Designed for the printing of a magazine, the Fontana Sistema was based fundamentally on the Spanish language as its natural and cultural context. Due to the spanish colonization of America, the spanish language has been influenced by native american terms that enriched it and caused significant changes in both the sound and form of words. These sounds and forms had a strong influence on the identity of text, substantially modifying the nature and the characteristics of the composition. The Fontana Sistema we present is the fruit of our desire to design a font that, based on the spanish language, would endow the publication with identity and at the same time offer a framework for typographic research.

After doing this for so many years, one would think my fascination with the old history of writing would have mellowed out by now. The truth is that alongside being a calligraphy history buff, I'm a pop technology freak. Maybe even keener on the tech thing, since I just can't seem to get enough new gadgets. And after working with type technologies for so many years, I'm starting to think that writing and design technologies as we now know them, being about 2.5 post-computer generations, keep becoming more and more detached from what the very old humanity arts/tasks they essentially want to facilitate. In a world where command-z is a frequently used key combination, it’s difficult to justify expecting a Morris-made book or a Zaner-drawn sentence, but accidental artistic “mutations” become welcome, marketable features. When fluid pens were introduced, their liquid saturation influenced type design to a great extent almost overnight an influence professional designers tend to play down. Now round stroke endings are a common sight, and the saturation is so clean and measured, unlike any liquid-paper relationship possible in reality. Some designers even illustrate their work by overlaying perfect circles at stroke ends, in order to illustrate how “geometric” their work was. Because if it’s measured with precise geometry, it’s got to be meaningful design. And once in a while, by a total freak accident, the now-cherished mutations prove to have existed long before the technology that caused them. Rolling Pen was cued by just such a thing: A rounded, circular, roll-flowing calligraphy from the late nineteenth century seemingly one of those experimental takes on what inspired Business Penmanship, another font of mine. Looking at it now it certainly seems to be friendlier, more legible, and maybe even more practical and easier to execute than the standard business penmanship of those days, but I guess friendliness and simplicity were at odds with the stiff manner business liked to present itself back then, so that kind of thing remained buried in the professional penman’s oddities drawer. It would be quite a few years before all this curviness and rounding were thought of as symbolic of graceful movement, which brought such a flow closer to the idea of fine art. Even though in this case the accidental mutation just happens to not be a mutation after all, the whole technology-transforms-application argument still applies here. I'm almost sure “business” will be the last thing on people’s minds when they use this font today. One extreme example of that level of disconnect between origin and current application is shown here, with the so-called business penmanship strutting around in gloss and neon. Rolling Pen is another cup of mine that runneth over with alternates, swashes, ligatures, and other techy perks. To explore its full potential, please use it in a program that supports OpenType features for advanced typography. Enjoy the new Rolling Pen designed by Ale Paul with Neon’s visual poetry by Tomás García.

"I digitized and to revitalize NurnbergSchwabacher by the extinct Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei, a German/Swiss foundry established in 1790 and based in Basel/Münchenstein. Many of its shares were acquired by D. Stempel in 1927. On the Luc Devroye site this foundry is listed on the Extinct Foundries of the 18th century page. This design is very similar to another Intellecta best seller: Hostetler Fette Ultfraktur Ornamental, both drawn from the classical type specimen book from Hostetler. The ornamental frame that completes the font is a fantastic baroque ornament that I found in another old book, unfortunately lost now. Luc Devroye, whose book is the source for all of my fonts, writes this about Rudolf Hostettler: He was a Swiss type designer, author of “The Printer’s Terms” designed by Jan Tschichold, of "Technical Terms of the Printing Industry" (5th edition was printed in 1995), and of "Type: eine Auswahl guter Drucktypen; 80 Alphabete klassischer und moderner Schriften" (Teufen, Ausser-Rhoden: Niggli, 1958). He also wrote "Type: A Selection of Types" (1949, fgm books, R. Hostettler, E. Kopley, H. Strehler Publ., St. Gallen and London) in which he highlights type made by European houses such as Haas, Enschedé, Deberny and Nebiolo. Jost Hochuli wrote his biography.

Idiom is an extra-condensed, tightly spaced display face with congruent forms exuding a strong sense of rhythm and elevation. The basic stenciled geometric shapes are reminiscent of the decorative style found with P22 Albers and Futura Black. Careful consideration of each letter's construction, relative to all characters, lends Idiom a decided sense of cohesion and sophistication. The included non-traditional 'weights' (Medium and Bold) are completely blacked out, creating entirely new letterforms that exhibit a very stark, contemporary sense. Increasing the versatility of the Idiom family, a selection of OpenType features allow access to a set of contrasting linear punctuation forms, unconventional ligatures, case-sensitive punctuation and more. Features include: Basic Ligature set including 'f' ligatures (ae, oe, fi, fl, ff, fh, fj, ft, fa, ct, st, rt, ot, ta, sa, mi, si, vi, su, oc, oo, ru, ib) Alternate characters (M, W, T, ß, _, $, @, (), {}, [], /, \, |, -, –, —, +, -, ±, ≤, ≥, , «, », and more) Case forms (shifts various punctuation marks vertically to a position that works better with all-capital sequences, in this case the numerals or letters with ascenders) Slashed zero Full set of numerators/denominators and superscript/subscript Automatic fraction feature (supports any fraction combination) Extended language support (Latin-1 and Latin Extended-A) *Requires an application with OpenType and/or Unicode support.

