I used to be a tour guide and I traveled to China numerous times. Usually, the itinerary mentioned going to a restaurant in Beijing and eating ‘Beijing Roast Duck’ (北京烤鸭), a famous dish that has been prepared since the Imperial era. Typically, the whole duck is sliced at your table. The skin is crisp, glazed and thin and you should eat it with thin pancakes and thinly sliced spring onion. Of course, if I had to guide several ‘China tours’ in a row, I would often eat something else (there is only so much Beijing Duck you can eat). Peking Duck is a nice, handmade, Chinese Ink font. Use it for your restaurant menu, your book covers or your posters, advertising oriental food!

Longshanks is a condensed serif display font with a low waist, blade-like strokes, and other unusual detailing. This font features a medium-low x-height and works very well at larger display sizes. It's an excellent choice for any headline, banner, or title that would benefit from an old-world, historical, fantasy, magic, or sword & sorcery vibe. It also harks back to the metallic foil stamped type treatments from 1980s – 1990s romance novel book cover design. The offbeat features are subtle enough to leave this font with a very high degree of legibility in spite of its strong and dynamic treatment of certain serifs and finials. The namesake for this typeface is King Edward I of England, whose nickname was Edward the Longshanks.

Gardner Sans is a humanist sans serif with a range of weights, italics, small caps stylistics alternates and a set of decorative ornaments. The light and regular faces work at smaller sizes and the heavier weights are good for display lettering. It is inspired by a few historical sources including Stephenson Blakes' Granby, Gill Sans, as well as some old hand-done lettering for sales tickets. The name (and the basis for the small caps) derives in-particular from the Roy Gardner collection of sales tickets from early 20th century that can be found on spitalfieldslife.com The heavier weights were particularly influenced by a later cut of Gill Sans, Extra Bold 321. The italic is more of a contemporary mix of humanist styles.

Albiona Inked is a vintage distressed version of Albiona that evokes the urgency of teletext printers, typewriter ribbons and authentic hot-metal type on rougher paper. A contemporary slab-serif, it revisits aspects of Robert Besley’s classic Clarendon, designed around 1842 for Thorowgood and Co. and named after the Clarendon Press in Oxford. Subsequently extended by Stephenson Blake in the 1950s, Albiona adds the inwardly-curved stroke terminals of the same foundry ’s Grotesque series, and includes italics and old-style and tabular numerals. The original Clarendon’s ball serifs and calligraphic eccentricities have been rationalised and streamlined for functional contemporary uses. The family consists of five weights plus italics and a stencil, and its clean readable style is perfect for both extended text as well as headline setting. A rounded “soft” version is also available.

Tusker Grotesk is a headline typeface designed for robust and high-impact use. The initial inspiration for Tusker came from postwar typefaces like Haettenschweiler, Impact and Helvetica Inserat which use very high x-heights. Other influences in the condensed end of the Tusker family are old grotesques like Folio Extra Condensed and Stephenson Blake Elongated Sans No.1 with their flat terminals and closed-up apertures. Then as the widths in Tusker grow, the lettering takes some more inspiration from gothic style sans such as Inland Type's Title Gothic No.8, while maintaining the optical weight established in the narrow end of the family. Each width set is duplexed, stackable and is ideal for headlines, logos and bold attention-grabbing editorial design. Tusker has extended latin coverage ideal for western, central and eastern European languages.

“So-called Baskerville Old Face of the type foundry Stephenson Blake & Co. of Sheffield. The Script is probably not immediately linked to Baskerville, but it is very much influenced by it. It is one of the most beautiful types of which the mats still exist; it has an incomparably different spirit than the ‘streamlined’ re-cuts of today’s Baskerville. Even keeping the general restraint extremely expressive. According to Berthold Wolpe (‘Signatures’ No. 18), the punches were cut and shown in samples in 1776 by Isaac Moore, who came from Birmingham to Bristol.” – Jan Tschichold, “Meisterbuch der Schrift”, Notes On The Plates, Page 231 Publisher note: I wanted to improve the contrast between thick and thin, reduce some ink-traps and give stems, serifs and links a smoother overall feel. I have also added some alternative letters and old style numerals.

