As good as Nylon is, there’s nothing better than a nice woolly blanket. The smell and coarse, uneven texture are relaxing and feel reassuring. More comfortable. In a world where technology can reach millimetric precision, sometimes it’s good to connect with the imperfect and controlled impurity that is nature. Font design in particular has matured through software that can generate the most perfect letters in the world. But most of them don’t have soul. Landa is a glimpse from the cutting edge into the past. Inspired by Venetian lettering from the 15th century, whilst giving them new meaning, its letters become expressionist and have a modern touch. A rendez-vous between Nicolas Jenson, Oldřich Menhart, and nature itself. In Landa you can feel the texture of trunks and branches, from full fertile splendour to dried-out frailty. It takes the reader for a stroll through the woods on a late autumn evening, or on an adventure through the Amazonian rainforest, depending on the weight chosen. In the lighter and italic options, Landa text is organic and rustic, and very comfortable to read. What’s more, while it’s discreet on smaller screens, when enlarged it reveals brittle and expressive calligraphic shapes. This also makes it ideal for packaging or display elements. Landa provides advanced typographical support in several languages and OpenType features including case-sensitive forms, small caps, contextual alternatives, stylistic alternates, fractions, proportional and tabular figures. In this case it is technology that serves lettering, not the latter being technology dependent. Let’s not forget, as Erik Spiekermann said “we are still analogical beings. Our brains and eyes are analogical.” Perhaps that’s why to disconnect we always need to go back to forests, rivers, nature. Perhaps that’s why we still prefer wood to steel or wool to nylon.

Introducing Mixolydian, the scientific sans-serif typeface that’s anything but pretty. But don’t let its lack of aesthetics fool you; it packs a punch with its industrial and analytical tone. Unlike those fancy, European technical fonts, Mixolydian was made with an American flair in mind. Some of its graphic elements were even derived from the Federal Highway Administration Standard alphabet and architectural drafting templates. And let’s talk about those letters. Mixolydian’s intentionally off-kilter rhythm gives it a utilitarian, scientific vibe that’s perfect for any data-driven project. No need for frills or fuss here; Mixolydian is all about getting the job done. But that’s not all—the Mixolydian family comes in six weights and six highly inclined obliques, making it versatile enough for any design project you can dream up. So if you’re looking for a typeface that’s deliberately unattractive but highly effective, Mixolydian is your answer. 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.

Vast and untamed, the American West once stretched as free and wild as imagination itself. Still beautiful, the Wild West of long ago and the new West of today is now to be found in insigne’s new face, Plathorn. That’s right, folks. When the West called, Jeremy Dooley reached up like Pecos Bill, grabbed it by the reins and pulled it in, then using its wide, roaming elements to design this functional font that still has an unbroken spirit burning deep inside. This down right, no-nonsense, orthodox face leaves off any of that extra fancy stuff that doesn't belong on a ride. Plathorn comes with a family of cowhands as wide as the Rockies, bringing specifically tailored condensed and extended sub-families along with it too. By design, it’s not very obtrusive like its unorthodox reversed tension brethren. Leave those for the next font rodeo. This mount features barely a hint of a serif that hearkens back a hundred years or so to sign painters and package lettering artists of early twentieth century. They're sure to put the sharpness, gumption and grit you need into your copy. So grab a tall glass of Plathorn and drink in the deep taste of America’s big country. Put it in your next magazine. Put it in your brand. This typeface’s offbeat appeal is bound to bring a bit of wild U.S. to your free-spirited work.

