Zebramatic - A Lettering Safari Zebramatic is a font for editorial design use, to create headlines and titles in eye-catching stripes. Constructed to offer flexible and a variety of graphical possibilities, Zebramatic type is easy to use. The font is offered in three styles: POW, SLAM and WHAM. These styles work both as ready-made fonts and as patterns to create unique, individualized type. The font design’s full potential is unleashed by layering glyphs from two or all three styles in different colors or shades. Working with the different styles I was reminded of the late Jackson Pollock poured paintings—in particular the documentation of his painting process by Hanz Namuth and Paul Falkernburg in the film Jackson Pollock 51. In Pollock’s pictures the complex allure arises from how he layered the poured and dripped paint onto the canvas. Similar joyful experience and exciting results emerge by layering the different styles of Zebramatic type. Texture In the heart of the Design is Zebramatics unique texture. It is based on an analog distorted stripe pattern. The distortion is applied to a grade that makes the pattern complex but still consistent and legible. You can view some of the initial stripe patterns in the background of examples in the Gallery. Zebramatic POW, SLAM and WHAM each offer a distinct pallet of stripes—a unique zebra hide. POW and WHAM use different distortions of the same line width. SLAM is cut from a wider pattern with thicker stripes. The letter cut and kerning is consistent throughout styles. Design Concept Attention-grabbing textured or weathered fonts are ideal for headlines, ads, magazines and posters. In these situations rugged individuality, letter flow, and outline features are magnified and exposed. Textured fonts also immediately raise the design questions of how to create alignment across a word and deal with repeated letters. Zebramatic was conceived as an especially flexible font, one that could be used conveniently in a single style or by superimposing, interchanging and layering styles to create a unique type. The different styles are completely interchangeable (identical metrics and kerning). This architecture gives the typographer the freedom to decide which form or forms fit best to the specific project. Alignment and repetition were special concerns in the design process. The striped patterns in Zebramatic are carefully conceived to align horizontally but not to match. Matching patterns would create strong letter-pairs that would “stick out” of the word. For example, take the problematic word “stuff”. If Zebramatic aligned alphabetically, the texture of S T and U would align perfectly. The repeated F is also a problem. Imagine a headline that says »LOOK HERE«. If the letters OO and EE have copied »unique« glyphs - the headline suggests mass production, perhaps even that the designer does not care. Some OpenType features can work automatically around such disenchanting situations by accessing different glyphs from the extended glyph-table. However these automations are also repeated; the generated solutions become patterns themselves. Flip and stack To master the situation described above, Zebramatic offers a different programmatic practice. To eliminate alphabetic alignment, the letters in Zebramatic are developed individually. To avoid repetition, the designer can flip between the three styles (POW, SLAM, WHAM) providing three choices per glyph. Stacking layers in different sequences provides theoretical 27 (3*3*3) unique letterforms. A last variable to play with is color (i.e. red, blue, black). Images illustrating the layering potential of Zebramatic are provided in the Gallery. The design is robust and convenient. The font is easily operated through the main font panel (vs. the hidden sub-sub-menu for OpenType related features). The process of accessing different glyphs is also applicable in programs that do not support OpenType extensively (i.e. Word or older Versions of Illustrator). International Specs Zebramatic is ready for your international typographic safari. The font contains an international character set and additional symbols – useful in editorial and graphic design. The font comes in OpenType PostScript flavored and TrueType Format.

Multicolored Fonts Many years ago, when Xerox Corporation still had its own font department, I came to Los Angeles in 1985 to train the IKARUS program. One day Bill Kienzel, head of the Xerox font department at the time, said we should go to the Hollywood Hills together; he knew people there who were experimenting with multicolored fonts. After a little wandering through the winding streets of the many hills, we reached a somewhat overgrown, simple family house standing under trees. A group of very inspired designers were waiting for us there. They immediately showed us the works they created using photomechanical tricks. They were fascinating. The American colors and the whole look seemed noble and enchanting. The problem was that this process was very difficult to implement and required a lot of effort on individual letters. They dreamed of a colored font that could be used for normal typesetting. We thought back and forth about how to save the individually colored letters in a common font, but soon gave up because we didn't see a technical option. So this idea and the memory of the time in Hollywood lay dormant in the back of my mind for many years, until at the beginning of this year 2023 I received an order to produce an outline typeface and the story came back to me. Suddenly I knew how to solve the problem from back then: if only the areas that should have the same color in all letters were saved in their own separate fonts, they could be colored independently of each other and later placed on top of each other. I implemented this in the 5 fonts that are now available with the 3 variants “Outside”, “Middle” and “Inside”. Together with the background, 4 colors can be combined with each other. This method works in text programs such as Word or InDesign. In Photoshop or Illustrator, the individual surfaces can also be colored by converting them into paths if the additional “Complete” variants (which contain all 3 contours) are used. There is also a “Basic” variant that can be used to achieve special effects such as overlay, bleed, etc. The first 5 fonts in this series are all based on the principle of contouring. Anyone who claims that you don't need any special fonts because they can be created automatically from any font using common programs is wrong or is only telling only half the truth. Anyone who has ever dealt with this knows that many individual adjustments to the design are necessary after contouring. This has happened in the 5 fonts that are now available and have very different styles. The dream from back then has come true. The user can set any text, long or short, in multiple colors, freely design the color scheme and apply all the usual typographic settings. Volker Schnebel, November 2023

