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

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, suitable for display, geometric slab serifs unbracketed, short descenders, very condensed.

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, suitable for display, geometric slab serifs unbracketed, short descenders, very condensed.

The ITC Franklin™ typeface design marks the next phase in the evolution of one of the most important American gothic typefaces. Morris Fuller Benton drew the original design in 1902 for American Type Founders (ATF); it was the first significant modernization of a nineteenth-century grotesque. Named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, the design not only became a best seller, it also served as a model for several other sans serif typefaces that followed it. Originally issued in just one weight, the ATF Franklin Gothic family was expanded over several years to include an italic, a condensed, a condensed shaded, an extra condensed and, finally, a wide. No light or intermediate weights were ever created for the metal type family. In 1980, under license from American Type Founders, ITC commissioned Victor Caruso to create four new weights in roman and italic - book, medium, demi and heavy - while preserving the characteristics of the original ATF design. This series was followed in 1991 by a suite of twelve condensed and compressed designs drawn by David Berlow. ITC Franklin Gothic was originally released as two designs: one for display type and one for text. However, in early digital interpretations, a combined text and display solution meant the same fonts were used to set type in any size, from tiny six-point text to billboard-size letters. The problem was that the typeface design was almost always compromised and this hampered its performance at any size. David Berlow, president of Font Bureau, approached ITC with a proposal to solve this problem that would be mutually beneficial. Font Bureau would rework the ITC Franklin Gothic family, enlarge and separate it into distinct text and display designs, then offer it as part of its library as well. ITC saw the obvious value in the collaboration, and work began in early 2004. The project was supposed to end with the release of new text and display designs the following year. But, like so many design projects, the ITC Franklin venture became more extensive, more complicated and more time consuming than originally intended. The 22-font ITC Franklin Gothic family has now grown to 48 designs and is called simply ITC Franklin. The new designs range from the very willowy Thin to the robust Ultra -- with Light, Medium, Bold and Black weights in between. Each weight is also available in Narrow, Condensed and Compressed variants, and each design has a complementary Italic. In addition to a suite of new biform characters (lowercase characters drawn with the height and weight of capitals), the new ITC Franklin Pro fonts also offer an extended character set that supports most Central European and many Eastern European languages. ITC Franklin Text is currently under development.

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

Sepian is a wickedly fresh update on the centuries-old textura blackletter form. Use its razor-sharp “gothic” face and darkly cool character to create tattoos, horror-movie posters, or scary video game text. See what’s included! http://bit.ly/2c5MnNN

The font DXOldStandardGroteskNo2 was developed on the basis of the Grotesk Condensed font, which was issued by Russian type foundry from the beginning of the 20th century.

Let Me Call You Sweetheart was one of the most popular songs of the early 20th Century, and a piece of vintage sheet music for this tune had its title hand lettered in a square, narrow block lettering style. With a few adjustments and adaptations, this led to the creation of Tall and Narrow JNL, a digital version of the type design which is a perfect alternate to the more conventional condensed faces.

ITC Lubalin Graph® was initially designed by Herb Lubalin and drawn to fit the requirements of typographic reproduction by Tony DiSpigna and Joe Sundwall in 1974. Its underlying forms are those of Lubalin's previously released ITC Avant Garde Gothic, but its shapes were modified to accommodate large slab serifs. Its condensed weights, which include small caps and oldstyle figures, were later additions by Helga Jörgenson and Sigrid Engelmann in 1992. The family, with its generous x-height and overall tight fit has come to represent the typographic style of American graphic design in the 1970s. The typeface is at home when paired with mid-century modern design and spare sanses or more traditional text faces from the period. ITC Lubalin Graph covers four weights in its condensed width from Book to Bold, and five weights in its normal width.

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, condensed, bold, curved serifs, a very useful design for display, upper and lower case.

Sheet music for the song “The Little Thing You Used to Do” (from the 1935 motion picture “Go into your Dance” starring Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler) had its title set in what closely resembled Bank Gothic Condensed. [Bank Gothic was originally designed by Morris Fuller Benton for American Type Founders circa 1930.] This reinterpreted version is now known as Stenographer JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

16th and 17th century formal handwriting forms the basis for Tinderbox, an antique script. Preserving the rough impression of a quill pen on parchment, Tinderbox evokes old manuscripts, ecclesiastical texts, gothic inscriptions, faded tattoos and horror literature; spooky calligraphy for the digital age.

County Clerk JNL was modeled after the vintage Hamilton wood type design Gothic Special, and is available in both regular and oblique versions. An early grotesk font, this condensed sans serif lends itself well to short headlines and brief body copy.

