Ice Creamery is a new variation of our Saloon Girl font family complete with italics and fill fonts which may be used to layer different colors into the open parts of each glyph. We don’t recommend using the fill fonts for Ice Creamery as stand alone solid fonts, Ice Creamery Chocolate was designed as a the stand alone solid font for this font family. Fill fonts go back to the 1850's where they would design matched sets of printing blocks and the layering of colors took place on the printing press, they would print a page in black then on a second printing they would print a solid letter in red or blue over the letters with open spaces to fill them in. Most of the time the second printing didn't line up exactly to the open faced font and it created a misprinted look. With the fill fonts in Ice Creamery and other FontMesa fonts you have the option to perfectly align the fill fonts with the open faced fonts or shift it a little to create a misprinted look which looks pretty cool in some projects such as t-shirt designs. I have some ice cream making history in my family, my Grandfather Fred Hagemann was the manager of the ice cream plant for thirty years at Cock Robin Ice Cream and Burgers in Naperville IL. In the images above I've included an old 1960's photo of the Cock Robin Naperville location, the ice cream plant was behind the restaurant as seen by the chimney stack which was part of the plant. If you were to travel 2000 feet directly behind the Cock Robin sign in the photo, that's where I started the FontMesa type foundry at my home in Naperville. My favorite ice cream flavor was their green pistachio ice cream with black cherries, they called it Spumoni even though it wasn't a true Spumoni recipe. Their butter pecan ice cream was also incredibly good, the pecans were super fresh, their Tin Roof Sundae ice cream was chocolate fudge, caramel and peanuts swirled into vanilla ice cream. One unique thing about Cock Robin and Prince Castle was they used a square ice cream scoop for their sundaes.

Some words from the designer, Frantisek Storm... Designed by Josef Tyfa in 1959, digitalized by F. Storm in 1996. This Roman and Italic are well-known perhaps to all Czech graphic artists and typographers ever since their release. Although this type face in some details is under the sway of the period of its rise, its importance is timeless, in contradistinction to other famous types dating from the turn of the sixties which were found, after some time, to be trite. The italics live their own life, only their upper-case letters have the same expression as the basic design. Thin and fragile, they work excellently, emphasizing certain parts in the text by their perfect contrast of expression. When seen from a distance they are a little bit darker than the Roman face. Tyfa Roman was released in 1960 by Grafotechna in Prague for hot setting. Later on, Berthold produced letter matrices - "rulers" for Staromat devices, used for manual photosetting of display alphabets. In the eighties it was available on dry transfers of Transotype and today it is offered also by ITC. The meticulously executed designs of the individual letters in the 288 point size are arranged into a set of signs on a cardboard of about B2 in size. The yellowed paper reveals retouches by white paint on the ink. Blue lines mark the baseline, the capital line, the ascender and descender lines and the central verticals of the letters. With regard to the format of the flat scanner, the designs had to be reduced, with the use of a camera, to the format A4, i.e. to the upper-case letter height of about 30 mm. These were then scanned in 600 dpi resolution and read as a bitmap template to the FontStudio programme. The newly created bold type faces derive from Tyfa's designs of the letters "a", "n", "p", the darkness of which was increased further, approximately by 3%, to enhance their emphasizing function. The text designs have hairstrokes thickened by one third; the contrast between thin and thick strokes has been modified, in order to improve legibility, in sizes under 12 points. We have used electronic interpolation to produce the semi-bold designs. Josef Tyfa himself recommends to choose a somewhat darker design than the basic one for printing of books.

