Years ago, I developed an interest in the Japanese art of dwarfed potted trees, bonsai. I bought some books on the subject from Brooklyn Botanic Garden. In one -- Handbook on Bonsai: Special Techniques (seventh printing, February 1976) -- the type was bad. Old worn lead type, I suspect, spread wide in the tops of characters and disappearing on the bottoms. Two decades later, I came across my Brooklyn Botanic Garden collection and was struck again by this interesting type. Inspired, I made a typeface. Didn't take me long to decide on a name for it, either: a name with a double-meaning, based both on its look and its inspiration. Bonsai, the typeface, has two styles, a roman and a true italic.

Throughout time, history’s architects have incorporated some of the finest illustrations of type into their great works--cuneiform on Mesopotamian ziggurats; Greek etched into the temples of the gods; inscriptions marking the monuments of mighty Rome. From these Roman inscriptions specifically, we take our capital letters of today; and while we've lost the need for serifs over time, our current characters maintain the classical foundations, even after being distilled to their simplistic forms. Here’s where we have the basis for Le Havre Titling. This updated face is a carefully optimized version of Le Havre that uses purely capital lettering. Originally inspired by the golden period of the passenger ship and the French port that bid a rich bon voyage to so many famed, luxurious ocean liners of the Roaring Twenties and Thirties, the typeface includes an exciting array of ligatures that brings it into the present day and gives designers a tremendous amount of versatility in their work. With its seven weights, Titling looks equally at home on the side of a building as it does in a finely crafted invitation. With over five hundred glyphs, Le Havre Titling offers a multiplicity of options for your projects. Combine ligatures, play around with two sets of art deco forms, use original caps, and more; every one of these is obtainable with the OpenType functionality. The new design also shares five weights with the original Le Havre, allowing you to maximize your potential through its interchangeability. Titling’s Thin weights are delicate but not too fragile, and its geometric forms give each individual composition you create an exquisite and beautiful sense of emotion. Without a doubt, this fresh, fashionable take on the classical forms offers your reader refined, yet unanticipated approach as he or she travels through your text.

Raclette grills are an ingenious Swiss invention. This tabletop grill is used to cook raclette cheese, a unique sort of cheese produced by the happy cows of Valais. Swiss designer Michael Parson created a typeface in 2002 that speaks endearingly to his hearty homeland tradition - endearingly enough, he named it Raclette. Raclette most likely started out as a bold, condensed sans serif. But then, just as one pulls little trays off of a raclette grill, Parsons quickly removed many rectilinear bits from the edges of each letter. Text set in Raclette looks like an old brick wall, or perhaps like a raclette party for several hundred people, that ended an hour ago! Raclette is one of ten of Michael Parson's experiments in type design featured in the Take Type 5 collection from Linotype GmbH."

Qonora is an innovative new sans-serif text face that combines flowing, almost calligraphic strokes with a post-modern sensibility for a look that works as well on the printed page as it does on screen. Its comfortable proportions and no-nonsense streamlining (note the lack of spurs, serifs or any unnecessary ornamentation) make it an excellent choice for legibility even at very small point sizes. Qonora includes a true italic, drawn independently from the Roman. Strokes for the italic have been re-weighted to complement the Roman, and idiosyncratic italic glyphs have been substituted where appropriate. The typeface’s extensive Hebrew implementation (including diacritics and cantillation marks) is an important part of its character. The Latin, Cyrillic and Greek ranges of the face maintain a consistent ethic of form and function.

Years ago, by happenstance, designers Nancy Mazzei and Brian Kelly found an old decrepit typewriter in an abandoned lot with tall grass in Brooklyn. They kept it around their apartment for two years. Then one day they decided that it was time to move and they planned to throw the old typewriter away. But it was so beautiful they wanted to keep at least a part of it. So they decided on keeping the keys. They kept the keys in a brown bag until one fine day the keys were introduced to a camera. It was a match made in heaven that resulted in some beautiful quirky images of typewriter keys. These images were the inspiration for Backspacer. They were scanned, traced and turned into a working typeface by Zuzana Licko.

This set of letters and ornaments is loosely based on on a typeface that was offered by the DeVinne Press at the turn of the century. We can speculate from its name that this type was used as a display font to try to equate the look of letters on 15th and ­16th century heraldic cartouches, seals, stamps, medals and other inscriptional lettering. The sample was digitized with an “antiqued” outline to further enhance this ancient inscriptional theme. The letters were then grouped in the font with the more traditional Roman letters as the capitals and the Lombardic forms as the miniscules. The original type sample contained some unusual 15th century inscriptional numbers which have been included as extras in the font so the user the has the option to create an authentic looking design.

