
Dedicated to the XXII summer Olympic Games. I was inspired by the icons of these games when creating font Olymp80. This is an excerpt from the official report of the Moscow Olympics: "Sports pictographs, as we know, are pictographic drawings symbolising sports. They serve as points of reference and help overcome language barrier. Over the past few years, they have been integrated into the decoration of Olympic cities, and have been depicted in Olympic posters, commemorative medals, postage stamps, tickets, souvenirs, etc. On the OCOG-80’s request, graduates from several art colleges took up the design of the pictographs of the insignia as the theme of their dissertations. With the help of the research institute of industrial aesthetics, the Organising Committee chose the work submitted by Nikolai Belkov, Mukhina Art School graduate from Leningrad. The State Committee for Inventions and Discoveries under the USSR Council of Ministers recognised the new design as a production pattern. Though highly stylised, the new signs are easily comprehensible. They are smoother in outline because they are constructed at an angle of 30-60 (previously the angle was 45-90). Another merit of the new system is that the designs can be adapted for use in four representations: direct (solid, black against a white background), reverse (solid, white against a black background), contour (black contour against a white background), and reverse-contour (white contour against a black background), and permit several colour and shade and size variations." All text and pictures you may see on 1980 Moscow, Volume 2, Part 2, Page 420. Monospaced font for names, logotypes, titles, headers, topics etc. Font includes only uppercase letters with two alternative designs for each letter.

It started in 2007 with Chennai, the first of a three-part series of sans that I envisioned with slab serif counterparts. Each font would differ from the others in how the stem terminals were expressed. The initial font was extremely well received, and a revitalized and remastered Chennai made its appearance two years later, complete with new weights and new, novel OpenType features. Then came Madurai, a variation of Chennai based on the same core, only without the rounded stems. Chennai’s rounded stems made it distinctive and great for headlines but left it lacking appeal as copy--a problem that Madurai easily solved. And now comes Sangli, the final iteration of my original 2007 vision. Sangli is a happy medium. Like Chennai, it’s great for headlines--but not too distinct for copy. Sangli keeps the same core structure as the other two, but new less sharp forms give this latest font a friendlier look that’s more versatile than the original Chennai and less formal than Madurai. The font includes a whole range of six weights from light to black, along with condensed and extended options as well for a total of 54 fonts. There are plenty of OpenType features, including small caps. Alternates include normalized capitals and lowercase letters that include stems for when you want a more traditional look or when you’re writing copy. Sangli also supports over 70 languages that use the extended Latin script. Use Chennai, Madurai, and their slab serif variants interchangeably with Sangli, too, for even more options in your work. All three complement one another well. So when you need a balanced font that stands boldly on the page and commands your reader’s attention, look within and find your Sangli.

Eyadish is an entertaining, comic, and childish font. The name of this font is originally derived from two main syllables. The first one is "Eyad-" which refers to my first name and the second syllables is "-ish" which means characteristics of or relating to. Hence, "Eyadish" refers to the characteristics that "Eyad", the typographer, himself has and had during his childhood. I do like this font for its childish and comic shapes. I have decided to design this font trying to leave a humble and personal imprint regarding the magic and innocent world of all children. Frankly, it is my most favorable designed font. This font comes in two different weights with facilities for writing and publishing in different alphabets included in various Latin and Cyrillic texts and scripts. "Eyadish" is primarily designed to be fit with all prints of kids, children, and juveniles' products. It is major usage is in advertisements and publications. It is suitable for T-shirts, books' covers of children such as fairy tales and comic stories, advertisement light boards in malls, and titles in parental, childish, comic, and other related magazines. "Eyadish" also can be printed in many children's products such as garments, towels, shoes, socks, toys, pacifiers, diapers, exhibitions, festivals, books titles and contents, medicines' packages, kindergartens' signs, buses, comic and TV series, kids and children organizations and charities names, images, software, foods including milk cans, candies, chocolates, and other related products. The font is extremely and distinguishably attractive when it is used with various, and vivid colorful letters and words in posters, cards, and placards. "Eyadish" is specifically designed for commercial, educational, cultural, and social purposes related to infants, babies, kids, and children. The main characteristic of "Eyadish" Typeface is in its childish look that remains when anyone reads or types or even deals visually with its characters.

