❧ Useful links: Luther’s Manuscripts at the UNESCO Memory of the World at Google Arts and Culture Martin Luther font on Kickstarter (with Film about the creation) Each letter of the Martin Luther font is strictly based on original samples found in Martin Luther’s 500 year old handwritten manuscripts. Letters that occur more often for example vowels have two or more different versions stored in the font. (➶ Figure 4) These alternative forms are exchanged automatically by the font as you type, and create a vivid look that comes close to actual handwriting. The font avoids that two identical letters are placed next to each other like, for example the two “o” in the word “look”. ➸ What Historic Sources is the Font based on? Two historic documents were used to base the font on. The notes Luther took before giving his speech in Worms in 1521 and a 6 page letter he wrote immediately after to Emperor Charles V., summarising his speech (➶ Figure 2). Both documents have been added to the UNESCO “Memory of the World” and can be seen at the Google Arts and Culture website. ➸ The Creation of a Handwriting Font The creation of a handwriting font is very different from the creation of a regular font. Harald Geisler has specialised in recreating handwriting in preceding projects with Albert Einstein’s, Sigmund Freud’s and his own handwriting. His experience working with Archives and Museums has gone into this project. First Geisler analyses the movement in the writing to understand how each letter is drawn. This involves partially learning how to write like a person. In this process not the outlines of the sample are reproduced but the original movement path of the handwriting (➶ Figure 3). In a second step width and contrast is added to reproduce Martin Luther’s characteristic impetus and the writing tools used at the time. (Link: Youtube Playlist showcasing the creation of individual letters) How about signs that can’t be found in archives? Some Glyphs can not be found in 500 year old manuscripts, for example the @-sign. Towards the end of the creation one collects a profund amount of details about how a writer moves on paper and addresses certain tasks moving the pen. Keeping this knowledge in mind an improvisation can be based on similar letter forms. For example the @ sign is based on of the movement of a lowercase a and parenthesis. ➸ Features of the Martin Luther font ❶ Extensive Documentation of the creation of the font, including high quality reproduction of the used manuscripts. ❷ Additional texts from Historian Dr. Henning Jürgens and Palaeographer (and Luther handwriting expert) Prof. Ulrich Bubenheimer ❸ Alternating Letters - in handwriting every word looks a bit different. To avoid that two identical letterforms are placed next to each other (for example in the word look) the font actively changes between different versions of letters as you type. ❹ Ligatures - characteristic writing forms when two letters are combined (for example “ct”) (➶ Figure 5) ❺ Terminal Letterforms - renders a special letterform when letter is at the end of a word. (➶ Figure 8) ❻ ‘’’Initial and Medial Letterforms''' - some letterforms are different when placed in the beginning or middle of a word, for example the lowercase s. ❼ Luther Rose - is a seal Luther used to authorise his correspondence. Today it is a widely recognized symbol for Luther. When you enter the numbers of Luthers year of birth and death 14831546 using the Martin Luther PRO font, it will render a stylised version of the Luther Rose. (➶ Figure 7) ❽ Historic letter-forms - letter-forms that are specific to medieval writing around 1500. For example the long-s or h with a loop at the bottom. (➶ Figure 6) ⚑ Multi language support - see the technical information tab for a full list of supported languages. (➶ Figure 11) ➸ The different Styles explained ❋ Martin Luther PRO - this includes all features listed above and is geared towards writing texts that are more readable today. It features alternating letters to create a natural handwriting look as well as two stylistic sets accessible through the OpenType menu. Historic forms are available through the glyph picker. ❋ Martin Luther Historic - this font creates a historically correct reproduction (i.e. with long-s) of Luther’s medieval latin handwriting. It features alternating letters to create a natural handwriting look as well as two stylistic sets accessible through the OpenType menu. ❋ Martin Luther Expert-1 - Dedicated access to the first set of letters only. ❋ Martin Luther Expert-2 - Dedicated access to the second set of letters only. ❈❈❈ Family Pack - recieve all fonts at a discounted price. ❈❈❈ ➸ Kickstarter The creation and development of the Martin Luther font was financed by 500 supporters on ➸Kickstarter.

