This handmade looking brush font is inspired by the titles of the 1959 movie, Imitation of Life, by prolific film titles artist, Wayne Fitzgerald. The 'pastiche' of the font's name derives from the 'imitation' of the film's title, and from the imitation of the brush. OpenType enabled software can make Pastiche Brush feel even more handmade. There are alternates for every letter and number, and most punctation marks and symbols. Every letter has at least one alternate glyph, and more commonly used (in English at least) letters have up to three, so when contextual alternates are enabled, the font automatically cycles through glyphs in a pseudo-random manner. This means no double letter combination will ever contain two identical glyphs. Not only this, but it's highly likely the same word will look different elsewhere in the sentence. The contextual alternates feature also takes care of start and end forms of letters, for an even more handmade feel. This is a great font for headlines in fashion glossies, food packaging where an organic look is desirable, posters, perfume bottles, wine bottles... the list goes on. And with extensive language support, it's going to be a very usable addition to your display font repertoire.

Ablati is the commercial release of the font designed during the production of our new font design book, “Practical Font Design”. It is a new serif font in my continuing objective of designing book fonts that I can really use. In many ways, Ablati is a very different direction for me. Designed to produce gaphics to use in the font design book, I was forced to really reconsider many of my working methods to make them work for outside readership. Like all designers, my internal design processes can get really sloppy. The book helped me clean up my act. Taking my inspiration from one of my favorite fonts of all time {though I've never really been able to use it much}, Romic, by Colin at Letraset, I decided to design a unilateral serif font. In most ways, this is a normal serif for me in that it has caps, lowercase, small caps with the appropriate figures for each case. This font has all the OpenType features in the new set developed for the book. There are several ligatures for your fun and enjoyment: bb gg ff fi fl ffi ffl ffy fj ft tt ty Wh Th and more. Several alternative forms, a dozen ornaments, and more. Like all of my fonts, there are: caps, lowercase, small caps, proportional lining figures, proportional oldstyle figures, & small cap figures, plus numerators, denominators, superiors, inferiors, and a complete set of ordinals 1st through infinity. Enjoy! The Oldstyle and Small Cap fonts are an attempt to have most of the OpenType characters available to people still using Type 1 and TrueType fonts.

PF Champion Script Pro is perhaps the most advanced and powerful calligraphic family ever made. It received an award for Excellence in Type Design from the International Type Design Competition ‘Modern Cyrillic 2009’ which was held in Moscow. Most recently, it received another award from the 3rd International Eastern Type Design Competition - Granshan Awards 2010. This typeface was first presented in June 2007 at the 3rd International Conference on Typography and Visual Communication (ICTVC) and was met with rave reviews. It is based mainly on the manuscripts of the 18th century English calligrapher Joseph Champion. Developed over a period of two and a half years, each one of the 2 weights is loaded with 4300 glyphs(!), offering simultaneous support for all European languages based on the Latin, Greek and Cyrillic scripts. Furthermore, a wide selection of alternate forms and ligatures is included for all languages, in order to accommodate diverse design aesthetics. These alternates are either applied automatically through an advanced programming scheme, or manually through several OpenType features. An attempt was made to design a contemporary script typeface with classic roots, by following certain guidelines, i.e. lowercase characters were designed so they are less inclined, have a higher x-height and are less condensed than the original. Several characters were stripped-off their connecting lines in order to enhance legibility. Four sets of alternate swashed capitals as well as a plethora of ornaments and frames (117) was included. Small caps and their alternate forms were designed to replace the capitals which disrupt the flow of text within a sentence with their extravagant swashes. All characters were carefully designed with the proper weight in order to sustain harsh printing conditions (on special papers), a situation which affects mainly the light connecting parts of calligraphic typefaces. Finally, it was programmed in such a way as to preserve handwriting qualities, by designing an extensive array of ligatures and alternate glyphs in all languages, never before released or incorporated within the same font.

