The Mashq script is the oldest documented Arabic Jazm calligraphy style. It was invented by the early Muslims in the Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina, exclusively for writing the Quran and other Islamic religious texts. The Mashq style employed complex ligature and multi-level baseline rules, and therefore it went through a continuous simplification process. Around the time period Mashq was developed, the early Arab Muslims experimented with another short-lived Mashq-like style with heavily slanted vertical stems, which closely resembled the common Ḥijazi style. This style is commonly referred to as the Ma’il (slanted) style. Eventually, the early complex Mashq style was replaced as the main Islamic Arabic script, by a more simplified Mashq-derived calligraphy style that was developed in the city of Kufa, modern day Iraq, which was commonly referred to as Kufi. The Kufic style became the official Arabic script style for centuries before it was replaced by the more developed Naskh, the modern Arabic script style used today. The Mashq font family by Arabetics includes three styles of Mashq. The first is Mashq regular, which closely follows the script style of Musḥaf ‘Uthman (currently displayed in the Topkapi Museum in Turkey) with only the initial and final Haa’ baselines shifting. The second is Mashq Maail, which emphasizes the features of the Ma’il style shared with Mashq. The third is Mashq Kufi, which closely follows the script style in an adequate sample from the Quran manuscripts of the Bergstraesser Archive. All three fonts include two styles, with and without Tashkeel (dots). The Mashq and Mashq Kufi fonts include two more styles, with and without Harakat (soft vowels), and Hamza. Only three soft vowels are implemented along with their Tanween (double) forms. The Sukoon vowel is the default shape before inserting a soft vowel. Hamza was treated as a vowel in the Mashq and early Kufi manuscripts. Kashida is a zero width character. In the Mashq fonts, inserting one Kashida before the final ‘Ayn glyph group will trigger alternative shapes. In the Mashq Kufi fonts, inserting one Kashida (or two) before the final Yaa’, ‘Ayn, and Ḥaa’ glyph groups will trigger alternative shapes. The Mashq font family by Arabetics was designed to be as compatible as possible with the Arabic keyboard and Unicode alphabet used in computers today. Calligraphic variations were implemented only when they marked significant and permanent script features.

Who haven't heard the phrase that ‘any past time was better’?. Although I sometimes find this phrase a little too pessimistic (because I try to think that the best is yet to come), it may be true regarding my passion, typography. I'm too young (29) unfortunately, and this means I did not have the pleasure of being contemporary with maybe the man who has influenced my work the most (1). The man that showed that letters are more than just letters to be read. Herb Lubalin (1918-1981), also called sometimes as ‘the rule basher’ (2), smashed the taboos and sacred rules of type design and gave it personality. He rejected the functionalist philosophy of europeans in favor of an eclectic and exuberant style. To him, letters were not merely vessels of form, they were objects of meaning. (3). Nowadays, when looking at his portfolio, who dares to deny that the term ‘typography’ and ‘beauty’ may go hand-in-hand without any problem? Ed Benguiat, one of Herb’s partners, still likes making jokes with the phrase “screw legibility, type should be beautiful” and what I understand of this is not to forget the rules, but to know and break them carefully. In an era of pure eclecticism, we, the lovers of flourishes and swashes, can't do nothing but admire all the legacy that Lubalin, this wonderful type-guru, left. My font Lubaline read as “the line of Lubalin” is my humble tribute to him. Those who know his work, may see the influences easily like in his ‘Beards’ (1976) and ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965) posters; the art-deco forms in many of his amazing logos and practically in all his creations where letters seem to be alive just like you and me. I really hope that the future finds me still learning more and more about type-design and letterforms, and like him, always willing to make innovations in my field: Because letters are not just letters to be read. NOTES (1) These are some of my fonts in which some of Lubalin’s influences can be seen (in order of creation): Reina, Aire, Erotica, String, Beatle, Heroe, Selfie, Model, Seventies, and many others that are still in progress. (2) (3) Steven Heller. Herb Lubalin: Rule Basher. U&lc (1998) http://www.printmag.com/imprint/my-favorite-lubalin/

