Bold, rounded and super cool. Those are the attributes of my latest font “Vinyle”, french for vinyl. In this epoque where all fields of Design are giving a lot of importance and attention to Typography and Lettering, I felt it was my duty to contribute with something that could really stand alone and ‘say something else’ that just words to be read. I've found that lately in the world, regarding a finished piece of design, the role of Typography (and of letters in general) went from being secondary, (like a minor player or a supporting actor) to the most important one. People are starting to understand the beauty of a well-done letter: they want their storefronts with unique scripts, they want to drink coffee surrounded by lettered blackboards, they want to buy books with astonishing covers with swashes ‘por doquier’. I'm more than happy to be alive in a present where even the most unimaginable friends of mine, (who couldn't spot differences between comic sans and helvetica before) are now conscious of the importance of a letter, or let’s say: Of the ‘voice’ of Typography. With Vinyle I tried to make a font with power. Following the nowadays trend of, let me say, “the vintage sans renaissance”. This time I put my brushes and nibs aside and experimented with something new. It wasn't easy, if you will pardon, for me to see swashes all over the place withouth the classic calligraphic ‘thick and thins’, but with after some weeks of work I started to love them. Like I already showed you in other creations (1) let me finish with the phrase: GEOMETRY IS SEXY! TIPS Vinyle has a lot of attitude, it shouts “here I am!” it really can ‘design an entire piece’ for you with just a word or two: It was designed with a 10 degree slant on purpose so the user may rotate it (like on the posters) that amount of degrees in order to see better results. Use Vinyle with the ‘fi’ standard ligatures activates for better kerning and ligatures! NOTES (1) See my font Selfie , the ‘little sister’ of Vinyle.

Full of life Hispanic Didot in 2 optical sizes Retiro is a daring interpretation of Spanish typography. Severe, austere and yet, full of life, Retiro is a vernacular version of Castilian and Andalusian in a typical Didot. Named after a lovely park in Madrid, Retiro started life as a a bespoke typeface designed to give a unique voice to the magazine Madriz. In 2006, the founder of Madriz was looking for a Didot for his new magazine. The Didot is the archetypal typeface used in high-end magazines. Retiro is a synthesis of these high contrast styles mixed with an Hispanic mind. Result is then, after 2-3 years of work, a typeface with countless variations to establish typographic shades adapted to different sections and pages of the Madriz. In 2014, it was necessary to further revise the typeface before its launch at Typofonderie. In order to keep its originality, the unique weight was retained, but complemented with optical size variants to set highly contrasted headlines into various sizes, visually balanced. How to use Retiro optical sizes? Each font provided in Retiro family is named according to the scale of body size: 24 pt and 64 pt. Of course, these names are referring to the body sizes used in typographic design. In the “glorious old days,” the letterpress period, it was customary to cut punches directly to the size at which typefaces would be used. The punchcutter had to visually adapt his design to the engraving size. The aim was to optimize the best contrast and general weight, but also to respect both design’s and reader’s needs. In Retiro’s case, intended for large titling sizes, it’s an adaptation of this ancient practice for our contemporary uses. Although each font is named by a typographic point size, do not feel obliged to use this font at this precise size, but why not, in larger or smaller. It’s rather the concept of gradients that must be preserved in layouts, rather than strictly size numbers. It’s up to the designer to select the right font size for his own designs. Granshan Awards 2012 Creative Review Type Annual 2011 Designpreis 2011 Club des directeurs artistiques, 41e palmarès Type Directors Club 2010 Certificate of Type design Excellence

Matthew Carter has been refining his design for Alisal for so long, he says, that when he was asked to complete the design for the Monotype Library, it was almost as if he were doing a historical revival of his own typeface. The illusion even extended to changes in his work process: although he now does all his preliminary and final drawing on screen, the first trial renderings of Alisal were done as pencil renderings. Alisal is best classified as an Italian old style design. Originally created between the late 15th and mid-16th centuries in northern Italy, the true Italian old styles were some of the first roman types. They tend to be the most calligraphic of serifed faces, with the axis of their curved strokes inclined to the left, as if drawn with a flat-tipped pen or brush. These designs offer sturdy, free-flowing and heavily bracketed serifs, short descenders, and a modest contrast in stroke weight. Alisal has nearly all the classic Italian old style character traits, plus a few quirks of its own. It is calligraphic in nature, with more of a pen-drawn quality than faces like Palatino or Goudy Old Style. It is more rough-hewn than either Goudy's Kennerley or Benton's Cloister, and is generally heavier in weight than most of the other Italian old style designs. One place where Alisal makes a clean break with traditional old style designs is in the serifs. While sturdy and clearly reflecting pen-drawn strokes, Alisal's serifs have no bracketing and appear to be straight strokes crossing the main vertical. Like Caslon or Trajanus, Alisal is a handsome design when viewed as a block of copy. Ascenders are tall and elegant, and serve as a counterpoint to the robust strength of the rest of the design. Alisal is available as a small family of roman and bold with a complementary italic for the basic roman weight, providing all that is needed for the majority of text typography. Alisal is not as well-known as some of Carter's other typefaces, but this lovely and long-incubated design was certainly worth the wait.