Quercus is characterised by open, yet a little bit condensed drawing with sufficient spacing so that the neighbouring letters never touch. It has eight interpolated weights with respective italics. Their fine gradation allows to find an exact valeur for any kind of design, especially on the web. Quercus serif styles took inspiration from classicistic typefaces with vertical shadows, ball terminals and thin serifs. The italics have the same width proportion as upright styles. This “modern” attitude is applied to both families and calls for use on the same page, e g in dictionaries and cultural programmes. Serif styles marked by “10” are dedicated to textual point sizes and long reading. The sans-serif principle is rather minimalistic, with subtle shadows and thinned joints between curved shapes and stems. Quercus family comprises of the usual functionality such as Small Caps, Cyrillics, diacritics, ligatures, scientific and aesthetic variants, swashes, and other bells & whistles. It excels in informational and magazine design, corporate identity and branding, but it’s very well suited for book covers, catalogues and posters as well. When choosing a name for this typeface I've been staring out from my studio window, thinking helplessly without any idea in sight. Suddenly I realised that all I can see is a spectacular alley of oaks (Quercus in Latin) surrounding my house. These oaks were planted by the builders of local ponds under the leadership of Jakub Krčín in the fifteenth century.

Quercus is characterised by open, yet a little bit condensed drawing with sufficient spacing so that the neighbouring letters never touch. It has eight interpolated weights with respective italics. Their fine gradation allows to find an exact valeur for any kind of design, especially on the web. Quercus serif styles took inspiration from classicistic typefaces with vertical shadows, ball terminals and thin serifs. The italics have the same width proportion as upright styles. This “modern” attitude is applied to both families and calls for use on the same page, e g in dictionaries and cultural programmes. Serif styles marked by “10” are dedicated to textual point sizes and long reading. The sans-serif principle is rather minimalistic, with subtle shadows and thinned joints between curved shapes and stems. Quercus family comprises of the usual functionality such as Small Caps, Cyrillics, diacritics, ligatures, scientific and aesthetic variants, swashes, and other bells & whistles. It excels in informational and magazine design, corporate identity and branding, but it’s very well suited for book covers, catalogues and posters as well. When choosing a name for this typeface I've been staring out from my studio window, thinking helplessly without any idea in sight. Suddenly I realised that all I can see is a spectacular alley of oaks (Quercus in Latin) surrounding my house. These oaks were planted by the builders of local ponds under the leadership of Jakub Krčín in the fifteenth century.

STF Eclectic One is a visual cornucopia of symbols, like the junk drawer in your kitchen. Stuff you'll need someday for a graphic element, bullet or dingbat application. Perfect for website icons! The Eclectic family is legendary, with a cult-like following among the inititated. As one of the first dingbat fonts available on the web, it gain popularity after its design in the early 1990s. With over 150 characters in the complete set, you'll find yourself using Eclectic One almost daily to add spice to your otherwise san-serif typographic existence. This font is essentially a soap opera of typographic image elements, created for projects when I couldn't find the "thingbat" I needed. Almost more of a collection of illustrations, there are many characters which connect to form patterns, and of course it's like a "small neutral European country" army knife for the creative community. EcOne features complete hour, quarter, and half-hour notations in an analog clock design glyph, recycled/recyclable symbols, a registration mark, a toaster, globes, sideways diamond arrows, spaceships, stoplights, the "running man," several atomic references, da buzz saw, target icons, the unusual smiley face floating in a ball (with a drop shadow, no less!), and the fish skeleton which complements the fallout shelter symbol, and more. Make your own juxtapositions! One reviewer proclaims "for whatever you do, Eclectic One is an excellent dingbat source." Available in Mac and PC formats. License it today!

An Art Deco, script inspired typeface for 'modern' times, Pauline Didone is a full type family with a unique and flavorful design. It has a sense of femininity and naïveté that comes from its predecessor, Pauline. It's a typeface useful for short bits of copy, logotypes and interesting titling. This typeface family of 10 different fonts includes 5 weights and their italics and a wide range of OpenType alternates. The original Pauline was inspired by and has a strong influence from retro scripts. The typeface is geometric, formed with deliberate contrasting brush strokes and a ostentatious flair. Pauline Didone's high contrast strokes give it a very interesting look that is up to date with latest design trends and very useful for today's design environment. Pauline Didone pairs nicely with the original sans-serif Pauline. The typeface family also includes a full array of alternate forms, including over 150 alternate characters. These alternates can be accessed by activating OpenType features and style sets. Note: In order to use these OpenType features, you will need a program with advanced typography capabilities such as the Adobe Suite or Quark. These alternates also include a group of ball terminals that can be accessed under the swash alternates. Pauline Didone is the latest in a trusted line of typefaces from insigne. Why settle for the ordinary when you can choose Pauline Didone to lend its unique look to your art work?

