Years before the "Jet Age", and way before computers and satellite television turned us into jaded "armchair travelers", the ocean voyage aboard giant steamships to distant ports of call beckoned many to travel the Seven Seas. Far away lands had a magic and mysticism to them, for few Americans knew anything about those places unless they read about them in books or saw travelogs at their local theaters. Many songs were written with themes of romantic South Seas travel, and one vintage piece in particular entitled "Down Where the Trade Winds Blow" offered up the hand lettering which served as a model for Sea Cruise JNL.

Santa Fe was created by British designer David Quay in 1983. Distinguishing are its script characters and the lower case e, which has the form of a capital E. The letters of this font emphasize the base line. Rounded corners pair with elegant forms to give Santa Fe a flowing, cheerful look. The figures are reminiscent of American advertisements of the 1960s with their light, carefree images. Like with most script fonts, the letters of Santa Fe should be set close enough together that they touch. An added bonus are the various alternative forms with which Quay provided Santa Fe and the many design possibilities which they offer.

Park Avenue Park Avenue was designed by R.E. Smith in 1933 for American Type Founders. Park Avenue is an elegant and light script with freely drawn capitals. Park Avenues pen-drawn quality is particularly evident in the lowercase. The ascenders and descenders of this script font are long; the ascenders are bent-over at the top. Park Avenue has a small 'x' height with tall ascenders, giving the face a refined, elegant appearance. The full elegance and lightness of Park Avenue are only apparent when combining upper and lowercase. It would be worthwhile trying this script in display sizes, for personal messages, invitations, business cards and greetings cards.

Caturrita is a versatile family for use in both long texts, and can be used in titles. The characters have fluidity, contemplating the principle of continuity. It has structural strength of the glyphs to be drawn by considering aspects calligraphy. The name comes from the similarity between the characteristics of the bird well known in southern Brazil: drawing the loose, fluid that resembles a flying bird. Moreover, a clear reminder that some of the glyphs are the serifs beak of the animal. Prize Winner Bornancini - Porto Alegre RS - Academic Category Selected Project Muestra de Estudiantes for the Ibero-American Biennial of Design - Madrid - Spain

Roswell was designed by Jim Parkinson, who acknowledges the 'spacey' ancestry of its name. Yes, Roswell, New Mexico. There was a big anniversary of 'the incident' in the news while I was designing in Roswell. "The incident" is of course the alleged UFO crash in Roswell. "I thought the name was acceptable as a serious font name, while, on another level, having a strangely humorous edge," says Parkinson. Roswell looks great in large sizes on a poster or in a magazine layout. It started out as "a variation on American gothic forms like Railroad Gothic", says the designer, but Roswell is an original design with eccentricities of its own."

Grobek is a serif typeface inspired by Garamond and American Typewriter fonts as well as classic 15th century typefaces. Its main features are a diagonal stress and soft curved teardrop shape terminals. Grobek comes in 8 weights, from Thin to Heavy, with matching italics- 32 styles in all. The font consists of 2 subfamilies: the basic family is classic yet contemporary while the alternative version has a stronger personality and allows more design freedom. Grobek is ideal for short text and paragraphs, and specially designed for logos, branding, editorial design and web use. This font contains 576 characters that support over 200 Latin-based languages.

Linotype Finerliner is part of the Take Type Library, chosen from the contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contest. The American artist Gary Munch, from whom we also have Linotype Ergo and Ergo Sketch, designed Linotype Finerliner as a handwriting font with calligraphic influences. The small, regularly formed lower case letters contrast nicely with the generous, sweeping capitals. The font is available in a light and medium weight and displays no stroke contrast. The lighter weight, micro, is best used for shorter texts in point sizes 18 or larger and the medium weight, macro, is mainly intended for headlines in larger point sizes.

