This is almost a necessity if you are doing reproductions of mid-19th century posters and playbills.

Amherst is a family of blackletter-inspired typefaces. This family, created by British designer Richard Yeend in 2002, is unique in that it mains the feel of blackletter/medieval type without relying directly on historical forms. Amherst is split into two different sub-families, Amherst and Amherst Gothic. Amherst is very geometric interpretation of Fraktur. Fraktur was a style of German type very popular in central Europe from 1517 until the early 20th Century. Its letters appear "broken" at certain angles and joints. Still, we recommend using it primarily for display purposes. Amherst is available in three weights: Regular, Bold, and Heavy. Amherst Gothic is very loosely inspired by late medieval letterforms, often called Texturas or Gothics. However, the letterforms of Amherst Gothic seem just as inspired by the Art Deco movements of the 1920s and by contemporary sans serif type design as anything else. Nevertheless, certain letters in this typeface do appear more "gothic" than others, especially A, D, M, Y, d, r, and x. Amherst Gothic is made up of three fonts, Amherst Gothic Split, Amherst Gothic Split Alternate, and Amherst Gothic Italic. Amherst Gothic Split has in-lined characters, and appears very ornamented. The alternate characters in Amherst Gothic Split Alternate are quite medieval in their appearance. Amherst Gothic Italic is the least medieval-looking of the set; its characters are very round, and more geometric. All six styles of the Amherst Family are OpenType format fonts, and include old style figures.

The main inspiration is from Art Nouveau which flourished in Europe at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. This design included furniture (Majorelle, Lalique) and architecture (Victor Horta, Henry Van de Velde, Gaudi, Alfons Mucha). But Hector Guimard remains the favorite for all aspects of its art and, of course, its typefaces used on the Parisian Metropolitan posters. In particular, the various kerning of the various letters he used to make the poster a whole design from singular designs, leading to numerous variations. As a designer, I first worked with the individual glyphs Hector Guimard designed and I discovered that they vary constantly from a poster to another, depending on the overall result he was looking for. Another difficulty in transferring his design to printing is that there was no lower case. I was excited to create the whole font from the original designs of Hector Guimard, incorporating its variations and "crazy kerning". After several attempts, it appeared to be impossible to include all variations and I slightly moved to my own new design as a complete font, upper and lower case, with kerning. I voluntarily limited the ascenders and descenders to the usual typography so that it can be used from 10 / 12 points. This version can be used to edit letters and books in the context of Art, specially Art Nouveau and Art Deco of course, posters of any kind.

LTC Spire with alternate caps was designed by Lanston’s type director Sol Hess in 1937. Spire Roman was designed without lowercase. But it includes alternate rounded caps which transform this extra condensed “fat face” into more of an art deco titling face. Spire Roman has been used within department store logos, luxury hotel signage, perfumes, etc, etc.

Fine and Dandy JNL comes from the hand lettered title of the 1929 movie "Isle of Escape"; found on the sheet music for its theme song "My Kalua Rose". An engraved and fancy Roman, the style combines elements of Western, Art Nouveau and Art Deco into one attractive type design; available in both regular and oblique versions.

Schoolyard Blues JNL is based on the hand lettered title found on the sheet music for the 1938 song "I Was Late for School". A condensed sans serif with chamfered corners, it reflects the Art Deco influences of the day in some of the letter forms. This type design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

ITC Deelirious is the first typeface of Dee Densmore-D'Amico and its name comes from the astounding number of D's packed into her name. The design came from her own handwriting. The differences between capital and lowercase letters are sometimes arbitrary, but this characteristic and the many alternate letterforms give ITC Deelirious the spontaneity and naturalness of true handwriting.