VLNL Jelly Donuts’ Jelly Donuts is the round sibling of VLNL Donuts. Equally funky, just round. Like its counterpart Jelly Donuts is heavily infused by hip 1970s geometric fonts like Blippo, Pump and ITC Bauhaus. It nonetheless has both feet in this modern day and age. Meticulously designed and tightly spaced, VLNL Jelly Donuts is very suitable for logos, headlines and music artwork. We especially recommend using it on big 12" album covers. VLNL Jelly Donuts is deep fried, filled with cream, custard or jam, and ometimes glazed or covered in a variety of sweetness: sprinkles, cinnamon, coconut, chopped peanuts, powdered sugar or maple syrup. As a very sweet and saturated snack should, VLNL Jelly Donuts is fitted with a full set of alternate swoosh caps that can be deployed to liven up your already ‘out there’ designs. You can’t get any more funky than this.

Patent Reclame manages to be light-hearted, while clearly showing its blackletter roots both in the shape of the individual letters and the rhythm of text on a page. The designer is unknown. Schriftgeisserei Flinsch of Frankfurt a.M. cast the face around 1895. Nicolete Gray shows a quite similar face called “Graphic,” from Stephenson Blake in 1896. Personally, I don't think that Patent Reclame looks like an English design, but I do not have any proof one way or the other. The numbers are proportional, intended for posters, not spreadsheets. Two ornaments are included, an art nouveau rose at #172 and a lilypad with long tendril at #177. Great for invitations, posters and flyers announcing fun events. Do not use for obituaries. Quite readable in smaller sizes for short blocks of text. I really like the buoyant quality -- a nice combination of discipline and enthusiasm.

Blue Plaque is a distressed font that simulates the low relief, white-painted lettering on English Heritage plaques attached to buildings where famous people have lived. For creating mock plaques, a blank disk, with the English Heritage title at the top and the logo at the bottom, is included at the brace left { keystroke, and also at the section § keystroke. A blank plaque without the English Heritage title and logo is included at the bar | keystroke. A distressed English Heritage logo is included at the asterisk * keystroke. he outer ring of the blue plaques, which is glazed in dark grey, is included at the brace right } keystroke, and also at the plusminus ± keystroke. Photoshop's Outer Bevel Layer Style is perfect for adding a relief appearance to the letters. Buyers are welcome to request a 1000px jpeg image of a blank blue plaque by emailing K-Type directly https://www.k-type.com/contact/

Before ink jet and laser printers; before copy machines, the main way to make multiples of anything not provided by printing press was by a mimeograph machine or spirit duplicator. The mimeograph utilized a porous drum which inked the backside of a waxed stencil sheet. Unlike traditional stencils which have cut out areas that are directly inked or painted, a mimeo stencil has the area to be printed scratched away by removing the wax coating with a stylus. The resulting image allows the ink from the drum to seep through the sheet and transfer to the blank paper. Based on a plastic lettering guide once manufactured by the A.B. Dick Company of Chicago, Mimeograph Template JNL is available in regular and oblique versions. Albert Blake Dick, the company’s founder, coined the term ‘mimeography’. The font’s character shapes follow the routed letters of the template, complete with rounded terminals. An earlier font release [designed with flat terminals and some alternate characters] is available as Interoffice Memo JNL.

Agatized Formal is a chunky stencil typeface with slightly condensed letterforms and tight spacing. Designed primarily for display use, it’s ideal for posters, logos, advertising, book cover designs or small chunks of text such as pull-out quotes. It exudes authority without taking itself seriously, like a plump jolly uncle in charge of a brass band. Agatized Formal is a big, bold typeface with a charismatic presence that commands attention – in a friendly way, of course. But what really makes this typeface come alive is its arsenal of alternative characters and ligatures. There is a saying: Use sparingly. Whoa! Not here, no, no, no. Make your Glyphs palette earn its money. Flex your OpenType muscles: get stylized, contextualized, indulge in some ligaddiction. This typeface is a peacock that likes to put on a show, spread its plumage and strut around in all its blazing glory. Agatized, according to Wiktionary, means: A living thing converted into the form of agate; fossilized. I felt the name suited the solid, almost rock-like letterforms, but most of all I just wanted a typeface name that began with the letter A. Although Agatized Formal is a single-weight typeface it has a sibling, Agatized Informal, an older, more casual brother, rougher round the edges with craggy good looks and an altogether more jaunty style.

