URW Geometric Condensed is the matching complement for the URW Geometric. Including 20 additional condensed styles the URW Geometric Condensed is the space-saving alternative in the URW Geometric family. URW Geometric is a sans serif typeface inspired by the German geometric typefaces of the 1920s but designed for modern usability. The character shapes have optimized proportions and an improved balance, the x-height is increased, ascenders and descenders are decreased. Special glyphs, which are often designed afterwards for the original geometric typefaces from the 1920s, are perfectly integrated in the URW Geometric. These design characteristics increase the usability and legibility tremendously. With its 10 weights ranging from Thin to Black, plus 10 additional oblique styles, it has a great versatility in mind. The extreme light styles shine bright in large sizes, the middle weights are perfect for body copy and the bolder variants for the use of emphasis information or bring a strong impact to headlines and information. The optically balanced styles are designed to work in perfect harmony together. URW Geometric is functional, strong, simple and harmonized in form, and at a glance appears as a modern variant of its predecessors. Apart from the basic characters the design has an extra focus on the special glyphs. These are designed for today’s needs. For example: the email glyph looks modern and unique, including a perfectly balanced spacing. The number sign, in modern use called “hashtag”, is space saving and optically balanced for body text. Additionally, various extra and alternate glyphs are designed to provide a friendly usability. Including a wide Latin language support and character sets, URW Geometric is perfectly designed for today’s requirements. Please have a look at the URW Geometric Type Specimen (PDF) for further information.

The requirements of Middle Ages scribes who copied and produced books in monasteries were fundamentally to preserve space, due to the high cost of the writing surface. During this long period of the development of Gothic forms, many other variations of the style of black letters appear: Textur or “Gothic-antique”, another group called Rotunda preferred by Italian and Spanish scribes. In 1490, the style "Bâtarde" (according to the the French classification) began to be widely used in Germany with more rounded shapes and named Scwabacher (probably derived from the city of Schwabach, but not certified) Fractur is a more condensed and narrower form than Schwabacher. This style is attributed to Johann Neudörfer of Nuremberg, cut in 1513; it was quickly imitated, therefore a few years later became to be a German national identity that extended over the next four centuries. The shape of its characters can be considered as a fusion of Texture and Schwabacher: the lowercase actually has medium strictly vertical and half curved strokes. The first expressions of the baroque influence this writing whose appearance of movement is due to the ornaments applied to the uppercase letters and the ascending and descending features of the lowercase. Despite having spent so many years and being a typeface not suitable for extensive reading texts, the Gothic Fractur has endured over time for possessing a strong and solid characteristic, as well as being closely linked to the spirit of gothic cathedrals of countries in northen Europe. In fact, it is probably that this expressive feature leads them to be chosen in the most varied graphic communication needs, which run from from banks and financial companies, insurers, law offices, publishers, newspapers and TV networks, till alcoholic drinks, funeral tombstones, packaging and even tattoos.

While it is obvious that this is an ornamental style font, it is more than that: it is a Celtic Knotwork design tool! Irish, Scottish, Welsh, even Norse and Viking cultures have used knotwork designs for millenia. These ancient traditional interwoven designs are experiencing a revival as Celtic culture gains exposure in the modern world. Intricate Celtic knots are featured everywhere from jewelry to tattoos. While many enjoy them simply for their beauty and fascinating twists, they can also be used to add an air of myth, magic and mystery to any project. The interlaced lines make them perfect for wedding invitations, borders, dividers and rules, web graphics, and logos. I began using Celtic knotwork designs in my own work as part of my knifemaking and jewelry making hobbies. I read all of the books I could find about Celtic knots and at first I drew them by hand with pencil and paper. Then as I realized how nice it would be to have "undos" I switched over to using Corel Draw. Draw proved to be a natural for this type of artwork with tools like contour and the trim function. But even with these great tools, it was still tedious to create these designs. I noticed that I was able to reuse a lot of parts in repetitive sections. I developed a small library of reusable bits and chunks of Celtic designs. I found them so useful and fun to work with that I began thinking about ways to market my Celtic design kit. I thought about CDR and EPS formats, but then I thought of creating this toolset as a True Type Font. That way anyone with ANY program that uses fonts could easily create Celtic knotwork designs. Word processors, embroidery programs, engraving programs, jewelry design programs, CAD/CAM programs...almost every program can use fonts. I was also interested in CNC work and thought that this font would work well for applications such as laser etching, vinyl signs, and machining. With that in mind, I designed each character of the font with extremes of accuracy. If one character from the font is used at one inch tall, every control point will be placed to an accuracy of better than 0.0001 inch. I wanted every piece to meet exactly with the next, with no possibility for misalignment. The different styles are all very carefully created to fit accurately with each other. So the Filled Style fits exactly into the Outline Style, and the Inverse Style fits precisely around the Outline Style so as to make up the background behind the knotwork. Combining the styles allows you to have complete creative control. By assembling the nearly 200 pieces it is quite easy to produce very complex designs. It is actually a bit like playing with a puzzle and many people really enjoy putting the pieces together to make designs. In fact, I have had many customers tell me of how they love playing with this font and making knots into the wee hours of morning. If you like puzzles then you will absolutely love this font! And creating the patterns is just the beginning of the fun! If you apply your favorite Photoshop tricks on them you can make anything from dazzling chrome knotwork to carved stone. Photoshop plug-ins like SuperBladePro are great for converting knotwork text into corroded bronze or rusted iron. Use your knotwork to add texture to a virtual landscape, or add them as surface embelishments on architecture and furniture. You can also make round knotwork by using this font with "WordArt" (WordArt is included with every copy of Microsoft Word. See http://clanbadge.com/round_knots.htm for a tutorial on how to make round knotwork). For Crafters there are limitless uses for this font. It has been used for embroidery, jewelry, leatherwork, stencils, stained glass, quilting, painting, pyrography, woodcarving and lots more. We have even sold copies to monks for use in decorating handmade books!

