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  1. TT Ricordi by TypeType, $49.00
    TT Ricordi useful links: Specimen | Graphic presentation | Customization options The TT Ricordi font family is a collection of three display heading serifs designed to significantly diversify the traditional font palette. Each font from the TT Ricordi family was drawn by a separate designer and has its own story. With that, all three fonts are close in thickness and similar in their character compositions and are featured in the uppercase set and the small capitals set, which replaces lowercase characters. The fonts have the broad support of Latin languages and support basic Cyrillic. The project originates from the pre-coronavirus tourist trips to Italy, during which our art director Yulia Gonina has accumulated many photographs of historical inscriptions and tablets. Many of these inscriptions had interesting character or unusual character shapes. We wanted to work with them, to try to reinterpret them, and, if possible, make them ultramodern and accessible to the modern font user. The fonts from the TT Ricordi typeface turned out to be quite display and contemporary, but at the same time, they retained subtle references to historic inscriptions. The fonts fit perfectly both on the covers of book classics and in glossy magazine layouts. They can also be used in posters and packaging, or as the main expressive element of company branding. In addition, all three serifs from the TT Ricordi font family go well with functional sans-serifs such as TT Norms Pro or TT Commons. TT Ricordi Nobili is a display serif with a rich Roman ancestry and contemporary world views. It stands out from the crowd with its subtlety and elegance. The font was drawn by Anna Tikhonova and was inspired by an inscription carved into the stone floor of a cathedral in Florence. Because people walked over the inscription, some of the letters got thinner and worn out over time. It is this feeling of disappearing or flickering elements that we wanted to capture and implement in the project. The TT Ricordi Nobili has high contrast, even though the font itself is quite thin. The serifs in the font are not massive at all, but at the same time, they are display serifs. There is a certain tension in TT Ricordi Nobili, and the viewer perceives this tension. We can say that behind the external classic facade lies a rather modern plot. The font has a large set of discrete ligatures which allow to create interesting combinations and expand the capabilities of the font. There are 709 glyphs in the TT Ricordi Nobili font, and a whole set of useful features, such as: aalt, ccmp, locl, numr, ordn, tnum, pnum, case, dlig, ss01, ss02, ss06, ss07, ss08, ss09, ss10, calt. TT Ricordi Todi is a wide serif with a classic base and a contemporary nature. The font turned out to be refined yet sharp, and in places even pushy and aggressive. The font was drawn by Yulia Gonina, and the project was based on plaques with engraved street names from the small Italian town of Todi. The main challenge was to decipher the characteristic features of the signs and emphasize them in a modern way. In addition, it was necessary to draw a Cyrillic alphabet that would not be inferior to the Latin alphabet in its expressiveness. The TT Ricordi Todi has fairly wide character proportions, and there is practically no contrast in them. The main feature of the font is the combination of smooth round shapes with deliberately squared shapes. In addition, the font is characterized by crisp and sharp character details, exaggerated ascenders and descenders, and muted contrast. Among the interesting font peculiarities, you can choose between the characteristic long descenders and ascenders and their more tempered versions, you can find a stylistic set with triangular dots, alternative versions of the EF characters and two letter ? shapes, round and squared. There are 876 glyphs in the TT Ricordi Todi font, and a whole set of useful features, such as: aalt, ccmp, locl, numr, ordn, tnum, pnum, case, dlig, salt, ss01, ss02, ss03, ss04, ss05, ss06, ss07, ss08, ss09, ss10, calt. TT Ricordi Fulmini is a fashionable contemporary