The famous roman type cut in Venice by Nicolas Jenson, and used in 1470 for his printing of the tract, De Evangelica Praeparatione, Eusebius, has usually been declared the seminal and definitive representative of a class of types known as Venetian Old Style. The Jenson type is thought to have been the primary model for types that immediately followed. Subsequent 15th-century Venetian Old Style types, cut by other punchcutters in Venice and elsewhere in Italy, are also worthy of study, but have been largely neglected by 20th-century type designers. There were many versions of Venetian Old Style types produced in the final quarter of the quattrocento. The exact number is unknown, but numerous printed examples survive, though the actual types, matrices, and punches are long gone. All these types are not, however, conspicuously Jensonian in character. Each shows a liberal amount of individuality, inconsistency, and eccentricity. My fascination with these historical types began in the 1970s and eventually led to the production of my first text typeface, Iowan Old Style (Bitstream, 1991). Sometime in the early 1990s, I started doodling letters for another Venetian typeface. The letters were pieced together from sections of circles and squares. The n, a standard lowercase control character in a text typeface, came first. Its most unusual feature was its head serif, a bisected quadrant of a circle. My aim was to see if its sharp beak would work with blunt, rectangular, foot serifs. Next, I wanted to see if I could construct a set of capital letters by following a similar design system. Rectangular serifs, or what we today call "slab serifs," were common in early roman printing types, particularly text types cut in Italy before 1500. Slab serifs are evident on both lowercase and uppercase characters in roman types of the Incunabula period, but they are seen mainly at the feet of the lowercase letters. The head serifs on lowercase letters of early roman types were usually angled. They were not arched, like mine. Oddly, there seems to be no actual historical precedent for my approach. Another characteristic of my arched serif is that the side opposite the arch is flat, not concave. Arched, concave serifs were used extensively in early italic types, a genre which first appeared more than a quarter century after roman types. Their forms followed humanistic cursive writing, common in Italy since before movable type was used there. Initially, italic characters were all lowercase, set with upright capitals (a practice I much admire and would like to see revived). Sloped italic capitals were not introduced until the middle of the sixteenth century, and they have very little to do with the evolution of humanist scripts. In contrast to the cursive writing on which italic types were based, formal book hands used by humanist scholars to transcribe classical texts served as a source of inspiration for the lowercase letters of the first roman types cut in Italy. While book hands were not as informal as cursive scripts, they still had features which could be said to be more calligraphic than geometric in detail. Over time, though, the copied vestiges of calligraphy virtually disappeared from roman fonts, and type became more rational. This profound change in the way type developed was also due in part to popular interest in the classical inscriptions of Roman antiquity. Imperial Roman letters, or majuscules, became models for the capital letters in nearly all early roman printing types. So it was, that the first letters in my typeface arose from pondering how shapes of lowercase letters and capital letters relate to one another in terms of classical ideals and geometric proportions, two pinnacles in a range of artistic notions which emerged during the Italian Renaissance. Indeed, such ideas are interesting to explore, but in the field of type design they often lead to dead ends. It is generally acknowledged, for instance, that pure geometry, as a strict approach to type design, has limitations. No roman alphabet, based solely on the circle and square, has ever been ideal for continuous reading. This much, I knew from the start. In the course of developing my typeface for text, innumerable compromises were made. Even though the finished letterforms retain a measure of geometric structure, they were modified again and again to improve their performance en masse. Each modification caused further deviation from my original scheme, and gave every font a slightly different direction. In the lower case letters especially, I made countless variations, and diverged significantly from my original plan. For example, not all the arcs remained radial, and they were designed to vary from font to font. Such variety added to the individuality of each style. The counters of many letters are described by intersecting arcs or angled facets, and the bowls are not round. In the capitals, angular bracketing was used practically everywhere stems and serifs meet, accentuating the terseness of the characters. As a result of all my tinkering, the entire family took on a kind of rich, familiar, coarseness - akin to roman types of the late 1400s. In his book, Printing Types D. B. Updike wrote: "Almost all Italian roman fonts in the last half of the fifteenth century had an air of "security" and generous ease extremely agreeable to the eye. Indeed, there is nothing better than fine Italian roman type in the whole history of typography." It does seem a shame that only in the 20th century have revivals of these beautiful types found acceptance in the English language. For four centuries (circa 1500 - circa 1900) Venetian Old Style faces were definitely not in favor in any living language. Recently, though, reinterpretations of early Italian printing types have been returning with a vengeance. The name Vendetta, which as an Italian sound I like, struck me as being a word that could be taken to signifiy a comeback of types designed in the Venetian style. In closing, I should add that a large measure of Vendetta's overall character comes from a synthesis of ideas, old and new. Hallmarks of roman type design from the Incunabula period are blended with contemporary concerns for the optimal display of letterforms on computer screens. Vendetta is thus not a historical revival. It is instead an indirect but personal digital homage to the roman types of punchcutters whose work was influenced by the example Jenson set in 1470. John Downer.

