It was originally inspired by my winter scarf knitting exploits. I discovered that making wool scarves was generating beautiful patterns and I wanted them to become a source of inspiration for a style. I made a few collages, and they became letters. Other characters came up with ease. It is readable, but long essays are not its main purpose. It is decorative and will look casual and very attractive on any ad as a title or a short phrase. It also demonstrates very good performance in automatic 3D generators, like Xara 3D maker, used in making examples of how this font can be utilised. It was designed to be thin, soft, with the capacity to cover empty space and to create a vibrant environment. Small characters are different from capital letters, they are stylistic alternates. Some letters are slightly ominous or dynamic, others create a soothing feeling. Using several colors make it shine, but it is complex, it looks good in monochromatic compositions as well.

To start with one personal fact: I really like to listen Rahsaan Roland Kirk. He was a multi-instrumentalist, real grandmaster and unique jazz virtuoso. The way he improvised and walked through variety of different music influences are admiring. One of things he liked is to modify instruments, so he modified soprano saxophone and got an instrument called manzello. When I was looking for good name for this typeface, it came on my mind that Manzello could be the perfect one. It has the symbolic background from the instrument and theoretically in my head, it's imagined as typeface that rely on stable classic examples, but graphically designed and modified to match modern standards. Manzello contains a dose of characteristics of display typefaces with terminals that aren't perfectly rounded, high contrast between stems and good balanced Italics with elements of fine calligraphy. It's a small font family, something what I was always looking for to have as first text solution in my web and graphic projects.

Doretypo was born accidentally, during the design of a poster for a jazz festival in Rome. I was going to realize a typesetting, but I could not find the right character and decided to draw the letters I needed, starting from the first letter of the headline, capital M. I was looking for a lettering able to evoke musical notes, where each letter could be linked to the following one, to the previous one, to the largest at the top and the smallest at the bottom. From this idea doretypo came to life gradually. In the beginning there were a few medium capital letters with very few glyphs, but given the good results I decided to decline in light and bold, integrating minuscule letters, for a whole of 374 glyphs. Today doretypo OpenType is a family of fonts with three weights, 374 glyphs, supporting about 57 languages, ligatures standard, plus a new “NY”. Moreover, each glyph can be used individually to create textures and graphic symbols.

Shopping Script is designed after and inspired by my handwritten shopping list that was originally a lot less stylish, I have written each words multiple times to achieve the organic and natural flow with a bit spaced out style. This font is an existing work of mine that came in only one weight. Now I added multiple weights I as well as expanded and condensed instances, along with a weight and width variable font file that can be set to anything in between Thin Condensed to Heavy expanded. There are standard ligatures for it, jt, ll and tt, stylistic alternates for uppercase "A" and lowercase "e". For lowercase r and s there are contextual/initial variants when they are first letter of a word. A guide of open type features and how to activate them is available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q4j4X8ZntqgEUB8gUmflUNtmlX4IVQBq/view?usp=sharing Most latin based languages are covered from Western European to Eastern.

Giambattista is a long-time project of mine finally come to an end. After redesigning all of Giambattista Bodoni's work and then some additional cuts I started a long time ago with this Non-Bodoni Bodoni. The idea came to me while redesigning the original Chancellerosa (chancery). I thought Bodoni just didn't have the right approach to a chancery, this was just not his cup of tea! Maybe that is why he never used the Chancellerosa very much for his own printshop in Parma. So I thought someone has to design a script, that looks like Bodoni could have designed it but is more lively than his. Over the years I have been working on and off on the face and it turned out to become three typefaces which can be freely mixed. Here is my modern version of a script in the style of Giambattista, meant as an hommage, I called it Giambattista. Your modern scribe Gert Wiescher

Melina Plain and Melina Fancy are characterized by graceful lines, strong contrast and nostalgic overtones. These typefaces are patterned after two members of a type family named Greco, released by Fundición Tipográfica Richard Gans of Madrid, Spain, in the 1920s. Melina Plain is a refined version of Greco Bold, and Melina Fancy is based on Greco Adornado, with the notable addition of a lowercase, which was not a part of the original design. Melina is based on two typefaces (ca. 1920) from the Fundición Tipográfica Richard Gans in Madrid, Spain. Nick Curtis first found Greco Adornado in a type specimen at the Library of Congress. It was a cap only design. He made a cut of the original (Melina Fancy) and created his own lowercase, and many other characters to support contemporary character sets. Later he came across Greco Bold, which had a lowercase, but he chose not to use it and instead, adapted his Melina Fancy to create Melina Plain.