QUALITYPE + VARIABLE FONT FAMILY "QualiTYPE" font extends its use by providing weights from "Thin" to "Black". Natural curves, ridges, and curved bodies grow in character as the font gains weight. "Qualitype" is an exciting serif font with contemporary twists. It has a distinctive sound that preserves the simplicity and elegance of classic "serif" fonts with a fresh, stylish rework. Her personality is bold and fills the space without shouting, she looks elegant and confident. The low X-height provides a great amount of visibility at all weights and is optically corrected for better readability. In the process of working on "Qualitype" we wanted to expand the functionality of the typeface a bit more, so after a few tries two different fonts were born: "Old", "Neo" and "italics" versions. "Qualitype" is perfect for use in magazines, in the fashion industry, in the branding of premium goods and services. "Qualitype" is quite versatile and suitable for use both in headings and in text arrays. In addition, we have done manual hinting in the typeface, and now it can be used with a clear conscience in the web and applications. “Quality” typeface consists of 56 styles: 2 style, 2 Shining, 7 weights and italics. Each typeface style consists of 860+ glyphs (except for the decoratives). “Qualitype” supports over 80+ languages. A variant version of the basic styles has been prepared for the most demanding users. Using the variability slider, you can adjust and select the individual thickness regardless of the current weight distribution. An important clarification - not all programs support variable technologies yet, you can check the support status here: https://v-fonts.com/support/. OPENTYPE FEATURES aalt, dnom, onum, pnum, tnum, lnum, numr, frac, zero, sing, sups, subs, case, c2sc, smack, salt, hist, titl, holing, dig, liga, ss01, ss02, ss03, ss04, ss05, ss06, ss07, ss08, ss09, ss10, kern FEATURE SUMMARY: - 4 Axes: 2 Style: Old and Neo. 7 weights: Thin, Light, Book, Regular, Medium, Bold and Black. 2 Shining: Dark and Lamp. Matching italics (12º) for all weights and style . - Matching small caps for all weights and widths. - Lining and old style figures (proportional and tabular). - Alternate characters (a, d, g, m, n, p, q, r, u, y). - Unlimeted fractions. - 24 Dingbats. - Extended language support. - Extended currency support. You can contact me at buyuksel@hotmail.com, pre-purchase and post-purchase with questions and for technical support. You can enjoy using it.

While I was developing this font, my mother kept feeding me something she calls "Dream Cake". This indescribably delicious confection fueled my inspiration (there's nothing like a constant sugar-high to keep you going!) and the result is this cute little font. Dream Cake is casual in nature and as with all of my fonts, you'll find some quirky little twists to make your type projects interesting.

Aphrodite Slim Pro is not just a lighter version of its sister Aphrodite Pro. Aphrodite Slim Pro has duplicated the quantity of characters of its partner, and that means more than 500 new glyphs, reaching a total of more than 1000. More delicate and meticulous, Aphrodite Slim Pro is once more a new typography with deep calligraphic ideals: We immersed ourselves into the world of each calligraphy ductus and each calligraphy masters by studying from decoration to lettering books. This was the key for the logic of Aphrodite Slim’s behavior. The new concept of Aphrodite Slim Pro was to join diverse styles of calligraphy in one in order to achieve an autonomous expressiveness, in fact, this is what calligraphy aims to, and we agreed to bring those ideals to the world of typography: It is justifiable to be inspired in hundred-year-old calligraphies, but it is even better if the results you obtain have a plus. A personal plus. During the creation process we were wondering whether it was possible to mix certain strokes of such rigid styles as uncial, (Li·n’s favourite style), with strokes of the copperplate, (Sav’s favourite style), and also to take and mix cualities of cancelleresca cursiva, formata and moderna; finally giving our creation a roman-transition italic look. So Aphrodite Slim takes ideals and aspects from those formal styles, following its own logic though, and emphasizing the fact of being a decorative typography. Calligraphy masters of our past are who we are in debt with. They are the cause we have lovely letters now. They have been spontaneous at the moment of creation, what differs from the type-designers of nowadays, whose spontaneity is more limited. Digital faces that we are used to see these days are a result of long hours of optical adjustments, grids, macros and inspirations of other existing typography, but without personal contributions. Aphrodite Slim wants to refute this. Its mission is to rescue de spontaneity of the artesanal lettering in order to obtain unique words; those which only calligraphy masters of our past or lettering artists of our present could give us. We have worked hard to achieve this, making Aphrodite the most universal font we could: It was necessary to study the most common words, focalizing more in the ones referring to “sensitivity”, of four of the most spoken languages in the world. Aphrodite Slim has an enormous quantity of decorative characters and special ligatures for phrases and words in English, French, Spanish and German. (See English, Français, Español, Deutsch PDF in the gallery section). We promise there is no existing type that decorates/ligates glyphs and words like Aphrodite Slim does: It is the first time a font like this really considers its purpose. -The way glyphs are ligated is insane- : Aphrodite Slim rescues some ideals of persons like Jan van den Velde (Italian cancilleresca writing of XVI Century) who understands ascenders and descenders as possibilities to beautify the lines of writing with curved strokes that seem to be dancing above and below of the words. This master also creates ascenders and descenders even where they are not necessary, on letters that do not actually need them: Aphrodite Slim takes this ideal. The font counts with a wide range of glyphs that seem not to be satisfied with its more primitive form and prefer to extreme their parts to be decorative. It also existed masters of calligraphy like José de Casanova of XVII Century, who, with a magnificant skill and a really personal mark, had the particularity of ligating words that were actually separated with spaces. This is another innovative feature in Aphrodite Slim. An investigation of the most common beginnings and endings words of the English language was done. Having that feature activated (discretionary ligatures), common words will start to ligate or to be decorated even when they are separated by spaces. Impossible to forget Francesco Periccioli of XVII Century and our experience us designers to face with works of him: His letters, that today are included in the group of cancellerescas modernas, have been a direct inspiration to the oldstyle figures and historical forms variables in Aphrodite Slim. Giovanni Antonio Tagliente (XVI Century) and his particular way of making tails and diagonals longer than usual, qualities that our creation reflects too. Finally, our adventures in Biblioteca Nacional and Barrio San Telmo, Buenos Aires, were essential for us to make Aphrodite Slim more complete and interesting: Sav did an excellent work when studying how the decorative miscellanea and swirls of early XX century were. She also investigated what particularities made those roman titling characters look antique so she could rescue some ideals for the oldstyle figures and historical forms variables. This also leaded her to create the ornaments variable in Aphrodite Slim. We are really proud of presenting Aphrodite Slim Pro, a typography that was the result of days and nights of working hard, because we do love what we do; and we are glad we are living in a present that gives us the possibility to spread this kind of art, because that is the way we consider our job: Aphrodite Slim Pro is Art. Hope you can appreciate the enormous work this type has. Features. Aphrodite Slim Pro is the most complete variable. It includes more than 1000 glyphs. Thanks to the Open-Type programming, it counts with a easy way to change/alternate glyphs if the application in which the font is used supports this. The variables contained in Aphrodite Slim Pro are also offered separately. Aphrodite Slim Text: It is the variable for lines and paragraphs. Thus it is the least ornamental and the most accurate to achieve a satisfying legibility. It has the Standard Ligatures feature in order to improve the possible conflicts some glyphs could have by others. Aphrodite Slim Contextual: It is the one that makes emphasis in decorating. It has the particularity of ligating/decorating words of common use in English, French, Spanish and German. It also has the quality of ligating common beginnings and endings of the common words in English. Aphrodite Slim Stylistic: With similar features of Slim Contextual. It includes a set of decorative numbers for a display use. Aphrodite Slim Swash: This one has special beginnings and endings to decorate words. Aphrodite Slim Endings: It makes words look as a signature. Aphrodite Slim Historical: It adds an antique look to the written word. It also has the special historical ligature function. Aphrodite Slim Titling: This one is the most decorative. Its copperplate inspired ornaments give words a special color, in order to handle the quantity of decoration, it comes with the standard ligature feature, which has the most common ligatures plus others that make decorative swirls not to be conflictive. Aphrodite Slim Ornaments: A set of 52 ornaments. Aphrodite Slim Pro includes all this features plus the Stylistic Set 1; Stylistic Set 2 and the possibility of Slashed Zero. We recommend you to check out the gallery in order to see all these features in action.

