Iridium™ was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1972 for Linotype. It is in the modern" style like Bodoni or Didot, in that it has the sparkle created by a high thick/thin contrast and a symmetrical distribution of weight. But the sometimes harsh and rigid texture of the modern style is tempered by Frutiger's graceful interpretation. Iridium itself is a very hard, brittle and strong metal; yet the Latin and Greek roots of the word mean rainbow, or iridescence. And indeed, this font is infused with a more lustrous and complex spirit than the average rather stark modern typeface - note the stems that gently taper from waist to serif, the nicely curved ovals of the round characters, and the slight bracketing of the serifs. Iridium was originally designed for phototypesetting, and Frutiger himself cut the final master photo-mask films by hand. This digital version has all the craftsmanship of that original and includes the roman, a true italic, and the bold weight. Iridium works particularly well for book and magazine text and headlines."

@andinistas presents Rapsodia, an uncommon roman caps font with serif and high contrast, designed by #carlosfabiancg. Rapsodia was inspired by Stunt Roman, Speedball Textbook for Pen & Brush Lettering by Ross F. George. Rapsodia has a high and sweetened amount of contrast between thin and thick with drop-shaped finishes, reminiscent of Didot, Baskerville and Bodoni. Its artistic accent translates into Tuscan letters drawn with a flexible tip pen. In that order, Rapsodia combines the visual theatricality of an art nouveau corset, with creative historical classics such as Liza Minnelli, Gene Simmons and Freddie Mercury. Its calligraphic curlers full of Mannerist virtuosity are unnatural in Roman caps typefaces with serif. That is why its internal vein in ascending and descending flourishes protrudes with Chicano circus details like triangular diamonds located in vertical strokes. Rapsodia serves to design words and phrases in fine publications, for this reason most of its upper and lower case letters communicate feelings with classic and luxurious sensation through substitutes, ligatures and alternatives for beginning, middle or end of word, functioning as initials and terminals.

Operetta is a neo-didone display font family inspired on Bodoni, Didot (early 18th century) and Walbaum (19th century). Despite of this heritage, Operetta’s design meets contemporary taste and typesetting needs. With five optical sizes, masterfully navigate between contrast and legibility across various dimensions. The range of eight weights, from the weightless Extralight to the robust Extrabold, let you set your tone: from delicate to exuberant. Operetta's generous character set and opentype features let you meet the most demanding layout needs. And don’t forget swashes, arrows and other extra glyphs, seldom included in a didonesque font. The number displayed in the font family name signifies the recommended minimal print size in points. In web design you should double the minimum value for a retina screen, multiply by 4 for a 72dpi screen. Of course its rendering depends on the printing support, screen resolution etc. Therefore, take it as a suggestion or a starting point; make your own trials. And now, the pièce de résistance: Operetta unveils its italics, adding yet another layer of allure and sophistication.

Andrade is a new typeface designed by Dino dos Santos in 2005. This typeface was inspired in the typographic work of Manoel de Andrade de Figueiredo (b.1670-d.1735), Nova Escola para Aprender a Ler, Escrever e Contar, printed in 1722 at Offcina de Bernardo da Costa de Carvalho. This is one of the most important books, and almost forgotten, about Portuguese calligraphy and typography, and the work of Andrade de Figueiredo is among the most amazing examples of type design of the Eighteenth Century. His work inspired Ventura da Silva, a Portuguese typographer, who in 1803 published a book named Regras Methodicas, where he redesigns some of Figueiredo's type specimens. But Ventura's purpose was to create a more elegant and readable typeface than Didot and Bodoni. This kind of typeface used to be called leitura and is a transition between the baroque and modern typography. Andrade is a brilliant text typeface and is available in Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Ligatures, Ligatures Italic, Swashes and Ornaments. Andrade is my tribute to Portuguese typography and to the work of Manoel de Andrade de Figueiredo in particular.

First designed in the early 1800s, Walbaum never achieved the audience or acclaim it deserved – despite its easy elegance, and sophisticated persona. It’s been fully restored for this expansive family, which includes 32 weights including ornaments and two decorative cuts. Walbaum offers the kind of warmth that’s missing from comparable typefaces such as Bodoni or Didot, feeling effortlessly approachable and legible. Monotype team Carl Crossgrove, Charles Nix and Juan Villanueva have adhered to designer Justus Erich Walbaum’s original intentions, also incorporating work by the designer’s son into some of its more extreme display weights – pushing the possibilities of Walbaum without compromising on its spirit. Text weights work well for the demands of digital environments, while decorative and display weights offer more dramatic, sculptural forms. Unusually, the family also includes a generous range of ornaments. From massive billboards, to micro-type on e-readers, Walbaum has it covered. The family is available as OpenType OTF font format, and includes over 600 glyphs with OpenType typographic features including small capitals, old style and lining figures, proportional and tabular figures, fractions and ligatures. Featured in: Best Fonts for Logos

Petale is my new elegant experimental typeface I'd love to present. At the beginning, I was intended to create a bold wide font, I started sketching options and came out with the letter 'M' design first. I thought it may be interesting and had continued developing the style with letters N, O, etc., spending hours on some letters to match the design and my vision. I liked how it looked (especially digits) and added different weighs. And it came out pretty stylish. You may like it to use in magazine designs, posters, websites, packaging, branding, logo, and so on. Petale can grant your work some graceful modern touch with a brutalist-feminine note. Works well with elegant and strict serif fonts. Also try to experiment with script fonts. I used my Stormy Youth font: https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/lomohiber/stormy-youth and Bodoni 72 Smallcaps If you have some issues or questions, please let me know: lhfonts@gmail.com Hope you'll enjoy using Petale! Language support: Afrikaans, Albanian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian (Русский), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanisch, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian (Украинский), Zulu

By the 1990s, the availability of font creation software opened the door to an explosion of creativity, experimentation and exploration into the world of digital typography by amateur and professional alike. The undisputed king of the freeware fonts was Ray Larabie through his Larabie Fonts website. It seemed at the time that Ray’s output was endless, and he amassed dozens upon dozens of fonts that ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime. In fact, Ray was the driving force of encouragement and a behind-the-scenes “mentor” who helped Jeff Levine Fonts get underway in January of 2006. As Larabie’s focus changed to higher-quality commercial type design with the launch of Typodermic, Inc., many of his “less than perfect” font experiments were withdrawn and shelved. Ray eventually turned those lost (and sometimes questionable) typefaces into a bundled zip archive released into the public domain through Creative Commons. One particular design “Boron” (circa 1996) featured computer-oriented lettering as if etched onto a circuit board. Running with this idea, and with Ray's approval, the electronic elements were stripped away, the characters cleaned up and modified, and the font reworked in Retro Checkbook JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