serif firmly holding on to its historic roots. The font turned out to be like a thistle flower: bright and catchy, but still subtle and delicate. TT Ricordi Fulmini was drawn by Marina Khodak, and the initial inspiration for the project was the inscription on the altar from the National Gallery of Umbria in Perugia. As the font was pulled into “contemporaneity”, it was completely transformed and revealed its new side. The main catchy detail in the TT Ricordi Fulmini is the aggressive and rather sharp diagonal serifs. In addition, in the process of working on the font, several graphic solutions emerged, for example, the mono-serifs and the very calligraphic connections of diagonal strokes with their historic spirit. We wanted to keep them, and thus 4 thematic stylistic sets appeared in the font, thanks to which we can greatly change the perception of TT Ricordi Fulmini. In addition, the font has a set of interesting discrete ligatures. There are 793 glyphs in the TT Ricordi Fulmini font, and a whole set of useful features, such as: aalt, ccmp, locl, numr, ordn, tnum, pnum, case, dlig, ss01, ss02, ss03, ss04, ss05, ss06, ss07, ss08, ss09, ss10, calt. TT Ricordi supports more than 180+ languages, such as: Acehnese, Afar, Albanian+, Aleut (lat), Alsatian, Aragonese, Arumanian+, Asu, Aymara, Azerbaijani +, Banjar, Basque +, Belarusian (lat), Bemba, Bena, Betawi, Bislama+, Boholano+, Chamorro+, Chichewa, Chiga, Colognian+, Cornish, Corsican +, Cree, Croatian, Czech+, Danish, Dutch+, Embu, English+, Esperanto, Estonian+, Faroese+, Fijian, Filipino+, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian+, Gaelic, Gagauz (lat), Galician+, Ganda, German+, Gusii, Haitianm, Creole, Hawaiian, Hiri Motu, Hungarian+, Icelandic+, Ilocano, Indonesian+, Innu-aimun, Interlingua, Irish, Italian+, Javanese, Jola-Fonyi, Judaeo-Spanish, Kabuverdianu, Kalenjin, Karachay-Balkar (lat), Karaim (lat), Karakalpak (lat), Karelian, Kashubian, Kazakh (lat), Khasi, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kongo, Kurdish (lat), Ladin, Latvian, Leonese, Lithuanian, Livvi-Karelian, Luba-Kasai, Ludic, Luganda+, Luo, Luxembourgish+, Luyia, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malagasy, Malay+, Maltese, Manx, Maori, Marshallese, Mauritian Creole, Minangkabau+, Moldavian (lat), Montenegrin (lat), Morisyen, Nahuatl, Nauruan, Ndebele, Nias, Norwegian, Nyankole, Occitan, Oromo, Palauan, Polish+, Portuguese+, Quechua+, Rheto-Romance, Rohingya, Romanian +, Romansh+, Rombo, Rundi, Rwa, Salar, Samburu, Samoan, Sango, Sangu, Sasak, Scots, Sena, Serbian (lat)+, Seychellois Creole, Shambala, Shona, Silesian, Slovak+, Slovenian+, Soga, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho+, Spanish+, Sundanese, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish+, Swiss German +, Tagalog+, Tahitian, Taita, Talysh (lat), Tatar+, Teso, Tetum, Tok Pisin, Tongan+, Tsakhur (Azerbaijan), Tsonga, Tswana +, Turkish+, Turkmen (lat), Uyghur, Valencian+, Vastese, Vepsian, Volapük, Võro, Vunjo, Walloon, Welsh+, Wolof, Xhosa, Zaza, Zulu+, Belarusian (cyr), Bosnian (cyr), Bulgarian (cyr), Erzya, Karachay-Balkar (cyr), Khvarshi, Kumyk, Macedonian+, Montenegrin (cyr), Mordvin-moksha, Nogai, Russian+, Rusyn, Serbian (cyr)+, Ukrainian.
  2. Kush by Our House Graphics, $17.00
    Kush is what happens when you let your fonts sit around watching cartoons and eating cake and ice-cream all day�When their vectors are freed from all constraints and allowed to follow their bliss. Kush has filled its insides to just the other side of contentment and comes to you on a sugar high and with a head full of Looney Tunes. And... It�s two ply! A two-layered display face from Our House Graphics with a plush, organic feel, Kush has 370 glyphs, over two dozen standard and discretionary ligatures, stylistic alternates and a few surprises. Kush Fat and Kush Shade work well independently but together they become a two colour, two layer font. Simply type some text in Kush Shade, copy it and paste it back on top of your original text. Then change the top layer to Kush Fat and adjust the colours to your liking. For best results, use default settings for kerning and tracking (letter spacing).
