»XPress-Rounded« is my new addition to »XPress«, my Sans-Serif that impresses – especially in small sizes – with its outstanding readability. »XPress-Rounded« looks very different, almost like a completely new font. But the rounded version has the same seven precisely calibrated weights from »Thin« to »Heavy« and its corresponding italics make this font-family universally usable. The »XPress« fonts got their bearings from the fabulous American »Gothic« fonts of the twenties of last century. Modern, present day elements, high lowercase letters and infinitesimal elegant slight curves in start- and end strokes make the font family not only great for body copy, but also very useful in advertising. Enjoy! »XPress-Rounded« ist meine neue Erweiterung zur »XPress« Familie, die durch aussergewöhnliche Lesbarkeit auffällt. »XPress-Rounded« sieht jedoch vollkommen anders aus als sein älterer Bruder. »XPress-Rounded« hat jedoch die selben sieben präzise aufeinander abgestimmten Schnitte von »Thin« bis »Heavy« und die dazu passenden Kursiven. Das macht die Schriftfamilie vielseitig einsatzfähig. Die »XPress« Schriften basieren auf der Formensprache der grossen amerikanischen Groteskschriften der zwanziger Jahre des letzten Jahrhunderts. Durch moderne Formelemente, große Mittellängen und unendlich leichte, elegante An- und Abstriche ist die Schrift jedoch nicht nur als Textschrift, sondern auch im gesamten Bereich der Werbung vielseitig einsetzbar. Viel Erfolg!

Gonzi is a geometric sans-serif typeface in 30 styles. Its circular lowercase letters and large, expressive capitals combine to create a modern, clean typesetting with a distinct personality; all the while keeping accessible and legible. Gonzi consists of five weights, each one as narrow, medium and wide: Thin, Light, Regular, Bold, Black Condensed, Medium, Extended Each one of font styles is also provided as Italic, totalling 30 high-quality styles. Also includes a variable font! Only one font file, but the file contains multiple styles. Use the sliders in Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign to manually set any weight and width. This gives you not only the predefined styles, but instead more than a thousand ways to customize the type to the exact look your project requires. More info about Variable Fonts: https://mansgreback.com/variable-fonts The font is built with advanced OpenType functionality and has a guaranteed top-notch quality, containing stylistic and contextual alternates, ligatures and more features; all to give you full control and customizability. It has extensive lingual support, covering all Latin-based languages, from North Europe to South Africa, from America to South-East Asia. It contains all characters and symbols you'll ever need, including all punctuation and numbers.

The careful balance between the emotional swings and shapes set in strong contrast such as the burly serifs, or generally vertical and orderly appearance within the Duwal Pro determine the special look of this Antiqua typeface. All characters of the Duwal Pro are designed to be open and accessible. The lowercase letters are designed with a large x-height, which is why they are ideal for small font sizes. Many striking details give Duwal Pro a defined and firmer appearance with increasing font size so it is also suitable for use in headlines and work marks. The deliberately constructed and emphasized design of the serifs give the font a strong position and at the same time force the reading direction. Using Duwal Pro in Bold weight, the serifs look clearly striking, the design language is concise and the typeface receives an additional sympathetic force. The Italic weight draws on the expressive but not intrusive design of the Regular, but appears sharper and is ideal for text passages. The font family contains italics, small caps, lots of ligatures, swashes, another format set, contextual alternatives and special characters as well as other open-type features which allow the use of Duwal Pro in 48 languages.

Snacko is one dope display font. It’s got that casual vibe mixed with some 70s soft serif styles, and a playful italic angle that’ll make your designs move and groove! This font is perfect for titling, branding, logos, and all kinds of digital or printed materials. It’s fun and playful, so it’s perfect for designs that are targeted at a younger crowd or need a fresh and modern feel. Snacko’s funky, soft, and cool design makes it the bomb for all kinds of design fields, from advertising to packaging to social media graphics. It’s got a style that’s all its own and can make your designs pop and stand out from the crowd. This font only comes in one style, but don’t trip, it’s versatile and can be used in all kinds of ways. It’s approachable and friendly with a softness that’s off the hook, but also funky and expressive with a unique personality that can take your designs to the next level. Bottom line, Snacko is one creative and versatile font that’ll bring a playful and fun energy to all your designs. It’s got a unique style that’s perfect for any designer’s font collection, so don’t sleep on this one!

If you need a typeface suitable for the most elegant and hard work, you will fall in love with Schotis family, your true Scotch Roman style workhorse. Schotis Text is designed for perfect reading on running texts, leaving the setting of big sizes for Schotis Display. Each optical size family has seven weights plus matching italics, with 1100 glyphs per font. With a very extended character set for Latin based languages including Vietnamese, Schotis shows all its potential with OpenType-savvy applications. Every font includes small caps, ligatures, old-style, lining, proportional and tabular figures, superscript, subscript, numerators, denominators, and fractions. Schotis family is based in Scotch Roman style but designed from scratch, with a more contemporary and not nostalgic look. The Scotch Romans were one of the most used letters during the 19th and early 20th century, but they don’t have their own place in the main typographical classifications. They appeared at the beginning of the 19th century with Pica No. 2 in the catalog of William Miller (1813) and assumed the British route towards high contrast and vertical axis modern Romans. In opposition to the continental route of Fournier, Didot, and Bodoni, the English way opted for a wider, more legible letter also resistant to bad printing conditions.