The origins of Bookman Old Style lie in the typeface called Oldstyle Antique, designed by A C Phemister circa 1858 for the Miller and Richard foundry in Edinburgh, Scotland. Many American foundries made versions of this type which eventually became known as Bookman. Monotype Bookman Old Style roman is based on earlier Lanston Monotype and ATF models. The italic has been re drawn following the style of the Oldstyle Antique italics of Miller and Richard. Although called “Old Style,” the near vertical stress of the face puts it into the transitional category. The Bookman Old Style font family is a legible and robust text face.

I came across an old book called ‘Studio Handbook Letter And Design For Artists And Advertisers’ by Samuel Welo. Samuel Welo was an American advertising calligrapher, typographer and lettering artist, who was most active during the roaring twenties. Lenox Avenue is my version of a set of letters in that book. It was handmade (just like Welo had done). I only had an ABC/abc to work with, so I designed all the remaining glyphs myself. I changed some of the original (and quite quirky) letters to a more contemporary form. The font is named Lenox Avenue, once home of the famous Savoy Ballroom. Comes with all the bells & whistles.

Android is an experimental 3D shadow outline font developed by the American type designer Alex Kaczun. The unique lighting created by the beveled edge in combination with an outline font was particularly difficult to create. But the result was worth the effort. Android makes for a powerful headline display that virtually pops off the page. There is a true three dimensional quality to this innovative new typeface. Use the regular Android when setting tight leading for smaller point sizes, and use Android Tall which has taller capitals for larger headlines. By experimenting with Type Effects in Illustrator or PhotoShop you can achieve some spectacular additional 3D effects.

Emil Bertell's Bayamo is a contemporary, digital take on the brush script tradition. It echoes the loose forms and energetic personality of sign painted letters, tapping into the current nostalgia for hand-drawn type. “I think most script fonts nowadays are either some kind of modern calligraphy, or synthetic/mechanical scripts,” says Bertell. “This one leans more towards a classic American sign painting tradition.” Contextual alternates ensure that lowercase characters change depending what's next to them, mimicking the more varied word shapes created by sign writers. Well suited for branding projects, packaging and headlines, Bayamo also pairs well with strong sans serif, and other typefaces with angular forms.

Borrowed vernacular from African hair studio signs. manually drawn with drop shadow. Used first as cover and label lettering of a cd with music from Zimbabwe, and completed later as a full character set for the typographic issue 'National Typographica' of I-Juici Magazine, in South Afrika.

Umoya is a modern and fluid African font. Its name means 'spirit' in the Zulu language and it is also the word used for 'air'. It is best used for an ethereal, magical look with tribal undertones. The font is fully professional: carefully letterspaced and kerned.

Hylata is a typeface inspired by the Mexican colonial style of the 50s, especially from the state of Puebla. Its design is very characteristic of the local talavera crafts. The typography presents "blacksmith" type styles, which is ideal to represent the characteristic provincial style of Mexico.

Inspired by a workshop with iconic American sign painter Mike Meyer, Ulrike of LiebeFonts set out to create a versatile, lovely typeface for sign painting that looks not at all like a font but rather like the letters on a unique, hand-painted storefront sign. LiebeDoris combines the best of two worlds: the beauty of all-American sign painting and the meticulous craft of German engineering. Each and every letter in each of the four different styles in LiebeDoris was hand-painted on large sheets of paper with a brush and ink, then carefully transferred for digital typesetting. So rather than being one typeface with different weights, think of LiebeDoris as a package of four individual designs that go together very well. Advanced OpenType features enable this font to really shine: every letter in this all-caps font comes in four variations, so that two of the same letters typed in a row won’t look the same, giving a truly handmade charm. (This feature requires layout software or a word processor with OpenType support.) And if you do have a storefront or a restaurant menu to prettify with LiebeDoris, you will love the integrated collection of store-themed catch words like “FREE”, “NEW”, and “SALE”. If you fall in love with LiebeDoris, you may also like our other best-selling fonts, LiebeErika and LiebeGerda, or our whimsical pictogram fonts such as LiebeMenu.