  3. Swonderful by The Ampersand Forest, $19.00
    Everyone loves an Art Deco typeface. And there are hundreds of similarly-designed deco faces out there! But not one of them seems to have every form of every character that you want or need at any given moment. That’s why Swonderful was created! It has more letterform variations than you can shake a stick at (if you're inclined to shake sticks at things). With four variations of every uppercase form, two variations of every lowercase form (plus diacritical characters for the standard set), you’re bound to find the character you need for any given project, whether the style is French Art Deco, American Streamline Moderne, or Jazzy Midcentury Gaspipe. Just switch between stylistic sets! And you’ll find all those characters in three standard weights: Light, Regular, and Bold. They’re designed as a unicase, so they’re all height-compatible, and every set works with every other set, so you can mix and match to your heart’s delight!
  4. Expreso by JVB Fonts, $19.00
    EXPRESO was inspired by the extinct art and craft of urban Lettering applied to buses and other kind of cars for public service of transportation. Since the mid of last century, main cities of Colombia - as Bogotá, Medellín and others - were growing in population and brought urban area expansion with it and serious traffic problems due to the lack of political will and urban planning. The problem of urban transport in Colombia's largest cities has not yet been resolved, despite adopting some examples of mass transit system in other cities in the region. Before these actions, public transport in cities such as Bogotá was quite varied, leaving space for popular culture that survived for a couple of decades, until the massive dieback of these old buses early this decade, either by practices associated with Lettering it was displaced by some technological, some expressions of art street and city that evolved or disappeared. EXPRESO can be used mainly in titles and display texts. You have a multitude of options using combination of layers from the basics of the font family to the various textures and shades. Supports East Europe languages.
  5. Astral Groove - Personal use only
  6. DecoTech - Unknown license
  7. Exit by FSD, $50.00
    Exit is my first typeface (designed in 1988). The relationship to Neville Brody's work is evident but with personal touch
  8. Bitfield by Andrew Harper Fonts, $18.00
    A meticulously consistent pixel foundation infused with a welcoming personality. The font preferred by 9 out of 10 benevolent robots.
  9. Deriva by BRtype, $21.90
    Deriva was created taking as inspiration the manuscripts of a homeless person live in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.
  10. Warbones by Forberas Club, $16.00
    Introducing Warbones by Forberas, yet playful but still serious. You can use this as decorative material for your upcoming project.
  11. Maryland JNL by Jeff Levine, $29.00
    The 1913 sheet music for "There's A Girl in the Heart of Maryland (with a Heart That Belongs to Me)" may have had no shortage of words in the title - fifteen to be exact, but it also offered some nice hand lettering in the Art Nouveau style. Maryland JNL is a condensed typeface with an unusual twist. The "S" and "G" both have spurs on them, which is reminiscent of the preceding Victorian period and the popular spurred Tuscan alphabets of the time.
  12. S&S Amberosa by Spencer & Sons Co., $35.00
    Distinctively Americana with a touch of Arts & Crafts, Amberosa is a typographic gem from the late nineteenth century, this undulating and organic typeface is a versatile and refreshing alternative to many of the font designs on the market today. Recapture the elegance of traditional flourished sign writing and make and provide ideal lettering for period inspired design work such as posters, signage, labels and book covers. You’ll find ligatures, 400+ stylistic alternates in keeping with the spirit of this pretty, old-fashioned typeface.
  13. Jean Paul Fraktur by RMU, $25.00
    A typographic treasure, originated at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, had been brought back to life. With its charming touch it makes a wonderful font for poems, bookcovers, reprints and other historically relevant projects. To get access to all ligatures, it is recommended to activate both Standard and Discretionary Ligatures; the round s you find on the # key, and typing the combination N-o-period and activating the OT feature Ordinals gets you the numero sign.
  14. Medieval Times by Celebrity Fontz, $24.99
    Medieval Times is a digital revival of an illuminated alphabet dating back to a text from the medieval period. Each letter is made up of several different human or mythological animal figures engaged in activities that reflect the beliefs and myths of that enchanted era. Some examples of the beings that you will find in this font are: griffins, dragons, chimeras, lions, gargoyles, unknown mythical winged creatures, peasants, priests, saints, and warriors battling with spears. Comes with a full set of accented letters.