English description Karela is a humanist slab serif family. Karela is also the Basque word for gunwale, this is, the widened edge at the top of the side of a boat, where the edge is reinforced with wood or other material and to which the thwarts are attached. Gunwales resemble the way slab serifs reinforce vertical stems giving a more robust appearance to the letters. The sturdy, solid and often mechanical structure that is customary in slab serif or mechanistic typefaces is softened in Karela applying subtle tweaks as: humanist proportions, slightly curved endings in ascenders, and curved edges in serifs. The influence of calligraphy is noticeable all over the character set, especially in counters and letters with instrokes like “m”, “n” and “r”, and it becomes explicit in the italics. On the other hand, its low contrast, generous x-height and the constant width of characters across weights makes it very convenient for editorial uses when low resolution is a concern. Karela pursues to give a human touch to a strong and highly functional structure. It seeks for the ideal combination of strength, precision and warmth of the wooden parts painstackingly handcrafted by ancient boat builders. Besides its 12 standard styles, Karela offers also four additional fonts called "grades". Grades are subtle changes in stroke weight in order to compensate for differences in printing media or display conditions of text layouts. To minimize these subtle changes without a reflow of the text they have to be designed with the same character width of the base style. Karela offers 4 grades for its Regular weight: Grade Minus 5, Grade Minus 5 Italic, Grade Plus 5 and Grade Plus 5 Italic. This makes possible to counteract the effect of changes in paper, temperature, paper, background color… In addition, Karela takes this no‑reflowing idea from grades and extends it to the whole range of styles, allowing to play with any of its weights without undesirable text reflows. Enjoy the layout stability while you experiment and play with variations! Karela presents also a wide range of Opentype features for a professional text layout.

FF Infra™ is a fresh take on the robust sans serif typefaces of the early 20th century. Drawn by Gabriel Richter, it’s a friendly, inviting – and multi-talented family. Whether long blocks of editorial text, or snackable copy in web pages and blog posts, FF Infra’s 20 typefaces are easy on the eyes in both print and digital environments. The design also performs as well at petite sizes, as it does at supersized display settings. Pair FF Infra with an old style or Didone serif design and you’ll have powerful and distinctive typographic pages! FF Infra is available in 10 weights, ranging from a delicate light to a commanding black, each with an italic companion. OpenType® Pro fonts of FF infra have an extended character set supporting most Central European and many Eastern European languages, in addition to providing for the automatic insertion of ligatures and fractions. Each font also contains four sets of figures and a bevy of arrows that are ideal for wayfinding and similar info-graphic projects. A generous lowercase x-height, open counters and subtle graduations between family weights, make for a family that is at home in a wide range of sizes, and comfortable in everything from large signage, content for mobile apps, product manuals and full-scale branding projects. In addition, to provide design diversity, Richter drew alternate designs for the a, G and ß. Richter first became interested in fonts and the art of creating typefaces while studying communication design at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences. His first designs were experimental, but these lead a position at FontShop International in 2013, where he developed his typeface design skills. A strong background in font production, hinting and font marketing were also part of his FontShop experience. Richter worked as freelance graphic and type designer until he founded übertype in 2017. He also invests back into the type community through the type design courses he teaches at his alma mater. FF Infra is Richter’s first commercial design for Monotype. We’re sure that you’ll find it as versatile and powerful as we do.

