A companion piece to Mulgrave, this font is the intermediary design between the chunky Victorian style that Mulgrave reproduces and the Ministry of Transport sans introduced in 1933 and digitised as Ministry. Although they date from between 1910 and 1933, these signs show the beginnings of several features Ministry later incorporated, notably the thinner strokes and the more modern forms of the G, M, R and S. The letter widths are approaching a monospace - the L, F and E are relatively wide compared to the W and M, a feature that may have something to do to the casting process. These idiosyncracies were all ironed out when the first version of the MOT alphabet was produced. The Device digitization, as with Mulgrave, stays true to the worn and repainted original metal source material and preserves the unusual widths.

The first weights of Neue Haas Grotesk were designed in 1957-1958 by Max Miedinger for the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei in Switzerland, with art direction by the company’s principal, Eduard Hoffmann. Neue Haas Grotesk was to be the answer to the British and German grotesques that had become hugely popular thanks to the success of functionalist Swiss typography. The typeface was soon revised and released as Helvetica by Linotype AG. As Neue Haas Grotesk had to be adapted to work on Linotype’s hot metal linecasters, Linotype Helvetica was in some ways a radically transformed version of the original. For instance, the matrices for Regular and Bold had to be of equal widths, and therefore the Bold was redrawn at a considerably narrower proportion. During the transition from metal to phototypesetting, Helvetica underwent additional modifications. In the 1980s Neue Helvetica was produced as a rationalized, standardized version. For Christian Schwartz, the assignment to design a digital revival of Neue Haas Grotesk was an occasion to set history straight. “Much of the warm personality of Miedinger’s shapes was lost along the way. So rather than trying to rethink Helvetica or improve on current digital versions, this was more of a restoration project: bringing Miedinger’s original Neue Haas Grotesk back to life with as much fidelity to his original shapes and spacing as possible (albeit with the addition of kerning, an expensive luxury in handset type).” Schwartz’s revival was originally commissioned in 2004 by Mark Porter for the redesign of The Guardian, but not used. Schwartz completed the family in 2010 for Richard Turley at Bloomberg Businessweek. Its thinnest weight was designed by Berton Hasebe.

Smart Sans is a personal tribute to Leslie (Sam) Smart, the first type director to be hired by a major typesetting house in Canada. Smart was a twentieth century design pioneer who raised the standards of Canadian typography. Together with three of his peers, he established the first Type Directors Club in Toronto. After Smart's death in 1998, type designer Rod McDonald decided that something should be done to commemorate Smart's life and achievements. I had first thought of establishing a scholarship in Sam's name, but a typeface design soon replaced this idea," says McDonald. "Once I decided to design a typeface, however, it became a foregone conclusion that it would be a sans serif - for no other reason than that I loved the name Smart Sans." Two typefaces served as inspiration for McDonald's work. "Like thousands of designers, I'm keen on Matthew Carter's Helvetica Compressed series. And, when I was younger, I also loved Fred Lambert's Compacta," says McDonald. "I thought there might be a place for a small range that could take over from these 'old workhorses' and, in the process, bring a fresher look to the genre." McDonald drew three weights for the Smart Sans family, all ideally suited for setting attention-getting headlines and powerful display copy. The two-storied 'g' contributes to the design's lively personality, and the short 'r' helps maintain tight, even spacing. Smart Sans is the perfect homage to a great typographer, because it raises the bar on what to expect from condensed sans serif typefaces. Sam Smart would be pleased."

Kilkenny is a decorative, Victorian-style font based on the metal type named Nymphic that was designed by Hermann Ihlenberg. Ihlenburg was born in Germany in 1843 where he studied art and worked for several German type foundries. He moved to the USA in 1866 and worked for the L. Johnson & Co. foundry, later MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan. American Type Founders acquired this typeface when they took over the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan foundry and Nymphic appears in the ATF catalog of 1896. For this digital version, the character set has been expanded to include accented characters, punctuation, and currency symbols—and most everything you would expect to find in a digital font. The original metal font consisted of swash caps, upper case characters, and a “morticed” lower case, which was raised off the baseline. This mortcied form was designed to nestle inside the ornate swash caps as well as to work with the upper case. The five digital versions contained in this set are basically different configurations of these different alphabet sets, they differ as follows: Kilkenny—the original upper case version with a modified lower case that has been enlarged, shifted to align along the baseline, and given taller ascenders to give it a more “regular” appearance. Kilkenny Eureka—true to the original design with the “morticed” or superior lowercase forms. Kilkenny Swash—original swash caps with the modified lower case. Kilkenny Swash Caps—original swash caps with the original caps as the lower case. Kilkenny Swash Eureka—swash caps that have been adjusted to match the weight of the original lower case forms. The OpenType version contains all of the above, plus additional Central European and Cyrillic characters for a total of almost 1000 glyphs.