  15. Dinosauria by Deniart Systems, $15.00
    Let these Mesozoic dinosaurs adorn all your documents! This series contains an assortment of 52 dinosaurs, flying reptiles and birds from each period ranging from the vicious carnivores like Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor to giant sauropods like Brontosaurus, to heavy Ceratopsians like the Triceratops, and Pterosaurs like the giant Quetzalcoatlus. In addition, you'll find 10 extra characters that feature trackprints, skulls and talons to help put all your imagework in perspective. NOTE: bundle comes with a comprehensive interpretation guide in pdf format.
  16. ALS Ekibastuz by Art. Lebedev Studio, $63.00
    ALS Ekibastuz is a contemporary urban-style typeface extremely suitable for periodicals and advertising. It has defined, open, clear-cut letterforms and modern proportions. Originally designed to work well for headings, Ekibastuz was developed further to give a distinct energetic feel when used at large sizes and be highly readable and neutral at small sizes. It consists of six font styles and offers a wide choice of weights, which is useful for creating contrast between boxes of text on a page.
  17. Boetia by Scriptorium, $24.00
    Boetia is an Art Nouveau period font which is designed to give some of the feel of ancient Greek lettering and design. It also echoes the lettering of the Psychedelic poster era and would be a great addition to any 60s font collection. The overall effect is both modern and classical at the same time, with readable, bold character forms perfect for posters or other titling uses. If you like our Hendrix or Pantagruel fonts you're going to love Boetia.
  18. theLUXX by Resistenza, $39.00
    The Luxx font was born in 2010 and in the 2013 has been redesigned. Luxx is based on a style of lettering often seen on Italian art deco posters and advertising of the 1930s. This font is very modern, and is inspired by the “velocitá-speed” of this artistic period. TheLuxx is perfect for when you want to use eye-catching big texts for anything from posters and retro-advertisements, and art, but it´s especially striking for printed projects.
  19. 1491 Cancellaresca by GLC, $38.00
    This font was inspired by the very well-known humanistic script called "Cancellaresca". This variant was used by a lot of calligraphers in the late 1400s, specially by the Venetian Giovannantonio Tagliente, whose patterns were mainly used for this font. You can compare this with 1610 Cancellaresca. Numerals were inspired by Da Vinci manuscripts, from the same period. We added accented characters and a few others not currently existing at the time. A lot of titling alternates and ligatures are also included.
  20. Brick Lane by kapitza, $99.00
    Brick Lane is an picture font consisting of 52 detailed, hand drawn illustrations of people seen on Brick Lane, a street in the heart of the Bangladeshi community in the East End of London. It has over the last few years become the home of parts of the creative industries in London, mainly media, fashion and graphics. All illustrations are based on photographs taken on location over a period of time. The photographs are then hand traced to create high quality, detailed silhouettes.
  21. 2030 by Noir Typo, $26.00
    2030 font is inspired by the typography of the early 20th century, the Futura of Paul Reener, Cassandre and Charles Loupot’s works and, on a broader level by modernism and art déco mouvements. Geometric, with classicals proportions, this typefaces is a re-interpretation, in a actual form, of the alphabets from this period. The lines are straight, but the letters are easy to read and nice to watch thanks to optical corrections. Build with 9 weights of 700 glyphs, italics and small caps.
  22. Hippie Comics JNL by Jeff Levine, $29.00
    In the 1920 edition of “How to Paint Signs and Sho’ Cards” by E. C. Matthews is an example of what is termed “poster lettering” that is so free form and unusual it borders on the eccentric. Resembling lettering more commonly found in 1960s “underground comics” of the Hippie generation rather than of the Art Nouveau period, it oddly enough works well in both styles. This novelty typeface is now available as Hippie Comics JNL in both regular and oblique versions.
  23. Jonquin by Greater Albion Typefounders, $11.50
    Jonquin was inspired by some hand lettering seen on a World -War One recruiting poster. It's a family of three faces for display work and headings designed to be used readily as an 'All-Capitals' face as well as in upper and lower case format. Regular and bold weights are offered, as well as an even more decorative incised form. The whole family is ideally suited for poster and advertising work, as well as book and record covers and period themed signage.
  24. Palatino by Linotype, $47.99
    Palatino is the work of Hermann Zapf and became available in the late 1950s from D. Stempel AG in Frankfurt am Main. Zapf optimized Palatino’s design for legibility, producing a typeface which remained legible even on the inferior paper of the post World War II period. Zapf named the font after Giambattista Palatino, a master of scripts from the time of Leonardo da Vinci. Palatino is an Old Face font which proves that classic forms can still be used to create new typefaces.
