A solid powerful Heavy Serif face, great for Headlines and Sub heads. Brings plenty of punch by yet with great sophistication.

A hearty utilitarian face inspired by stenciled type found on train cars and shipping crates. Ideal for posters, headlines, and titling.

A condensed American blackletter designed for ATF in 1932 by Morris Fuller Benton; the face grows out of nineteenth century roots.

This font has nothing to do with the delicious coffee-flavoured Italian dessert treat. Instead, it's a future-inspired display face.

Stan Davis drew this face for VGC in 1967, following the structure of the MICR figures to suggest a ‘computerized’ effect.

Easy Living JNL is a bold Art Deco type face modeled from the name of a 1930s magazine entitled "Country Living".

Muisca, that in its early edition was named as «Muisca Sans», was developed in mid-1997 and based on the graphic concept of pre-Columbian characteristics figures within some of the very few visual elements recovered from the Muisca culture. This ancient pre-Columbian tribe disappeared since the arrival of the Spanish 500 years ago, in what is now the center of Colombia. In fact, the name of the capital Bogotá goes back to Bacatá as primary or village downtown of what was once the imperial capital of the Muisca tribe. This typographic project was submitted as my work for the degree in Graphic Design, obtained in September of that year (at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia), under the creative concept of vindicating the ancient culture and identity through a functional typeface, into a fact without precedent in the country. Muisca was recently edited, arranged and completed, including multilingual diacritic glyphs to be versatile in several languages. Related and inspired by Latin America, Ethnic, Native, Tribal, Mysthical, Handmade, Aboriginal, Pre-Hispanic, Pre-Columbian, Textured, Fantasy. Ideal to be used in logos, display text & titles, games and other design applications that reminds of the Pre-Hispanic art.

Robert Trogman originally designed Buxom for Fotostar in 1975 with lettering from Herman Spinadel. Trogman’s design is an old-fashioned headline face, whose style feels at home in a number a different periods: the Wild West, the 1960s–70s, and once again today! Buxom is an all caps typeface with a three-dimensional effect: each character looks like it sits atop a trapezoidal shape, whose right side is always shaded. An inline around each letterform enhances this shadowy image. Buxom is best used in large display sizes as a single word, or single line of text.

Sensual Initials JNL is a revamped and cleaned-up version of an old freeware font by Jeff Levine. Redrawn, and now utilizing the typeface French Art Initials JNL

A roughened and worn version of Daily Tabloid JNL was originally created as a non-exclusive custom font for a client. The design emulates the look of old letterpress wood type and has now been released commercially as Regional News JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions. A special acknowledgement goes to Michael Hagemann of Font Mesa Fonts who partnered with Jeff Levine Fonts for the original project. His creativity and skill resulted in the textured look needed for the typeface. For some beautiful antique typefaces or fine text face collections, please visit Font Mesa Fonts.

Initially inspired by an untitled typeface from an old hand-lettering book, Berber has been extensively developed over two incarnations to function as a very strong and confident sans. The 2011 Berber revisions have enabled Berber to be used across longer settings as well as its more conventional use on larger applications such as signage. Berber was used as the text face for issue 46 of Eye, the graphic design journal. The typeface now features both king caps and small caps. Extensive additions to the numerals sets and complete opentype sets of international diacritics also extend its usage.

Jobst Gutknecht was a highly successful printer in the city of Nuremburg from 1514 to 1542. He published the "Achtliederbuch" (the first Lutheran hymnal, with a whole 4 tunes) and many works by Martin Luther. This font is an accurate "recutting" of the font face Gutknecht used for the body text in his printed works. It has been extended to over 900 glyphs adding hundreds for modern use. It also presents many ancient things like old ligatures such as "tz", a hedera, and alternate style pilcrow for visual interest. And for those conservative types the modern lower case "k" is also available.

