Cocomat has been designed by Francesco Canovaro and Debora Manetti as a development of the Coco Gothic typeface system created by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini. It shares with all the other subfamilies in the Coco Gothic system a geometric skeleton with open, more humanistic proportions, a sans serif design with slightly rounded corners and low contrast proportions, without optical compensation on the horizontal lines, resulting in a quasi-inverted contrast look in the boldest weights. What differentiates Cocomat from the other subfamilies in Coco Gothic are some slight design touches in the uppercase letters, with a vertical unbalancing reminiscent of art deco design, notably evident in uppercase "E", "A","F","P" and "R" - while lowercase letters have been given some optical compensation on the stems, like in "n","m", "p" and "q". These design choices, evoking the second and third decade of the last century (Cocomat is also referred as Coco 1920 in the Coco Gothic Family) all give Cocomat a slight vintage feeling, making it a perfect choice every time you need to add a period vibe or an historical flair to your design, like in food or luxury branding. The typeface, first published in 2014, has been completely redesigned by the original authors in 2019 as Cocomat PRO to include eight extra weights (thin, medium, black and heavy in both roman and italic form), extra open type features (including alternate forms, positional numerals), and extra glyphs making Cocomat cover over two hundred languages using latin, cyrillic and greek alphabets.

A playful caricature of a midcentury grotesque, Guzzo is a fresh addition to the Monotype Library. Somewhat eccentric and full of surprises, its unmistakable quirk can be found on closer inspection, stemming from details proudly borrowed from brush lettering and calligraphy. The wide range of weights and style can take you through any design space, from the condensed weights squeezing in larger headlines or dense blocks of text with the condensed range, to experimenting with small point sizes, labels or packaging with the extended cut. However, Guzzo’s real charm is probably best expressed through its wonderfully playful shapes, its unusual 'laid-back italics' feature cursive forms and a backslant. The different stylistic sets allow you to decide what you make of Guzzo, with several sets of alternate glyphs steering it in any direction you want. Guzzo is a happy-go-lucky character, and has a warm, humble and painterly quality that - at a glance - may be unrecognizable as a typeface. It can almost pass for hand-lettering. Guzzo pairs exceptionally well with scripts and slab typefaces, and feels most at home in situ with toys, packaging, menus, broadcasting, cartoons and merchandising! Guzzo encourages you to turn up the silliness and is for designers who want to emulate hand-painted and casual motifs. Taking its name from American artist Jeremy Pinc, aka the painter Guzzo Pinc, the typeface channels the quirky, funny and poignant qualities of his paintings - with wacky characters, loosely painted geometric forms and bright colors. For this mid century, authentic, nostalgic typeface - the story is really what you make of it.

A robust oldstyle, an elegant slab, 8 styles Geneo, created by Stéphane Elbaz, is a synthesis of historic and present-day visions of typography, a slab serif constructed on an oblique axis. Its subtle contrast evokes both Renaissance elegance and the robustness of the Egyptian typefaces that were in vogue during the 19th century. Geneo falls halfway between the classic styles of Garamond and Transitionnals, with aspects of contemporary slab serifs like Rockwell, Boton, as well a bit informal. From this blend of styles and genres, it emerges with a singular identity perfectly suited for modern illustrations of quality, savoir-faire, and culture. Geneo’s limited contrast has been carefully crafted to make the font adaptable for use as both text and headlines, as well as for small-print elements like footnotes, appendices, and captions. The variety and precision of certain weights, like Regular, allow minute adjustments of the font color in text compositions. This flexibility is especially useful for displaying on devices with high pixel densities such as the latest iPhone or iPad, on which text may appear too thin. Flexibility and sturdiness The sturdiness of Geneo makes it a perfect choice for posters, logos, print and any project that requires finesse and sophistication. It provides alternate versions of some letters such as g and a to give you the flexibility you need for your typographic projects. Geneo pairs perfectly with contemporary typeface genre. Geneo, a new typeface designed by Stéphane Elbaz Tokyo TDC 2014 Type Directors Club 2009