“A picture is worth a thousand words” and here, that’s more than true. Take a look at Erotica’s Booklet; Erotica’s Poster Design and Erotica’s User’s Guide before reading below. THE STYLES The difference between Pro and Std styles is the quantity of glyphs. Therefore, Pro styles include all the decorative alternates and ligatures while Std styles are a reduced version of Pro ones. Big and Small styles were thought for better printing results. While Big is recommended to be printed in big sizes, Small may be printed in tiny sizes and will still show its hairlines well. INTRODUCTION I have always wondered if the circle could ever be considered as an imperfect shape. Thousands of years have passed and we still consider circles as synonyms of infinite beauty. Some believe that there is something intrinsically “divine” that could be found in them. Sensuality is many times related to perfectly shaped strong curves, exuberant forms and a big contrasts. Erotica is a font created with this in mind. THE PROCESS This story begins one fine day of March in 2012. I was looking for something new. Something which would express the deep love I feel regarding calligraphy in a new way. At that time, I was practicing a lot of roundhand, testing and feeling different kinds of nibs; hearing the sometimes sharp, sometimes soft, sound of them sliding on the paper. This kind of calligraphy has some really strict rules: An even pattern of repetition is required, so you have to be absolutely aware of the pressure of the flexible pen; and of the distance between characters. Also, learning copperplate can be really useful to understand about proportion in letters and how a minimum change of it can drastically affect the look of the word and text. Many times I would forget about type-design and I would let myself go(1): Nothing like making the pen dance when adding some accolades above and below the written word. Once something is mastered, you are able to break some rules. At least, that’s my philosophy. (2) After some research, I found that the world was in need of a really sexy yet formal copperplate. (3) I started Erotica with the idea of taking some rules of this style to the extreme. Some characters were drawn with a pencil first because what I had in mind was impossible to be made with a pen. (4) Finding a graceful way to combine really thick thicks with really thin hairlines with satisfactory results demanded months of tough work: The embryo of Erotica was a lot more bolder than now and had a shorter x-height. Changing proportions of Erotica was crucial for its final look. The taller it became the sexier it looked. Like women again? The result is a font filled with tons of alternates which can make the user think he/she is the actual designer of the word/phrase due to the huge amount of possibilities when choosing glyphs. To make Erotica work well in small sizes too, I designed Erotica Small which can be printed in tiny sizes without any problems. For a more elegant purpose, I designed Erotica Inline, with exactly the same features you can find in the other styles. After finishing these styles, I needed a partner for Erotica. Inspired again in some old calligraphic books I found that Bickham used to accompany his wonderful scripts with some ornated roman caps. Erotica Capitals follows the essentials of those capitals and can be used with or without its alternates to accompany Erotica. In 2013, Erotica received a Certificate of Excellence in Type Design in the 59th TDC Type Directors Club Typeface Design Competition. Meet Erotica, beauty and elegance guaranteed. Notes (1) It is supossed that I'm a typographer rather than a calligrapher, but the truth is that I'm in the middle. Being a graphic designer makes me a little stubborn sometimes. But, I found that the more you don't think of type rules, the more graceful and lively pieces of calligraphy can be done. (2) “Know the forms well before you attempt to make them” used to say E. A. Lupfer, a master of this kind of script a century ago. And I would add “And once you know them, it’s time to fly...” (3) Some script fonts by my compatriots Sabrina Lopez, Ramiro Espinoza and Alejandro Paul deserve a mention here because of their undeniable beauty. The fact that many great copperplate fonts come from Argentina makes me feel really proud. Take a look at: Parfumerie, Medusa, Burgues, Poem and Bellisima. (4) Some calligraphers, graphic and type designer experimented in this field in the mid-to-late 20th century and made a really playful style out of it: Letters show a lot of personality and sometimes they seem drawn rather than written. I want to express my sincere admiration to the fantastic Herb Lubalin, and his friends Tony DiSpigna, Tom Carnase, and of course my fellow countryman Ricardo Rousselot. All of them, amazing.

FA Berlewi is inspired by stencil lettering of a vanguard creator, Henryk Berlewi, who was a precursor of contemporary typography, a painter and a creator of the mechano-facture (Mechano-Faktura) theory. In 1924 he designed a poster for his mechano-facture one-man show in Warsaw Austro-Daimler car salon. An attention-grabbing composition with stencil lettering was doubtless a real innovation and according to Berlewi - the first typographic poster to be made in Poland.

ATF Agency Gothic was designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1932 as a lone titling typeface. In 1990, David Berlow saw potential in the squared forms of the narrow, monotone capitals. He designed a lowercase and added a bold to produce Font Bureau Agency, an immediately popular hit. Sensing its potential to be than just a useful condensed face, Font Bureau developed Agency into a major series offering five weights in five widths; FB 1990-95

Worriment is a simple, one-off typeface; part of the Dreads collection from the Ampersand Forest. He was born of a whimsical sense of queasiness and unease — he's not just scary, he's Scary Fun! A little kitsch, a little horror. Great for use on Halloween-themed designs, and reminiscent of a "wizarding" look. In terms of letterforms, Worriment is a quirky blackletter-latin hybrid with a sharp, slightly bouncy baseline, and jangly angles, suitable for display use.