The BATTISTA typeface stands in the long tradition of the designs developed by Giambattista Bodoni, who made his famous typefaces in the end of the eighteenth century. Similar designs can be found on various specimen books e.g. Alexander Wilson, John Bell, Edmund Fry and Alexander Thibaudeau. One of the best italics was available by Stephenson Blake & Co. foundry form Sheffield, England. In the end of the nineteenth century an unknown punch cutter at the German type foundry Schelter & Giesecke made an very bold cut of this Bodoni design. He brought both designs, the regular and the italic to an new level of harmony. Compared to the original Bodoni designs the new typeface was a lot bolder, which was well taken by the audience in this time. The BATTISTA typeface is an remarkable design, assembled of ultra bold and very fine shapes, but in all, the spirit of Bodonis design was well preserved. BATTISTA is a classic display design. The fine details are best shown on larger text sizes.

Arise is a humanist typeface designed for both text and display purposes. Its an understated type family with enough subtle nuances and personality to add distinction to your own typographic compositions. As can be seen in the /a/c/f/g/r/y/ glyphs, hooked terminals are a key feature of this typeface. These terminals are blade-like in appearance, defining a distinctive character that is unusual, yet balanced and refined. Practical features include 38 capital swash alternates for intial and final forms that can be particularly effective when used in titling and branding situations. Small caps are also included (along with matching diacritics) – these are designed to harmonise with regular lowercase forms so that you may easily achieve unicase-style typography. There are 18 fonts altogether, with 9 weights from ExtraLight to Ultra in both roman and italic. Arise has an extensive character set that covers all Latin European languages. Key features: 9 Weights Roman & Italic Small Caps 38 Alternates Old Style Figures European Language Support (Latin) 700+ Glyphs per font.

“The modest Rose puts forth a Thorn. The humble Sheep a threat’ning Horn. While Lily white shall in love delight. Nor a Thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.” ― William Blake Are you looking for a way to enhance your copy? Introducing Lilium Star - A Modern Handwritten Font. With every hand-drawn stroke and curve, Lilium Star will delight and add brightness, modernity and elegance to wherever it is placed. Impress your wedding guests with gorgeous invitations using Lilium Star. Why not create more engaging content and inspire your audience and clients? This Modern Handwritten font is also perfect for headings, logos, business cards, printed quotes, cards, packaging, and your website or social media branding. What you’ll get: Multilingual & Ligature Support Full sets of Punctuation and Numerals Compatible with: Adobe Suite Microsoft Office KeyNote Pages Software Requirements: The fonts that you’ll receive in the pack are widely supported by most software. In order to get the full functionality of the selection of standard ligatures (custom created letters) in the script font, any software that can read OpenType fonts will work.

Night Light is a specially created collection of seven neon inspired fonts giving designers the power to replicate traditionally hand-made lettering from the comfort of their own computer. Choose from the selection of script, sans serif and outline fonts to set your text. Then apply our custom graphic styles for a life giving jolt of electricity! The appeal of neon lettering lives in its power to display a message in a functional, eye-catching and timelessly cool way. How many times have you stopped in the street to admire a bar sign or shop front blazing with neon colors? It's aesthetic works equally well for a Hot Dog stand or high-end fashion brand, providing a tried and tested technique for grabbing customer attention. I've designed these fonts to make the power of neon accessible to all, investing time to research real neon signs and how they are made, paying attention to their human imperfections and inherent limitations (all of which makes them). This research has been distilled into these essential styles; Script, Outline, Inline, Square and Compressed. These seven core fonts give designers a new opportunity to take advantage of realistic neon lettering in their print and online projects, perfect for music promotion, film titles, YouTube tutorials and gig posters. Ready to be moulded to any requirement, the power of neon is in your hands. Neon Graphic Style Presets Available Here The link above provides access to the graphic styles seen in the visuals with support for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects. Simply download and follow the instructions provided.

Mousse Script is based on Glenmoy, a 1932 Stephenson Blake typeface. Glenmoy a prime example of what display typography was in pre-WWII American ad art. It graced the pages of magazines, sold numerous products and services, then simply died out when the typographic trends shifted towards the more personalized, stylized and handwritten types of calligraphy. The current trend in typography is a revivalism that brings all of the distinctive display typography of the 20th century, without chronological discrimination, back in the name of ‘retro’. Who are we to deny the masses what they want? Mousse Script doesn’t just bring Glenmoy back from the ashes of the 20th century. It expands upon the limited metal character set nearly twice over and takes advantage of the latest type technologies. This makes Mousse Script a striking typeface, both functionally and visually. A simple, attractive display font on the surface, Mousse Script is unique in its bold upright calligraphy, something rarely found these days. The OpenType version of Mousse Script combines both the regular and alternate character sets into a single, cross-platform package that takes advantage of the extended typographic features of the OpenType format.