  25. Saltpetre by Magpie Paper Works, $32.00
    Inspired by late 18th century type specimens, Saltpetre is a grounded yet rustic typeface. His letters have been hand-inked with antique dip pens and playfully spaced for a charming, irregular look. In addition to a set of 26 upper case letters, the font includes a variety of period graphics, interlocking decorative borders, numerals, punctuation, currency figures and multi-lingual support. Saltpetre is extremely versatile and excels at display, as well as specialized uses such as cartography and historical reproduction.
  26. Casthago by BustanType, $24.00
    Casthago is a transitional, humanist serif typeface family, comes with some contrast in the stroke and medium curve braketed serif that creates a very classic and traditional feel. Casthago designed for body text, creating a steady and readable rhythm, made for immersive reading. Some Character comes with alternate style 'a,h,m,n' that inspirated by Carolingian manuscript that was popular in medieval European period. Casthago consists of 16 styles from Extralight to black including italic styles and 2 variable fonts addition.
  27. Stempel Schneidler LT by Linotype, $29.99
    F .H. Ernst Schneidler, type designer and teacher, originally designed Schneidler Old Style in 1936 for the Bauer foundry. Stempel Schneidler is based on the typefaces of Venetian printers from the Renaissance period and possesses their grace, beauty, and classical proportions. The Stempel Schneidler, a completely reworked and tuned font family made by D. Stempel AG in Frankfurt, is a fine, legible text font that also works well in display. One of Schneidler's more unique features is its question marks.
  28. Envoy by Tim Rolands, $20.00
    Envoy is a serif type inspired primarily by Garalde oldstyle types like those of Claude Garamond. As such, it is particularly well suited for book and magazine text. Characteristic details more typical of Venetian oldstyle faces serve to give Envoy just a bit more personality. The base family includes regular, italic, bold, bold italic and small capitals. Expert sets add ligatures and alternate letterforms. Display sets include letterforms customized for titling. Originally designed in 1995 and 1996, for the 1996 Morisawa International Typeface Design Competition, Envoy was later revived, completed and publicly released in 1998. During the initial design, the family was known as Truman in honor of Northeast Missouri State University becoming Truman State University, but the name was changed to Envoy prior to entry in the competition.
  29. Tablet Gothic by TypeTogether, $35.00
    Graphic designers of any nationality and background know very well that the art of composing titles correctly is not easy, Especially when it comes to periodical publications where there is need for both flexibility and graphic coherence. Tablet Gothic was originally engineered as a titling type family, meant to help designers working on publications that require output as hard copies and a variety of digital platforms at the same time. As such, it is a grotesque sans serif that looks to the future of publishing with a clear understanding of its history, and reminiscences that go back to nineteenth century Britain and Germany. Tablet Gothic delivers the sturdy, straightforward and clean appearance expected from a grotesque, but it allows itself a good measure of personality to make it stand out on the page. Its 84 styles –six series of condensation and seven weights in each series plus obliques– guarantee that, whatever the publication format is, there's a Tablet Gothic font that will do the job and perform well both technically and aesthetically. Furthermore, the rounder styles, Tablet Gothic Wide, Normal and Narrow achieved amazing results at very small sizes, producing  a beautiful texture and highly readable text blocks. Tablet Gothic fonts can be purchased individually, by series or as a complete bundle (best value!)
  30. Henrician by Greater Albion Typefounders, $16.50
    Henrician can claim two sources of inspiration. One of these was a set of beautiful capital letterforms seen on the cover of a 19th century album of engravings. The engravings contained therein depicted lovely examples of half-timbered Tudor architecture and there was a clear 'Tudor' intent behind the letterforms. The second source of inspiration is more conceptual-the title lettering of period films from the 30's to the 60's…think if the opening text when Errol Flynn plays Robin Hood, or think of Richard the Lionheart, or even that great comedy Classic 'Carry on Henry', and it's discussion of Sir Thomas de Cobbler….but we digress! Henrician is a set of eight display and text (but perhaps not Body Text) faces in a 'Tudor Revival' spirit. Like any good revival design they are somehow at home with a wide range period themed design work, covering the medieval until, perhaps, the 18th century, just so long as we're more concerned with fun and appearance than strict historical accuracy. The family will be at home in the realms of advertising, posters, cover design and web design. Try Henrician out today!