Caslon Antique is a decorative American typeface that was designed in 1894 by Berne Nadall. It was originally called "Fifteenth Century", but was renamed "Caslon Antique" by Nadall's foundry, Barnhart Bros. & Spindler, in the mid-1920s. The design of the typeface is meant to evoke the Colonial era. Early printers would reuse metal type over and over again, and the faces would become chipped and damaged from use. Caslon Antique emulates this look. Despite the name, it is not a member of the Caslon family of typefaces. The renaming is believed to have been a marketing maneuver to boost the popularity of a previously unpopular typeface by associating it with the highly popular Caslon types. Caslon Antique is popular today when a "old-fashioned" or "gothic" look is desired. It is used by the musical group The Sisters of Mercy on their albums, for the logo of the musical Les Misérables, and for the covers of the books in A Series of Unfortunate Events. It is also frequently used on historical displays. It was used for the previous edition of the Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play. Most recently, it has been used on promotional material for the smash musical Monty Python's Spamalot on Broadway, the West End, and its tour of the United States. British 80's band The The also used the font in several of their music videos, usually displaying several lyrics from the song in the opening scenes. It used on the cover of Regina Spektor's album, Begin to Hope. This description was sourced (in part) from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

FF Signa Rounded is a natural complement to the rest of the FF Signa super family – and can stand on its own in a variety of print and on-screen applications. The design is Ole Søndergaard’s rounded branch in his FF Signa family three. In it, he took the distinctive shapes and proportions of FF Signa Sans and created a warm, inviting design for text and display copy. Like its parent design, FF Signa Round is not a humanistic sans, nor is it based on 19th-century grotesques. Its characters are minimalist interpretations of letterforms – distinctive, yet easy to read. Thanks to FF Signa Round’s large x-height, open counters and simple character shapes, the design does not overpower the message – and draws the reader in. At substantial sizes, especially in the bolder weights, the design communicates with amiable conviction. At text sizes, FF Signa Round remains inviting and legible. It can be used as a companion to the rest of the FF Signa family, providing depth of style and breadth of reach. The collection of designs can also be used on their own for brand, brochure, publication, and way-finding design in digital and hard copy environments. Like the rest of the FF Signa family, OpenType® Pro fonts of FF Signa Round provide for the automatic insertion of ligatures and alternate characters, and also offer an extended character set supporting over 100 languages, including most Central European and many Eastern European – in addition to Cyrillic and Greek.

LaFarge is a typeface primarily inspired by the historic mosaic titling capitals found in the New York City Subway, designed by architect Squire J. Vickers and his staff between 1915-1927. These elegant but industrial signs are characteristic of early-20th century American architectural lettering, and show an evolution of the classical Roman capitals to lower contrast, bolder serifs, and more regular character widths. The majority of this lettering still remains in subway stations today, and though elements of the style vary from sign to sign, many carry the unique features that are reflected in LaFarge: high-waisted crossbars with angled serifs, elegantly curved “R” leg, and distinctive trapezoidal serifs. LaFarge expands this style into a lower case, taking cues from contemporary typefaces like Bookman, Cheltenham, and Della Robbia. A number of typographic features are included, such as small caps, ordinal indicators / superscript letters, arrows, and a set of borders inspired by early subway tile. The result is a fashionable, architecturally-minded typeface that is just as at home on the façade of a grand public building as it is on packaging, magazines, or the web. LaFarge works well in both text and display settings, remaining readable at small sizes but showing off its elegant details in larger uses. LaFarge has received the Communication Arts Typography Award, the ADC Annual Merit Award, is included in the 2020 STA 100, and was part of designer Greg Shutters’ winning portfolio in the 2019 Type Directors Club Ascender Awards. You can download a PDF specimen of LaFarge, and also view a video of LaFarge in action.

