Blank Manuscript allows you to produce sophisticated musical scoresheets even on basic Word Processors - anything from simple plain staves to complex full-page orchestral scores of your own design, to write in the notation yourself. The basic stuff is really easy and straightforward, but there's some quite advanced things you can do as well. So Copy and Save these Instructions. • The main stuff is simple and tends to follow the initial letter. Treble, Bass and Alto clefs are on upper case T B A (there are more clefs, below). The 5 Lines for the clefs are on L or l. • A small v will give a small vertical line (like a bar line) and a Big U will give a Big Upright - these can start or end a line or piece. • Time Signatures - type the following letters: Think of W for Waltz and it's easy to remember that 3/4 time is on W. Then from that they go up or down together like this: V=2/4 W=3/4 X=4/4 Y=5/4 Z=6/4 Compound Times are on H I J K like this: H=3/8 I=6/8 J=9/8 K=12/8 Common Time and Cut Common symbols can be found on semi-colon and colon respectively (all begin with Co- ). 2/2 3/2 are on lower case a and b, 7/4 and 7/8 are on lower case c and d, 5/8 is on small k (think POL-k-A) • Flat signs are on the numbers. Flat signs on LINES 1 to 5 are on numbers 1 to 5. Flat signs on SPACES 1 to 5 are on numbers 6 to 0 (space 1 being above line 1, space 5 being above the top line of the stave). Sharp signs are on the letters BELOW the long-row numbers. Which is q w e r t for the sharp signs on Lines 1 to 5, and y u i o p for sharp signs on spaces 1 to 5. Doing it this way means it works the same for all clefs, whether Treble, Bass, Alto, Tenor or any other. Sharp and Flat Signs always go in this order, depending on how many sharps or flats your key signature requires: Treble Clef Sharps t i p r u o e Flats 3 9 7 4 2 8 6 Bass Clef Sharps r u o e t i w Flats 2 8 6 3 1 7 = Alto Clef Sharps o e t i w r u Flats 7 4 2 8 6 3 1 • Guitar Chord Boxes are on G and g (G for Guitar) Upper Case G has a thick line across the top Lower case g has an open top, for chords up the fretboard TAB symbols are available: Six-string Tablature is on s & S for Six. Four-string Tablature is on f & F for Four. (Lower case has the "TAB" symbol on it, Upper Case has just the lines to continue.) Five-string tablature, is on lower case "j" (as in BAN-j-O) and of course L or l will continue the 5 lines. •RARE CLEF SIGNS including Tenor Clef, are on various punctuation marks, i.e. dollar, percent, circumflex, ampersand & asterisk, above the numbers 4 to 8. NOTE: The important symbols were kept on the letter and number keys, which are fairly standard all over, but some of the less important symbols are on various punctuation keys, which in different countries are not the same as on my keyboard. If it comes out wrong on your system, all I can say is it's right on the systems we've tried, and they'll be in here somewhere, probably on a different key. CLOSING THE ENDS OF THE LINES and BAR-LINES is done with the 3 varieties of brackets - brackets, brace and parentheses - Left/Right for the Left/Right end of the line. Parentheses L/R () which are above 9, 0 give a clef with a small vertical upright (the same as a bar line). Brace L/R and Brackets L/R (both on the 2 keys to the right of P on my keyboard) will close off a staff line with tall upright bars. Brace gives a double upright - one thick, one thin. Brackets give a single tall upright. A Big Upright is on Big U, (Big U for Big Upright) and a small vertical line is on small v (small v for small vertical). The Big Upright is the maximum height, and the small vertical is exactly the same height as a stave. And there's a tall upright Bar, on Bar (which is to the left of z on my keyboard, with Shift,) which is the same height as the bar on upper case U but twice as broad. • There's a staff intended for writing melodies, which is a little bit higher up than an ordinary treble clef giving a space underneath to put lyrics in - on m and M for Melody line. Lower case has the Treble Clef on, Upper case M has just the higher-up staff lines with no clef. (Use mMMMMMMM etc.) However this clef will be in the wrong place to put in sharp and flat signs, key signatures and so on, so if you use this clef you'll have to write the sharps, flats and key signature yourself. There's also a clef that's smaller (less tall) than the ordinary clef, but with the same horizontal spacing so it will align with other standard-sized clefs - on slash (a plain clef) and backslash (with a Treble Clef). • There are some large brackets for enclosing groups of staves, such as you'd use on large orchestral scores, on Upper Case N O P Q R, which can aid clarity. N