Ralph M. Unger, known for his preference for blackletter designs, brought this beautiful blackletter variant back to life. Based on artwork from old catalogues, he redesigned, digitally remastered and completed the character set for this typeface. Breite Kanzlei cannot be avoided by blackletter lovers!

The basic forms stem from Erich Mollowitz' version which he cut for Trennert in 1936. These fonts were completely redrawn, extended with East European letterforms and some OpenType features. They are well suited for more formal invitations, headlines and subtitles, for diplomas and certificates.

THE END IS NIGH! Judgment Day has come and this planet has been CONDEMNED! Do not conspire to hide what remains of your paltry world from my eyes! Know you not that NONE may thwart my will? Of what import are brief, nameless lives -- to DOOMSDAY?? Death is Certain! Apocalypse is UNAVOIDABLE. At last, my cosmic hunger will be sated, if only briefly! This planet shall SUSTAIN me until it has been drained of all elemental life! SO SPEAKS DOOMSDAY! But do not fret. Even if the Domesday Book has been closed on your planet... your utter destruction is being made available in Font form, I call it IF THIS BE DOOMSDAY, and I will deliver it to you via comicbookfonts.com in Regular, (Roach) Chew and Outline weights. Never let it be said that DOOMSDAY is without mercy. Features: Three weights (Regular, Chew & Outline) with small cap characters and Western & Central European international characters.

Geometric font inspired by shop signs in 4 styles Anisette has sprouted as a way to test some ideas of designs. It has started with a simple line construction (not outlines as usual) that can be easily expanded and condensed in its width in Illustrator. Subsequently, this principle of multiple widths and extreme weights permitted to Jean François Porchez to have a better understanding with the limitations associated with the use of MultipleMaster to create intermediate font weights. Anisette built around the idea of two widths capitals can be described as a geometric sanserif typeface influenced by the 30s and the Art Deco movement. Its design relies on multiple sources, from Banjo through Cassandre posters, but especially lettering of Paul Iribe. In France, at that time, the Art Deco spirit is mainly capitals. Gérard Blanchard has pointed to Jean Francois that Art Nouveau typefaces designed by Bellery-Desfontaines was featured before the Banjo with this principle of two widths capitals. The complementarity between the two typefaces are these wide capitals mixed with narrow capitals for the Anisette while the Anisette Petite – in its latest version proposes capitals on a square proportions, intermediate between the two others sets. Of course, the Anisette Petite fonts also includes lowercases too. Anisette Petite, a geometric font inspired by shop signs in 4 styles So, when Jean François Porchez has decided to create lowercases the story became more complicated. His stylistic references couldn’t be restricted anymore to the French Art-déco period but to the shop signs present in our cities throughout the twentieth century. These signs, lettering pieces aren’t the typical foundry typefaces. Simply because the influences of these painted letters are different, not directly connected to foundry roots which generally follow typography history. The outcome is a palette of slightly strange shapes, without strictly not following geometrical, mechanical and historical principles such as those that typically appear in typefaces marketed by foundries. As an example, the Anisette Petite r starts with a small and visible sort of apex that no other similar glyphs such as n or m feature, but present at the end of the l and y. The famous g loop is actually inspired by Chancery scripts, which has nothing to do with the lettering. The goal is of course to mix forms without direct reports, in order to properly celebrate this lettering spirit. This is why the e almost finishes horizontally as the Rotis – and the top a which must logically follow this principle and is drawn more round-curly. This weird choice seemed so odd to its designer that he shared his doubts and asked for advise to Jeremy Tankard who immediately was reassuring: “Oddly, your new top a is fine, it brings roundness to the typeface, when the previous pushes towards Anisette Petite to unwanted austerity.” The Anisette Petite, since its early days, is a mixture of non-consistent but charming shapes. Anisette, an Art Déco typeface Anisette Petite Club des directeurs artistiques, 46e palmarès Bukva:raz 2001

Johann Carl Ludwig Prillwitz, the German punch cutter and type founder, cut the first classic Didot letters even earlier than Walbaum. The earliest proof of so-called Prillwitz letters is dated 12 April 1790. Inspired by the big discoveries of archaeology and through the translations of classical authors, the bourgeoisie was enthused about the Greek and Roman ideal of aesthetics. The enthusiasm for the Greek and Roman experienced a revival and was also shared by Goethe and contemporaries. »Seeking the country of Greece with one’s soul«. All Literates who are considered nowadays as German Classics of that time kept coming back to the Greek topics, thinking of Schiller and Wieland. The works of Wieland were published in Leipzig by Göschen. Göschen used typefaces which had been produced by until then unknown punch cutter. This punch cutter from Jena created with these typefaces master works of classicist German typography. They can stand without any exaggeration on the same level as that of Didot and Bodoni. This unknown gentleman was known as Johann Carl Ludwig Prillwitz. Prillwitz published his typefaces on 12th April 1790 for the first time. This date is significant because this happened ten years before Walbaum. Prillwitz was an owner of a very successful foundry. When the last of his 7 children died shortly before reaching adulthood his hope of his works was destroyed, Prillwitz lost his will to live. He died six months later. His wife followed him shortly after. The typeface Prillwitz as a digital font was created in three optical styles (Normal, Book and Display). The typeface Prillwitz Press was created especially for a printing in small sizes for newspapers. »Prillwitz Press« combines aesthetic and functional attributes which make written text highly readable. It was originally designed for a newspaper with medium contrast to withstand harsh printing conditions. Its structure is quite narrow which makes this typeface ideal for body text and headlines where space is at premium. For the Normal – even more for the Book – a soft and reader-friendly outline was created through a so-called »Schmitz« and optimized in numerous test prints. The arris character and the common maximal stroke width contrast of the known classicist typefaces (Didot/Bodoni) were edited by the study of the original prints. This was also done in order to reach a very good readability in small type sizes. This typeface is perfectly suited to scientific and belletristic works. Accordingly it has three styles: Regular, Bold and Italic as Highlighting (1). The typeface Prillwitz is a complete new interpretation and continuing development of the conservated originals from 1790. They have been kept in the German Library in Leipzig. It was always given the priority to keep the strong roughness and at the same time optimizing the readability of this striking font. The type family has all important characters for an efficient and typographic high quality work. ----------- (1) Accentuation of particular words or word orders (e.g. proper names, terms etc.). Typographic means for Highlighting could be Italic, SmallCaps or semi-bold.