The object of Grover was to join two distinctive typeface designs: the basic European gothic of the late nineteenth century and the ‘rounded’ style found in 1960s America. The result is a clear, friendly face with subtle yet unforgettable features. Named after Grover Washington, Jr., the jazz saxophone player, Grover is geometrically constructed and yet very human in appearance. Sans and slab serif variations, true italic weights, as well as small caps afford Grover versatility and unique display characteristics.

The object of Grover was to join two distinctive typeface designs: the basic European gothic of the late nineteenth century and the ‘rounded’ style found in 1960s America. The result is a clear, friendly face with subtle yet unforgettable features. Named after Grover Washington, Jr., the jazz saxophone player, Grover is geometrically constructed and yet very human in appearance. Sans and slab serif variations, true italic weights, as well as small caps afford Grover versatility and unique display characteristics.

Distinctively Americana with a touch of Arts & Crafts, Amberosa is a typographic gem from the late nineteenth century, this undulating and organic typeface is a versatile and refreshing alternative to many of the font designs on the market today. Recapture the elegance of traditional flourished sign writing and make and provide ideal lettering for period inspired design work such as posters, signage, labels and book covers. You’ll find ligatures, 400+ stylistic alternates in keeping with the spirit of this pretty, old-fashioned typeface.

Rhetoric is a friendly display typeface that’s full of personality. The fonts are defined by their roman characters which could be described as “upright italic” – the style traditionally associated with a cursive character set has been applied to the roman glyphs. Rhetoric embraces its curves –exemplified by the voluptuous caps for /A/M/U/V/W/X/Y/ which further enhance this typeface’s quirky nature. This 18-font type family has weights from Hairline to Ultra in both roman and italic. Western European languages are covered in its basic character set, but there are a number of alternates and discretionary ligatures that allow you to embellish your typographic designs. Designed for branding purposes, headlines and short runs of text, Rhetoric will be a worthy addition to your type collection.

This family is inspired from the set of two styles, Roman normal and Italic, and the ornaments used by an unknown printer working around East Switzerland, circa 1750's. It is a Dutch style font, slightly bolder than usual Fournier's or Caslon's Roman fonts, with some emphasized serifs and finals parts and special letters as capital "U" for example. A set of initials, fleurons, ornaments and frame elements is joined to the family as a supplement. The two styles, Normal and Italic, are containing standard ligatures, a few alternative characters and titlings (who are more preferable than enlarged capitals). They are "small eye" or "Small x-eight" fonts. The standard characters set is completed with accented or specific characters for Western (Including Celtic) and Central Europe, Baltic, Eastern Europe and Turkish.

Yink takes big, bulbous, ball terminals up a notch, by repeating the shapes not only in the black but in the white space too. This interplay between black and white shapes is reminiscent of the yinyang symbol in places, which is where the name Yink originates. It's a shamelessly over-the-top font, and should be set large. There's a handful of OpenType features, including ligatures and alternates: Ligatures for ff, fft, ft, tt, gj Alternates are grouped into stylistic sets: 1. An alternate u, possibly more legible, but definitely not as much fun! 2. Again, a more boring version of m, just in case the default is ambiguous. 3. A more exuberant L 4. A blackletter informed T 5. Alternate P and R 6. An alternate 1 (one)

P22 Kelly is a Celtic-styled uncial font with a medieval gothic flavor and an overall contemporary feel. The font is an addition to Ted Staunton’s collection of historical and period-based fonts. It is ideal for uses that need to evoke the Celtic spirit or the medieval period. Based on half-uncial Irish monastic handwriting of the 8th to 10th centuries, but instead of having a traditional upright stress, has an italic slant. Some Gothic influence is evident—like the thorn-like tick-marks decorating the capitals—but the rounded forms of h, m, n, u emphasize a wide, open, horizontal visual texture. The font is named in honor of the Book of Kells, the 8th-century masterpiece of Celtic calligraphic art, which is kept in Trinity College, Dublin.