Mantika Book was originally conceived and drawn parallel to the first Agilita drawings. *[images: pencil drawings] It took several years before having a chance looking at these designs again. But then, my first impulse was to turn this alphabet into a new sanserif, which was to become Mantika Sans. This was the starting point to conceive a super family consisting of different design styles and corresponding weights. The initial drawings of Mantika Book were refined and an Italic was developed to go with it. The aim was to create a modern serif typeface which is reminiscent of humanistic Renaissance typefaces, yet without following a particular historic model. Its large x-height for one is far away from original Renaissance models. Mantika Book was designed as a companion serif typeface to Mantika Sans that can be set for lengthy texts as in books, hence its name. It shares the same x-height with Mantika Sans but has longer ascenders and descenders, making for better word shapes in long, continuous reading. The approach of an ›old-style‹ looking typeface with large minuscules makes Mantika Book also a choice for magazine text settings where one often needs smaller point sizes to fit in a multiple columns layout. The unique details of Mantika Book are the asymetric bracketed serifs in the upright font and its higher stroke contrast than usual in a Renaissance style. The stems are slightly curved inwards. Also, the Italics have a low degree of inclination, which makes longer passages of text set in Italic rather pleasing to read. Another feature Mantika Book shares with Mantika Sans is that all four weights take up the same line length. It covers all European languages plus Cyrillic and Greek, is equipped with lots of useful scientific symbols [double square brackets, angle brackets, empty set, arrows] and the regular weight has small caps. There is a kind of an old-style feeling to Mantika Book, yet these citations were turned into a contemporary serif typeface with a soft but sturdy character.

Looking for a unique display typeface that will set your designs apart? Look no further than Acroyear! This quirky font is based on a soft, capsule shape that is sure to catch the eye of anyone who sees it. And while it can be used horizontally, it truly shines when placed on an upward incline. Whether you’re designing a poster, logo, or website, Acroyear is the perfect font to add a touch of personality to your work. Its soft curves and playful vibe make it perfect for anything from children’s books to edgy fashion campaigns. But don’t just take our word for it—give Acroyear a try for yourself and see how it can elevate your designs to the next level. With its unique style and endless versatility, this font is sure to become a staple in your toolkit in no time. So why wait? Try Acroyear today and see the difference it can make! Most Latin-based European, Greek, and some Cyrillic-based 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, Bulgarian, 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, Greek, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Komi-Permyak, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Macedonian, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Russian, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, 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), Ukrainian, Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Are you ready to unleash your inner punk fashionista? Look no further than Gloss, the ultimate typeface for anyone who wants to make a statement. With its roots in Champion, a classic metal script from the ’50s, Gloss combines vintage vibes with a modern twist. But don’t be fooled by its retro origins—this font is anything but ordinary. Thanks to OpenType ligatures, each paint drip in Gloss is unique and unpredictable, adding a touch of spontaneity to your designs. And when set on an incline, the slightly skewed letters make a bold and dramatic statement. But what really sets Gloss apart is its trashy fashion edge. With a twice-recycled look that blends the best of the ’50s and ’80s, Gloss is the perfect choice for anyone who wants to embrace their inner rebel. So why settle for ordinary when you can make a splash with Gloss? Whether you’re designing a poster, creating a logo, or just looking to add some edge to your typography, Gloss is the ultimate choice for anyone who wants to stand out from the crowd. 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.

Antique monumental incriptional majuscule, originally carved in stone, and sometimes called “Roman Capital”, is the origin of the upper-case part of our latin alphabet. Its narrowed form, derived from handwritten originals used between the first to third century A. D., served as the inspiration for the Mramor typeface, which I drew with ink on paper in 1988 under Jan Solpera’s leadership. After composing negative letters on a strip of film it was possible to use Mramor with the early phototypesetting devices. In 1994 with the help of Macintosh IIvi I added the lowercase letters and bolds, and issued this typeface as 14-font family. After some years of using Mramor for various purposes, I realized a need of modernization and humanizing its very fragile appearance, as well as removing numerous decorative and useless parts. Besides that, type design made a huge technical progress in past few years, so I was able to finish the remaining approximately 9600 glyphs contained in the present font system named Amor. It is already usual to combine sans and serif fonts within one family in order to distinguish (e. g. in a book) historical part from contemporary, a plain chapter from a special one, or, in quotations, to divide speaking persons. Sans-serif typefaces don't arise by simple removal of serifs; they have to be drawn completely separately, when occasionally many declined forms may be made, considered to the serifed original. Nevertheless, both parts of this type system appear consistent as for proportional, aesthetic and emotional atmosphere. Usage of type is often closely linked to its original inspiration, in this particular case with architecture and figurative sculpture. An inner “order” was also text setting in smaller sizes. A smooth scale of weights enriches the possibilities in designing of magazines, brochures, exposition catalogues and corporate identity. Economizing, but opened shape of characters is well legible and antique hint comes into play after longer reading.