Jungle Drums JNL is based on the hand-lettered title on the 1929 sheet music of its musical namesake. A bold, free form design with a hint of the Art Deco movement of the coming decades, this casual typeface has the vintage charm to enrich many design projects. Jungle Drums JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

In a World War II training film from the U.S. Signal Corps, the opening title card saying “First Aid” was hand lettered in an extra bold, Art Deco inline style. Those two words (with seven available letters) used as a work model has inspired Film Reel JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The hand lettered title found on the 1938 sheet music for "I Haven't Changed a Thing" is a condensed Art Deco thick-and-thin sans serif with rounded corners. Reminiscent of office door and similar signage, this classic bit of lettering from the past is now available as Personnel JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Artist Colony JNL is the third type design inspired by some online examples from an early 20th Century French book of decorative hand lettering. While Arte Critique JNL and French Art Initials JNL embrace the Art Noveau style, Artist Colony JNL leans more toward the emerging Art Deco Movement of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Inside the pages of the April, 1937 issue of the fan magazine “Hollywood Now” is an unusual bit of hand lettering used for the titles in a number of featured articles. A narrow thick-and-thin Art Deco alphabet with many stylized characters, this type design is now available as Now Showing JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Nick Curtis has created this stylish, Deco inspired design, packed full of quirky features and characters. Some of the letterforms, like the uppercase K, appear to be walking. And dig that lowercase ‘g’! There is a lot of lively design happening here, so much so that its a battle not to be stylish when you are Steppin Out.

Visual Arts JNL is a classic Art Deco typeface based on the hand lettering found on a 1930s-era WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster for Women Artists. The exhibit took place in the Federal Art Gallery in Boston, and was part of the arts project underwritten by the WPA to keep many creative people working during the Depression years.

Ask any typical New Yorker about subway directions and they'll tell you to take the "uptown line", "downtown line" or "cross-town line". Uptown Line JNL is yet another variation of the Art Deco monoline style of lettering prevalent during the 1930s and 1940s, and is based on titling from vintage sheet music for a Johann Strauss classical piece.

The power of ND Bimbo is here now. If you like deep-fried candy bars you will like ND Bimbo. This playful design integrates art deco influences into a contemporary display style. As usual, it covers Latin, Cyrillic and Greek. Respect ND Bimbo now! Get ND Bimbo now! You want ND Bimbo now! Create Magic with ND Bimbo now!

Startup is a nine style type famaly. It combines the aesthetics of gothic sans and Neo-grotesques. Created specifically for the creation of startup identity. When you need something that doesn't scream, but has personality. This type family can be used in the design of the logo, as well as apply it to headlines and secondary texts.

It’s surprising - it can take more time and effort to make something deliberately and artfully imperfect than it does to make a more conventional design. We certainly found this to be the case when designing ‘SpeedSketch’. Perhaps a more accurate name would have been ‘SlowDraw’ but that wouldn’t really capture the essence of the finished design.

The hand lettered cast credits for the 1932 George Arliss film “The Man Who Played God” inspired Lobby Poster JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. A bold and playful Art Deco poster alphabet, its nonconformist character widths and shapes are casual enough for informal designs yet bold enough to get any point across.

A 1932 fan magazine from Spain entitled “Films Selectos” (“Select Films”) had those words hand lettered in a decorative Art Deco type style that was a cross between the “Futura Black” style of stencil influenced display lettering and “Fiesta” lettering. This hybrid design is now available digitally as Dance and Sing JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

A 1920 art magazine from Great Britain entitled “Pan” had its three letter name hand lettered on the cover in a style that had elements of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and what would eventually be called Techno in the 1980s. This inspired the typeface Art Magazine JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

During the 1940s and 1950s, the Miller Music Corporation issued a number of its songs with a stock cover design for their “Miller Series of Piano Solos” but the song titles were hand lettered in an Art Deco dual line design. Recreated digitally as Music Lesson JNL, this type design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

An early-1960s Canadian magazine ad for a brand of birth control pills featured the least likely spokesperson – Annette Funicello (“starring in “Beach Blanket Bingo” and “How to Stuff A Wild Bikini”). The text was hand lettered in an Art Deco-inspired sans serif type design. Tarpon Spring JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Bassen is a contemporary neo-grotesque typefaces that offers 10 uprights and matching italics. This typeface harmoniously combines classic respect with modern inspiration. Bassen is polite, neutral, highly legible, and aesthetically pleasing. Its low cap height makes it particularly versatile for mobile and website applications. Bassen seamlessly blends with any project, providing natural elegance, harmony, and perfect balance.