Marathon was originally designed by Rudolf Koch in 1931 for Schriftgiesserei Klingspor. It is a roman with short ascenders and descenders. The serifs are small, but longer at the ends of the arms of E, F and L, M is rather splayed and is without top serifs, like M in other typefeaces designed by Rudolf Koch. The lowercase g has no link and an open tail, again like the g in other Koch types. U has the lower-case design. In the W the middle strokes cross, the lower case w has no middle serif. The figures are short-ranging. Ute Harder from the Fachhochschule Hamburg had redesigned Marathon with the help and supervision of Professor Jovica Veljovic. She has added a book weight to offer more flexibility with this beautiful typeface.

Museo... it all started with my love for the letter ‘U’. This uppercase letter just came to me as an image in a daydream. The top of both stems bent into semi-slab serifs. From this principle I worked out the rest of the uppercase letters. My first intention was to make it an all-caps display font, but after a while, I changed my mind. I wanted it to be a bit more versatile, so I decided to add lowercase and adjust spacing and kerning to increase legibility. This OpenType font family comes in five weights, and each weight comes with support for CE languages, even Esperanto. Besides ligatures, contextual alternatives, stylistic alternates, fractions and proportional/tabular figures, Museo has a ‘case’ feature for case-sensitive forms.

Bombay is serif type family by ManVsType. It is ideal to use at larger sizes as a display font. The family comes in 5 weights in 2 styles (normal stem height and low stem height). This font is variable in its weight and "connection" heights in the letters a, b, d, h, m, n, p, q, r and u. The typeface has a number of ligature including an R+s ligature that automatically turns into the ₹ (rupee symbol) to solve a major problem in the Indian subcontinent where people don't know how to type it. Bombay is inspired by the colonial version of the city. The city being a melting pot of all kinds of people. Poets, writers, filmmakers enjoyed the city and it quickly became the cultural hub of the entire country.

The "Ma" in "Ma Braille" is used as a minimalist way to say "Negative Space". "Ma" in japanese arts is an "esthetical usage of emptiness". Thus this font explicits the negative space around visible braille dots in each glyph. A. Font user guide a.1. Lowercase glyphs { A..Z } In these glyphs, dots are represented as "black squares" while the negative space is displayed as 1 or 2 white filled polygons. a.2. Uppercase glyphs { a..z } In these glyphs, dots are represented as "white squares" while the negative space is displayed as 1 or 2 black filled polygons. a.3. Digits: they are just the same than a..j, but the "North US version" is also provided in ascii codes 0xE0..0xE4 (1..5) and 0xE7..0xEB (6..0). a.5. "Dashed Border": a.5.1. "Black dashed" border glyphs; { £, ¥, µ, Â, Ä, Ê, Ë, Î, Ï, Ô } a.5.2. "White dashed" border glyphs; { Ö, Õ, °, ô, ö, î, ï, û, u, õ } B. Posters Poster 1: "Font Logo" version 1, it displays "Ma Braille" text surrounded by the "black dashed border" glyphs. Poster 2: "Font Logo" version 2, it displays "MA" glyphs in big size and smaller "Braille" glyphs within "M" and within "A" as well. Poster 3: the classical pangram to test a font "The Quick Brown Fox jumps over the Lazy dog". Poster 4: Article 1 of the Human Rights: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Poster 5: the "Glyph set" (Border glyphs not included) with A..Z, a..z, digits and special characters.