Garalde: the word itself sounds antique and arcane to anyone who isn’t fresh out of design school, but the sort of typeface it describes is actually quite familiar to all of us. Despite its age—born fairly early in printing’s history—the style has fared well; Garaldes are still the typefaces of choice for books and other long reading. And so we continue to see text set in old favorites—Garamond, Sabon®, and their Venetian predecessor, Bembo®. Yet many new books don’t feel as handsome and readable as older books printed in the original, metal type. The problem is that digital type revivals are typically facsimiles of their metal predecessors, merely duplicating the letterforms rather than capturing the impression—both physical and emotional—that the typefaces once left on the page. MVB Verdigris is a Garalde text face for the digital age. Inspired by the work of 16th-century punchcutters Robert Granjon (roman) and Pierre Haultin (italic), Verdigris celebrates tradition but is not beholden to it. Created specifically to deliver good typographic color as text, Mark van Bronkhorst’s design meets the needs of today’s designer using today’s paper and press. And now, as a full-featured OpenType release, it’s optimized for the latest typesetting technologies too. With MVB Verdigris Pro Text, Van Bronkhorst has revisited the family, adding small caps to all weights and styles, extensive language support, and other typographic refinements. Among the features: • Support for most Latin-based languages, including those of Central and Eastern Europe. • Precision spacing and kerning by type editor Linnea Lundquist. The fonts practically set beautiful text by themselves. • Proportional and tabular figure sets, each with oldstyle and lining forms with currency symbols to match. • Ligatures to maintain even spacing while accommodating Verdigris’ elegant, sweeping glyphs. • Numerators and denominators for automatic fractions of any denomination. • Useful, straightforward dingbats including arrows, checkboxes, and square and round bullets in three sizes. • Alternative ‘zero’ and ‘one’ oldstyle figures for those who prefer more contemporary versions over the traditional forms. • An alternative uppercase Q with a more reserved tail. • An optional, roman “Caps” font providing mid-caps, useful for titling settings, and for those situations when caps seem too big and small caps seem too small. __________ Sabon is a trademark of Linotype Corp. Bembo is a trademark of the Monotype Corporation.

This is an Experimental typeface, a direct descendant of the BD Gitalona font family, which has a supermassive family with Variable technology. However, this version is more on the aesthetic aspect, which is experimental and exploratory. It complements the beauty of the primary typeface that we released separately. If you are a fan of Effectiveness and flexibility, please learn more about BD Gitalona and BD Gitalona Variable! Inspiration The world of entertainment moves non-stop. One by one, figures appeared and left. We expect to create something to entertain previous trends with packaging more relevant to the present. More specifically, we admire and are inspired by some of the world's leading and top singers with a segmented nature. We imagine so many figures that can affect every viewer. However, each artist or singer has a segment because almost all of them have characteristics. The Design The basic design of this typeface begins with a transitional serif shape with sharp, shapeless corners. Then in the middle of the invention, there was an opportunity to explore it further from the readability side by adding an optical variable that can adjust the serif thickness when used together between large, medium to paragraph text sizes for editorials. The shift from serif to sans-serif with the contrast initiated by the shift of the serif family form as a different variable also makes this font richer in terms of the features it contains. Parts are expected to add to the user satisfaction with the complexity of this font. The Features BD Gitalona consists of one sub-family intended for body text with nine weights from Thin(100) to Black(900) and four other display sub-families such as Display serif, Flick, Harmony Sans and Contrast Sans. Each consists of four weights Thin(100), Regular Weight(400), Bold(700), and Black(900). And again, there are also retailed separately; the BD Gitalona Variable font, which is designed to accommodate all Subfamily in 1 font file, and BD Gitalona Moxa, an experimental typeface. A total of 700+ glyphs in each style. Advanced OpenType features functionally and aesthetically, such as Case-sensitive forms, small caps, standard and discretionary ligatures, stylistic alternates, ordinals, fractions, numerator, denominator, superscript, subscript, circled number, slashed zero, old-style figure, tabular and lining figure. Supports multi-languages ​​including Western Europe, Central Europe, Southeast Europe, South America, and Oceania.

TT Nooks useful links: Specimen | Graphic presentation | Customization options TT Nooks is an experimental font family that includes a high contrast serif, TT Nooks, and an upright italic, TT Nooks Script. Despite the difference in style, both subfamilies get along well, which is partially thanks to their similar proportions. Each of the subfamilies includes 4 weights: Light, Regular, Bold and Black. The main subfamily is TT Nooks—a stylish high-contrast serif with a light touch of self-centeredness. If TT Nooks were a person, it would be an elegant lady with an independent and firm personality. In the original sketches of TT Nooks there were traces of a broad pen, but in the course of further evolution the typeface moved away from this style, retaining only the high contrast of strokes. In addition, in the process of design searches TT Nooks has obtained a touch of geometricity. The serifs in TT Nooks stand out especially visibly thanks to their geometric shape that resembles slippers. In addition to their peculiarity, such serifs add stability to the font and allow better compensation of the black and white ratio within the letters. TT Nooks has small capitals for Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, as well as a set of stylistic alternates (including some figures) that makes the typeface a bit more geometric. In addition, we have drawn more than 25 ligatures, including ligatures for capital letters, slashed zero and many other useful OpenType features. TT Nooks Script is a complementary family designed to harmoniously extend the main family and expand its scope. The forms of the characters in bold and light fonts of TT Nooks Script are quite different. For example, Black & Bold have high contrast strokes and an open aperture, and in Regular & Light the aperture of the characters is closed. TT Nooks also has small capitals for Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, ligatures, oldstyle figures and other OpenType features. In light faces, TT Nooks Script is more humanist and has artifacts inherent to the continuous movement of a flat pen. In bold faces, TT Nooks Script has a very dense and dynamic typing rhythm, and the shape of the letters begins to geometrize. We had had the difficult task of preserving the continuity of forms between bold and light faces, and we have managed to solve it thanks to the found rhythm, which united different fonts, and proximate stylistic solutions.