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.

Odile is a text typeface with bracketed head and bracket-free bottom lower case serifs, a quality that counters rigidness most traditional slab serif typefaces possess. This contemporary design draws inspiration from an experimental typeface named Charter originally designed by the American book and type designer William Addision Dwiggins. It consisted of an informal lowercase alphabet, a narrow seemingly non-inclined vertical letter with script attributes, featuring non-joining letterforms. Dwiggins’ contemplated Charter as the italic companion to Arcadia, Experimental No. 221. The Charter project progressed sporadic stalled during the Second World War and came to a halt in 1955. Charter remained incomplete and was never commercially released. Assessing Charter’s whimsical design, its fragments were rethought and developed into a comprehensive text family. Odile Upright Italic reveals recognizable similarities shared by Dwiggin’s Charter and defines the design approach for the family. The steep calligraphic outstroke and low junctions off the stem as in the upright italic “n” or “r”, for example, are gradually lessened in the italic and moved up for the roman weights. The six optically balanced weights range from the delicate Light to stark Black, accompanied by display variants with feminine flair and ardent Ornaments. Two sorts of Initials, one amplified with interweaving swashes, the other more restrained, both are clearly derived from the Upright Italic. This mid-contrast serif offers a wide range of tools for text and display typographies with a palette of strict to playful. This family shines in magazine, book and display use. The graceful serifed type harmonizes perfectly with Elido, Odile’s sans companion. Sans and serif share the family array and OpenType features in perfect tune. Odile offers an extensive character set, numerous OT features including roman and italic Small Caps, five sets of numerals, alluring ligatures, and many more. OT stylistic variants (with accents) offer a one-story “a” for the roman weights, alternate “g” and “s” designs for the italics, and a variant “s” for the Upright Italic.

Meet the new TT Trailers! The first version of TT Trailers was conceived as a font suitable for the film industry. The font harmoniously looks in posters, it is ideally suited for setting titles. However, the font has gained wide popularity among designers, and now you can find TT Trailers on the covers of magazines, on restaurant signs and on the main pages of websites. TT Trailers useful links: Specimen | Graphic presentation | Customization options Since 2019 when we released the first version, the TypeType studio team has released dozens of fonts, constantly improving our skills. In 2022, we decided to look at TT Trailers again, improving and expanding the font. In the new TT Trailers, we expanded the character set, corrected the contours, and improved the technical content. We have added extended Latin and Cyrillic characters, new symbols, and additional sets of numbers. The number of glyphs in one style has increased from 1081 to 1242. The inclined styles were long-awaited. The italics in TT Trailers are as eccentric as the upright fonts. The 15-degree tilt looks absolutely harmonious, complementing the character of the font family. We added italics to the variable font, so the new font changes along two axes at once, weight and slant. From the technical point of view, TT Trailers has become more modern and correct, and the number of OpenType features has increased from 29 to 42. We have added new alternative versions of glyphs and created a large number of localized features. The font retained all the qualities thanks to which designers fell in love with it, but became even more convenient. TT Trailers in the new version is suitable for titles and posters, for websites and printed materials. The font will embellish in restaurant and cafe signs and look beautiful in posters. There are 19 styles in TT Trailers: 9 upright, 9 italic and 1 variable font.

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.

What do you imagine the ideal casual invitation font would look like? It has to be cheerful, inviting, legible, creative, and loads of fun. But first and foremost, it has to look like real handwriting. Fonts seeming like real handwriting are always a major task, and although Canada Type already has plenty of fonts that solve the “looks like handwriting” issue in a variety of ways, we're once again raising the bar a little higher with this one. Birthday is a massive package that crosses the traditional font/handwriting solution of 2-letter ligatures and waltzes into the land of 3-letter combinations. Plenty of them, too! The complete Postscript and True Type versions of Birthday ship with no less than five separate fonts full of nothing but ligatures. And for even more realism, an alternates font is also included in the package, for a total of seven fonts of happy handwriting that can be used anywhere and everywhere personalization is of importance to a layout. For layout artists with advanced typography tools that take advantage of the power of OpenType, Birthday Pro is a wunderkind. All the individual letter alternates are accessible through the Stylistic Alternates feature, the 2-letter ligatures through the standard Ligatures feature, and the 3-letter ligatures via the Discretionary Ligatures feature (for the technically inclined: this includes a nice liga-to-dlig crossover, where the maximum number of possible ligated letters is automatically chosen at the push of a button). If you enjoy using OpenType, Birthday Pro is definitely for you. If on the other hand you like your fonts in Postsript or True Type, it is advisable to keep a character map handy while using Birthday. You will need it to take advantage of the many, many alternates and ligatures distributed over the fonts. The next time someone asks you for the perfect casual invitation font is, look no further. And as usually is with Canada Type, quality fonts are more affordable than ever.