Few fonts reach cult status. Despite its ubiquity—and perhaps because of its lack of subtlety—for a hundred years Cooper continues to draw the faithful. It’s even come to define an entire typographic genre and recently starred in its own documentary. Cooper Nouveau is Dave West’s imaginative contribution to the Cooper oeuvre. Drawn in 1966, Nouveau refreshes Oswald Cooper’s original italic with an energetic pitch, simplified contours, and a plump friendly figure. Uniform strokes and generous curves push the font’s playful personality and springy silhouette even further. A selection of swashed characters and ligatures offers options for lively logos and strong captions. While Cooper Nouveau looks laid-back and easy-going, it’s more than capable of pulling it’s own typographic weight. Put it to work where relaxed needs to project confident. Set Nouveau large for eye-magnet posters, packaging, and advertisements. Maximize its youthful energy for kids’ themes, craft action, and apparel bounce. Or set it alongside a master like Benguiat Buffalo or Chalet to show how Cooper Nouveau can communicate on paper and screens with an inherent ability to speak the language of style in many tongues. But like any cult icon: beware! Cooper has a way of setting the needle, and Nouveau just may become your go-to design fix. FEATURES ALTERNATES: Cooper Nouveau contains several alternate characters, which add flair to your designs and can help solve spacing issues LIGATURES: Many letter combinations in Cooper Nouveau form a ligature to solve spacing issues and produce more pleasing designs. COOPER NOUVEAU CREDITS Typeface Design: Dave West Digitization: Dave Foster Typeface Direction: Ben Kiel, with Ken Barber Like all good subversives, House Industries hides in plain sight while amplifying the look, feel and style of the world’s most interesting brands, products and people. Based in Delaware, visually influencing the world.
ZapfinoExtra is an OpenType format typeface available in two versions. The Contextual version contains a treasure-trove of extra contextual features. When created in 2004, this was the most advanced OpenType font released to date. By purchasing the Contextual version, users of OpenType-supporting applications, such as Adobe InDesign, may access all of the features available in the entire Zapfino family through just two fonts, Zapfino Extra LT Pro (Contextual), and Zapfino Forte LT Pro! Unfortunately, most non-Adobe applications currently do not support the contextual features made possible by recent OpenType developments. Users of Quark XPress and Microsoft Office should instead purchase all of the non-contextual fonts of Zapfino Extra Pro family, in order to access all of the Zapfino family's 1676 glyphs. The Zapfino family's character set supports 48 western and central European languages. More Zapfino History: Today's digital font technology allowed the world-renowned typeface designer/calligrapher Hermann Zapf to finally realize a vision he first had more than fifty years ago: creating a typeface that could capture the freedom and liveliness of beautiful handwriting. The basic Zapfino™ font family, released in 1998, consists of four alphabets with many additional stylistic alternates that can be freely mixed together to emulate the variations in handwritten text. In 2003, Herman Zapf completely reworked the Zapfino design, creating Zapfino™ Extra. This large expansion of the Zapfino family was designed in close collaboration with Akira Kobayashi. Zapfino™ Extra includes a cornucopia of new characters. It features exuberant hyper-flourishes, elegant small caps, dozens of ornaments, more alternates and ligatures, index characters, and a very useful bold version-named Zapfino™ Forte. Use Zapfino to produce unusual and graceful advertisements, packaging, and invitations. Zapfino Extra is so joyously abundant that it's tempting to over-indulge, so be sure to check out the tips for working well with the possibilities!"