A pure neo-grotesque typefamily inspired by the first typographies' old wooden characters, and by the marks soft and sometimes imprecise these left on the paper. All typographic elements are also influenced by the Cyrillic alphabet letter-form. -- HT Pavla Prospekt is inspired by ancient wooden typefaces and eastern-style letterform. This reference gives the letters unusual but characteristic proportions. The visual effect of the diffusion of the ink imprinted on the paper, which gives softness to the forms, is also very influential. The proportions of the bold and thin faces are visually balanced to ensure a more modern feeling. --

A very expanded sans serif font in capital letters inspired by the inscription on a bank note Old bank notes tend to have a very typical typography. Usually they carry decorative and elaborately designed markings. For one thing, they must be practically impossible to forge and for another, they should make a respectable and legitimate impression. And in the days of copper and steel engravings, that meant nothing less than creating ornate, shaded or otherwise complicated scripts. Designing the appropriate script was literally in the hands of the engraver. That’s why I noticed this bank note from 1948. It is the first 20 mark bill in the then newly created currency ”Deutsche Mark.“ All other bank notes of the 1948 series show daintier forms of typography with an obvious tendency toward modern face. The 1949 series which followed shortly thereafter reveals the more complicated script as well. For whatever reason, only this 20 mark bill displays this extremely expanded sans serif variation of the otherwise Roman form applied. This peculiarity led me in the year 2010 to create a complete font from the single word ”Banknote.“ Back to those days in the 40’s, the initial edition of DM bank notes was carried out by a special US-American printer who was under pressure of completing on time and whose engravers not only engraved but also designed. So that’s why the bank notes resemble dollars and don’t even look like European currency. That also explains some of the uniquely designed characters when looked at in detail. Especially the almost serif type form on the letters C, G, S and Z, but also L and T owe their look to the ”American touch.“ The ingoFont Banknote 1948 comprises all characters of the Latin typeface according to ISO 8859 for all European languages including Turkish and Baltic languages. In order to maintain the character of the original, the ”creation“ of lower case letters was waived. This factor doesn’t contribute to legibility, but this kind of type is not intended for long texts anyway; rather, it unfolds its entire attraction when used as a display font, for example on posters. Banknote 1948 is also very suitable for distortion and other alien techniques, without too much harm being done to the characteristic forms. With Banknote 1948 ingoFonts discloses a font like scripts which were used in advertising of the 1940’s and 50’s and were popular around the world. But even today the use of this kind of font can be expedient, especially considering how Banknote 1948, for its time of origin, impresses with amazingly modern detail.

Jochen Schuss, the Biedenkopf, Germany, designer who was most recently responsible for ITC Vino Bianco, has created in ITC Whiskey a condensed display face that's both angular and soft at the same time. While the letterforms of Whiskey are clearly roman, there's a slight reminiscence of blackletter in the face's narrow proportions, its dark weight, and its persistent internal angle - not quite the 45 degrees common in a classic German textura, but a gentler angle of 25 or 30 degrees. And the counters are all rounded, as are the ends of all the strokes, giving Whiskey a comfortable friendliness despite its severe structure. The character set includes an alternate z" and an "ft" ligature."

Alternate Gothic was designed by Morris Fuller Benton for American Typefounders Company in 1903. All three weights of Alternate Gothic are bold and narrow. In fact, this face is essentially a condensed version of Benton’s other well-known sans serif types, Franklin Gothic and News Gothic. In the early twentieth century, the modern concept of type “families” had not yet been formed — and though Benton designed these sans serifs to harmonize with each other, the foundry gave them different names. Robust, dark, and coolly competent, Alternate Gothic is a good choice when strong typographic statements must fit into tight spaces. As a modern usage, it is currently the font of YouTube’s homepage logo.

A whimsical monoline slab-serif font with understated elegance, based on lettering from an old ad discovered by a friend in Spain. Both versions of this font contain the complete Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

Citadel Script is based on script handwriting and engraving used in formal announcements and invitations. The Citadel Script font lends itself to typesetting in which an elegant mood is desired. Citadel, Flemish Script, Florentine Script, and Old Fashion Script have similar lowercase letters, but unique flourished capitals.