How can Teutonia be called “Art Nouveau” with all those straight lines? It seems like a contradiction. In fact, however, Art Nouveau embraces a rather wide variety of stylistic approaches. Five well-known examples in the field of architecture serve to illustrate the range of diversity in Art Nouveau: Saarinen’s Helsinki Railroad Station, Hoffman’s Palais Stocklet in Brussels, Lechner’s Museum of Applied Arts on Budapest, Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art and Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Only the last fits comfortably within the common perception of Art Nouveau. Whereas Gaudi would avoid the straight line as much as possible, Macintosh seemed to employ it as much as possible. The uniting factor is that they all represent “new art” -- an attempt to look things differently than the previous generation. Even when they draw on the past -- e.g. Lechner in the use of traditional Hungarian folk art -- the totality of the expression in new. Teutonia clearly shows its blackletter roots in the ‘D’ and the ‘M.’ Roos & Junge of Offenbach am Main in Germany produced Teutonia in a "back-to-basics" effort that has seen many quite similar attempts in the field of topography. In 1883, Baltimore Type Foundry released its Geometric series. In 1910, Geza Farago in Budapest used a similar letter design on a Tungsram light bulb poster. In 1919 Theo van Doesburg, a founder with Mondrian and others of the De Stijl movement, designed an alphabet using rectangles only -- no diagonals. In 1923 Joost Schmidt at Bauhaus in Weimer took the same approach for a Constructivist exhibit poster. The 1996 Agfatype Collection catalog lists a Geometric in light, bold and italic that is very close to the old Baltimore version. Even though none of these designs took the world by storm, they all made a contribution to our understanding of letterforms and how we use them. Teutonia is compact and surprisingly readable at 12 points in print, but does not do as well on the screen. Extra leading is suggested. Four ligatures are supplied: ch, ck, sch and tz. The numerals are tabular.

Evans was named after Walker Evans, an american photojournalist whose photographs often featured unassuming subjects – ordinary people, roadside scenes, and the subtle details of the American landscape. His ability to find beauty in simplicity and appreciate the mundane inspired Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Andrea Tartarelli to create this typographic family that aims to convey the ideals of journalistic storytelling: simplicity, clarity, and unpretentious honesty. Looking for a soothing, relaxed visual flow in body text, Evans was designed by gently narrowing classical proportions to answer the designers' need of maximizing the arrangement of lengthy text within confined spaces. Combining the vintage appeal of a semi-condensed old-style structure with a very slight transitional slanted axis resulted in text-oriented typeface with visual charm on both printed and digital pages. Subtly reducing the size of majuscules allowed the effect of an increased x-height, balancing space saving with increased readability at same point size. Using soft, semi-calligraphic shapes and keeping a generous letter spacing, the designers embraced a minimalist approach, aiming at a smooth reading experience. For maximum versatility, Evans provides two distinct variations tailored to different purposes: the Regular and the Narrow subfamilies. While both are fine-tuned for body text applications , the second is suited also for display-oriented contexts, where attention-grabbing headlines take center stage. Each subfamily is developed in a range of 8 weights from Extralight to Heavy, and includes over 700 glyphs with full coverage of language using extened latin glyphs. True italics are designed for all weights, providing additional typographic control through the design of Swash Alternates, available through Open Type features that also include Standard and Discretionary Ligatures, Positional Numerals, Case Sensitive Forms and Stylistic Alternates. The family is complemented also by a rich set of Ornaments, available both as special glyphs or in a separate font. With its retro-inspired design and unwavering commitment to form and function, Evans effortlessly extends its versatility from editorial design to digital interfaces and logo creation, inviting users to appreciate the beauty in simplicity, find joy in the ordinary, and embrace a relaxed and unhurried mindset.

Rabenau (formerly Lucinde), the distinctly warm and legible type family For 30 years the graphic designer Axel Bertram worked at creating his typefaces: He developed complete new alphabets for magazines and typewriters as well as for the constant demand for typefaces for use by commercial artists. He has developed wall charts the size of advertising posters as teaching aids for training commercial and graphic artists to write in a clean, classic cursive script. In the eighties he used the American Chyron computer to design a screen font for television. In the mid-nineties he discovered for himself the fabulous possibilities offered by the Fontographer font software program and explored them playfully. From the results of these experiments, Axel Bertram selected a design for further development. From 2003 onwards the calligrapher and type designer Andreas Frohloff collaborated with him on the further development and production of the 16 fonts of the Rabenau™ typeface family.The Rabenau font was inspired by many factors: From the fonts used as book covers to typewriter fonts and even printed material from England dating from the beginning of the nineteenth century (e.g. those used by the skilled printer William Bulmer), Rabenau's relatively high contrast is offset by some organic tapers, subtley rounded bracketed serifs, and a fairly generous x-height. This makes for a typeface that looks especially good in print. Its broad repertoire of weights and styles - Condensed, Poster, and Shadow - give it added versatility, and make it ideal for setting both display and text in the same typeface. Throughout the heavier weights, the contrast is maintained. The Poster Italic sparkles, and will make a fine display type for dynamic headlines, or logotypes. This family of sixteen fonts works beautifully together. All Rabenau font styles have a large set of ligatures and thus cover typical letter combinations in many European languages. Besides the standard ligatures for ff, fi and fl, letter connections are also available for tt, th and fj or ffi, ffl and ffk. The range is completed with lovely arched transitions for the characters st, ck or ct. The latter gives the font that certain something, both in continuous text and above all in headlines.

