SHE'S DEAD, FRANK It's the year 1991, BC (Before Comicraft) when REM were still making records and Frank Miller’s memorable run on Marvel Comics’ DAREDEVIL was just over ten years old. Comicraft’s Richard Starkings found himself working in Anaheim, California for Graphitti Designs. Graphitti had produced the first hardcover edition of Miller’s Batman tale, DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and was now putting together the sequel to Miller’s DAREDEVIL — ELEKTRA LIVES AGAIN! Richard was not engaged to letter this book, the pages of Frank’s incredible original art that came through Graphitti’s studio were already lettered by Marvel Stalwart, Jim Novak. However, there were some cover elements that needed to be added, based on the logo originally rendered by Frank’s brother, Steve. Starkings set about the task of creating an alphabet that could be used to develop Steve’s idea for the trade dress -- the cover elements, the back cover copy and credits on the interior pages. This was long before Macintosh computers and font programs made this work considerably easier, so Rich sat down with a pencil and a sheet of vellum and rendered an alphabet that could be used as the basis for the text that was needed... Those sketches have languished in a drawer for nearly thirty years, but now, finally, Comicraft’s John Roshell has dusted off those old letterforms and Elektrakuted a font based on those designs, a font we HAD to call ELEKTRAKUTION! As for Elektra; she’s dead, Frank. Features: Ten weights (Light, Regular, Bold; Rough Light, Regular & Bold; Inline, Inline Rough, Outline & Outline Rough) with upper & lowercase characters, Western & Central European accents and Greek characters.

Roller Poster is named after Alfred Roller. In 1902, Roller created a poster to advertise the 16th exhibit of Austrian Artists and Sculptures Association, representing the Vienna Secession movement. The exhibit was to take place in Vienna during January & February 1903. The location is not mentioned because everyone in Vienna knew it would be held at the exhibit hall in the Secession Building at Friedrichstraþe 12, a few blocks south of the Opernring, near the Naschmarkt. Designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich in 1897, the buiilding has been restored and stands today as one finest of the many fine examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Vienna (see vienna_secession_bldg.jpg). Because of its dome, it is called “the golden cabbage.” The poster itself is unique. The word “secession” is in one type style and takes up two-thirds of the elongated poster. At the bottom of the poster are the details in a different lettering style. It is this second style at the bottom that is the basis for the font Roller Poster. In keeping with our regular naming conventions, we were going to call it Roller Gezeichnete (hand-drawn), but the wonderful play on both words and the shape of the three S’s in secession was too compelling. In November 1965 there was an exhibit of Jugendstil and Expressionist art at the University of California. Alfred Roller’s Secession Poster was part of that exhibit. Wes Wilson was designing promotional material at Contact Printing in San Francisco. Among their clients was a rock promoter named Bill Graham, staging dance-concerts at Fillmore Auditorium. Wilson saw the catalog from the UC exhibit and Roller’s lettering. Wilson adapted Roller’s letter forms to his own fluid style. The result was the poster for the August 12-13, 1966 Jefferson Airplane/Grateful Dead concert at Fillmore put on by Graham (BG23-1). Wilson continued to use Roller’s letter forms on most of the posters he did for Graham through May 1967, when he stopped working for Graham. The posters were extremely successful and the lettering style along with Roller’s letter forms were picked up by other artists, including Bonnie MacLean, Clifford Charles Seeley, James Gardner, and others. The Secession poster and the Fillmore posters have inspired a number of fonts in addition to ours. Among them are JONAH BLACK (& WHITE) by Rececca Alaccari, LOVE SOLID by Leslie Carbarga and MOJO by Jim Parkinson. Each is different and yet each clearly shows its bloodlines. Our font differs in two ways: 1) the general differences in the interpretation of the letter forms and 2) the modification of the basic letter form to incorporate the diacriticals within the implied frame of the letter, after the manner of the original design by Roller. We borrowed Carbarga’s solution to the slashed O and used it, in a modified form, for other characters as well to accomplish the same purpose. We recommend that you buy ours and at least one of the other three. According to Alaccari, a version called URBAN was released by Franklin Lettering in the 70’s (and is shown on page 51 of The Solotype Catalog). For comparison of our font to original design, see image files roller_poster_2s.jpg of original poster and roller_poster_2sx.jpg showing reconstruction using our font for the lower portion (recontructed area indicated by blue bar). Please note the consistency of character width. In the lower case, 23 of the basic 26 letters are 1/2 EM Square wide. The ‘i’ is an eighth narrower, while the ‘m’& ‘w’ are one quarter wider. All the Upper Case letters are 1/8 EM wider than the lower case. This is to make it easier to fill a geometrical shape like a rectangle, allowing you to capture a little of the flavor of Wes Wilson’s Fillmore West poster using only a word processor. We have also included a number of shapes for use as spacers and endcaps. If you have a drawing program that allows you to edit an ‘envelope’ around the letters to distort their shape, you can really get creative. I used Corel Draw for the gallary images, but there are other programs that can accomplish the same thing. The image file “roller_poster_keys.jpg” shows the complete character set with the keystrokes required for each character (see “HiH_Font_readme.txt” for instruction on inserting the non-keyboard characters). The file “roller_poster_widths.jpg” shows the exact width of each character in EM units (based on 1000 units per EM square). You will notice that the font is set wide for readability. However, most programs will allow you to tighten up on the character spacing after the manner of Roller & Wilson. In MS Word, for example, go to the FORMAT menu > FONT > CHARACTER SPACING. Go to the second Drop-Down Menu, labeled ‘Spacing’ and select "condensed' and then set the amount that you want to condense ‘by’ (key on the little arrows); two points (2.0) is a godd place to start. Let your motto be EXPLORE & EXPERIMENT. Art Nouveau has always been one of my favorite movements in art -- I grew up in a home with a couple of Mucha prints hanging on the living room wall. Perhaps because of that and because I lived through the sixties, I have enjoyed researching and designing this font more than any other I have worked on. Let’s face it (pardon the pun), Roller Poster is a FUN font. You owe it to yourself to have fun using it.