Carlton is based on a typeface designed by Prof. F. H. Ehmcke. In 1908, Ehmcke released his Ehmcke-Antiqua design through the Flinsch typefoundry in Germany. Ehmcke-Antiqua was later distributed by the Bauer typefoundry in Frankfurt am Main. The Caslon Letter Foundry in England discovered the design and released their own typeface based upon the model, which they named Carlton. Carlton entered the Stephenson Blake program after they acquired the Caslon Letter Foundry in the late 1930s. As hot and cold metal typesetting became outdated technologies, Carlton and Ehmcke-Antiqua fell out of general use. In the 1990s, Letraset revived this classic design, distributing it under its English name, Carlton. Carlton's clean and generous capitals, as well as its understated yet detailed lower case, have found popularity again in recent years. The elegance of Carlton is best used for displays with large letter and word spacing. Carlton shows all of the hallmarks of a delicate serif typeface design; its forms capture a distinct moment that was common within Central European type design during the first third of the 20th Century. Carlton is similar to several other expressive typefaces from the early 1900s, including Bernhard Modern, Koch Antiqua, Locarno, and Nicolas Cochin."

Stamen is the answer to a big question: What would happen if one tried to create a typeface that was ‘out of time’? If a type designer was to turn off the internet and put away the type specimens and just try to explore limbic, phantom history, what might that look like? No slavish explorations of the past. No gropings toward the future. No exhaustive core sample of the contemporary. Instead, using what one remembers of history and our collective vision of the future (usually a future imagined from the past) and channeling that into something that is, hopefully, new… The Bentons meet Frutiger for a Manhattan on a space station while Matthew Carter sways to the sweet sounds of the chorale that occasionally played through the halls of Stephenson Blake. This smear of implicit history expressed without explicit reference—this is Stamen: a family of 12 typefaces with a ton of alternate characters. The bold weight was designed for the LP “I Thought the Future Would Be Cooler” ( http://ittfwbc.com/ ) by the band YACHT in response to their request for a typeface that was ‘lost in time’, and refers to neither strict historical models nor purely futuristic forms. I built a small family out from there. It works well in text, but just as well for display setting. I think you’ll enjoy using it.

Introducing Draghord, a bold and dynamic typeface that embodies the essence of superheroic power and adventure. This font is a visual journey into the realm of fire, swords, skulls, and wings, capturing the spirit of mighty heroes and formidable villains alike. Characteristics: Flaming Elements: Each letter of Draghord is adorned with fiery accents, reminiscent of a blazing inferno. The flames dance around the characters, conveying a sense of untamed power and intensity. Sword-Inspired Strokes: The letterforms draw inspiration from the sleek and sharp edges of legendary swords. The angular and precise strokes give the font a cutting-edge aesthetic, symbolizing strength and precision. Skull Motifs: Intricately integrated skull motifs within the font add an element of danger and mystery. The skulls serve as a visual reminder of the challenges faced by our superheroic characters, embodying both mortality and defiance. Dynamic Winged Elements: The font incorporates dynamic winged elements that soar across certain letters, emphasizing the theme of flight and freedom. These wings symbolize the superhero's ability to rise above adversity and transcend limitations. Usage Scenarios: Comic Books: Draghord is perfect for comic book titles, captions, and speech bubbles, adding a dramatic and visually striking element to the narrative. Movie Posters: Use Draghord to create attention-grabbing titles and taglines for superhero movies. Its bold and adventurous design will set the tone for epic storytelling. Gaming Graphics: Ideal for in-game text, Draghord adds a heroic touch to video game interfaces, especially in fantasy or superhero-themed games. Event Promotion: For superhero-themed events, Draghord can be utilized in promotional materials, posters, and banners to convey a sense of excitement and power. In Conclusion: Draghord is not just a font; it's a visual experience that transports you into the heart of superheroic tales. With its fiery, sword-inspired design, skull motifs, and dynamic wings, Draghord is the perfect typographic companion for any project seeking to channel the thrilling energy of the superhero genre. Unleash the power of Draghord and let your words ignite the imagination!