This typeface has been beloved throughout history. Bodoni used it to print his first masterwork, but it has never before been publicly available. Now available for the first time, CAL Bodoni Casale has been painstakingly crafted from hi-res scans of 4 original Bodoni printings. Unlike many Bodonis drawn from computerized straight lines, this Bodoni follows the original contours of the master himself. With small caps, old style numbers, special options for $, %, £, €, Bodoni Casale allows you to make elegant pricing, sales signs, or logos. Besides it's authentic origins, Casale's 21st century debut includes Features & Alternates never seen before, including Frankenfont (giving the font 6 fun alternative uses with 1 click!). Other alternates, such as the $ and €, give the user options when styling their work. Various word and letter spacing options are also automatically included so the user can choose to preserve Bodoni's original spacings or go with a more modern look. The Bodoni for White on Black Most Bodoni fonts will start to disappear on black. Bodoni Casale’s robust strokes don’t disappear, even when set to smaller sizes. The robust strokes of this Bodoni font also lend visibility and legibility at large sizes with dark background, such as on signage. What You Get ✓Bodoni's original font, Roman + Italic and small caps ✓Style Sets for quick and beautiful formatting ✓5 Unicase Options ✓An army of percentage signs, dollar signs, and money symbols. ✓Punctuation Options for any reading situation ✓A Realistic and Inky look ✓Designed by Bodoni Himself For a Full Tour of Bodoni Casale, here's a video!

Capitolina is a family of 10 typefaces with a contemporary design style, based on different historical models. The original shape of serifs was a reference to 19th century’s Clarendon types though this inspiration remains as a subtle feature of the final design. Even subtler are the calligraphic influences, better noticed in the italics. The result is a set of typefaces that look more ‘constructed’ than ‘written’, referring to a rationalist style. However, it has a distinct approach to the aesthetic treatment of typographic forms that resembles the humanist tradition. Available in five weights of roman and italic types, Capitolina has a wide glyph palette that contains 800 glyphs in each font. Besides supporting basic Latin, western, central, and southeastern European sets, it has several OpenType features, such as case-sensitive forms, small capitals, ligatures, localized forms, number forms, fractions and more. Capitolina is, therefore, a great choice for projects in editorial design and other related applications.

A classical 20-th century's (1900s to 1980s) typewriter font for both text and large display usage, titles, signage... A new thicker version of Selectric (2016), as if typed using not a thin carbon ribbon but a coarse fabric one. Both are available on a different models of Selectrics. Made after rare enough samples of the same style used during 1980s in the USSR. Based on the actual letter proportions of the original typewriter Selectric (2016) (Cyrillic ball). This time not monospaced as before, but proportional. The single known so far previous typewriter vector typeface with this 'ink blotting' effect (similarly expanded serifs) as in Dodo (2008) is ITC American Typewriter (1974; by Joel Kaden and Tony Stan) and all its hand drawn analogs from 1980s (and perhaps before). Which, in turn, is resembling ATF Bulletin Typewriter's (1925, 1933; by Morris Fuller Benton) overall proportions, geometry, and even had some natural ink expands in its paper sample (but not by design, as I see it).

Palatino Sans Informal was designed as part of a group of three font families: Palatino nova, Palatino Sans, and Palatino Sans Informal. Together these three families act as the fulfilment of Herman Zapf’s original Palatino idea. Palatino, which was born as a metal typeface in 1950, proved to be one of the 20th Century’s most popular designs. Not only is Palatino Sans Informal a completely new typeface, it is also a completely new interpretation of the entire sans serif genre. Its letterforms are curved, rounded, and soft, not hard and industrial. In comparison with Palatino Sans, Palatino Sans Informal offers eccentricities that are somewhat artistic and more individual looking. The fonts in the Palatino Sans Informal family include several OpenType features, such as an extended character set covering all Latin-based European languages, old style figures, small caps, fractions, ordinals, ligatures, alternates, and ornaments. Palatino Sans Informal can be mixed well with Palatino and Palatino Sans.

