The 1912 American Specimen Book of Type Styles from ATF featured a quaint little offering called "Tabard", whose antique charm was enhanced by several rather quirky alternate characters. This version tosses out the standard characters and keeps the quirks in the works: the result is warm, engaging, slightly mischievous and a whole lot of fun. The Opentype version of this font supports Unicode 1250 (Central European) languages, as well as Unicode 1252 (Latin) languages.

In 1903, faced with the welter of sanserif typefaces offered by ATF, Morris Fuller Benton designed News Gothic, which became a 20th-century standard. In 1995 Tobias Frere-Jones studied drawings in the Smithsonian and started a redesign. Cyrus Highsmith reviewed News Gothic, and with the Font Bureau studio expanded it into Benton Sans, a far-reaching new series, with matched weights and widths, offering performance well beyond the limits of the original; FB 1995-2012

ATF Agency Gothic was designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1932 as a lone titling typeface. In 1990, David Berlow saw potential in the squared forms of the narrow, monotone capitals. He designed a lowercase and added a bold to produce Font Bureau Agency, an immediately popular hit. Sensing its potential to be than just a useful condensed face, Font Bureau developed Agency into a major series offering five weights in five widths; FB 1990-95

In ye olden days, nothing said “personalized business correspondence” like a typewritten letter, and several type foundries cast simulated typewriter fonts so authentic-looking “personal” letters could be mass-produced. This typeface is based on one such font from a href="/foundry/atf/">American Type Founders, which was patterned after the letters of the Smith Premier No. 3. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin and 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan) character sets.

Monotype Gallia's design was initially developed by Wadsworth A. Parker for the American Type Founders (ATF) in 1927. Monotype released its own version in 1928. Its style is embodied with the spirit of the American Art Deco age and the Roaring 20s. It makes a superb headline selection, and has also been used effectively for packaging as well. Also try the typeface on signage, menus, invitations, or stationary. If you like Monotype Gallia, check out Monotype Broadway, too!

Isbellium is a sans serif version of Dick Isbell’s Americana type, designed in 1967 and the last type cut in metal by the American Type Founders Co. (ATF). Isbellium retains the large x-height, open character, wide stance and elegance of Americana, but with a quieter voice and polite authority. Isbellium is a display face with broad Latin support along with small caps, fraction support and other typographic niceties are included in the ten font family.

This series of faces was designed initially by Morris Fuller Benton, circa 1900. The design is a refinement of Taylor Gothic from 1897. It features a sans serif thick and thin design with angular stems. Pre-dating art deco, this design feels quaint, yet it still has a touch of modernism. Frederic Goudy designed a bold version of Globe Gothic in 1905 for ATF. The Bold and Bold Italic digital versions have been added to the LTC library in early 2007.

This quasi-Chancery classic is a revival of Walter MacKay’s Heritage typeface, made for ATF in 1952. Walter is clean and legible free-flowing calligraphy with a subdued, conservative and traditional letterform base that can be used in large sizes for posters, covers and packaging, as well as in relatively small sizes for personalized letters, poetry and quotables. Walter comes with 430 glyphs and support the majority of Latin-based languages. Plenty of alternates and ligatures are sprinkled throughout the font.

Alf Becker was a talented sign writer and a prolific contributor of unique alphabets to Signs of the Times magazine. More than one hundred of his designs were showcased in monthly installments with each new issue of the publication. One in particular is a casual, free form sans serif design which has been recreated digitally as Casual Signage JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Thanks to Tod Swormstedt of ST Publications for providing the reference material for this font.

Assembled for those less commercialized holidays, LTC Holiday Ornaments features over 80 printers' ornaments from Lanston Monotype and other historical foundries such as BBS and ATF. Holidays include Easter, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, April Fool's Day, Thanksgiving and 4th of July. There¹s even a pirate to represent international "Talk Like a Pirate" day. LTC Holiday Ornaments joins the Lanston Collection alongside the popular LTC Halloween and Christmas Ornaments. LTC Holiday Ornaments contains additional Halloween and Christmas ornaments as well.

Alf Becker graced many issues of “Signs of the Times” (a trade magazine for the sign industry) with his innovative hand lettered alphabets for others to use as design inspirations. His 134th submission was titled “Post Card Type”, a condensed thick-and-thin stylized Art Deco design. This served as the inspiration for Tourist Postcard JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. Thanks to Tod Swormstedt of S.T. Media Group and the American Sign Museum for providing the work image for this type revival.

Kanona JNL is modeled from one of the numerous alphabets created by the late Alf R. Becker for Signs of the Times magazine from the 1930s through the 1950s. Thanks to a wealth of source material provided by Tod Swormstedt of ST Media (and who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio), Jeff Levine has been redrawing many of these alphabets and presenting them in digital form. The original variations in letter widths from Becker’s hand-painted alphabet have been left intact.