Art Gothic was attributed to the Central Type Foundry of St. Louis, Missouri, USA by Henry Lewis Bullen, writing in INLAND PRINTER in 1907, with a reproduction shown in Kelly’s American Wood Type. The typeface appears on the cover of an issue of “The Superior Printer” pictured in Typology by Heller and Fili dated in the 1870s. Art Gothic was designed in 1884 by Gustav Schroeder and proved to be one of the more popular and enduring of the American-designed Victorian display faces of the period, appearing frequently in ads in various publications. The Hamilton Mfg. Co showed a very similar wood type, No. 232, with a modified and rather heavy-handed upper case in 1892. As late as 1897, it may be found in the advertising section of The Ivy of Trinity College of Hartford, Connecticut and was included in the Norwood Press 1902 Specimen Book. Our font includes a complement of five upper case and four lower case alternatives as follows: 123=C, 125=E, 135=H, 137=S, 172=c, 175=e, 215=m and 247=s. Great for period pieces. ART GOTHIC HIH is clean, readable, and surprisingly modern-looking; unlike so many overly complex Victorian display fonts, it can be used in text sizes.

Tradewinds JNL is based on one of many innovative alphabets designed by the late Alf R. Becker for Signs of the Times magazine between the 1930s and 1950s. Thanks go to Tod Swormstedt of ST Media (who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio) for supplying the reference material used to make this font.

The typeface was designed at ParaType (ParaGraph) in 1993 by Vladimir Yefimov based on Herold Reclameschrift by Heinz Hoffman of H. Berthold (Berlin), 1901, and Russian Herold typeface of the Berthold typefoundry (St. Petersburg). The bold style based on Herold Heavy of H. Berthold (Berlin), 1904, of the same designer. Advertising and headline typeface in Art Nouveau style.

The Greek-influenced hand lettering on a 1930s WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster for the Federal Theater presentation of "Trojan Incident" inspired Euripedes JNL. The play was based on Homer and Euripedes, and was presented at the off-Broadway St. James Theatre (which opened in 1927 at 246 W. 44th Street on the site of the original Sardi's restaurant).

The typeface was designed at ParaType (ParaGraph) in 1993 by Tagir Safayev. Based on Placard typeface (Hermes Grotesk) of the Lange type foundry (St.-Petersburg), an adaptation of Hermes Grotesk, of the Woellmer type foundry (Berlin, middle of the 19th century). This sans serif with its old-fashion stability looks well in advertising and display typography.

This loopy offering is patterned after a typeface from the 1888 specimen book from the Central Type Foundry of St. Louis, called simply "Spiral". The ragged contours on the original face have been smoothed out, but it still is an attention-getter. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode Latin 1252 and Central European 1250 character sets.

Praitor is based on a devotional inscription to the goddess Diana found a short distance from Rome in 1887. It is an early style from before 100 BC and has some characteristics of Etruscan lettering. It's a rough, strong font which works very well for distinctive titles.

Wood Condensed Grotesk JNL is a more condensed version of the type style found in Wood Type Grotesk JNL. The font was a popular sans used for large posters or broadsheets as well as newspaper titles where more copy needed to be fit into limited space.

The design of Pelin, which began as an experiment, inspired by the harmony created by the contrast between the soft, flowing movements and sharp movements found in Circassian dances. To capture this harmony, both curved and sharp lines were used along with stems that contrasting angles.

Here's another old-timer that needed a lowercase, so we drew one. Originally issued as a caps-only type by The American Type Founders Company about 1898, this font found its way into Craftsman period design. It was the inspiration for Galadriel, a dry transfer sheet alphabet.

Another experimental typeface by Marshall. This typeface is almost difficult to read but that is almost the point. It features words or almost enclosed circles as well as thick strokes around the letter forms. The font has an mysterious edge while providing shock to whomever views it.

In a vintage photograph, promotional signage outside an old theater for the 1929 early sound film “The Doctor’s Secret” had lettering in a wide, bold Art Nouveau slab serif design. This was the model for Talking Picture JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

This delightful new design has a friendly, open face and will be useful for many display purposes. Due to the modular nature of this design there may be a very slight lack of smoothness to the curves at extremely large point sizes (around 200 pt and above).

This bold display font has considerable strength and will grace any design that requires extra impact. Due to the modular nature of this design there may be a very slight lack of smoothness to the curves at extremely large point sizes (around 100 pt and above).