John Baskerville (1706-1775) was an accomplished writing master and printer from Birmingham, England. He was the designer of several types, punchcut by John Handy, which are the basis for the fonts that bear the name Baskerville today. The excellent quality of his printing influenced such famous printers as Didot in France and Bodoni in Italy. Though he was known internationally as an innovator of technique and style, his high standards for paper and ink quality made it difficult for him to compete with local commercial printers. However, his fellow Englishmen imitated his types, and in 1768, Isaac Moore punchcut a version of Baskerville's letterforms for the Fry Foundry. Baskerville produced a masterpiece folio Bible for Cambridge University, and today, his types are considered to be fine representations of eighteenth century rationalism and neoclassicism. Legible and eminently dignified, Baskerville makes an excellent text typeface; and its sharp, high-contrast forms make it suitable for elegant advertising pieces as well. The Linotype portfolio offers many versions of this design: ITC New Baskerville® was designed by John Quaranda in 1978. Baskerville Cyrillic was designed by the Linotype Design Studio. Baskerville Greek was designed by Matthew Carter in 1978. Baskerville™ Classico was designed by Franko Luin in 1995."

John Baskerville (1706-1775) was an accomplished writing master and printer from Birmingham, England. He was the designer of several types, punchcut by John Handy, which are the basis for the fonts that bear the name Baskerville today. The excellent quality of his printing influenced such famous printers as Didot in France and Bodoni in Italy. Though he was known internationally as an innovator of technique and style, his high standards for paper and ink quality made it difficult for him to compete with local commercial printers. However, his fellow Englishmen imitated his types, and in 1768, Isaac Moore punchcut a version of Baskerville's letterforms for the Fry Foundry. Baskerville produced a masterpiece folio Bible for Cambridge University, and today, his types are considered to be fine representations of eighteenth century rationalism and neoclassicism. Legible and eminently dignified, Baskerville makes an excellent text typeface; and its sharp, high-contrast forms make it suitable for elegant advertising pieces as well. The Linotype portfolio offers many versions of this design: ITC New Baskerville® was designed by John Quaranda in 1978. Baskerville Cyrillic was designed by the Linotype Design Studio. Baskerville Greek was designed by Matthew Carter in 1978. Baskerville™ Classico was designed by Franko Luin in 1995."

John Baskerville (1706-1775) was an accomplished writing master and printer from Birmingham, England. He was the designer of several types, punchcut by John Handy, which are the basis for the fonts that bear the name Baskerville today. The excellent quality of his printing influenced such famous printers as Didot in France and Bodoni in Italy. Though he was known internationally as an innovator of technique and style, his high standards for paper and ink quality made it difficult for him to compete with local commercial printers. However, his fellow Englishmen imitated his types, and in 1768, Isaac Moore punchcut a version of Baskerville's letterforms for the Fry Foundry. Baskerville produced a masterpiece folio Bible for Cambridge University, and today, his types are considered to be fine representations of eighteenth century rationalism and neoclassicism. Legible and eminently dignified, Baskerville makes an excellent text typeface; and its sharp, high-contrast forms make it suitable for elegant advertising pieces as well. The Linotype portfolio offers many versions of this design: ITC New Baskerville® was designed by John Quaranda in 1978. Baskerville Cyrillic was designed by the Linotype Design Studio. Baskerville Greek was designed by Matthew Carter in 1978. Baskerville™ Classico was designed by Franko Luin in 1995."

John Baskerville (1706-1775) was an accomplished writing master and printer from Birmingham, England. He was the designer of several types, punchcut by John Handy, which are the basis for the fonts that bear the name Baskerville today. The excellent quality of his printing influenced such famous printers as Didot in France and Bodoni in Italy. Though he was known internationally as an innovator of technique and style, his high standards for paper and ink quality made it difficult for him to compete with local commercial printers. However, his fellow Englishmen imitated his types, and in 1768, Isaac Moore punchcut a version of Baskerville's letterforms for the Fry Foundry. Baskerville produced a masterpiece folio Bible for Cambridge University, and today, his types are considered to be fine representations of eighteenth century rationalism and neoclassicism. Legible and eminently dignified, Baskerville makes an excellent text typeface; and its sharp, high-contrast forms make it suitable for elegant advertising pieces as well. The Linotype portfolio offers many versions of this design: ITC New Baskerville® was designed by John Quaranda in 1978. Baskerville Cyrillic was designed by the Linotype Design Studio. Baskerville Greek was designed by Matthew Carter in 1978. Baskerville™ Classico was designed by Franko Luin in 1995."

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.

John Baskerville (1706-1775) was an accomplished writing master and printer from Birmingham, England. He was the designer of several types, punchcut by John Handy, which are the basis for the fonts that bear the name Baskerville today. The excellent quality of his printing influenced such famous printers as Didot in France and Bodoni in Italy. Though he was known internationally as an innovator of technique and style, his high standards for paper and ink quality made it difficult for him to compete with local commercial printers. However, his fellow Englishmen imitated his types, and in 1768, Isaac Moore punchcut a version of Baskerville's letterforms for the Fry Foundry. Baskerville produced a masterpiece folio Bible for Cambridge University, and today, his types are considered to be fine representations of eighteenth century rationalism and neoclassicism. Legible and eminently dignified, Baskerville makes an excellent text typeface; and its sharp, high-contrast forms make it suitable for elegant advertising pieces as well. The Linotype portfolio offers many versions of this design: ITC New Baskerville® was designed by John Quaranda in 1978. Baskerville Cyrillic was designed by the Linotype Design Studio. Baskerville Greek was designed by Matthew Carter in 1978. Baskerville™ Classico was designed by Franko Luin in 1995."

Introducing the innovative and original Josep Patau’s new recipe, salsa and wild-type master. 1. In a font, combine a bit of slightly outdated British slab types from the late Victorian period. If you find Vincent Figgins’s variety, do not discard. You'll find plenty to choose from in his specimens, some of then with unexpected vitality an enviably condition, despite it’s age. As aging wine, they had improve their quality with time. Cut Didones into thin slices and add. 2. In a blender, whisk the strength of these Slab serif with highly contrasted strokes from Bodoni or Didot’s neoclassical types. Adjust the mix to get a sweeter or spicier taste, but do not forget to emphasize the contrast to avoid the dressing off. 3. On the page, set the wide variety of weights as your menu demands. If you want to feed fill the stomach of the hungriest holders, use Bridone Titling as main course. If you are serving a traditional menu, starter, main and dessert, then simmer a combination of weights and sizes according to your space. It will not disappoint, much less your guests . 4. Spread thoroughly the page, serve and enjoy . If you like natural, switch to Bridona, your pages will thank you.