SCR fonts are screen optimized (also called 'pixel fonts'). Unlike standard fonts (and like the few well-hinted fonts like Verdana or Arial), they give a crisp look on screen at very small sizes, thus increasing legibility. The perfect applications for those fonts are web pages and software user interfaces (computer, cellular phones, console games and any other system that uses a screen interface). Unlike most pixel fonts, SCR fonts contain kerning information. Kerning is the adjustment of space between certain pairs of characters (like 'AV') to make text look more fluid, thus increasing legibility and appeal. To benefit from this feature, auto-kerning must be activated in the application. In Photoshop, kerning must be set to 'Metrics'. Although SCR fonts are optimized for screen, they can be used for print (in Illustrator or Indesign for example) for a decorative 'computer text' effect. In this case, there is no constraint: they can be used as any other font. For screen use (in Photoshop, Fireworks, Flash... ), they have to keep aligned with the screen pixel grid not to look blurred or distorted. To achieve this, here are the guidelines to follow: RESOLUTION If the application permits it (Photoshop, Fireworks), document resolution must be set to 72 pixels per inch. SIZE The font size must be set to 10 (or multiples of 10) points. POSITIONING & ALIGNMENT The reference points of text fields and text blocks (upper left corner for left aligned text, upper right for right aligned text) must be positioned at integer values of pixels. In Photoshop, text can be precisely moved with [Edit Free Transform]. In Flash, movie clips containing text fields must also be positioned at integer values on the stage. Text must be aligned to the left or right only. Center alignment can be simulated with left alignment by adding spaces at the begin of each line. To dispense with the positioning and alignment constraints, text anti-aliasing can be turned off if the application permits it (Photoshop, Flash MX 2004). OTHER SETTINGS Leading (line spacing), tracking (letter spacing), manual kerning and baseline shift must be set either to integer values of points or to multiples of 100 units (depending on the application). Vertical and horizontal scaling must be set to 100%. Faux bold or Faux italic must not be used. The document must neither be resized on export, nor allow resizing (Flash Movies).

SCR fonts are screen optimized (also called 'pixel fonts'). Unlike standard fonts (and like the few well-hinted fonts like Verdana or Arial), they give a crisp look on screen at very small sizes, thus increasing legibility. The perfect applications for those fonts are web pages and software user interfaces (computer, cellular phones, console games and any other system that uses a screen interface). Unlike most pixel fonts, SCR fonts contain kerning information. Kerning is the adjustment of space between certain pairs of characters (like 'AV') to make text look more fluid, thus increasing legibility and appeal. To benefit from this feature, auto-kerning must be activated in the application. In Photoshop, kerning must be set to 'Metrics'. Although SCR fonts are optimized for screen, they can be used for print (in Illustrator or Indesign for example) for a decorative 'computer text' effect. In this case, there is no constraint: they can be used as any other font. For screen use (in Photoshop, Fireworks, Flash... ), they have to keep aligned with the screen pixel grid not to look blurred or distorted. To achieve this, here are the guidelines to follow: RESOLUTION If the application permits it (Photoshop, Fireworks), document resolution must be set to 72 pixels per inch. SIZE The font size must be set to 10 (or multiples of 10) points. POSITIONING & ALIGNMENT The reference points of text fields and text blocks (upper left corner for left aligned text, upper right for right aligned text) must be positioned at integer values of pixels. In Photoshop, text can be precisely moved with [Edit Free Transform]. In Flash, movie clips containing text fields must also be positioned at integer values on the stage. Text must be aligned to the left or right only. Center alignment can be simulated with left alignment by adding spaces at the begin of each line. To dispense with the positioning and alignment constraints, text anti-aliasing can be turned off if the application permits it (Photoshop, Flash MX 2004). OTHER SETTINGS Leading (line spacing), tracking (letter spacing), manual kerning and baseline shift must be set either to integer values of points or to multiples of 100 units (depending on the application). Vertical and horizontal scaling must be set to 100%. Faux bold or Faux italic must not be used. The document must neither be resized on export, nor allow resizing (Flash Movies).

From the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, by way of Toronto, comes Martie's handwriting. Martie Byrd is a school teacher in Roanoke, Virginia, and a friend of Canada Type's Rebecca Alaccari. After years of admiring the cheer and clarity of Martie's handwriting, we asked her to write out full alphabets for some cool font treatment. The intent was to do three different versions of her writing in two different pens, then use the auto-magic of OpenType to determine letter sequences and rotate character sets on the fly when the fonts are in use. A successful endeavor it was. Take a look at the images in the MyFonts gallery to see the character rotation in action, along with a visual explanation of why Martie is not just another handwriting font. Unlike other available felt tip and ballpoint handwriting fonts, the regular and bold variations are style-based, not weight-based. They are the handwritten expressions of two different Sharpie pens: The fine point one (Martie Bold), and the ultrafine one (Martie Regular). The style-based variation considerably helps the realism needed in design pieces that take advantage of the contrast of two different handwriting fonts. Weight thickening in handwriting is an obvious mechanical effect that only happens with computers. Weight changing by replacing pens is what happens in the real world. Martie Pro and Martie Pro Bold each contain three different character sets in a single font. Language support includes Western, Central and Eastern European languages for all three sets. This translates into each Pro font containing over 750 characters. Add OpenType code and stir, and you have true handwriting fonts with versatility unavailable out there in anything else of the genre. A software program that supports OpenType features is needed to use the randomization coded in Martie Pro and Martie Pro Bold. Current versions of QuarkXpress and Adobe applications (Photoshop, Illlustrator, InDesign) do contain support for the randomization feature. But if you don't have one of these apps, you can still use the interchangeable Type 1 or True Type fonts and change the characters manually to achieve the appearance of true handwriting. The Martie fonts come in a variety of price packages, from the affordable single fonts to value-laden complete sets. All the proceeds from these fonts received by Canada Type will be donated 50/50 to two primary schools: One in Roanoke (where Martie teaches), and one in Toronto (where the 10-year old, real Canada Type boss goes). So next time a design project needs a handwriting font, do the write thing and use Martie to keep it real.