The Troyer AR ornaments are based on the first series of ornaments designed for American Type Founders by Johannes Troyer (1902-69). They were cast in 36 and 48 point in 1953 by ATF who said that they ‘mark a distinct and refreshing departure from the motif of earlier ornaments, and add a crisp touch to your finer printing’. Kenneth Day, in The Typography of Press Advertisement (1956), found them 'clean-cut and bright and clearly showing their calligraphic origins . . . useful for single decorative touches'.

The German-born designer Lucian Bernhard designed Bernhard Fashion in 1929. An American" typeface, Bernhard's original design was created for the American Type Founders (ATF). It bespeaks the spirit of the roaring 20s. The hairline-thin letters exhibit elongated ascenders (but not descenders), and many stylized elements. The capital letters also all descend visibly below the baseline. In text, the extra large capitals seem almost like drop caps. This typeface is best used sparingly in text. Largely set headlines will allow readers to enjoy the fashionable quality of Bernhard Fashion's design."

Daniel Berkeley Updike seems to have stimulated the architect Bertram G. Goodhue to design the prototype in 1896 for Ingalls Kimball at the Cheltenham Press. Six years later Morris Fuller Benton at ATF developed it into the design and then the series that we know today. “Owing to certain eccentricities of form,” writes Updike, “it cannot be read comfortably for any length of time.” But he concludes: “It is, however, an exceedingly handsome letter for ephemeral printing.” Mergenthaler bought composing machine rights to the original design c. 1896, but bought the Benton design in 1904.

No: Jethro Bodine didn't design this typeface although, to look at it, you might be tempted to think so. Rather, the pattern was a product of the fertile imagination of famed lettering artist Alf Becker. The lowercase letters are the same as the uppercase, but angled differently so, if you want a randomized appearance, you can activate Contextual Alternates and the font will do the shift-key double-clutching needed. Both versions include the complete Unicode Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets, with localization for Moldovan and Romanian.

Freak was originally released by The Great Western Type Foundry in 1889. According to Maurice Annenberg, Great Western became Barnhart Brothers & Spindler when the Barnhart brothers bought out the Toepfer family in 1868.The plant superintendent, Charles Spindler, became Secretary of the new firm. Specimen books as late as 1899 show the name Great Western alongside the BB&S name. At some point, prior to 1925, Freak was renamed “Bamboo” by BB&S. It was delisted when BB&S was absorbed by ATF in 1929. Listed in McGrew under “Bamboo”.

Commercial Script is a sophisticated copperplate script design. Its capitals are elaborate initials, and the lowercase letters join together in the style of real handwriting. Commercial Script's elegant refinement makes it a classic and ever-popular typeface. The spark behind this typeface comes from centries-old English Spencerian copperplate calligraphy. In 1985, the American typefoundry Barnhart Brothers & Spindler released a typeface in this style. This was redesigned by ATF's Morris Fuller Benton in 1906, and ATF released Commercial Script" in 1908. In 1994, Letraset' released this digital version of the typeface."

A rather narrow and compact design, Monotype Clearface combines both old style and antique characteristics. The lowercase letters are tall, the ascenders and descenders quite short. The intention was to produce a typeface that was easy to read in small sizes, hence the name. Monotype Clearface Bold was first cut for mechanical composition in 1922, and was based on the Clearface Gothic design created by Morris Fuller Benton for ATF in 1910. Although designed as a text face, Monotype Clearface is now more commonly used in advertising and display work.

Monotype Century Schoolbook is another member of the Century family based on the Century Expanded typeface. The Monotype Century Schoolbook family was designed to fulfill the need for a solid, legible face for printing schoolbooks. It is wider and heavier than Century Expanded, there is also less contrast between thick and thin strokes. First cut by Monotype in 1934 and based on versions from ATF and Lanston Monotype, the sturdy nature of Monotype Century Schoolbook, coupled with its inherent legibility, has made it a popular choice for setting books, newspapers and magazines.

Commercial Script is a sophisticated copperplate script design. Its capitals are elaborate initials, and the lowercase letters join together in the style of real handwriting. Commercial Script's elegant refinement makes it a classic and ever-popular typeface. The spark behind this typeface comes from centries-old English Spencerian copperplate calligraphy. In 1985, the American typefoundry Barnhart Brothers & Spindler released a typeface in this style. This was redesigned by ATF's Morris Fuller Benton in 1906, and ATF released Commercial Script" in 1908. In 1994, Letraset' released this digital version of the typeface."