Volta is a robust typeface from the 1950s. A revisit to styles that were en vogue at the turn of the century, Bauer type foundry designers Walter Baum and Konrad Bauer designed this type family in1955. The form of Volta's letters are similar to those in New Transitional Serif typefaces, like Cheltenham and Century. Developed after the Didone (i.e., Bodoni) style types, New Transitional Serifs speak more to the zeitgeist of the late 19th Cntury, and were typographic adaptations to it's newer technologies. Already in the period of mass production, typographers and printers at the dawn of the 20th Century had to cope with larger print runs on cheaper materials. The robust letterforms of New Transitional Serifs were designed to compensate for this, but they were also ingenious little inventions in their own right. Form the beginning, the new, peculiar forms of New Transitional Serif letters were adopted for use by advertisers. Their robustness also allowed them to be used in virtually all sizes. Volta was designed especially with advertising display usage in mind. The x-height of Volta's letters is higher than average for serif faces. It is recommended that Volta be used exclusively for shorter tracks of text, above 12 point. Headlines look dashing set in Volta. Four different font styles are available for the Volta typeface: Regular, Medium, Medium Italic, and Bold."

Schotis Text is a workhorse typeface designed for perfect reading on running texts. Its design is based in Scotch Roman 19th-century style but designed from scratch, with a more contemporary and not nostalgic look. It has seven weights plus matching italics, with 1100 glyphs per font, with a very extended character set for Latin based languages as well as Vietnamese, and 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. 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 fact, they were called just Modern. 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. The name Schotis comes from the misspelling of Scottish that gave the name to a popular dance in Madrid in the 19th-century. It first was called Schotis and today is knows as Chotis.

Johann Carl Ludwig Prillwitz, the German punch cutter and type founder, cut the first classic Didot letters even earlier than Walbaum. The earliest proof of so-called Prillwitz letters is dated 12 April 1790. Inspired by the big discoveries of archaeology and through the translations of classical authors, the bourgeoisie was enthused about the Greek and Roman ideal of aesthetics. The enthusiasm for the Greek and Roman experienced a revival and was also shared by Goethe and contemporaries. »Seeking the country of Greece with one’s soul«. All Literates who are considered nowadays as German Classics of that time kept coming back to the Greek topics, thinking of Schiller and Wieland. The works of Wieland were published in Leipzig by Göschen. Göschen used typefaces which had been produced by until then unknown punch cutter. This punch cutter from Jena created with these typefaces master works of classicist German typography. They can stand without any exaggeration on the same level as that of Didot and Bodoni. This unknown gentleman was known as Johann Carl Ludwig Prillwitz. Prillwitz published his typefaces on 12th April 1790 for the first time. This date is significant because this happened ten years before Walbaum. Prillwitz was an owner of a very successful foundry. When the last of his 7 children died shortly before reaching adulthood his hope of his works was destroyed, Prillwitz lost his will to live. He died six months later. His wife followed him shortly after. The typeface Prillwitz as a digital font was created in three optical styles (Normal, Book and Display). The typeface Prillwitz Press was created especially for a printing in small sizes for newspapers. »Prillwitz Press« combines aesthetic and functional attributes which make written text highly readable. It was originally designed for a newspaper with medium contrast to withstand harsh printing conditions. Its structure is quite narrow which makes this typeface ideal for body text and headlines where space is at premium. For the Normal – even more for the Book – a soft and reader-friendly outline was created through a so-called »Schmitz« and optimized in numerous test prints. The arris character and the common maximal stroke width contrast of the known classicist typefaces (Didot/Bodoni) were edited by the study of the original prints. This was also done in order to reach a very good readability in small type sizes. This typeface is perfectly suited to scientific and belletristic works. Accordingly it has three styles: Regular, Bold and Italic as Highlighting (1). The typeface Prillwitz is a complete new interpretation and continuing development of the conservated originals from 1790. They have been kept in the German Library in Leipzig. It was always given the priority to keep the strong roughness and at the same time optimizing the readability of this striking font. The type family has all important characters for an efficient and typographic high quality work. ----------- (1) Accentuation of particular words or word orders (e.g. proper names, terms etc.). Typographic means for Highlighting could be Italic, SmallCaps or semi-bold.

Tall, stately, and refined, with a showy contrast between thick and thin, a certain kind of titling Didone has become synonymous with fashion. Ermin Međedović’s latest type system amplifies the most theatrical aspects of this genre while bringing an uncommon flexibility of style and variation to any type palette — particularly those required for editorial design. Fino is a Rational (or Modern) display serif with sharp details. Its fairly Title proportions produce a regular beat of bold stems at frequent intervals. One can add an unexpected twist to this plot line by introducing the alternate ‘C, D, G, O, and Q’ (found in the uppercase); these replace the standard, Title oval shapes with big, full, show-stopping round ones. Other alternate forms, along with a grand ensemble cast of ligatures, lets the director continually flip the script. This stage is set in three acts: Fino, Fino, and Fino Stencil. Each of these offer six weights and italics, and each actor is comfortable speaking any Latin-based language, from standard Hollywood English to the many accents of Eastern Europe. Finally, every style comes in two optical sizes, with Title having the finest hairlines for the biggest parts. This lets you put Fino to work in a variety of productions, from short texts (24pt–48pt settings) to epic titles. The complete Fino family, along with our entire catalogue, has been optimised for today’s varied screen uses. All these talents let Fino perform a range of roles far broader than your typical Bodoni or Didot.

Really No. 2 is a redesign and update of Linotype Really, a typeface that Gary Munch first designed in 1999. The new Really No. 2 offers seven weights (Light to Extra Bold), each with an Italic companion. Additionally, Really No. 2 offers significantly expanded language support possibilities. Customers may choose the Really No. 2 W1G fonts, which support a character set that will cover Greek and Cyrillic in addition to virtually all European languages. These are true pan-European fonts, capable of setting texts that will travel between Ireland and Russia, and from Norway to Turkey. Customers who do not require this level of language support may choose from the Really No. 2 Pro fonts (just the Latin script), the Really No. 2 Greek Pro fonts (which include both Latin and Greek), or the Really No. 2 Cyrillic Pro fonts (Latin and Cyrillic). Each weight in the Really No. 2 family includes small capitals and optional oldstyle figures, as well as several other OpenType features. Really No. 2's vertical measurements are slightly different than the old Linotype Really's; customers should not mix fonts from the two families together. As to the design of Really No. 2's letters, like Linotype Really, the characters' moderate-to-strong contrast of its strokes recalls the Transitional and Modern styles of Baskerville and Bodoni. A subtly oblique axis recalls the old-style faces of Caslon. Finally, sturdy serifs complete the typeface's realist sensibility: a clear, readable, no-nonsense text face, whose clean details offer the designer a high-impact selection.