This all started with a love for Jenson. I know there're hundreds of variations on that theme. But, that is where I began, several years ago. How far it came, as usual as I wandered through the vagaries of font design, is not unusual. If you've read any of my font design books, you know my design processes are quite loose and spontaneous. I wanted the general feel of a favorite old font, but softer, easier, and more comfortable. I built these on the same vertical metrics as my Librum Publishing Group. However, this family is not part of that group. I used the metrics because that shows my current taste in fonts. This family does work with the Librum group—but to be honest, I haven't experimented enough to come up with a good companion. I suspect I'll need to make another companion family. I may need make a non-modulated bold version also. But, that remains to be seen. I'm pleased with this.

This series, with 104 illustrations in three files, collects original ink drawings with absurdities, bizarre people, whimsical personalities and risky behaviors! There is a very peculiar sense of narrative in the sucession of characters, even if they came out rather spontaneously and their order is random.With a vintage look and feel, these people seem to come out of a time capsule from Victorian times. Almost everything in the Bizarries (and also in their close relatives, our Illustries, Whimsies, Ombres, Absurdies and Genteta dingbats) is invented and drawn with no references —just a handful of images were sketched from historical photography. These illustrations can be very useful for a variety of projects, either in black and white, or colored in a paint or drawing application. You can use them at any size, from a small spot illustration to a huge poster, depending on your needs. The outlines remain crisp and clear no matter how much you enlarge, reduce, distort or tweak their shapes.

Linotype Franosch™ is a three weight display typeface designed by artist/graphic designer Max Franosch. Around the time of making the initial sketches, Franosch was looking a lot at Arabic newspaper and magazine headlines. He was drawn to their bold and very graphic" type. A common feature was the "floating" dots which added a rhythmic quality to the text. This came to influence the use of dots in Linotype Franosch™. Apart from this influence, Linotype Franosch also has a very clean and futuristic feel to it, due mainly to the highly geometric nature of the characters and the uniform stroke weight. More about the usability of this typeface can be seen at the Font of the Week of Linotype Franosch. Linotype Franosch is perfect for party flyers, headlines, and internet banner ads. All three faces in the Linotype Franosch family are part of the Take Type 4 collection from Linotype."

On a cold winter's night, George Ryan, of Galápagos Design Group, began musing on the possibilities for a “truly original” sans serif typeface. What came out of his musing, and his always-present sketchpad, was ITC Adderville, a typeface whose visual impact is immediate and strong. Ryan explains how he did it: “The rounded ends of its strokes and their skewed baseline contact create an illusion of dancing feet. The tops of lowercase stems emit serif buds, suggesting transition into or out of the serifed form. The spear-like lowercase stroke terminators, along with other distinctive elements such as the stylized reticulation of the lowercase 'g' segments, the salute of that same character's spur, and the bold, non-self-conscious 'i' and 'j' dots, all contribute to the playful and unique nature of this design.” The result is a friendly, lively type family whose graduated weights -- book, medium, and heavy -- lend themselves especially well to use at small display sizes and in short blocks of text.

Many years ago I studied American Sign Language in an effort to better communicate with some friends of mine within the deaf community. I found ASL to be a beautifully expressive language from a vibrant and active culture. Out of that attempt came this stylized depiction of the manual alphabet used in finger-spelling. Until recently it had only existed in analog form, born of pen and ink on paper. So now I'm glad to say it’s turned digital. Typing a period (.) will reveal the sign for “I Love You” (a combination of the letters I, L and Y), which fits nicely within the shape of a heart. Holding down the shift key while again typing period (greater symbol) will reveal the heart in its filled-in form, which can serve as an underlay. Use these in an application that supports layering in order to create different color combinations. There’s a stylistic alternate letter “S” and an “OO” ligature which can be accessed in OpenType-savvy apps.