In 1899, Robert Wiebking (who worked for a number of foundries in his time) designed an all-caps typeface named Engravers Roman (see Engravers #2). American Type Founders, Inc. (ATF) released a heavier variant in 1902, Engravers Bold, designed by Morris Fuller Benton. Engravers Bold was also released by the Barnhart Brothes & Spinder foundry. Today, Linotype's Engravers brings turn-of-the-century elegance directly to your keyboard. Use the Engravers typeface on any formal piece -- from table cards, to menus, invitations, or advertising work. Engravers is similar to Copperplate Gothic, Sackers Gothic and Nicolas Cochin.

“Tropical Type” was Alf Becker’s 148th submission to “Signs of the Times” magazine (a publication for the sign trade) where for years Becker would provide a monthly lettering design to inspire other sign writers. This particular design has more of a Far East flair to it, and was redrawn digitally as Travel East JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. Special thanks to Tod Swormstedt of the American Sign Museum and S.T. Media Group for providing the sample image from which the font was derived.

Buffet Script is based on fantastic calligraphy by Alf Becker, arguably the greatest American sign lettering artist of all time. The Alf Becker series of nameless alphabets published by Sign of the Times magazine in 1941 has attracted letter digitizers for a few years now, so it’s really a wonder that a few of those alphabets are still in the non-digital realm. It is understandable, though, that the basis for Buffet Script was not digitally attempted until now. The page presenting this alphabet shows a jungle of letters running into each others and swashes intertwining. The massive amount of work involved in digitizing such lettering, where scanning is nowhere near being an option, is quite obvious at a mere glance. If anyone was going to commit this particular alphabet to a digital form, it would have to be redrawn stroke by stroke and curve by curve on the computer. And don't we love a challenge! But seriously, the challenge was not the main attraction. In a way, the Becker approach to lettering is so far from digital that the imagination is almost forced to work out possibilities and letter combinations to solve problems presented by the scant showings in that magazine. After a few imaginative visualizations, the digital potential becomes clear in the mind, and the eye and hand follow. The result with Whomp (another Alf Becker-inspired work) was an enormous font with a lot of alternates and ligatures. With Buffet Script the imaginative process was no different, but the result particularly shines here, because this is some of the most fascinating flowing calligraphy ever seen. Calligraphy is where the accountability of all the little extra touches, such as alternates and swashes and ligatures, is raised to a higher level than in most other type categories. Buffet Script’s OpenType programming contains discretionary ligatures, stylistic and contextual alternates, interacting with each other to allow the composition of just the right word or sentence. This font is best used where lush elegance is one of the design’s requirements.

This is Avris, an exceptional and feminine stencil font. The base was designed in 2015. The word ‘avris’ derives from the latin rara avis, which means “rare bird”. Stencil fonts were initially designed for mass production and transportation companies. Unlike this one, Avris’ curvy and minimalistic design feels and looks like the wings of birds, flying above the quiet ocean. It also has a roman, calligraphic and cryptographic touch to it. It can be used for editorial (fashion) magazines and poster designs. Looks great in headlines! Also the numerals are a must see when you put it in use.

Benton Modern was first prepared as a text face by Font Bureau for the Boston Globe and the Detroit Free Press. Design and proportions were taken from Morris Fuller Benton’s turn-of-the-century Century Expanded, drawn for ATF, faithfully reviving this epoch-making magazine and news text roman. The italic was based on Century Schoolbook. This version of the family is part of the Reading Edge series of fonts specifically designed for small text onscreen, having been adjusted to provide more generous proportions and roomier spacing, and having been hinted in TrueType for optimal rendering in low resolution environments.

Mocombo JNL is a slightly modified version of one of the numerous alphabets created by the late Alf R. Becker for Signs of the Times Magazine during the period of the 1930s through the 1950s. Tod Swormstedt of ST Media—who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio—supplied Jeff Levine a wealth of source material from which this font is derived. The angular style of this typeface was originally referred to as “German Poster Lettering” by Becker, but it can represent many styles from 1940s night clubs to African safaris and just about anything in-between.

This double-wide wonder is based on Oswald Cooper’s original drawings for the typeface Cooper Fullface. ATF rejected this offering because they felt that several of the letterforms, and particularly the numbers, were a little too wacky for the mainstream. By now, you know that such an accusation is a "Please don't throw me in the briar patch" plea to yours truly. So, here, proudly and true to their designer’s original intent, are two versions of a really fun font. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode 1252 Latin and Unicode 1250 Central European character sets.