New Lincoln Gothic is an elegant sanserif, generous in width and x-height. There are twelve weights ranging from Hairline to UltraBold and an italic for each weight. At the stroke ends are gentle flares, and some of the round characters possess an interesting and distinctive asymmetry. The character set supports Central Europe, and there are three figure sets, extended fractions, superior and inferior numbers, and a few alternates, all accessible via OpenType features. Back in 1965, Thomas Lincoln had an idea for a new sanserif typeface, a homage of sorts, to ancient Roman artisans. The Trajan Column in Rome, erected in 113 AD, has an inscription that is considered to be the basis for western European lettering. Lincoln admired these beautiful letterforms and so, being inspired, he set out to design a new sanserif typeface based on the proportions and subtleties of the letters found in the Trajan Inscription. Lincoln accomplished what he set out to do by creating Lincoln Gothic. The typeface consisted only of capital letters. Lincoln intentionally omitted a lowercase to keep true his reference to the Trajan Inscription, which contains only magiscule specimens. The design won him the first Visual Graphics Corporation (VGC) National Typeface Competition in 1965. The legendary Herb Lubalin even used it to design a promotional poster! All this was back in the day when typositor film strips and photo type were all the rage in setting headlines. Fast forward now to the next millennium. Thomas Lincoln has had a long, illustrious career as a graphic designer. Still, he has one project that feels incomplete; Lincoln Gothic does not have a lowercase. It is the need to finish the design that drives Lincoln to resurrect his prize winning design and create its digital incarnation. Thus, New Lincoln Gothic was born. Lacking the original drawings, Lincoln had to locate some old typositor strips in order to get started. He had them scanned and imported the data into Freehand where he refined the shapes and sketched out a lowercase. He then imported that data into Fontographer, where he worked the glyphs again and refined the spacing, and started generating additional weights and italics. His enthusiasm went unchecked and he created 14 weights! It was about that time that Lincoln contacted Bitstream about publishing the family. Lincoln worked with Bitstream to narrow down the family (only to twelve weights), interpolate the various weights using three masters, and extend the character set to support CE and some alternate figure sets. Bitstream handled the hinting and all production details and built the final CFF OpenType fonts using FontLab Studio 5.

Chennai’s market-tested type styles have taken new form once again. The geometric forms of Chennai and its derivant Madurai, both successful in web-based applications and logotypes, have now been adapted for the superfamily Madurai Slab, a potent, square slab serif ideal for headlines and posters. Under the surface of Madurai Slab’s straightforward geometric structure, the font’s exaggerated vertical serifs provide the face with an extra chunk that commands the reader’s attention and gives the font more impact in its heavier styles. The extra-fortified forms are anything but monotonous, though. The bolder structure of the slab is instead rational, diligently thought-out, with minimally contrasting strokes, making the sturdier look particularly legible in shorter textual content blocks. This child of Madurai contains a comprehensive range of nine weights--slender to black--and features condensed and extender selections for a complete set of fifty-four fonts. All users of the Madurai Slab collection can access numerous OpenType alternates. Madurai Slab is furnished for experienced typographers, together with alternates, compact caps and many alts like “normalized” capitals and lowercase letters that come with stems. The typeface also contains a range of numeral sets, together with fractions, old-style and lining figures with superiors and inferiors. OpenType-capable programs including Quark or the Adobe suite allow quick changes to ligatures and alternates. Previews of these options can be found in the .pdf brochure. Madurai Slab also features the glyphs to enable all Central, Eastern and Western European languages. In all, Madurai Slab supports around forty languages that utilize the prolonged Latin script, making it an excellent option for multi-lingual publications and packaging. This richness of options makes this the best slab serif family for websites as well as for print, motion graphics, logos, t-shirts and the like. Madurai Slab is a great choice when looking for a Neo-Grotesque slab serif font. In the hands of a learned designer, this new slab offers the potential for beautiful and well-blended layouts. With its widths adjusting to compact and extended content blocks, this typeface is perfect for the headings, captions and other brief, immediate messages that you need to drive your message home.