A clean, smooth rendition of the magnificent B42-type used by Johann Gutenberg in his famous 42-line Bible. In addition to the usual standard characters for typesetting modern texts, the font includes a comprehensive set of special characters, alternates and ligatures, plus Opentype features, that can be used for typesetting (almost) exactly as in Gutenberg’s Bible and later incunabula. Also available as The Oldtype “Gutenberg C” Font in a slightly roughened style simulating irregularities and ink spreads associated with old metal types, papers and parchments. The main historical sources used during the font design process were high-resolution scans from several printings of Gutenberg’s Bible. Other sources were as follows: Kapr, A. (1996), Johann Gutenberg - The Man and his Invention, Aldershot: Scolar Press (ch. 7); De Hamel, C. (2001), The Book - A History of The Bible, London: Phaidon Press (ch. 8); Füssel, S. (2005), Gutenberg and the impact of printing, Burlington: Ashgate (ch. 1); and Man, J. (2009), The Gutenberg Revolution, London: Bantam (ch. 7). Specimen, detailed character map, OpenType features, and font samples available at Alter Littera’s The Oldtype “Gutenberg B” Font Page.

Jean Evans' interest in type design dates back to her third-grade fascination with fancy script writing. Years later, work at a sign-painting school she found in the Yellow Pages® cemented her relationship with letterforms. Evans went on to study with master calligraphers and type designers, including the likes of Donald Jackson, Hermann Zapf and Matthew Carter. Evans' designs have been exhibited and collected around the globe, and her distinctive calligraphic style has been lauded by leading trade organizations, annuals and publications. Hatmaker, one of Evans' more popular typefaces, was originally developed for the Boston-based broadcast design firm of the same name. Inspiration for the design came from Ben Shahn's famous hand-constructed alphabet. Shahn's alphabet, however, was limited to capital letters. Daunted by the idea of designing a lowercase that would measure up to Shahn's capitals, I developed a second set of caps-simple, quirky, yet almost classic-to work as 'lowercase' with the Shahn-like caps," explains Evans. Mixing the two in Hatmaker, creates a lively interplay of light and dark."

Vernon’s inspiration came while researching and investigating a 'legible' typeface design for tangible purpose. The main characteristics of ‘Vernon’ can be seen in the slightly modulated strokes that reference the natural and friendly humanist proportions of the humanist hand, with open interior letterspace characteristics. The subtle detailing and finishing of strokes and junctions – seen in the curved tail of the lowercase ‘l’ and the head serif of the lowercase ‘i’, create a smooth rhythm along the baseline. Utilizing the ‘contextual alternative’ feature of OpenType, Vernon substitutes select characters in words with word-shapes that may cause visual confusion to some readers. Vernon uses subtle character differentiation in the detailing of the inner-shape / counter space from similar letter shapes (for example: ‘p’, ‘d’, ‘g’ and ‘q’) to assist in creating the contextual alternate designs. Vernon is recommended for use as a text typeface, as it performs well at small text sizes (12 point size and below) intended for continuous reading of printed instructional and presentational information, especially where an inclusive audience demographic is required.

The Artmars Script is inspired by a retro style in combination with hand lettering style. The Artmars Script came with OpenType features such stylistic alternates, stylistic sets & ligatures good for logotype, posters, badges, book covers, tshirt designs, handwritten quotes, product packaging, header, poster, merchandise, social media & greeting cards. To enable the OpenType Stylistic alternates, you need a program that supports OpenType features such as Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe Indesign & CorelDraw X6-X7, Microsoft Word 2010 or later versions. How to access all alternative characters, using Windows Character Map with Photoshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go9vacoYmBw How to access all alternative characters using Adobe Illustrator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzwjMkbB-wQ The Artmars Script is coded with PUA Unicode, which allows full access to all the extra characters without having special designing software. Mac users can use Font Book, and Windows users can use Character Map to view and copy any of the extra characters to paste into your favourite text editor/app. Thanks so much for looking and please let me know if you have any questions!