We always wanted to design a gothic typeface. Our most similar typefaces are Rude and Firme, but Rude has some very delicate curves especially visible in the vertical strokes and Firme introduces a type family with reasonably big ascenders and descenders. On the other hand, Isento has a much more straightforward approach to the particular genre. Loosely inspired by Times Gothic, introduced in the American Type Founders Specimen Book and Catalogue from 1923, soon followed its very own path. Is our first typeface that clearly shows a distinct weight difference between the uppercase and the lowercase and the spacing is very open to provide a much more mechanical feeling. Isento and Isento Slab ranges from Thin to ExtraBold with perfectly matching italics. Immediately seemed very clear that a slab serif companion would follow the sans, therefore Isento Slab is the perfect companion to Isento, with very strong rectangular serifs, ideal to set short passages of text or to become the key actor in a big headline.

We always wanted to design a gothic typeface. Our most similar typefaces are Rude and Firme, but Rude has some very delicate curves especially visible in the vertical strokes and Firme introduces a type family with reasonably big ascenders and descenders. On the other hand, Isento has a much more straightforward approach to the particular genre. Loosely inspired by Times Gothic, introduced in the American Type Founders Specimen Book and Catalogue from 1923, soon followed its very own path. Is our first typeface that clearly shows a distinct weight difference between the uppercase and the lowercase and the spacing is very open to provide a much more mechanical feeling. Isento and Isento Slab ranges from Thin to ExtraBold with perfectly matching italics. Immediately seemed very clear that a slab serif companion would follow the sans, therefore Isento Slab is the perfect companion to Isento, with very strong rectangular serifs, ideal to set short passages of text or to become the key actor in a big headline.

Slab serif with a 70’s aesthetic A version of AW Conqueror Sans, AW Conqueror Slab draws inspiration from geometrical slab serifs of the 1930s, of which Rockwell is a perfect example. Lubalin Graph, a reworking of the genre, came out in the wake of the Avant Garde wave of the early 70s. In recent years, ‘slabs’ have made a comeback in the graphic design world. AW Conqueror Slab advances the cause quite happily. AW Conqueror superfamily AW Conqueror Didot is part of a larger family, who include 4 others subfamilies with great potential: They’re but based on same structure, with some connection between them (width for example), to offer a great & easy titling toolbox to any designers, from skillful to beginner. Each of the members try their best to be different from the others because of their features. They should work harmoniously in contrast. Club des directeurs artistiques Prix 2010 European Design Awards 2011

German designer Hans-Jürgen Ellenberger originally developed the concept behind Elementis in 1975. Wanting to create an alternative typewriter script that was more round and natural, Elementis' design was born. True to its typewriter roots, Linotype's Elementis exhibits more character than one expects from that genre. The letters display a delightfully quirky nature, which is sure to lighten up any document. Elementis may be used in a number of point sizes: although the letters function best in large display settings, short passages of text in sizes of 12 point or less may also be created. This family has received a number of awards in various contests: Elementis was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 2003 International Type Design Contest, sponsored by Linotype GmbH. Additionally, Ellenberger received a Certificate of Typographic Excellence from the Type Directors Club in 2005; during their annual TDC2 type design competition, Elementis was selected as a "judge's choice."