Village Green JNL is based upon a font called “Giraffe Extended” from the 1892 edition of the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan type specimen book, and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Its Art Nouveau styling can also fit well with 1960s counter-culture revival projects. According to Wikipedia “A village green is a common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for gathering cattle to bring them later on to a common land for grazing. Later, planned greens were built into the centres of villages.”

M Razor is so called ""neo Sung-style"" typefaces. Crossbars (橫) and stems (豎) are orthogonal and upright. Their entry and finial points are squarish, parallel without flare. Contrast of strokes is extremely high. This creates sharpness, stiffness in the midst of elegance of Sungti. Even distribution of space, careful positioning, size and proportion of radicals create a slightly expanded, opened and balanced construction. Zhonggong are slightly expanded, its relatively less inter-character spacing makes the line of text better coupled and aligned. Its features and construction create a feel of wholesome, elegance with contrasting sharpness and stiffness. It is best suited for casual, creative display eye-catching text, set upright (non-slanted), non-condensed.

M Finance is a design inspired by the popular M Elle. M Finance incorporates features of M Yuen or other rounded Gothic-style typefaces. Crossbars (橫) and stems (豎) have squarish entry and finial points with slight round corners, parallel without flare. Thick-thin contrast of strokes is low and the text is visible. Its extra bold stems (豎) make it suitable for eye-catching display. Even distribution of space, careful positioning, size and proportion of radicals create a slightly expanded, opened and balanced construction. Its features and construction create a feel of subtle sharpness and stiffness with wholesome elegance. It is best suited for casual display text, illustrations, set upright (non-slanted), non-condensed.

M Finance is a design inspired by the popular M Elle. M Finance incorporates features of M Yuen or other rounded Gothic-style typefaces. Crossbars (橫) and stems (豎) have squarish entry and finial points with slight round corners, parallel without flare. Thick-thin contrast of strokes is low and the text is visible. Its extra bold stems (豎) make it suitable for eye-catching display. Even distribution of space, careful positioning, size and proportion of radicals create a slightly expanded, opened and balanced construction. Its features and construction create a feel of subtle sharpness and stiffness with wholesome elegance. It is best suited for casual display text, illustrations, set upright (non-slanted), non-condensed.

Linotype Sansara, from Swiss designer Grégoire Poget, is part of the TakeType Library, chosen from the entries of the Linotype-sponsored International Digital Type Design Contest 1999 for inclusion on the TakeType 3 CD. This fun font is a type experiment behind whose oriental facade hide Arabic letters, recognizable only at second glance. This font displays generous, pointed ascenders and descenders as well as a bar-like emphasis on the upper third of the figures which connects lines and words and gives them a decorative look. Linotype Sansara reveals an astounding variety of details which bring to mind 1001 Arabian Nights, flowing gowns and snake charmers. This font is best for display in point sizes of 14 or larger.

Eina was designed as a corporate typeface for the design school “EINA, University Centre of Design and Art.” It’s not just a font to be used — Eina embodies an educational concept that transcends simple typographical use. Eina is a typeface to be explained and used to teach typography. The whole process of design and development is reflected in the publication “Four nuances of a typographical standard: A typeface for EINA.” Eina is a versatile and multipurpose sans-serif typeface, consisting of 32 original styles, organized into four categories: rational, humanist, geometric & industrial. Each category contains four weights with their corresponding italics. You can purchase the full family, each individual weights, or four packages with each categories.

Linotype Sicula, from German designer Roberto Manella, is part of the TakeType Library, chosen from the entries of the Linotype-sponsored International Digital Type Design Contest 1999 for inclusion on the TakeType 3 CD. It is available in two weights, regular and oblique. Linotype Sicula will quickly win over any nostalgic spirits. Ornamental and sweeping, the figures line up on the paper, their contrasting strokes and playfully irregular forms giving them an exuberant, decorative character. The careful details of each figure come to light best when used in larger point sizes. Linotype Sicula is therefore best for headlines and can easily inspire typographic experiments and its capitals can serve as initials combined with other typefaces, especially sans serif.