LunchBox Slab is the pair of LunchBox, a uniquely hand-drawn typeface that gives numerous customizable options and a fully authentic look. The serifs in LunchBox Slab are simple blocks, with bulbous terminals on curved letters, which creates a unique effect. Identical to its pair behind the scenes, LunchBox Slab’s OpenType features allow access to over 1,500 different characters. Contextual alternatives give each letter 4 different character styles, all cycling through each other to ensure that no two letters ever show up together. There is also a custom set of small caps, each with 4 style variations as well. Stylistic alternatives give an extra hand-drawn flourish, loop and slight variation, also with 4 different styles per letter. Discretionary ligatures pertain to both regular all caps LunchBox as well as stylistic alternatives. It gives special letter combinations a unique interaction, giving your design a unique and personalized look without spending hours creating it and outlining your text. Included are also a set of swashes that also have four style variations to both the regular and stylistic alternatives, as well as lowercase letters with ascenders and descenders. All of these options are available in Light, Regular and Bold. LunchBox Slab Ornaments includes nearly 200 different graphics, flourishes, frames, catchwords, text breaks and arrows. If you do not use OpenType but are using a program that includes a full glyph panel, you will be able to manually access each of the style variations you want. Enjoy!

Matthew Carter has been refining his design for Alisal for so long, he says, that when he was asked to complete the design for the Monotype Library, it was almost as if he were doing a historical revival of his own typeface. The illusion even extended to changes in his work process: although he now does all his preliminary and final drawing on screen, the first trial renderings of Alisal were done as pencil renderings. Alisal is best classified as an Italian old style design. Originally created between the late 15th and mid-16th centuries in northern Italy, the true Italian old styles were some of the first roman types. They tend to be the most calligraphic of serifed faces, with the axis of their curved strokes inclined to the left, as if drawn with a flat-tipped pen or brush. These designs offer sturdy, free-flowing and heavily bracketed serifs, short descenders, and a modest contrast in stroke weight. Alisal has nearly all the classic Italian old style character traits, plus a few quirks of its own. It is calligraphic in nature, with more of a pen-drawn quality than faces like Palatino or Goudy Old Style. It is more rough-hewn than either Goudy's Kennerley or Benton's Cloister, and is generally heavier in weight than most of the other Italian old style designs. One place where Alisal makes a clean break with traditional old style designs is in the serifs. While sturdy and clearly reflecting pen-drawn strokes, Alisal's serifs have no bracketing and appear to be straight strokes crossing the main vertical. Like Caslon or Trajanus, Alisal is a handsome design when viewed as a block of copy. Ascenders are tall and elegant, and serve as a counterpoint to the robust strength of the rest of the design. Alisal is available as a small family of roman and bold with a complementary italic for the basic roman weight, providing all that is needed for the majority of text typography. Alisal is not as well-known as some of Carter's other typefaces, but this lovely and long-incubated design was certainly worth the wait.

P22 ST.G Shrift is a font series based on the type designs of Stefan George with an italic version designed by Colin Kahn. Stefan George (1868-1933) was a German poet who led the revolt against realism in German literature. All of his works were privately published and the typefaces that were used reflected his neo-classic and anti-industrial (progessive) aesthetics; oftentimes consisting of his own hand lettering designs. The original font was cast in 1907 by a small foundry in Germany and was used primarily for the works of George as well as other books including a monumental edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. The ST.G Shrift Fonts contained in this set are derived from 3 known variations of the original roman typeface, St.G., found in various books published in Berlin in the early 20th century. ST.G Shrift One contains the most idiosyncratic characters, while ST.G Shrift Two uses more familiar characters as well as a redesign of characters including the t and the k to be more in keeping with modern san-serif designs. The OpenType version of the roman contains both one and two and expands on them by including central European characters, small caps, and small caps titling figures. The Small Caps titling figures are derived from the first version of the typeface. Below is a features list (accessible through the type palette in Adobe programs) and their functions: ST.G Shrift Opentype Features: Small Caps: Changes Lowercase to Small Caps Titling Figures: Changes Uppercase to Titling Caps, and Small Caps to Small Caps Titling Figures Contextual Alternates: Changes Character Set to match ST.G One and changes Small Caps to Titling Small Caps Ornaments: Changes < > and ? (greater, less and bullet) to ornaments ST.G Shrift Italic is an art nouveau version of the roman. The OpenType version includes central European characters, small caps, titling caps, titling small caps and ornaments.