Introducing Hoverunit: the typeface that will take your design projects to new heights! This font is a throwback to the golden age of sci-fi, with a twist of modern creativity that will give your work an unmistakable edge. Inspired by the magnetic ink typefaces of the 1960s, Hoverunit has been brought back to life with a futuristic twist. Its sharp angles, sleek lines, and retro-futuristic feel make it the perfect choice for your next sci-fi-themed project. Whether you’re designing a book cover, movie poster, or album art, Hoverunit will give your work a unique and creative look. The Hoverunit typeface is available in a range of weights and styles, so you can use it for everything from headlines to body copy. And with its unique design, it’s sure to capture the attention of anyone who sees it. So why settle for boring, traditional typefaces when you can take your designs to the next level with Hoverunit? Try it today and see for yourself why this font is the perfect choice for all your creative projects. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Nawin is an informal Arabic typeface inspired by handwriting. The idea behind this design is to create a type family attractive and ownable for children but at the same time a design that keeps excellent letter recognition for reading. Handwriting has been a great source of inspiration in this particular typeface. By emulating the movements of the pen, we have obtained letter shapes that express spontaneity. A bright group of letters create a lively and beautiful paragraph of text. To get closer to handwriting and the variety of letter shapes that we draw while writing, this typeface offers a large number of alternative characters, which differ slightly from the default ones. Because we have programed the «Contextual Alternate» feature in the fonts, these alternate characters appear automatically as you set a text on your computer. For instance, in the Arabic variability on vertical proportions between letters Alef and initial Lam, create movement in text and avoid the cold mechanical feel of repetition. In the case of the Latin a part from having an entire alternate basic alphabet, there are also different letterforms for characters with diacritics, this way variability becomes even greater. Nawin is quirky and elegant at the same time. Letter recognition is relevant when reading continuous text. For this reason, in the Arabic, we have added another contextual alternate feature with alternate characters that help to avoid confusion when letters with similar or the same shape repeat inside one word. This is the case of medial «beh and Yeh» repeated three times continuously in the same word. The alternate characters change in shape and length, facilitating distinction to the reader. Since this typeface is inspired by handwriting and the free movement of the hand while writing, we considered ligatures a good asset for this design. The Arabic has a wide range of ligatures that enhance movement and fluidity in text making look text alive, while the Latin achieves this same effect via contextual alternates.

Y’all, have you met Caryn? She’s a typeface that’s as friendly as a front porch conversation on a sunny day. With her short brush strokes and swooping flourishes, she’ll make your words sing with genuine warmth and charm. Caryn is like a cozy quilt or a hot apple pie, bringing a homemade touch to everything she touches. Whether you’re crafting a wedding invitation, designing a logo for your farm stand, or just writing a letter to a friend, she’ll help you express your message with a down-to-earth grace. And here’s the best part: Caryn doesn’t put on airs. She’s unassuming and approachable, like a neighbor who always has a smile and a kind word. You don’t need fancy design skills or a big budget to make Caryn work for you. She’ll fit right in with your homespun style and make you look like a pro. So if you want to add a touch of warmth and hospitality to your next project, give Caryn a try. She’s the perfect typeface to welcome your readers, customers, or loved ones with open arms. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

The contemporary feel of the Sancoale superfamily takes a bolder turn with this futuristic slab. Built from Sancoale's successfully simple geometry, Slab's serif elements and tall x-height give the face an energetic, yet clean figure that easily complements its cousins: Sancoale Softened--a sans with blunted terminals; Sancoale Narrow; and, of course, the original Sancoale itself. The weights of each member have been balanced carefully to ensure compatibility with the others, and when used together, the combination creates a powerful design that is easy to identify. With weights ranging from the classier Thin to the authoritative Black, Slab opens the door to a range of applications. Used in different text sizes, its tech image is legible and neutral enough for longer bodies of copy--both in print and on the web. Have a more prominent need? The web font also stands out well in a headline or even as a display face. Slabís great personality puts a strong foot forward without giving its reader a kick in the teeth. Whatever the task, this font's one to capture the Zeitgeist into your work. All Insigne fonts are fully loaded with OpenType features. Sancoale Slab is also equipped for complex professional typography, including alternates with stems, small caps and plenty of alts, including "normalized" capitals and lowercase letters. The face includes a number of numeral sets, including fractions, old-style and lining figures with superiors and inferiors. OpenType-capable applications such as Quark or the Adobe suite can take full advantage of automatically replacing ligatures and alternates. You can find these features demonstrated in the .pdf brochure. Included are small caps, fractions, old-style and lining numbers, scientific superior/inferior figures, complete ordinal and inferior alphabet, and a set of symbols and arrows. The Sancoale family also includes the glyphs to support a wide range of languages, including Central, Eastern and Western European languages. In all, Sancoale Slab supports over 40 languages that use the extended Latin script, making the new addition a great choice for multi-lingual publications and packaging.

Etrusco Now is the revival of a lead typeface originally cast in lead by Italian foundry Nebiolo in the early 1920s. Heavily inspired by the design of the Medium weight of Schelter & Giesecke's Grotesk, Etrusco was, like Cairoli, an early precursor of the modernist grotesque superfamilies: a solid, multi-purpose "work-horse" typeface family that could solve a wide range of design problems with its range of widths and weights. When designing the new incarnation of Nebiolo's Etrusco, the Italiantype team directed by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Mario de Libero decided to extend the original weight and width range to keep this "superfamily" approach. Etrusco Now has twenty-one styles widths in three widths of seven weights each, with matching italics; the original weights for the typeface have been collected in the Etrusco Classic subfamily. Etrusco Now new widths allowed the team to include in the design many nods and homages to other vintage classics of Nebiolo. The lighter weights of the normal width have been heavily influenced by the modernist look of Recta, while the heavy condensed and compressed widths refer to the black vertical texture of Aldo Novarese's Metropol. This infuses the typeface with a slightly vintage mood, making Etrusco at the same time warmly familiar and unexpected to eyes accustomed to the formal and cold look of late modernist grotesques like Helvetica. Contemporary but rich in slight historical quirks, Etrusco Now is perfect for any editorial and branding project that aims to be different in a subtle way. Etrusco Now's deviations from the norm are small enough to give it personality without affecting readability, while its wide range of open type features (alternates, stylistic sets, positional numbers) and language coverage make it a problem solver for any situation. Like its cousin Cairoli, Etrusco is born out of love for lost letterforms and stands like its lead ancestor from a century ago, at the crossroads between artsy craftsmanship and industrial needs.