Astrum is a very decorative script font using elegant caligraphic handwritten letters that are all mutually interconnected, creating a unique look & feel of a personalized human handwritting. Its clean and prefined lines makes Astrum very appealing and modern, although being very classical in its core essence. The idea for the creation of this font had originally came up from the need to create a beautiful design for Weddings, wedding occasions, etc., but none of the existing fonts were satisfactory - so I decided to create a new and unique typeface to fill this need. Letters and other characters are recognizeable by prefined ornaments, incorporated in a very subtle way. Whitespace between capital letters, lower-case letters, numbers and other characters are done in a way to minimize the need for kerning. The font Astrum, besides being a celebration of class and exclusivity, is a very luxurious and elegant handwritten font perfectly suited for Wedding cards. The character set for this font contains all western, central-european latin and cyrillic characters.

The design of Futura seems to be timeless. This typeface family which had been developed in 1926 by Paul Renner for the Bauer Type Foundry in the style of constructivism and as part of the Bauhaus movement, experienced, however, in the course of the past 90 years, repeated time-appropriate revivals which guaranteed its on-going popularity. The version of the Futura EF Pro contains the original character constructions which Dennis Megaw described as the “first designs of Futura” in 1938 in “20th century sans serif types, Typography no. 7” (See: Dr. Christopher Burke: Paul Renner, Princeton Architectural Press, New York 1998). What makes it exceptional is the extension into three weights: “Text”, “Headline” and “Index” which came about as part of a degree dissertation at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (HFBK) in Hamburg. In this context, the accompanying documentation “Die Kritik der reinen Futura” (“The Critique of the Pure Futura”) by Katharina Strauer was published by the Materialverlag, Hamburg, in 2003. Some copies are still available at Elsner+Flake.

The design of Futura seems to be timeless. This typeface family which had been developed in 1926 by Paul Renner for the Bauer Type Foundry in the style of constructivism and as part of the Bauhaus movement, experienced, however, in the course of the past 90 years, repeated time-appropriate revivals which guaranteed its on-going popularity. The version of the Futura EF Pro contains the original character constructions which Dennis Megaw described as the “first designs of Futura” in 1938 in “20th century sans serif types, Typography no. 7” (See: Dr. Christopher Burke: Paul Renner, Princeton Architectural Press, New York 1998). What makes it exceptional is the extension into three weights: “Text”, “Headline” and “Index” which came about as part of a degree dissertation at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (HFBK) in Hamburg. In this context, the accompanying documentation “Die Kritik der reinen Futura” (“The Critique of the Pure Futura”) by Katharina Strauer was published by the Materialverlag, Hamburg, in 2003. Some copies are still available at Elsner+Flake.

Take Bauhaus Bugler, dip it in chocolate, and what do you get? Bauhaus Bugler Soft, of course! Or dip it in butter! You can achieve all sorts of yummy, appealing images with the softness of Bauhaus Bugler Soft, whether it be food, cosmetics, fabric softener, or any number of other fluffy things! Unlike its fellow Bugler fonts, Bauhaus Bugler Soft’s design never appeared in Harry Warren’s 6th grade class newsletter, The Broadwater Bugler, but its design came about during that same period in 1975. Because of this, it has been officially designated an honorary Bugler font! Its theme of broad curves that leap over and under conjure visions of fashion and high-end department stores with their dress boxes and shopping bags, plus hair products, cosmetics, couture, and other stylish personal merchandise of the highest caliber. Bauhaus Bugler Soft also has an art deco flavor, especially when all capitals are used. It comes with two alternate versions of the upper and lower Y to give users more freedom of choice. Put Bauhaus Bugler Soft in your “haus” today! Digitized by John Bomparte.