EUROPEAN SOFT PRO VARIABLE ABOUT FAMILY: What makes "European Soft Pro Variable" elegant, friendly and contemporary is its very rounded curves with very open terminals. "European Soft Pro Variable" has been designed with a higher "x-height" than other fonts in its class to make tiny readability more obvious in any use situation. It will be ideal for use in small sizes such as business cards or mobile applications. This typeface is also equipped with powerful OpenType features to satisfy the most demanding professionals. It has solid features like case sensitivity, small, true capitals, full ligatures, tabular figures for tables, old style figures to elegantly insert numbers into your sentences and more alternative characters to give personality to your projects. The extended, "European Soft Pro Variable" supports around 85 languages in the Latin, Cyrillic and Greek scripts, and its non-Latin components were developed with native consultants. With over 1200+ glyphs per style, "European Soft Pro" cares about localised letterforms and has the OpenType features to match. FEATURE SUMMARY: - 9 weights: Thin, ExtraLight, Light, Book, Regular, Medium, Bold, ExtraBold, and Black. - 4 widths: Normal, Narrow, Condensed, and Extra Condensed. - Matching italics (12º) for all weights and widths . - Matching small caps for all weights and widths. - Lining and old style figures (proportional and tabular). - Alternate characters (A, G, M, N, R, U, a, g, l, m, n, u, y). - Unlimited fractions. - Automatic ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). - 24 Dingbats + 19 Social Media and Block Chain icons. - Extended language support: Most Latin-based scripts (including Vietnamese), Cyrillic, and Greek. - Extended currency support. You can contact me at buyuksel@hotmail.com, pre-purchase and post-purchase with questions and for technical support. You can enjoy using it.

A Stylish Technology Sans Serif Initiate began as a digitization of a film typeface from LetterGraphics in the early 70's known as "Kent". The original specimen was only in a Black weight with a tall x-height and included standard Capitals, Lowercase, Numerals and minimal Punctuation. It was a techno style sans-serif, ripe with potential. As a single weight typeface, it yearned for so much more: from family weight development to stylistic variants. We also decided to create a more normalized x-height version as well, leaving the original design as the Display series. Extras we developed for this family are Unicase variants, High & Low hairline position glyphs, as well as other alternate styled characters. The Initiate standard family has 1154 characters per font, while the Display family and Monoline font has 685 characters per font. A comprehensive character map preview is at the end of the poster graphics collection. Opentype features for Initiate Family include: Ligatures Unicase Stylistic Alternate Set Stylistic Set 02 - Limited Alternate Characters (A,K,X,Y,k,u,x,y and variants) Stylistic Set 03 - Lower Hairline Characters (B,C,E,F,G,H,P,R,Æ,a,c,e,r,s and variants) Stylistic Set 04 - M & N alternates Stylistic Set 05 - I alternates Smallcaps Set Smallcaps Lower Hairline Set when Stylistic Set 03 is enabled Limitless Fractions Ordinals Superscript & Subscript Opentype features for Initiate Display Family & Monoline font include: Ligatures Unicase Stylistic Alternate Set Stylistic Set 02 - Limited Alternate Characters (A,K,X,Y,k,u,x,y and variants) Stylistic Set 03 - Lower Hairline Characters (B,C,E,F,G,H,P,R,Æ,a,c,e,r,s and variants) Stylistic Set 04 - M & N alternates Stylistic Set 05 - I alternates Limitless Fractions Ordinals Superscript & Subscript

EUROPEAN SANS PRO VARIABLE ABOUT FAMILY: What makes "European Sans Pro Variable" elegant, friendly and contemporary is its very rounded curves with very open terminals. "European Sans Pro Variable" has been designed with a higher "x-height" than other fonts in its class to make tiny readability more obvious in any use situation. It will be ideal for use in small sizes such as business cards or mobile applications. This typeface is also equipped with powerful OpenType features to satisfy the most demanding professionals. It has solid features like case sensitivity, small, true capitals, full ligatures, tabular figures for tables, old style figures to elegantly insert numbers into your sentences and more alternative characters to give personality to your projects. The extended, "European Sans Pro Variable" supports around 85 languages in the Latin, Cyrillic and Greek scripts, and its non-Latin components were developed with native consultants. With over 1200+ glyphs per style, "European Sans Pro" cares about localised letterforms and has the OpenType features to match. FEATURE SUMMARY: - 9 weights: Thin, ExtraLight, Light, Book, Regular, Medium, Bold, ExtraBold, and Black. - 4 widths: Normal, Narrow, Condensed, and Extra Condensed. - Matching italics (12º) for all weights and widths . - Matching small caps for all weights and widths. - Lining and old style figures (proportional and tabular). - Alternate characters (A, G, M, N, R, U, a, g, l, m, n, u, y). - Unlimeted fractions. - Automatic ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). - 24 Dingbats + 19 Social Media and Block Chain icons. - Extended language support: Most Latin-based scripts (including Vietnamese), Cyrillic, and Greek. - Extended currency support. You can contact me at buyuksel@hotmail.com, pre-purchase and post-purchase with questions and for technical support. You can enjoy using it.