Ten years or so after his unique treatment of Garalde design with Trump Mediaeval, Georg Trump took on the transitional genre with Mauritius, which was to be his last typeface. He started working on it in 1965. The Stuttgart-based Weber foundry published a pamphlet previewing it under the name Barock-Antiqua in 1967, then announced the availability of the metal types (a roman, a bold and an italic) a year later. The global printing industry was already in third gear with cold type technology, so there weren't that many takers, and Weber closed its doors after more than 140 years in business. Subsequently, Trump’s swan song was unfairly overlooked by typography historians and practitioners. It never made it to film technology or scalable fonts. Thus, one of the most original text faces ever made, done by one of the most influential German type designers of the 20th century, was buried under decades of multiple technology shifts and fading records. The metal cuts of Mauritius seem to have been rushed in Weber’s desperation to stay afloat. So the only impressions left of the metal type, the sole records remaining of this design, show substantial problems. Some can be attributed to technological limitations, but some issues in colour, precision and fitting are also quite apparent, particularly in Mauritius Kursiv, the italic metal cut. This digital version is the result of obsessing over a great designer’s final type design effort, and trying to understand the reasons behind its vanishing from typography’s collective mind. While that understanding remains for the most part elusive, the creative and technical work done on these fonts produced very concrete results. All the apparent issues in the metal types were resolved, the design was expanded into a larger family of three weights and two widths, and plenty of 21st century bells and whistles were added. For the full background story, design analysis, details, features, specimens and print tests, consult the PDF available in the Gallery section of this page.

Hollywood Stars (Volume 1) is a unique collection of signatures of 92 famous Hollywood stars in a high-quality font. A must-have for autograph collectors, desktop publishers, lovers of the arts, history, movie buffs, fans, or anyone who has ever dreamed of sending a letter, card, or e-mail "signed" as if by one of these famous Hollywood celebrities. This font includes signatures from the following Hollywood personalities: Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Ben Stiller, Kate Beckinsale, Steve Buscemi, Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt, Paul Reiser, Angelina Jolie, George Kennedy, Larry King, Edward Norton, Mira Sorvino, Steven Spielberg, Kate Winslet, Daniel Day Lewis, Laura San Giacomo, Holly Hunter, Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Robbin, Williams, Alan Rickman, Al Pacino, Drew Barrymore, Bob Newhart, Brooke Shields, Burt Reynolds, Keira Knightley, Cheryl Ladd, Basil Rathbone, Minnie Driver, Debra Messing, David Schwimmer, Clint Eastwood, David Hyde Pierce, Burgess Meredith, Donald Trump, Linda Evans, Tony Danza, Gene Wilder, Cameron Diaz, Judi Dench, George Clooney, Nicolas Cage, Timothy Hutton, Jennifer Garner, Jay Leno, Tony Curtis, Suzanne Somers, Connie Selleca, Donald Sutherland, Jack Klugman, Tony Randall, Matthew Perry, Jenna Elfman, Morgan Fairchild, Jack Nicholson, Chazz Palminteri, Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Hopkins, Walter Matthau, Larry Hagman, Lisa Kudrow, Bill Cosby, John Mahoney, Ray Liotta, Jon Voight, Christian Slater, Chris Cooper, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Drew Carey, Eli Wallach, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Amanda Seyfried, Danny DeVito, Gary Sinise, Mary Tyler Moore, Edward Asner, Will Rogers, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bela Lugosi, Charles Grodin, Victoria Principal, Winona Ryder, Tea Leoni, Matt Damon, Loni Anderson, Emma Thompson, Ed O'Neill, Karl Malden. This font behaves exactly like any other font. Each signature is mapped to a regular character on your keyboard. Open any Windows application, select the installed font, and type a letter, and the signature will appear at that point on the page. Painstaking craftsmanship and an incredible collection of hard-to-find signatures go into this one-of-a-kind font. Comes with a character map.

Marintas is a sleek upright italic that offers you a modern look and feel. This elegant sans serif comes across as lively, yet comfortable. Some semi slab characteristics of the font give it a face-forward momentum. These semi slabs, even with their geometric construction, are fluid shapes with a soft hint of brushstroke. The soft curves of Marintas paired with its playful but geometric semi slabs or ending strokes give the face its spirited--though friendly--eye-catching appearance. The Marintas family is comprised of 8 variants, ranging from Thin to Ultra. Its incredible versatility ranges from the delicate hairline to the extreme ultra weight. The heavier weights show some similarity to Antique Olive, and the face has an exuberant South American or Latin feel. This type of family is well-suited for advertising, retail, food and beverage products as well as for use in magazines, logotypes, and books. The fonts lend themselves to display settings, but are still very usable for longer copy. Because of its large x-height, the typeface is legible at very small sizes and as a webfont. Marintas has support for extended Latin character set. A wide range of Western languages are also supported, including Central, Eastern and Western European languages. In all, Marintas supports over 40 languages that use the extended Latin script, making Marintas a great choice for multi-lingual publications and packaging. All insigne fonts are fully loaded with OpenType features. Marintas is also equipped for complex professional typography and includes ligatures, alternate characters and fractions. The face includes a number of numeral sets, including old-style and lining figures with superiors and inferiors. OpenType-savvy applications such as Quark or the Adobe Creative Suite can take full advantage of the automatically replacing ligatures and alternates. This family also includes the glyphs to support a wide range of languages. Check out the informative .pdf brochure to see these features in action.