Born in the 70s Personal influences are unavoidable in type design and usually find their way through into finished fonts. At Fontsmith, one period in particular provides inspiration, according to FS Pimlico designer, Fernando Mello. “Jason and Phil have always known that I’m very into the visual language of the 70s. I know that Jason shares my love of the 70s and Phil will sometimes admit to being a fan, too. I think that’s the reason they were both so supportive in the development of this font. “And, of course, we all share an interest in good-humoured and intelligent design. We like to think it’s a Fontsmith characteristic.” Back from black FS Pimlico started in an unusual place: with a tubby, penguin-like lowercase “a” that Fernando Mello had been sketching. From “a” grew the rest of the alphabet – a bubbly, fat, friendly family with a brush-written quality that became FS Pimlico Black. The black weight certainly isn’t the normal starting point for creating a regular and bold weight, but Fernando pressed on, driven by a glut of influences: brush-writing; Letraset and early digital systems catalogues; the type of Herb Lubalin and Tony di Spigna; 70s clothes and vinyl; and 70s revival disco nights in London’s Pimlico and Vauxhall. Natural or flourished Not often do fonts come along that seem to span the ages. FS Pimlico is at home in an office environment providing a fresh clear identity in communications or providing text that’s clear and easy to read. But it likes to party, too, 70s style. With the OpenType features switched on, a designer can totally change the look of their work, and create point-of-sale, headlines and titles that stand out and get noticed.

Born in the 70s Personal influences are unavoidable in type design and usually find their way through into finished fonts. At Fontsmith, one period in particular provides inspiration, according to FS Pimlico designer, Fernando Mello. “Jason and Phil have always known that I’m very into the visual language of the 70s. I know that Jason shares my love of the 70s and Phil will sometimes admit to being a fan, too. I think that’s the reason they were both so supportive in the development of this font. “And, of course, we all share an interest in good-humoured and intelligent design. We like to think it’s a Fontsmith characteristic.” Back from black FS Pimlico started in an unusual place: with a tubby, penguin-like lowercase “a” that Fernando Mello had been sketching. From “a” grew the rest of the alphabet – a bubbly, fat, friendly family with a brush-written quality that became FS Pimlico Black. The black weight certainly isn’t the normal starting point for creating a regular and bold weight, but Fernando pressed on, driven by a glut of influences: brush-writing; Letraset and early digital systems catalogues; the type of Herb Lubalin and Tony di Spigna; 70s clothes and vinyl; and 70s revival disco nights in London’s Pimlico and Vauxhall. Natural or flourished Not often do fonts come along that seem to span the ages. FS Pimlico is at home in an office environment providing a fresh clear identity in communications or providing text that’s clear and easy to read. But it likes to party, too, 70s style. With the OpenType features switched on, a designer can totally change the look of their work, and create point-of-sale, headlines and titles that stand out and get noticed.

Say Hello to Swily Bright. Trendy, classy & modern style serif font for your fancy projects. Elegant, fashion and classic style on Swily Bright font will be great for any branding project. With 2 style Regular and Italic, alternates and ligatures will help you to create unique letters

Hand & Write is casual handwriting font that have 4 style linked regular, italic, bold, and bold-italic. Hand & Write font made by inspired of casual hand write so this font is suitable for quote text, sticky note, fun and childish theme, scrapbook, greeting card, and etc.

This font is inspired by Van Morrison’s song named “Days like this”. Contains all Latin glyphs and more than 400 characters with ornaments. It is decorative, very modern and useful for logos, T-shirt designs, packaging design, posters, billboards, magazines, covers, etc. Contains regular and italic.

Blambot's Adversary BB family is a robust sans with a hint of retro-futurism. It was initially created for use in Blambot founder, Nate Piekos's pesonal title block for design projects. It's therefor very clean and extremely legible. The set includes regular, italic, bold, and bold italic.

A beautiful and stylish pen lettered alphabet appears within the pages of the 1921 publication “How to Write Show Cards” and its Art Nouveau stylings made it a perfect candidate for a digital revival. Pleasant Show Card JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Introducing Destone - A bold font with 2 styles: Regular & Slab. Destone combines attractive curves with a fresh urban edge; delivering a stylish script which is guaranteed to add an eye-catching appeal to your logo designs, brand imagery, handwritten quotes, product packaging, merchandise & social media posts.

The Swipe Write letterforms are casual yet also look neat in a paragraph block of display copy. Available in both Regular and Solid styles, it is a powerful font that can be used for, posters, T-shirts, signage & design projects with a freehand and artistic feel.

The font Antique Slabserif JNL was run through a filter to create a design that looks like worn type at smaller settings or jaggedly distressed lettering in larger type heights. The end result is Radio Interference JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Alessyia is a classic style typeface font. This font has classic but at the same time a fresh look. "Alessia family" includes 3 font types: Regular ( Classic and elegant with straight geometric lines ) Grunge ( Dirty and messy ) Retro ( Hand drawn brush font with an uneven texture )

DaleKids is a fun kiddie style font, a little bit picture book and a little bit comic book too. The font is available in two styles regular and italic. Designed to be playful it looks great on birthday cards and long tome like monologues of cute speak.

A 1940s travel poster for the Florida East Coast Railway (which then carried passengers but is now a freight line) had the railroad’s name hand lettered in a bold Art Deco sans. This inspired Passenger Train JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Using examples of antique street signs from New York City, Stickball JNL recreates the iconic lettering in a digital typeface and is available in both regular and oblique versions. For a nostalgic touch, a blank street sign is located on either the solid or broken bar keystrokes.