and O on the left, Q and R on the right. P is a Perpendicular line to be used on both sides to increase the height of the enclosure, in this way but with the staff lines in between: N Q P P P P P P O R OTHERS —————————————— • Repeat marks are on comma (left) and period/full stop (right). • Hyphen is left as a sort of hyphen - it's a thin line like a single staff line, with the same horizontal spacing as ordinary staff lines - in case you want to draw a line across for a Percussion Instrument, or a Title or Lyric Line. • Space is a Space, but with HALF the width or horizontal spacing as ordinary staff lines, so 2 space symbols will be the same width as a clef symbol or line. • Grave (to the left of 1 on the long row, or hold down Alt and type 0096 then let go) gives a staff line that is one eighth the width of an ordinary staff line. • If you want manuscript in a clef and key which requires a flat or sharp sign in the space underneath the 5 lines, they’re on = equals and + plus . SYMBOLS • Many of these symbols will only be useful if you have worked out in advance which bars will need them, but they are here in case you've done that and wish to include them. • Symbols for p and f (piano and forte) are on 'less than' and 'greater than' < > (above comma and full stop) and m for mezzo is on Question, next to them. They can be combined to make mp, mf, ff, pp, etc. These signs -- and other signs and symbols like Pedal Sign, Coda Sign and so on -- can be found on various punctuation mark keys, including above 1, 2, 3 in the long row, and others around the keyboard. There's a sort of logic to their layout, but in different countries the keys are likely to give different results to what is stated here, so it's probably best to just try the punctuation and see if there's any you might want to use. (But on my keyboard a Coda sign is on circumflex - because of the visual similarity. Pedal sign is on underscore. A "Sign" symbol is on exclamation mark.) They were only included in case you really need them to be printed rather than handwritten. • However, a Copyright symbol is deemed necessary, and also included are a "Registered" symbol and a TradeMark symbol. They are found in the conventional places, and can be accessed by holding down ALT and typing 0169, 0174 or 0153 respectively in the numberpad section and letting go. • Staff lines with arco and pizz. above are on capital C and D respectively ---C for ar-C-o. • An empty circle above a staff line (to indicate sections by writing letters A, B, C or 1,2,3 inside for rehearsal marks) is on n. The actual signs for an A, B, C and D in a circle above the staff line can be produced by holding down ALT and typing 0188, 0189, 0190 and 0191 respectively and letting go. • The word "Page", for indicating page numbers, is on the numbersign key. • The two quotes keys, (quote single and quote double) have symbols representing "Tempo is", and "play as triplets", respectively. • INSTRUMENT NAMES There's a whole lot of Instrument Names built in (over a hundred) which can be printed out above the clef, and you do it like this. Hold down Alt and type in the given number in the numberpad section, then let go. For Piccolo it's 0130, for Flute it's 0131, Cornet is on 0154, Violin is on 0193, and the numbers go up to over 0250, it's a fairly complete set. There's also a blank which is used to align un-named clefs on 0096. Put them at the very beginning of the line for the best results. Here they are: WOODWIND Piccolo 0130 Flute 0131 Oboe 0132 Clarinet 0133 Eng Horn 0134 Bassoon 0135 Soprano Sax 0137 Alto Sax 0138 Tenor Sax 0139 Baritone Sax 0140 Saxophone 0142 Contrabassoon 0145 Recorder 0146 Alto Flute 0147 Bass Flute 0148 Oboe d'Amore 0149 Cor anglais 0152 Pipes 0241 Whistle 0242 BRASS Cornet 0154 Trumpet 0155 Flugelhorn 0156 Trombone 0158 Euphonium 0159 Tuba 0161 French Horn 0162 Horn 0163 Tenor Trombone 0164 Bass Trombone 0165 Alto Trombone 0166 Piccolo Cornet 0167 Piccolo Trumpet 0168 Bass Trumpet 0170 Bass Tuba 0171 Brass 0172 VOICES Vocal 0175 Melody 0176 Solo 0177 Harmony 0178 Soprano 0179 Alto 0180 Tenor 0181 Baritone 0182 Treble 0183 Bass 0197 (see also PLUCKED STRINGS) Descant 0184 Mezzo Soprano 0185 Contralto 0186 Counter Tenor 0187 Lead 0206 BOWED STRINGS Strings 0192 Violin 0193 Viola 0194 Cello 0195 Contrabass 0196 Bass 0197 Double Bass 0198 Violoncello 0199 Violin 1 0200 Violin 2 0201 Fiddle 0252 PLUCKED STRINGS Harp 0202 Guitar 0203 Ac. Gtr 0204 El. Gtr 0205 Lead 0206 Bass 0197 Ac. Bass 0207 El. Bass 0208 Slide Gtr 0209 Mandolin 0210 Banjo 0211 Ukelele 0212 Zither 0213 Sitar 0214 Lute 0215 Pedal Steel 0216 Nylon Gtr. 0238 Koto 0239 Fretless 0244 KEYBOARDS + ORGAN Piano 0217 El. Piano 0218 Organ 