  31. Jack Knife by Mike Zuidgeest, $14.00
    The "Jack Knife" font is a unique, handcrafted font that perfectly captures the spirit of the medieval time period. With its spiky, pointy design, this font exudes strength, courage, and boldness – making it the perfect choice for anyone looking to add a touch of daring to their brand. The sharp, jagged edges of the "Jack Knife" font give it a rugged, rustic feel that is both timeless and modern. Its bold, thick strokes make it easy to read even from a distance, while the intricate details and delicate curves add a touch of elegance and sophistication. Whether you're looking to create a bold, daring logo for a whisky brand or add a touch of adventure to your design, the "Jack Knife" font is the perfect choice. Its unique design and versatile style make it suitable for a wide range of projects, from branding and packaging to advertising and social media. So if you're looking for a font that embodies the spirit of the medieval period and exudes strength, courage, and boldness, look no further than the "Jack Knife" font – the perfect choice for anyone who wants to make a bold statement with their design.
  32. Before the Rain - Personal use only
  33. MB-Real Grinder - Personal use only
  34. Moonlight Sonata by Typehand Studio, $16.00
    Moonlight Sonata is a casual script font based on a manual calligraphy brush. It includes hundreds of beautiful glyphs with many OpenType features such as ligatures. This font is unique, personal, and friendly to use. Moonlight Sonata is very versatile, where you can use it for various purposes such as greeting cards, invitations, logo type, posters and various merchandise where you want more personalized look.
  35. Lorjuk by Aisyah, $12.00
    Lorjuk is a handwritten font that features a natural and casual style. It has a personal and unique touch, with strokes that mimic the look of hand-written letters. This font is perfect for adding a personal touch to your designs, such as invitations, posters, or social media posts. The font is versatile and can be used for various projects, from informal to more formal ones.
  36. Letter Delivery JNL by Jeff Levine, $29.00
    The combination of some Bodoni extra-wide wood type letters and an image redrawn from a 1940s package label from the long-defunct Railway Express Agency form the characters in Letter Delivery JNL. These initials are perfect for personalizing notes, gift labels, personal stationery and other creative projects. For retail commercial products, please consult the information within the Font License Agreement and contact the font's author directly.
  37. Piked by Lemonthe, $13.00
    Piked is an elegant handwritten font, featuring 90 ligatures and swashes for a truly unique and personalized look. This font showcases a beautiful script style that captures the beauty and charm of hand-drawn calligraphy, ideal for adding a personal touch to any design project. It is perfect for many different projects such as logos & branding, invitation, stationery, signature, product designs, labels, photography, and much more!
  38. Beristone by Typebae, $15.00
    Beristone is a beautiful handwritten monoline signature script font. With its elegant and fluid strokes, it exudes a sense of sophistication and personal touch. The font features smooth lines and graceful curves, creating a natural and authentic handwritten look. Beristone is perfect for adding a stylish and personalized touch to logos, branding materials, invitations, and any design project that calls for a refined and contemporary script font.