Really No. 2 is a redesign and update of Linotype Really, a typeface that Gary Munch first designed in 1999. The new Really No. 2 offers seven weights (Light to Extra Bold), each with an Italic companion. Additionally, Really No. 2 offers significantly expanded language support possibilities. Customers may choose the Really No. 2 W1G fonts, which support a character set that will cover Greek and Cyrillic in addition to virtually all European languages. These are true pan-European fonts, capable of setting texts that will travel between Ireland and Russia, and from Norway to Turkey. Customers who do not require this level of language support may choose from the Really No. 2 Pro fonts (just the Latin script), the Really No. 2 Greek Pro fonts (which include both Latin and Greek), or the Really No. 2 Cyrillic Pro fonts (Latin and Cyrillic). Each weight in the Really No. 2 family includes small capitals and optional oldstyle figures, as well as several other OpenType features. Really No. 2's vertical measurements are slightly different than the old Linotype Really's; customers should not mix fonts from the two families together. As to the design of Really No. 2's letters, like Linotype Really, the characters' moderate-to-strong contrast of its strokes recalls the Transitional and Modern styles of Baskerville and Bodoni. A subtly oblique axis recalls the old-style faces of Caslon. Finally, sturdy serifs complete the typeface's realist sensibility: a clear, readable, no-nonsense text face, whose clean details offer the designer a high-impact selection.

Big News! Tenez has been selected for the Tipos Latinos Biennial 2016 and Typographica’s Favorite Typefaces of 2015! Tenez is a Grand Slam display didone typeface from Plau. We designed it for a branding project, further developing the resulting logotype into a typeface we felt could solve many designers’ needs. Its origins are rooted in pointed nib calligraphy which can be seen in contemporary Didot and Bodoni inspired typefaces. But Tenez’s shapes are organic (these modern typefaces were originally cut by hand after all) – in fact that was the challenge we set from the start: to make a typeface as organic in construction as possible. This echoes some of late 19th century typefaces and advertising, yet we thought of it for contemporary uses. One of the several unique features of Tenez is its unusual Thin weight, in which the contrast between thin strokes and the black area left by the serifs makes for a typewriter-like personality. The italics provide a perfect counterpoint to the roman weights. Tenez was unapologetically conceived as a display typeface meant to be used large as in magazine openings, drop caps or everywhere there’s a need for elegant impact. The family includes support for almost all Latin languages available, figure sets for almost every conceivable occasion (tables, text, you name it), alternates for the quirky beautiful R (sometimes simpler is better, but not always!) and Q (with a nice big tail for that article opener). Tenez pairs really well with our no-frills sans-serif Motiva Sans and our cute vertical connected script Primot.

Tall, stately, and refined, with a showy contrast between thick and thin, a certain kind of titling Didone has become synonymous with fashion. Ermin Međedović’s latest type system amplifies the most theatrical aspects of this genre while bringing an uncommon flexibility of style and variation to any type palette — particularly those required for editorial design. Fino Sans is a Rational (or Modern) display serif with sharp details. Its fairly Title proportions produce a regular beat of bold stems at frequent intervals. One can add an unexpected twist to this plot line by introducing the alternate ‘C, D, G, O, and Q’ (found in the uppercase); these replace the standard, Title oval shapes with big, full, show-stopping round ones. Other alternate forms, along with a grand ensemble cast of ligatures, lets the director continually flip the script. This stage is set in three acts: Fino Sans, Fino Sans, and Fino Sans Stencil. Each of these offer six weights and italics, and each actor is comfortable speaking any Latin-based language, from standard Hollywood English to the many accents of Eastern Europe. Finally, every style comes in two optical sizes, with Title having the finest hairlines for the biggest parts. This lets you put Fino Sans to work in a variety of productions, from short texts (24pt–48pt settings) to epic titles. The complete Fino Sans family, along with our entire catalogue, has been optimised for today’s varied screen uses. All these talents let Fino Sans perform a range of roles far broader than your typical Bodoni or Didot.

Tall, stately, and refined, with a showy contrast between thick and thin, a certain kind of titling Didone has become synonymous with fashion. Ermin Međedović’s latest type system amplifies the most theatrical aspects of this genre while bringing an uncommon flexibility of style and variation to any type palette — particularly those required for editorial design. Fino Stencil is a Rational (or Modern) display serif with sharp details. Its fairly Title proportions produce a regular beat of bold stems at frequent intervals. One can add an unexpected twist to this plot line by introducing the alternate ‘C, D, G, O, and Q’ (found in the uppercase); these replace the standard, Title oval shapes with big, full, show-stopping round ones. Other alternate forms, along with a grand ensemble cast of ligatures, lets the director continually flip the script. This stage is set in three acts: Fino Stencil, Fino Stencil, and Fino Stencil Stencil. Each of these offer six weights and italics, and each actor is comfortable speaking any Latin-based language, from standard Hollywood English to the many accents of Eastern Europe. Finally, every style comes in two optical sizes, with Title having the finest hairlines for the biggest parts. This lets you put Fino Stencil to work in a variety of productions, from short texts (24pt–48pt settings) to epic titles. The complete Fino Stencil family, along with our entire catalogue, has been optimized for today’s varied screen uses. All these talents let Fino Stencil perform a range of roles far broader than your typical Bodoni or Didot.

Really No. 2 is a redesign and update of Linotype Really, a typeface that Gary Munch first designed in 1999. The new Really No. 2 offers seven weights (Light to Extra Bold), each with an Italic companion. Additionally, Really No. 2 offers significantly expanded language support possibilities. Customers may choose the Really No. 2 W1G fonts, which support a character set that will cover Greek and Cyrillic in addition to virtually all European languages. These are true pan-European fonts, capable of setting texts that will travel between Ireland and Russia, and from Norway to Turkey. Customers who do not require this level of language support may choose from the Really No. 2 Pro fonts (just the Latin script), the Really No. 2 Greek Pro fonts (which include both Latin and Greek), or the Really No. 2 Cyrillic Pro fonts (Latin and Cyrillic). Each weight in the Really No. 2 family includes small capitals and optional oldstyle figures, as well as several other OpenType features. Really No. 2's vertical measurements are slightly different than the old Linotype Really's; customers should not mix fonts from the two families together. As to the design of Really No. 2's letters, like Linotype Really, the characters' moderate-to-strong contrast of its strokes recalls the Transitional and Modern styles of Baskerville and Bodoni. A subtly oblique axis recalls the old-style faces of Caslon. Finally, sturdy serifs complete the typeface's realist sensibility: a clear, readable, no-nonsense text face, whose clean details offer the designer a high-impact selection.