I hate the idea of revivals. I have publicly said I choose not to do revivals because they make me uncomfortable. This is as close as I have been to crossing my own line. To be direct, Rhythm is based on the ATF typeface, Ratio (I just recently learned the foundry of origin). I came across this typeface from a printed specimen years ago when I was in school and held onto it. It was unique and I loved how well integrated the inline worked within both the flourish and serif of the glyphs—it was old, but not, reminiscent, but fresh. My specimen was limited in the glyph offering (it was c. 1930ish) and I realized a lot would need to be done to ‘finish’ it and bring it to contemporary expectations. I didn't want to do ‘retro’ and tried to avoid the visual trappings associated with it. What I did want to do is interpret what I had in the specimen and reinterpret it digitally, refining its construction and extending its typographic equity along the way. The ‘One’ and ‘Two’ (and their matching ‘Solids’) styles diverge providing various elaborations that coordinate well between rigid bracketed serifs and compact tails. I further expanded the glyph offering to include a full diacritic set, old style numerals, fractions, stylistic alternates, swashes, titling alternates and controlled flourishes that adhere to the efficient framework of the script. And yes, I refer to it as a ‘script’ because calling it a ‘cutesy serif’ seems wrong :) I hope this is seen less as a slavish revival and more as a championing of a really unique typeface. The Original Typeface was Adastra, designed by Herbert Thannhaeuser for the Foundry D. Stempel AG in Frankfurt, Germany.

Unconventional beauty FS Kim is bold and intriguing – exuberant and unmissable, but playing a supporting role when needed. This typeface shines brightest as a display font, and is perfect for applications across fashion, theatre, cultural projects and pretty much any brand that wants to make a statement. While FS Kim is dramatic, it’s incredibly versatile, too, and works to showcase content in a stylish, striking way. This font makes you look, and makes you curious – perfect for brands and publishers that relish unconventional beauty. A playful text version While FS Kim’s text version is more constrained than the display, the strength and playfulness remain. Modifications for the text version include larger x-heights, longer ascenders and descenders, wider proportions and spacing, longer and more defined serifs and a lower contrast. “The overall idea is that it’s not an optical size,” Radoeva explains. Text and display maintain a strong connection that mean they can be used together. A display with a twist The calligraphic starting point helped to create familiar forms, while a contemporary display feel is achieved through short wedge serifs, with bold touches added through the font’s exaggerated forms and details. FS Kim’s narrow proportions, short ascenders and descenders, and tighter spacing make the font suitably compact for display use. The overall aesthetic feels bold and sharp, but closer inspection reveals that all the corners are softened. Decorative inlines In an unusual twist, FS Kim’s display version was first drawn using a broad-nib pen to create familiar forms and elegance while still breaking from serif traditions and making it all about standout character. There are also two additional styles, based on the Regular and Black with inlines – in uppercase, figures and symbols. The inline brings an extra option for an even stronger, more decorative display use.