0219 El. Organ 0220 Harpsichord 0221 Celesta 0222 Accordion 0223 Clavinet 0224 Harmonium 0225 Synth 0226 Synth Bass 0227 Keyboards 0228 Sampler 0249 PERCUSSION and TUNED PERCUSSION Percussion 0229 Drums 0230 Vibes 0231 Marimba 0232 Glockenspiel 0233 Xylophone 0234 Bass marimba 0235 Tubular Bells 0236 Steel Drums 0237 Kalimba 0240 OTHERS Harmonica 0246 Mouth Organ 0247 FX 0251 Intro 0243 Verse 0245 Refrain 0248 Chorus 0250 un-named 0096 (this is a small spacer stave for aligning clefs without a name) ALSO copyright 0169 registered 0174 TradeMark 0153 Rehearsal marks 0188-0191 (giving A, B, C, D in a circle, an empty circle is on n ) Clef signs for Treble Bass Alto without any staff lines 0253-0255 An Alphabetic List of all signs: a 2/2 time b 3/2 time c 7/4 time d 7/8 time e sharp sign, centre line f Tab sign for 4-string tab g Guitar Chord Box, no nut h half-width stave I sharp sign, third space up j Tab sign for 5-string tab k 5/8 time l Lines - 5 horizontal lines for a stave m Melody Clef - a standard clef but placed higher up, with Treble sign n Stave with an empty circle above o sharp sign, fourth space up p sharp sign, space above stave q sharp sign, bottom line r sharp sign, fourth line up s Tab sign for 6-string tab t sharp sign, top line (fifth line up) u sharp sign, second space up v vertical line (bar-line) w sharp sign, second line up x Fretboard, four strings y sharp sign, first space up z Fretboard, five strings A Alto Clef B Bass Clef C “arco” above stave D “pizz.” above stave E Double Vertical Lines F Four Horizontal lines (for 4-string tab) G Guitar Chord Box with nut H 3/8 time I 6/8 time J 9/8 time K 12/8 time L Lines - 5 horizontal lines for a stave M Melody Clef - a standard clef but placed higher up, plain N Bounding Line for grouping clefs - top left O Bounding Line for grouping clefs - bottom left P Bounding Line for grouping clefs - Perpendicular Q Bounding Line for grouping clefs - top right R Bounding Line for grouping clefs - bottom right S Six Horizontal lines (for 6-string tab) T Treble Clef U tall, thin Upright line V 2/4 time W 3 / 4 time X 4/4 time Y 5/4 time Z 6/4 time 1 flat sign, first line up (the lowest line) 2 flat sign, second line up 3 flat sign, third line up 4 flat sign, fourth line up 5 flat sign, fifth line up (the top line) 6 flat sign, first space up (the lowest space) 7 flat sign, second space up 8 flat sign, third space up 9 flat sign, fourth space up 0 flat sign, space above stave

The font Speech Bubbles offers a convenient way to integrate text and image. While the font can be used to design comics, it also gives the typographer a tool to make text speak – to give words conversational dynamics and to emphasize visually the sound of the message. The font includes a total of seventy outlines and seventy bubble backgrounds selected from a survey of historic forms. What follows is a discussion of my process researching and developing the font, as well as a few user suggestions. My work on the Speech Bubbles font began with historic research. My first resource was a close friend who is a successful German comic artist. I had previously worked with him to transform his lettering art into an OpenType font. This allowed his publishing house to easily translate cartoons from German to other languages without the need to use another font, like Helvetica rounded. My friend showed me the most exciting, outstanding and graphically appealing speech bubbles from his library. I looked at early strips from Schulz (Peanuts), Bill Waterson (Calvin & Hobes), Hergé (TinTin), Franquin, as well as Walt Disney. The most inspiring was the early Krazy Kat and Ignatz (around 1915) from George Herriman. I also studied 1980’s classics Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen, Frank Miller’s Ronin and Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vandetta. Contemporary work was also a part of my research—like Liniers from Macanudo and work of Ralf König. With this overview in mind I began to work from scratch. I tried to distill the typical essence of each author’s or era’s speech bubbles style into my font. In the end I limited my work down to the seventy strongest images. An important aspect of the design process was examining each artist’s speech bubble outlines. In some cases they are carefully inked, as in most of the 80’s work. In others, such as with Herriman, they are fast drawn with a rough impetus. The form can be dynamic and round (Schultz) with a variable stroke width, or straight inked with no form contrast (Hergé). Since most outlines also carry the character of the tool that they are made with, I chose to separate the outline from the speech bubble fill-in or background. 