A robust oldstyle, an elegant slab, 8 styles Geneo, created by Stéphane Elbaz, is a synthesis of historic and present-day visions of typography, a slab serif constructed on an oblique axis. Its subtle contrast evokes both Renaissance elegance and the robustness of the Egyptian typefaces that were in vogue during the 19th century. Geneo falls halfway between the classic styles of Garamond and Transitionnals, with aspects of contemporary slab serifs like Rockwell, Boton, as well a bit informal. From this blend of styles and genres, it emerges with a singular identity perfectly suited for modern illustrations of quality, savoir-faire, and culture. Geneo’s limited contrast has been carefully crafted to make the font adaptable for use as both text and headlines, as well as for small-print elements like footnotes, appendices, and captions. The variety and precision of certain weights, like Regular, allow minute adjustments of the font color in text compositions. This flexibility is especially useful for displaying on devices with high pixel densities such as the latest iPhone or iPad, on which text may appear too thin. Flexibility and sturdiness The sturdiness of Geneo makes it a perfect choice for posters, logos, print and any project that requires finesse and sophistication. It provides alternate versions of some letters such as g and a to give you the flexibility you need for your typographic projects. Geneo pairs perfectly with contemporary typeface genre. Geneo, a new typeface designed by Stéphane Elbaz Tokyo TDC 2014 Type Directors Club 2009

The life of Molière is a story of struggle, hard work, domestic unhappiness, death and burial in obscurity and almost in shame. Molière left behind a body of work that not only changed the face of French classical comedy, but has also come to influence the work of other dramatists from around the world. Despite his own preference for tragedy, which he had tried to further with the Illustre Théâtre, Molière became famous for his farces, which were generally in one act and performed after the tragedy. Both the comic and the serious drama were powerfully affected by the work of Molière, not only in his own age and country but everywhere and up to the present time. Didot is a name given to a group of typefaces named after the famous French printing and type producing family. The classification is known as modern, or Didone. The typeface we know today was based on a collection of related types developed in the period 1784–1811. Firmin Didot cut the letters, and cast them as type in Paris. Along with Giambattista Bodoni of Italy, Firmin Didot is credited with establishing the use of the "Modern" classification of typefaces. The types that Didot used are characterized by extreme contrast in thick strokes and thin strokes, by the use of hairline serifs and by the vertical stress of the letters. As in the extreme contrasts of the literature of Molière, in Didione's typefaces, thick and thin strokes, straight and curved, are the most relevant characteristic for an era marked by the changes.

Detailed guided tour available here. Port is an experimental Didone typeface with a modern twist, inspired in the well known forms of typography masters such as Bodoni and Didot and the exuberance and elegance of calligraphy typefaces. Port melds the straight lines and strong contrasts of the Didone typefaces with the elegant lines of calligraphy in a geometric way, resulting in exuberant characters with geometric swashes that can be combined in countless ways. The result of this experiment is Port, an unique and rich display typeface meant to be used on big sizes and it’s main perk is the amount of alternative characters it features. Port is Open-Type programmed and includes hundreds of alternates, from swashes to titling alternates, ligatures and stylistic sets with each character having a thin version of itself, giving complete freedom to all your creative needs. Port is available in several flavours: Port Regular, being the base version and featuring the whole base character set; Port Regular Decorated, featuring richer forms and containing more ornamentated and more extravagant characters; Port Medium and Port Medium Regular, designed for the occasions you need a bit more thickness and the decoration variants: Port Ornaments, containing a wide set of elements meant for the creation of fillets, vignettes and fleurons, resulting in an almost infinite number of possible combinations to embellish your designs and Port Words, a set of some of the most common words used in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. It’s strongly recommended that you use it on big sizes, for better performance you can also set the Photoshop text anti aliasing settings to Strong when you type, for a better understanding of all the uses of Port and the full character list I recommend the reading of the manual.

ATTENTION! See the newest version of Reina here. Reina Neue is now a family of 45 styles and it's also a Variable Font! Have a look. For the traditional version of Reina, you may stay here ;) --- Reina is Sproviero’s didone of the year. We recommend seeing its user’s guide . Inspired in the sweet letters of calligraphy and typography masters of our past; such as Didot, Bodoni and the incredible Herb Lubalin, its aim was to incorporate the decorative accolades from blackletter and copperplate styles of calligraphy into a Modern Roman typeface. Reina reflects sovereignty due to the enveloping atmosphere and the sensation of greatness that can be felt when using it. It has an unique way of standing over paper and screen, being its swashes responsible of an extreme elegance. Similar to what Lian did in his last font Breathe , Reina was designed to be playful yet formal: While none of its alternates are activated it can be useful for short to medium length texts; and when the user chooses to make use of its open-type decorative glyphs, it can be useful for headlines with dazzling results. TECHNICAL Reina is a family with many members. In order to achieve better results when printing, Lian took his time to design the necessary styles: Reina 72 Pro, prepared for display sizes; Reina 36 Pro, for medium sizes; and Reina 12 Pro, the best for text or decorative words in small size. Each of these members have variants inside, which are open-type programmed: The user decides which glyph to alternate, equalizing the amount of decoration wanted. Reina Engraved Pro has the same features than the variants mentioned above. The family also contains variants which were made exclusively for decoration. These are: Reina Words, a set of the most common words used in english, german, italian, french and spanish; Reina Capitals, which consists in a big set of ornamented capitals; and Reina Fleurons, those little friends which always help to embellish our work.

Guided tour available here. Port Vintage is a new typeface expanded upon the original Port typeface, released in 2013, and being an experimental Didone typeface with a modern twist, inspired by the well known forms of typography masters such as Bodoni and Didot and the exuberance and elegance of calligraphy typefaces. A lot of changes were made, the whole typeface is now softer and has less rough edges, the time it took to mature made it possible to achieve an entirelly new and distinct flavour from the original Port, giving away the rough edges from Port and giving place to the soft transitions and curved connections between the stems and serifs of Port Vintage. Port Vintage melts the straight lines and strong contrasts of the Didone typefaces with the elegant lines of calligraphy in a geometric way, resulting in exuberant characters with geometric swashes that can be combined in countless ways. The result of this experiment is Port Vintage, an unique and rich display typeface meant to be used on big sizes and it’s main perk is the amount of alternative characters it features. Port Vintage is Open-Type programmed and includes hundreds of alternates, from swashes to titling alternates, ligatures and stylistic sets with each character having a thin version of itself, giving complete freedom to all your creative needs. Port Vintage is available in 10 different styles: Port Vintage Regular, being the base version and featuring the whole base character set; Port Vintage Regular Decorated, featuring richer forms and containing more ornamentated and more extravagant characters; Port Vintage Medium and Port Vintage Medium Decorated, designed for the occasions you need a bit more thickness and the decoration variants: Port Vintage Ornaments, containing a wide set of elements meant for the creation of fillets, vignettes and fleurons, resulting in an almost infinite number of possible combinations to embellish your designs and Port Vintage Words, a set of some of the most common words used in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. All styles, except Port Vintage Ornaments and Port Vintage Words, include italic styles. For a better understanding of all the uses of Port Vintage and the full character list the reading of the manual is recommended.