Jazmo is an offspring of an assignment I did for a Dutch architect. A classic building and coincidently the place of my studio in my hometown Zwolle, Netherlands, needed to be renovated. My job was to design the house numbers and signs for this building. This building I refer to was built in 1932 and designed according to the ‘New objectivity’ architecture. Now it accommodates several artist and craftsmen and also houses students. In my design I used elements of the Art Nouveau, which is related to the ‘New Objectivity’. Words as stately, angular, linear, stylish, artful, playful and frolic came to mind. It should be a design with a hint of the past and a flirt with the future. This house numbering is the root wherefrom Jazmo arises. The name Jazmo cites to the Jazz scene, which was a new and very popular artistic influence that time and age and is still a vibrant source of musical renewal. Mo stands for my Name Marit Otto. Together with my intern Arie Blok I created the missing characters and completed the font. Welcome Jazmo!

Rooted Rooted in 1960s Brit modernism and infused with a fresh, contemporary spirit, FS Elliot is a future-proof, workhorse sans serif, well-suited to any assignment. Open and harmonious, its clear, fluid shapes lend words a distinctive and optimistic bounce. Britishness FS Elliot came out of a desire to create something squarely in the British modernist tradition, drawing on influences such as Design Research Unit’s portfolio of type for famous British brands and products, and Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir’s work on the British road sign system. Nick Job took the openness and simplicity of that style and injected warmth and wide appeal, coming up with a highly practical, multi-purpose family of faces. Enduring appeal “The great thing about having an eye on the future,” says designer Nick Job, “is that most of it is unknown. It’s what encourages us to take risks. And it leaves an uncertainty which, I believe, gives the best work its enduring appeal.” FS Elliot is available in a Pro version with full language support and a full range of Roman, Cyrillic and Greek weights.

Hello, friends! I have a good news! At last I have finished working on my Antique Initials color font. Wow! It was a long and hard work because every initial is unique. I sketched each letter of the font very scrupulously from scratch. Each letter is uniquely designed and has a unique flower pattern in the background. I used a pale old color palette to color these letters. There came out two font variants: a black and white and a nice colored one. The font contains initials from A to Z (26 characters, lowercase glyphs are same). I hope you enjoy this font. Follow my shop to receive updates of products and the very hottest news! If you have any question or issue, please contact me: kaer.pro@gmail.com Please request to add additional characters and glyphs if you need! Thank you! You can use color fonts in PS since CC 2017, AI since CC 2018, ID since CC 2019, QuarkXPress since 2018, Pixelmator, Sketch, Affinity Designer Since macOS 10.14 Mojave, Paint.NET Windows only. Please note that the Canva do not support color fonts!

OMG! I never thought I'd finish this font! Actually, the idea came to me in the late 1990-ies, but the sketches lied at the bottom of the "fonts I will complete one day In the future" pile ... also called "fonts I most likely won't complete...EVER" pile! :) Anyway, I started up with letters for both upper and lowercase, no numbers or punctuation. I figured if people ever purchased this font, all they would need were upper- or lowercase letters. But the rest of the glyphs seemed to miss out, so I made the numbers and some punctuation. But I still found the font incomplete...therefore I redid all the punctuation (from "standard" punctuation to "picturish" punctuation) and added two additional sets of letters. Meaning that there is 4 different versions of letters to choose from: 2 different lowercase, and 2 different lowercase. I had a lot of fun drawing this font, and some fun doing the detective work finding out how the MANY lettershapes should look! I hop you too have fun using this font! :)

While there can be similar handwriting styles out there, no two handwritings are exactly the same. I like to think that I have the same handwriting style as my father, but I had never seen him write with lowercase letters, only in all capitals, except when signing his name on something in cursive. I recently came across a letter my father had written long ago to a friend. It was returned to sender, yet he kept it intact. The letter primarily thanked his friend for his hospitality when my father unexpectedly dropped in for a visit while traveling. I was so taken by the handwriting, that I decided to make it into a font, not only to remember my father, but also to forever preserve his handwriting. Generous Hospitality not only taps into the character of the person the letter was written to, it also reflects the personality of my father. If you are looking for a masculine handwriting type style for your designs, I think this font could be a nice fit.