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

Write like the inventor of the diesel engine — it’s possible with the Diesel Rudolf Script (patterned after the original handwriting of Rudolf Diesel)... In 2008 the city of Augsburg and the MAN Group celebrated the 150th birthday of Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine which was named after him. With the help of a few preserved original letters, it was possible to create a convincing digital version of Rudolf Diesel’s personal handwriting. The engineer and inventor Rudolf Diesel was born in Paris in 1858 and also went to school there. In1870 his family moved to England and Rudolf was sent to relatives in Augsburg where he continued going to school. Later, after completing his studies in Munich, he began working as an engineer in the machine factory Linde. Alone this part of his life makes clear why Rudolf Diesel’s handwriting was so ”jerky,“ hesitant and inconsistent. He learned to write according to the French style, that is, Latin cursive — completely different from the very correct and neat German handwriting taught at that time which he had to learn at 13 years of age. These circumstances explain why his handwriting is ”messy“ (especially for those days) with its mixtures of letter forms within a text, even within individual words. Plus, he obviously did not attach much importance to ”pretty writing.“ Sometimes the characters are wide, then narrow, sometimes large and clear and then again crammed and primitive. The individuality is emphasized with characteristics derived from quill and ink. The diversified images of the font Diesel Rudolf Script make more than 80 ligatures and stylistic alternates possible which can be selected with help from the OpenType functions Ligatures and Discretional Ligatures.
Parma by Monotype, $29.99 Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) was called the King of Printers; he was a prolific type designer, a masterful engraver of punches and the most widely admired printer of his time. His books and typefaces were created during the 45 years he was the director of the fine press and publishing house of the Duke of Parma in Italy. He produced the best of what are known as modern" style types, basing them on the finest writing of his time. Modern types represented the ultimate typographic development of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They have characteristics quite different from the types that preceded them; such as extreme vertical stress, fine hairlines contrasted by bold main strokes, and very subtle, almost non-existent bracketing of sharply defined hairline serifs. Bodoni saw this style as beautiful and harmonious-the natural result of writing done with a well-cut pen, and the look was fashionable and admired. Other punchcutters, such as the Didot family (1689-1853) in France, and J. E. Walbaum (1768-1839) in Germany made their own versions of the modern faces. Even though some nineteenth century critics turned up their noses and called such types shattering and chilly, today the Bodoni moderns are seen in much the same light as they were in his own time. When used with care, the Bodoni types are both romantic and elegant, with a presence that adds tasteful sparkle to headlines and advertising. Parma was designed by the monotype Design Team after studying Bodoni's steel punches at the Museo Bodoniana in Parma, Italy. They also referred to specimens from the "Manuale Tipografico," a monumental collection of Bodoni's work published by his widow in 1818.

It's time to kick off your shoes and feel the "sans" between your toes. Like Cabrito Inverto , its stress-reversing cousin, the new Cabrito Sans serves up something nice and cool in the heat of the project. A quick recap: the original Cabrito is an insigne Design slab serif produced for the kid's book The Clothes Letters Wear. It's been pretty well-received--even more than I expected. I promised to grow the family with a free-standing inverted style that could pair well with Cabrito. (See Cabrito Inverto.) Now, I'm rounding out the family with this well-crafted sans. And so now, Sans is where it's at. Strip away the serifs of Cabrito, and you have a laid back, rounded sans serif alternative served up over easy. This handwriting-inspired creation--like its relatives--is definitely not uptight about its forms (though not afraid to show them off a little). Cabrito Sans' whole pack of alternates is accessible in any OpenType-enabled program. This kiddo consists of a workforce of alternates, swashes, and alternate titling caps to give the font a little extra sweetener to its flavor. Also bundled are swash alternates, old style figures, and compact caps. Check out the interactive PDF brochure to test out each these options. This font family members also consists of the glyphs for 72 various languages. Cabrito Inverto and Cabrito do pair nicely with Cabrito Sans (in case you doubted). Use Sans--or all three of these amigos--to express friendliness on just about anything: food, candy, toys, cars (if you're feeling bold). Don't wait, though. Purchase Cabrito Sans today, and bring a one-of-a-kind look to whatever your computer's next design party is.