California Bound JNL is based on the hand lettering found on the side of the old California Zephyr passenger trains; the route now being a part of Amtrak. This somewhat unusual Art Deco design is more utilitarian than decorative, yet it still captures the "Streamline Era" perfectly.

Township JNL is based on French Antique Condensed [a classic wood design] and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Reminiscent of Old West wanted posters and circus broadsides, this ultra-condensed typeface allows for more word copy to fit into a single line’s space.

Monde Libre is a display typeface that exudes optimism, joy, and whimsy. I designed this typeface based on a sign in a clip from some old film footage I saw somewhere. It stayed with me as a typeface that evokes the France of my dreams. Enjoy!

Visual Fantasy is a great, all caps display font. It was based on an old font of mine called Plakkaat, which was made using a flat brush and acrylic paint. Visual Fantasy is great for poster work, book covers and product packaging. Comes with extensive language support.

Ornella is a very typical art nouveau typeface that perfectly fits into the series of URW++ Jugendstil fonts released in the last couple of years. Ornella was reworked, redesigned, completed and digitally remastered by Ralph M. Unger for URW++, based on specimen taken from old font catalogues.

Verismo (Italian for ‘realism’, from vero, meaning ‘true’) is a genre of operas with scenarios based on contemporary everyday life. This font is inspired by old school sign painting techniques. In addition, the font has a contemporary look and can therefore be used in many different designs.

Verismo (Italian for ‘realism’, from vero, meaning ‘true’) is a genre of operas with scenarios based on contemporary everyday life. This font is inspired by old school sign painting techniques. In addition, the font has a contemporary look and can therefore be used in many different designs.

Estro was originally designed by Aldo Novarese in 1961 for the foundry Nebiolo. Estro can maybe be classified a combination of Egyptienne and script.Ralph M. Unger redrew and digitized this font exclusively for profonts in 2003. His work is based on artwork taken from old font catalogues.

Sildetas is an elegant high-contrast script face. Sildetas was conceived as non-connected, high-contrast and ultra heavy script, as best exemplified by the Black weight. However, it was too much of a temptation to design a hairline variant, and this exploration gave the family’s lighter weights an elegant, graceful feel. The script was modified further to use connected letterforms as the primary glyphs. With its unique swirled ball terminals, this versatile script draws immediate attention. The face glides and flows across the page and the swirling ball terminals provide an interesting diversion to the flow. The lighter weights have an almost spencerian look. Sildetas includes six weights and is a very unique script face. Lighter weights can be used for elegant invitiations. Sildetas can get the job done for many unique design tasks. Sildetas includes many useful OpenType features, including a set of non-connecting and titling alternates, ligatures, and two types of end swashes. Opentype features include simplified swashed stylistic alternates without ball terminals, swash endings, ending contextual alternates, discretionary ligatures, ligatures and five different stylistic sets filled with alternates. In total, there are over 60 alternate letterforms. OpenType-capable applications such as Quark or the Adobe suite can take full advantage of the automatically replacing ligatures and alternates. This family also includes the glyphs to support a wide range of languages.

Designed over three years after the second World War, and published in 1949 by the Nebiolo foundry, Normandia was Alessandro Butti’s take on the fat face. As it usually was with Butti’s designs, this face effectively injected a catchy yet expertly calculated calligraphic spin into its source of inspiration — which was the essentially geometric/deco, thicker model of Bodoni’s very popular aesthetic. The metal Normandia saw some widespread use for a handful of years after its publication, not least because of the multitude of sizes in which it was available. It stepped out of the limelight by the mid-1950s, due to a combination of the popularity of cold type and Nebiolo’s refusal to retool its faces for new technologies. It was copied by a few small film typesetting outfits on both sides of the Atlantic, but never really found its way back to the mainstream. By the time computer type became the norm, Normandia was pretty much relegated to a type historian’s collection of anecdotes. This digital update of the classic series revives and refines the three original metal designs (Tonda/Regular, Corsiva/Italic, and Contornata/Outline) and expands the character set to more than 600 glyphs per font, including small caps, six types of figures, fractions and nut fractions, a full set of f-ligatures, some stylistic alternates, and other fine typography niceties.

