African fonts are characterised by design considerations that differ from those of Europe and the Americas. At one extreme we have a relaxed and casual approach to life that values the quality of each moment in life far more than people do in the west. In this approach each element of the font, while being part of a community, nevertheless stands on its own and has its own "character". An African font that characterises this approach is Ubuvila (the word means relaxedness or relaxation in Zulu). There is no strict adherence to a design format in Ubuvila nor are the characters constrained by resting on the same baseline. They wander up and down in the sentence and find a comfortable resting place.

FS Koopman is a hard-working typeface. A crossbred workhorse that draws on inspiration from Swiss grotesks, American gothics and early British grotesques. It refuses to fit neatly into any of these categories, it’s neither one nor the other, but all of the above. It’s kinda Swiss meets American… (but with a slight Yorkshire twang).

Morris Fuller Benton’s version of the standard American nineteenth century blackletter made for ATF in 1901.

The first of the popular American informal scripts designed by R.E. Smith for ATF in 1933.

This idea of "wrong way weights" was originally called French Clarendon by the Americans, Italienne by the French, and American by the Italians. Sounds like nobody wanted to own up to it. When it was revived by ATF in 1933, it was given the name P. T. Barnum. Many variations have appeared. Dime Museum is an old wood type.

This font is meant evoke Native American art of the South-West US. The examples of this art that I've seen are very geometric, using rectangles and triangles to create all the images. This font isn't meant to be an authentic example of native American art, but is inspired by such. http://homepage.mac.com/baronvoncruzer/cyberiankhatru/bluethunderbird.htm

Prior to 500 AD the 24-rune Elder Futhark was used in Sweden. From 500 AD until 800 AD there were many Futharks which were transitions from the 24-rune Futhark to one of the 16-rune Futharks. By the end of this period the 24-rune Futhark was completely out of use , and only 16-runes Futharks were in use. By 900 AD two different types of Shorttwigs-Futharks had been born. One was popularized in Norway and the other was used in the west (the British islands). By 1000 AD the adjustment of the runes to the Latin alphabet had begun, and several versions are found up until the Dalrunes, about 1700-1800 AD.

A typical set of American Tuscan capitals cast by ATF in the middle of the nineteenth century.