This family was inspired by an engraved plate from Diderot & Dalembert's Encyclopedia (publication beginning in 1751), illustrating the chapter devoted to letter engraving techniques. The plate bears two engravers names : "Aubin" (may be one of the four St Aubin brothers ?)and "Benard" ( which name is present below all plates of the Encyclopedia printed in Geneva ). It seems to be a transitional type, but different from Fournier or Grandjean. Small caps are included in fonts for TTF and OTF version, separate files are included in the family sets of the Mac TT version.

Ring O Fire was inspired by a game I used to play where you suspend a coin over a glass with a paper napkin and take turns burning holes in the napkin with a cigarette until the coin drops. Is that weird or what?

What started as an image of a single vintage brass stencil of the letter 'P' spotted in an online auction has turned into Blacksmith JNL. From that single letter Jeff Levine has created a complete Western stencil font, retaining the hand-made look of the original stencil piece.

The idea for Gummed Letters JNL came from an online auction of some foil-embossed gummed letters from the 1940s and 1950s. One particular set was of a sans serif face that hadn't been produced in decades, and Jeff Levine felt it was worthy of a digital treatment.

Sign Stencil JNL was modeled from some vintage lettering stencils spotted in an online auction that were part of a store sign making kit. A variety of styles, sizes and designs were contained within a carrying case along with paints, brushes and instructions on how to paint attractive signs.

Azariel is a decorative calligraphic script font designed to have linking characters in the lower case and elaborate swashed capital letters which overlap and nestle with adjoining characters. It's very elegant - excellent for invitations and other decorative uses where you want something a bit less formal but very stylish.

Spotted in an online auction was a set of brass stencils (possibly handmade) of which some of the characters were individually displayed. The interesting placement of where the letters were broken into stencil parts inspired the creation of Trade Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Earthpig is based on samples of poster lettering from classic club posters of the 1960s, from venues like the Fillmore in San Francisco and the Armadillo in Austin. It combines elements of several different styles to recreate the unique look of poster lettering of the psychedelic era. It's far out, man.

Modeled after some antique stencil cutting tools spotted in an online auction, Stencil Cutter JNL portrays the look of hand tooled lettering. The rounded-end characters have their own personality and this eccentricity provides a warmth and charm from times past. Stencil Cutter JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Belvedere is an Italian word that translates as ‘beautiful outlook’ and describes a pavillion or summer house on high ground with commanding views. It has grace, style and a touch of class, all of which I've tried to incorporate in this font family. The snazzy graphics are by my friend and colleague Dan Austin.

An eye-pleasing collection of 31 Woodland Doodles. Illustrations of 11 trees--traditional and contemporary. A branch, animals, cabin, acorn, flower, leaves, mushrooms, bird’s nest, pine cone and birds on a branch. Coordinating nicely with Lake Vacation Doodles or Farm Doodles .

Monotype’s hot metal Bell series from 1931 was based on original types made by the punchcutter Richard Austin for the foundry of John Bell in the 1780s. The different sizes of Monotype’s series were not all based on the same model. As type historian James Mosley wrote on Typophile, “For 18 point and above (the metal type was cut in sizes up to 36 point) Monotype’s model was a larger type [than the model used for the text sizes], the ‘Great Primer’ cut by Austin. This has greater contrast in the capitals and a flat foot to letter a.” The digital Bell closely follows the design of the hot metal 18pt version, and is therefore somewhat lighter in color than the text sizes of Monotype’s original metal face. James Mosley’s Typophile article can be found here.

Online auctions continue to be a surprising wealth of font design inspiration. In this instance, a number of silk embroidered Art Deco initials inside inverted triangles inspired Deco Pennant Initials JNL. The uppercase version is white lettering on a black background – similar to the originals. On the lowercase keys is a set of initials that are black on white with a black border. Since the inverted triangles resemble pennants, there’s a solid black blank on the left parenthesis key and a outlined blank one on the right parenthesis key. In this way, the initials could be used for monograms or interspersed with the blanks to form short banner messages.

Online auctions offer a myriad of unique, vintage and novel lettering devices – all which are fertile ground for typographic inspiration. In this instance, a set of stamped metal letters for outdoor signage was the basis for Stamped Metal JNL. Some of the non-traditional letter weights makes these simple block letters a wonderful change of pace for bold, attention-getting headlines.

An old brass stencil of the word 'large' was spotted for sale in an online auction. What set it apart from many other vintage stencil items was the beautiful, hand-punched Western letters with a diamond-shape center. Those five letters served as the basis for Old Chisholm JNL, which retains the look and hand-made charm of the original metal stencil.

Hand lettering on the packaging for an Arrow "Commander" Staple Remover seen in an online auction is the inspiration for the unusual and angular typeface comprising Staple Remover JNL. The Art Deco era of the 1930s and 1940s offers many wonderful examples of stylized and experimental lettering, and this, by far is one of the more eclectic styles of the time.