Pomponianus comes from a 4th century inscription found in North Africa. It is an attractive example of early uncial lettering. Uncial inscriptions are quite uncommon, because although the style was well suited for writing on vellum, the curved letters made it more difficult to carve in stone.

Pigalle Swing is a very elegant script from the 1950s which I found some time ago in a similar but not so elegant version on Place Pigalle in Paris. I designed lots of alternate capitals and lowercase letters to make the font more usable and interesting. Enjoy!

Raw was designed in 2006 for Shelter, the UK homeless charity. It was originally called “Cathy”, after the film “Cathy Come Home”, which was instrumental in inspiring the founding of the charity. Now reworked with more “inkiness”, it is released as part of the Device range.

A handsome font, perhaps a little classical. Regularly-connected script, so it’s legible but also memorable font. Holiday Type Project offers retro hand drawing scripts. Inspired by retro script on shopfront lettering, wall paint advertisements in Italy around 1950s. Check out the script fonts from Holiday Type!

I like posh English words - the ones you read in books, but actually never use. Erstwhile is such a word; it means ‘former’, but if you use it while talking to someone, it sounds quite odd. Erstwhile is a classy font family - crafted in Holland (with love!).

Yet another one of those romantic looking fonts. The lowercase looks pretty ordinary, while the uppercase swings around with a mixture of tagging / grunge / comicscript and casual handwriting. It works out extremely well with letters and stuff!. For fun, try writing in uppercase only...looks swell!!

Woodpecker is a self-confident, sturdy caps-only sans serif design imitating grained wood created and digitized by German type designer Ralph M. Unger for the profonts library. Woodpecker is perfectly suited for any graphic work around timber, lumber, prperty markets, carpenter, furniture and so on.

Melusine is based on an ornate style of gothic calligraphy used primarily in decorative signs and advertising in Germany around the turn of the century. It has many of the characteristics of a true medieval gothic hand, but is a more elaborate, extreme variaton on the style.

Stars & Type is a display font inspired by a road trip around the USA. It is bold, abstract and experimental and is meant for attention grabbing large headlines. Utilising stars to give a sense of Americana, it would be suited to editorial, advertising and display typography.

Hebrew Latino was started out of frustration. I could not find a font that looked like Hebrew - actually I found one, but it had only capitals. So I decided to make my own. Strangely enough it looks a little bit Jugendstylish! Here it is. Shalom! Gert Wiescher

Springfield is a narrow, western-style display face from Bob McGrath. The design recalls wood types that were popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but which also found resonance during the 1970s. Use Springfield to liven up otherwise dull headline and logo projects.

Here's a refined version of Grange, released by Edinburgh's Miller & Richards foundry just around the turn of the twentieth century. A bit quirky with a lot of warmth. Both flavors of this font feature the 1252 Latin, 1250 Central European, 1254 Turkish and 1257 Baltic character sets.

Chocolate Bar JNL emulates hand-lettering on the sheet music for a song selection called "Shoe Shine Boy" from Connie's Hot Chocolates of 1936 (an all-black musical revue). The lettering was not found in the song's title, but rather in the name of the show itself.

I found an old typewriter and well... Typewriter BasiX is the result. Enjoy this rough retro looking design to use for your digital or print project and also check out Typewriter Revo, the clean version of Typewriter BasiX, and Typewriter DirtY, an even rougher and dirtier version.

"Overmind Demond" is a striking display font designed with a futuristic theme in mind. Its sleek and modern letterforms exude a sense of technological advancement and innovation, making it a perfect choice for a wide array of design projects centered around futuristic concepts or space exploration.

This is our name for Antique Tuscan, of which there were many variations. This font came from a large lot purchased around 1970 from an east coast newspaper shop. Subsequently, we acquired several more versions of the face, but this one had lowercase so we used it.

Sometimes lettering without any frills or formality gets a message across better than the use of fancier typefaces. The simple charm of the hand-lettered phrase "Safety Comes First" found on a vintage WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster served as the model for Basic Lettering JNL.

Designed by Peter Behrens, well known graphic artist and architect in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th century. This "Antiqua" was done for Rudhard's Typefoundry in Offenbach A. M. around 1902, and has been used in modern times for museum retrospectives of the designer's work.

The movie trailer for the1936 film "After the Thin Man" is filled with text lettered in this classic Art Deco condensed typeface. Sleuth JNL seems the appropriate name for this digital revival, as the romantic comedy centers around detective Nick Charles' and his wife Nora's adventures.

Favorite Stencil JNL is inspired by and modeled after the classic hot metal typeface "Ludlow Stencil"; a design that enjoyed popularity around the 1950s and is not to be confused with Ludlow's similarly-named "Stencil" which was released in 1937. Available in both regular and oblique versions.

A 1930s casual Art Deco type style with as much influence in 1970s graphic design as in its day was found within the pages of the 1930s French publication L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre. Discotheque JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.