“Fanfare is such a fun typeface,” says Toshi Omagari, who revived the design for The Wolpe Collection. “It was my happiest discovery when I was digging through the Monotype archive. I came across it and had to check the designer’s name.” No wonder: Fanfare is modern, light and playful – not what you’d expect from an 80-year old design. From the original, very heavy weight design, Omagari started by creating a black weight, followed by four lighter weights for Wolpe Fanfare, preserving the character of the letterforms all the way down to a thin version. “I wanted to do more than digitize the original weight,” he says. “It’s surprisingly modern, and its skeleton, its basic structure, is so beautiful.” The new design packs more into a small space than most typefaces. It’s a natural for publication and advertising design. With displays capable of revealing fine details such as Fanfare’s subtly slanted baseline, its lovely forms will easily translate to mobile devices. With an extended European character set that includes Greek and Cyrillic language support, Wolpe Fanfare can speak in many languages.

Here I present Round - a type family that is derived form Epilepsja, which was my first alphabet commercially out. After its release I came to think that there should be other fonts of this design that would enrich the variety of choice. Here comes ‘Epilepsja Round’ which is soft and friendly while the Regular family remains firm and sharp. It supports all Latin-based European and African languages and acts as a multicolour layered font. best for headlines, titles and other display uses.. It is an all-caps alphabet of stencil-sprayed and painted letters found in the city space. The glyphs are simple but unordinary. Every letter has something from Escher-like 3D illusion, but is flat simultaneously. Epilepsja Round consists of three styles: Outline, Solid and Fill. Outline is the base from which the other two styles are created. When you mix Solid with Fill, you can create two-color Outline style. You can even mix it with not-Round Epilepsja! Solid is neat and legible in small sizes. Use it for posters, headlines, magazines, websites or anything you like.

Rooted Rooted in 1960s Brit modernism and infused with a fresh, contemporary spirit, FS Elliot is a future-proof, workhorse sans serif, well-suited to any assignment. Open and harmonious, its clear, fluid shapes lend words a distinctive and optimistic bounce. Britishness FS Elliot came out of a desire to create something squarely in the British modernist tradition, drawing on influences such as Design Research Unit’s portfolio of type for famous British brands and products, and Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir’s work on the British road sign system. Nick Job took the openness and simplicity of that style and injected warmth and wide appeal, coming up with a highly practical, multi-purpose family of faces. Enduring appeal “The great thing about having an eye on the future,” says designer Nick Job, “is that most of it is unknown. It’s what encourages us to take risks. And it leaves an uncertainty which, I believe, gives the best work its enduring appeal.” FS Elliot is available in a Pro version with full language support and a full range of Roman, Cyrillic and Greek weights.

Neo Sans began as an intriguing assignment from a branding agency. The agency’s client wanted an “ultra modern” type family that was "futuristic without being gimmicky or ephemeral.” When a bureaucratic decision cancelled the project, Monotype staff designer Sebastian Lester decided to finish the design on his own. “I was left with a sketchbook full of ideas,” he said, “and thought it would be a shame not to see what came of them.” Lester decided that the principal ingredient of an "ultra modern" typeface was simplicity of character structure: a carefully drawn, monoline form, open letter shapes and smooth, strong curves. By further amplifying these qualities, he crossed the line from modern to futuristic. Two highly functional and versatile typefaces emerged. These are Neo Sans and Neo Tech, designs Lester describes as "legible without being neutral, nuanced without being fussy, and expressive without being distracting." Both the Neo Sans and the more minimalist Neo Tech families are available in six weights, ranging from Light to Ultra, with companion italics. Neo Tech offers a suite of alternate characters.

Once upon a midnight dreary, this Comicraftsman pondered, weak and weary, For a name synonymous with Mighty and Marvelous comics lore. Solid, Outline, Inline was the nameless font I'd crafted, I nodded, nearly napping o'er the work I'd grafted When suddenly came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my cubicle door. "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my cubicle door-- Calling out "EXCELSIOR!" Then an Amazing Vision beguiled my sad fancy into smilin', By the Spectacular decorum of the countenance it wore, "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven," he said, "thou art sure no craven, And thy font should not remain nameless here forevermore!" Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow From comic books surcease of sorrow, letters that called out "EXCELSIOR!" Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking Fancy unto fancy, thinking of the nominative neuter singular thing Like Some Silvered Surfer wandering from the Nightly shore-- The Vision shrieked, upstarting--"Tell me what thy lordly name is thus!" Quoth the Craftsman: "EXCELSIUS!"