Ah, Clementine Sketch by TheBlueJoker - imagine if a lemonade stand in mid-July decided it wanted a career change and became a font. This is that font. It's as if each letter, in its whimsical noncha...

The Treasury script waited over 130 years to be digitized, and the Canada Type crew is very proud to have done the honors. And then some. After seven months of meticulous work on some of the most fascinating letter forms ever made, we can easily say that Treasury is the most ambitious, educational and enjoyable type journey we've embarked upon, and we're certain you will be quite happy with the results. Treasury goes beyond being a mere revival of a typeface. Though the original Treasury script is quite breathtaking in its own right, we decided to bring it into the computer age with much more style and functionality than just another lost script becoming digital. The Treasury System is an intuitive set of fonts that takes advantage of the most commonly used feature of today's design software: Layering. Please do help yourself to the PDF and images in the MyFonts gallery for a quick look at the some of the limitless possibilities Treasury has to offer, from simple attractive elegance expressed in the main script, all the way into mysteriously magnificent calligraphic plates. To date in digital type history, this is the most comprehensive and versatile work of its kind. Every designer loves many options to experiment. Experimentation has never been as much fun and productive as it is with Treasury. If you're "compudling" your initial ideas for a layout, or you're just an alphabet fan who loves spending time with letters, working with Treasury is very inspiring and fulfilling. Some of Treasury's features are: - No more endless searching for initial caps that fit your project. The Treasury System lets you build your own initial caps, in any combination of colors, fills, linings or dimensions you like, with a few simple clicks of the mouse. - With two base styles and nine layer fonts, the Treasury System set helps you produce endless possibilities of alternation and variation in dimension, color, and calligraphic combinations to fit your layout's exact needs, down to the very last detail. - 12 pre-combined Treasury fonts are also there to help and inspire layout artists who love shortcuts and don't want to fiddle with too many layers in their layout. Available in small packages on their own, or as part of the complete Treasury package, these 12 fonts can start you up on your way to discovering the perfect fit for your layout. - Every single letter in the Treasury System comes with at least one alternative. Some characters have even three or four alternates. Although the main character set is an authentic rendition of Ihlenburg's 1874 classic, we made sure to include a treasure trove of alternates for maximum usability. - The most gorgeous set of numerals we have seen in a long, long time. The Treasury numbers are what really turned us onto this project in the first place. - Treasury Pro, the incredibly sophisticated OpenType version, combines the complete Treasury System into a single font, programmed for compatibility with Adobe's latest CS and CS2 software programs. Over 2000 characters in one font, for thousands of possibilities. Setting the ideal elegant wordmark, logotype, intitial cap, or headline, no matter how simple or complex, is as easy as taking a minute or two to push a few buttons in Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign. We can go on endlessly about the beauty and functionality of this Treasury set, but we really cannot do it justice with words. So try Treasury for yourself and see the amazing possibilities of fun and creativity it has. It can be used pretty much anywhere - signs, book covers, certificates, music inserts, movie posters, greeting cards, invitations, etc. Much thanks are due to the generous and considerable help Canada Type received from the Harvard Library in Boston, Klingspor Museum in Frankfurt, and many type hobbyists and researchers in Canada, England, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. Without them it would was near-impossible to track down the lost history of Hermann Ihlenburg, the most prolific German/American type designer and punch cutter of the 19th century. We hope Mr. Ihlenburg is proudly smiling down on us from type designer heaven.
**Squeeze Me Baby!** by PizzaDude conjures up images of a font that refuses to go unnoticed, much like a zany friend who always knows how to make an entrance. If fonts had personalities, Squeeze Me B...
Sure, let's dive into the imaginative world of a font named "Whatever." Imagine this font as the epitome of casual chic, the kind of lettering that doesn't fuss over the formalities of typography. It...