Quercus is characterised by open, yet a little bit condensed drawing with sufficient spacing so that the neighbouring letters never touch. It has eight interpolated weights with respective italics. Their fine gradation allows to find an exact valeur for any kind of design, especially on the web. Quercus serif styles took inspiration from classicistic typefaces with vertical shadows, ball terminals and thin serifs. The italics have the same width proportion as upright styles. This “modern” attitude is applied to both families and calls for use on the same page, e g in dictionaries and cultural programmes. Serif styles marked by “10” are dedicated to textual point sizes and long reading. The sans-serif principle is rather minimalistic, with subtle shadows and thinned joints between curved shapes and stems. Quercus family comprises of the usual functionality such as Small Caps, Cyrillics, diacritics, ligatures, scientific and aesthetic variants, swashes, and other bells & whistles. It excels in informational and magazine design, corporate identity and branding, but it’s very well suited for book covers, catalogues and posters as well. When choosing a name for this typeface I've been staring out from my studio window, thinking helplessly without any idea in sight. Suddenly I realised that all I can see is a spectacular alley of oaks (Quercus in Latin) surrounding my house. These oaks were planted by the builders of local ponds under the leadership of Jakub Krčín in the fifteenth century.

“Quercus” is characterised by open, yet a little bit condensed drawing with sufficient spacing so that the neighbouring letters never touch. It has eight interpolated weights with respective italics. Their fine gradation allows to find an exact valeur for any kind of design, especially on the web. Quercus serif styles took inspiration from classicistic typefaces with vertical shadows, ball terminals and thin serifs. The italics have the same width proportion as upright styles. This “modern” attitude is applied to both families and calls for use on the same page, e g in dictionaries and cultural programmes. Serif styles marked by “10” are dedicated to textual point sizes and long reading. The sans-serif principle is rather minimalistic, with subtle shadows and thinned joints between curved shapes and stems. Quercus family comprises of the usual functionality such as Small Caps, Cyrillics, diacritics, ligatures, scientific and aesthetic variants, swashes, and other bells & whistles. It excels in informational and magazine design, corporate identity and branding, but it’s very well suited for book covers, catalogues and posters as well. When choosing a name for this typeface I've been staring out from my studio window, thinking helplessly without any idea in sight. Suddenly I realised that all I can see is a spectacular alley of oaks (Quercus in Latin) surrounding my house. These oaks were planted by the builders of local ponds under the leadership of Jakub Krčín in the fifteenth century.

The Aviano series returns, refined and sophisticated with an extended, high-contrast sans-serif family. Aviano Contrast is a contemporary typeface radiating with luxury. It's classic elegance makes it perfect for high-end applications such as cosmetic, jewelry or fashion brands. Aviano Contrast's extended forms give the face a smart look, and the curves are carefully honed to be sinuous and seductive. This high-contrast face is in a class of its own, composed in the style of a classic Didone but lacking the typical serifs. Aviano Contrast comes in six different weights and is packed with OpenType features. Need swash forms? Ball terminals? Art Deco alternates inspired by the inscriptions and signage of the '20s and '30s? Aviano Contrast includes 230 alternate characters. Twelve style sets are available, including four complete sets of art deco-inspired alternates, small forms, swash, titling and a wide array of other alternates to make your designs unique. As a complement to these characters, Aviano Contrast also includes 40 discretionary ligatures for artistic typographic compositions. Please see the informative .pdf brochure to see these features in action. OpenType capable applications such as Quark or the Adobe Creative suite can take full advantage of the automatically replacing ligatures and alternates. This family also includes the glyphs to support a wide range of languages. The rest of the Aviano series pairs very well with this face. These include Aviano, Aviano Serif, Aviano Sans, Aviano Didone, Aviano Flare, Aviano Future and Aviano Slab.