Say hello to new serif font, Holy Cream! Holy Cream is a font that takes you back to the trendy retro era. With a classic display serif style but with a modern feel, Holy Cream emphasizes the uniqueness and elegance of each letter. The bold, contoured serif design provides a strong vintage touch, while stylish and quirky alternatives add a charming creative dimension. When using Holy Cream, you will feel a touch of fun nostalgia, but also explore ongoing design trends at the same time. Whether you want to feature your headline in a print ad, poster, or other graphic design, Holy Cream delivers a trendy, retro vibe that grabs attention with its ability to adapt to a variety of visual styles. So, with Holy Cream, make your design speak in a stylish and unique retro style, captivate the audience and make an unforgettable impression. Here's what you get: Holy Cream Regular and Italic All Multilingual symbol Opentype features ( ligature, alternate ) Accessible in the Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, even work on Microsoft Word. PUA Encoded Characters - Fully accessible without additional design software. Multilingual character supports : (Afrikaans, Albanian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Zulu)

Mr Orange is a typeface based on our handwritten letters which we used in some of our books H.O.U.S.E, D.E.S.I.G.N and Who Eats Whom. It has up to three alternate glyphs for each character, even for every diacritic letter. We do use our fonts in our books so we know that switching alternate glyphs can be a pain in the ass. Thats why we’ve created a very cool Contextual Alternates feature. It automatically sets alternate glyphs depending on frequency of appearance of the same character. The script doesn’t throw random glyphs. It’s checks if lets say letter “A” appears more then once in a sequence of characters. For example in the word “ANAKONDA”, the third “A” and the second “N” would be changed to glyphs from first stylistic set, the second “A” would also be changed but to glyph from second stylistic set. We’ve designed different rules for basic characters and different for diacritics and punctation. It really works great but of course you can always fine tune it by hand. This option has one obvious advantage for web fonts. Browsers that support OpenType calt feature will be able to display alternate characters. And since you can’t put by hand alternate glyphs on your website this is the only way to use them.

A rare natural history book from the early 18th century served as inspiration for the MVB Sirenne typefaces. The artisan who engraved the book—likely a map engraver—had a distinctive style of lettering that was used on the descriptive captions for the many tropical fishes depicted in the book. The plates used to print the illustrations would have been copper, the letterforms hand-engraved. The designers at MVB Fonts found the distinctive quirks of the roman letterforms and the eccentric stress of the italic interesting enough to embark on developing digital fonts based on the engraved samples. As the captions were hand-lettered, there was a great degree of variation, making a direct “revival” impossible, so Alan Dague-Greene interpreted the characteristics of the letterforms into a workable typeface design. The challenge was to retain a rustic quirkiness to the forms, yet have a typeface that was useful for more than display. The solution was to make optical sizes. The “Six” faces are full of character, but strong and open for clarity at small sizes. The design of the “Text” faces is more subtle, so that they can be used for passages of text, but retain the feel of their model. MVB Sirenne “Eighteen” and “Seventy Two” are intended for display use.

The Waldorfschrift family was created in digital form in the years 1993-1994 by Joachim Frank, inspired by the naturally organic letters from the anthroposophical movement of the 20th century of Rudolf Steiner . In nature there are no right angles, straight lines or complete uniformity, but instead round corners, varying thicknesses and all kinds of variability. This is what the anthroposophical movement created in their buildings, their art, in their music – and also in their lettering. And this Font is like the plants in nature: it grows upwards, branches out, letters hugs to some letters, with others they keeps more distance, some letters proudly stretch their belly, others crouch in the corner - a completely natural font. Take a look at the brand of Weleda (the natural cosmetics company), Demeter (one of the biggest organic foods companies), Filderklinik (a great anthroposophical hospital in Germany) and you will see these great companies work with different but organic letter styles. More recently, Joachim revisited the Waldorf fonts with modern type design software and added extra characters such as the euro sign, and extra weights to make the fonts useable for a wide variety of design tasks. Dez 21: A big update: All fonts have been digitized again and given a complete character set, new kerning, minor bugs removed.

Update November 2022: ULGA Grid now features an oblique variant. It’s also been expanded into a family of different but related designs with the addition of ULGA Grid Solid and ULGA Grid Rounded typeface families. All variants and new designs are monospaced, sharing the same width as the original ULGA Grid font and matching character sets. The character set has also been enlarged and now supports Western Europe, Vietnamese, Central/Eastern Europe, Baltic, Turkish and Romanian. ULGA Grid is a modular, monospaced typeface reminiscent of the old Letraset LCD & Quartz typefaces from the 1970/80s with lots of alternative characters and ornaments to bring a fresh twist to the genre. The idea’s seed germinated while I was going through a phase of binge watching my favourite 1980/90s sci-fi movies (classics such as Terminator, Total Recall and RoboCop). However, perception and reality don’t always align. Thirty years later, when compared to today’s technology, some visual elements look kind of outdated, almost Retro Futuristic. The initial design process started out in Adobe Illustrator when I constructed letters from a few geometric shapes within a square block. Just playing around with different shapes was so engrossing that it wasn’t long before there were enough characters for a basic typeface. The project grew again as I experimented with designs within the shapes and set paragraphs of text in patterns, resulting in over a hundred alternative characters and ornaments, some of which double up as border designs. This typeface may be square but it’s anything but boring. What it lacks in legibility ULGA Grid makes up for in style and the end result is a surprisingly versatile typeface that you'll have fun using for a wide range of display purposes including CD covers, posters, packaging, advertising, brochures and film titles. Ironically, the fixed grid structure frees the characters to create patterns of text not possible with variable widths.

Mantika Book was originally conceived and drawn parallel to the first Agilita drawings. *[images: pencil drawings] It took several years before having a chance looking at these designs again. But then, my first impulse was to turn this alphabet into a new sanserif, which was to become Mantika Sans. This was the starting point to conceive a super family consisting of different design styles and corresponding weights. The initial drawings of Mantika Book were refined and an Italic was developed to go with it. The aim was to create a modern serif typeface which is reminiscent of humanistic Renaissance typefaces, yet without following a particular historic model. Its large x-height for one is far away from original Renaissance models. Mantika Book was designed as a companion serif typeface to Mantika Sans that can be set for lengthy texts as in books, hence its name. It shares the same x-height with Mantika Sans but has longer ascenders and descenders, making for better word shapes in long, continuous reading. The approach of an ›old-style‹ looking typeface with large minuscules makes Mantika Book also a choice for magazine text settings where one often needs smaller point sizes to fit in a multiple columns layout. The unique details of Mantika Book are the asymetric bracketed serifs in the upright font and its higher stroke contrast than usual in a Renaissance style. The stems are slightly curved inwards. Also, the Italics have a low degree of inclination, which makes longer passages of text set in Italic rather pleasing to read. Another feature Mantika Book shares with Mantika Sans is that all four weights take up the same line length. It covers all European languages plus Cyrillic and Greek, is equipped with lots of useful scientific symbols [double square brackets, angle brackets, empty set, arrows] and the regular weight has small caps. There is a kind of an old-style feeling to Mantika Book, yet these citations were turned into a contemporary serif typeface with a soft but sturdy character.