ITC Flora is the work of Dutch designer Gerard Unger, and is named for his daughter. He started by doing calligraphy experiments with felt-tip and ballpoint pens, and developed these drawings into a formalized script typeface. Swiss typographer Max Caflisch advised the Dr.-Ing Rudolf Hell GmbH technology firm to add a new round-nibbed script face to their Digiset type library, and in 1984, Flora was released by Hell. Unger used a chancery cursive skeleton in this design, which imparts grace and movement. Flora was also intentionally designed to be simple and sturdy, and with its minimal variation in thick/thin stroke ratio, it worked well on the early digital typesetting machines. In 1989, the International Typeface Corporation released the font. ITC Flora continues to work well on current printers and typesetters, and it has an enduring popularity for uses that range from short text passages to display headlines.

“In some way I was Mr Mamoulian, and someone else was writing and drawing this stuff. He kept sending me these pages. I had to sign my name and pass them off as my own. I had no choice. He was holding my aged mother hostage, you see. I told him when the pages were due and he somehow got them to me. Sometimes he left them in secret locations. I don't remember them at all.” -- Brian Bolland Mr. Mamoulian has four weights with automatic alternating uppercase letters, Crossbar I Technology, and European, Vietnamese & Cyrillic language support.

The history of Aerolite, from Jan Paul: "The Aerolite fonts are essentially stripped down versions of a complex outline typeface I designed for the first Midnight Oil album in 1978, affectionately known as "The Blue Meanie". Many years later I saw the font "powderworks" and asked Brian Kent if he would be interested in digitizing Aerolite. Brian is a font (!) of knowledge and was of invaluable help by getting Aerolite to where it is today. Special care was taken in keeping the distinct character while as Aerolite Regular also providing a legible, thouroughly kerned body type which can be used in all sizes for large volume text." For the Pro version the kerning has been tweaked further, and the character set completed and expanded - and the alternate uppercase A (also with accents) is available as OpenType stylistic alternates. It is now ready for your next international science or sci-fi project. ALL fonts from CheapProFonts have very extensive language support: They contain some unusual diacritic letters (some of which are contained in the Latin Extended-B Unicode block) supporting: Cornish, Filipino (Tagalog), Guarani, Luxembourgian, Malagasy, Romanian, Ulithian and Welsh. They also contain all glyphs in the Latin Extended-A Unicode block (which among others cover the Central European and Baltic areas) supporting: Afrikaans, Belarusian (Lacinka), Bosnian, Catalan, Chichewa, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, Greenlandic, Hungarian, Kashubian, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Maori, Polish, Saami (Inari), Saami (North), Serbian (latin), Slovak(ian), Slovene, Sorbian (Lower), Sorbian (Upper), Turkish and Turkmen. And they of course contain all the usual "western" glyphs supporting: Albanian, Basque, Breton, Chamorro, Danish, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Frisian, Galican, German, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish (Gaelic), Italian, Northern Sotho, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Rhaeto-Romance, Sami (Lule), Sami (South), Scots (Gaelic), Spanish, Swedish, Tswana, Walloon and Yapese.

Morris Fuller Benton designed the serifed Clearface typeface for ATF in 1907. He liked the design so much that he also created a flare-serif variation, Clearface Gothic, soon after. It is a great typeface for headlines. SoftMaker created an updated version, Cleargothic Pro, in 2012. SoftMaker’s Cleargothic Pro typeface family contains OpenType layout tables for sophisticated typography. It also comes with a huge character set that covers not only Western European languages, but also includes Central European, Baltic, Croatian, Slovene, Romanian, and Turkish characters. Case-sensitive punctuation signs for all-caps titles are included as well as many fractions, an extensive set of ligatures, and separate sets of tabular and proportional digits.

Monotype Bembo is generally regarded as one of the most handsome revivals of Aldus Manutius' 15th century roman type, but the original had no italic counterpart. The story is told that Stanley Morison commissioned Alfred Fairbank, a renowned calligrapher, to create the first italic for Bembo, which was released as metal fonts in 1929. Alfred Fairbank, however, claimed that he drew the design as an independent project and then sold his drawings to Monotype. According to him, the statement has been made that I was asked to design an italic for the Bembo roman. This is not so. Had the request been made, the italic type produced would have been different." Whichever version you believe, it was obvious that Fairbank's design - while undeniably beautiful - was not harmonious with Bembo roman. A second, more conventional italic was eventually drawn and added to the Bembo family. Fairbank's first design, which was based on the work of sixteenth-century writing master Ludovico degli Arrighi, managed to have a modest life of its own as a standalone font of metal type. It never made the leap into phototype fonts, however, and the face could have been lost, were it not for Robin Nicholas, Monotype Imaging's Head of Typography in the United Kingdom, and Carl Crossgrove, a senior designer for Monotype Imaging in the US. Nicholas and Crossgrove used the original drawings for Fairbank as the starting point for a new digital design, but this was only the beginning. They improved spacing, added subtle kerning and optimized the design for digital imaging. In addition, Nicholas created an alternative set of lowercase letters, fancy and swash capitals and enough alternate characters to personalize virtually any design project. By the time his work was complete, Nicholas and Crossgrove had created a small type family that included Fairbank, a revived version of the earlier metal font, and Fairbank Chancery, a more calligraphic rendition of the design. An additional suite of ornate caps, elegant ligatures, and beginning and ending letters accompanies both fonts, as does a full complement of lowercase swash characters. Now, instead of a failed Bembo italic, Fairbank emerges in its true glory: a sumptuous, elegant design that will lend a note of grace to holiday greetings, invitations, and any application where its Italianate beauty is called for."

Bodoni Classic Swashes is my personal addition to Bodoni’s family of typefaces. Bodoni did not design a decorative version. His quest was for purity in book design. Even though in his days it was not called design; he thought of himself purely as a printer. But I think, especially after visiting the Bodoni museum in Parma, if Giambattista were alive today he would design a decorative typeface. Yours classico, Gert Wiescher

Type designer Luc(as) de Groot has a large archive of lettering he drew by hand, often to accompany the quirky cartoons which he made in his visual diaries. Only a few of these alpahabets have been digitized into full-fledged typefaces. Punten (Dutch for "points" or "spikes") is one of them. It comes in three styles of varying legibility: Punten Straight, Punten Extremo, and Punten Rondom (Dutch for "all around").