The Phantom Isles: Retro Tiki Font A Textured Retro Font Inspired by Tropical Tiki Style and South Sea Adventures! The Phantom Isles is a hand-drawn font inspired by 1950s Tiki culture, tales of exotic locations and south sea adventures. It features the textured look of weathered wood and is the perfect choice for book covers, movie titles, theme parks or vintage themed events. The font includes a complete set of uppercase and lowercase characters, along with numbers, punctuation, symbols and language support. You’ll also find a set of specially illustrated underlines, shapes and icons including flora and fauna, old rope, skulls and more. A Brief History of Tiki Culture Originating from Māori mythology, a tiki is a wooden or stone carving that represents deified ancestors found in most Polynesian cultures. The mainstream and commercialised Tiki Culture that became popular across America from the 1930s to 50s was inspired by the sentimental appeal of an idealised South Pacific, particularly Hawaii, as viewed through the experiences of those who had visited such areas during World War II and cinematic depictions of beautiful scenery, forbidden love and the potential for danger. Over time it selectively incorporated more cultural elements of other regions that affected Polynesia, such as Southeast Asia. The Americanised form of Tiki Culture maintains a dedicated following today, particularly among those interested in 1950s graphic and interior design, history and the escapist lounge aesthetic it inspires. Learn more about the history of Tiki and Polynesian culture.

Another tip of the hat to the halcyon days of woodtype, this cap-small cap typeface takes its name from the bustling Mexican metropolis just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

Greyton Script is the work of South African designer Gerhard Schwekendiek, who is known for his script lettering and logos. This copperplate script face looks almost ribbon-like, a feeling accentuated by the letters' fine inline. Greyton Script is perfect for eye-catching headlines or personal invitations and greetings.

Mascleta is a Mexican font inspired by street lettering. The 450 blackletter characters in Mascleta are ideal for logos, posters, album covers, advertising and wallpapers, both printed and digital. You can use it for Halloween, but it will stay with you all year long! Published by Letter INC.

Kunjani, (the Zulu word for "How are you?") is a feisty, contemporary "African Renaissance" font, vibrant and richly decorative, embodying the spirit of modern Africa. The characters are full of movement and excitement, combining a hand-carved look with contemporary elegance. Traditional and contemporary designs are used to make the upper-case alphabet essentially African, while lending variety to the already interesting structure. The font is a must for creators of the contemporary look of Africa. It is perfect for music media & promotions, film media & promotions, clothing hang tags & promotions, posters for "Support Africa" events, and indeed, any project that has its focus on Africa. The font has been carefully letterspaced and kerned. All upper and lower case characters, punctuation, numerals and accented characters are present.

Checkout is a fat, slightly cursive, poster font. It was modeled after 'clearance sale' signs and a 1950 Mexican movie poster for Los Olvidados (directed by Luis Buñuel). Checkout can be used for headlines, posters and, of course, for your clearance sale! Comes with a hard-to-beat amount of diacritics.

Hibagon is the Japanese equivalent of the Yeti from the Himalayas, or Bigfoot from North America. It is usually sighted on Mt. Hiba (Hiroshima prefecture), hence the name. I have never seen Hibagon myself, even though I have visited Hiroshima several times. Hibagon font is a nice, handpainted, all caps font with a mythical feel to it. It probably won’t scare you, but it will look good on anything that needs a bit of brushwork, or a bit of roughness.