This technical decision offers interesting creative possibilities. For example, the font user can apply a slight offset from fill-in to outline, as it is typical to early comic strips, in which there are often print misalignments. Also, rather than work in the classic white background with black outline, one can work with colors. Many tonal outcomes are possible by contrasting the fill-in and outline color. The Speech Bubbles font offers a dynamic and quick way to flavor information while conveying a message. How is something said? Loudly? With a tint of shyness? Does a rather small message take up a lot of space? The font’s extensive survey of historic comic designs in an assembly that is useful for both pure comic purposes or more complex typographic projects. Use Speech Bubbles to give your message the right impact in your poster, ad or composition.

Divina Proportione is based from the original studies from Luca Pacioli. Luca Pacioli was born in 1446 or 1447 in Sansepolcro (Tuscany) where he received an abbaco education. Luca Pacioli was born in 1446 or 1447 in Sansepolcro (Tuscany) where he received an abbaco education. [This was education in the vernacular (i.e. the local tongue) rather than Latin and focused on the knowledge required of merchants.] He moved to Venice around 1464 where he continued his own education while working as a tutor to the three sons of a merchant. It was during this period that he wrote his first book -- a treatise on arithmetic for the three boys he was tutoring. Between 1472 and 1475, he became a Franciscan friar. In 1475, he started teaching in Perugia and wrote a comprehensive abbaco textbook in the vernacular for his students during 1477 and 1478. It is thought that he then started teaching university mathematics (rather than abbaco) and he did so in a number of Italian universities, including Perugia, holding the first chair in mathematics in two of them. He also continued to work as a private abbaco tutor of mathematics and was, in fact, instructed to stop teaching at this level in Sansepolcro in 1491. In 1494, his first book to be printed, Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita, was published in Venice. In 1497, he accepted an invitation from Lodovico Sforza ("Il Moro") to work in Milan. There he met, collaborated with, lived with, and taught mathematics to Leonardo da Vinci. In 1499, Pacioli and Leonardo were forced to flee Milan when Louis XII of France seized the city and drove their patron out. Their paths appear to have finally separated around 1506. Pacioli died aged 70 in 1517, most likely in Sansepolcro where it is thought he had spent much of his final years. De divina proportione (written in Milan in 1496–98, published in Venice in 1509). Two versions of the original manuscript are extant, one in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, the other in the Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire in Geneva. The subject was mathematical and artistic proportion, especially the mathematics of the golden ratio and its application in architecture. Leonardo da Vinci drew the illustrations of the regular solids in De divina proportione while he lived with and took mathematics lessons from Pacioli. Leonardo's drawings are probably the first illustrations of skeletonic solids, an easy distinction between front and back. The work also discusses the use of perspective by painters such as Piero della Francesca, Melozzo da Forlì, and Marco Palmezzano. As a side note, the "M" logo used by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is taken from De divina proportione. “ The Ancients, having taken into consideration the rigorous construction of the human body, elaborated all their works, as especially their holy temples, according to these proportions; for they found here the two principal figures without which no project is possible: the perfection of the circle, the principle of all regular bodies, and the equilateral square. ” —De divina proportione

Blackletter typefaces follow certain fixed rules, both in respect to their forms and to the orthography. Possibly, they were a reaction to the half-developed Carolingian minuscule which was soon to end in the Latin script. Narrow, ordered script was to replace the round, hesitant and shattered shapes of letters in order to simplify writing, to unify the meaning of individual letters, and to save some parchment, too. Opposed to the practice common in monasterial scriptoriums where Uncial, Irish and Carolingian inspiration flew freely and as a result, the styles of writing differed in each monastery, the blackletter type was to define one, common standard. It was to express spiritual verticality, in perfect tune with the architecture of the Gothic era. Typography became an integral part of the overall style of the period. The pointed arch and the blackletter type were the vanguard of the spectacular transformation from the Middle Ages towards the modern era, they were a celebration of a time when works of art were not signed by their makers yet. Some unfortunate souls keep linking blackletter solely with Germany and the Third Reich, while the truth is