A digital foundry situated in England's rural South-West and established in 2005, Sparklefonts is Geoff Andersen, a man on a quest, from philosophy to aesthetics, from wild inspiration to wild gesticulation, from post-modernism right through to post-rationalisation. Boldly seeking unique and viable letterform architectures, he is equally determined to maintain legibility without compromising style. His journey has taken him through stencils and uncials, calligraphy and typography, through graphic design and guitar design. The story has been moving, the view spectacular, the punctuation superb. Geoff's sources are apparently limitless, his passion overwhelming, his fonts a labor of love, his therapist a Trojan!

Trithemius, a 15th century Abbott, and influential counselor to Emperor Maximilian I, was also an author who wrote both histories and the first printed work on cryptography which gained him much adverse notoriety. He has been long regarded as a mystic and some of his works were therefore banned. However, it may have been his intention to cloak his cryptology essays in mystical writing to keep people from easily grasping the subject matter, which it has been recently demonstrated, at heart was really cryptological methodology. This font is based on a printed version of the Polygraphiae a text that included many methods of encryption.

Bodoni Classic Deco is against all rules. Giambattista Bodoni himself would probably hate me for doing it; he was a real purist. The whole idea of the Bodoni typeface is no embellishments and here I go and decorate those nice clear letters. Shame on me! But I find this is a very nice and useful typeface for all kinds of cards and certificates. So I just did it for all of you out there that are not born purists, but want a little embellishment to their lives. And to make things worse, I added a Small Caps cut. I even decorated it. Enjoy! Yours, breaking all the rules, Gert Wiescher

A digital foundry situated in England's rural South-West and established in 2005, Sparklefonts is Geoff Andersen, a man on a quest, from philosophy to aesthetics, from wild inspiration to wild gesticulation, from post-modernism right through to post-rationalisation. Boldly seeking unique and viable letterform architectures, he is equally determined to maintain legibility without compromising style. His journey has taken him through stencils and uncials, calligraphy and typography, through graphic design and guitar design. The story has been moving, the view spectacular, the punctuation superb. Geoff's sources are apparently limitless, his passion overwhelming, his fonts a labor of love, his therapist a Trojan!

Découpé Based on a French children’s play from 1906. In a car boot sale André Toet found a funny looking box containing a lot of cut out cardboard figures, in fact it looked a bit like a geometric puzzle! He played around a bit and succeeded to create a workable typeface with it ! The interesting thing about this particular font is, that in fact it’s organized chaos. The 26 letters of the alphabet are a mix between caps and lowercases, so within one word caps and lowercases will be used next to each other. It’s a very useful font for different projects. Concept/Art Direction/Design: André Toet © 2017

A digital foundry situated in England's rural South-West and established in 2005, Sparklefonts is Geoff Andersen, a man on a quest, from philosophy to aesthetics, from wild inspiration to wild gesticulation, from post-modernism right through to post-rationalisation. Boldly seeking unique and viable letterform architectures, he is equally determined to maintain legibility without compromising style. His journey has taken him through stencils and uncials, calligraphy and typography, through graphic design and guitar design. The story has been moving, the view spectacular, the punctuation superb. Geoff's sources are apparently limitless, his passion overwhelming, his fonts a labor of love, his therapist a Trojan!

A digital foundry situated in England's rural South-West and established in 2005, Sparklefonts is Geoff Andersen, a man on a quest, from philosophy to aesthetics, from wild inspiration to wild gesticulation, from post-modernism right through to post-rationalisation. Boldly seeking unique and viable letterform architectures, he is equally determined to maintain legibility without compromising style. His journey has taken him through stencils and uncials, calligraphy and typography, through graphic design and guitar design. The story has been moving, the view spectacular, the punctuation superb. Geoff's sources are apparently limitless, his passion overwhelming, his fonts a labor of love, his therapist a Trojan!

A digital foundry situated in England's rural South-West and established in 2005, Sparklefonts is Geoff Andersen, a man on a quest, from philosophy to aesthetics, from wild inspiration to wild gesticulation, from post-modernism right through to post-rationalisation. Boldly seeking unique and viable letterform architectures, he is equally determined to maintain legibility without compromising style. His journey has taken him through stencils and uncials, calligraphy and typography, through graphic design and guitar design. The story has been moving, the view spectacular, the punctuation superb. Geoff's sources are apparently limitless, his passion overwhelming, his fonts a labor of love, his therapist a Trojan!

A font perfect for not just one, but many projects! Introducing Oceanwide Pro, a sans that loves to be used in just about any situation! Designed with ultra clean lines and versatility in mind, Oceanwide wants to be your new favorite sans! Oceanwide’s ultra clean letters work anywhere you want to communicate orderliness and competence, and designed to build trust and rapport with your audience. Its wide proportions make it ideal for display and logo use. Oceanwide especially shines for white/bright letters on black/dark backgrounds! That’s because the inside shapes are nearly perfect circles in many weights. Here's a quick video tour of Oceanwide Pro by Dave Lawrence, including all the great things Oceanwide can be used for! We've tested Oceanwide for these industries, with stunning results!: Tech Arts Fashion & Style Business & Branding Corporations Logistics Architecture Food and many more... Oceanwide can be used for: Headers Subheadlines Logos Even body text, if tracked. Print & Screen The styles it can take are also many. It's great for: Modern/minimalist design Flat design Cut out design User Interface (UI) Technical designs In combination with text effects, even for grunge and other situations. And many others... DESIGN FEATURES Simplicity Tall x-height Hand-sloped obliques (italics) Narrow spacing Semi-wide proportions Expert kerning Well proportioned, usable lights & extra lights Large caps Great ALL CAPS MODE Uppercase punctuation Uppercase spacing with California Type Foundry’s Smart Tracking™ Advanced fraction support Proportional lining figures Thick joins Smooth curves Sturdy—great for textures and effects Variable font available Latin Pro character set for Central European languages. That's the writing for over 782 languages and transliterations worldwide! DESIGN STORY—THE FORGOTTEN SANS by Dave Lawrence, Lead Designer, California Type Foundry Adrian Frutiger was the 20th century master of sans, but I didn't realize he had made—not one—but TWO geometric sans! It wasn't until I had purchased the book “Adrian Frutiger: Typefaces”. I had hoped to someday meet Adrian Frutiger, but he passed away that very same year. Here is the story of Frutiger's forgotten sans. Back in 1968, Frutiger was approached by Pentagram to make a design for British Petroleum. They wanted a "new version of Futura". However, they wanted him to make a couple adjustments. First, they felt that Futura was "too fiddly." By this, they meant that it narrowed too much at the joins. (Joins are for example where the round and straight parts of the 'd' meet.) This is something that is necessary for small print text (to prevent ink clogging), but is not necessary at large sizes. Second, they wanted it to be entirely geometric, using the circular shape with minimal optical corrections. Unfortunately this font was not even used very consistently in the BP brand. A haphazard mix of Futura and Frutiger's BP font ensued. It was then replaced by another font design very soon after. My design is different in several ways. First, the commas and quotes are a more modern style. I tried his original commas, but these just didn’t work to 21st century eyes. Second, in his drawings, Frutiger went for a more standard u with a downstroke on the right. However, Oceanwide has a simpler u. Third, I made more optical adjustments. At the direction of his employer, Frutiger reluctantly put no font optical corrections into the letters. So I think my optical adjustments are similar to what Frutiger would have wanted. Fourth, I extended the weight into the light and extra light ranges. Fifth, the rest of the font I created according to the principles of Adrian Frutiger, but with no sources for inspiration. Here is Frutiger’s design philosophy, in his own words: “If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page... When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful.” The words about the spoon were the ones I kept in my mind as I tried to make the curves ultra smooth, and the shapes ultra simple. Hopefully this font is a worthy successor to the font that inspired it. Released on the 93rd birthday of Adrian Frutiger, to celebrate the life and achievements of this amazing designer. ——————— Simplicity. Versatility. Oceanwide.