  39. Peach Comix_PersonalUseOnly - Personal use only
  40. Antique by Storm Type Foundry, $26.00
    The concept of the Baroque Roman type face is something which is remote from us. Ungrateful theorists gave Baroque type faces the ill-sounding attribute "Transitional", as if the Baroque Roman type face wilfully diverted from the tradition and at the same time did not manage to mature. This "transition" was originally meant as an intermediate stage between the Aldine/Garamond Roman face of the Renaissance, and its modern counterpart, as represented by Bodoni or Didot. Otherwise there was also a "transition" from a slanted axis of the shadow to a perpendicular one. What a petty detail led to the pejorative designation of Baroque type faces! If a bookseller were to tell his customers that they are about to choose a book which is set in some sort of transitional type face, he would probably go bust. After all, a reader, for his money, would not put up with some typographical experimentation. He wants to read a book without losing his eyesight while doing so. Nevertheless, it was Baroque typography which gave the world the most legible type faces. In those days the craft of punch-cutting was gradually separating itself from that of book-printing, but also from publishing and bookselling. Previously all these activities could be performed by a single person. The punch-cutter, who at that time was already fully occupied with the production of letters, achieved better results than he would have achieved if his creative talents were to be diffused in a printing office or a bookseller's shop. Thus it was possible that for example the printer John Baskerville did not cut a single letter in his entire lifetime, for he used the services of the accomplished punch-cutter John Handy. It became the custom that one type founder supplied type to multiple printing offices, so that the same type faces appeared in various parts of the world. The type face was losing its national character. In the Renaissance period it is still quite easy to distinguish for example a French Roman type face from a Venetian one; in the Baroque period this could be achieved only with great difficulties. Imagination and variety of shapes, which so far have been reserved only to the fine arts, now come into play. Thanks to technological progress, book printers are now able to reproduce hairstrokes and imitate calligraphic type faces. Scripts and elaborate ornaments are no longer the privilege of copper-engravers. Also the appearance of the basic, body design is slowly undergoing a change. The Renaissance canonical stiffness is now replaced with colour and contrast. The page of the book is suddenly darker, its lay-out more varied and its lines more compact. For Baroque type designers made a simple, yet ingenious discovery - they enlarged the x-height and reduced the ascenders to the cap-height. The type face thus became seemingly larger, and hence more legible, but at the same time more economical in composition; the type area was increasing to the detriment of the margins. Paper was expensive, and the aim of all the publishers was, therefore, to sell as many ideas in as small a book block as possible. A narrowed, bold majuscule, designed for use on the title page, appeared for the first time in the Late Baroque period. Also the title page was laid out with the highest possible economy. It comprised as a rule the brief contents of the book and the address of the bookseller, i.e. roughly that which is now placed on the flaps and in the imprint lines. Bold upper-case letters in the first line dramatically give way to the more subtle italics, the third line is highlighted with vermilion; a few words set in lower-case letters are scattered in-between, and then vermilion appears again. Somewhere in the middle there is an ornament, a monogram or an engraving as a kind of climax of the drama, while at the foot of the title-page all this din is quietened by a line with the name of the printer and the year expressed in Roman numerals, set in 8-point body size. Every Baroque title-page could well pass muster as a striking poster. The pride of every book printer was the publication of a type specimen book - a typographical manual. Among these manuals the one published by Fournier stands out - also as regards the selection of the texts for the specimen type matter. It reveals the scope of knowledge and education of the master typographers of that period. The same Fournier established a system of typographical measurement which, revised by Didot, is still used today. Baskerville introduced the smoothing of paper by a hot steel roller, in order that he could print astonishingly sharp letters, etc. ... In other words - Baroque typography deserves anything else but the attribute "transitional". In the first half of the 18th century, besides persons whose names are prominent and well-known up to the present, as was Caslon, there were many type founders who did not manage to publish their manuals or forgot to become famous in some other way. They often imitated the type faces of their more experienced contemporaries, but many of them arrived at a quite strange, even weird originality, which ran completely outside the mainstream of typographical art. The prints from which we have drawn inspiration for these six digital designs come from Paris, Vienna and Prague, from the period around 1750. The transcription of letters in their intact form is our firm principle. Does it mean, therefore, that the task of the digital restorer is to copy meticulously the outline of the letter with all inadequacies of the particular imprint? No. The type face should not to evoke the rustic atmosphere of letterpress after printing, but to analyze the appearance of the punches before they are imprinted. It is also necessary to take account of the size of the type face and to avoid excessive enlargement or reduction. Let us keep in mind that every size requires its own design. The longer we work on the computer where a change in size is child's play, the more we are convinced that the appearance of a letter is tied to its proportions, and therefore, to a fixed size. We are also aware of the fact that the computer is a straightjacket of the type face and that the dictate of mathematical vectors effectively kills any hint of naturalness. That is why we strive to preserve in these six alphabets the numerous anomalies to which later no type designer ever returned due to their obvious eccentricity. Please accept this PostScript study as an attempt (possibly futile, possibly inspirational) to brush up the warm magic of Baroque prints. Hopefully it will give pleasure in today's modern type designer's nihilism.
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