It all started with a simple idea back in 1998: do a digital version of a "lost" 70's typeface, and make up the missing letters that were not present in the only available example Jeff Levine had to work with. Jeff wasn't yet doing his own digital font creation, so he hooked up with Brad Nelson who owns a small foundry called Brain Eaters Fonts. Together, they collaborated on "Action Is"- a freeware font named after the source of the type example. This was a title page for a commemorative photo album of images from the 60's TV music show "Where the Action Is", formerly hosted by Jeff's employer at the time, singer-writer-producer Steve Alaimo. The free font took off like a rocket, being released just at the peak of the 60’s/70’s retro craze in the late 1990’s, and it was EVERYWHERE! It showed up on TV shows, packaging and web design -- and was even spotted on signage used on the side of a major amusement resort’s retro-themed hotel. From that point on, Jeff kept getting requests for a version with a lower case. Although they shared the copyright in the freeware version, Brad Nelson gave Jeff his blessing to re-work and take Action Is into the realm of commercial type. Newly improved and re-released as Groovy Happening JNL, it became one of Jeff's better selling type designs. A simplified, yet similar font was issued called Groovy Summer JNL. Now, after about a decade, Jeff had decided to clean up the 3-D (drop shadow) version that was originally freeware with many minute design flaws and re-release it commercially. Groovy 3D Caps JNL is an all-caps, limited character set font which ties in well with the previous releases, yet retains itís 1960s-1970s era charm. The font flag art is courtesy of Barbara D. Berney and is used by permission.

You stand, poised at the brink. If you do not choose the right, the best typeface, this may be one of the greatest disasters in your history. The whole root and core and brain on which and around which your project is built seems about to perish into an ignominious end. But I do not for a moment fail to believe that Winsel shall prevail for you. This bold new face, founded from the tested mind of insigne design, will in the moment of need wield for you the full might of its ancestors. The entire strength of the British Empire’s vernacular poster lettering spanning the 1920’s to the 1950’s drives the very heart of every feature and weight this font has to offer. Winsel’s expanded design is sharp and angular, based on pointed brush strokes. Its thick, sturdy appearance will draw and direct your reader’s mind to the weight and importance of your messages and titling. Within the font’s full forces work a range of styles to achieve victory in the contest ahead: thick weights that are compact and muscular for carrying a heavier load and lighter, finer weights to lead you through your more sensitive operations. It stands equipped with OpenType features, ready to support most European Latin-based languages and providing features such as Small Caps and Titling Caps in all nine of its weights. Well-honed for the task ahead, Winsel has been crafted to ride out the storm of mediocrity and to outlive the merits of inconsequence, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. There has never been in all the world such an opportunity for you. With Winsel, you shall go on till the end. You shall write on the beaches. You shall write on the landing grounds. You shall write with growing confidence and growing strength in print or on the air. Every morn has brought forth a noble chance. Your chance this day is Winsel.