Futura is the fully developed prototype of the twentieth century Geometric Sanserif. The form is ancient, Greek capitals being inscribed by the Cretans twenty-five hundred years ago at the time of Pythagoras in the Gortyn Code, by the Imperial Romans, notably in the tomb of the Scipios, by classical revival architects in eighteenth century London, which formed the basis for Caslon’s first sanserif typeface in 1817. Some aspects of the Geometric sanserif survived in the flood of Gothics that followed, particularly in the work of Vincent Figgins. In 1927, stimulated by the Bauhaus experiments in geometric form and the Ludwig & Mayer typeface Erbar, Paul Renner sketched a set of Bauhaus forms; working from these, the professional letter design office at Bauer reinvented the sanserif based on strokes of even weight, perfect circles and isosceles triangles and brought the Universal Alphabet and Erbar to their definitive typographic form. Futura became the most popular sanserif of the middle years of the twentieth century. Ironically, given its generic past, Futura is the only typeface to have been granted registration under copyright as an original work of art, and, further irony, given the key part played by the Bauer letter design office, the full copyright belongs to Renner and his heirs. This decision in a Frankfurt court implies that a further small group of older typefaces may also be covered by copyright in Germany, particularly those designed for Stempel by Hermann Zapf. This situation appears to be limited to this small group of faces in this one country, although protection of designers’ rights in newer typefaces is now possible in France and Germany through legislation deriving from the 1973 Vienna Treaty for the protection of typefaces. Mergenthaler’s Spartan is a close copy of Futura; Ludlow’s Tempo is less close. Functional yet friendly, logical yet not overintellectual, German yet anti-Nazi... with hindsight the choice of Futura as Volkswagen’s ad font since the 1960s looks inevitable.

FF Neuwelt™, from Jens Gehlhaar, is open, inviting, highly legible, and strikingly handsome. Combining the straightforward clarity of a geometric sans with a welcoming warmth, FF Neuwelt’s eight display and text weights, vast range of alternates and extended character set, make for a family with few limitations. While grounded in a solid geometric sans serif foundation, Gehlhaar has drawn a large suite of alternate characters that infuses FF Neuwelt with softened, and ultimately easy on the eyes, humanistic shapes and proportions. Alternative cursive italic forms and a choice of round or square punctuation are also available at the click of a mouse. FF Neuwelt is spaced for sizes larger than 16 point, while FF Neuwelt Text has more open letterspacing to set perfectly at sizes smaller than 16 point. In addition, five key lowercase characters were drawn with more legible shapes. The result is that FF Neuwelt adapts from text to larger sizes and one stylistic mien to another with ease and grace. FF Neuwelt is a natural for interactive design, performing well on both large digital displays and small screens. Counters are generous and apertures are open, making them a perfect choice when setting text as microcopy or in short blocks where quick and accurate comprehension is the goal. Even the heaviest weights translate well to on-screen reading. FF Neuwelt also speaks with authority in large sizes on big screens. Equally at home in print environments, FF Neuwelt is a perfect choice for long-form text, captions, editorial, packaging, point-of-purchase design – as well as extensive branding projects. Its many choices of alternative characters make for a design that draws the reader in, without overpowering the message. Although he has drawn typefaces in addition to FF Neuwelt, Gehlhaar is primarily a filmmaker. Directing commercials with style and grace, his work includes spots for Nissan, Apple, Emirates Airlines and Microsoft. As a creative director, Gehlhaar has worked on a broad range of projects for Coca-Cola, MTV, EPSN, Volkswagen and more.

Petrarka may be described as a Condensed, Sans-Serif, Semi-Fatface Roman. Huh? Bear with me on this. The Fatface is a name given to the popular nineteenth-century romans that where characterized by an extremity of contrast between the thick and thin stroke. The earliest example that is generally familiar is Thorowgood, believed to have been designed by Robert Thorne and released by Thorowgood Foundry in 1820 as "Five-line Pica No. 5." Copied by many foundries, it became one of the more popular advertising types of the day. Later, in the period from about 1890 to 1950, you find a number of typeface designs with the thin stroke beefed up a bit, not quite so extreme. What you might call Semi-Fatfaced Romans begin to replace the extreme Fatfaces. Serifed designs like Bauer’s Bernard Roman Extra Bold and ATF’s Bold Antique appear. In addition, we see the development of semi-fatface lineals or Sans-Serif Semi-Fatfaces. Examples include Britannic (Stephenson Blake), Chambord Bold (Olive), Koloss (Ludwig & Mayer), Matthews (ATF) and Radiant Heavy (Ludlow). Petrarka has much in common with this latter group, but is distinguished by two salient features: it is condensed and it shows a strong blackletter influence, as seen in the ‘H’ particularly. Petrark was released about 1900 by the German foundry of Schelter & Giesecke of Leipzig and is one of the designs of the period that attempts to reconcile roman and blackletter traditions. Making a cameo appearance in this Multi-Lingual font is the Anglo-Saxon letter yogh (#729), which, along with the thorn and the eth, is always useful for preparing flyers in Old English. There are still pockets of resistance to the Norman French influence that washed up on England’s shores in 1066. This font stands with King Canute, seeking to hold back the tide (ignoring the fact that Canute was a Dane). Support the fight to preserve Anglo-Saxon culture. Buy Petrarka ML today. Petrarka Initials brings together the Petrarka upper case letters with a very sympatico Art Nouveau rendering of a female face.