Smallstep - One geometric sans serif with a free spirit. If we presume that geometric typefaces play with the idea of what typography would look like in the future when all unnecessary elements would disappear, than most of their designers seem to envision the future in a rather metropolisque kind of way. We love geometric faces, but the cold and heartless feelings that most of them leave is just not our cup of tea. That is why we are happy to bring some optimism in that genre with our new typeface. We called it Smallstep. Smallstep is a typeface that follows the traditions of classic geometric sans serifs like “Futura”, but is at the same time friendly and whimsical. We took the liberty to deviate from the standard sans serif glyphs while drawing some characters (such as ”a” and ”r” ), others (“w” “k”) are completely redesigned. Probably the biggest trademark of this typeface is the way vertical lines in most lower case characters are “cut” so they end in a 60 degree angle. Smallstep is over all a expressive face, which means it brings some emotions to your design and feelings in itself, and should be used accordingly. Other than that, it is suitable for both headline and body text, print and web. So what kind of name is “Smallstep”? We view the type design process as a form of evolution: There can be no typeface that differs drastically from the current standards, since its characters would be unrecognizable and thus unreadable. But at the same time there are hundreds of faces that differ a little, and still manage to make a difference by moving with small steps towards better and more refined looks. Smallstep consist of 4 weights, that cover all the features, that are expected of a modern Opentype face: kerning pairs, ligatures, true italics and alternative characters, plus a set of symbols, that will help you start off your designs more easily.

Padraig Nua is a font conceptualized and designed by Tony Fahy. It is a European Celtic font, contemporary to many languages, not just of Europe but of the world. It’s origin is influenced by events in Ireland in the 1960s when it was decided that the uncial letterform should not be used further in Irish schools for the Irish language—Gaelic—and that it should be replaced by the Roman letterform—the Cló Romhanach as it was called afterwards. This happened overnight without any apparent discussion. It probably had a lot to do with Ireland joining the EEC, as the EU was called then. It had a massive effect on the Irish language and culture, in that the distinguishing factor that gave the language it’s identity—the half uncial/uncial fonts that were in use in all school, government and society documentation and merchandise—were lost overnight. No one said how or why. It was just done. To this day, all documentation is bi-lingual in government and Gaelic is taught in schools and universities—and decreed so by the European Union—but the presentation for both languages is the Roman letterform. Throughout the world, there are millions of Irish Americans and Irish Canadians, Irish Europeans, Australian Irish, African Irish and many living in the Middle East and Asia—and this new font—Padraig Nua, will appeal to many of them, visually recalling their roots. No one had thought, in those days, of commissioning a design that might update the Gaelic language to a more contemporary appearance that would keep the cultural nature of it intact with a revised and updated font—at one with Europe, the US and the world. Tony Fahy designed Padraig Nua (New Patrick) to address the problem. It keeps an appearance that lends towards the Gaelic language but steers it in the direction of Roman fonts. Some characters reflect letterforms from the Irish/Gaelic manuscripts and uncial fonts.

ZX Spectrum In 1982, a home computer came on the market that would launch the UK IT industry. The ZX Spectrum sold five million units and spawned thousands of software titles. It was the must-have gadget for every teen. FS Sinclair is inspired by the memory of Sir Clive Sinclair’s greatest creation: the experience of entering its clunky command codes and reading its simple, grid-placed type. Smart, switched-on, great in text and display, FS Sinclair is a modern grid-based font, drawn with the Spectrum in mind and brought to life by well thought-out design. Formula Having completed the font for Channel 4’s brand update, the Fontsmith team defined the formula for its next font: the creative essence of the C4 work but with more structural discipline, more rigid form and a little more seriousness. The new font wouldn’t look self-consciously retro but it would reference the past and, it was hoped, influence the future. Readability Like the ZX Spectrum, it took a while for the new font to do exactly what it was meant to do. Many of the early concepts by Phil Garnham and Jason Smith were too jagged – the result of an awareness of getting too close to existing fonts of the same ilk, such as Wim Crouwel’s Gridnik. Eventually, FS Sinclair evolved into a more readable, functional grid-based type design that answered Phil and Jason’s original, self-set brief. Idiosyncratic There’s a technological, systems feel to FS Sinclair but ultimately, humans are in charge. The lowercase “a”, “n”, “m” and “r” have clean-cut “ears”, and the square-ish design is softened by round joins on the inside of the letterforms. The idiosyncratic design of letters such as “g”, “j”, “k”, “v”, “w” and “y” bring the design up to date. This is a modular font with character, and a range of weights that allow varied application.

The classic modernist FS Alvar grew out of a library of pure modular shapes gathered by Fontsmith’s master of the abstract starting point, Mr Phil Garnham. “It was a collection that just had to be explored and brought to life in a typographic voice. “We debated long and hard about this. It was big decision to make a shift away from the typefaces that people knew us for. And we didn’t want to compromise our reputation of well crafted typographic quality”. Modular forms A headline font that’s both graphic and functional, in the modernist tradition, FS Alvar focused Fontsmith’s eyes on the bigger issue of what makes a font show its age. “Looking at those fonts from the 1980s that were supposed to represent the ‘future’,” says Phil, “they looked so dated now. With Alvar, we weren’t concerned with creating future-thinking typography but with exploring form for form’s sake, and how that can evolve to create letterforms. Modular forms with a typographic eye.” Stencilled The concept for Alvar first materialised back in 2001 with some sketches Phil made while still at Middlesex University. Eight years later, something made him dig them out again. “There was something really nice about the proportions of that first design. Working on it again, I thought about it properly, but it still needed something to give it that edge. “Jason stood up in the studio and supplied the missing link: ‘Why don’t we make it stencilled?’ He didn’t mean in an obvious way, but by building a kind of architectural stencil into the form. It worked and the idea of using an architect’s name (Alvar Aalto) to describe the font felt perfect.” Featured in... The three weights of FS Alvar are made for standout headlines in advertising campaigns and magazines. Alvar has had a starring role in campaigns for brands from Nike to Amnesty International, as well as on CD covers, record labels and packaging.