Aquawax Pro PDF Specimen Aquawax Graphic Project on Behance Created as a custom brand typeface in 2008 by Francesco Canovaro, Aquawax is one of Zetafonts most successful typefaces - having been chosen, among the others, by Warner Bros for the design of the logo for the Aquaman movie. Its logo design roots are obvious in the design details, from the blade-like tail of the Q and the fin-like right leg of the K to the intentionally reversed uppercase W, as well as the rounded edges softening the stark modernist lettershapes. While this details make the typeface extremely suitable for logo and display design, especially in the bolder weights, the open, geometric forms of the letters and a generous x-height make it extremely readable at small sizes, making it perfect for body text and webfont use. In 2019 the family was completely redesigned by the Zetafonts team, expanding the original glyph set to include Cyrillic and Greek and adding three extra weights and italics to the original six weights, for a total of 27 weights (including 9 pictograms). The restored and revamped version, named Aquawax Pro, also includes full Open Type features for Positional Figures, Stylistic Alternates, Discretionary Ligatures and Small Caps, and adds to the typeface new alternate glyph shapes, accessible as Stylistic Alternates. Optimized for maximum screen readability, it covers over 200 languages that use the Latin, Cyrillic and Greek alphabet, with full range of accents and diacritics.

Attention all design enthusiasts! Are you tired of the same dull typefaces dominating the design world? Look no further than Ohitashi, the daring and unconventional creation by Typodermic principal Raymond Larabie. In a world where twentieth-century sans-serif typefaces reign supreme, Ohitashi breaks the mold and blazes its own trail. Larabie has masterfully infused this typeface with a unique blend of humanistic stroke contrast, spontaneous licks and curls, and incised detail, resulting in a one-of-a-kind design that defies convention. But don’t let the unconventional nature of Ohitashi fool you. This typeface offers a practical range of three weights—standard, semi-bold, and bold—making it an incredibly versatile option for any design project. Whether you’re looking to add a touch of personality to a marketing campaign, or looking to revamp your brand identity with something fresh and new, Ohitashi has got you covered. So why settle for the same boring old typefaces when you can break free from the rut favored by reductive competitors? Embrace the unconventional with Ohitashi and see your designs come to life like never before. Trust us, your audience will thank you. 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.

The story of Freigeist is a journey into the past, back to the early grotesk fonts and long before Helvetica and Co were standard fonts in operating systems. For what we take for granted today is the result of innovation and pioneering spirit of type foundries such as Caslon or Stephenson Blake in the 19th century, whose expressive designs are mostly forgotten today. The Freigeist family captures this untamed spirit — hence the name (German for “free spirit”) — and puts it into a contemporary context, resulting in a multi-faceted family with a wide range of applications, font styles and features for modern typesetting. Design Details Unlike other modern grotesk typefaces like Helvetica or Univers, Freigeist is characterized by a warm and dynamic appearance. It draws inspiration from various historical models such as Caslon’s Doric or the Grotesque variants of Stephenson Blake. Particularly noticeable are the narrow terminals, the serpentine S or the dynamic g in combination with ascenders that reach to the cap-height only. Italics Many italic grotesk fonts are strongly oriented towards their upright counterparts. Unfortunately, this often means that they cannot do justice to their actual task, which is to highlight words or sections of a text. The italic cuts of Freigeist try to remedy this situation by using the greatest possible formal distance while reinforcing the untamed spirit. What adds to this, is a reminiscent of handwritten forms, which can be found in a, n, y or g, as well as the German sharp s or the ampersand. Alternate Characters Alternative letterforms are ideal for customizing the overall appearance of a text, for usage in logos or they can even work as custom fonts for companies. Freigeist comes with ten stylistic alternatives that are easy to insert via the Opentype window, such as the single-storey a, a tail-less version of the a for compact text, when uses in condensed widths or a dialed down version of the r. Languages Freigeist has a built-in support for Latin and Cyrillic based languages and covers more than 210 languages. Opentype Features and Symbols The family comes with many opentype features to support modern typesetting. This includes ligatures, different number sets or alternative shapes for texts set in all caps. Styles Freigeist is available in five widths (XCon, Con, Normal, Wide, XWide) and six weights (Thin, Light, Regular, Medium, Bold, Black). Including the accompanying italics, the family comes in 60 cuts that are suitable for any application. Testfonts If you like to test the fonts before buying the full version, please follow the link below: https://www.renebieder.com/test-fonts Update 1 A lot has changed in this first update. It is more than just a 1.01 or 1.02. It is actually the 2.0! I’ve gone through all! single glyphs of the 18 master files, making the family more sharp and even a bit more modern. I’ve added some new opentype features and redesigned the italics, because I wasn’t happy enough with the result. I’ve added new kerning pairs, new metrics, and even new glyphs. Please check my website for more details on the new design and overview about the opentype features and alternate shapes. If you purchased the Freigeist family already, thanks a lot!! It is the most advanced family that I published so far. I hope that you’re happy with this new version. Thanks!