Josef Týfa first published the Academia typeface in 1967-68. It was the winning design from competition aimed at new typeface for scientific texts, announced by Grafotechna. It was cut and cast in metal in 1968 in 8 and 10 point sizes of plain, italic and semi-bold designs. In 2003 Josef Týfa with František Štorm began to work on its digital version. During 2004 Týfa approved certain differences from the original drawings in order to bring more original and timeless feeling to this successful typeface. Vertical stem outlines are no more straight, but softly slendered in the middle, italics were quietened, uppercase proportions brought closer to antique principle. Light and Black designs served (as usual) as starting points for interpolation of remainig weights. The new name Academica distinguishes the present digital transcription from the original idea. It comprises Týfa’s rational concept for scientific application with versatility to other genres of literature.

This type crept up the sense that it was made in Eastern Europe by poorly trained urbanites from a crippled nation, or that it is the remains of a contemporary gothic (like Eckmann) stencil. The choice of what this type signifies is up to the public. Lately I like the idea of 'putting on' (in McLuhan's sense) a genre of idea that is somewhat different from my tradition's beliefs, and fitting a core category of that toward a teleological/eschatological advantage. Therefore postmodernist/apocalyptic carelessness (which I may 'put on' by using this type) is how I abstain from the cravings of immortality, or more so that wanting it is pointless. It’s stands as memento morí; that I will have to die someday. I have to become less, He must become more. Of course, Interzone may signify a classic Joy Division track from Unknown Pleasures as well as the Cold Warish ongoings of conflicted eastern European life. I considered naming this Lunik 9.

As one of the most distinguished lettering artists of the 20th century, Meyer “Dave” Davison’s greatest contribution to the American visual landscape is arguably Davison Spencerian. The alphabet made its first appearance in Photo-Lettering’s 1946 catalog and remains a benchmark of the ornamental script genre. Thanks to the skillful hands of Mitja Miklavčič and the tireless eyes of House Industries designers Ben Barber and Ken Kiel, we have preserved the poise and precision of Davison’s masterwork in this faithfully-rendered digital incarnation. From automotive exhaust accessories and pirate-themed wedding invites to New Orleans sissy bounce hip-hop CD covers and upmarket bivalve ambrosia packaging, Davison Spencerian offers sober sophistication and unparalleled flexibility. DAVISON SPENCERIAN CREDITS: Typeface Design: Meyer “Dave” Davison Typeface Digitization: Mitja Miklavčič Typeface Direction: Ben Kiel and Ken Barber Like all good subversives, House Industries hides in plain sight while amplifying the look, feel and style of the world’s most interesting brands, products and people. Based in Delaware, visually influencing the world.

Lightbox 21 is a radical update of my previous version of a geometric sans serif. The design of the original Lightbox was fundamentally based on the idea of incorporating the proportions of the ‘Golden Ratio’ into each letterform; Lightbox 21 greatly improves on this concept by entirely abandoning it. The result is a much more readable, ‘natural’ typeface that retains elements of the original without being bound to it. Overall, Lightbox 21 has been designed to convey that classic feel of a geometric sans that makes the genre so tremendously enduring and versatile, as well as providing an effortless sense of class to whatever they are applied. Primarily intended for editorial work (i.e. short to medium length texts) or display settings, Lightbox 21 has a reasonably extensive character set, including support for Vietnamese, many currency symbols, arrows, and small caps. It also has OpenType support for nut fractions (via a stylistic set) and a barred alternate uppercase i and an alternate curled j.

Linotype Textra is a clever twist on the sans serif genre, designed by Jochen Schuss and Jörg Herz in 2002. Schuss says this about Linotype Textra: "Two in one! The same Linotype Textra, which is so neutral and practical for long text passages turns into an eye-catching headline type when used in larger point sizes. The trick? It's all in the details. The type's clear, robust forms give it a high degree of legibility when used in smaller point sizes for texts. When used in larger sizes, the angular, slightly irregular forms that give the type its strong character become apparent. Hence the name Linotype Textra: pure text with a little something extra!" With 15 weights, the Linotype Textra family provides graphic designers with a good basis for almost any type of work. The five regular weights have matching true italics and old style figures, and the five small cap weights include tabular figures.