Carbon, the brutalist unicase typeface, boasts a refined modularity that is perfect for creating bold headlines. Its capsule forms make for a unique design element that will draw attention to any layout. Since the year 2000, graphic designers have been relying on Carbon to bring a strong visual impact to their work. This typeface is not just visually stunning, but it’s also highly versatile. Carbon comes in seven different weights, making it easy to adapt to any design need. It even includes italics for added variety. But what truly sets Carbon apart are the two special effect styles that allow designers to create truly distinctive designs. Carbon is not just a typeface, but a tool that designers can use to create memorable designs. Whether you’re designing for print or digital media, Carbon is the perfect choice for bringing your vision to life. With its unique features and versatility, it’s no wonder that Carbon has been a mainstay in graphic designers’ toolboxes for decades. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Duos Pro, a script for illusionists, comes in 10 styles. Whatever style you pick: apply this speedy monolinear handwriting font in large sizes, because it is made for catching the attention. Take Duos Sharp, which comes with speedy strokes and sharp endings in light, regular and black weights. Or pick Duos Round, and its 3 styles with a softer voice and round endings. Some people call those endings “funky ball noses“, an odd but appropriate description. Round styles look more like round tip speedball lettering, but contrary to most speedball letterings they're written with a very high speed. Especially Duos Round Black is more cuddlesome than its sharper counterpart. For an even more intuitive feel, we added two more sets: Duos Brush & Duos Paint. Duos Brush combines monoline strokes with brush beginnings and endings, for that graphical, freshly lettered touch. A closer look will reveal how its brushed tails vary all the time. Duos Paint is made up out of rough & artistic painted strokes, with all its accompanying shortcomings. In contradiction to the finesses of lighter weights, Duos Paint Black scores in being the most nonchalant and impressionistic. Poésie brutale! As well as having the option to choose between (or mix) these 10 styles, Duos Pro has additional hidden functionalities. For example, every style has many alternate lettershapes and ligatures, offering various different results and lengths to display every single word. Or manually add one of the swashes for more emphasis. A bonus font, Duos Tools, includes tool icons, strokes and banners. If that ain’t enough, throw in some polysemic letters for smart, ambiguous communication if you like. Want to become a signpainter? Then be a signpainter. Always wanted to be an artist? This is your chance! Duos Pro boosts your look. Make your visual vocabulary as grandiose, dramatic, sensitive or picturesque as you want. But whatever you do, don't hesitate to apply Duos Pro “short & big”!

A literary font FS Neruda takes its name from Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, described as “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language”. As such, it’s a font that references the very best literary typeface traditions. Smart, sharp and classical, FS Neruda bridges the gap between the classical and the offbeat. This font started life in the world of newspapers and books and is the perfect storytelling typeface for savvy, inquiring readers whether in printed journals, hard news, short online missives or poetry. Idiosyncratic precision FS Neruda is clear and legible in body text, while also being a space-saver fitting in more characters on each line than the typefaces that inspired it. In larger sizes it becomes a different beast – livelier, quirkier, but no less sharp. This is a truly classic typeface designed with long text setting in mind, thanks to its large x-heights, and short ascenders and descenders. FS Neruda mixes suave, sharp confidence with a sense of fragility and quirkiness. It’s knowledgeable, informative and idiosyncratic; one for readers and enquiring minds. Subtle weight modifications The construction and details of the letterforms differ across each of the five weights, with each cut separately to evoke different flavours: Thin is typewriter-like, Light is classy, Regular is canonical, Bold is robust, Black is magazine-esque. FS Neruda also boasts a radiant italic companion, a wide set of small caps, lower and uppercase ligatures, case punctuation and spacing, four sets of figures, and some ageless typographic symbols such as manicules, fleurons and teardrop crosses. Suggestive simplicity “The key to success in the current type design landscape is to design a typeface which looks conventional at text sizes but has a few small, suggestive touches visible at bigger sizes that make it distinct,” says designer Pedro Arilla. “Another thing we wanted to achieve with this typeface is simplicity.” FS Neruda is available in ten carefully crafted styles: it’s designed to work perfectly at text sizes, but still glows as a display typeface.

Conversation Hearts are inspired by the sweethearts and conversation hearts that can be found all over the US and Britain, but not in Germany. A source of endless fun and surprise. As a typographer to me they are also a surprising document of written communication. Most people complain that nowadays the inscriptions are not as sweet as they used to be. While they used to held romantic and promising inscriptions like “Be True” “Sweet Talk”, today they carry “Tweet me” “Ur Hot” and “Party Girl”. So i took this as a motivation to work with conversation sweetheart on a conceptial inspirational and typographical level. The obvious: every letter pressed on the keyboard brings out a conversation heart that starts with the letter - i.e. L = Loverboy, H = Heartless but what to write? Since i didn't want to reproduce the old “Fax me” and “Email me” I had to come up with something new. Something with a personal relation and of course something that I Love - what else could i write in the shape of the heart? So I tried to access my upper subconsciousness and looked for two words for every letter in the alphabet. One for the capital letter pressed and one word for the lowercase letter. Resulting in a Kurt Schwitters worthy assemblage of vocables "Post-office" “Internship” “Zebra” “Answers” etc. It is not easy to read a text set in Conversation Hearts but easier as a text set in Zapf-Dingbats. To sparkle the visual appearance uppercase letters are filled hearts with “carved” inscription, while lowercase letters are an outlined heart with written inscription. Conversations Hearts is a part of the Light Hearted Font Collection that is inspired by a recording of Jean Baudrillard with the title, "Die Macht der Verführung" (The Power of Seduction) from 2006. Further inspiration came from the article, "The shape of the heart: I'm all yours". The heart represents sacred and secular love: a bloodless sacrifice. by British writer Louisa Young printed in EYE magazine (#43) London, 2002.