Arkaim is a modern typeface in traditional East-Slavic and GreatRussian style in typography. This style is not like any other style in the world. It combines elegance and brevity, depth and modernity, originality and convenience. This unique font is certainly eye-catching. Arkaim font is named after the ancient Slavic-Aryan city located in the South of Russia, which is a symbol of antiquity, wisdom, as well as the unexplored ancient world. Arkaim is not only a historical place, but also a place of Spiritual power. The font Arkaim has many Opentype features that will help to create interesting and unique compositions. An interesting and non-trivial solution is a kind of mixture of all caps and upper/lowercase characters. Arkaim contains symbols of all Slavic and European languages. There are fractions, superscripts and subscripts, and many others. There is a standard number and the old-style number, also Slavic numbers. There are all the historical characters Of the ancient Slavic script called Bukvitsa, today mistakenly called Cyrillic. In addition, here is a free demo font (only with Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian characters) without Opentype features and other symbols. You can try it.. and love it.

A feminine, graceful script whose thicker horizontals create a wave-like rhythm — hence the name. Seashore is loosely based on an "eccentric" (left-leaning) penmanship style of the late 19th century. Used mainly by professional "engrossers" in certificates and tributes, or by society ladies in their stationery and invitations, it sent a message of true refinement, as the style would have been only been mastered after the more common business, Spencerian, and standard ornamental styles. In fact, unusual script styles were in such demand that type foundries of the era exploded with metal-type knockoffs of increasing fanciness. Seashore includes a wide variety of swash capitals, alternate endings, and contextual ligatures, over 900 glyphs in all. Seashore is best used in short display settings — in names and addresses on formal invitations, in menus and food packaging, or fashion and beauty contexts.

Alfarooq is the most widely known epithet for the Islamic figure Umar ibn al-Khattab (c. 586 - 644) who was a leading companion and an adviser to the Islamic prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) who later became the second Muslim Caliph after Muhammad’s death (pbuh) in 632. Muslims widely know Umar ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) as Alfarooq (i.e., he who knows and distinguishes between truth and falsehood). Alfarooq is a unique, wide, and headline Arabic display typeface. The main trait of this typeface is the novel design of its letters' tails and its dots which renders it as one of the modern stylish typefaces used for headlines and titles. This can be noticed in different letters such as Ain, Ghain, Jeem, Khah, Seen, Sheen, and others. In addition, Alfarooq font has an Arabic character set which supports Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, and Urdu letters and numerals with a limited range of specific Arabic ligatures. This typeface comes in two ultra-bold styles (i.e., Alfarooq and Alfarooq-Pro) and more than 430 distinctive glyphs with a single weight for each style. Alfarooq typeface effectively offers diverse typographic and digital usages including mainly the very large and wide poster-size works. Due to its strong baseline-stroke, Alfarooq typeface is appropriate for heading and titling works in Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, and Urdu newspapers, magazines, and other printed materials. It is also elegantly suitable for signs, book covers, advertisement light boards, street and city names, products- and services names, and titles of flyers, pamphlets, and posters. The wide style of Alfarooq font’s characters gives it more distinction when it is used in greeting cards, covers, exhibitions' signboards, external or internal walls of malls, and also the exits and entrances of airports and halls.

Iridium™ was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1972 for Linotype. It is in the modern" style like Bodoni or Didot, in that it has the sparkle created by a high thick/thin contrast and a symmetrical distribution of weight. But the sometimes harsh and rigid texture of the modern style is tempered by Frutiger's graceful interpretation. Iridium itself is a very hard, brittle and strong metal; yet the Latin and Greek roots of the word mean rainbow, or iridescence. And indeed, this font is infused with a more lustrous and complex spirit than the average rather stark modern typeface - note the stems that gently taper from waist to serif, the nicely curved ovals of the round characters, and the slight bracketing of the serifs. Iridium was originally designed for phototypesetting, and Frutiger himself cut the final master photo-mask films by hand. This digital version has all the craftsmanship of that original and includes the roman, a true italic, and the bold weight. Iridium works particularly well for book and magazine text and headlines."