An unadorned Grotesque with a refreshingly personal touch. If “Grotesque” mainly means “industrial, mechanical, anonymous typeface” to you, Klainy might redefine your image of the genre. Yes, it’s a Grotesque—but with a contemporary look and a lot of personality. Klainy’s apertures are more closed at the top and more open at the bottom, creating an informal rhythm that sets Klainy apart: a confident, optimistic voice with a clean appearance. Terminals are subtly back-bent: these quaint “hooks” make Klainy a bit more personal, a bit friendlier. (You can find them in the a, c, f, and r.) Just like its old-style Grotesque ancestors, Klainy is optimized for display sizes and short texts. There, its unobtrusive quirks can be wholly appreciated. However, the familiar Grotesque appearance makes sure that the typeface is comfortable to read in smaller sizes, as well. Use Klainy whenever a basically classic sans-serif typeface with a modern and individual twist is called for. This font family comes in eight weights ranging from Thin to Black, each with a matching italic style. More than 500 glyphs and a bunch of Open Type Features make it a reliable companion for all of your projects. You can fine-tune the flavor of Klainy with Stylistic Alternates such as a one-story a and a two-story g. Their simple construction blends perfectly with the design concept of this typeface. Klainy is a seasoned blue-collar worker that surprises you with wit and team spirit. It’ll be a great addition to your font library.

While the Aspire SmallCaps family finds its roots of inspiration in the ACURA automotive company logo, with its wider base, the Aspire Narrow SmallCaps family condenses those styles into something more suitable for larger bodies of text in a more standardized width. Aspire Narrow SmallCaps is perhaps the most true to form tribute to the original all capitals inspiration logotype. It maintains all capital forms (whether standard or smallcaps) and yet is still strikingly powerful in its presence and readability including numerals, and a comprehensive range of weights, creating a straightforward, uncompromising collection of typefaces that lend a solid foundation and a broad range of expression for designers. Here's what's included with the Aspire Narrow SmallCaps Family bundle: - 430 glyphs per style - including Capitals, Small Caps, Numerals, Punctuation and an extensive character set that covers multilingual support of latin based languages. (see the 6th graphic for a preview of the characters included) - Stylistic Alternates - alternate characters that remove the angled stencil cuts for a more standardized text look. - 3 weights in the family: Light, Regular, & Black. - 3 obliques in the family, one for each weight: Light, Regular, & Black. - Fonts are provided in TTF & OTF formats. The TTF format is the standard go to for most users, although the OTF and TTF function exactly the same. Here's why the Aspire Narrow SmallCaps Family is for you: - You're in need of automotive sans font family with a range of weights and obliques - You're love that ACURA letter styling, and want to design anything within that genre - You're looking for an alternative to Eurostile with more stylized letterforms. - You're looking for a battle-tech typeface for your futuristic war chest labelling. - You just like to collect quality fonts to add to your design arsenal

Lapis was Jim Rimmer's venture into a territory he'd earlier explored with his Lancelot and Fellowship faces. This time he stayed much longer, dug pretty deep, and had plenty of fun in there. The end result is the kind of mosaic of influences only a guy like Jim could consider, gather, manage and apply in a way that ultimately makes sense and works as a type family. On the surface Lapis seems like something that can be billed as what Jim would have called an "advertising text face". But under the hood, it's a whole other story. On top of the calligraphic, nib-driven base Jim usually employed in his faces, Lapis shows plenty of typographic traits from a variety of genres, from Egyptian to Latin, from blackletter angularity to Dutch-like curvature, with an overall tension even reminiscent of wood type. There are some Goudy-informed shapes that somehow fit comfortably within all this. Then it's all strung together with a mix of wedged, tapered and leaning serifs, placed with precision to reveal expert spontaneity and a great command of guiding the forms through counterspace. In the fall of 2013, the Lapis fonts were scrutinized and remastered into versatile performers for sizes large and small. The three weights and their italic counterparts have been refined and expanded across the board to include small caps, alternates, ligatures, ordinals, case-sensitive forms, six kinds of figures, automatic fractions, and a character set that covers an extended range of Latin languages. Each of the Lapis Pro fonts contains over 760 glyphs. For more details on the fonts' features, text and display specimens and print tests, consult the Lapis Pro PDF availabe in the Gallery section of this page. 20% of Lapis Pro's revenues will be donated to the Canada Type Scholarship Fund, supporting higher typography education in Canada.