A 1947 timetable for—who’d a-thunk it?—Arizona Airways provided the pattern for this unusual, yet endearing, face. Its Art-Deco-meets-Apache vibe ensures that your headlines will be warmly received. Both versions include the complete Unicode Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets, as well as localization for Lithuanian, Moldovan and Romanian.

A small book entitled “Portfolio of Alphabet Designs for Artists, Architects, Designers & Craftsmen” [published in 1938 by Irene K. Ames] contained a number of pages displaying hand lettered alphabet examples. One sample in particular stood out for its bold Art Deco look and unusual design. This is now available as Dance Moderne JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

The devil does indeed find work for idle hands. This was designed by Dan X. Solo about with no excuse whatsoever. The name comes from the fact that a circus that we regularly did work for used it in one of their programs, the only time it was ever used as far as we can recall.

Designed by Morris Fuller Benton 1913-15, this Oldstyle family was digitized by Jim Rimmer in the early 2000's. It is a roman face closely styled to that of Nicholas Jensen's with a companion italic in the style of Aldus Manutius. Benton considered Cloister the ideal typeface and it does indeed lend itself to many uses.

While browsing through a Dan Solo type reference book, Jeff Levine fell in love with the multiline stylings of one particular typeface, then sat down and re-drew from scratch his own interpretation of the design. Jeff's version is called Art Lover JNL - offering kudos to art in general, the Art Deco movement and (of course) type design.

SusiScript is an friendly, informal typeface family with three weights, each with an oblique style. The idea for SusiScript came from a girl named Suzi who wrote her "e"s in a peculiar way. The typeface does not replicate her handwriting, which was very hard to read; it merely drew inspiration from several of her letters.

Night Life JNL follows the classic lettering forms of the Art Deco era of the 1930s and 1940s. On the upper case letters, the A,B,E,F,H,K,P and R have extended horizontals, while the lower case a,b,e,f,h,k,p and r have those extensions removed and are more traditional in design.

ATC Timberline, is an ultra wide-set sans-serif typeface. With its sharp points and extended curves, ATC Timberline feels just at home in mid-century modern as it does in forward-looking modern settings. Contains 370+ glyphs, full alphabet, ligatures, numberals, accents and punctuation. File type included in download is .otf. ATC Timberline was released in 2016.

Sign Shop JNL was inspired by a set of ceramic titling and display letters similar to those used to model Entitled JNL and made by the Mitten's Display Letter Company of Redlands, California. The distinctive retro feel adds a great touch to any project. Bold, Deco and Oblique versions were created by Jeff Levine for extra visual impact.

Introducing a retro condensed font called "Marxis". Best font to use as a headline to bring back the propaganda era inspired by Soviet posters, movie titles and book covers. The letterforms are straight and condensed and come in 2 styles: uppercase and small caps with the ligatures. This font will suited well for titles, poster design, web design, branding and packaging works, illustrations, badges and other typography works. Thank you, I hope you like it as I do!

Our font of the original was only ten point, so we had to use our imagination to a great extent. As specialists in Victorian typography, we have found that many people do not like the "center alignment" idea, used on several old time faces, but we have been faithful to the original. So there!

Scribbler, like Double Quick (another one of my fonts), is a handwritten typeface, designed to look like a quick grocery list, a hasty 'I Love You' note penned down on a Post-it or a home improvement to-do list. Scribbler is a little messier than Double Quick, but this may be just your style!