Zitcream, crafted by the imaginative PizzaDude, is a font that wears its heart on its sleeve, or more accurately, its personality on its letterforms. It's a distinctive typeface that seems to leap ou...
The Ecolier font is a charming and visually appealing typeface that invokes a sense of nostalgia and warmth, reminiscent of handwriting taught in primary schools across France. Its name, "Ecolier," t...
Ah, "AddShade" – the mysterious, yet seemingly playful character in the grand narrative of typography. Picture this: Imagine you're walking down the street on a sunny afternoon. The sun is high, cast...
The Diablo font, much like the name suggests, embodies an aura of mystique and darkness, evoking images of ancient tomes and arcane secrets whispered in the dead of night. This font is not just a col...
The font titled "Silent Witness" crafted by the artist SpideRaY is a captivating creation that stands out due to its distinctive character and evocative design. This particular font can be described ...
Handwriting1800 by Jantiff is a captivating font that truly embodies the essence of the past, encapsulating the charm and elegance of the 19th century handwriting. This unique typeface serves as a br...
As of my last update in April 2023, the font named "ESP" bears a distinct style that aptly reflects its name, which might make one think of Extra Sensory Perception – a concept tied to the supernatur...
Old Hero is a font that carries the essence of history and strength within its character design. Its typographic structure is reminiscent of the fonts used in medieval manuscripts, yet it has been re...
The Malgecito font by Dirt2 is a playful and whimsically designed typeface that embodies an artistic and slightly edgy vibe. Crafted with an evident flair for creativity, this font interweaves the bo...
"Lucky Typewriter" by Lukas Krakora is a distinct and charming font that captures the essence and nostalgia of vintage typewriters. This typeface, meticulously designed by Krakora, successfully bridg...
The Pricedown font, crafted by the talented Ray Larabie, is a striking and dynamically styled typeface that immediately grabs attention. It is famously associated with its resemblance to the logo of ...
The VTCSuperMarketSaleSC font, crafted by the Vigilante Typeface Corporation, embodies the spirit of whimsical commerce and playful advertising, reminiscent of bustling supermarket aisles and vibrant...
RunishMK by Manfred Klein is a unique font that draws inspiration from the ancient runes used by early Germanic tribes, particularly those known as the Elder Futhark. Manfred Klein, a prolific typogr...
The font "Nightmare Maker," crafted by the talented Chris Hansen, is a fascinating demonstration of creativity and boundary-pushing in typography. This font encapsulates the essence of thrill, horror...
Yahoo!© font created by GautFonts is a unique and lively typeface that vividly captures the essence of the iconic Yahoo! brand. This font is both a nod to the nostalgia of the internet's early days a...
The SF Collegiate font, designed by ShyFoundry Fonts, is a distinctive typeface that draws its inspiration from the bold and spirited look of traditional American collegiate and university lettering....
The "Scribble" font, as its name suggests, belongs to a category of typefaces that mimic the hurried, erratic characteristics of handwritten scribbles. It encapsulates the essence of spontaneity, cre...
Picture this: If fonts were a party, Crushed Out Girl would be the one that arrived on a vintage Vespa, wearing a polka-dot dress and oversized sunglasses, effortlessly becoming the life of the party...
Commander Edge is a font that exudes strength and adaptability, bearing the mark of its creators, Essqué Productions, who have carefully designed it with a blend of modernity and futurism in mind. Th...
The font named ThunderCats-Ho!, created by SpideRaY, is a distinctly crafted typeface that captures the essence and nostalgic exuberance of the iconic 1980s ThunderCats franchise. This font embodies ...
Ubicada is a contemporary and versatile typeface created by the talented typeface designer deFharo. It is a font characterized by its clean lines, geometric shapes, and modern feel, perfect for a var...
