Typefaces designated as Latins were popular during the last half of the nineteenth century. One of the styles that continued to be popular into the twentieth century is the bold condensed typeface Latin. Readily identifiable by its triangular serifs and sharp terminals on the strokes of some of the lowercase letters, Latin Condensed makes an interesting display type and its condensed proportions easily solve copyfitting problems.

Umbertone is a modern sans serif with roots in classic hardcover book design and the Art Nouveau movement. It takes the inventiveness of the early 20th century designers and brings it a century forward with some unique letterforms and a collection of subtle but elegant ligatures. Excellent for typographic book cover concepts, and also great for high-end branding for luxury and fashion products.

ITC Braganza is the work of British designer Phill Grimshaw, an elegant typeface steeped in historical inspiration. Reminiscent of the handwritten manuscript styles of the 16th century, the name Braganza refers to Catherine, Duchess of Braganza, who was a prominent figure in Portugal at the time. The vertical script style displays the elegance and refinement which distinguished the Royal Courts of the 16th century.

Empresario Stephen F. Austin (1793-1836) is considered by many the “Father of Texas” for leading the first Anglo-American colony into the then-Mexican territory back in the 1820s. A few years later, while on a diplomatic mission to Mexico City, Austin was arrested on suspicion of plotting Texas independence and imprisoned for virtually all of 1834. During this time he kept a secret diary of his thoughts and musings—much of it written in Spanish. Austin Pen is my interpretation of Austin’s scribblings in this miniature prison journal (now in the collection of the wonderful Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, in the Texas city that bears his name). The little leather-bound book is filled with notes in ink and pencil—some of the faded penciled pages traced in ink years later by Austin’s nephew Moses Bryan. A genuine replication of 19th century cursive, Austin Pen has two styles: a fine regular weight, along with a bold style that replicates passages written with an over-inked pen. Each is legible and evocative of commonplace American penmanship of two centuries ago.

Based on a revival of one of the popular Textura fonts of the early 20th century; suitable for display, or text.

The PL Westerveldt font has a late twentieth-century style, with flared strokes. Use PL Westerveldt for display and short texts.

A revival of one of the popular sans serif wooden type fonts of the 19th century, narrow, short ascenders and descenders.

A condensed American blackletter designed for ATF in 1932 by Morris Fuller Benton; the face grows out of nineteenth century roots.

A turn-of-the-century Art Nouveau display font, originally from the Aktiengesellschaft fuer Schriftgiesserei und Maschinenbau, Offenbach, revived and extended.

Classical nineteenth century french engravers typeface, traditional with corners sharpened, a flick of the burin and a touch of Art Deco.

Based on a revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, suitable for display, or text.

A thin, very elegant caps-only cross-stitch font, based on an embroidery pattern from the end of the 19th century.

Based on a revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, suitable for display, or text.

An original design, loosely based on a typeface from an old wood type specimen book from the turn-of-the-century.

Based on a revival of one of the popular type fonts of the 19th century, suitable for display, or text, bold.

A Roman typeface with emphasized triangular serifs. A font like this one could have been designed in 18th century France. To some extent, Auxerre is a precursor of “Etienne,” which later became popular as an advertising typeface of the 19th century. Auxerre is available in five font weights: light, regular, semibold, bold and black. Auxerre supports Western and Central European languages including Scandinavian languages. Plus, the font includes lots of ligatures, tabular figures as well as a “Capital German Double S.” Auxerre fits perfectly with any topic related to the past two centuries. It also works amazingly well on technical issues. And of course it fits very well with topics of fine art and art history.

Handsome, adventurous, legible and elegant, this script has the feel of practical handwriting from past centuries. Aquiline is based on a cursive italic style influenced by the 16th century European writing masters. The Aquiline design team turned to Ludovico degli Arrighi, the great 16th century writing master, for period ideas on how to improve, strengthen and add grace to the font. Aquiline has strokes and gestures that seem very like the writing of Arrighi and Mercator, such as the flamboyant balloon of a flourish on the cap A; the graceful flourishes on the cap B, D, and L; and the compact lowercase with tall ascenders. Aquiline has a strong personality and is historically correct.

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, condensed, bold, a very useful design for display.

The American nineteenth century display form as handed down through ATF and the composing machine companies, largely for use in newspaper headlines.

Romb is the display font based on feeling of the retro typefaces of the early 20th century. Good for posters, magazines, packaging.

A dark, condensed, nineteenth century sanserif made popular by Linotype, the capitals deriving from Barnhart Brothers and Spindler, the lowercase from Farmer.

A sans serif with the futuristic retro, Art Deco feel of mid 20th century science fiction, particularly the early Flash Gordon serials.

Industrial Gothic recalls the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. There are four styles: Single-Line, Double-Line, Banner, and Small Caps.

This is a classic design from the beginning of the 20th century. This font can be used in many kinds of books

An original slab serif design inspired by the slab serif designs of the 19th century, with a modern geometric look, bold version.

An original slab serif design inspired by the slab serif designs of the 19th century, with a modern geometric look, extra bold.

Heck Italic is based on captions, labels and legends appearing on 19th-century maps and natural history engravings by J. G. Heck.

Craw Modern was designed by Freeman Craw in 1958 and first released by The American Typefounders Company, (ATF). In typography, 'Modern' is a style of typeface (classification) developed in the late 18th century that continued through much of the 19th century. Characterized by high contrast between thick and thin strokes and flat serifs. Bodoni is among the most popular of the Moderns. Moderns are also known as Didone and New Antiqua.

Linoscript was designed in 1905 by Morris Fuller Benton and displays the strong stroke contrasts of broken letter and the flowing quality of handwriting fonts of the 17th and 18th centuries. The font suggests a school book typeface common at the turn of the 20th century. Linoscript is suited for middle length texts and headlines, while its capitals can also be used as initials mixed with other alphabets.

It occurred to me years ago that the graphic arts community might find useful a digital typeface that mimicked the classic look of nineteenth-century handwriting. Conveniently, my mother then still volunteered at the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, my hometown. She made copies of the letters of a few famous Texans -- Houston, Austin, Travis, Burnet, Rusk. Thomas J. Rusk’s penmanship caught my eye as the most accessible of the bunch. I hadn't realized at the time what a challenge it'd be to render a realistic-looking script face, but the result has, in fact, filled a niche.

A small x-height typeface, originating with engravers near the start of the twentieth century, appearing in type in the 1923 ATF specimen.

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, suitable for display, or text, closely related to Latin.

Thomas Maitland Cleland’s careful and scholarly creation of a typeface from 15th Century Florentine inscriptional capitals; designed for the Bruce division of ATF.

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, suitable for text or display, medium and bold weights.

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, suitable for display, or text, closely related to Latin.

A modified remake of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century. An extra bold sans serif suitable for display.

An original slab serif design inspired by the slab serif designs of the 19th century, with a modern geometric look, bold version, extended.

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, for large display. Lowercase not designed for this type.

Henry8 is a historical caps font originally penned in the 16th century. I have extended it to include numbers and a few symbols.

Arte Critique JNL was modeled after an alphabet in an early 20th Century French lettering book spotted online at an image sharing site.