Unconventional beauty FS Kim is bold and intriguing – exuberant and unmissable, but playing a supporting role when needed. This typeface shines brightest as a display font, and is perfect for applications across fashion, theatre, cultural projects and pretty much any brand that wants to make a statement. While FS Kim is dramatic, it’s incredibly versatile, too, and works to showcase content in a stylish, striking way. This font makes you look, and makes you curious – perfect for brands and publishers that relish unconventional beauty. A playful text version While FS Kim’s text version is more constrained than the display, the strength and playfulness remain. Modifications for the text version include larger x-heights, longer ascenders and descenders, wider proportions and spacing, longer and more defined serifs and a lower contrast. “The overall idea is that it’s not an optical size,” Radoeva explains. Text and display maintain a strong connection that mean they can be used together. A display with a twist The calligraphic starting point helped to create familiar forms, while a contemporary display feel is achieved through short wedge serifs, with bold touches added through the font’s exaggerated forms and details. FS Kim’s narrow proportions, short ascenders and descenders, and tighter spacing make the font suitably compact for display use. The overall aesthetic feels bold and sharp, but closer inspection reveals that all the corners are softened. Decorative inlines In an unusual twist, FS Kim’s display version was first drawn using a broad-nib pen to create familiar forms and elegance while still breaking from serif traditions and making it all about standout character. There are also two additional styles, based on the Regular and Black with inlines – in uppercase, figures and symbols. The inline brings an extra option for an even stronger, more decorative display use.

When merely “extended” just would not do, here is Paragraph Stretch™: a super extended or elongated geometric display typeface. It is a typeface with an unicase effect: the capitals and lower case fit the same height and a similar width, so they are interchangeable: fancy a round “W” in all caps? Use the lower case. Want a straight “x” in lower case? Use the cap. And so on. Designed for use at larger sizes for logotypes, short titles or headings. It supports Western plus Nordic, Eastern European and Turkish languages.

Gatsby SF portrays the formal elegance of Art Deco, using the rounded shapes typical of the Art Deco movement. The upper case characters are decorated with a classical Art Deco motif, while lower case characters have been left unadorned for increased readability. Gatsby SF functions well as a display font and creates attention-attracting headers and subheaders. Fully professional, Gatsby SF contains a full character set - Upper and Lower case, all numerals, punctuation, symbols and accented characters. It is suitable for layout work in all major European languages.

A rugged angular display typeface, with variations in the upper and lower case characters.

Woodmark JNL is a rough and somewhat irregular in letter form wood type based on some examples of William H. Page's "New Process No. 507". The eccentricity of the letters is reminiscent of many of the 1800's wood type designs, and is perfect for a rustic look within any retro project.

MohoBis is a fancy font based on the multiplication of a source in many strokes way to create a texture called kinetic. This can mean substantial savings in printing ink. Parallel serves to create unusual headlines and prominent texts that provides an attractive modern typeface, ideal for packaging, editorial design and logos.

Wu is a font that flows through the page like waves in the sea. The font is based on the shape of an Ancistrus fish swimming through water. The shapes of the letters flow into each other and move out again in perfect harmony. Purchase this font and come see it swim.

A vintage photo (circa 1950s) taken outside one of the movie houses owned at the time by Miami-based Wometco Theaters showed a small hand lettered sign with the word “Wometco” painted in a stylized Art Deco alphabet. This inspired Theater Lobby JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

profonts Stina is an cursive font based on cross stitch pattern. It can be used in (very) tall letters but it also keeps legible in smaller sizes. Because of its joined letter pairs and ligatures it keeps the flow of a "handwritten" cursive font. So, you ever felt like stitching? - Start today.

A font based upon my own handwriting (when I am concentrating and making each letter legible!) Very suitable for anything that needs a handwritten feeling. I've added 4 (slightly) different versions of each lowercase letter, and that really helps making your text look more like real handwriting rather than "just a font"

A futuristic grid-based interpretation of the classic Prisma by Rudolf Koch (1927-29). Prizma2012 breaks away from typical rounded characteristics of most Multiline designs and embraces 45 degree angles, a rigid grid system and open ended terminals. Intended for use at large sizes, the family comes with four weights for optimal impact.

LeBeau is a new display typeface designed by Steve Matteson. LeBeau is an all capital letters font, and is based on brush-lettering from the turn of the 20th Century. The Lebeau font has an amusing, art nouveau attitude and can be used for festive posters and fliers, greeting cards or invitations.

Public Notice JNL is based on a wood type alphabet originally shown in George Nesbitt’s 1838 catalog as “Gothic.” The image sample used for a model had only the basic A-Z characters, an ampersand and an exclamation point, so numbers and additional characters were designed and added to the digital version.

The type family was designed at ParaType (ParaGraph) in 1992 by Alexander Tarbeev. Based on the handwriting of the German graphic artist Betina Kuntzsch. For use in advertising and display typography. Additional Latin letters (for the whole family) and Greek letters (for the normal style) were added by Gennady Fridman in 2006-2009.

Expletive Script is a modular font based on a circular form. Its characters can sit above or below the baseline to create unusual display typography and complex repeating patterns. Expletive Script has a playful spirit and simple geometry that makes it suitable for a variety of uses from fine detailing to expressive headlines.