Labyrindo is inspired on the classic Labyrinth. The oldest known labyrinth is 3200 years old and is to be found in Greece. The mythological king Minos held the monstrous son of his wife ‘Minotaurus’ prison in a labyrinth. Much later the labyrinth made his appearance in the medieval churches, this time as a pattern on the church floor. During the Italian renaissance the multiple gate labyrinth came in fashion. Paths led trough green hedges in beautiful palace gardens. These hedges where perfectly cut in rectangular shapes. Mainly meant as an aesthetic statement. Besides the origin of the physic labyrinth, it has always been a great source of story-telling and myths. I mention a few personal favourites (film) like, Pan’s Labyrinth (a journey to the underworld), Labyrinth (with David Bowie) and the Shining with Jack Nicholson (where a horrific scene takes place in a labyrinth). Not the most cheerful stories but fascinating and intriguing. A Labyrinth is mind boggling and mysterious but wonderful. I made graphic translation in this typeface.

A little more flower and a little less power, please. Fun, friendly, fashionable, and feminine to a fault, Jojo takes display typography to a whole new level, where eyes can’t help but appreciate the day and the design at hand. It takes a graphic designer very little imagination to see these letters on posters, book covers, clothes, and craft paraphernalia. Or how about a sign over a bakery? A music sleeve? A romantic comedy titling? Cosmetics products? Pretty much anywhere! Jojo takes its name from a Beatles song about getting back to where we once belonged. It also takes most of its shapes from vintage photo-setting days, when an art nouveau typeface called Spring, by B. Jacquet, was putting happy times back where they belonged, which was everywhere. The original photo-setting face came in just 26 letters and 10 numerals. This digital retooling optimizes the original forms and expands on them, for a full character set of over 430 glyphs, including ligatures and stylistic alternates, and support for the majority of Latin languages.

Some years ago, a good friend and typophile, Gonzalo García Barcha, approached me with the idea of designing a typeface for his editorial project Blacamán Ediciones. He had just came across an hitherto unknown manuscript by Luis Lagarto, a colonial illuminator and scribe, working in Mexico City and Puebla in the late 1500s. The manuscript calligraphy was incredible and stunningly original. It featured three different hands by the scribe, intermingled in the text: a kind of baroque «Roman» roundhand; a very ornate, lively «Italic»; and some sort of irregular, playful, even funny «small caps». All imbued with an eccentric, convoluted zest and vivacious rhythm. Lagarto is the final result of translating these extraordinary hands into a digital type family. Since the manuscript had no numerals, math signs and many other characters now in use, part of the fun of the job was to infer them from the stylistic peculiarities of Luis Lagarto's calligraphy. Lagarto received an Award of Excellence at the Type Directors Club of New York annual competition.

Argentinean designer Eduardo Manso created the Bohemia type family in 2003. Bohemia's cunning and elegant essence shows off refined letters that evoke the Transitional style typefaces like Baskerville, though most Baskerville-like designs tend not to be as curvaceous as Manso's! True to form, Bohemia shines in smaller text sizes, like 9 point and above, while still maintaining a unique character and spirit. Bohemia is a great alternative to better-known text faces. The critics have been raving. Bohemia came to Linotype via its fourth International Type Design Contest (ITDC) [Link] in 2003, where it received one of the three top awards. Under the name Argot, this typeface received a Certificate of Excellence in Type Design from the Type Directors Club of New York in 2004. Bohemia was also selected for inclusion in the 21st International Biennale of Graphic Design 2004 in Brno, Czech Republic, and was later named one of the most relevant works in the Bienal Letras Latinas 2004 exhibition, which traveled through Buenos Aires, San Paolo, Santiago, and Vera Cruz."