Art into type In 2008, Fontsmith were approached by their friend, Jon Scott, to investigate whether a typeface could assume the aesthetic of one artist’s body of work. Jon’s not-for-profit charity, Measure, was organising an event for the artist, Conrad Shawcross, whose giant mechanical installation, entitled Chord, was going on public display in the long-disused Kingsway tram tunnel in Holborn. Chord explores the way we perceive time, as either a line or a cycle. Two enormous machines with dozens of rotating arms and moving in opposite directions, weave rope with almost infinite slowness. An unusual brief Phil Garnham visited Conrad in his Hackney studio to get a feel for his work and ideas. “Conrad is a very clever and philosophical guy. He struggled to see how typeface design had any relevance to him and his art. This was going to be a challenge.” The artist presented the type designer with a pile of rope and a huge diagram of sketches and mathematical workings. “This was, in essence, my brief.” Phil developed three concepts, the simplest of which ticked all the boxes. “The idea of the strokes in the letterforms appearing and ending at peaks or points of origin fitted perfectly with Conrad’s idea of time occurring and ending at two ends of the sculpture.” Two versions Phil planned modules for two versions of the typeface: one with five lines in the letterforms and one with seven. He then drew the modules on-screen and twisted and turned them to build the machine that is FS Conrad. “This is not a simple headline typeface,” says Phil. “It’s not a rigid structure. It has varying character widths, and it’s informed by real typographic insight and proportions so that it actually works as piece of functioning, harmonious type.”

Antwerp On a visit to Belgium and the Netherlands while still an MA student at Reading University, Eleni Beveratou made some important discoveries. First, there was the letter ‘g’ from the Didot family seen at Plantin Moretus Museum in Antwerp, which seemed “almost like a mistake”. Then there were strange details such as the serifs on the “l”, “h”, “k”, “b” 
and “d” in Egmont Cursive and other typefaces by Sjoerk Hendrik de Roos, found in volumes of poetry she picked up from a chaotic bookshop in Amsterdam. These were characters that stood out from the text but seemed to blend harmoniously with the rest 
of the letters. “And there it was, the spark. 
I decided to design a typeface that would capture the details of the process of writing.” A guiding hand Eleni shared her initial thoughts with Phil Garnham and Jason Smith. They liked what they saw in her tentative first sketches, and gave her the chance to develop her ideas further. Phil, in particular, provided valuable input as FS Olivia took shape. Eleni’s main influence – the handwritten – would give the font its character. “When creating a typeface,” says Eleni, “it’s fair to say that it reflects some of the designer’s personality. And that’s certainly the case with 
FS Olivia. “Although technology is part of my everyday life. I am a great admirer of traditional graphic design where you can touch and feel paper and ink.” Irregular “What I particularly like,” says Eleni, “is that a printed item can develop its own personality sometimes as a result of imperfections in the print. “FS Olivia has some of 
these characteristics as it’s inspired by handwriting, 
and yet it also includes some 
very modern features.” Feminine and fascinating, FS Olivia captures the expressive twists and turns of (the poet’s?) pen on paper, with low junctions, 
deep top serifs and semi-rounded edges. Round outstrokes contrast with 
the rough corners of the instroke, while strong diagonals and inclined serifs create a richly textured pattern. Polytonic It’s only fitting that there should be a version of this poetic font for one of the birthplaces of poetry and song. Eleni, who hails from Athens, developed an extensive range of glyphs that could be used for the Greek language, in both modern and ancient texts. For the latter, there is a version of Olivia for displaying polytonic Greek (a system that utilises a range of accents and “breathings”), which brings the 21st century technology of OpenType to the presentation of poetic texts from Ancient Greece. Just think what Homer could have done with that.