The typefaces Largo Mager (Light) and Largo Halbfett (Medium) were cast for the first time in 1937 by Ludwig & Mayer based on the designs by Hans Wagner. One weight Largo Licht (Outline) was added in 1956. All fonts were only configured with capitals. The digital version of Largo has pointed serifs and not the slightly rounded ones seen in the hot metal versions which gives the typeface a more elegant note. Largo is often used for fine printing jobs as business cards or formal invitations, or in the fashion and cosmetics fields. Hans Wagner was born in Munich in 1894 and died in 1977 in Altenburg where he had worked as a painter, graphic designer and book designer. In addition to the Largo typeface, he developed, among others, the Altenburger Gotisch (1928), the Welt-Antiqua (1931-1934) and the Wolfram (1930).

FF DIN: the famous, faithful and first revival of DIN 1451. FF DIN originates in the lettering models from the German standard DIN 1451, and is considered the perfect standard typeface due to methodical and engineered design. FF DIN Slab is a robust compliment to the FF DIN family. Designed by Antonia Cornelius and Albert-Jan Pool, it offer designers tools to create greater rhythm and design depth. FF DIN Slab’s proportions have been meticulously aligned with its Sans origins, offering the perfect balance between positive and negative space. The serifs are assertive, sturdy and balanced, they are engineered to emphasis a strong horizontal flow through text, a grounded utility and assurance in headlines. The result of this attention to detail is a typeface that harmonizes beautifully with other FF DIN styles. Pushing font technology to its limits, FF DIN Slab is also available as a Variable font. Allowing creatives to design hyper specific variations which thrive in any design space, and even seamlessly animate movement from one state to the next. FF DIN Slab distinctively carries on its parent’s DNA, speaks the same native language — but with a strong peculiar dialect. It expands the DIN family worthily — independent but integrated — and opens totally new possibilities of uses with the whole DIN family.

Ionic No5 is a refresh of a classic Linotype Clarendon-style serif, another restored classic from the Monotype library, much like the recent updates to Walbaum and Helvetica Now. The original typeface was designed to be printed and read at small sizes, popular with newspapers in the 20th Century at its birth. The restoration and refinement of this typeface has bestowed a greater sense of clarity and directness, smartly stylish, and an utterly captivating appeal. Because these styles were so popular for books and newspapers for so long we associate them with being editorial or bookish, not dull, but thoughtful. Designers today can use that association to their advantage as a visual shortcut to convey similar meaning and tone. More attention was given on modernising the typeface with precious use and the introduction of sharp edges & finishes. The thinnest weights can give a dancing typewriter aesthetic, being low stroke contrast. The heavy weights have an unquestionable presence on the page. Overall, the typeface has a richness and almost illustrative quality about it. The true depth of Ionic No.5 could enable each weight to be a poster by itself. Ionic N°5™ font field guide including best practices, font pairings and alternatives.

FF DIN: the famous, faithful and first revival of DIN 1451. FF DIN originates in the lettering models from the German standard DIN 1451, and is considered the perfect standard typeface due to methodical and engineered design. FF DIN Slab is a robust compliment to the FF DIN family. Designed by Antonia Cornelius and Albert-Jan Pool, it offer designers tools to create greater rhythm and design depth. FF DIN Slab’s proportions have been meticulously aligned with its Sans origins, offering the perfect balance between positive and negative space. The serifs are assertive, sturdy and balanced, they are engineered to emphasis a strong horizontal flow through text, a grounded utility and assurance in headlines. The result of this attention to detail is a typeface that harmonizes beautifully with other FF DIN styles. Pushing font technology to its limits, FF DIN Slab is also available as a Variable font. Allowing creatives to design hyper specific variations which thrive in any design space, and even seamlessly animate movement from one state to the next. FF DIN Slab distinctively carries on its parent’s DNA, speaks the same native language — but with a strong peculiar dialect. It expands the DIN family worthily — independent but integrated — and opens totally new possibilities of uses with the whole DIN family.

Typoskript AR is based on a metal type which was produced in 1968 by VEB Typoart, Dresden, from a design of the German calligrapher and lettering artist Hildegard Korger. It bears all the qualities of the artist’s inimitable style which will be immediately recognizable to anyone who’s familiar with her Handbook of Type and Lettering (Lund Humphries, 1992) (Schrift und Schreiben, Leipzig, Fachbuchverlag, 1971). The ARTypes transcription retains the roughness of the artist’s pen on paper as it was featured in the original type, as well as the letterfit, ch, ck and f-ligatures. ARTypes have supplied the font with all the standard accents, monetary signs, etc. The original qu logotype is provided as an alternative letter. A printable .pdf specimen of the type can be downloaded from the gallery.