M Razor is so called ""neo Sung-style"" typefaces. Crossbars (橫) and stems (豎) are orthogonal and upright. Their entry and finial points are squarish, parallel without flare. Contrast of strokes is extremely high. This creates sharpness, stiffness in the midst of elegance of Sungti. Even distribution of space, careful positioning, size and proportion of radicals create a slightly expanded, opened and balanced construction. Zhonggong are slightly expanded, its relatively less inter-character spacing makes the line of text better coupled and aligned. Its features and construction create a feel of wholesome, elegance with contrasting sharpness and stiffness. It is best suited for casual, creative display eye-catching text, set upright (non-slanted), non-condensed.

Cantilever is a variable, 20 style display typeface designed by Stew Deane. The idea came from using variable type mechanics to create a typeface that became more than type — it's designed to be impactful, fill space and turn text into something graphic and visual. Being fixed-width (at whatever width you choose) means it is perfect for stacking, as well as stretching ultra wide. It's a typeface designed to take centre stage and own space. By using the variable sliders in your design software you can give your typography a bespoke, ownable aesthetic. The sliders in Cantilever are Weight and Width, and are designed for maximum impact in any space. Play around.

Ark is a combination monogram set based on the ATF Virkotype design. By combining variously shaped characters, you can produce initials within an oval frame. Just select a left-hand letter, a center letter, and a right-hand letter. Then place all three on an oval frame of your choice. Great for stationery and company logos. The Ark Monogram Set comes with easy-to-read instructions and a useful character map. Additional alternate characters have been provided for better identification and letter fitting within each font. Ark Monogram is now available in the OpenType Std format. Some new stylistic alternates have been added to this OpenType version. 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.

Introducing Pomidorko 2.0, the highly anticipated sequel to the beloved font Pomidorko that has captured the hearts of countless users. This enhanced version has now evolved into a commercial release, offering even more versatility and charm. Designed with a delightful and effortless aesthetic, Pomidorko 2.0 is a perfect choice for children's products, culinary ventures, and book illustrations. Its playful and endearing character adds a touch of whimsy to any design. With both Cyrillic and Latin variations included, this font ensures seamless communication across diverse languages and markets. Multilingual support is included for Western European languages. Don’t forget to test your characters in the font previewer below before purchasing. The Pomidorko 2.0 font also includes Open-type features to make it even more versatile. Unlock the enchanting possibilities of Pomidorko 2.0 and infuse your projects with a dash of sweetness and joy.

A new type giant emerges taking after the legendary geometric sans serif Mont! Mont Blanc elevates all prized unique details of Mont and translates them into an independent flawless text font family. This type prodigy comes with heaping legibility improvements dedicated to the smaller sizes and challenging paragraphs. The new type family is set to climb to the top of your “favorite design tools” with adjusted x-height, refined weight, and glyphs redesign to name but a few. Venture into new projects equipped with 8 font weights and matching italics, multi-script support, and rich OpenType features set. Language Support: Extended Latin (all Western languages), Cyrillic, Greek OpenType Features: Localized Forms Subscript Scientific Inferiors Superscript Numerators and Denominators Fractions Ordinals Lining Figures Proportional Figures Tabular Figures Oldstyle Figures Case-Sensitive Forms Standard Ligatures Stylistic Alternates Contextual Alternates

Since 1985, Cartoonists Across America & The World have been promoting literacy, creativity, the arts, and other positive issues using cartoons and humor. Founder Phil Yeh and his band of artists -- including Comicraft President and First (Flying) Tiger, Richard Starkings -- create books, paint murals, take part in school assemblies, conventions, conferences and other public events for all ages throughout the world! Cartoonists Across America & The World have worked in partnership with the Center for The Book in The Library of Congress and other organizations all over the world. They have painted more than 1000 murals in 49 of the United States as well as in Canada, Mexico, Italy, England, France, Germany, Hungary, The Netherlands, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and the Cayman Islands. So we made Phil a font 'cause he's a noble soul. Avoid Extinction -- Read, Reuse, Reduce and Recycle!