Smallstep - One geometric sans serif with a free spirit. If we presume that geometric typefaces play with the idea of what typography would look like in the future when all unnecessary elements would disappear, than most of their designers seem to envision the future in a rather metropolisque kind of way. We love geometric faces, but the cold and heartless feelings that most of them leave is just not our cup of tea. That is why we are happy to bring some optimism in that genre with our new typeface. We called it Smallstep. Smallstep is a typeface that follows the traditions of classic geometric sans serifs like “Futura”, but is at the same time friendly and whimsical. We took the liberty to deviate from the standard sans serif glyphs while drawing some characters (such as ”a” and ”r” ), others (“w” “k”) are completely redesigned. Probably the biggest trademark of this typeface is the way vertical lines in most lower case characters are “cut” so they end in a 60 degree angle. Smallstep is over all a expressive face, which means it brings some emotions to your design and feelings in itself, and should be used accordingly. Other than that, it is suitable for both headline and body text, print and web. So what kind of name is “Smallstep”? We view the type design process as a form of evolution: There can be no typeface that differs drastically from the current standards, since its characters would be unrecognizable and thus unreadable. But at the same time there are hundreds of faces that differ a little, and still manage to make a difference by moving with small steps towards better and more refined looks. Smallstep consist of 4 weights, that cover all the features, that are expected of a modern Opentype face: kerning pairs, ligatures, true italics and alternative characters, plus a set of symbols, that will help you start off your designs more easily.

Grava is Neil Summerour’s injection of warmth within the geometric sans font category. Historically, geometric sans families have been based on primal shapes — triangle, circle, square — and the more closely they held to those rigid rules, the more internal inconsistencies they showed. Angles won’t match up correctly, letters will lean, overshoots complicate clean typesetting, and idealized circles become grotesque and unwieldy in some weights. Because of issues like these, geometric sans fonts have a reputation of being cold, austere, even a bit “off”. Grava was made to hold a T-square and triangle in one hand while giving a welcoming handshake with the other. The Grava font family comes in two styles (a normal and a Display), each with 20 weights (Thin to Ultra) and paired with italics. Its design allowed the three scripts of Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek to emerge seamlessly, ensuring Grava will find its home in multilingual publications. Even better, each character in the three scripts is spaced with every other character for a beautifully matched fit, and it’s a buy-one-get-all-three deal since they are all packaged together. The normal style’s large x-height won’t let you down in paragraphs, headings, and any call-out text. And have you seen the angles on those numerals? Pairing Grava’s numerals on a jersey is sure to catch some eyes, just sayin'. Grava Display is purposefully quirky and sharp, and made for poster sizes, book and album covers, and those websites with a well-defined character — somewhere between playfully self-aware and overtly vintage. Flat edges are abandoned to make way for sharp points and conspicuousness, for geometrical attitude and respectful expressiveness. Corporate reports use Grava Display to take on a professional and current look. The optional ligatures (N–T, L–L, G–A, C–O, almost anywhere an ‘A’ is placed, and more) in both the normal and Display styles invoke a midcentury modernist and high art feel. Now that introductions are done, you can let go of Grava’s hand and put it to work for you.

Nawin is an informal Arabic typeface inspired by handwriting. The idea behind this design is to create a type family attractive and ownable for children but at the same time a design that keeps excellent letter recognition for reading. Handwriting has been a great source of inspiration in this particular typeface. By emulating the movements of the pen, we have obtained letter shapes that express spontaneity. A bright group of letters create a lively and beautiful paragraph of text. To get closer to handwriting and the variety of letter shapes that we draw while writing, this typeface offers a large number of alternative characters, which differ slightly from the default ones. Because we have programed the «Contextual Alternate» feature in the fonts, these alternate characters appear automatically as you set a text on your computer. For instance, in the Arabic variability on vertical proportions between letters Alef and initial Lam, create movement in text and avoid the cold mechanical feel of repetition. In the case of the Latin a part from having an entire alternate basic alphabet, there are also different letterforms for characters with diacritics, this way variability becomes even greater. Nawin is quirky and elegant at the same time. Letter recognition is relevant when reading continuous text. For this reason, in the Arabic, we have added another contextual alternate feature with alternate characters that help to avoid confusion when letters with similar or the same shape repeat inside one word. This is the case of medial «beh and Yeh» repeated three times continuously in the same word. The alternate characters change in shape and length, facilitating distinction to the reader. Since this typeface is inspired by handwriting and the free movement of the hand while writing, we considered ligatures a good asset for this design. The Arabic has a wide range of ligatures that enhance movement and fluidity in text making look text alive, while the Latin achieves this same effect via contextual alternates.

The Masqualero™ family is a versatile solution for a deep and broad range of applications. In large sizes, the heavier designs are dark and handsome, while the lighter weights are charming and friendly in text copy. Thanks to its many variations and distinctive demeanor, both print and interactive designers will find that Masqualero expands their creative options, while setting the perfect tone to catch and hold readers’ attention. It’s About the Design Like the legendary jazz song of the same name, Masqualero is haunting and sophisticated. Drawn as a tribute to Miles Davis, its letterforms are as beautiful as his “Masqualero” composition. “I approached drawing the letters as if they were marble sculptures,” Says Jim Ford about his typeface. “Many sharp, black, modern sculptures filling a large park. All of them created with the same qualities – the flair of Miles' electric funk and rock sounds, the sparkly smooth finish and serifs like trumpet bells, the sweet lyricism and the tone and clarity of Miles’ horn.” What’s Available With six weights and italics, in addition to Stencil and Groove display designs, Masqualero is available as a suite of OpenType Pro fonts, providing for the automatic insertion of small caps, ligatures and alternate characters. Pro fonts also offer an extended character set supporting most Central European and many Eastern European languages. Thoughts About Use A book or album cover set in the Masqualero design sends a message: what’s inside is of value. Like jazz, the Masqualero typeface takes ordinary basic concepts and slips them into something special. Readers take notice and immediately recognize that what they’re viewing is a cut above – and radiates quality. “I see Masqualero as a luxurious typeface for exquisite typography,” says Ford. “I wouldn’t use it to sell toys or hot dogs. Masqualero sells diamonds, boats, real estate and champagne.” Perfect Pairings Antique Olive™ Neue Kabel® Neue Frutiger® Quire Sans™ Trade Gothic®