Geometric/Technical style logotypes have been developed for car chrome labels since the early 1980’s, but automobile companies don't monopolize the style by any means. During the 80’s and 90’s, a lot of these logos leaned towards the geometric sans styles and the swiss styling of fonts like Handel Gothic, while playing with varying degrees of squared rounds and varying expanded widths per logotype. Mercurial has this flavor, but it wasn’t derived from logotypes. Instead, it began as a digitization of a film typeface from LetterGraphics in the early 70's known as "Sam". It visual ties to this genre of automotive logotypes and fonts like Handel Gothic lend a familiarity to it, yet it has an identity all its own. As with so many automotive logotypes, this singular style film typeface, lacked an expansive family which shows off all potential the logotypes have and what they "could" be and do. And that's where we come in. What originally began as this family’s Regular Width - Bold Style has been expanded into a collection of 3 Width Families, each containing 5 Weights. Here’s what’s included with the Mercurial Complete bundle: 396 glyphs per style - including Capitals, Lowercase, Numerals, Punctuation and an extensive character set that covers multilingual support of latin based languages. (see the final poster graphics for a preview of the characters included) 3 widths in the collection: Narrow, Regular, & Wide 5 weights in each width family: Light, Book, Regular, Medium & Bold. Here’s why the Mercurial Family is for you: - You’re in need of stylish sans font family with a range of widths and weights. - You’re love those 80’s automotive logos, but want more range of use. - You’re looking for an alternative to Handel Gothic. - You’re looking for a clean techno typeface for your rave poster designs. - You just like to collect quality fonts to add to your design arsenal.

The world of aviation is filled with clean and iconic logotypes, yet some of the earlier logotypes were friendly and simple. The Tailwind family finds its origin of inspiration in an early Air Jamaica company logo, and from there is expanded into a small but comprehensive font family. Tailwind celebrates the typographic stylings of the 70’s, with the soft rounded terminals and open geometric feel, transcending its brand inspired origin to give birth to a family that feels both retro and modern. It inherited the friendly stylings of the mostly lowercase logo that inspired it, and goes on to include a full standard character set with expansive international support of latin based languages, small caps styles, and three weights jumping from light to regular to a heavyweight black. This family is ready to chart a course for your designs towards that of a modern, comfortable appeal. Here's what's included with the Tailwind Collection bundle: 382 glyphs per style - including Capitals, Lowercase, Numerals, Punctuation and an extensive character set that covers multilingual support of latin based languages. (see the 6th graphic for a preview of the characters included) 6 fonts in 3 weights: Light, Regular, Black . Small Caps versions available in all weights. Fonts are provided in TTF & OTF formats. The TTF format is the standard go to for most users, although the OTF and TTF function exactly the same. Here's why the Tailwind Collection is for you: You're in need of a soft rounded font with a variety of weights with small caps for your designs You're a retro airline junkie and have to have anything inspired by Air Jamaica You love VAG Rounded, but you really want something just a little different You really dig the Akademics & Bloomingdales logos, but would like a softer type in that genre You just like to collect quality fonts to add to your design arsenal

Pure and not-so-simple Maybe it’s the air of purity, openness and transparency that they transmit, but geometric typefaces are more popular than ever among leading brands. Based on near-perfect circles, triangles and squares, geometric letterforms look uncomplicated, even though making them readable is anything but – something the designers of the first wave of geometric fonts discovered nearly a century ago. Many of the world’s most recognisable brands in technology, retail, travel, food, manufacturing and other industries continue to be drawn to the straightforward, honest character that geometric fonts convey. Fontsmith set out in 2015 to develop a typeface in the same tradition, but optimised for the demands of modern brands – online and offline usage, readability and accessibility. And, of course, with the all-important Fontsmith x-factor built in. FS Lucas is the bold and deceptively simple result. Handle with care The letterforms of FS Lucas are round and generous, along the lines of Trajan Column lettering stripped of its serifs. But beware their thorns. Their designer, Stuart de Rozario, who also crafted the award-winning FS Millbank, wanted a contrast between spiky and soft, giving sharp apexes to the more angular letterforms, such as A, M, N, v, w and z. Among his inspirations were the colourful, geometric compositions of Frank Stella, the 1920s art deco poster designs of AM Cassandre, and the triangular cosmic element symbol, which led him to tackle the capital A first, instead of the usual H. The proportions and angles of the triangular form would set the template for many of the other characters. It was this form, and the light-scattering effects of triangular prisms, that lit the path to a name for the typeface: Lucas is derived from lux, the Latin word for light. Recommended reading Early geometric typefaces were accused of putting mathematical integrity before readability. FS Lucas achieves the trick of appearing geometric, while taking the edge off elements that make reading difficult. Perfectly circlular shapes don’t read well. The way around that is to slightly thicken the vertical strokes, and pull out the curves at the corners to compensate; the O and o of FS Lucas are optical illusions. Pointed apexes aren’t as sharp as they look; the flattened tips are an essential design feature. And distinctive details such as the open terminals of the c, e, f, g, j, r and s, and the x-height bar on the i and j, aid legibility, especially on-screen. These and many other features, the product of sketching the letterforms in the first instance by hand rather than mapping them out mechanically by computer, give FS Lucas the built-in humanity and character that make it a better, easier read all-round. Marks of distinction Unlike some of its more buttoned-up geometric bedfellows, FS Lucas can’t contain its natural personality and quirks: the flick of the foot of the l, for example, and the flattish tail on the g and j. The unusual bar on the J improves character recognition, and the G is circular, without a straight stem. There’s a touch of Fontsmith about the t, too, with the curve across the left cross section in the lighter weights, and the ampersand is one of a kind. There’s a lot to like about Lucas. With its 9 weights, perfect proportions and soft but spiky take on the classic geometric font, it’s a typeface that could light up any brand.

