Art Nouveau sans serif alphabet. During the hippie counter-culture movement of the 1960s, rock posters, album covers and other printed ephemera of the time embraced the styles of lettering and art made popular during the early 1900s. It seemed only fitting to name this type design Nouveau Hippie JNL as an homage to both eras. The font is available in both regular and oblique versions.

DALEK PINPOINT is a clean and precise version of K-Type’s distressed DALEK typeface, a small caps face with overtones of Greek, Phoenician and Runic alphabets, based on Dalek comic book lettering from the 1960s. The package includes Regular and Bold weights, plus an Italic and Bold Italic which are optically corrected obliques. The fonts contain a full complement of Latin Extended-A characters, and now include Greek capitals and small caps.

Stencils have played a number of roles over the years, from decorative patterns to military markings; from labeling shipping containers to a student’s school project. One unusual application of a stencil alphabet was some metal letters spotted for sale at an online auction site. These antique letters were used for promoting the current show on a theater marquee just as plastic ones are used nowadays. Following the auction images as a guide, the Roman stencil font from those marquee letters is now preserved digitally as Talent Stencil JNL; which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

An ebay purchase of a vintage Speedball lettering pen set yielded an extra bonus… numerous alphabets on paper rendered in both pen and ink and via pencil sketches. One such design in rough pencil layout is a classic serif typeface often found on many passenger and freight trains, trolley cars and busses. This “Railroad Roman” was scanned from the original sketches and then re-drawn digitally, all along retaining the charm and attractiveness often found in hand lettering. The end result is Streetcar JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Hand lettering isn’t a perfect art form, and this is why it often has an appeal over formal typesetting. Individual interpretation can lead to variations in style, character shape and overall design concept. Case in point: The hand-drawn title for the1933 sheet music “Why Can’t This Night Go on Forever” is a simple Art Deco sans, however it mixes character widths and even angles the letter ‘C’ in a nonconventional way. Deco Design JNL is the digital version of this alphabet, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A circa-1951 toy set called “Kusan Kavalcade of Letters” was comprised of molded plastic letters and numbers a child could play with, trace and arrange to learn their alphabet and numerals. Typographically, the design was all over the place – from sans serif characters to those with some spurred serifs and even some stenciled characters because of the nature of manufacture. As odd as this combination seems, it was novel enough to be turned into a digital typeface called Stencil Playthings JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

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.

Presenting… a Western style alphabet from the 1960 edition of Samuel Welo’s “Studio Handbook for Artists and Advertisers”… Extra bold, featuring slab serifs and concave corners, this type style could easily have been found on building signage in the Old West… but in redrawing it digitally, it’s been named Modern West JNL because at one time, this would have been considered a modern style of lettering. Modern West JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The cover of a 1932 edition of “Sunset magazine” (a publication for homeowners living in the west and southwest area of the United States) featured a lovely Art Deco serif alphabet that is now available as Western Suburbs JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Alf Becker graced the pages of "Signs of the Times" magazine month after month for decades, presenting attractive and unusual hand lettered alphabets as inspiration for other sign painters and show card writers. From straightforward text faces to novelty ideas, Becker's talent as a master sign crafter was constant in his work. Show Card Casual JNL is one example of what is referred to as a "one stroke" alphabet (utilizing a single brush stroke in each direction to form the letter or number). Its casual look and playful charm allow for a message to be presented in an informal format that is pleasing to the eye. The type design is available in both regular and oblique versions. Special thanks to Tod Swormstedt of ST Publications for providing the reference material.

A unique and stylized type design with Art Deco influence was found within the French publication “Modèles de lettres modernes par Georges Léculier” (“Models of Modern Letters by Léculier”). This lettering is now digitally available as Deco Wide JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Maincode Mono is a Monospaced Family declined in 7 weights, 7 widths and oblique. There is also a variable version. The family was composed of 511 glyphs, Latin & Cyrillic alphabets and 9 OpenType Features (numerator, denominator, superscript, subscript, fraction, case sensitive form, discretionary ligatures, contextual alternate, all access alternate).

Maincode is a font Family declined in 7 weights, 7 widths and oblique. There is also a variable version. The family was composed of 542 glyphs, Latin & Cyrillic alphabets and 10 OpenType Features (numerator, denominator, superscript, subscript, fraction, Tabular form, case sensitive form, discretionary ligatures, contextual alternate, all access alternate).

An example of Art Nouveau lettering (complete with its unusual characters and varying shape widths) was found in a sample from the vintage publication "Modeles de Lettres Artistiques" ("Models of Artistic Letters"). This classic design is now available digitally as Handmade Nouveau JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Inspired by a set of vintage alphabet game tile pieces, Newark JNL has similar traits to other slab serif Romans, but enough 'quirky' letter widths to break the rules and have it stand out on its own merits. The name derives from font work files in progress, often saved as 'new work' until a fitting name is decided upon. It seemed only right that this phrase be turned around into a font name itself. Newark JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The February 19, 1923 issue of The Film Daily contained an ad for Mack Sennett's new Ben Turpin comedy entitled "The Shriek of Araby". No doubt this was a spoof of the popular Rudolph Valentino film "The Sheik". The ad tries to emulate Mideastern or Arabic typography via a standard Western alphabet. It somewhat captures the flavor, but its free-form hand lettering comes off as more of a novelty-type style. This is now available digitally as Desert Sands JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Alf Becker graced many issues of “Signs of the Times” (a trade magazine for the sign industry) with his innovative hand lettered alphabets for others to use as design inspirations. His 134th submission was titled “Post Card Type”, a condensed thick-and-thin stylized Art Deco design. This served as the inspiration for Tourist Postcard JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. Thanks to Tod Swormstedt of S.T. Media Group and the American Sign Museum for providing the work image for this type revival.

A bold spur serif design found within the pages of the 1934 French lettering instruction book “L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre” provided the inspiration for Railway Depot JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Inside the pages of an untitled sign painting textbook (circa 1902) was an example of the classic chamfered sans serif alphabets used by tradesmen of the time. This version was wider than most, and perfect for a digital version called Wide Chamfer JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A typographic conundrum presented itself with the hand lettered title on the cover of the 1919 song "I Am Always Building Castles in the Air". The capitalized portion ["Castles in the Air"] was a hybrid mix of a few Art Nouveau-influenced rounded letters, yet along with this were squared letters with rounded corners (reflecting the upcoming Art Deco movement to take place in about another decade). As a complete alphabet, it didnít mix as well as in those few short words. What to do? It was decided to go with the squared look and save the rounder characters for a future project. The end result became Last Date JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.