The Englishman William Caslon (1672-1766) first cut his typeface Caslon in 1725. His major influences were the Dutch designers Christoffel van Dijcks and Dirck Voskens. The Caslon font was long known as the script of kings, although on the other side of the political spectrum, the Americans used it as well for their Declaration of Independence. The characteristics of the earlier Renaissance typefaces are only barely detectable. The serifs are finer and the axis of the curvature is almost or completely vertical. The overall impression which Caslon makes is serious, elegant and linear. Next to Baskerville, Caslon font is known as the embodiment of the English Baroque-Antiqua and has gone through numerous new interpretations, meaning that every Caslon is slightly different. ITC Caslon 224 was designed by Edward Benguiat and appeared with ITC in 1982. It is the text font which expanded upon the title font ITC Caslon 223. The alterations in the proportions of the letters make this Caslon 224 a noticeable departure from the original, but make the font overall more legible.

Alf Becker graced the pages of "Signs of the Times" magazine month after month for decades, presenting attractive and unusual hand lettered alphabets as inspiration for other sign painters and show card writers. From straightforward text faces to novelty ideas, Becker's talent as a master sign crafter was constant in his work. Show Card Casual JNL is one example of what is referred to as a "one stroke" alphabet (utilizing a single brush stroke in each direction to form the letter or number). Its casual look and playful charm allow for a message to be presented in an informal format that is pleasing to the eye. The type design is available in both regular and oblique versions. Special thanks to Tod Swormstedt of ST Publications for providing the reference material.

A vintage hand lettered sign for a carnival game was the basis for Sign Display Casual JNL, a classic example of the "one stroke" casual text lettering that sets sign painters apart from sign manufacturers.

This family was inspired by the well-known Caslon typeface created by William Caslon, the English font designer, who was, with John Baskerville, the progenitor of English Transitional typeface classification in the mid-18th century (See also our 1776 Independence). We were inspired by a Caslon style set used by an unknown Flemish printer from Bruges, in the beginning of 1800s, a little before the revival of Caslon style in the 1840s. Our font covers all Western, Eastern and Central European languages (including Celtic diacritics) and the Turkish alphabet, with a complete small-caps set in each of the two styles. (Please note: The complete character set is available only in TTF and OTF “Pro” version.)

Samuel Welo’s “Studio Handbook for Artists and Advertisers” (published in both 1927 and 1960) showcased this talented man’s hand-lettered alphabets; used as inspiration for the sign trade and for graphic designers. A particularly interesting slab serif from the 1960 edition has many unusual character shapes, and served as the model for Casual Slab Serif JNL – available in both regular and oblique versions.

Now is a great time to dust off your old motor scooter and take a ride along the Italian Riviera. Let’s head to the flower city of San Remo, Italy - the namesake for this versatile, 1950s style script. Try San Remo on your next brochure or flyer project. You may want to consider using it to create a special logo or icon for your personal stationery. It’s perfect for any job that requires linked or connected letters. And for your convenience, this dashing design sports a variety of alternate characters plus lining and old style figures. San Remo Casual is also available as an OpenType font. It contains lining and oldstyle figures, prebuilt fractions, stylistic alternates, and a wide assortment of f-ligatures, plus more. These advanced features currently work in Adobe Creative Suite InDesign and Illustrator. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades. Ciao!

Grand Slam is based on an old cardwriting style known as Poster Gothic. This dynamic letterstyle was used in the heyday of the Hollywood movie poster because of its powerful and snappy appeal. The face is of uniform thickness and made as wide as possible without interfering with legibility. Its vertical strokes seem to be thickened slightly where normal serifs would be. It is interesting to note that another group of tiny little serifs populate the entire design. Grand Slam comes with a complete set of alternates including small caps and small figures. A lowercase has been added for greater versatility. Grand Slam is now available in the OpenType format. In addition to small caps, lining figures, oldstyle figures, petite lining figures, and swashes, this expanded OpenType version contains some new stylistic alternates. These advanced features work in current versions of Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

This ultrabold headline font is basically patterned after the font Nubian Black, designed by Willard T. Sniffin for American Type Founders in the 1920s, but includes an unusual inline treatment of the caps. Named for the local television show on KFJZ-TV (later KTVT) in Fort Worth, Texas, that introduced a whole new generation of kids to the Three Stooges, and hosted by the erstwhile Icky Twerp. Both versions of this font contain the Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

Albion’s Marker No.1, as the name suggests is the first in a series of ‘Marker Pen’ typefaces- merging good type design practice with deliberately casual and hand-drawn letter forms. Inspired by the great classic typefaces such as Bembo and Caslon, the design of Marker No.1 offers a unique blend of legibility and relaxed randomness.

Jaggers is a handwritten typeface based on the letterforms Caslon. It may be hard to see the resemblance between these two since Jaggers is such a unique font. Its casual appearance is charming and easy to read. Jaggers has an expanded character set including European letters and symbols! This font is definitely one of Victory"s best.