that its direct predecessor, the Gothic minuscule, evolved mostly in France. Even Hitler himself indicated blackletter type obsolete in the age of steel, iron and concrete – thus making a significant contribution to the spreading of the Latin script in Germany. Once we leave our prejudice aside, we find that the shapes of blackletter type have exceptional potential, unheard of in sans-serif letterforms. The lower case letters fit into an imaginary rectangle which is easily extended both upwards and sideways. In its scope and in the name itself, the Moyenage type family project is to celebrate the diversity of the Middle Ages. I begun realizing the urge to design my own blackletter when visiting the beer gardens of Munich and while walking through the villages of rural Austria. The letters from the notice boards of inns are scented with spring air, with the flowers of cudweed, with white sausage and weissbier. The crooked calligraphic hooks and beaks seem to imitate the hearty yodeling of local drinkers and the rustle of the giant skirts of girls who distribute the giant wreaths of beer jugs. Moyenage is, however, a modern replica of blackletter, so it contains some otherwise unacceptable Latin script elements in upper case. I chose these keeping the modern reader in mind, striving for better legibility. The font is drawn as if written with a flat pen or brush, and with the ambition to, perhaps, serve as a calligraphic model. In medium width, the face is surprisingly well legible; it is perfect for menus as well as posters and CD covers for some of the heavier kinds of music. It has five types of numerals and also a set of Cyrillic script, symbolising the lovelorn union of Germans and Russians in the 20th century. Thus, it is well suited for the setting of bilingual texts of the German classic literature, which, according to the ancient rules, must not be set in Latin script.

I love geometric sans serifs, their crispness and rationality. Le Havre taps into this style, but for a while, I've wanted to create a font recalling the printed Futura of the 1940s, which seems to have an elusive quality all its own. After seeing an old manual on a World War II ship, I developed a plan for "Le Havre Metal" but chose to shelve the project due to Le Havre's small x-height. That's where Steagal comes in. When Robbie de Villiers and I began the Chatype project in early 2012 (a project which led one publication to label me the Edward Johnston of Chattanooga!), we started closely studying the vernacular lettering of Chattanooga. During that time, I also visited Switzerland, where I saw how designers were using a new, handmade aesthetic with a geometric base. I was motivated to make a new face combining some of these same influences. The primary inspiration for the new design came from the hand-lettering of sign painters in the United States, circa 1930s through 1950s. My Chatype research turned up a poster from the Tennessee Valley Authority in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which exhibited a number of quirks from the unique hand and style of one of these sign artists. Completing the first draft of Steagal, however, I found that the face appeared somewhat European in character. I turned then to the work of Morris Fuller Benton for a distinctly American take and discovered a number of features that would help define Steagal as a "1930s American" vernacular typeface--features I later learned also inspired Morris Fuller Benton's Eagle. The overall development of Steagal was surprisingly difficult, knowing when to deliberately distort optical artifacts and when to keep them in place. Part of type design is correcting optical illusions, and I found myself absentmindedly adjusting the optical effects. In the end, though, I was able to draw inspiration from period signs, inscriptions, period posters, and architecture while retaining just enough of the naive sensibility. Steagal has softened edges, which simulate brush strokes and retain the feeling of the human hand. The standard version has unique quirks that are not too intrusive. Overshoots have almost been eliminated, and joins have minimal corrections. The rounded forms are mathematically perfect, geometric figures without optical corrections. As a variation to the standard, the “Rough” version stands as the "bad signpainter" version with plenty of character. Steagal Regular comes in five weights and is packed with OpenType features. Steagal includes three Art Deco Alternate sets, optically compensated rounded forms, a monospaced variant, and numerous other features. In all, there are over 200 alternate characters. To see these features in action, please see the informative .pdf brochure. OpenType capable applications such as Quark or the Adobe Creative suite can take full advantage of the automatically replacing ligatures and alternates. Steagal also includes support for all Western European languages. Steagal is a great way to subtly draw attention to your work. Its unique quirks grab the eye with a authority that few typefaces possess. Embrace its vernacular, hand-brushed look, and see what this geometric sans serif can do for you.