Pure and not-so-simple Maybe it’s the air of purity, openness and transparency that they transmit, but geometric typefaces are more popular than ever among leading brands. Based on near-perfect circles, triangles and squares, geometric letterforms look uncomplicated, even though making them readable is anything but – something the designers of the first wave of geometric fonts discovered nearly a century ago. Many of the world’s most recognisable brands in technology, retail, travel, food, manufacturing and other industries continue to be drawn to the straightforward, honest character that geometric fonts convey. Fontsmith set out in 2015 to develop a typeface in the same tradition, but optimised for the demands of modern brands – online and offline usage, readability and accessibility. And, of course, with the all-important Fontsmith x-factor built in. FS Lucas is the bold and deceptively simple result. Handle with care The letterforms of FS Lucas are round and generous, along the lines of Trajan Column lettering stripped of its serifs. But beware their thorns. Their designer, Stuart de Rozario, who also crafted the award-winning FS Millbank, wanted a contrast between spiky and soft, giving sharp apexes to the more angular letterforms, such as A, M, N, v, w and z. Among his inspirations were the colourful, geometric compositions of Frank Stella, the 1920s art deco poster designs of AM Cassandre, and the triangular cosmic element symbol, which led him to tackle the capital A first, instead of the usual H. The proportions and angles of the triangular form would set the template for many of the other characters. It was this form, and the light-scattering effects of triangular prisms, that lit the path to a name for the typeface: Lucas is derived from lux, the Latin word for light. Recommended reading Early geometric typefaces were accused of putting mathematical integrity before readability. FS Lucas achieves the trick of appearing geometric, while taking the edge off elements that make reading difficult. Perfectly circlular shapes don’t read well. The way around that is to slightly thicken the vertical strokes, and pull out the curves at the corners to compensate; the O and o of FS Lucas are optical illusions. Pointed apexes aren’t as sharp as they look; the flattened tips are an essential design feature. And distinctive details such as the open terminals of the c, e, f, g, j, r and s, and the x-height bar on the i and j, aid legibility, especially on-screen. These and many other features, the product of sketching the letterforms in the first instance by hand rather than mapping them out mechanically by computer, give FS Lucas the built-in humanity and character that make it a better, easier read all-round. Marks of distinction Unlike some of its more buttoned-up geometric bedfellows, FS Lucas can’t contain its natural personality and quirks: the flick of the foot of the l, for example, and the flattish tail on the g and j. The unusual bar on the J improves character recognition, and the G is circular, without a straight stem. There’s a touch of Fontsmith about the t, too, with the curve across the left cross section in the lighter weights, and the ampersand is one of a kind. There’s a lot to like about Lucas. With its 9 weights, perfect proportions and soft but spiky take on the classic geometric font, it’s a typeface that could light up any brand.

An offbeat typeface inspired by the titling of the 1969 Pink Panther cartoon starring the Aardvark, "Technology, Phooey". It contains an alternate H and T, as well as a handful of ligature swap outs for doubles like EE OO SS TT, etc.

MIX QUIRKY QUILL is not your average font. Inspired by the old archival books and documents from the days of yore, MIX QUIRKY QUILL brings a touch of history and tradition to your designs. With its clean, slightly italicized letters, this font is the perfect choice for projects that aim to evoke a sense of timelessness. Think of the old record books in church archives, the documents from Ellis Island, and pre-technology paperwork. MIX QUIRKY QUILL is reminiscent of these timeless pieces, making it ideal for art events, classic artwork, theatre posters, and anything that demands an air of tradition and classic sophistication. But don’t let its historical roots fool you. MIX QUIRKY QUILL is a perfectly imperfect digitized handwriting font, with a playful and fun flair that makes it stand out. Its clean lines and slightly italicized letterforms provide a touch of sophistication, while its charming imperfections add a touch of personality. This font is perfect for use in earthy, classic palettes such as browns, creams, and ink greens. Whether you’re looking to create a vintage-inspired design or a modern, quirky take on tradition, MIX QUIRKY QUILL is the font for you. Add Quirky Quill to your design arsenal today and see what story you can tell! MIX QUIRKY QUILL comes with the following glyphs: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 !@#$%^&*()`~♥✿•· ÷×+−±≈=≠≥≤[]<>:;'”,.\|/ {}“”‘’-–—_…‚„©®™‹›«»°¹²³¡¿₱¢€£¥¶§№† ÁÀÂÄȦÃÅĂĀĄÆĆĈČĊÇÐĐÉÈÊËĖĒĘḞǴĜǦḠĠĤȞḦḢIÍÌÎÏĪĮĴḰǨŁḾṀŃÑŇ ÓÒÔÖÕŌŐØŒṔṖŔŘṘŚŜŠŞȘŤṪȚÚÙÛÜŨŮŬŪŰŲẂẀŴẄẆÝŶŸŹẐŽŻƵ áàâäȧãåăāąæćĉčċçðđéèêëėēęḟǵĝǧḡġĥȟḧḣıíìîïīįĵḱǩłḿṁńñň óòôöõōőøœṕṗŕřṙśŝšşșťṫțúùûüũůŭūűųẃẁŵẅẇýŷÿźẑžżƶ Alternates/Ligatures: & j gg kk ll lt mm nn oo th tt

Fantastic ML is an exuberant Art Nouveau font. It was originally released as “Modern Style” by Fonderie G. Peignot & Fils, Paris, France sometime before 1903. Since “Le style moderne” was the generic French name for Art Nouveau, it is possible that someone decided a less generic name was needed. The typeface became known as Fantastic. Compared to conventional text letters, it is just that. Fantastic has a whimsical, architectural feel. The typeface reminds me of a cross between Hoffmann’s Palais Stoclet in Brussels and Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona. The letterforms themselves are similar to those by Ludwig von Zumbusch on the cover of “Jugend” in March, 1896, but with the addition of serifs. Fantastic ML is a decorative, all-cap font intended for display use and functions best at 18 points or larger. There are a total of 306 glyphs. In addition to the standard 1252 Western Europe Code Page with character slots up to decimal position 255, there are glyphs for the 1250 Central Europe, the 1252 Turkish and the 1257 Baltic Code Pages. However, some older applications may only be able to access the Western Europe character set (1252). The zip package includes two versions of the font at no extra charge. There is an OTF version which is in Open PS format and a TTF version which is in Open TT format. Use whichever works best for your applications.