Iwan Stencil is a new revival of an old display typeface. Based on type originally designed by Jan Tschichold in 1929, the style was revived by Klaus Sutter in 2008. The letterforms in this peculiar design are very high contrast; all of the thin bits are much thinner than the thick parts. They have a modern, upright axis. All in all, the creation has a bit of a Bodoni-gone-crazy touch. The thin elements are the unique part of the design that binds this face together. They almost naturally fade away in the stencil gaps (or pylons), making you wonder if you are really looking at a stencil face at all. These thins contribute greatly to the typeface's overall serif-style, making the design at least a semi serif typeface, if not a full serif one. The lowercase n, for instance, has no serifs of its own, but many of the other letters have clear ones, or serif-like terminals. A serif stencil face is a peculiar variety, especially in this day and age, but in the past they were much more common, if not the norm, The Iwan Stencil typeface has only one weight. Naturally, this is just for display. Use Iwan Stencil to cut real stencils, or only to create the effect of stenciled type in your design work. Ivan Stencil includes all of the characters that you have come to expect in a font. Just because this design was originally made in 1929 does not mean that is has a 1929 character set. Instead, it includes a 21st century, with extended European language support Jan Tschichold, who we have to thank for today's Iwan Stencil inspiration, was a man of many faces. A trained calligrapher who went on to codify the New Typography, would go on to become a teacher, a classical book designer, and the creator of the Sabon typeface. Like all young designers, he was occasionally in need of money. Before his emigration from Germany in 1933, he took on many kinds of commissions. In the late 1920s, a time full of waves of economic turmoil within Germany and across the world, he began designing a typefaces for different European companies, mostly display things like this. For a time during the mid-1920s, Jan Tschichold went by the name Iwan" "

Among the countless typefaces available today, the Modern Face style is relatively underrepresented. During the 19th century and then later with the competition from the mechanized hot metal types and film setting, a number of attractive headline types appeared in this style. For text, however, the available types were limited to those based on tried and true classics like Walbaum, Didot and Bodoni, which were created between 1780 and 1830, as well as a few variations from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The demand for new Modern text types remained nonexistant until the 1960s. Such was the situation when the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas Type Foundry) commissioned me to come up with a concept and sketches of a new hot metal type. I was able to convince the director of the foundry that there was a niche to be filled with contemporary Modern typography. Another reason for the production of a new type was of a technical nature: the introduction of a new setting technique should not be limited to existing typefaces, but instead should lead to innovative text types suited to the demands of the new applications. André Gürtler, Basilia's designer: I began to work on the concept and initial designs of the new text type in 1968. I wanted to give the type a classical look, expressed above all in the strong stroke contrast between the robust verticals and fine horizontal strokes and serifs. This is one of the main characteristics of Modern typography.""This new typeface, Basilia, is distinguished by its soft, open appearance as well as a number of details which together mark a departure from historical models. For example, it has nothing of Bodoni's round letters and their angular, narrow spacing, and displays instead round forms with a much softer stroke in the curves. It was very important to me to avoid the Modern characteristic of stiff, vertical, grid-like strokes and to create instead a lighter, more transparent type. I retained the Modern style by using straight horizontal serifs at right angles to the strokes to still give the type its sense of rigidity." Three sketches for Basilia (normal, italic, and bold) were finished in 1973. Only the 9-point size was produced at first. In the following years, basic weights were made and adapted to filmsetting."

Levato, the first font designed by Felix Bonge, is an Antiqua that is full of character and is refined but by no means sterile. This typeface provides for a wide range of options for creating individual designs. It was not really Felix Bonge's intention to create a whole font family when, as a second year student, he began several exercises in contrast and proportion as part of the typeface design course of Professor Veljovi? at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. However, these initial studies developed into a project that Bonge persisted with over the following years while working towards his degree. He continually had new insights and ideas that he was able to exploit for his font. Of particular importance, he claims, was a calligraphy seminar, which prompted him to completely rework his concept. It took him several years before his extensive font Levato™ was ready. Although the forms of Levato are ultimately derived from Renaissance Antiqua, Bonge has slightly increased the relative contrast in his version. This gives the font a graceful appearance that is further emphasized by the reduced x-height and the associated prominence of the ascenders. And, in addition, the relatively fine serifs, which are almost linear at their ends, infuse Levato with a hint of classical Antiqua á la Bodoni. At the same time, Bonge cleverly compensates for the sterilising tendency of this font form. Soft and rounded serif attachments and rounded line apexes offset the severe nature of the font and provide it with an aura of vivacity. This effect is promoted by the calligraphic-like foot of the lowercase h, n and m and the not quite horizontal bars of the uppercase E and F. Overall, Bonge has succeeded in creating a refined and yet very dynamic typeface. Levato is available in five weights; Light, Regular, Medium, Bold and Black, in each case with the corresponding italic versions. Bonge treats Levato Italic as a genuine cursive typeface. Its letters are thus slightly narrower than the analogous upright letters and their forms are considerably more curvilinear. All the versions of Levato boast an enormous range of characters to meet all possible requirements. In addition to four sets of minuscule and majuscule numerals for tabular and proportional typesetting, there are also small caps, numerous ligatures, ornamental characters and even swash variants of letters. With their generous, sweeping curves, the swash variants (available as OpenType versions) can be used for striking titling effects or as initials.

Style and elegance in 14 styles PS Fournier, created by Stéphane Elbaz, is designed in tribute to Pierre Simon Fournier. Fournier was the prolific Parisian type designer whose work is best known for its iconic representation of French transitional style. PS Fournier elegantly represents the transition to the modern era of typography. Featuring three optical sizes, PS Fournier is designed to perform in any context. The Pierre Simon Fournier heritage Pierre Simon Fournier (1712—1768) was a leading innovative type designer of the mid-18th century. Early in his career, the young Pierre Simon developed a strong aesthetic that he cultivated throughout his life. His art is representative of the pre-revolutionary “Age of Enlightenment” (Siècle des Lumières). Precursor of the Modern style, Fournier’s body of work deeply influenced his times, and created the fertile ground from which the Didot family and Giambattista Bodoni developed their own styles. During the historical period of the 18th century, Fournier exemplified the intellectual pursuits of the times with his own research on type, documenting in detail the typefounding process. He also offered a unique vision: he is the first to clearly comprehend the concept of “type family,” sorting a set of similarly styled alphabets by sizes, width, and by x-heights. In addition, Fournier is one of the earliest advocates of the point system to organize the practice of typography, the point system that contemporary typographers continue to use to this day. The refined and discreet elegance of PS Fournier With a close look at the family, one finds you’ll find that the difference between the optical sizes (Petit, standard and Grand) is more than a contrast variation between the thin and the thick; the eye can also denote a palette of distinct tones: More streamlined and robust in the smaller sizes (Petit), more refined and detailed in the larger sizes (Grand). The PS Fournier standard family is designed to adapt to any situation with its intermediate optical size, from body copy to headlines. With a bit of tracking, PS Fournier Petit will make the smallest captions perfectly readable. However, Petit family is not limited to body and captions — its “slabby robustness” will make a relevant headline choice as well. PS Fournier Grand presents a higher contrast adapted to large text sizes, displays or banners. Its refined elegance makes it a perfect choice for Design, Fashion or Luxury publications. As a “modern” type PS Fournier Grand features a larger x-height than the preexistent old style typefaces such as Garamond or Jenson. These proportions provide any basic text set in PS Fournier Grand a strong typographic texture. As a result, the PS Fournier global family is a versatile alternative to the Modern typefaces commonly used in the publishing industry. The optical sizes, the large range of weights, and the design variations make this family adaptable to captions, paragraphs, and pages, as well as to large texts and displays. A leading-edge typography in the 18th century In the spirit of modernity, Pierre Simon Fournier did not find any use for the conventional swashes still produced by peers such as Caslon or Baskerville. Nevertheless the French designer created many inventive elements to decorate the page and set delightful variations in the text itself. To this regard PS Fournier includes a large set of glyphs variations, ligatures and more than one hundred glyphs for borders, rules and ornaments or — as called in French — “vignettes.” PS Fournier: A tribute to the French modern typography era by Stéphane Elbaz

