Berlin Sans is based on a brilliant alphabet from the late ’20s, originally released by Bauer with the name Negro, the very first sans that Lucian Bernhard ever designed. Assisted by Matthew Butterick, David Berlow expanded this single font into a series of four weights, all complete with expert character sets, plus a dingbat font. Imaginative & little-known, it promises enticing opportunities to the adventurous typographer; FB 1994

These four sets are based on the elegant and beautiful work of the German graphic designer Emil Rudolf Weiss. The initials were made to complement Weiss’ text fonts and were cast in the 1920s by the Bauer Type Foundry of Frankfurt. Also known as Weiss Initials Series I, II, II Bold, and III, the lettering has a distinct antique quality. These extremely hard-to-find digital versions look superb in large sizes and remain huge favorites among book designers. Wellsbrook Initials are now available in the OpenType Std format. Some new characters have been added to this OpenType version as Stylistic Alternates. This advanced feature works in current versions of Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

The German designer Emil Rudolf Weiss originally created Weiss Rundgotisch for the Bauer typefoundry in 1937. In their catalog for the typeface, Bauer began with this quote from Leonhard Wagner: The round gothic (rundgotisch) script is the most beautiful kind of script; she is called the mother and the queen of all the rest." While designing Weiss Rundgotisch, Weiss was inspired by Renaissance types cut by the Augsberg printer Erhard Ratdolt. Ratdolt had spent some time in Venice, which is most likely where he became familiar with round gothic letters. This sort of letterform was never as popular in Germany as Fraktur or Gotisch may have been, but round gothic types were used there for centuries to represent arts and craft feelings, as well as old-fashioned handwork. For a blackletter typeface, Weiss Rundgotisch is very similar to normal serif and sans serif designs, especially its uppercase letters, which seem to have some uncial influence in them as well. Therefore, Weiss Rundgotisch is more legible for contemporary readers, making this an excellent choice for anyone looking to set text, logos, or headlines with in blackletter. Weiss Rundgotisch was apparently quite a difficult typeface to design, even for a master designer like Weiss. He began work on the face in 1915; Weiss Rundgotisch's development took over 20 years to complete."

The marker has been sitting in your pen drawer for years. You can't bring yourself to throw it out, because it's the best marker in the world; but it has become worn and frayed, and you can't bring yourself to use it, either. But today you have just the project for the best bad marker in the world, and you take it from the drawer, remove the cap, and notice with glee that time has accumulated a perfect supply of ink in the frayed tip. You bring it down on the pristine white paper in front of you, and magic begins to trace itself on the page...