Located in the Valencian Community, Spain, Manises is very famous for its pottery. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Manises was the most important production center for Spanish-Moresca ceramics, which was exported throughout Europe. At the beginning of the 16th century, Manises tiles were very commercially successful, especially of the heraldic type. Much appreciated by the Aragonese crown, Manises ceramics was also exported to France, Italy, and especially to Naples. As a big fan of Paterna and Manises ceramics, Naples influenced other Italian courts. Calixto III and Alejandro VI continuously commissioned Valencian pieces and tiles for the halls of the Vatican. The export also extended to Sicily, Venice, Turkey, Cyprus and even Flanders and the Baltic countries. The palaces of all the courts of Europe were enriched with this art. Many painters reproduced it in his paintings. It can be seen in the work of Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, and in the central panel of a triptych by Hugo Van der Goes (Uffizi Gallery, Florence). In this city there are also some frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio in which the Arabic-Valencian earthenware appears. Manises font is inspired by a text written on a 16th century tile, but adapting it to our times and giving it a very modern air. It is characterised by being able to combine uppercase and lowercase letters in a conventional manner, or use only capitals, or only lowercase letters, or, a random combination of both. It comes with an extra of many ligatures, stylistic alternates, and a set of very useful catchwords, to give more modernity to your text. This OpenType features may only be accessible via OpenType-aware applications, or the Character Map to view and copy any of the extra characters to paste into your favourite text editor/app. Manises looks lovely on wedding invitations, greeting cards, logos, posters, labels, t-shirt design, logos, children's material, in ink or water-colour based designs, fashion, magazines, food packaging and menus, book covers and whatever your imagination holds!

Avenir Next Pro is a new take on a classic face—it’s the result of a project whose goal was to take a beautifully designed sans and update it so that its technical standards surpass the status quo, leaving us with a truly superior sans family. This family is not only an update though, in fact it is the expansion of the original concept that takes the Avenir Next design to the next level. In addition to the standard styles ranging from UltraLight to Heavy, this 32-font collection offers condensed faces that rival any other sans on the market in on and off—screen readability at any size alongside heavy weights that would make excellent display faces in their own right and have the ability to pair well with so many contemporary serif body types. Overall, the family’s design is clean, straightforward and works brilliantly for blocks of copy and headlines alike. Akira Kobayashi worked alongside Avenir’s esteemed creator Adrian Frutiger to bring Avenir Next Pro to life. It was Akira’s ability to bring his own finesse and ideas for expansion into the project while remaining true to Frutiger’s original intent, that makes this not just a modern typeface, but one ahead of its time. Complete your designs with these perfect pairings: Dante™, Joanna® Nova, Kairos™, Menhart™, Soho® and ITC New Veljovic®. Avenir Next Variables are font files which are featuring two axis, weight and width. They have a preset instance from UltraLight to Heavy and Condensed to Roman width. The preset instances are: Condensed UltraLight, Condensed UltraLight Italic, Condensed Thin, Condensed Thin Italic, Condensed Light, Condensed Light Italic, Condensed, Condensed Italic, Condensed Demi, Condensed Demi Italic, Condensed Medium, Condensed Medium Italic, Condensed Bold, Condensed Bold Italic, Condensed Heavy, Condensed Heavy Italic, UltraLight, UltraLight Italic, Thin, Thin Italic, Light, Light Italic, Regular, Italic, Demi, Demi Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Heavy, Heavy Italic. Featured in: Best Fonts for PowerPoints

OpenBookING is a gimmick or novelty font that has letters on pages of a book. It is caps only and monospaced. The letters on the upper-case keys are on the left-handed pages of an open book and the letters on the lower-case keys are the same letters but on the right-handed pages of an open book. One could alternate upper and lower case keys to get letters on complete books, but the Opentype feature of contextual alternatives (calt) does this automatically. Several previous typefaces from IngrimayneType used the calt feature to alternate shapes that fit together in an interlocking pattern, such as alternating concave and convex shapes. OpenBookING uses the calt feature in a different way, to alternate two halves of a symmetrical shape. To provide two copies of numbers and common symbols, some non-alphabetical characters are unavailable because their slots were taken by the second form of the number or common symbol. If stylistic set one (ss01) is turned on, spaces are replaced with empty pages. This may leave you with unwanted spaces at the end of lines, and to eliminate them, turn off the feature (or change the font) for these spaces. The empty pages can be used in a layer to add color to the text. There is also a second set of empty pages with a filled page that can also be used in layers. (See poster for examples.) These pages are on the (logicalnot multiply) and (register divide) characters for the first set and on the (ordmasculine ellipsis) and (macron trademark) keys for the second set. Finally, OpenBookING has a large set of accented characters if anyone should need them. The letters used on the books were derived from the font Myhota-Bold. For a related typeface of letters on book covers, see NewLibrary. OpenBookING has limited uses and is priced accordingly.

Type designers have been integrating the design of sans serifs with serifed forms since the 1920s. Early examples are Edward Johnston's design for the London Underground, and Eric Gill's Gill Sans. These were followed by Jan van Krimpen's Romulus Sans, Frederic Goudy's ITC Goudy Sans, Hermann Zapf's Optima, Hans Meier's Syntax and Adrian Frutiger's Frutiger. Now, ITC Stone Humanist joins this tradition. It is a careful blend of traditional sans serif shapes and classical serifed letterforms. ITC Stone Humanist grew out an experiment with the medium weight of ITC Stone Sans, a design that already showed a relationship to these sans serif-serif hybrids. ITC Stone Sans has proportions based on those of ITC Stone Serif, and its thick-and-thin stroke contrast suggests the bloodline of humanistic sans serif typefaces. But other aspects of ITC Stone Sans are more closely aligned to the gothics and grotesques, a tradition that accounts for the largest portion of sans serif designs. Enter ITC Stone Humanist. During his experiments with the earlier design, Sumner Stone recalls, I was actually quite surprised at how seemingly subtle changes transformed the face," moving the design firmly into the humanist tradition. "The form of the 'g,' 'l,' 'M,' 'W,' and more subtly the 'a' and 'e' are part of the restructuring of the family," he explains. The top endings of vertical lower case strokes have been cropped on an angle, as have the ascender and descender stroke endings. ITC Stone Humanist is a full-fledged member of the ITC Stone family. It has been produced with the same complement of weights, and the x-heights, proportions, and underlying character shapes are completely compatible with the three original designs. The original ITC Stone Sans is a popular typeface, in part because of its notable versatility. ITC Stone Humanist shares this virtue, and can be used successfully at very small sizes, in long passages of text copy, and even as billboard-sized display type."

