The year 1914 marked the appearance of Washington Ludlow's first typograph machine. This remarkable invention permitted typesetters to quickly cast a full line of lead type in one operation using supplied brass matrices, a procedure which was for the time a major technological improvement over the usual hand-set foundry type methods. Casting type the Ludlow way necessitated the creation of an entire range of new Ludlow typefaces, a development which made Ludlow not only a major manufacturer of printing machinery, but also one of the world's leading sources of professional type design. Renowned typographers such as Douglas C. McMurtrie and Ernest F. Detterer created original faces at Ludlow's request. Robert Hunter Middleton was Ludlow's design director for over fifty years, and during his distinguished career produced an entire library of typefaces representing virtually every known typographic style. He is recognized as one of the most prolific type designers of all time. Today, new Ludlow computer fonts are in preparation, including optically-correct versions of many classic Ludlow typefaces, drawn directly from the originals in the Ludlow company library.

The Scriptuale family, which contains eight styles, is a contemporary upright calligraphic face. Designed by German designer Renate Weise in 2003, this family of typefaces speaks to the present, while at the same time reflecting on a lyrical past. The letterforms of the Scriptuale family are romanticized, they reference German calligraphic styles from the 19th and early 20th Centuries. For instance the design of Scriptuale's uppercase strays from the canon of classical proportion into romantic idealism. While the C and O are drawn according to the ancient quadratic proportions - almost twice as wide, optically, as the E or the L - the letter A is wider than would be expected, and the D narrower. These subtle differences introduce a different rhythm into text set in Scriptuale than Italic styles of calligraphy may offer. Scriptuale's Gs merit special notice: both the upper and lower case G lunge slightly forward, further enhancing the dynamic quality of the text. Also unique in Scriptuale's design is the lowercase width: the letterforms appear slightly condensed; they have large x-heights to compensate for this. In a delightful twist, the number 2's beak has been closed by drawing it full-circle, back into the stem: this references a style of letter design that was practiced, among other places, by artists from the old Klingspor foundry in Offenbach Germany. Typefaces constructed there easily captured the zeitgeist of the romantic period, but are less calligraphic than Scriptuale (e.g., Rudolf Koch's Koch Antiqua). A semi-serif face (like Prof. Hermann Zapf's Optima or Otl Aicher's Rotis Semi), some of Scriptuale's letters have serifs (D), and some do not (A). And although both the B and the E normally have the same "structure" on their left side, Weise has drawn them differently in Scriptuale. These strengthen the calligraphic-like quality of the family. Traces of the pen are easy to see in Scriptuale's design; it is a thoroughly calligraphic face. The eight typefaces in the Scriptuale family include Light, Regular, Semi Bold, and Bold weights. Each weight has a companion italic. Scriptuale is similar to one other contemporary calligraphic family in the Linotype portfolio, Anasdair , from British designer

Escuela typeface is born in an attempt to reflect so many current influences of modern grotesque fonts that are trying to better reflect the values of today's world. Its compact proportions and high x-height, but at the same time with sort kind of modulation and open inktraps, propose a visual game that is worth enough to use it many places; Escuela can be striking and ideal for headlines in large text and heavy weights, but at the same time serious and readable in smaller bodies or regular and fine weights. Its wide range of characters, which includes a set of emoticons ideal for signage, work and evaluation documents, as well as inclusive, is ideal for educational centers, whether they are more playful (schools) or more pragmatic (universities). In fact, "Escuela" means “School” in English. For this reason, Escuela is your best ally when it comes to preparing texts that transcend students through a contemporary and different, but functional, character. Designed by Carlos Campos www.cuchiquetipo.com Dummy text from wikisource.org (1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Universities).

Naratif is a condensed display based on an early 1900 sans-serifs and gothic faces and it has 7 weights including italic. Great for anything big and for not so small text or display. With a wide range of latin support, and OpenType features such as Small Caps, Fractions, Alternates Character, Inferior and Arrows.

Inlines that go over, under sideways, down! Deck out your headlines in grand style with this unusual inline face, based on Dektiv, a seventies-style classic from "Homage to the Alphabet." Both versions include the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets, as well as localization for Moldovan and Romanian.

Our font of the original was only ten point, so we had to use our imagination to a great extent. As specialists in Victorian typography, we have found that many people do not like the "center alignment" idea, used on several old time faces, but we have been faithful to the original. So there!

Kammerlander is a sans typeface with a distinctively strong thick/thin contrast. It’s based on Messner- a hairline font with a constant stroke weight, so their combination looks very natural. They look great in fashion magazines, in the expensive world of beauty and glory. Kammerlander is an all caps face, especially suitable for larger sizes.