Kris is a powerful typeface based on humanistic minuscule with a touch of Uncial script. An alphabet with an unusual appearance. It is based on the paradigm of classical handwriting. Kris is handwritten with a broad nib pen and ordinary black ink. The somewhat fanciful shapes are created by lifting the pen randomly left and right. This causes unpredictable frayed edges that make the typeface exciting. It bursts with character and is very versatile. Kris is written by the Dutch calligraphy artist Corrie Smetsers. Corrie threw all basic characters in a plastic bag and René Verkaart built the typeface and created all remaining characters. “Most special about this project was collaborating with Corrie. She's an expert in handwriting and has developed writing systems for the educational sector for decades”, René says.

Fimfarum is a word that the Czech actor and writer Jan Werich created for one of his magical fairy tales for children and adults. Fimfarum is also the name of this playful typeface equipped with various styles simulating the randomness of handwriting. You can choose to select and combine different styles either using an all-in-one pro font in an OpenType-savvy application, or with a 10 fonts family pack. Fimfarum Pro also offers an automatic random effect. The OpenType contextual alternates feature can randomly mix narrow, wide and bold characters. You can specify how through various stylistic sets. For more details, check the Fimfarum Typeface Manual. With this versatile tool your designing possibilities are immense. Well, this is Fimfarum. You can download the instruction PDF here.

Terrance Weinzierl's Terry Junior typeface is a perfectly imperfect design – one that retains the marks of the brush used to create it and harks back to the craft required to hand make letterforms. Originally drawn during a Monotype Font Marathon, Weinzierl later refined the typeface digitally – adding an Inline version and designing alternates that replicate the irregularity of real-life brush scripts. “It has a natural, cheery and bold appearance,” says designer Terrance Weinzierl. “It's young, but not wild. Painted, but not sloppy. A sign painter's apprentice, perhaps.” Terry Junior is an obvious choice for designers and brands communicating with younger audiences, but would also work well on book covers, packaging, and in digital environments that need a little bit of extra playfulness. The family includes five fonts, including an Inline version.

Dorriss girls were the dancing troop at the Moulin Rouge. I had the idea for this font while trying to come up with an alternative to beveling. I thought it would be interesting to create this sort of stepped effect as I've never really seen this treatment on a font before. Then my need to create chaos shows up again with Doriss Girls informal. A hand drawn take on the forms. This seemed like it would appear on an old art nouveau poster by the great Toulouse Lautrec, so there you have the genesis of this font. I've been somewhat compelled by the letterforms so I may expand and create a more normal version of this font someday with a range of weights. That would be the bees knees.

Signal1885 is the abbreviated name for "(Sig)nature Jour(nal)" a font that harkens back to an era, when fine handwriting filled journals with observations of science and adventure. Intimate and reflective of an individual entering his thoughts in his personal journal or a ship’s captain documenting his voyage on a daily basis. Signal1885 is penmanship that reflects hand forms from by-gone days. Its a minimal glyph set which can be used at various sizes as small as 18 points. It includes a selection of ink drips and smudges, that are the “mark” of a hand done entry. These can be placed in strategic places on the type to indicate a hand dragging through or dripping fresh ink on to the paper. Set sail- and keep a diary of your voyage.

The inspiration source for MFC Falconer Monogram is an unusual hand-drawn design from a vintage embroidery publication which relies on rigid geometric letterforms to create an upward stepping framework. This monogram which evokes visions of it embossed or printed on antique baking tins was originally intended to adorn handkerchiefs, but the possibilities of its use are up to your imagination. This is one of many monogram designs from the early 1900’s which fall into a two letter format that is either adorned or interwoven decorative elements. Download and view the MFC Falconer Guidebook if you would like to learn a little more. MFC Falconer Monogram comes complete with Pro format fonts. You will require with programs that can take advantage of OpenType features contained within the Pro fonts.

Simah Arabic typeface Simah Arabic is an Arabic typeface that supports Arabic. It has a warm and humane feeling. It's legible, soft, clear, flexible, simple, and contemporary. With a handful set of OpenType features and alternatives. It has an expressive character with its friendly shapes. It's legible, Clear, Flexible, Simple, Modern. With a handful set of Open Type features and alternatives. The design is inspired by the Kufic calligraphic style and influenced by the Naskh style. Simah Arabic is highly crafted in order to perform well both on screen and in print. it functions well even on small font sizes. It has a wide range of use possibilities headlines, logotypes, branding, books, magazines, motion graphics, and use on the web and Tv. Simah Arabic consists of five weights