As the winter holiday season approaches, it’s time to give your designs a touch of frosty magic. Imagine letterforms that glisten with snow, adding a charming and whimsical feel to your design work. Look no further than Snowgoose—the ultimate Christmas typeface for graphic designers. With Snowgoose, you’ll save time and effort by using a pre-designed typeface that mimics the look of a snow-capped letterform. No more tedious manual filling or attempting to create the snow effect from scratch. Snowgoose is designed to give your work that perfect wintery touch with its multiple layers that help you achieve the snow effect quickly and easily. But it’s not just the snow effect that makes Snowgoose stand out. This typeface is built on an old-fashioned typeface, which adds a vintage charm to your designs. The result is a perfect balance between classic design and modern aesthetic, all while staying true to the winter holiday theme. Adding the finishing touches to your design is just as easy. Enhance the snow layer with a fuzzy light blue shadow to create an emboss effect, and your design will be ready for the season. Imagine creating your holiday designs effortlessly, leaving you with more time to enjoy the festivities and spend time with your loved ones. So don’t wait any longer. With Snowgoose, you can create stunning winter holiday designs that stand out from the crowd. Get your hands on this instrument of choice and create magical designs that will bring joy and cheer to everyone who sees them. 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.

Here is a "Decorative Braille font". The initial design was indeed drawn on a K.I.S.S digital sketchpad, the Windows default drawing tool (Microsoft Paint, classic version). A. Glyph Concept The Braille 2x3 dot matrix is weaved around a diamond-shape. a.1. Each "dot" is represented by a "right-angle isocel triangle". a.2. Braille dots in Diamond Braille a.2.I. "Dots" are outside the diamond for first Braille row (Braille dots 1, 4) and third Braille row (Braille dots 3, 6). a.2.II. "Dots" are inside the diamond for second Braillle row (Braille dots 2, 5). a.3. Diamond lattice Glyphs are connected horizontally (to/bottom diamond's corners) and vertically (left/right corners) to each other (see poster 5). a.4. Special Glyphs - Space: its is either empty ("Empty cell") or a "non Braille shape" { _, ° } depending on your display needs (as explained in b.3.II) - 6 dots: { £, =, û } - 6 empty dots: { ç, ¥ } B. Font user guide b.1. Lowercase glyphs { A..Z } In these glyphs the "dots" are represented as a white right-angle isocel triangle filled with a smaller black triangle. b.2. Uppercase glyphs { a..z } In these glyphs, the "dots" are represented as an empty triangle (this is an "empty dot"). b.3. 'Space' vs 'Empty Cell' b.3.I. 'Space' - 'Space' glyph is an empty shape - '¶' glyph (at the end of each line in Microsoft Word) is also an empty shape b.3.II. 'Empty cell' glyphs: _ (underscore), ° (degree). In these glyphs there are 2 "empty dots" at top and bottom corners of the diamond, which differentiates them from regular Braille glyphs (which dont have a "dot in the middle"). b.4. Diamond Lattice To display text as a 'diamond lattice', replace each 'Space' by an 'Empty cell' (as explained in b.3.II, see poster 5) b.5. Connectors The connector glyphs allow the creation of "circuit like" designs (see poster 1). Here are the connector glyphs: { µ, à, â, ä, ã, è, é, ê, ë, î, ï } b.6. Domino feature Some Glyphs represent numbers 1..6 in a way which is similar than on dominos (see poster 6) C. Posters Poster 1: the "Font Logo", it displays "Diamond Braille" text together with the Connectors feature. Poster 2: a pangram which is published on pangra.me ( "Adept quick jog over frozen blue whisky mix" ). Poster 3: an illustration of the Domino feature. Poster 4: a DiamondBraille version of the Periodic table. Poster 5: illustration of the Diamond lattice using only 6 dots ( û ) and 6 empty dots ( ç ) glyphs.