SIAS opens a new chapter in Irish vernacular typography: the Andron-2-Irish font family. The genes of the insular typographic heritage have been blended with the timeless classical style of the versatile Andron series. Whereas most Irish-style fonts available more or less stick to ancient designs, Andron-2-EIR is different: it’s an entirely new design in which Irishness meets the beauty of a matured Venetian Roman text face. Envision a new horizon for setting Irish text in its own visual mode! Now you can utilize Italics, Semibold and Small capitals for Irish just as you have been doing in other languages for a long time. But the icing on the cake is the fifth font: Andron Irish Middlecase honours the rich medieval tradition of Ireland by a special uncial-style glyph set. It corresponds to the Andron MC series. Last but not least the Irish type connoisseur will relish this font package for it’s unique utilization of Opentype functionality. In Opentype-aware applications, by just ticking a box you can switch to the special insular forms of s and r. By ticking another box you can transform the text from modern-day orthography to the traditional spelling with lenited consonants. This built-in intelligence has never been implemented in any Irish font before. Briefly, the Opentype substitution features are: [Ligatures] – default basic f-ligatures; [Descretionary Ligatures] – more ligatures for typographic reason, mainly t- and long-s-combinations; [Style set 1] – turns all lowercase r and s into their insular glyph variants; [Style set 2] – replaces all consonant-h digraphs by dotted consonants (ḃċḋḟġṁṗṡẛṫ, ḂĊḊḞĠṀṖṠṪ), works for lowercase, uppercase and upper-lowercase alike; [Style set 3] – provides another range of additional special ligatures (for Regular and Italic only); [Oldstyle figures] – turns the default lining figures into proportional oldstyle figures. Andron Irish will also perfectly combine with every other Andron product in mixed settings. For an overview please go to the SIAS main page. For a quick reference go to Andron Latin, Andron Greek, Andron English or Andron MC. For more wonderful new Irish fonts look at Hibernica and Ardagh!

Legible, technical, clear—with a hint of retro: Compiler is a no-frills font family straight from the heart of a microprocessor. Inspired by console typefaces, the humanist sans serif typeface combines a large x-height with striking serifs on certain letters such as i and l. Those serifs evoke the aesthetics of monospace typefaces for programming. Even though Compiler is a proportional typeface, this detail improves glyph recognition and helps differentiate between individual letters. Combined with vertical stroke ends, which allow for particularly even spacing, the serifs make for an extremely legible typeface. (Even in small sizes.) Brand recognition guaranteed: Compiler is ideal for applications that require a mechanical flavor without appearing offish. You can use it for websites, apps, branding, corporate design, annual reports, signage, and many other areas with perfect results. Compiler consists of two font families; the second one is Compiler Plain. In Compiler Plain, the signature letters lose their serifs and the forms of "a" and "g" are simplified. This way, the shapes are neutralized. The technical impression recedes into the background. Both families can be combined smoothly: you might use the standard Compiler fonts for display sizes and Compiler Plain styles for body copy. For total design control, you can toggle each of the defining design elements individually from Compiler to Compiler Plain and vice versa. Just use Stylistic Sets to fine-tune your Compiler fonts. Compiler provides you with 8 weights in 4 variations: Upright, Italics, Plain Upright and Plain Italics. That's a total of 32 fonts. Each style contains more than 860 glyphs, including advanced typographic tools such as proportional and tabular figures (both lining and old-style) or small caps—something you'll rarely find in this genre. Other glyphs are optimized for display sizes, such as circled figures and various arrows. There's also a set of glyphs designed for web use: with symbols for shopping carts, hamburger menus or checkboxes, you can implement your web projects elegantly and consistently without relying on third-party tools (like an external icon font). Powered by highly productive OpenType functions, Compiler is an intermedia workhorse straight from cyberspace.