Simah pro Arabic is an Arabic typeface from simah family type family It has a warm and humane feeling. It's legible, soft, clear, flexible, simple, and contemporary. With a handful set of OpenType features and alternatives. It has an expressive character with its friendly shapes. It's legible, Clear, Flexible, Simple, Modern. With a handful set of Open Type features and alternatives. The design is inspired by the Kufic calligraphic style and influenced by the Naskh style. Simah is highly crafted in order to perform well both on screen and in print. it functions well even on small font sizes. It has a wide range of use possibilities headlines, logotypes, branding, books, magazines, motion graphics, and use on the web and Tv. Simah Simah pro Arabic consists of five weights

Inspired on posters by the extraordinary polish artist Leszek Żebrowski, Polygraph is a highly unusual face. Packed with eccentric alternates, it is an all-caps font with four exchangeable variations for each letter. These alternates are programmed to cycle when the font is used in OpenType-savvy programs, creating a random effect on glyphs distribution. The resulting pieces are truly outstanding, with an audacious handmade twist. To achieve this, just turn on the contextual alternates feature and play – you can easily try different glyphs sequences by adding spaces before words. When you need a more well-behaved look, but still with a subtle hand-drawn flair, turn off the contextual alternates and set text in uppercase. Polygraph comes in two weights, for added flexibility. But be warned: it’s quite addictive!

Lina round is an Arabic typeface from Lina type family, it has an expressive character with its round and friendly shapes. It's Round, legible, Clear, Flexible, Simple, Modern. With a handful set of OpenType features and alternatives. Lina type family consists of Lina soft, Lina sans, Lina round. the design is inspired by the Kufic calligraphic style and influenced by the Naskh style. Lina round was highly crafted in order to perform well both on screen and in print. The large x-height and open counters make it function well even on small font sizes. It has a wide range of use possibilities headlines, logotypes, branding, books, magazines, motion graphics, and use on the web and Tv. Lina round consists of 7-weight versions from thin to bold.

Claudium started as an attempt to create a sans serif version of Garamond. As time went on it gradually became a meditation on the nature of French typography from Garamond to Excoffon. It was especially influenced by Cassandre's type for the Orly airport which seems to epitomize certain aspects of the French character�at least in typography. Attempts to create an italic met with disaster. Gradually, after lots of Cotes du Rhone, a cursive, based on Garamond�s Greek forms, emerged. It came at a time when I was looking at lot at Victor Hammer�s uncial and Andromaque cursive. So Claudium Cursive was developed as a lower case only and mated to the Claudium Regular caps ala Griffo�s original italic type. In keeping with the cursive lowercase there are cursive oldstyle numbers.

Decima Mono – condensed geometric monospaced Sans Serif typeface, released back in 2009 and quite successful ever since (MyFonts Rising Star, February 2009). This new edition is an upgraded version of Decima Mono and Decima Mono X, combining both into one edition. New version supports more Latin languages with an extension to glyph amounts. Also, six more alternate styles have been added to the original six styles.

Corona was designed by C.H. Griffith and appeared with Mergenthaler Linotype in 1941. It is a part of Griffith’s Legibility Group’, on which he began working in 1922 and which contains typefaces especially well-suited to newsprint. Corona is based on forms of the Ionic type, perhaps the first style designed specifically for newspapers. The font is relatively small but gives an impression of strength and modernity.

HOKKIEN is an all caps sister to my other font Penang. It was inspired by some old pieces of Art Deco signage I had discovered in Penang Malaysia, The font is available in one weight for now. The font is loaded with plenty of foreign extras and currency symbols. I have also included an alternate cap S which works better visually in blocks of copy.

A page from an 1880s type specimen book presented a unique "Barnum"-like design with top horizontal lines much thinner than the bottom ones. Titled "Ten Line Antique Compressed No. 7", the design transcends the years; for it's not only an antique wood type font, but is also reminiscent of the 1960s hippie counterculture movement. Antique Unique JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Agafia handwriting script is based on the hand of Agafia Karpovna Lykova - the last member of the Old Believer family lived like an hermit in the Khakass taiga. The face is developed for the new book on the history of Lykov's family by Lev Cherepanov. It's built in OpenType format with a contextual substitution of letterforms and specific ligatures. Designer - Gennady Fridman. Released by ParaType in 2009.

Introducing vintage label font duo named Rodeo Drive. This typeface was inspired by various signs and lettering from the Wild West.This font has an additional characters and multilungual support (check out all available characters on previews). Font family has four styles: Regular, Texture, Extrude and Extrude FX. This font will look good on any western styled designs like a poster, T-shirt, label, logo, etc.

This whimsical typeface is based on an untitled work by William Hugh Gordon in his 1931 book, Lettering for Commercial Purposes. If you are looking for a font to add warmth and quirky charm to a project, this is the one. Both versions of this font contain complete Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

Norden Retro Round is based on Norden Round, but Retro comes with an added perspective, giving it a "retro-futuristic" look. It has a lower x-height than its parent, due to it being slightly tilted. Norden Retro Round can be used in any setting, but given its lively style, it will excel as a display font; in headings, titlings, logos and so on.