This old classic font has an interesting history, it was originally cut with lowercase by the Bruce Type Foundry in 1865 and listed as Ornamented No. 1514. Around 1903 the Bruce foundry was bought by ATF, in 1933 this font was revived by ATF as Caps only and was given the Gold Rush name but was sometimes called Klondike. A similar version of this font with lowercase and radiused serifs was produced by the James Conner's Sons Type Foundry around 1888. In the past other foundries such as the Carroll foundry, Type Founders of Phoenix and the Los Angeles Type Foundry have produced an all caps version of this font. After examining several printed sources of this font from more recent books I found that the original from Bruce's 1882 book was by far the best in design quality, it was also the only printed source that included the lowercase. New open faced, ornamented and distressed versions have been added to this old classic font, there are also many extended characters for Western, Central and Eastern European countries. The Gold Rush Trail OpenType version has alternate double letter pairs included in the font and will automatically be substituted when used in Adobe CS products or other software that takes advantage of OpenType features. Also available is a spurred version of this font listed under the name Gold Spur.

The origins of Bookman Old Style lie in the typeface called Oldstyle Antique, designed by A C Phemister circa 1858 for the Miller and Richard foundry in Edinburgh, Scotland. Many American foundries made versions of this type which eventually became known as Bookman. Monotype Bookman Old Style roman is based on earlier Lanston Monotype and ATF models. The italic has been re drawn following the style of the Oldstyle Antique italics of Miller and Richard. Although called “Old Style,” the near vertical stress of the face puts it into the transitional category. The Bookman Old Style font family is a legible and robust text face.

Havel is an updated interpretation of a Czech type design from the 1930s. It is powerful and very condensed. At a quick glance you might find kinship with other condensed typefaces of the same period, like Spire (Sol Hess, 1937), Onyx (Gerry Powell for ATF, 1937) or Quirinus Bold (Alessandro Butti, 1939). But Havel has its very own look, rooted in the rapidly disappearing "Eastern European Type", a typographical tradition where poster and packaging design were the highlights. Torbjörn Olsson has revived this classical Czech beauty, and the Open Type version, Havel Pro, can also be used for Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian.

Hernández Bros, is a typeface designed by Daniel and Eli Hernández. Born in the year 2021, in the midst of the Covid pandemic, from a collaborative spirit where everything called them to work together as family, in order to obtain better results in such trying times. The Hernández siblings, started a ping pong of drawings based on Bulfinch found in the 1912 ATF catalogue. From this exercise, Hernández Bros was designed, a modern Sans Serif, with 8 weights ranging from Extralight to Black. This is an elegant font, with beautiful and harmonious contrasts, which makes it ideal for titles, brands, editorial design, magazines among others.

Cadmus Pro is the newly remastered and greatly expanded version of a Jim Rimmer design based on a type originally done by hand lettering artist Robert Foster. Foster’s type, named Pericles, was published by ATF in the 1930s, and used in lettering magazines and advertising headings. The design is based closely on early inscriptional Greek. Cadmus Pro comes with over 1130 glyphs, covering pretty much all Latin languages (including Vietnamese) as well as Cyrillic, Greek and Hebrew. OpenType features include stylistic alternates, automatic fractions, ordinals, and small figure ranges for superiors and inferiors. Proceeds from this font will be put towards a variety of Canadian typography education causes.

Alf Becker was a master sign painter and lettering stylist who created well over 100 alphabets for a monthly feature in the trade magazine "Sign of the Times" during the 1930s and 1940s. Thanks to Tod Swormstedt of ST pubications for supplying the source material. One of these designs features a modernized version of Old English or "text" lettering making it more legible for sign and show card work. Doing away with extra curves and swashes, this type style is more calligraphic in nature than classic. Modern English JNL was modeled from Becker's original design, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The origins of Bookman Old Style lie in the typeface called Oldstyle Antique, designed by A C Phemister circa 1858 for the Miller and Richard foundry in Edinburgh, Scotland. Many American foundries made versions of this type which eventually became known as Bookman. Monotype Bookman Old Style roman is based on earlier Lanston Monotype and ATF models. The italic has been re drawn following the style of the Oldstyle Antique italics of Miller and Richard. Although called “Old Style,” the near vertical stress of the face puts it into the transitional category. The Bookman Old Style font family is a legible and robust text face.

Morris Fuller Benton designed the serifed Clearface typeface for ATF in 1907. He liked the design so much that he also created a flare-serif variation, Clearface Gothic, soon after. It is a great typeface for headlines. SoftMaker created an updated version, Cleargothic Pro, in 2012. SoftMaker’s Cleargothic Pro typeface family contains OpenType layout tables for sophisticated typography. It also comes with a huge character set that covers not only Western European languages, but also includes Central European, Baltic, Croatian, Slovene, Romanian, and Turkish characters. Case-sensitive punctuation signs for all-caps titles are included as well as many fractions, an extensive set of ligatures, and separate sets of tabular and proportional digits.