Out of a lifelong inner struggle, Philip Bouwsma unleashes a masterpiece that reconciles classic calligraphy with type in a way never before attempted. Maestro takes its cue from the Italian chancery cursive of the early sixteenth century. By this time type ruled the publishing world, but official court documents were still presented in calligraphy, in a new formal style of the high Renaissance that was integrated with Roman letters and matched the refined order of type. The copybooks of Arrighi and others, printed from engraved wood blocks, spread the Italian cancellaresca across Europe, but the medium was too clumsy and the size too small to show what was really happening in the stroke. Arrighi and others also made metal fonts that pushed type in the direction of calligraphy, but again the medium did not support the superb artistry of these masters or sustain the vitality in their work. As the elegant sensitive moving stroke of the broad pen was reduced to a static outline, the human quality, the variety and the excitement of a living act were lost. Because the high level of skill could not be reproduced, the broad pen was largely replaced by the pointed tool. The modern italic handwriting revival is based on a simplified model and does not approach the level of this formal calligraphy with its relationship to the Roman forms. Maestro is the font that Arrighi and his colleagues would have made if they had had digital technology. Like the calligraphic system of the papal chancery on which it is modelled, it was not drawn as a single finished alphabet, but evolved from a confluence of script and Roman; the script is formalized by the Roman to stand proudly in a world of type. Maestro came together on screen over the course of several years, through many versions ranging widely in style, formality, width, slant, weight and other parameters. On one end of the spectrum, looking back to tradition it embodies the formal harmony of the Roman capitals and the minuscule which became the lower case. On the other it is a flowing script letter drawing on the spirit of later pointed pen and engravers scripts. As its original designers intended, it works with simple Roman capitals and serifs or swash capitals and baroque flourishes. The broad pen supplies weight and substance to the stroke which carries energy through tension in balanced s-curves. Above all it is meant to convey the life and motion of formal calligraphy as a worthy counterbalance to the stolid gravity of metal type. The Maestro family consists of forty fonts distributed over two weights. The OpenType version compresses the family considerably down to two fonts, regular and bold, each containing the entire character set of twenty fonts, for a total of more than 3350 characters per font. These include a wide variety of stylistic alternates, ligatures, beginning and ending letters, flourishes, borders, rules, and other extras. The Pro version also includes extended linguistic support for Latin-based scripts (Western, Central and Eastern European, Baltic, Turkish, Welsh/Celtic, Maltese) as well as Greek. For more thoughts on Maestro, its background and character sets, please read the PDF accompanying the family.

Aphrodite Slim Pro is not just a lighter version of its sister Aphrodite Pro. Aphrodite Slim Pro has duplicated the quantity of characters of its partner, and that means more than 500 new glyphs, reaching a total of more than 1000. More delicate and meticulous, Aphrodite Slim Pro is once more a new typography with deep calligraphic ideals: We immersed ourselves into the world of each calligraphy ductus and each calligraphy masters by studying from decoration to lettering books. This was the key for the logic of Aphrodite Slim’s behavior. The new concept of Aphrodite Slim Pro was to join diverse styles of calligraphy in one in order to achieve an autonomous expressiveness, in fact, this is what calligraphy aims to, and we agreed to bring those ideals to the world of typography: It is justifiable to be inspired in hundred-year-old calligraphies, but it is even better if the results you obtain have a plus. A personal plus. During the creation process we were wondering whether it was possible to mix certain strokes of such rigid styles as uncial, (Li·n’s favourite style), with strokes of the copperplate, (Sav’s favourite style), and also to take and mix cualities of cancelleresca cursiva, formata and moderna; finally giving our creation a roman-transition italic look. So Aphrodite Slim takes ideals and aspects from those formal styles, following its own logic though, and emphasizing the fact of being a decorative typography. Calligraphy masters of our past are who we are in debt with. They are the cause we have lovely letters now. They have been spontaneous at the moment of creation, what differs from the type-designers of nowadays, whose spontaneity is more limited. Digital faces that we are used to see these days are a result of long hours of optical adjustments, grids, macros and inspirations of other existing typography, but without personal contributions. Aphrodite Slim wants to refute this. Its mission is to rescue