P22 Brass Script is a new font from an old source. This script font was discovered in a booklet from Dornemann & Co. of Magdeburg Germany, circa 1910. The book was titled Messingschriften fur Handvergoldung, which roughly translates to “Brass types for hand foil stamping.” The mini catalog called this type simply “Script.” It has not been previously digitized or seen in standard metal type form. The antique specimen book featured most of the characters needed for a full alphabet, but a number of letters were not shown. Since no other examples of this style could be found, P22 enlisted the assistance of master calligrapher Michael Clark to draw the missing characters in the same style as the original. The style is very loosely based on the secretarial hands and reminiscent of “French Hand” with a very early 20th century, pre-modern feel. It has an unusual flow that is neither too casual nor too formal. The font would be useful for wedding invitations or packaging and advertising. P22 Brass Script Pro features include: automatic ligatures for common pairs such as ll, tt, qu and a variety of f ligatures, full CE language support including Turkish and Romanian and a variety of swash underscores for different length words that can be added manually in OpenType ready applications with the glyph palette or with the contextual alternates. The length of the word will automatically select the best length of swash for the work.

Looking for a typeface that embodies both grit and grandeur? Look no further than Lerku. This crispy font takes its inspiration from the timeless classic Bold Antique by Morris Fuller Benton, but it adds a grungy edge that’s perfect for today’s contemporary designs. With letter pair ligatures that help break up the monotony of repeating characters, Lerku is perfect for OpenType-savvy applications that demand a bit of variation. Whether you’re designing a website, a logo, or a marketing campaign, Lerku will give your message a bold, authoritative voice that’s sure to make an impact. So if you want to add a touch of vintage charm to your design, while still keeping it fresh and modern, Lerku is the perfect choice. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Harri Text is more than an extension of Harri. It shares its origin, a certain flavour and a great deal of its idiosyncrasies, but while Harri is an uppercase-only typeface intended for display uses, Harri Text is conceived as a text type family, including a new extra-light weight, italics, small caps and other additions that make it suitable for editorial purposes. As its predecessor Harri Text addresses several concerns regarding the dualism neutrality vs. idiosyncrasy, or in other words, how local features meet global design in the context of a modern society (as is the case in the Basque Country in recent times). The origin of Harri Text —vernacular Basque lettering for the most part— is full of idiosyncrasies and peculiarities that, while giving them its special character, may hinder readability in some cases. The default set in Harri Text tones its essence down a little bit. It is still present, although less obstrusive. Stylistic sets 1, 2 and 3 are a chance to recover gradually this essence modifying some characters —specially the characteristic design of letter A– for those who seek a more local flavour. Stylistic set 4, on the other hand, does the opposite job, this is, removes asymmetrical serifs and other small details in order to create a more neutral atmosphere. Any traces to its origin are this way diluted resulting in a crisp and clean incise variant. Stylistic set 6 is available in the italic styles. It provides a more fluid and cursive flavour to some letters in case a calligraphic mood is desired. Harri Text comes with 1054 glyphs in its character set (1078 in the italics) with support for more than 220 languages.

An inline adaptation of a distinctive slab serif, Cesium is an unusually responsive display face that maintains its high energy across a range of different moods. The Cesium typeface was designed by Jonathan Hoefler in 2020. An energetic inline adaptation of Hoefler’s broad-shouldered Vitesse Black typeface (2000), Cesium is named for the fifty-fifth member of the periodic table of the elements, a volatile liquid metal that presents as a scintillating quicksilver. From the desk of the designer, Jonathan Hoefler: I always felt that our Vitesse typeface, an unusual species of slab serif, would take well to an inline. Vitesse is based not on the circle or the ellipse, but on a less familiar shape that has no common name, a variation on the ‘stadium’ that has two opposing flat edges, and two gently rounded sides. In place of sharp corners, Vitesse uses a continuously flowing stroke to manage the transition between upright and diagonal lines, most apparent on letters like M and N. A year of making this gesture with my wrist, both when drawing letterforms and miming their intentions during design critiques, left me thinking about a reduced version of the typeface, in which letters would be defined not by inside and outside contours, but by a single, fluid raceway. Like most straightforward ideas, this one proved challenging to execute, but its puzzles were immensely satisfying to solve. Adding an inline to a typeface is the quickest way to reveal its secrets. All the furtive adjustments in weight and size that a type designer makes — relieving congestion by thinning the center arm of a bold E, or lightening the intersecting strokes of a W — are instantly exposed with the addition of a centerline. Adapting an existing alphabet to accommodate this inline called for renovating every single character (down to the capital I, the period, and even the space), in some cases making small adjustments to reallocate weight, at other times redesigning whole parts of the character set. The longer we worked on the typeface, the more we discovered opportunities to turn these constraints into advantages, solving stubbornly complex characters like € and § by redefining how an inline should behave, and using these new patterns to reshape the rest of the alphabet. The New Typeface The outcome is a typeface we’re calling Cesium. It shares many of Vitesse’s qualities, its heartbeat an energetic thrum of motorsports and industry, and it will doubtless be welcome in both hardware stores and Hollywood. But we’ve been surprised by Cesium’s more reflective moods, its ability to be alert and softspoken at the same time. Much in the way that vibrant colors can animate a typeface, we’ve found that Cesium’s sensitivity to spacing most effectively changes its voice. Tighter leading and tracking turns up the heat, heightening Cesium’s sporty, high-tech associations, but with the addition of letterspacing it achieves an almost literary repose. This range of voices recommends Cesium not only to logos, book covers, and title sequences, but to projects that regularly must adjust their volume, such as identities, packaging, and editorial design. Read more about how to use Cesium. About the Name Cesium is a chemical element, one of only five metals that’s liquid at room temperature. Resembling quicksilver, cesium is typically stored in a glass ampule, where the tension between a sturdy outer vessel and its volatile contents is scintillating. The Cesium typeface hopes to capture this quality, its bright and insistent inline restrained by a strong and sinuous container. Cesium is one of only three H&Co typefaces whose name comes from the periodic table, a distinction it shares with Mercury and Tungsten. At a time when I considered a more sci-fi name for the typeface, I learned that these three elements have an unusual connection: they’re used together in the propulsion system of nasa’s Deep Space 1, the first interplanetary spacecraft powered by an ion drive. I found the association compelling, and adopted the name at once, with the hope that designers might employ the typeface in the same spirit of discovery, optimism, and invention. —JH Featured in: Best Fonts for Logos