Malden Sans is a mischievous grotesque sans serif with charming details that gives designers a solid typographic voice. It was created by Michele Patanè with regular and condensed widths, as a utilitarian typeface family for print and digital environments. It was originally designed as part of a type system for cinema magazines, and embodies the devil-may care attitude of the silver screen. Designer Michele Patanè looked back to an earlier era of typography to create the typeface, embracing unusual details, rather than ironing them out. “There is a very naive way of using typography in the 30s and 40s, something not as clean as how it’s used in the late 50s and 60s when everything passed through a rationalisation of the typographic palette,” he explains. “In film magazines you can still see a bit of roughness, and I like that.” This is a design that’s desperate to be used in editorial environments, and has been created to stand up to lower quality paper. It would be equally at home on posters, packaging, and even in digital environments where designers are looking for something more expressive than another geometric sans serif. Malden Sans includes a Normal and Condensed range, with 7 weights in the normal and 6 in the Condensed, both including italics.

When Aldo Novarese designed his “tipo inglese” Juliet typeface, he had a simple objective in mind: Reduce the inclination angle of the traditional 18th and 19th centuries English script in order to make the punchcutter’s job easier and the resulting metal type more durable. But when Juliet was released by Nebiolo in 1955, it was a big surprise to both typesetters and calligraphers all over Europe. Novarese’s idea of working the standard copperplate script within the limited technology of the time proved to be a marvel in optical metal sizing (Juliet was available in sizes ranging from 12 to 60 pt), but also opened the door to new calligraphic possibilities. Easier readability and a very friendly color were obvious side effects of the reduced angle. So soon after its release, calligraphers worldwide began emulating the angle reduction and experimenting with the application of the same concept to other calligraphic genres. Today, more than 50 years later, many professional calligraphers point to Novarese’s Juliet as an opening to fresh ideas and new directions in 20th century elegant calligraphy. Ambassador Script, this digital version of Aldo Novarese’s surprising masterpiece, is the result of more than a thousand hours of work. Going above and beyond its duty as a revival, it was expanded by a great number of alternates, swashes, beginning and ending forms, as well as accompanying flourishes and snap-on strokes for even more ending forms. Ambassador Script also supports almost every known Latin-based language, which makes its name all the more fitting. Ambassador Script is available in all popular font formats. The True Type and Postscript Type 1 versions come in 12 fonts, available in different piecemeal configurations or a full volume. The OpenType version collects more than 2300 characters in a single feature-rich font that can sing mightily in OpenType-supporting applications. Ambassador Script is ideal for weddings, invitations, greeting cards, book and magazine covers, or anywhere a touch of calligraphic elegance is desired.

FF Casus was drawn for print – but is also as natural for textual content in interactive design. It brings warmth and a subtle, handcrafted quality to pages in books and periodicals as well as banners and informational copy on large and small screens. It pairs flawlessly with a wide range of sans serif typefaces to create inviting and easy to read text copy. Drawn by Eugene Yukechev, FF Casus is a fresh take on the robust serif typefaces produced early in the 18th century. The FF Casus™ typeface family takes advantage of slightly narrowed proportions, moderate contrast in stroke weight and an ample x-height to achieve high levels of legibility and efficient use of space. Born in Novosibirsk, Russia, in 1980, Yukechev earned degrees in philology in addition to editorial and graphic design. He also graduated from the British Higher School of Design in Moscow, studying type and typographic design. Yukechev now runs the Moscow-based studio “Schrift Publishers” and the online “Type Journal” with his colleagues. The six weights of FF Casus – each with an italic complement – are available as OpenType® Pro fonts with an extended character set supporting most Central European and many Eastern European languages. Looking for something new – with the panache and warmth of an old book face? FF Casus may be the perfect choice.

Decipher, designed by Mans Greback, is an edgy graffiti-inspired font that captures the essence of street art and hip-hop culture. With its cool, calligraphic and marker-style handwriting, Decipher brings the energy and speed of urban life into your designs. Perfect for projects that require a touch of street-smart attitude, this font will take your creations to the next level. The typeface comes in four styles: the Regular style and the Symbols style, both provided in Bold. The Symbols style is a unique addition, offering a variety of tag elements such as swashes, arrows, stars, and crowns to enhance your designs further and unleash your creativity. The font is built with advanced OpenType functionality and has a guaranteed top-notch quality, containing stylistic and contextual alternates, ligatures, and more features; all to give you full control and customizability. It has extensive lingual support, covering all Latin-based languages, from Northern Europe to South Africa, from America to South-East Asia. It contains all characters and symbols you'll ever need, including all punctuation and numbers. Mans Greback is a Swedish typeface designer dedicated to crafting diverse and versatile fonts. With a passion for a wide range of typographic styles, he has developed a range of fonts that are appreciated and utilized by designers around the world.