Typographer and graphic designer Pavel Teimer (1935-1970) designed a modern serif roman with italics in 1967. For the drawing of Teimer he found inspiration in the types of Walbaum and Didot, rather than Bodoni. He re-evaluated these archetypes in an individual way, adjusting both height and width proportions and modifying details in the strokes, thus effectively breaking away from the historical models he used as a starting point. Teimer's antiqua has less contrast; the overall construction of the characters is softer and more lively. The proportions of the italics are rather wide, making them stand out by their calm and measured rhythm. This was defined by the purpose of the typeface, as it was to be utilised for two-character matrices. The long serifs are a typical feature noticeable throughout the complete family of fonts. In 1967, a full set of basic glyphs, numerals and diacritics of Teimer's antiqua was submitted to the Czechoslovak Grafotechna type foundry. However, the face was never cast. At the beginning of 2005 we decided to rehabilitate this hidden gem of Czech typography. We used the booklet "Teimer's antiqua - a design of modern type roman and italics", written by Jan Solpera and Kl‡ra Kv’zov‡ in 1992, as a template for digitisation. The specimen contains an elementary set of roman and italics, including numerals and ampersands. After studying the specimen, we decided to make certain adjustments to the construction of the character shapes. We slightly corrected the proportions of the typeface, cut and broadened the serifs, and slightly strengthened the hair strokes. In the upper case we made some significant changes in the end serifs of round strokes in C, G and S, and the J was redrawn from the scratch. The top diagonal arm of the K was made to connect with the vertical stem, while the tail of Q has received a more expressive tail. The stronger hairlines are yet more apparent in the lower case, which is why we needed to further intervene in the construction of the actual character shapes. The drawing of the f is new, with more tension at the top of the character, and the overall shape of the g is better balanced. We also added an ear to the j, and curves in the r have become more fluent. To emphasise the compact character of the family, the lining numerals were thoroughly redrawn, with the finials being replaced by vertical serifs. The original character of the numerals was preserved in the new set of old-style figures. To make the uppercase italics as compact as possible, they were based on the roman cut rather than on the original design. The slope of lowercase italics needed to be harmonised. The actual letter forms are still broader than the characters in the original design, and the changes in construction are more noticeable. The lower case b gained a bottom serif, the f has a more traditional shape as it is no longer constricted by the demands of two-matrice casting, the g was redrawn and is a single storey design now. The serifs on one side of the descenders of the p and q were removed, the r is broader and more open. The construction of s, v, w, x, y, and z is now more compact and better balanced. Because Teimer was designed to make optimal use of the OpenType format, it was deemed necessary to add a significant amount of new glyphs. The present character set of one font comprisess over 780 glyphs, including accented characters for typesetting of common Latin script languages, small caps and a set of ligatures, tabular, proportional, old style and lining, superscript and fraction numerals. It also contains a number of special characters, such as arrows, circles, squares, boxed numerals, and ornaments. Because of its fine and light construction, the original digitised design remained the lightest of the family. Several heavier weights were added, with the family now comprising Light, Light Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, Semibold, Semibold Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic.

Originally designed in 1996, Mrs Eaves was Zuzana Licko’s first attempt at the design of a traditional typeface. It was styled after Baskerville, the famous transitional serif typeface designed in 1757 by John Baskerville in Birmingham, England. Mrs Eaves was named after Baskerville’s live in housekeeper, Sarah Eaves, whom he later married. One of Baskerville’s intents was to develop typefaces that pushed the contrast between thick and thin strokes, partially to show off the new printing and paper making techniques of his time. As a result his types were often criticized for being too perfect, stark, and difficult to read. Licko noticed that subsequent interpretations and revivals of Baskerville had continued along the same path of perfection, using as a model the qualities of the lead type itself, not the printed specimens. Upon studying books printed by Baskerville at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, Licko decided to base her design on the printed samples which were heavier and had more character due to the imprint of lead type into paper and the resulting ink spread. She reduced the contrast while retaining the overall openness and lightness of Baskerville by giving the lower case characters a wider proportion. She then reduced the x-height relative to the cap height to avoid increasing the set width. There is something unique about Mrs Eaves and it’s difficult to define. Its individual characters are at times awkward looking—the W being narrow, the L uncommonly wide, the flare of the strokes leading into the serifs unusually pronounced. Taken individually, at first sight some of the characters don’t seem to fit together. The spacing is generally too loose for large bodies of text, it sort of rambles along. Yet when used in the right circumstance it imparts a very particular feel that sets it clearly apart from many likeminded types. It has an undefined quality that resonates with people. This paradox (imperfect yet pleasing) is perhaps best illustrated by design critic and historian Robin Kinross who has pointed out the limitation of the “loose” spacing that Licko employed, among other things, yet simultaneously designated the Mrs Eaves type specimen with an honorable mention in the 1999 American Center for Design competition. Proof, perhaps, that type is best judged in the context of its usage. Even with all its shortcomings, Mrs Eaves has outsold all Emigre fonts by twofold. On MyFonts, one of the largest on-line type sellers, Mrs Eaves has been among the 20 best selling types for years, listed among such classics as Helvetica, Univers, Bodoni and Franklin Gothic. Due to its commercial and popular success it has come to define the Emigre type foundry. While Licko initially set out to design a traditional text face, we never specified how Mrs Eaves could be best used. Typefaces will find their own way. But if there’s one particular common usage that stands out, it must be literary—Mrs Eaves loves to adorn book covers and relishes short blurbs on the flaps and backs of dust covers. Trips to bookstores are always a treat for us as we find our Mrs Eaves staring out at us from dozens of book covers in the most elegant compositions, each time surprising us with her many talents. And Mrs Eaves feels just as comfortable in a wide variety of other locales such as CD covers (Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief being our favorite), restaurant menus, logos, and poetry books, where it gives elegant presence to short texts. One area where Mrs Eaves seems less comfortable is in the setting of long texts, particularly in environments such as the interiors of books, magazines, and newspapers. It seems to handle long texts well only if there is ample space. A good example is the book /CD/DVD release The Band: A Musical History published by Capitol Records. Here, Mrs Eaves was given appropriate set width and generous line spacing. In such cases its wide proportions provide a luxurious feel which invites reading. Economy of space was not one of the goals behind the original Mrs Eaves design. With the introduction of Mrs Eaves XL, Licko addresses this issue. Since Mrs Eaves is one of our most popular typefaces, it’s not surprising that over the years we've received many suggestions for additions to the family. The predominant top three wishes are: greater space economy; the addition of a bold italic style; and the desire to pair it with a sans design. The XL series answers these requests with a comprehensive set of new fonts including a narrow, and a companion series of Mrs Eaves Sans styles to be released soon. The main distinguishing features of Mrs Eaves XL are its larger x-height with shorter ascenders and descenders and overall tighter spacing. These additional fonts expand the Mrs Eaves family for a larger variety of uses, specifically those requiring space economy. The larger x-height also allows a smaller point size to be used while maintaining readability. Mrs Eaves XL also has a narrow counterpart to the regular, with a set width of about 92 percent which fulfills even more compact uses. At first, this may not seem particularly narrow, but the goal was to provide an alternative to the regular that would work well as a compact text face while maintaining the full characteristics of the regular, rather than an extreme narrow which would be more suitable for headline use. Four years in the making, we're excited to finally let Mrs Eaves XL find its way into the world and see where and how it will pop up next.