Antobe is a serif font with a modern & elegant touch. The thin character is perfect for the design needs of a modern & elegant layout. There are 2 styles, regular and oblique. Equipped with multilingual tools to make it easier for you to use various design purposes.

Township JNL is based on French Antique Condensed [a classic wood design] and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Reminiscent of Old West wanted posters and circus broadsides, this ultra-condensed typeface allows for more word copy to fit into a single line’s space.

The cover of the 1908 sheet music for "When the Meadow-Larks Are Calling, Annie Laurie" has the title hand lettered in a semi-formal Art Nouveau Roman type design with gentle spurs. This is now available as Meadowlark JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Verbindig is a modern serif style typeface. With over 45 joining ligatures and 3 different Styles it's easy to make a unique logo, headline or poster in seconds. Regular, Bold & Extreme Multilingual support Numerals & Punctuation Fun fact: Verbindig means connection in swiss german - yes I'm from Switzerland

In a vintage photograph, promotional signage outside an old theater for the 1929 early sound film “The Doctor’s Secret” had lettering in a wide, bold Art Nouveau slab serif design. This was the model for Talking Picture JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Topic - Dedicated to writing a Big text in newspapers, magazines, road boards, book , TV and other printing products, and web pages. The Topic font contains 4 styles (Light, regular, Medium and bold) The font includes a matching Latin design and support for Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, and Urdu.

Platoon was designed as a much needed alternative to other stencil fonts that don't provide enough weights. Comes in four weights, regular, medium, bold and black, which gives it enough flexibility to make it the stencil of choice for posters, titling, book covers, and military-related designs.

Digdope is a fun and natural font like a handwritten sans font, so you will get a more realistic feel. Digdope is a layered font available in three styles, REGULAR/NORMAL, OUTLINE &, SHADOW. Perfect for branding, logos, posters, quotes, headlines, movie titles, book titles, and other designs.

Teenage Riot is a Display Font. Inspired by the awesome Chicano lettering style. Look simpler with 2 styles (Regular & Outline) in today’s modern era. Suitable for poster designs, logos, merchandise and others. Features: Uppercase, Lowercase, Numeral, Punctuation & Multilingual. For any questions please contact me 🙂 Thanks!

"Nice Summer" is a display font with shading on each letter, making this font unique. Equipped with regular and italic letters, uppercase and lowercase numerals, punctuation, and multilingual support. This font can be used for summer moments, holidays, vacations, traveling, graduation, Father's Day, Christmas, and others.

On the cover of the 1926 sheet music for “There Ain’t No Maybe in My Baby’s Eyes”, the title is rendered in Art Nouveau hand lettering; pen-drawn with rounded ends. The type design is now available as Nouveau Vaudeville JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Blotchy Bitter – Playful Typeface is made with a regular version and a polka-dot textured version ready to perfect the design in your project. Blotchy Bitter is perfect for design, logos, social media, branding, advertising, product design, handwritten quotes, product packaging, headers, posters, merchandise, and other designs.

Glover is a Vintage Slab font available in regular and texture, it has styles a spooky, grungy, unique, covering a wide range of project types such as poster design, book covers, prints, headlines, magazines, packaging, branding. It will turn any design project into a true standout!

Hello! Asbanur is here. Asbanur brings modern, clean and neat looks. This font can be used as the logo of your brand, headline title, magazine title or many things. We have two versions: light and regular, but both of the versions is cool! Try them and enjoy!

Carpellon is inspired by tattoo scripts, and features nice curves to represent the combination of art and beauty. It is unique and easy to read, and includes both regular and ornament styles. It is best for use with gothic art themes, tattoo lettering, posters, logos and more.

The 1957 French publication “La Letra Dans La Peinture et la Publicite” (“The Letter tn the Painting and Advertising”) had an illustration of split-serif letters and numbers with a decidedly Western feel. This is now available as Horse Thief JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Vivo sans is heavily inspired by modern technology, the nordic climate & classic video games. Perfect use for game studios or tech brands that aspire to be modern and futuristic. The font is currently available in 2 weights, Light and Regular, and comes with over 200 glyphs.

Solanum is cosmic style sans family. It contains Latin and Cyrillic alphabet, Latin with Western, Central and South Eastern European, Vietnamese and Pinyin diacritics. Solanum is perfect for display purposes. This typeface family contains 12 styles from Thin to Regular and from Normal to Ultra Expanded.

PeterPierre is a stiff, awkward sans serif face. It has little variation in stroke width and the vertical and horizontal elements are connected with short, sharp curves. The condensed style was developed first and then, in a quest for legibility, it was widened into the regular style.