Every single glyph of Helvetica has been redrawn and redesigned for this expansive new edition – which preserves the typeface's Swiss mantra of clarity, simplicity and neutrality, while updating it for the demands of contemporary design and branding. Helvetica Now comprises 96 fonts, consisting of three distinct optical sizes: Micro, Text and Display, all in two widths. Each one has been carefully tailored to the demands of its size. The larger Display versions are drawn to show off the subtlety of Helvetica and spaced with headlines in mind, while the Text sizes focus on legibility, using robust strokes and comfortably loose spaces. The Micro sizes address an issue Helvetica has long faced – that of being 'micro type challenged'. In the past, the typeface struggled to be legible at tiny sizes because of its compactness and closed apertures. Helvetica Now's Micro designs are simplified and exaggerated to maintain the impression of Helvetica in tiny type, and their spacing is loose, providing remarkable legibility at microscopic sizes and in low-res environments. There's also an extensive set of alternates, which allow designers the opportunity to experiment with and adapt Helvetica's tone of voice. This includes a hooked version of the lowercase l (addressing a common complaint that the capital I and lowercase l are indistinguishable) as well as a rounded G, and a straight-legged R, a single storey a and a lowercase u without a trailing serif. In the past, designers had to nudge, trim and contort the design to create stylish display-type lockups with Helvetica. Helvetica Now Display was designed and spaced with those modifications in mind—saving effort and providing more consistent (and more stylish) results. “Helvetica is the gold standard,' says Monotype Type Director Charles Nix. “To use it is to claim that you are the ultimate expression of whatever your brand aspires to be. Its blankness is its power.” Helvetica Now User Guide PDF. Featured in: Best Fonts for Resumes, Best Fonts for Websites, Best Fonts for PowerPoints

Geometric, stylish, and not quite a stencil face: Glance Sans is the urban alter ego of Glance Slab—a strong-willed sans-serif with no frills but a few unique character traits. Glance Sans follows the design principle of nonjoining parts that made Glance Slab successful. Some strokes may not connect to their stems, creating visible gaps and thus, a dynamic impression of balance and movement. However, Glance Sans has a calmer appearance due to the lack of detached serifs. If Glance Slab’s home territory are large, crowded stadiums and massive sports events, Glance Sans prefers streetball courts, well-used skate parks, and underground clubs. It also adapts to urban work environments from finance to high-tech. Whenever a more toned-down look is called for while retaining the elegance of an athlete, Glance Sans is ready to roll. In the city environment, versatility is key. That’s why Glance Sans sports 7 weights as well as a complete set of italics. These are not just sloped romans but individually drawn letterforms, subtly referencing classic italic construction for more effective emphasis. Among the 600+ glyphs of Glance Sans, you’ll find goodies such as six sets of figures, circled numbers, circled arrows, and all kinds of currency symbols in two stylistic versions. Glance Sans is a great tool for industrial and high-tech branding, for wayfinding systems in contemporary or modernist architecture, for corporate identities in arts, crafts, medicine, culture, and education, and for all kinds of sports-themed design. Both members of the Glance superfamily are easily and effectively combinable; both are able to stand on their own feet. With its powerful italics, you might opt for Glance Sans as your text typeface and use Glance Slab for headlines. Or you set large, clean, display-sized lines in Glance Sans and spice them up with a bit of sportive Glance Slab. It’s up to you to decide how to bring out the best in both of them.

Vala™ dances across printed pages and shines on screen. This is a high-energy design that blends the grace of an English Roundhand script with the gravitas of an extra bold Bodoni. There is even a bit of romance in the design. Vala speaks with a resonant voice – and knows few bounds. The typeface enhances print headlines, subheads, cover art and packaging. The design also brings its distinctive melding of verve and poise to banners, headings, navigational links and branding in web sites, blog posts, games and apps. Oscar Guerrero found inspiration for Vala in shop window lettering near his home in Bogotá, Colombia. “The capital A, R and V caught my attention and I photographed the window for future reference,” he explains. “Later I started to draw more letters inspired by the ones in the window.” Guerrero admits that he has always admired the work of Giambattista Bodoni and allowed his classic Didone designs to infuse Vala. Striking contrast in stroke weights, lively ball-terminals and a large x-height give Vala the grace and force of a Waikiki wave. Not satisfied with just a basic character set, Guerrero also took advantage of OpenType’s capabilities and drew a complete set of swash capitals, a bevy of fancy ligatures, and a suite of lowercase alternative designs. The result is that Vala easily emulates custom lettering in posters, headlines and logotypes. The “romantic” part of Vala? Guerrero dedicated the design to his girlfriend, Valentina, and named it after her.