Laima is the brush-formed stencil from Bogidar Mascareñas that will create an ovation for branding, album art, upscale venues, and packaging. If wide appeal, attention to detail, or international reach is necessary for your brand, consider Laima’s high-calibre design as your personal ambassador. The general font user is accustomed to stencil typefaces that have a brute look to them — industrial, mechanical, restrictive, or even militarised. Stencils are commonly used because they serve a function, like spray-painting over template letters, giving the reader a warning that must be heeded for safety, or a command to follow immediately. Wooden crates and grunge art are the medium and black or red paint are the norm. Laima, instead, creates a stencil from the world of calligraphy to turn all this on its head. Laima’s 12 stencil styles (six roman and six italic) use the junctures of calligraphic strokes as an opportunity to achieve an uncommon stencil effect, shifting to create unexpected shapes and the illusion of twisted, disconnected overlaps. Inspired by “Arte Nueva de Escribir”, an engravings book published by Francisco Palomares in 1776, Laima progressed well beyond its beginning as a Type and Media Master’s project at KABK, The Hague (NL). It sometimes required completely new character shapes to accommodate the space needed for clear diacritic marks, and was further enhanced with flourishes and alternates for liveliness and variety in individual or branded work. Laima’s italic begins with swashes and uses OpenType features to automatically turn them off with more than two successive capital letters. Use one swashed character for a drop cap, two for ligatured fun, turn them on or off at your discretion, or change the ascender length and swash shape to suit your creative need. With two styles of numerals and stylistic sets for final forms, Laima’s 12 styles and hundreds of Latin-based languages can turn simple words into an occasion that would immediately benefit high-class brands and special uses. Set that article title, release that new product, code your best-looking UI yet, letterpress that business card, and print that gourmet label. Whatever is next, Laima is the unexpected stencil partner to introduce it to an expectant world.

Inspired by early grotesque typefaces such as Akzidenz Grotesk and Venus, Werksatz is our contemporary interpretation of this beloved genre. Some things are timeless. These are the things that only get better with use. The aforementioned typefaces certainly belong into this category. Rediscovered by designers from every generation again and again, they are here to stay. However, as tools evolve and technology moves on, even a well-tried design has to adapt to this evolution continuously in order to stand the test of time. Werksatz is such an adaptation, taking the best from the invincible classics and infusing them with the warm blood of today’s tech. With 10 weights from Thin to Black, each with painstakingly fine-tuned obliques, and more than 940 characters per style, this font family is ready for the future. Its Extended Latin support ensures you won’t miss a letter in any of hundreds of languages. Special glyphs like three variations of arrows and additional shapes will make your design work so much easier—for well-structured forms as well as radical editorial layouts. Among a treasure trove of OpenType features, you’ll find essentials such as Capital Spacing, Case-Sensitive Forms, and Ligatures, but also advanced functions like Small Caps, Subscript and Inferior figures and letters, plenty figure sets (Lining Figures, Tabular Figures, Old-Style Figures, circled and squared figures, figures for small caps … you get the idea), Slashed Zero, and more. You’ll discover that Werksatz is less formalistic and rigid than your average neogrotesk typeface. Sure, you can use it for serious business—whether in corporate design, branding, editorial design, publication design, or web design for industries and topics ranging from politics, government, management, or law to technology, entrepreneurship, commerce, or finance. However, Werksatz is much more versatile than that. Its more human appearance also allows for effective use in culture, fashion, art, entertainment, sports, exhibitions, leisure, and luxury. It’s an excellent choice for wayfinding applications, apps, packaging, and all kinds of nonfiction books. Other Grotesks with big names are left behind outdated by their proprietors, but Werksatz is here to stay. The classic industrial warmth of these letterforms will age like fine wine.