Antwerp On a visit to Belgium and the Netherlands while still an MA student at Reading University, Eleni Beveratou made some important discoveries. First, there was the letter ‘g’ from the Didot family seen at Plantin Moretus Museum in Antwerp, which seemed “almost like a mistake”. Then there were strange details such as the serifs on the “l”, “h”, “k”, “b” 
and “d” in Egmont Cursive and other typefaces by Sjoerk Hendrik de Roos, found in volumes of poetry she picked up from a chaotic bookshop in Amsterdam. These were characters that stood out from the text but seemed to blend harmoniously with the rest 
of the letters. “And there it was, the spark. 
I decided to design a typeface that would capture the details of the process of writing.” A guiding hand Eleni shared her initial thoughts with Phil Garnham and Jason Smith. They liked what they saw in her tentative first sketches, and gave her the chance to develop her ideas further. Phil, in particular, provided valuable input as FS Olivia took shape. Eleni’s main influence – the handwritten – would give the font its character. “When creating a typeface,” says Eleni, “it’s fair to say that it reflects some of the designer’s personality. And that’s certainly the case with 
FS Olivia. “Although technology is part of my everyday life. I am a great admirer of traditional graphic design where you can touch and feel paper and ink.” Irregular “What I particularly like,” says Eleni, “is that a printed item can develop its own personality sometimes as a result of imperfections in the print. “FS Olivia has some of 
these characteristics as it’s inspired by handwriting, 
and yet it also includes some 
very modern features.” Feminine and fascinating, FS Olivia captures the expressive twists and turns of (the poet’s?) pen on paper, with low junctions, 
deep top serifs and semi-rounded edges. Round outstrokes contrast with 
the rough corners of the instroke, while strong diagonals and inclined serifs create a richly textured pattern. Polytonic It’s only fitting that there should be a version of this poetic font for one of the birthplaces of poetry and song. Eleni, who hails from Athens, developed an extensive range of glyphs that could be used for the Greek language, in both modern and ancient texts. For the latter, there is a version of Olivia for displaying polytonic Greek (a system that utilises a range of accents and “breathings”), which brings the 21st century technology of OpenType to the presentation of poetic texts from Ancient Greece. Just think what Homer could have done with that.

Remora is an extensive new humanist sans serif which comes in 2 style variations, the effervescent Remora Sans and its corporate business partner Remora Corp . Both styles include 5 individual width sets ranging from the condensed W1 to the extra-wide W5. Furthermore, with an impressive 7 weights (Thin to Ultra) and true matching italics in each pack Remora is an ultra versatile super family comprising 140 individual fonts, perfect for any typographic assignment or design brief. Remora was designed by G-Type founder Nick Cooke. Both the Sans and Corp families share the same proportions, with the exception of certain key characters that change the overall appearance. Remora Sans is an exuberant and characterful typeface while Remora Corp, as its name suggests, is a businesslike typeface more suited to corporate typography. Quite early on in the design process Nick decided to give Remora Corp equal billing instead of incorporating these glyphs as alternates or a stylistic set that may get overlooked. “I created two separate families after learning a valuable lesson with one of my earlier typefaces, Houschka”, says Nick. “Houschka contained distinctive rounded A’s W’s and w’s, with ‘straight’ styles as character alternates. Even though style sets and alternates are easy to activate they are rarely used, so after many requests for customised versions of the fonts with the straight characters as defaults it was decided to create the separate ‘Alt’ family. So I cut straight to the chase with the two Remora variants and created two complementary families.” Both sets contain many shared letterforms, but it is the alternate characters that significantly alter the appearance of each font. Remora has been carefully designed for optimum legibility at large and very small sizes. Although fairly monolinear in appearance, especially in the lighter weights, particular attention has been paid to optical correction like the overshoots of the curved characters. Open counters and painstaking attention to detail (e.g. weight contrast between horizontal and vertical strokes, junctions of shoulders and stems etc) all boost readability and make Remora a great choice across all media. Remora Sans and Corp are ‘humanist’ rather than ‘geometric’ in style, meaning they’re not strictly based on rectangles and circles, resulting in a warm and friendlier feel. The slightly ’super-elliptical’ rounded forms create generously attractive curves. Remora has very distinctive italics in that they are only inclined by 8 degrees, but are not just based on slanted uprights. The italic styles are very alluring when used for display at large sizes and the good news is they come bundled free with their respective uprights. Each family also contains many OpenType features including proportional and tabular numbers, small caps, discretionary ligatures, plus five stylistic sets for ultra versatile typography.