The initial inspiration for the typeface came from examining precisely machined labels on tools of various kinds, from cameras to cars, which need to be perfectly legible at all sizes. Such processes create a distinctly streamlined, clean look that feels both robust and stylish - universal and unique. Technical Rounded VP includes ten diverse styles, offering great versatility. All styles in this family include an extensive Latin character set, the Greek alphabet, multiple sets of numerals, a large set of punctuation marks, and other symbols. With 1120 glyphs in each style, it guarantees full support for all Latin languages. To make the family even more powerful, twenty OpenType features are included, such as multiple vertical positions, diagonal fractional forms, optional slashed zeros, separate old-style and lining figures, small capitals, and contextual alternates. If you are looking for similar typefaces, note that Technical Rounded VP is the soft counterpart of Technical Standard VP. A stenciled version is also available. They can be used either on their own or together seamlessly.

In Greek mythology, Argo was the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The Argo Nova font is an adventure though geometric sans universe with a touch of humanistic feel, bringing a different look with curved vertical strokes and high contrast on thicker weights. Designed with OpenType features, it includes extended Latin support, fractions, tabular and old-style figures, ligatures and more. With no excess in mind, it came in 10 styles (5 uprights and is matching italics) and it is a font family ideal for text, branding, signage, editorial, print and web design creations. 5 weights: Thin, Light, Regular, Bold and Black Matching italics Lining and old-style figures with proportional and tabular spacing Ligatures on “f” Alternate characters for a, æ, g and ß Fractions Ordinals Extended language support, designed following the Underware Latin Plus character set, with 534 glyphs, supporting 219 Latin based languages (see https://underware.nl/latin_plus/languages/). * Some features require an application with OpenType support.

‘Scion’ is an original design by Alex Kaczun. The inspiration for the typeface came from the Toyota SCION logo, which bears its name. In Alex’s own words, "I loved the simplicity, proportions and hi-tech look of the logo and decided to create an entire new design series based on its unique look". The fonts come in five flavors: thin, light, regular, bold and black. All the font weights were designed systematically on tabular widths so that the user can make adjustments to overall type color without changing the line length. In addition, Alex Kaczun has provided us with several alternate glyph substitions to further enhance the overall appeal of this contemporary new design. The large Pro font character set, which supports most Central European and many Eastern European languages, makes this typeface series ideally suited for display copy as well as text composition. In the near future, Alex plans to include a narrow, compressed and ultra expanded, along with true-drawn italic variations to further expand the possibilities of this great new display series.

The Azbuka™ typeface family has its roots in a fairly pedestrian source. “The idea came in part from an old sign in London that read ‘SPRINKLER STOP VALVE’,” says Dave Farey, designer of the typeface. Like all good sign spotters, Farey took a photograph of the sign and filed it away for possible use in a lettering or typeface design project. In Prague a number of years later, the street signs reminded Farey of the London signage - and his camera came out again. Comparing the two back in his studio, he realized that the signs from London and Prague were not as similar as he initially thought. However, they were enough alike to serve as the foundation for a no-frills, 21st century sans serif typeface family. “I wanted to draw a wide range of weights, italic and condensed designs all in one go,” recalls Farey, “rather than add on to the family later.” His goal was to create a family that could be used for text and display copy, with sufficient weights to provide a broad typographic palette. Indeed, the completed design, created in collaboration with fellow type designer Richard Dawson, consists of twenty typefaces in eight weights ranging from extra light to extra black. The five mid-range designs have complementary italics. Seven condensed designs round out the family. Azbuka’s lighter weights perform remarkably well in blocks of text composition. “They’re clean and legible - and perhaps a little boring,” says Farey, “but they are perfect for copy with a down-to-earth, yet contemporary flavor.” The heavier weights are equally well suited for a variety of display uses. The designs are authoritative but not overbearing and will readily make a strong statement without calling attention to themselves. The condensed weights of Azbuka are ideal for those instances where you have a lot to say - and not much room to say it. The name Azbuka? It’s Russian for “alphabet.” And what more appropriate name could there be for this utilitarian, industrial-strength type family than alphabet? The Azbuka family is available as a suite of OpenType Pro fonts. Graphic communicators can now work with this versatile design while taking advantage of OpenType’s capabilities. The Azbuka Pro fonts also offer an extended character set that supports most Central European and many Eastern European languages