Pyragy is a display font with a classical vibe. It has beautifully crafted nine swashes. It’s genuine, interesting, and perfectly fits different design works, such as posters, book or album covers, digital spaces, or any other media. It supports various Latin-based languages and comes with powerful open-type and true-type features.

This classic face is based on Kleukens Scriptura, designed by Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens in 1926 for D Stempel AG. It served as an alternative to Lucien Bernhard's Cursive and an inspiration for Oswald Cooper's Pompeian Script. Both versions of the font contain the complete Unicode Latin 1252 and Central European 1250 character sets.

This disarming beauty is based on a typeface named "Archer" from the 1905 specimen book from Barnhart Brothers & Spindler. The original was a rather light face; this beefed-up version highlights the face’s charming quirks quite nicely. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

Zemke Hand was based on the handwriting of its creator, Deborah Zemke, who also designed the symbol font ITC Situations. Cheerful and carefree, the characters have the consciously sketchy look of printed handwriting. ITC Zemke Hand will please young and very young readers and is perfect for cartoons, comics and children's books.

Yahosch replicates informal hand writing. The typeface is based on egg-shaped circular elements, with the larger part of the oval on the bottom. It comes in three weights, each with an italic style. The regular is very readable even at smaller point sizes where it appears much like neat hand printing.

As a stand-alone version of our original Sablon, Sablon B delivers a bold expression without any distracting moments. The completely redesigned letters and numerals are available in four weights and are complemented by a vintage stylistic set based on lower horizontal lines. Wide language support including a complete set of Cyrillic characters.

Gustav Jaeger's Becket typeface embodies a retro-medieval aesthetic. Base letterforms that might have been at home with a writer of Irish uncials have been streamlined according to late 20th century tastes to create a timeless effect. Becket is the perfect font to set headlines and logos for clients in the music industry.

The Victoria Titling font is an elegant set of titling capitals based on a foundry typeface from Stephenson Blake. The characters are narrow with strong vertical stress and marked contrast between thick and thin strokes. Use Victoria Titling in large sizes for advertisements, posters and headlines where a touch of refinement is appropriate.

Based on lettering from Eric Gill for the British bookseller WH Smith, Colins Banks made the Gill Facia family for Monotype in 1996. This lettering from Eric Gill was one of the first alphabets that was used for corporate branding. Gill Facia is an elegant signage face for advertisements and for displays.

Delight Script is a fresh and original Angel Koziupa design that takes its cue from post-WWII advertising scripts. Casual, bouncy and playful, this upright script is built and engineered by Alejandro Paul with tons of alternates that can make every word look like real hand lettering. It covers all Latin-based languages.

Pablo is the work of British designer Trevor Pettit, who based this dramatic typeface on the signature of Pablo Picasso. The chunky lowercase reflects the very essence of Picasso's influence and the initial capitals can also be used on their own. Pablo is excellent for work requiring a vivid, cutting edge appearance.

Choc font is the work of French designer Roger Excoffon, based on the traditions of Japanese brush calligraphy, thick yet graceful. Choc light font was designed by Phil Grimshaw, who had to redraw many times in different weights before finding one that worked as a text face and remained true to the original.

Brush Off JNL is based on the hand-lettered title from the cover of the 1955 sheet music of "Love is A Many Splendored Thing". The unique, artistic and somewhat eccentric letter shapes are both reminiscent of show card lettering and calligraphy. The design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

This is a type design based on a retrospective food design posters from 1950 in the United States. The intention was to create handmade letters ideal for handmade projects. The principal reference was the book of Steven Heller Mid-Century Ads. This typeface was the graduation project of my degree as graphic designer.

Corridor 24 is a friendly, sci-fi, display typeface that shamelessly discriminates against Martians. This typeface should only be used by Earth-based lifeforms. This typeface is perfect for retro and vintage branding with a science-y flair. The consistency of the rounded rectangular letter forms make designing word art easy and quick.

This “Anglican” style typeface is based on an 1880s release from St. Louis’ Central Type Foundry originally named Euclid. It’s amazingly versatile, easily at home in both formal and fun settings. All versions of this font include the Unicode 1250 Central European character set in addition to the standard Unicode 1252 Latin set.

Harbour is a clash of Latin and Germanic typestyles - two conflicting letterforms, culturally, politically and aesthetically. Latin letterforms have a geometric base, blackletter types are calligraphic. Harbour takes calligraphic forms that derive from writing with quills, but is a typeface that is clearly drawn‚ rather than written‚ to produce graphic, dynamic letterforms.

Introducing a cool monoline script font family - Oblique Rain. Typeface is based on handwriting text, like school work or retro letters. Works great applied to logos, prints, quotes, magazine headers, clothing, and many others! Features: Uppercase Lowercase Numeral & Punctuation Standart Ligatures Stylistic Alternates PUA Encoded Multilingual Support I hope you enjoy it! Thanks!