This 1935 design from Monotype is an extremely condensed display font that has a slight flavor of nineteenth-century wood type. Runic Condensed font is tall and lean with a huge x-height and hairline serifs. It is an ideal display type for eccentric pieces where space is at a premium.

North is an elegant Light Condensed that provides some interesting surprises to conventional condensed fonts. Ideal for fashion, cosmetics, editorials and premium packaging design.

Moderna Sans, a modern sans-serif inspired by the American culture, is a clean and contemporary interpretation of American Gothic typefaces like "Alternate Gothic". Moderna Sans comes in 5 weights, with matching italics, and 3 widths—condensed, standard and extended. The font's character set supports over 200 Latin-based languages. Moderna Sans is an excellent choice for branding and corporate design and a versatile 3-width workhorse suitable for newspaper or magazine headlines and subheadings.

A bold condensed caps-only cross-stitch font, based on an embroidery pattern from the middle of the 20th century. Use it in large sizes for advertising, posters, greeting cards, etc.

Amherst is a family of blackletter-inspired typefaces. This family, created by British designer Richard Yeend in 2002, is unique in that it mains the feel of blackletter/medieval type without relying directly on historical forms. Amherst is split into two different sub-families, Amherst and Amherst Gothic. Amherst is very geometric interpretation of Fraktur. Fraktur was a style of German type very popular in central Europe from 1517 until the early 20th Century. Its letters appear "broken" at certain angles and joints. Still, we recommend using it primarily for display purposes. Amherst is available in three weights: Regular, Bold, and Heavy. Amherst Gothic is very loosely inspired by late medieval letterforms, often called Texturas or Gothics. However, the letterforms of Amherst Gothic seem just as inspired by the Art Deco movements of the 1920s and by contemporary sans serif type design as anything else. Nevertheless, certain letters in this typeface do appear more "gothic" than others, especially A, D, M, Y, d, r, and x. Amherst Gothic is made up of three fonts, Amherst Gothic Split, Amherst Gothic Split Alternate, and Amherst Gothic Italic. Amherst Gothic Split has in-lined characters, and appears very ornamented. The alternate characters in Amherst Gothic Split Alternate are quite medieval in their appearance. Amherst Gothic Italic is the least medieval-looking of the set; its characters are very round, and more geometric. All six styles of the Amherst Family are OpenType format fonts, and include old style figures.

In 1903, faced with the welter of sanserif typefaces offered by ATF, Morris Fuller Benton designed News Gothic, which became a 20th-century standard. In 1995 Tobias Frere-Jones studied drawings in the Smithsonian and started a redesign. Cyrus Highsmith reviewed News Gothic, and with the Font Bureau studio expanded it into Benton Sans, a far-reaching new series, with matched weights and widths, offering performance well beyond the limits of the original; FB 1995-2012

The 52 characters assembled by this Gothic font, Prince of Darkness, were once interred in coffins onboard the Russian cargo ship Demeter, when it set sail for the sleepy shores of Whitby, Northern England ages ago. Hunted down by Vampire Hunters for century after century, this noble Transylvanian set has hidden for years in England and Eastern Europe. Now, Prince of Darkness is available as a font with more Layers than Dracula has Lairs.

PF Mellon is a modernist variable grotesque with mixed roots. Its unconventional aesthetic is the product of an exploration into the art of emphasizing titles, headlines and text in captivating and unpredictable ways. Contrary to conventional practices of highlighting text with heavier weights, PF Mellon proposes an intriguing new scheme based on striking and attention-grabbing compositions of narrow and extended letterforms- even when set in lowercase. Part geometric and part grotesque, PF Mellon’s expressionist alphabet and extravagant style challenge conventions of visual culture in an Art Deco-like manner. PF Mellon’s rebellious idiosyncrasy takes its cues from the eccentric personality of our popular PF Venue, an earlier geometric sans serif characterized by its daring combinations of non-uniform structures. PF Mellon’s basic design skeleton was influenced by nineteenth and early twentieth century condensed sans serif typefaces such as Stephenson Blake's Grotesque No.77 and ATF’s Alternate Gothic, adding an extra contrast to the thickness of strokes. PF Mellon is also available as a variable font format which you may request it free of charge from Parachute® once you purchase the whole type family.

The 1960 revised edition of Sam Welo’s “Studio Handbook – Letter and Design for Artists and Advertisers” showcased a beautiful, semi-condensed Art Deco alphabet called “Modern Gothic”. It has been digitally redrawn and is available as Restauranteur JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

MYTHICA is a slightly condensed roman with spur serifs, derived from incised lettering on early twentieth century memorial stones and monuments. The typeface is available in 3 weights each with a complimentary italic.

Condensed “modern” family based on the early 19th Century Walbaum typeface. A variety of treatments for use at sizes ranging from text to large display, where the micro-detailing comes into full effect.