Gérard Mariscalchi is a self-made designer. Born in Southern France of a Spanish mother and an Italian father, he has worked as a mechanic, salesman, pilot, college teacher – even a poet (with poetry being the worst-paying of these professions, he reports.) “Throughout all this, the backbone of my career has always been design,” Mariscalchi says. “I’ve been drawing since I was five, but it wasn’t until I was twenty-four that I learned that my hobby could also help me earn a living.” It was about this same time that Mariscalchi fell in love with type. He studied the designs of masters like Excoffon, Usherwood and Frutiger, as well as the work of calligraphers and type designers such as Plantin, Cochin and Dürer. With such an eclectic background, it’s no surprise that Mariscalchi’s typeface designs are inspired by many sources. Baylac and Evita reflect the style of the art nouveau and art deco periods, while Marnie was created as an homage to the great Lithuanian calligrapher Villu Toots. However, the touch of French elegance and distinction Mariscalchi brings to his work is all his own. Baylac Who says thirteen is an unlucky number? Three capitals and ten lowercase letters from a poster by L. Baylac, a relatively obscure Art Nouveau designer, served as the foundation for this typeface. The finished design has lush curves that give the face drama without diminishing its versatility. On the practical side, Baylac’s condensed proportions make it perfect for those situations where there’s a lot to say and not much room in which to say it Evita Mariscalchi based the design of Evita on hand lettering he found in a restaurant menu, and considers this typeface one of his most difficult design challenges. “The main problem was to render the big weight difference between the thin and the thick strokes without creating printing problems at small point sizes,” he says. Unlike most scripts, Evita is upright, with the design characteristics of a serif typeface. Mariscalchi named the face for a close friend. The end result is a charming design that is light, airy, and slightly sassy. Marnie Based on Art Nouveau calligraphic lettering, Marnie is elegant, inviting, and absolutely charming. Mariscalchi paid special attention to letter shapes and proportions to guarantee high levels of character legibility. He also kept weight transition in character strokes to modest levels, enabling the face to be used at relatively small sizes – an unusual asset for a formal script. Marnie’s capital letters are expansive designs with flowing swash strokes that wrap affectionately around adjoining lowercase letters. The design easily captures the spontaneous qualities of hand-rendered brush lettering.

Gérard Mariscalchi is a self-made designer. Born in Southern France of a Spanish mother and an Italian father, he has worked as a mechanic, salesman, pilot, college teacher – even a poet (with poetry being the worst-paying of these professions, he reports.) “Throughout all this, the backbone of my career has always been design,” Mariscalchi says. “I’ve been drawing since I was five, but it wasn’t until I was twenty-four that I learned that my hobby could also help me earn a living.” It was about this same time that Mariscalchi fell in love with type. He studied the designs of masters like Excoffon, Usherwood and Frutiger, as well as the work of calligraphers and type designers such as Plantin, Cochin and Dürer. With such an eclectic background, it’s no surprise that Mariscalchi’s typeface designs are inspired by many sources. Baylac and Evita reflect the style of the art nouveau and art deco periods, while Marnie was created as an homage to the great Lithuanian calligrapher Villu Toots. However, the touch of French elegance and distinction Mariscalchi brings to his work is all his own. Baylac Who says thirteen is an unlucky number? Three capitals and ten lowercase letters from a poster by L. Baylac, a relatively obscure Art Nouveau designer, served as the foundation for this typeface. The finished design has lush curves that give the face drama without diminishing its versatility. On the practical side, Baylac’s condensed proportions make it perfect for those situations where there’s a lot to say and not much room in which to say it Evita Mariscalchi based the design of Evita on hand lettering he found in a restaurant menu, and considers this typeface one of his most difficult design challenges. “The main problem was to render the big weight difference between the thin and the thick strokes without creating printing problems at small point sizes,” he says. Unlike most scripts, Evita is upright, with the design characteristics of a serif typeface. Mariscalchi named the face for a close friend. The end result is a charming design that is light, airy, and slightly sassy. Marnie Based on Art Nouveau calligraphic lettering, Marnie is elegant, inviting, and absolutely charming. Mariscalchi paid special attention to letter shapes and proportions to guarantee high levels of character legibility. He also kept weight transition in character strokes to modest levels, enabling the face to be used at relatively small sizes – an unusual asset for a formal script. Marnie’s capital letters are expansive designs with flowing swash strokes that wrap affectionately around adjoining lowercase letters. The design easily captures the spontaneous qualities of hand-rendered brush lettering.