Sabon was designed by Jan Tschichold and released in 1967. Sabon was created in response to the specific needs of a group of German printers who wanted a typeface that would be identical in form when produced by three different metal-casting technologies. Named after Jacques Sabon, a sixteenth century typefounder whose widow married another typefounder, Konrad Berner, who is credited with issuing the first typefounder's specimen sheet. Several types on the sheet were attributed to Claude Garamond, and one of these served Tschichold as the source for Sabon roman. The italic was based on another face on Berner's sheet, cut by Robert Granjon. Tschichold's skillful adaptation of these old style faces has produced an elegant and workmanlike book face. The Sabon font family is a popular choice for setting text.

Bouteilles is French for bottles. No fancy name this time, just bottles. You’re probably wondering why I chose this name… Well, I was taking out the glass (in Holland we recycle just about everything, glass, paper, plastic, metal, garden and kitchen waste, etc.), which included a number of French wine bottles. As I was throwing them into the underground container one block from where I live, I realised that the word Bouteilles actually sounds great and it would be a nice name for a font! Yes, it is that simple! Bouteilles is a nice brush font I made with my trusted Chinese ink and a really worn brush I found. It comes with all the diacritics you need plus two sets of alternates, which you can play with!

1st Ave is the most experimental of my typefaces. I took a picture of a metal and neon sign in the East Village of New York City. These signs are slowly being replaced by LED and LCD displays, but if you look hard, you can still find quite a few in the city. The signs give a mid 20th century feel to the city. To design 1st Ave, I took a picture of the sign, scanned it and increased the contrast in Photoshop so that the photographic forms became line art. There weren't enough letterforms in the sign to create the whole alphabet, so I cut up the strokes and collaged them back together to finish the entire alphabet. Important Note: 1st Ave is an experimental typeface and is not compatible with certain software such as Microsoft Word.

Frederic Goudy joined Lanston as art advisor in 1920. One of his first initiatives was to design a new version of Garamond based on original Garamond designs of 1540. Goudy intended his free-hand drawings to be cut exactly as he had drawn them and fought with the workmen at Lanston to keep them from “correcting” his work. This new type was called Garamont (an acceptable alternate spelling) to distinguish it from other Garamonds on the market. (The other Garamonds on the market at that time were later confirmed to be the work of Jean Jannon.) In 2001, Jim Rimmer digitized Garamont in two weights. The display weight is based on the actual metal outlines to compensate slightly for the ink gain that occurs with letterpress printing. The text weight is a touch heavier and more appropriate for general offset and digital text work. Digital Garamont is available to the public for the first time in 2005.

Meet the Letterpress! Jakob Erbar’s Phosphor was released by the Ludwig & Mayer Foundry before 1923. The origins of Aurora date back to 1912 (Johannes Wagner Foundry). Permanent Headline was designed by Karlgeorg Hoefer, also known simply as Headline. It was fun making a mix out of the three classics – with Letterpress Bastard you will quickly get astounding results. To complete the family we added a font containing random symbols we also found in the metal type boxes. Please note that we provided loads of ligatures for double-letters to make your design look as authentic as possible.

Mountain is a digital revival and extension of Teutonia, an old metal typeface released by the Roos & Junge type foundry (Offenbach am Main, Germany) in 1902. Teutonia’s design was popular during both the Art Nouveau and the Constructivist eras, where similar letterforms could be seen as far away as the Soviet Union. Although it slipped under the radar during the 1930s and 40s, this style feels extremely contemporary today. Mountain’s underlying geometric feeling is reminiscent of pixels and grids, suiting it for application with music and art, as well as history. Yet this typeface is not as static as it seems at first glance; playful diagonals—like those seen on the capitals D, L, P, and W—enliven the otherwise stern horizontal and vertical motion. Teutonia was a simple upper and lowercase display type. Mountain adds upon these by adding small caps and obliqued italic companions, rounding out this typographic toolkit.

Inspired by a few letters in a hand-drawn logotype, Swashington is a serif font with both an early 20th Century feel and yet is evocative of the swash fonts of the 1970s as well. The real meat of this typeface comes with using all the swash and ligature variants allowing for an enormous amount of typographic flair. Starting with the original logo, Jason Walcott was moved to develop these interesting letterforms into a full typeface with all the swashy might he could muster. In addition to a comprehensive set of Swash and Alternate letters, there are also over 270 Discretionary Ligatures that can be used to create different possibilities by mixing and matching. Included with the downloaded fonts are two .pdf files showing all the swashes and ligatures, that can be printed and used for easy reference. All of the alternates are available via the Glyph Palette or with OpenType features. The font includes support for all Latin based and Eastern European languages.