The concept of the Baroque Roman type face is something which is remote from us. Ungrateful theorists gave Baroque type faces the ill-sounding attribute "Transitional", as if the Baroque Roman type face wilfully diverted from the tradition and at the same time did not manage to mature. This "transition" was originally meant as an intermediate stage between the Aldine/Garamond Roman face of the Renaissance, and its modern counterpart, as represented by Bodoni or Didot. Otherwise there was also a "transition" from a slanted axis of the shadow to a perpendicular one. What a petty detail led to the pejorative designation of Baroque type faces! If a bookseller were to tell his customers that they are about to choose a book which is set in some sort of transitional type face, he would probably go bust. After all, a reader, for his money, would not put up with some typographical experimentation. He wants to read a book without losing his eyesight while doing so. Nevertheless, it was Baroque typography which gave the world the most legible type faces. In those days the craft of punch-cutting was gradually separating itself from that of book-printing, but also from publishing and bookselling. Previously all these activities could be performed by a single person. The punch-cutter, who at that time was already fully occupied with the production of letters, achieved better results than he would have achieved if his creative talents were to be diffused in a printing office or a bookseller's shop. Thus it was possible that for example the printer John Baskerville did not cut a single letter in his entire lifetime, for he used the services of the accomplished punch-cutter John Handy. It became the custom that one type founder supplied type to multiple printing offices, so that the same type faces appeared in various parts of the world. The type face was losing its national character. In the Renaissance period it is still quite easy to distinguish for example a French Roman type face from a Venetian one; in the Baroque period this could be achieved only with great difficulties. Imagination and variety of shapes, which so far have been reserved only to the fine arts, now come into play. Thanks to technological progress, book printers are now able to reproduce hairstrokes and imitate calligraphic type faces. Scripts and elaborate ornaments are no longer the privilege of copper-engravers. Also the appearance of the basic, body design is slowly undergoing a change. The Renaissance canonical stiffness is now replaced with colour and contrast. The page of the book is suddenly darker, its lay-out more varied and its lines more compact. For Baroque type designers made a simple, yet ingenious discovery - they enlarged the x-height and reduced the ascenders to the cap-height. The type face thus became seemingly larger, and hence more legible, but at the same time more economical in composition; the type area was increasing to the detriment of the margins. Paper was expensive, and the aim of all the publishers was, therefore, to sell as many ideas in as small a book block as possible. A narrowed, bold majuscule, designed for use on the title page, appeared for the first time in the Late Baroque period. Also the title page was laid out with the highest possible economy. It comprised as a rule the brief contents of the book and the address of the bookseller, i.e. roughly that which is now placed on the flaps and in the imprint lines. Bold upper-case letters in the first line dramatically give way to the more subtle italics, the third line is highlighted with vermilion; a few words set in lower-case letters are scattered in-between, and then vermilion appears again. Somewhere in the middle there is an ornament, a monogram or an engraving as a kind of climax of the drama, while at the foot of the title-page all this din is quietened by a line with the name of the printer and the year expressed in Roman numerals, set in 8-point body size. Every Baroque title-page could well pass muster as a striking poster. The pride of every book printer was the publication of a type specimen book - a typographical manual. Among these manuals the one published by Fournier stands out - also as regards the selection of the texts for the specimen type matter. It reveals the scope of knowledge and education of the master typographers of that period. The same Fournier established a system of typographical measurement which, revised by Didot, is still used today. Baskerville introduced the smoothing of paper by a hot steel roller, in order that he could print astonishingly sharp letters, etc. ... In other words - Baroque typography deserves anything else but the attribute "transitional". In the first half of the 18th century, besides persons whose names are prominent and well-known up to the present, as was Caslon, there were many type founders who did not manage to publish their manuals or forgot to become famous in some other way. They often imitated the type faces of their more experienced contemporaries, but many of them arrived at a quite strange, even weird originality, which ran completely outside the mainstream of typographical art. The prints from which we have drawn inspiration for these six digital designs come from Paris, Vienna and Prague, from the period around 1750. The transcription of letters in their intact form is our firm principle. Does it mean, therefore, that the task of the digital restorer is to copy meticulously the outline of the letter with all inadequacies of the particular imprint? No. The type face should not to evoke the rustic atmosphere of letterpress after printing, but to analyze the appearance of the punches before they are imprinted. It is also necessary to take account of the size of the type face and to avoid excessive enlargement or reduction. Let us keep in mind that every size requires its own design. The longer we work on the computer where a change in size is child's play, the more we are convinced that the appearance of a letter is tied to its proportions, and therefore, to a fixed size. We are also aware of the fact that the computer is a straightjacket of the type face and that the dictate of mathematical vectors effectively kills any hint of naturalness. That is why we strive to preserve in these six alphabets the numerous anomalies to which later no type designer ever returned due to their obvious eccentricity. Please accept this PostScript study as an attempt (possibly futile, possibly inspirational) to brush up the warm magic of Baroque prints. Hopefully it will give pleasure in today's modern type designer's nihilism.