A handwritten font with long conections and small aperture and counter, a graceful and fresh rhythm to catch the eye attention. This script family is based on italian “bella scrittura”. The letterforms have been careful designed to grant this typeface with an effortless sense. Check the Opentype features window and discover an extended set of swashes to help you to give emphasis to the message.

Sovereign Display is a decorative all caps headline face in one style with small caps on the lower case positions. Thin horizontal crossrules underpinned by a heavier solid shadow give the typeface a prominent three dimensional appearance and an air of formal distinction. Ornate and iconic, Sovereign Display is perfect for certificates, manuscripts, titling or anything requiring a more sombre, elaborate or engraved slab serif style.

Matryoshka is a display layering type family which is inspired by the Russian wooden doll. The family contains eight different weights from XXS (thin) to XXL (fat) + Pregnant (all in one). The design is based on an elaborate and complex grid, so each font fits perfectly into the other. With the Matryoshka family the typographer can create millions of new solutions. Play with it!

Fusion Slab was developed based on Fusion Sans Pro, as an amalgamation of traditional early nineteenth-century letters. Fusion Slab is a family of 3 weights with very tall x-height which is suitable for long headlines. On the other hand, its ascenders and descenders are extremely short so text lines can be set with a very low leading value. It provides support for Latin and Greek.

We are introducing an advanced version of the Pulchella font released and received great exposure from users and worldwide font enthusiasts. The massive development puts forward experimentation on the alternate letters. We redesign each shape to make it more functional and comfortable when text size escalation occurs. In addition to rejuvenating the letterform, we also apply an oblique style to provide diverse style choices.

Gjallarhorn is based on uncial-style lettering by artist Willy Pogany from his titles for Padraig Colum's classic collection of Scandinavian myths, The Children of Odin. It has various peculiar letter forms, and the font includes two or more different versions of many of the characters. An excellent example of stylized hand lettering by one of the great decorative artists of the Art Nouveau period.

Willy is a typeface with a wink. This display font is based on existing piquant form from the immediate vicinity. It is sexy, if you have an eye for. But it also should not be taken too seriously, especially because it has a humorous slant. The font has its origins in an art project. It is now made available for design around festifals, parties, invitations, etc.

Typefaces designated as Latins were popular during the last half of the nineteenth century. One of the styles that continued to be popular into the twentieth century is the bold condensed typeface Latin. Readily identifiable by its triangular serifs and sharp terminals on the strokes of some of the lowercase letters, Latin Condensed makes an interesting display type and its condensed proportions easily solve copyfitting problems.

It's not a new idea, but it's always a fun one... a typeface comprised of 35mm film frames. Film Crew JNL is Jeff Levine's version, utilizing his Koehler Sans JNL as the lettering inside the frames. The lesser and greater keys have solid black frames for end caps or word spacing, and there's an alternate pair of frames with clear centers on the brace keys.

Greetings! We are introducing an advanced version of the Pulchella font released and received great exposure from users and worldwide font enthusiasts. The massive development puts forward experimentation on the alternate letters. We redesign each shape to make it more functional and comfortable when text size escalation occurs. In addition to rejuvenating the letterform, we also apply an oblique style to provide diverse style choices.

An all singing, all dancing performer, Showbiz is the perfect font for those who want to sprinkle a little stardust on their typography and give a sense of occasion to their special announcements. It's an in-line version of Studio K's Red Top, Export Drive and Soft Rock, with which it shares the same basic outline and metrics. Mix and match them to stunning effect!

Typefaces designated as Latins were popular during the last half of the nineteenth century. One of the styles that continued to be popular into the twentieth century is the bold condensed typeface Latin. Readily identifiable by its triangular serifs and sharp terminals on the strokes of some of the lowercase letters, Latin Condensed makes an interesting display type and its condensed proportions easily solve copyfitting problems.

On the sheet music cover of the 1931 song "When the Autumn Leaves of Life Begin to Fall", the title is hand-lettered using a round tipped nib pen. The combination of both an Art Deco lettering style and the rounded ends of the characters creates an exquisite, yet simple type design digitally preserved as Deco Roundpoint JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

Note is a fresh and dynamic hand writing font. Inspired by graffitti and street style writing, executed using a flat tip calligraphy pen. The typeface is hand drawn on paper, then the resulting alphabets and punctuation scanned in and rendered to create the font. The resulting characters are bold yet energetic with an obvious human touch creating an interesting and original hand drawn typeface.