de spontaneity of the artesanal lettering in order to obtain unique words; those which only calligraphy masters of our past or lettering artists of our present could give us. We have worked hard to achieve this, making Aphrodite the most universal font we could: It was necessary to study the most common words, focalizing more in the ones referring to “sensitivity”, of four of the most spoken languages in the world. Aphrodite Slim has an enormous quantity of decorative characters and special ligatures for phrases and words in English, French, Spanish and German. (See English, Français, Español, Deutsch PDF in the gallery section). We promise there is no existing type that decorates/ligates glyphs and words like Aphrodite Slim does: It is the first time a font like this really considers its purpose. -The way glyphs are ligated is insane- : Aphrodite Slim rescues some ideals of persons like Jan van den Velde (Italian cancilleresca writing of XVI Century) who understands ascenders and descenders as possibilities to beautify the lines of writing with curved strokes that seem to be dancing above and below of the words. This master also creates ascenders and descenders even where they are not necessary, on letters that do not actually need them: Aphrodite Slim takes this ideal. The font counts with a wide range of glyphs that seem not to be satisfied with its more primitive form and prefer to extreme their parts to be decorative. It also existed masters of calligraphy like José de Casanova of XVII Century, who, with a magnificant skill and a really personal mark, had the particularity of ligating words that were actually separated with spaces. This is another innovative feature in Aphrodite Slim. An investigation of the most common beginnings and endings words of the English language was done. Having that feature activated (discretionary ligatures), common words will start to ligate or to be decorated even when they are separated by spaces. Impossible to forget Francesco Periccioli of XVII Century and our experience us designers to face with works of him: His letters, that today are included in the group of cancellerescas modernas, have been a direct inspiration to the oldstyle figures and historical forms variables in Aphrodite Slim. Giovanni Antonio Tagliente (XVI Century) and his particular way of making tails and diagonals longer than usual, qualities that our creation reflects too. Finally, our adventures in Biblioteca Nacional and Barrio San Telmo, Buenos Aires, were essential for us to make Aphrodite Slim more complete and interesting: Sav did an excellent work when studying how the decorative miscellanea and swirls of early XX century were. She also investigated what particularities made those roman titling characters look antique so she could rescue some ideals for the oldstyle figures and historical forms variables. This also leaded her to create the ornaments variable in Aphrodite Slim. We are really proud of presenting Aphrodite Slim Pro, a typography that was the result of days and nights of working hard, because we do love what we do; and we are glad we are living in a present that gives us the possibility to spread this kind of art, because that is the way we consider our job: Aphrodite Slim Pro is Art. Hope you can appreciate the enormous work this type has. Features. Aphrodite Slim Pro is the most complete variable. It includes more than 1000 glyphs. Thanks to the Open-Type programming, it counts with a easy way to change/alternate glyphs if the application in which the font is used supports this. The variables contained in Aphrodite Slim Pro are also offered separately. Aphrodite Slim Text: It is the variable for lines and paragraphs. Thus it is the least ornamental and the most accurate to achieve a satisfying legibility. It has the Standard Ligatures feature in order to improve the possible conflicts some glyphs could have by others. Aphrodite Slim Contextual: It is the one that makes emphasis in decorating. It has the particularity of ligating/decorating words of common use in English, French, Spanish and German. It also has the quality of ligating common beginnings and endings of the common words in English. Aphrodite Slim Stylistic: With similar features of Slim Contextual. It includes a set of decorative numbers for a display use. Aphrodite Slim Swash: This one has special beginnings and endings to decorate words. Aphrodite Slim Endings: It makes words look as a signature. Aphrodite Slim Historical: It adds an antique look to the written word. It also has the special historical ligature function. Aphrodite Slim Titling: This one is the most decorative. Its copperplate inspired ornaments give words a special color, in order to handle the quantity of decoration, it comes with the standard ligature feature, which has the most common ligatures plus others that make decorative swirls not to be conflictive. Aphrodite Slim Ornaments: A set of 52 ornaments. Aphrodite Slim Pro includes all this features plus the Stylistic Set 1; Stylistic Set 2 and the possibility of Slashed Zero. We recommend you to check out the gallery in order to see all these features in action.