In the 1889 Franklin Type Foundry specimen book is a type face called “Armenian”. With lighter weight horizontal slab serifs than more traditional Western fonts, it could be pictured as being used as copy on wanted posters or town notices. This is now available as TV Western JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Civic Triline was inspired by a beautifully lucid (and hand lettered) example of municipal signage. It is a clear and easy to read sans serif display face, constructed of one thick and two thin lines. Civic Triline is an ideal typeface for making stylish signage or lettering posters with a modern yet distinctive look.

A condensed, light face spurred serif alphabet was shown on an antique catalog page from Spon & Chamberlain Publishers as “French”. The catalog likely sold tools and dies to stonecutters for making inscriptions in marble, granite and so forth. This elegant design is available digitally as Nouveau Thin JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

PT Lehmann™ was designed for ParaType in 2002 by Tagir Safayev. Inspired by letterforms of Shiroky (Wide) Renaissance typeface and other fonts of Ossip Lehmann foundry, St.-Petersburg, c. 1874. A face of the so-called Elzevir type has thin triangular serifs and sharp spiral-like terminals. For use in advertising and display typography.

Morris Fuller Benton's 1917 typeface named Invitation provided the pattern for this elegant and endearing face. Classic Engravers Roman style caps are exquisitely balanced with a sinewy lowercase, adding warmth and charm. All versions of this font include the Unicode 1250 Central European character set in addition to the standard Unicode 1252 Latin set.

Pancetta Serif Pro is a squarish serif typeface – a natural companion to Pancetta Pro. Its skeleton is a blend of modern serif and slab faces, featuring prominent obtuse pillow-shaped serifs. Pancetta Serif Pro comes in 8 weights with real italics, with extensive language support and Cyrillic script, and enriched with many OpenType features.

OldHaroldRee is a modification of PhederFrack, a calligraphic fraktur face. It keeps the lower case letters and inserts a completely different set of upper-case letters, which is in the “Old English” rather than the “Old German” or fraktur style. It comes in two weights, a bit unusual for an Old-English style typeface.

Kubera was designed to be a display and text face. It has six weights with same height. Kubera Serif is modernized letterform. It has square serif, high contrast stress, with large x height. Serifs are given soft corners, rather than pointy ones. Kubera Serif font family is designed by Gunjan Panchal based in India.

This forerunner of Helvetica made its debut as Breite Grotesk in the 1886 specimen book of the Schelter & Giesecke foundry in Leipzig. This classic face still retains its freshness, even after more than a century. Both versions of this font contain the complete Latin A Extended character set, as well as extended ligatures and fractions.

ITC Blackadder is the work of British designer Bob Anderton, an eerie transformation of insurrectionist Guy Fawkes' signature after his torture. Anderton based his design on 16th century handwriting, captured the scrolls and curlicues and then added the sinister tremble. This elegant, yet potentially menacing display face is perfect for theatrical or scary" applications."

March may be a good time to use this typeface. PattyDay is a caps-only typeface in which the letters are decorated with shamrocks or clovers. Some but not all of the lower-case letters are different from the upper-case letters. If you want a version of this face without the shamrocks, try Ingone.

This typeface is a faithful reproduction of an elegant and somewhat quaint design by Morris Fuller Benton, which first appeared in the American Type Founders 1913 specimen book. It's equally at home as a text or a headline face. Both versions of this font include the complete Latin 1252 and Central European 1250 character sets.

Versals is based on Lombardic style letters which are sufficiently broad to allow for decorated piercing and flourishes. They may also form the basis of illuminated capitals. The face is presented as capitals with reduced copies in the lower case locations. It is a full latin set with, uniquely, a set of roman numerals.

Monster Party is an illustrated display face with a lot of character for any haunting occasions. It comes in two styles, Monsters and Bones for whichever your situation calls for. Monsters features two unique sets of upper case creatures for appropriately spooky headline variation. Great for Friday the 13th, Halloween or wherever whimsy is needed.

This family of faces is based on the series Riverside Drive, designed by Peter Max for Photo-Lettering Inc. in the early 1970s. However, several letters have been altered to maintain design consistency and to improve legibility. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

Basis is a bitmap font family which is happy being used at both small and large sizes. Designed as a 9 point bitmap face for the web, it offers different styles than most normal bitmaps. The stencil style can be used for display purposes, while the SmallCaps lowercase is great for website navigation menus.