There is something straight-forward and no-nonsense about slab serifed typefaces. Calligraphic designs, on the other hand, evoke a sense of humanity and immediacy - even intimacy. ITC Napoleone Slab combines both slab serif and calligraphic design traits into a single typeface design. Heady stuff. The result is unlike almost any other slab serif typeface. According to designer Silvio Napoleone, “The concept developed from my explorations as a student in an independent lettering class. I sketched many historical letterforms by brush. I continued experimenting for several years after, sketching by hand and on the computer. Eventually, I chose the slab serif for production because of its distinctive design quality.” ITC Napoleone Slab is exceptionally versatile. The family is economical in width and contains true italic designs, oldstyle numbers and a suite of special ligatures. According to Silvio, “Napoleone Slab was designed to work well at all sizes, and in on-screen applications.” Silvio currently lives in Toronto, where he works for a “young, enthusiastic interactive firm.” His designs have been exhibited nationally and internationally, and his work was also part of a traveling exhibit for the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Spirited, unaffected and buoyant, the ITC Oldrichium type family pays homage to the calligraphy and typeface designs of Czech designer Oldrich Menhart. “I came upon one of Menhart's typefaces over a decade ago,” says George Thompson, designer of ITC Oldrichium. “I've been collecting examples of his work ever since.” Thompson was born in Chicago and grew up in north-west Indiana. “While I've been an educator and general graphic designer for over 30 years, lettering and type design have always been an important part of my work,” he says. Thompson now spends much of his free time designing typefaces. ITC Oldrichium is a subtle melding of the shapes and proportions of Menhart's Manuscript typeface, the energetic strokes of his calligraphy, and Thompson's own design skills. The result is a distinctive, powerful, and exceptionally versatile typeface family. Available in light, regular, demi bold and bold weights, with corresponding italics for all but the bold, ITC Oldrichium is comfortable setting both text and display copy. In addition to the basic weights, Thompson has created an Engraved version for those times when an especially powerful statement is called for.

A few years ago I've discovered the work of one of the most prolific typeface designers of the Bruce type Foundry in NYC during late nineteenth century. Browsing Julius Herriet's work I found a very unique kind of ligatures in his patented "Old Style Ornamented" type design. Some letters were designed with a little top tail that allowed them to connect to each other. After that, I found that he also designed a single italic weight of the same font 7 years later. Since the beginning of the Opentype days I’ve been deeply obsessed with exploring different ways to build ligatures, so that lead me up to this point where I felt the need to create “Plethora”, this new font inspired by Herriet’s work. Extrapolating weights, adding variable technology and playing with additional interconnected letters and alternates. Definitely, Plethora means a large or excessive amount of something, and this font tries to bring back this abundance of details two centuries later. Available in 9 weights, from roman to italic, and also as variable format, “Plethora” supports plenty of latin languages and is a perfect choice for today’s design tides.

Vincent Pacella was a true giant of hand-lettering and typeface design. Of the dozens of styles he designed for Photo-Lettering and International Typeface Corporation, his dominant Goliath towers above the rest. The font is perhaps best known from Herb Lubalin’s American flag that the design legend created for Print magazine’s 40th anniversary cover. Pacella takes “slab” serif to heart with this colossally-proportioned font, using brawny stroke endings and minimal curves to create a powerful figure for maximum visual impact. Take advantage of Goliath’s superior stature to make viewers take notice in industrial settings, sports branding, and oversized outdoor media applications. For comparatively modest musings in accompanying running text, consider partnering it with a comparatively spartan slab serif like Municipal. Or, team up Goliath with a faceted fellow heavyweight like United Sans. Originally drawn in 1970, Goliath was digitized by Ben Kiel with Adam Cruz in 2011. GOLIATH CREDITS: Typeface Design: Vincent Pacella Typeface Digitization: Ben Kiel, Adam Cruz Typeface Production: Ben Kiel Like all good subversives, House Industries hides in plain sight while amplifying the look, feel and style of the world’s most interesting brands, products and people. Based in Delaware, visually influencing the world.

Gotika, designed by Mans Greback, is a collection of blackletter fonts that masterfully blend Gothic influences with modern sensibilities. Comprising Gotika Black, Gotika Strict, and Gotika Ornament, this font family showcases the craftsmanship of calligraphy and the elegance of the medieval era. Gotika Black is a bold, street-inspired typeface, while Gotika Strict combines the historic charm of blackletter calligraphy with geometric precision. Gotika Ornament is a decorative font with Middle Ages-inspired floral designs, perfect for creating intricate and eye-catching visuals. Each font within the Gotika family is built with advanced OpenType functionality and has a guaranteed top-notch quality, containing stylistic and contextual alternates, ligatures, and more features; all to give you full control and customizability. The family has extensive lingual support, covering all Latin-based languages, from Northern Europe to South Africa, from America to South-East Asia. It contains all characters and symbols you'll ever need, including all punctuation and numbers. Mans Greback is a Swedish typeface designer, dedicated to crafting diverse and versatile fonts. With a passion for design and typography, he has developed a broad range of fonts that are utilized by designers around the world.

Andrade is a new typeface designed by Dino dos Santos in 2005. This typeface was inspired in the typographic work of Manoel de Andrade de Figueiredo (b.1670-d.1735), Nova Escola para Aprender a Ler, Escrever e Contar, printed in 1722 at Offcina de Bernardo da Costa de Carvalho. This is one of the most important books, and almost forgotten, about Portuguese calligraphy and typography, and the work of Andrade de Figueiredo is among the most amazing examples of type design of the Eighteenth Century. His work inspired Ventura da Silva, a Portuguese typographer, who in 1803 published a book named Regras Methodicas, where he redesigns some of Figueiredo's type specimens. But Ventura's purpose was to create a more elegant and readable typeface than Didot and Bodoni. This kind of typeface used to be called leitura and is a transition between the baroque and modern typography. Andrade is a brilliant text typeface and is available in Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Ligatures, Ligatures Italic, Swashes and Ornaments. Andrade is my tribute to Portuguese typography and to the work of Manoel de Andrade de Figueiredo in particular.