Trailmade is a rugged and stylish brush font with regular, italic, and extras styles. Explore an adventurous path with this typeface that ventures a little outside the typical brush script genre but still carries echoes of it. The upright design of the regular style has a confident appearance, while the italic style gives a little more of a signature look. Hand-lettered with a brush pen on paper, Trailmade includes swash characters, automatic double-letter ligatures, and a complete second set of lowercase stylistic alternates to switch in and out for a more authentic feel. There is also a matching Extras font featuring a variety of lines and dingbats that will complement your typography. All alternates, swashes, and ligatures are PUA-encoded for more accessibility in a variety of programs. This font has extensive Latin language support for Western, Central, and Eastern European.

The Irongate Font Family has a retro personality. The common denominators, in all the glyphs, is a blunt center serif. The main top & bottom of each Cap & lower case glyphs have 'fan serifs', yep serifs that fan out. This font's influence is based on a monogram I designed for my daughter's wedding where she described her image of the event being 'Classic with a Vintage Flair'. Irongate can be pictured on many things dated from 1918 - 2018. The font is available in 4 basic weights Light, Regular, Bold & Extra Bold. An additional pdf is included that gives the code for an additional 14 Dingbats, with each weight. Irongate works extremely well with Invites, Stationary, Signage, Embroidery, Letterpress, Ads, Logos and anything that feels Industrial or Hand-Crafted, eg. Coffee, Breweries, Antiques, Woodcuts, Western Styles, Sports Styles, etc.

Step into the groove with Daily Shine, the ultimate funky retro font that will transport you straight back to the '70s era. Whether you're looking to infuse nostalgic flair into your logo or seek a fresh burst of inspiration for your design ventures, Daily Shine is your go-to choice. With its stylish swash alternates, Daily Shine adds a touch of extra style to your project, creating a dynamic and eye-catching look. Plus, its multilingual support ensures versatility for various language needs. From captivating headings and expressive logotypes to spirited quotes, apparel designs, inviting invitations, lively flyers, dynamic posters, heartfelt greeting cards, captivating product packaging, captivating book covers, empowering printed quotes and even mesmerizing album covers and movie posters, Daily Shine is your versatile companion for any creative endeavor. Get ready to shine bright and groove on with Daily Shine font!

Centennial Script was designed and cut by Hermann Ihlenburg in 1876 (the centennial of American independence, hence the typeface's name) for the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan foundry in Philadelphia. Ihlenburg was then only 33 years old, and these beautiful forms put him on his way to become the most prolific and innovative deco, ornamental and script typeface designer and punch cutter of the nineteenth century. In trying to be a true homage to the history of the new world, Centennial Script transcends its then-contemporary deco fashion to embrace script elements historically similar to lettering found on maps or political documents of the 18th century. Letters like the p and s extend themselves high and mighty to accentuate words and lines of text in a fancy hand-drawn manner. The dots on the i and j are those of a careful scribe who acknowledges the importance of the document being lettered. The lowercase letters connect with two slight angular motions of the hand, also very carefully and elegantly. Even the ligatures and ending swashes Ihlenburg made for this face were reminiscent of a mapmaker's patient hand, though Ihlenburg's elegant touch in them cannot be mistaken. Although Centennial Script was one of the few Ihlenburg faces to make it to film type technology, the transition was neither credited nor faultless. The film type version was a bit sloppy in the way the connectors were made, so the lowercase needed a lot of manual work to typeset properly. To alleviate such waste of time for the user of this digital version, the connectors were redrawn according to the original metal ones made by Ihlenburg himself, and tested thoroughly in print to ensure the quality of the typeface's flowing cursive nature. This wasn't an easy task, and very time-consuming, since the changing angles on both ends of the connection made it impossible to escape from having to build every lowercase letter with both left and right connectors that would fit with the rest of the letters. This is one typeface that couldn't be revived in any other manner than the way it was originally made, regardless of more than 130 years of technological advances since the face was designed. Centennial Script comes in all popular font formats, and supports most Latin-based languages. Also included is an Alts fonts that contains alternates, ligatures, snap-on swash endings, some ornaments, as well as a complete set of the lowercase without left side connectors, for a more natural combination when following a majuscule, or just in case the user finds it fit to set the copy in a non-connecting script instead of the face's original connected flow. Centennial Script Pro, the OpenType version, combines the main font with the Alts font in a feature-packed single font. Use the ligature feature to set wordmarks like Mr, Ms, Mrs, Dr, and &Co, the stylistic alternates feature to replace some letters with their alternative forms, the contextual alternates feature for better uppercase-lowercase sequences, and the titling feature to set your text in a disconnected script. Centennial Script is the only script we currently know of that can be set connected or disconnected simultaneously, either using the titling feature in the OpenType Pro version, or manually in the other formats.