When a formation of jets flies over the top of a stadium before a big game, there is an unparalleled sense of excitement in the crowd. Flyover, a display typeface, captures that moment with an italic base, left-facing serifs, hollowed notches and a change in angle representing the instant the jets pass overhead.

One in the series of fonts called Whiz-Bang Wood Type, intended to be set large and tight. Rio Grande is a classic ultrabold "Egyptian" face, named for the river that separates Texas from Mexico. The Opentype version of this font supports Unicode 1250 (Central European) languages, as well as Unicode 1252 (Latin) languages.

Alambart is one of a new series of ‘wood type’ inspired fonts. Alambart is a hand-cut oblique Roman, suggesting the late Victorian era, but the type of thing that continued in use well into the twentieth century. If you want a title face that has versatility and suggests a past history, this is it!

Sans serif characters re-drawn from old newspaper headlines (and used in the design for Late Breaking News JNL) were given a slab serif treatment in order to create a condensed type face with both grotesk and block influences. The end result is Tabloid News JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Umbra was designed by R. Hunter Middleton for the Ludlow Corporation in 1935. This is a three-dimensional typeface, unique in that the main character shape is defined only by its shadow. It was originally designed to be a second-color drop-shadow for the typeface Tempo, but stands alone as an unusual display face.

Baker’s Dozen is a lovely display font that’s sure to put a smile on your face. It is a delightful handwritten font that complements anything nicely. Slightly minimalistic and very tidy, this typeface is sure to please! Its charming, playful design features soft curves and whimsical details that evoke a sense of innocence and sweetness.

AMAZE font is inspired by the maze. Maze always appears as a problem. I feel that in our life, we are facing a lot of problems every day. And for designers, I hope this font can help to solve your design problem. This font is also given an optical illusion. Enjoy and have fun.

Don’t ask me why I called this font Blabbermouth, as I really don’t know. I guess it reminded me of a person who talks too much, as Blabbermouth is kind of in your face, uneven and slightly crazy. Blabbermouth won’t keep your secrets, but I’m sure it’ll make your designs get the attention they deserve.

British designer Tim Donaldson created the lively typeface Etruscan in 1995. Based on Etruscan letters from ancient Italy, this unusual and condensed sans serif face whimsically mixes soft lowercase characters with more angular capitals. Etruscan brings light and airy classical form into contemporary documents, and a sunny Mediterranean flair and jollity into your projects.

Athenaeum was released in 1945 by Alessandro Butti and Aldo Novarese, probably for the Niebolo foundry in Turin, for whom this duo designed many successful types. Athenaeum is an Old Style face with strong calligraphic influence. The Athenaeum font family includes a set of decorative initials illustrated with a symbol beginning, resembling early paper watermarks.

Adelita by Adela de Bara, Laura Meseguer / OpenType, 4 styles   Adelita has its origins from Adela de Bara’s hand drawings, a display typeface with balls at the end of the strokes. Helped by Laura Meseguer, this artist entered our catalogue in the nineties with four weights: three display faces and a collection of naive dingbats.

Jacob Graffiti is a font inspired by graffiti. In order to reflect the feeling of spray paint, the beginning or the end of the characters show a sense of stroke. When designing this font, to add some fun, a pictorial ligature was specially designed: jacob. And it's on the smile face Unicode block too.

Strongbox JNL is based in part on an incomplete sample of an old wood type alphabet seen on an image sharing site. Commonly known as a grotesk (or grotesque) face, this style of sans serif lettering is well-suited for headlines, display work, price cards or anything where a bold, condensed typeface is needed.

Anzeigen Grotesk is a heavy, condensed sans serif face drawn in the style of typefaces popular during the early 20th Century. It was originally intended for use in advertising design, a field for which it is still well suited. Anzeigen Grotesk (which means “advertising sans serif” in German) is best used in larger point sizes.

Trencher JNL is based on hand-cut stencils spray-painted onto a vintage 1947 Cleveland Trencher acquired by the Marine Corps Mechanized Museum at Camp Pendleton, California. Restoration volunteer Brian Platzer supplied to Jeff Levine the images of the stencil markings - and they were quickly re-drawn and turned into a digital type face.

BearAnark is a decorative slab-serifed typeface that can be used for some text purposes. It has moderate contrast and comes in five weights, each with a true italic. The development of the family began with a blending of two other slab-serif faces, Anarckhie and BearButteT, and this origin is reflected in its name.

Stonecut JNL is an adaptation of a novelty display face found in one of the Dan X. Solo lettering books. Resembling letters made from cut stone, both the inline and solid black versions are perfect for themes encompassing outdoors, the Stone Age, "macho" events or anything where an unpolished or rustic look can be adapted.