Droid Sans is a contemporary sans-serif typeface family designed by Steve Matteson of Ascender Corporation. Introduced as part of Google's Android operating system, the primary intention behind the c...
Ah, Urban Brigade, the font that struts down the street of typography like it owns the place. Imagine, if you will, a graffiti artist and a highly disciplined calligrapher had a love child; Urban Bri...
The Tropicana font crafted by Listemageren is an embodiment of the vibrant energy and lush aesthetics of tropical environments. This font captures the essence of a paradise filled with exotic flora a...
Acid Reflux, a font designed by Jason Ramirez, is a distinct and bold typeface that captures the essence of chaotic beauty and edgy creativity. Its design appears to be inspired by the unpredictable ...

There is plenty of lyric and literature about looking over one's shoulder in contemplation. What would you have done differently if you knew then what you know now? This is the kind of question that comes out of nowhere. When it does and whether its context is personal or professional make very little difference. It's a question that can cause emotions to rise and passions to run hot. It can trigger priority shifts and identity crises. It's never easy to answer. Three years ago, I published a font called Semilla. My aim with that was to distill the work of Bentele, a lettering artist from early 1950s Germany. Picking such an obscure figure back then was my way of pondering the meaning and efficiency of objectivity in a world where real human events and existences are inevitably filtered through decades of unavoidably subjective written, printed and oral history. And maybe to pat myself on the back for surviving surprises mild and pleasant. Having been fortunate enough to follow my professional whims for quite some time now, I took another, longer look at my idea of distilling Bentele's work again. I suppose the concepts of established history and objectivity can become quite malleable when personal experience is added to the mix. I say that because there I was, three years later, second-guessing myself and opining that Bentele's work can be distilled differently, in a manner more suited to current cultural angles. So I embarked on that mission, and Bowling Script is the result. I realize that it's difficult to reconcile this soft and happy calligraphic outcome with the introspection I've blathered about so far, but it is what is. I guess even self-created first world problems need to be resolved somehow, and the resolution can happen in mysterious ways. Bowling Script is what people who like my work would expect from me. It's yet another script loaded with all kinds of alternation, swashing and over-the-top stuff. All of that is in here. These days I think I just do all that stuff without even blinking. But there are two additional twists. The more noticeable one is ornamental: The stroke endings in the main font are of the typical sharp and curly variety found in sign painting, while the other font complements that with ball endings, sometimes with an added-on-afterwards impression rather than an extension of the actual stroke. In the philosophical terms I was mumbling earlier, this is the equivalent of alternate realities in a world of historical reduxes that by their very nature can never properly translate original fact. The second twist has to do with the disruption of angular rhythm in calligraphic alphabets. Of course, this is the kind of lettering where the very concept of rhythm can be quite flexible, but it still counts for something, and experimenting with angular white space in a project of a very dense footprint was irresistible. After playing for a bit, I decided that it would interesting to include the option of using optically back-slanted forms in the fonts. Most scripts out there, including mine, have a rhythm sonically comparable to four-to-the-floor club beats. So the weirdly angled stuff here is your chance to do the occasional drumroll. Everyone knows we need one of those sometimes. Bowling Script and Bowling Script Balls fonts comes with 1600 characters and features extended Latin-based language support. There are also a basic version of both fonts without all the alternates and extra OpenType features. Bowling family ships in cross-platform OpenType format. We also want to present “Mute”, a visual essay narated by Tomás García and Valentín Muro, about digital life created specially to introduce Bowling Script.