Classic Grotesque by Rod McDonald: a traditional font with a modern face. The growing popularity of grotesque typefaces meant that many new sans serif analogues were published in the early 20th century. Setting machines were not compatible with each other but all foundries wanted to offer up-to-date fonts, and as a result numerous different typeface families appeared that seem almost identical at first glance and yet go their separate ways with regard to details. One of the first fonts created with automatic typesetting in mind was Monotype Grotesque®. Although this typeface that was designed and published by Frank Hinman Pierpont in 1926 has since been digitalised, it has never achieved the status of other grotesque fonts of this period. But Monotype Grotesque was always one of designer Rod McDonald’s favourites, and he was overjoyed when he finally got the go-ahead from Monotype in 2008 to update this “hidden treasure”. The design process lasted four years, with regular interruptions due to the need to complete projects for other clients. In retrospect, McDonald admits that he had no idea at the beginning of just how challenging and complex a task it would be to create Classic Grotesque™. It took him considerable time before he found the right approach. In his initial drafts, he tried to develop Monotype Grotesque only to find that the result was almost identical with Arial®, a typeface that is also derived in many respects from Monotype Grotesque. It was only when he went back a stage, and incorporated elements of Bauer Font’s Venus™ and Ideal Grotesk by the Julius Klinkhardt foundry into the design process, that he found the way forward. Both these typefaces had served as the original inspiration for Monotype Grotesque. The name says it all: Classic Grotesque has all the attributes of the early grotesque fonts of the 20th century: The slightly artificial nature gives the characters a formal appearance. There are very few and only minor variations in line width. The tittles of the ‘i’ and ‘j’, the umlaut diacritic and other diacritic marks are rectangular. Interestingly, it is among the uppercase letters that certain variations from the standard pattern can be found, and it is these that enliven the typeface. Hence the horizontal bars of the “E”, “F” and “L” have bevelled terminals. The chamfered terminal of the bow of the “J” has a particular flamboyance, while the slightly curved descender of the “Q” provides for additional dynamism. The character alternatives available through the OpenType option provide the designer with a wealth of opportunities. These include a closed “a”, a double-counter “g” and an “e” in which the transverse bar deviates slightly from the horizontal. The seven different weights also extend the scope of uses of Classic Grotesque. These range from the delicate Light to the super thick Extrabold. There are genuine italic versions of each weight; these are not only slightly narrower than their counterparts, but also have variant shapes. The “a” is closed, the “f” has a semi-descender while the “e” is rounded. Its neutral appearance and excellent features mean that Classic Grotesque is suitable for use in nearly all imaginable applications. Even during the design phase, McDonald used his new font to set books and in promotional projects. However, he would be pleased to learn of possible applications that he himself has not yet considered. Classic Grotesque, which has its own individual character despite its neutral and restrained appearance, is the ideal partner for your print and web project.