I first wanted to call this family Crowbone, after Olaf Tryggvason, the legendary Viking king from Norway. Somehow I changed my mind and went for Crowfeather, because this is not a Viking font and the name ‘felt’ better. Crowfeather is a family of two distinct fonts: a classic Serif and an old school script font. They work really well together!

Spinnenkop is an old Dutch word which means both ‘spider’ and (in dialect) cobweb. The word forms the basis for that English word: cobweb. Spinnenkop is a magical font. I didn’t use witchcraft to create it, but when it was finished, it reminded me of old fairytales, spell-books and potion recipes. Use it for anything you like, but book covers, product packaging and posters come to mind. Comes with a few swashed letters and a weird alternate g.

Kapelka New is a soft and friendly display face based on the principles of writing with a soft pointed brush. Kapelka is suitable for packaging design, children's books headlines and any other domestic and informal purposes. The typeface was designed by Zakhar Yaschin and released by ParaType in 2015. Inspired by the sweetie paper and soft pointed brush writing Zahar Yaschin designed the first version of Kapelka in 2001. It wasn’t on the shelf all these years and even served some time as a corporate identity of “Domashniy” TV channel. But with the benefit of hindsight the author decided to improve, modernize and extend Kapelka. The result was even better than you would expect. The font became even more soft and gentle and also gained some inward nobility due to more evident calligraphic base.

Barbou was originally cut in 1925 by Monotype as a counterpart to Fournier, siblings that were different in design but both based on the work of Pierre-Simon Fournier. Whether by choice, accident or oversight, Fournier was preserved digitally, and Barbou was lost to history. Barbou was notably used by Stanley Morrison, in particular as the face of The Fleuron. I fell in love with Barbou when I saw it, and knew that I wanted to bring it to a new generation of designers and readers. This is a revival of Barbou, a faithful recutting with new weights, characters and many of the best features that modern font technology brings. Particular attention was paid to the original Monotype Barbou 178 specimen sheet. Originally only available in a single weight, Barbou has been recut with a variable weight, providing a large degree of flexibility between Regular and Bold. Barbou excels as a comfortable reading face for books, and the variable weight allows you to fine tune the darkness and texture of the page in a way never before possible. Barbou has a distinctive softness, and this revival of Barbou preserves much of the effect the medium of metal type had on the letterforms. This results in a subtly rounded yet defined type, elegant not worn, with the utmost attention and respect to the smallest of details. Barbou was originally cut with disparate x-heights for roman and italic, and this revival of Barbou features both the original italic, as well as a new italic redesigned at the same height as the roman. In Fournier’s time, roman and italic would not be mixed on the same line, but the type must change to meet the needs of a new generation. Barbou also features unique ligatures and alternates, old style numbers, small caps and a full Greek alphabet. Barbou is perfect for books and anywhere a comfortable reading face is required, and excels in flexibility.

ATF Franklin Gothic® A new take on an old favorite Franklin Gothic has been the quintessential American sans for more than a century. Designed by Morris Fuller Benton and released in 1905 by American Type Founders, Franklin Gothic quickly stood out in the crowded field of sans-serif types, gaining an enduring popularity. Benton’s original design was a display face in a single weight. It had a bold, direct solidity, yet conveyed plenty of character. A modern typeface in the tradition of 19th-century grotesques, Franklin Gothic was drawn with a distinctive contrast in stroke weight, giving it a unique personality among the more mono-linear appearance of later geometric and neo-grotesque sans-serif types. Franklin Gothic has been interpreted into a series of weights before, most notably with ITC Franklin Gothic. But as the original type was just a bold display face (later accompanied by a few similarly bold widths and italics), how Benton’s design is expanded to multiple weights and styles as a digital type family can vary significantly. Benton designed several gothic faces that harmonize with one another, including Franklin Gothic, News Gothic, and Monotone Gothic, that can serve as models for new interpretations of his work. With ATF Franklin Gothic, Mark van Bronkhorst looked to Benton’s Monotone Gothic—originally a single typeface in a regular weight, and similar to Franklin Gothic in its forms—as the basis for lighter styles. ATF Franklin Gothic may appear familiar given its heritage, but is a new design offering a fresh take on Benton’s work. The text weights are wider and more open than some previous Franklin Gothic interpretations, and as a result are quite legible as text, at very small sizes, and on screen. ATF Franklin Gothic maintains the warmth and the spirit of a Benton classic while offering a suite of fonts tuned precisely for contemporary appeal and utility. The 18-font family offers nine weights with true italics, a Latin-extended character set, and a suite of OpenType features. Download the PDF specimen for ATF Franklin Gothic.