Blacker Pro is the revised and extended version of the original wedge serif type family designed by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Andrea Tartarelli in 2017. Blacker was developed as a take on the style that Jeremiah Shoaf has defined as the "evil serif" genre: typefaces with high contrast, oldstyle or modern serif proportions and sharp, blade-like triangular serifs. Due to the high contrast in the design - slightly reminescent of didone typefaces - Blacker has been developed in two optical subfamilies. The display version offers tighter tracking, higher contrast and sharper corners for maximum effect at big sizes, while the text variant offers better readability and screen rendering at smaller sizes, with lower contrast and looser spacing. In the pro version, two additional condensed variant families have been added (condensed display and condensed text) allowing for more freedom and versatility in typesetting where space constraints are present. Also, three titling uppercase-only variants have been added, with a slightly extended feel, and two decorative subfamilies (inline and diamond). Each of these seven variants has been developed in six weights from light to heavy, with matching italics, for a total of 69 styles covering a wide range of editorial and advertising uses. All Blacker Pro feature a revised and extended character set covering over two hundred languages using the latin, cyrillic and greek alphabets. Open type features include small caps, positional numerals, fractions, superior & inferior figures, alternate forms, and an extended set of standard and discretionary ligatures. With its bold personality, Blacker aims to be a modern classic used for bold statements and self-conscious brands, making your text look great both on paper and on the screens.

In 1939 the Stephenson Blake Company bought a very popular script called Undine Ronde and began marketing under the name Amanda Ronde. Although Undine/Amanda was quite popular and can be seen in many advertisements from the 1930s and 1940s, there seems to be no surviving record stating the original foundry or designer. We thought that six and half decades of dust layers over the once-popular typeface were enough, so here and now you have its complete and expanded digital incarnation, Adore. It is quite easy to see why this typeface was popular. A round script with graceful meaty curves is rarely found and can be used in plenty of applications. Wedding paraphernalia, chapter titles, posters, poetry, book covers, religious literature... you name it, Adore can fit it. Aside from its totality being unmatched by currently available designs, Adore also possesses some of the most unique and imaginative letter shapes. The narrow loops on the B, P and R, the minuscule-like Z, the looped b and d, the descending h... all these shapes contribute to a breathtaking and adorable calligraphic work unlike any other. The original design came in a basic alphabet, but we have updated it for current digital technologies, and expanded it to include plenty of alternates and ligatures, as well as some ornaments. The Postscript Type 1 and True Type versions come in two fonts, the second containing the alternates and extras, while the Open Type version is a single font containing all the alternates and extras in conveniently programmed features, easily accessible at the push of a button in OpenType-supporting software. We also encourage you to take a look at Typodermic's Mecheria font, which is further experimentation with the same letter forms, resulting in a quirky, friendly, curly, angular gothic-like creature.