Pirouette is based on a logo that Japanese designer Ryuichi Tateno created for a packaging design project in 1999 (a shampoo container!). Tateno's logo experimented with complex, overlapped swash letterforms. He continued to develop these outside of the initial packaging project, until they took on a life of their own. Eventually, Tateno designed a full typeface out of the logo, Pirouette, which was the first place display face in Linotype's 2003 International Type Design Contest. The Pirouette typeface contains six different fonts. The basic font is Pirouette Regular. This is an engraver's italic lowercase paired with elaborate swash capitals. The swash capitals have two visual elements in their forms: thick strokes and thin strokes. Pirouette Text includes the same lowercase as Pirouette Regular, but the uppercase letters are much shorter and simpler. This "text" font can be used to set longer amounts of copy. Pirouette Alternate contains different lowercase glyphs and additional ligatures, which can be used as substitutes for the lowercase forms in the Pirouette Regular and Pirouette Text fonts. Pirouette Ornaments contains swashes and other knick-knacks that can either be added onto the end of a letter, or used as separate decorative elements or swooshes (accolades) on a page. Pirouette Separate 1 and Pirouette Separate 2 are two fonts that can be layered over top of one another in software applications that support layering (e.g., most Adobe and Macromedia applications, as well as QuarkXPress). Pirouette Separate 1 contains the thick stroke elements from Pirouette Regular's uppercase letters, as well as the same lowercase glyphs that can be found in Pirouette Regular and Pirouette Text. Pirouette Separate 2 contains only the thin stroke elements from Pirouette Regular's uppercase letters. By layering Pirouette Separate 1 and Pirouette Separate 2 over one another, you can give the uppercase letter's thick and thin stroke elements different colors and create unique, more calligraphic designs. The Pirouette family, Tanteno's first commercial typeface, was greatly influenced by the calligraphic and typographic work of the master German designer, Prof. Hermann Zapf, especially his Zapfino typeface.

Introducing Xenu—the technical typeface of the future, designed for those who demand precision and efficiency in their communication. Inspired by industrial classics like DIN, Xenu exudes a cold, business-like demeanor that will immediately convey a sense of technical prowess and sophistication. Crafted with a unique blend of traditional scientific letterforms and contemporary aesthetics, Xenu’s impassive letterforms are a perfect representation of the future of industrial design. Its sleek lines and rigid structure make it a perfect choice for any project that requires a technical edge. Whether you’re designing a user manual, technical guide, or an engineering report, Xenu’s four weights and italics will instill your message with mechanical confidence and technological elegance. Its technical look and feel are perfect for businesses that want to project a cutting-edge image and convey a sense of precision. So why settle for a mediocre typeface when you can have Xenu—the ultimate expression of technical perfection? Choose Xenu and experience the future of technical communication. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Allow me to share with you the exquisite and elegant font, Carouselambra. This magnificent typeface pays homage to the typography on Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy album jacket, and is sure to transport you back in time to the late nineteenth century. Carouselambra is a beautiful and intricate representation of the Arts and Crafts lettering style that was all the rage in that era. The font’s interlocking Art Nouveau effect is truly a sight to behold, and can be easily customized with OpenType-savvy software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign. With Carouselambra, you have the option to use standard ligatures, which your application can automatically substitute to create a stunning and seamless design. However, if you prefer to have more control over the ligature replacement, you can simply turn off this option. Whether you’re looking to add a touch of elegance to your design or simply appreciate the beauty of Art Nouveau, Carouselambra is the perfect choice. Elevate your design today with this exquisite and timeless font. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Lust Sans is the penultimate exploration of producing a high-contrast sans wholly influenced by its bracketed ancestor. The aspect of this endeavor I enjoyed the most was finding sneaky ways to infuse warmth and whimsy into the letterforms when you least expect it. The result, however, is subtle and uniquely balances against Lust and Lust Didone without becoming cold and overbearing. To accomplish this, Lust Sans has 6 weights. What I found during development was, based on any setting where Lust or Lust Didone were in the same layout, the amount of contrast shown with Lust Sans needed to be adjusted. Expanding the weight offering, produces opportunities for Lust Sans to modulate the rhythm of the layout comfortably while keeping contrast—this is even more obvious with the Italics. I love those. You will too. If you don’t, you do not have a soul. Not sorry. The Lust Collection is the culmination of 5 years of exploration and development, and I am very excited to share it with everyone. When the original Lust was first conceived in 2010 and released a year and half later, I had planned for a Script and a Sans to accompany it. The Script was released about a year later, but I paused the Sans. The primary reason was the amount of feedback and requests I was receiving for alternate versions, expansions, and ‘hey, have you considered making?’ and so on. I listen to my customers and what they are needing… and besides, I was stalling with the Sans. Like Optima and other earlier high-contrast sans, they are difficult to deliver responsibly without suffering from ill-conceived excess or timidity. The new Lust Collection aggregates all of that past customer feedback and distills it into 6 separate families, each adhering to the original Lust precept of exercises in indulgence and each based in large part on the original 2010 exemplars produced for Lust. I just hate that it took so long to deliver, but better right, than rushed, I imagine.