Relato Sans is the other face of Relato Serif (a typeface with much idiosyncrasy) nevertheless, the sans version of this typeface is more austere and aseptic. A humanistic type, with a contemporary cut, created for general use in texts and holders and with a great variety of weights, which allow enough flexibility for projects of great magnitude. Although leading with an independent family it maintains many of the characteristics of its homologous such as proportions, the “x” height, the construction based on air lines of the italic, ornaments and so on. These details show coherence with the serif version, and at the same time reinforce its personality. Being a multifunctional type, the “kerning” has been worked to function in small sizes as well as in larger ones such as holders. The contrast between weights, was optimized to be used in pairs (Light with Semibold, Regular with Bold and Medium with Black). Relato Sans is presented in 6 different weights, in Roman, Italic, Small Caps and Small Caps Italic with three different styles of numerals, Old style figures, Lining figures and Small Caps figures.

Éric de Berranger likes to multitask, and often works on two typeface families at once. Such was the case with Mosquito, a jaunty sans that was developed at the same time he was creating the more traditional Maxime. Mosquito represented a sort of recreation," says de Berranger. "When I grew tired of working on one design I could work on the other and then come back to the first, full of courage and desire!" Mosquito is built from simple, straightforward shapes, but its distinctive stroke terminals and slight oblique weight stress distinguish the design from more conventional sans serif faces. The relatively large x-height and open counters add to the legibility of the design. The capitals are straightforward (with just a hint of Peignot), while the lowercase has a softer, more inviting demeanor. "I drew Mosquito with the hope that it would be pleasant to look at and to read," says de Berranger. "I think the end result is almost feminine." Mosquito comes in three weights, with complementary italic designs and a suite of small caps, old style figures and alternate characters."

Italian type design master Aldo Novarese was not famous for making calligraphic designs, nor had he any interest in them. He is much better known for his text faces, and quite innovative sans serif and decorative designs which became the definition of what we now know as techno and modern. But in 1968, Novarese surprised everyone with a fantastic flowing deco script entitled Elite. Novarese's formula of simple soft curves and toned-down swashes makes for one of the most unique alphabets ever seen, not to mention one of the best flowing and most legible scripts. This is now its digital incarnation, named Fontella. Fontella's applications are virtually limitless. This is the sort of script that can feel at home pretty much anywhere; a sign, a fridge magnet, a bumper sticker, a greeting card, a movie poster, a book cover, music artwork, magazine ads, newsletter headlines, etc. Digitized from original specimen and expanded with a few built-in alternates and ligatures by Rebecca Alaccari, the font was named after the famed jazz singer Fontella Bass. These letters are just so sweet they had to be called Fontella.

Designed for Adobe in 1993, Viva is an inline display face. The Viva font family is useful for advertising, packaging and brochures.

A gritty and powerful all-caps face. Four styles are included so you can mix and match letters to create unique designs.

A delicate narrow sans serif face with an apparent even weight, it is characterized by low cross strokes extended to the left.

A slightly more refined revival of the Fat Face, as supervised by Chauncey Griffith at Mergenthaler one year after ATF’s Ultra Bodoni.