Worldly Even though it’s a new arrival, FS Brabo has seen the world. Designed by a Brazilian working in London and studying in Belgium under a Dutchman, it’s certainly well-travelled. And it was inspired by the extraordinary archive of early book typefaces at the world-renowned Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, while Fernando Mello was attending Frank Blokland’s Expert class Type Design course at the Plantin Institute of Typography. It was there that Fernando became engrossed in the collection of early metal type, matrices, punches and type samples by figures such as Garamond and Granjon. So much so that he took on the mighty task of developing ‘a beautiful, functional, serifed text font’ of his own. Heroic FS Brabo’s journey from sketch to font family took an epic three years, starting in Antwerp, continuing at Fontsmith in London, and reaching its conclusion back in Fernando’s home city of São Paulo. No wonder Fernando was reminded of another titanic face-off: that of Antwerp’s Roman hero of legend, Silvius Brabo, and the evil ogre, Antigoon. Brabo came to the town’s rescue after the tyrannical giant had been charging ships’ captains extortionate taxes and chopping off the hands of those who refused to pay up. Having finally downed Antigoon after a long and terrible duel, Brabo cut off the giant’s own hand and threw it into the river Scheldt, unwittingly giving the town its name: the Dutch for ‘hand-throw’ is hand werpen. What better way for Fernando to name his literary typeface than after the hero of Antwerp’s oldest tale? The garalde factor FS Brabo is not a revival, but a very much a contemporary, personal interpretation of a garalde – a class of typeface originating in the 16th century that includes Bembo, Garamond and Plantin, with characteristically rounded serifs and moderate contrast between strokes. Brabo’s ‘ct’ and ‘st’ ligatures, upper-case italic swashes and contextual ending ligatures – ‘as’, ‘is’, ‘us’ – all preserve the beauty and character of traditional typefaces, but its serifs are chunkier than a garalde. Their sharp cuts and squared edges give them a crispness at text sizes, helping to bring a beautifully bookish personality to hardworking modern applications. A workhorse with pedigree It may give the appearance of a simple, four-weight typeface, but FS Brabo has hidden depths beneath its simplicity and beauty. OpenType features such as cap italic swashes, contextual ending swashes – programmed only to appear at the end of words – and stylistic alternatives make this a complete and well-equipped typeface. Comprehensive testing was carried out at text and display sizes, too, to prevent counters from filling in. All of which makes FS Brabo a very modern take on a traditional workhorse serif typeface: colourful and versatile enough to adorn not just editorial projects but also signage, advertising and logotypes.

Worldly Even though it’s a new arrival, FS Brabo has seen the world. Designed by a Brazilian working in London and studying in Belgium under a Dutchman, it’s certainly well-travelled. And it was inspired by the extraordinary archive of early book typefaces at the world-renowned Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, while Fernando Mello was attending Frank Blokland’s Expert class Type Design course at the Plantin Institute of Typography. It was there that Fernando became engrossed in the collection of early metal type, matrices, punches and type samples by figures such as Garamond and Granjon. So much so that he took on the mighty task of developing ‘a beautiful, functional, serifed text font’ of his own. Heroic FS Brabo’s journey from sketch to font family took an epic three years, starting in Antwerp, continuing at Fontsmith in London, and reaching its conclusion back in Fernando’s home city of São Paulo. No wonder Fernando was reminded of another titanic face-off: that of Antwerp’s Roman hero of legend, Silvius Brabo, and the evil ogre, Antigoon. Brabo came to the town’s rescue after the tyrannical giant had been charging ships’ captains extortionate taxes and chopping off the hands of those who refused to pay up. Having finally downed Antigoon after a long and terrible duel, Brabo cut off the giant’s own hand and threw it into the river Scheldt, unwittingly giving the town its name: the Dutch for ‘hand-throw’ is hand werpen. What better way for Fernando to name his literary typeface than after the hero of Antwerp’s oldest tale? The garalde factor FS Brabo is not a revival, but a very much a contemporary, personal interpretation of a garalde – a class of typeface originating in the 16th century that includes Bembo, Garamond and Plantin, with characteristically rounded serifs and moderate contrast between strokes. Brabo’s ‘ct’ and ‘st’ ligatures, upper-case italic swashes and contextual ending ligatures – ‘as’, ‘is’, ‘us’ – all preserve the beauty and character of traditional typefaces, but its serifs are chunkier than a garalde. Their sharp cuts and squared edges give them a crispness at text sizes, helping to bring a beautifully bookish personality to hardworking modern applications. A workhorse with pedigree It may give the appearance of a simple, four-weight typeface, but FS Brabo has hidden depths beneath its simplicity and beauty. OpenType features such as cap italic swashes, contextual ending swashes – programmed only to appear at the end of words – and stylistic alternatives make this a complete and well-equipped typeface. Comprehensive testing was carried out at text and display sizes, too, to prevent counters from filling in. All of which makes FS Brabo a very modern take on a traditional workhorse serif typeface: colourful and versatile enough to adorn not just editorial projects but also signage, advertising and logotypes.