Marilia Pro is an elegant modern calligraphy typeface, which supports Extended Latin and Greek character set. This font does not only contain a complete set of lower and uppercase letters, punctuation, numbers, but also a set of ligatures and two sets of alternates. Equally important is the fact that the font has diacritics for multilingual support. Of course, with this typeface, you have access to a complete Greek set of characters, with diacritics and Greek ligatures. Marilia Pro is a high-quality calligraphy font that can infuse any project with glamorous vibes. Marilia Pro is the perfect wedding font if you want to achieve a fairy-tale style on your wedding invitation. For a whimsical style you can pair the font with a strong color palette and metallic papers. Of course, this modern script font is perfect for your graphic design needs like social media quotes, blog headers, posters, stationery, and why not branding, packaging, and logotypes. In addition, this calligraphy font is ideal for the fashion and apparel industry, if you want to achieve a glamorous chic, yet modern style.

A little more flower and a little less power, please. Fun, friendly, fashionable, and feminine to a fault, Jojo takes display typography to a whole new level, where eyes can’t help but appreciate the day and the design at hand. It takes a graphic designer very little imagination to see these letters on posters, book covers, clothes, and craft paraphernalia. Or how about a sign over a bakery? A music sleeve? A romantic comedy titling? Cosmetics products? Pretty much anywhere! Jojo takes its name from a Beatles song about getting back to where we once belonged. It also takes most of its shapes from vintage photo-setting days, when an art nouveau typeface called Spring, by B. Jacquet, was putting happy times back where they belonged, which was everywhere. The original photo-setting face came in just 26 letters and 10 numerals. This digital retooling optimizes the original forms and expands on them, for a full character set of over 430 glyphs, including ligatures and stylistic alternates, and support for the majority of Latin languages.

Kevin Simpson was five years old when the stylized "E" of the Electrolux vacuum cleaner logo caught his eye. This is his earliest recollection of an interest that ultimately became an obsession. Type remains his major preoccupation, and he admits to attempting to work a good typeface design into any project where he can get away with it. Aitos was inspired by a metal sculpture Simpson saw while driving through the French countryside. "The statue was very strong. It was heavily weathered and had obviously been there for some time, yet it also seemed very delicate and light." Aitos, like the statue, is a rugged design. At first glance, it is chunky and bold, perhaps a little jarring. If you look again, however, you'll see it has refined qualities. Aitos commands attention - yet is still affable.

Goudy Forum is a revival and dramatic expansion by Tom Rickner, type designer at Ascender Corporation, of Frederic W. Goudy’s 20th typeface design, "Forum Title". The Pro font began twenty years ago while Tom Rickner was a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Tom printed a type specimen using the Forum Title foundry hot metal types. Then in 1993 Tom began to digitize the font from that specimen while working as an independent type designer. Fifteen years passed before Tom dusted off the digital data and began working in earnest on font with a full Latin 1 character set. Steve Matteson, type director at Ascender, encouraged Tom to take this font further still, and soon the glyph repertoire and feature set blossomed to a robust Pro font with a myriad of advanced typographic OpenType features.

Siren Script takes its cue from BB&S's Stationers Semiscript (metal, 1899) and its countless imitations/inspirations from throughout the 20th century, particularly a variety of uncredited film faces from the 1960s. What makes this kind of script stand out in the genre is its mixing of flourished majuscules with mostly subdued, traditional minuscules. The result is a balance between formal and informal lettering, as if the letterer is applying his or her learned art without going into full-throttle calligraphy. The message is clearly and gracefully delivered, and the artistic endeavor is fully appreciated without causing coronaries. The Siren Script family comes in four full fonts, and a fifth one that contains alternates, ending letters, and some ligatures. Siren Script Pro combines all five fonts into a single one of over 880 characters, which includes programming for push-button stylistic alternates, class-based kerning, and other glyph palette conveniences.

This late 19th century design conjures up early 20th century Dutch DeStijl lettering with a mostly strict adherence to right angles and minimal stroke modulation. Geometric began its life as a metal typeface from the Central Type Foundry, circa 1884. Soon after, this design was officially licensed to Morgans & Wilcox and was shown in their 1890 catalog in Regular, Light and Condensed Light variations. After acquiring Morgans & Wilcox, Hamilton Manufacturing offered Geometric Light Face Condensed as their own No 3020 and the Geometric Light Face as No 3021. HWT Geometric has been expanded digitally to include a Regular Condensed version. A heavier wood type specimen was found from an unknown manufacturer and digitized as it was found, resulting in the HWT Geometric Shopworn and Shopworn Inked variations. These digital versions all include a full Western and Central European character set of over 380 glyphs.