FF Real is a convincing re-interpretation of the German grotesque style from between 1998 and 1908, but with much more warmth and improved legibility as well as a hint towards the warmer American grotesques. Later on, not just slanted styles, but a “proper” italic version was added inspired by the way Roman and Italic are distinguished in traditional serif faces. NEW: a specially created set of obliques were added in 2018 to give designers more design flexibility, for those looking for a less calligraphic look. In 2020 the family was extended with matching condensed weights. FF Real was originally conceived by Erik Spiekermann as one text weight and one headline weight to be used as the only faces in his biography ‘Hello I am Erik’, edited by Johannes Erler, published in 2014. While Spiekermann drew the alphabets, he passed on the font data to Ralph du Carrois and Anja Meiners who cleaned it up and completed it. In the meantime, FF Real has been extended to a family of two styles and 65 weights each. The design of FF Real is rooted in early static grotesques from the turn of the century. Several German type foundries – among them the Berlin-based foundries Theinhardt and H. Berthold AG – released such designs between 1898 and 1908. The semi-bold weight of a poster-size typeface that was lighter than most of the according semi-bolds in metal type at the time, gave the impetus to FF Real’s regular weight. In the words of Spiekermann, the historical example is “the real, non-fake version, as it were, the royal sans serif face“, thus giving his new typeface the name “Real” (which is also in keeping with his four-letter names, i.e. FF Meta, FF Unit). FF Real is a convincing re-interpretation of the German grotesque style, but with much more warmth and improved legibility. With a hint towards the warmer American grotesques, Spiekermann added those typical Anglo-American features such as a three-story ‘g’ and an ‘8’ with a more defined loop. To better distinguish characters in small text sizes, FF Real Text comes in old style figures, ‘f’ and ‘t’ are wider, the capital ‘I’ is equipped with serifs, as is the lowercase ‘l’. What’s more, i-dots and all punctuation are round.

FF Real is a convincing re-interpretation of the German grotesque style from between 1998 and 1908, but with much more warmth and improved legibility as well as a hint towards the warmer American grotesques. Later on, not just slanted styles, but a “proper” italic version was added inspired by the way Roman and Italic are distinguished in traditional serif faces. NEW: a specially created set of obliques were added in 2018 to give designers more design flexibility, for those looking for a less calligraphic look. In 2020 the family was extended with matching condensed weights. FF Real was originally conceived by Erik Spiekermann as one text weight and one headline weight to be used as the only faces in his biography ‘Hello I am Erik’, edited by Johannes Erler, published in 2014. While Spiekermann drew the alphabets, he passed on the font data to Ralph du Carrois and Anja Meiners who cleaned it up and completed it. In the meantime, FF Real has been extended to a family of two styles and 65 weights each. The design of FF Real is rooted in early static grotesques from the turn of the century. Several German type foundries – among them the Berlin-based foundries Theinhardt and H. Berthold AG – released such designs between 1898 and 1908. The semi-bold weight of a poster-size typeface that was lighter than most of the according semi-bolds in metal type at the time, gave the impetus to FF Real’s regular weight. In the words of Spiekermann, the historical example is “the real, non-fake version, as it were, the royal sans serif face“, thus giving his new typeface the name “Real” (which is also in keeping with his four-letter names, i.e. FF Meta, FF Unit). FF Real is a convincing re-interpretation of the German grotesque style, but with much more warmth and improved legibility. With a hint towards the warmer American grotesques, Spiekermann added those typical Anglo-American features such as a three-story ‘g’ and an ‘8’ with a more defined loop. To better distinguish characters in small text sizes, FF Real Text comes in old style figures, ‘f’ and ‘t’ are wider, the capital ‘I’ is equipped with serifs, as is the lowercase ‘l’. What’s more, i-dots and all punctuation are round.