DESCRIPTION Now my feelings about didones are more than evident. After some years of roman-abstinence (1) I present Heroe, an interesting combination of elegance and sensuality. Heroe, spanish for hero, takes some aspects of roman typefaces to the extreme like my main inspiration, the great Herb Lubalin, did in the majority of his works: Thins turned into hairlines, altered proportions (for display purposes), unique ball terminals, poetic curves and a graceful way of placing them together on a layout. Its classy style makes the font perfect for a wide range of uses. Imagine Heroe Inline (my favorite) dancing over a bottle of perfume; printed on the cover of a fashion magazine; lighting wedding invitations up. Its partner, Heroe Monoline, may help you to make more elaborated pieces of design. Just combine it with Heroe, or Heroe Inline and see how perfect they match. TECHNICAL The difference between Pro and Std styles is the quantity of glyphs. While Pro styles have all the decorative characters available, Standard ones have only the basic set of them. Heroe Monoline Big and Heroe Monoline Small were made for better printing purposes. If you need to print the font in small sizes, then your choice should be Small. Heroe Monoline has the same alternates (and open-type code) as Heroe Pro and Inline, plus some decorative ligatures. NOTES (1) After fonts like Breathe , Aire , and the award winning Reina , I started experimenting with scripts a little more. Erotica , Bird Script and Dream Script are examples of that.

The typeface Typist originated during an extensive research on the origin and development of typewriter typestyles. The first commercially manufactured typewriter came on the market in 1878 by Remington. The typestyles on these machines were only possible in capitals, the combination of capitals and lowercase came available around the end of the nineteenth century. Apart from a few exceptions, most typestyles had a fixed letter width and a more or less unambiguous design that resembled a thread-like structure. A lot of this mechanical structure was due to the method the typestyles were produced. Looking at type-specimens for print before the first typewriters were good enough to came on the market we can see that in 1853 and in 1882 Bruce’s Type Foundry already had printing type that had a structure of the typewriter typestyles. Of course printing types were proportional designed as typewriter typestyles had a fixed width. So it is possible that except from the method of production for typewriter typestyles, the design of printing types were copied. In the design of the Typist, the purpose was – next to the monospace feature – to include some of the features of the early typewriter typestyles. Features such as the ball terminals and the remarkable design of the letter Q. This new typeface lacks the mechanical and cold look of the early typewriter typestyles. The Typist comes in six weights with matching italics in two versions. One that resembled the early typewriter typestyles (Typist Slab) and a version designed with coding programmers in mind (Typist Code).

The typeface Typist originated during an extensive research on the origin and development of typewriter typestyles. The first commercially manufactured typewriter came on the market in 1878 by Remington. The typestyles on these machines were only possible in capitals, the combination of capitals and lowercase came available around the end of the nineteenth century. Apart from a few exceptions, most typestyles had a fixed letter width and a more or less unambiguous design that resembled a thread-like structure. A lot of this mechanical structure was due to the method the typestyles were produced. Looking at type-specimens for print before the first typewriters were good enough to came on the market we can see that in 1853 and in 1882 Bruce’s Type Foundry already had printing type that had a structure of the typewriter typestyles. Of course printing types were proportional designed as typewriter typestyles had a fixed width. So it is possible that except from the method of production for typewriter typestyles, the design of printing types were copied. In the design of the Typist, the purpose was – next to the monospace feature – to include some of the features of the early typewriter typestyles. Features such as the ball terminals and the remarkable design of the letter Q. This new typeface laks the mechanical and cold look of the early typewriter typestyles. The Typist comes in six weights with matching italics in two versions. One that resembled the early typewriter typestyles (Typist Slab) and a version designed with coding programmers in mind (Typist Code).