Originally designed in 1996, Mrs Eaves was Zuzana Licko’s first attempt at the design of a traditional typeface. It was styled after Baskerville, the famous transitional serif typeface designed in 1757 by John Baskerville in Birmingham, England. Mrs Eaves was named after Baskerville’s live in housekeeper, Sarah Eaves, whom he later married. One of Baskerville’s intents was to develop typefaces that pushed the contrast between thick and thin strokes, partially to show off the new printing and paper making techniques of his time. As a result his types were often criticized for being too perfect, stark, and difficult to read. Licko noticed that subsequent interpretations and revivals of Baskerville had continued along the same path of perfection, using as a model the qualities of the lead type itself, not the printed specimens. Upon studying books printed by Baskerville at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, Licko decided to base her design on the printed samples which were heavier and had more character due to the imprint of lead type into paper and the resulting ink spread. She reduced the contrast while retaining the overall openness and lightness of Baskerville by giving the lower case characters a wider proportion. She then reduced the x-height relative to the cap height to avoid increasing the set width. There is something unique about Mrs Eaves and it’s difficult to define. Its individual characters are at times awkward looking—the W being narrow, the L uncommonly wide, the flare of the strokes leading into the serifs unusually pronounced. Taken individually, at first sight some of the characters don’t seem to fit together. The spacing is generally too loose for large bodies of text, it sort of rambles along. Yet when used in the right circumstance it imparts a very particular feel that sets it clearly apart from many likeminded types. It has an undefined quality that resonates with people. This paradox (imperfect yet pleasing) is perhaps best illustrated by design critic and historian Robin Kinross who has pointed out the limitation of the “loose” spacing that Licko employed, among other things, yet simultaneously designated the Mrs Eaves type specimen with an honorable mention in the 1999 American Center for Design competition. Proof, perhaps, that type is best judged in the context of its usage. Even with all its shortcomings, Mrs Eaves has outsold all Emigre fonts by twofold. On MyFonts, one of the largest on-line type sellers, Mrs Eaves has been among the 20 best selling types for years, listed among such classics as Helvetica, Univers, Bodoni and Franklin Gothic. Due to its commercial and popular success it has come to define the Emigre type foundry. While Licko initially set out to design a traditional text face, we never specified how Mrs Eaves could be best used. Typefaces will find their own way. But if there’s one particular common usage that stands out, it must be literary—Mrs Eaves loves to adorn book covers and relishes short blurbs on the flaps and backs of dust covers. Trips to bookstores are always a treat for us as we find our Mrs Eaves staring out at us from dozens of book covers in the most elegant compositions, each time surprising us with her many talents. And Mrs Eaves feels just as comfortable in a wide variety of other locales such as CD covers (Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief being our favorite), restaurant menus, logos, and poetry books, where it gives elegant presence to short texts. One area where Mrs Eaves seems less comfortable is in the setting of long texts, particularly in environments such as the interiors of books, magazines, and newspapers. It seems to handle long texts well only if there is ample space. A good example is the book /CD/DVD release The Band: A Musical History published by Capitol Records. Here, Mrs Eaves was given appropriate set width and generous line spacing. In such cases its wide proportions provide a luxurious feel which invites reading. Economy of space was not one of the goals behind the original Mrs Eaves design. With the introduction of Mrs Eaves XL, Licko addresses this issue. Since Mrs Eaves is one of our most popular typefaces, it’s not surprising that over the years we've received many suggestions for additions to the family. The predominant top three wishes are: greater space economy; the addition of a bold italic style; and the desire to pair it with a sans design. The XL series answers these requests with a comprehensive set of new fonts including a narrow, and a companion series of Mrs Eaves Sans styles to be released soon. The main distinguishing features of Mrs Eaves XL are its larger x-height with shorter ascenders and descenders and overall tighter spacing. These additional fonts expand the Mrs Eaves family for a larger variety of uses, specifically those requiring space economy. The larger x-height also allows a smaller point size to be used while maintaining readability. Mrs Eaves XL also has a narrow counterpart to the regular, with a set width of about 92 percent which fulfills even more compact uses. At first, this may not seem particularly narrow, but the goal was to provide an alternative to the regular that would work well as a compact text face while maintaining the full characteristics of the regular, rather than an extreme narrow which would be more suitable for headline use. Four years in the making, we're excited to finally let Mrs Eaves XL find its way into the world and see where and how it will pop up next.