A creative context 2003. Fontsmith was sharing a small, cold, whitewashed studio space in Northburgh Street, Clerkenwell. But things were on the up following prestigious custom type commissions for The Post Office and E4. “Slab serifs were on the brink of another revival, we could feel it,” says Jason Smith. “All we wanted to do was have a play with these slabs, go as far as we could within what was acceptable and readable.” “It wasn’t initially clear what was happening,” recalls Phil Garnham. “We were becoming very influenced by our surroundings, outside the studio space. We absorbed the essence and the designer grime of where we were.” Process Jason began by drawing stems on-screen. “The key aspect of the font is the upward bend of the leading shoulder serif, the way it kind of ramps up and then plummets back down the stem. “The regular and light characters are quite narrow – great for text but the bold is quite wide and chunky – better for headlines. I think ‘y’ is quite different for a slab design. We call it the Fontsmith ‘y’.” Promotion Fontsmith were determined to get FS Clerkenwell noticed. To launch the font, Ian Whalley, a designer friend of Fontsmith, captured words heard on the streets of Clerkenwell, set them in the new font and crafted a small book of typographic conversations. It was a first for Fontsmith. “I think that’s part of why this font has been so successful,” says Phil. “It really does embody the spirit of the area, as a special place for design, arts and crafts. And designers love that.” Contemporary twist FS Clerkenwell, based on influences in and around this part of London with a rich tradition of printing and design, mixes tradition with creation. Old-fashioned values meet new-school trends. Its quirky, contemporary character lends an edge to headlines, logotypes and any large-size text.

The impetus behind Felbridge was both ambitious and highly practical: to develop an ideal online" typeface for use in web pages and electronic media. Robin Nicholas, the family's designer, explains, "I wanted a straightforward sans serif with strong, clear letterforms which would not degrade when viewed in low resolution environments." Not surprisingly, the design also performs exceptionally well in traditional print applications. In 2001, to achieve his goal, Nicholas adjusted the interior strokes of complex characters like the M and W to prevent on-screen pixel build-up and improve legibility. Characters with round strokes were drawn with squared proportions to take full advantage of screen real estate. In addition, small serifs were added to characters like the I, j and l to improve both legibility and readability. "The result," according to Nicholas, "is a typeface with a slightly humanist feel, economical in use and outstanding legibility - even at relatively small point sizes. Most sans serif typefaces have italics based on the simple "sloped Roman" principle, but italic forms for Felbridge have been drawn in the tradition of being visually lighter than their related Roman fonts, providing a strong contrast when the italic is used for emphasis in Roman text. The italic letter shapes also have a slightly calligraphic flavor and distinctive "hooked" strokes that improve fluency. Felbridge is available in four weights of Roman - Light, Regular, Bold and Extra Bold - with complementary italics for the Regular and Bold designs. The result is a remarkably versatile typeface family, equally comfortable in magazine text copy or in display work for advertising and product branding. As a branding typeface, Felbridge works in all environments from traditional hardcopy materials to web design, and is even suitable for general office use. As part of a corporate identity, this no-nonsense typeface family will be a distinctive and effective communications tool." Felbridge™ font field guide including best practices, font pairings and alternatives.

A handwritten ”font for technicians“ from ca. 1900. Very geometrical, rigid forms borrowed from the typical characteristics of Jugendstil / Art Nouveau. This script is found in an old magazine which was issued sometime in the years shortly before WWI. The original copy, produced by means of a galvanized plate, is just 7 centimeters wide. It served as the model for technical professions in which, at that time, the captions of drawings were still done by hand. ingoFonts has not only digitized this beautiful typeface, we have also extended it to a whole family. In »Maier’s Alte Nr. 8« special attention was given to ensure the ”uneven“ edges, typical of handwritten script, remained effectively noticeable even in the digitized form. As a result, this ”technical“ font retains a handmade touch, while »Maier’s Neue Nr. 8« is the clean version with exact contours. The Art Nouveau forms, which are characteristic for the period of origin around the turn of the century around 1900, look especially pretty. The high degree of abstraction also seems strange in Maier's No. 8, especially when the age of the original is known. It is generally assumed that it was not until the Bauhaus in the late 1920s that such "modern" typefaces were created. Maier's No. 8 is a generation older! So many of today's supposedly "ultramodern" typefaces look quite old in comparison. In addition to the original two weights, Light and Bold, the Maiers Neue Nr. 8 got a regular and a extra-bold weight. Furthermore, the Neue is also available in italics. Although this is only a slanted version, unlike common practice, it is inclined to the left. Maier’s Nr. 8 Pro is suitable for all European languages. It includes ”Latin Extended-A,“ for Central and Eastern Europe incl. Turkish, and even Cyrillic and Greek, too. The font includes several stylistic alternates as well as a number of ligatures.

In the world of webfonts, Condensed proportions are key to maximizing your page's premium real estate while keeping your copy clean and catchy as you cut down to the essentials. Soon after the introduction of webfonts, I began to see Insigne's Le Havre used frequently for web headlines, not so much for its Art Deco look as for its more compact proportions. There seemed to be a need for a font that was designed to be used solely for the web's unique constraints. Enter Coegit Sans. Coegit is built specifically for web applications. Its highly Condensed forms range from thin--offering the greatest number of uses--to the attractive, accenting black. With three widths--Compressed, Compact, and the widest, Condensed --the family holds a total of sixteen fonts. The typefamily has also been hinted for excellent, onscreen display quality, even at small sizes. Overall, its lighter, humanist features provide the reader a more congenial welcome than its square, sans-serif counterparts can offer. Coegit is equipped for complex professional typography with stems, small caps and plenty of alts, including titling capitals. The face includes a number of numeral sets, including fractions, old-style and lining figures with superiors and inferiors. OpenType-capable applications such as Quark or the Adobe suite can take full advantage of automatically replacing ligatures and alternates. You can find these features demonstrated in the .pdf brochure. The family also includes glyphs to support a wide range of languages, including Central, Eastern and Western European languages. In all, Coegit supports over 40 languages that use the Latin script, making the new addition a great choice for multi-lingual publications and packaging. While the advanced OpenType features of webfonts are not currently supported in many browsers, the near future promises wide support. As acceptance of these features grow, Coegit Sans will prove to be a versatile element for your wide range of web projects.