The Bauer Typefoundry first released the Beton family of types in 1936. Created by the German type designer Heinrich Jost, the present digital version of the Beton family consists of six slab serif typefaces. First developed during the early 1800s, by the 1930s slab serif faces had become one of many stock styles of type developed by foundries all over the world. Because of their distance from pen-drawn forms and their industrial appearance, they were seen as “modern” typefaces. (Their serifs kept them from being too modern.) The first slab serif typefaces were outgrowths of didone style text faces (e.g., Walbaum). As newspapers and advertising grew in importance in the western world (especially in “Wild West” America), type founders and printers began to create bigger, bolder typefaces, which would set large headlines apart from text, and each other. Through display tactics, businesses and industry could begin to visually differentiate their products from one another. This craze eventually led to the development of monster sized wood type, among other things. By the 20th Century, the typographic establishment had begun to tame, categorize, and codify 19th Century type styles. It was in the wake of this environment that Jost developed Beton. The Beton family is a type “family” in a pre-1950s sense of the word. Although six styles of type are available, only four of them fit in logical progression with each other (Beton Light, Beton Demi Bold, Beton Bold, and Beton Extra Bold). The other two members of the family, Beton Bold Condensed and Beton Bold Compressed, are more like distant cousins. They function better as single headlines to text set in Beton Light or Beton Demi Bold, of as companions to totally separate typefaces.

Stockroom JNL is the companion sans serif stencil font to Delivered JNL. Bolder and wider, it commands more attention.

The Futura Black font, related to the Futura font family is boldly geometric and has detached strokes suggesting stencil lettering.

Tall, condensed and square in shape... Slim James JNL balances well against bolder Deco-style sans or novelty type faces.

Hand-lettered script with alternate characters. Looks especially nice when used in conjunction with bolder letter styles for good contrast.

ALS Direct is an open and dynamic typeface with clear-cut letterforms that make it instantly readable. It lends text a neutral, yet agreeable and modern feel. Direct has nine font styles convenient for the purposes of navigation signage. Regular-style letterforms are rather wide, because direction signs are likely to appear before readers at an angle, so the type needs to withstand perspective distortions. And as signs and boards may vary in size, Direct was developed to include several width variations. Condensed fonts can be used where horizontal space is limited, allowing you to keep proper height and readability of the characters. A signage typeface must be easily readable from some distance away and have simple letterfoms with clear-cut features to quickly identify characters. Designing a type for a potentially wide range of purposes calls for a universal approach. If not destined to be used for navigation in a particular building, it shouldn’t incorporate any peculiar elements to agree with certain design or architecture. All of the above determined our choice of a sans serif with large apertures and definite features allowing readers to instantly recognize letters. Descenders are made compact not to interfere with the line below. And the low contrast between thick and thin strokes renders all elements equally perceptible. The x-height is significant, close to the cap height, which inhances readability of the lowercase type. There are two reasons why directions must not be set in all caps. Firstly, lowercase letters are more diverse and include ascenders and descenders identifying some of the letters in the line. And secondly, having learned to read, people recognize word shapes rather than individual letters, which makes lowercase text more readable. With Direct being a signage typeface, first to be developed were its width variations, and different weight styles and italics were added later. Another thing to be kept in mind was that signs often use dark background colors, and black type on a white background appears smaller than white type on a black background. Direct is the first Cyrillic typeface created for navigation purposes. Before that, designers could use the Cyrillic version of Frutiger (Freeset) developed by Adrian Frutiger for the Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport, and a number of other, mostly body copy, neutral sans serif types. However, signs and boards were dominated by Arial, which Direct would be glad to replace offering elegance and lucidity of form instead of type bluntess. Direct was designed as a signage typeface, but its neutral style and clear-cut letterforms suggest various other ways of application.

Oktah Round Overview: 1600+ characters per font 16 static fonts 1 variable fonts Extensive OpenType features Support for 220+ Languages (Latin & Cyrillic) Special Symbols, Alternate Sets, and Features Free Trial Fonts Available Oktah Round is a rounded version of Oktah Neue. Oktah Round is soft and friendly, modern and warm. It's a typeface that combines human touch with high functionality. Oktah Round comes equipped with 1600+ characters per font and is available in 16 styles (from Thin to Black), and as a variable font that allows you to change weight and slant angle. Oktah Round supports more than 200 Latin languages and has amazing support for Cyrillic languages like Bulgarian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Macedonian, Russian, and others. Relying heavily on the geometric forms and proportions first introduced in Oktah, this rounded version does more than just smooth out a few corners. To make curves sharper and more uniform, some terminals were modified. Other visual features (like curving tails in 'l' and 't') were dropped to create more clear cut look. Oktah Round is perfectly balanced and finely tuned to be the font you'd want to use again and again. The variety or styles and availability of a variable font give Oktah Round a potential to be used across multiple mediums. Oktah Round supports most Latin based languages, it also has support for Extended Cyrillic. The remainder of the extensive 1600+ glyph character set is reserved for punctuation, numbers, special symbols, and all sorts of additional symbols like squared numbers, geometric shapes, etc. All characters are evenly spaced and carefully kerned, so that there are no overlaps or glaring gaps in any language. OpenType features include Legible Alternates, Case Sensitive Punctuation, Fractions, Sub- and Superscript, Black and White Circled Figures, Ligatures, Oldstyle Figures, Tabular Figures and many others. The variable font incorporates both axes (Weight and Slant) and can be used for web and graphic design alike. 16 static font styles can be purchased separately or as part of Oktah Round family. Two fonts can be downloaded free of charge.

Bardamu is a variable slab serif font family designed by Eugene Tantsurin and Anna Remm, and released by Groteskly Yours Studio. Bardamu is a type family that is open to interpretation and experimentation, yet this ambiguity does little to hide its inherent friendliness and good vides. Bardamu can easily be used in a variety of projects and feel at home both in graphic design, branding, web design or editorial design. Thanks to its unique letterforms and eye-catching design choices, it can be that final touch that makes your brand pop! One of the standout qualities of Bardamu is its remarkable versatility. Bardamu comes in 25 styles, allowing users to choose a style that best fits their needs. In addition to that, it offers a wide range of styles, from sleek backward-slanted italics at -20° to elegant upright styles, as well as regular 20° italics. For static fonts, there are two extra subfamilies available (10° Half Italic and 10° Half Reverse) that can be used for creating more complex hierarchy in any text. With a total of 25 static fonts and 1 Variable font, Bardamu is the perfect workhorse display slab serif with unlimited typesetting capabilities. Each font in the Bardamu family boasts an extensive 700+ character set, encompassing all major Latin-based languages, punctuation marks, symbols, and even supplementary characters. Bardamu takes flexibility to a whole new level with its incredible OpenType features that further enhance its versatility. With features such as Case-Sensitive Punctuation, Stylistic Alternates, Sub- and Superscript, Tabular Figures, and Localised Forms, you can fine-tune every detail of your design to perfection. Moreover, the multiple stylistic sets available in Bardamu allow you to switch between various versions of the same glyph effortlessly. Bardamu type family includes 25 static styles as well as a variable font. All styles can be purchased separately or as a full family package. Two styles can be downloaded free of charge. If you'd like to explore Bardamu further, we also offer free trials upon request.