Cooper Black's second coming to American design in the mid-sixties, after almost four decades of slumber, can arguably be credited with (or, depending on design ideology, blamed for) the domino effect that triggered the whole art nouveau pop poster jam of the 1960s and 1970s. By the early 1970s, though Cooper Black still held its popular status (and, for better or for worse, still does), countless so-called hippie and funk faces were competing for packaging and paper space. The American evolution of the genre would trip deeper into psychedelia, drawing on a rich history of flared, flourished and rounded design until it all dwindled and came to a halt a few years into the 1980s. But the European (particularly German) response to that whole display type trend remained for the most part cool and reserved, drawing more on traditional art nouveau and art deco sources rather than the bottomless jug of new ideas being poured on the other side of the pond. One of the humorous responses to the "hamburgering" of typography was Friedrich Poppl's Poppl Heavy, done in 1972, when Cooper Black was celebrating its 50th anniversary. It is presented here in a fresh digitization under the name Gator (a tongue-in-cheek reference to Ray Kroc, the father of the fast food chain). To borrow the title of a classic rock album, Gator is meaty, beaty, big and bouncy. It is one of the finest examples of how expressively animated a thick brush can be, and one of the better substitutes to the much overused Cooper Black. Gator comes in all popular font formats, and sports an extended character set covering the majority of Latin-based languages. Many alternates and ligatures are included in the font.

Petrarka may be described as a Condensed, Sans-Serif, Semi-Fatface Roman. Huh? Bear with me on this. The Fatface is a name given to the popular nineteenth-century romans that where characterized by an extremity of contrast between the thick and thin stroke. The earliest example that is generally familiar is Thorowgood, believed to have been designed by Robert Thorne and released by Thorowgood Foundry in 1820 as "Five-line Pica No. 5." Copied by many foundries, it became one of the more popular advertising types of the day. Later, in the period from about 1890 to 1950, you find a number of typeface designs with the thin stroke beefed up a bit, not quite so extreme. What you might call Semi-Fatfaced Romans begin to replace the extreme Fatfaces. Serifed designs like Bauer’s Bernard Roman Extra Bold and ATF’s Bold Antique appear. In addition, we see the development of semi-fatface lineals or Sans-Serif Semi-Fatfaces. Examples include Britannic (Stephenson Blake), Chambord Bold (Olive), Koloss (Ludwig & Mayer), Matthews (ATF) and Radiant Heavy (Ludlow). Petrarka has much in common with this latter group, but is distinguished by two salient features: it is condensed and it shows a strong blackletter influence, as seen in the ‘H’ particularly. Petrark was released about 1900 by the German foundry of Schelter & Giesecke of Leipzig and is one of the designs of the period that attempts to reconcile roman and blackletter traditions. Making a cameo appearance in this Multi-Lingual font is the Anglo-Saxon letter yogh (#729), which, along with the thorn and the eth, is always useful for preparing flyers in Old English. There are still pockets of resistance to the Norman French influence that washed up on England’s shores in 1066. This font stands with King Canute, seeking to hold back the tide (ignoring the fact that Canute was a Dane). Support the fight to preserve Anglo-Saxon culture. Buy Petrarka ML today. Petrarka Initials brings together the Petrarka upper case letters with a very sympatico Art Nouveau rendering of a female face.

How many times have you seen lettering on a book cover, poster, or card and wanted to make something similar? Decorata’s eight intertwining weights finally make that possible in an intelligent way. The first major collaboration of its kind, Decorata pairs the talents of supreme lettering artist Martina Flor and masterful type designer Neil Summerour. Lettering was traditionally understood as using words in an artistic way, while type design created written language for easy reading, the one overlapping the other in several ways. For this unique project, Martina created several versions of the alphabet and its decorative layers in her eye-catching style. Neil then took those designs and created an enormous eight-style font family that respects the designer’s need for control and capitalizes on the artist’s expressiveness. Each style can work separately but, on top of the foundational styles, try placing the Lace, then Filigree in contrasting colors. Use any OpenType-capable program to turn headlines from blasé to wowza, make posters with some pow, and design your own cards with that just-right level of detail. Whatever idea you can imagine with the Decorata family, it promises to be a playful and precise wordsmith where the words themselves are the art. Decorata’s glyphs are bifurcated, have medium contrast to showcase their intricate interactions, and include Shadow, Regular, Outline, Filigree, Lace, Fancy, Intricate, and Dingbat styles — eight in all. The Regular style sets the word or phrase to begin the design, Shadow ensures it lifts off the background, and Outline attempts to restrain its ornate flair. Think of those as the foundation and use the rest of the styles for flamboyance. The Intricate and Filigree styles vary only in the thickness of the glyphs, with Filigree being thinner. Lace removes the external curls around each letter but keeps the internal negative space from those decorative lines. The Fancy style is a solid lettershape that includes its attendant elements, and the Dingbats are exactly as expected: borders, manicules, patterns, frames, and many stylized items to bring designs to life.