digitization of an incunabel times typeface, an historic work of revival

LTC Italian Old Style is not to be confused with the English Monotype font also called Italian Old Style, which is an earlier design from 1911 based on William Morris’s Golden Type that is based on Nicholas Jenson’s Roman face. Goudy went back to Jenson’s original Roman and other Renaissance Roman faces for his inspiration and the result is what many consider to be the best Renaissance face adapted for modern use. Bruce Rogers was one of the biggest admirers of Italian Old Style and designed the original specimen book for Italian Old Style in 1924 using his trademark ornament arrangement. These ornaments are now contained in the pro versions of the Roman styles—Regular Pro and Light Pro. With most digitizations of old metal typefaces, one source size is often used as reference (as was Goudy’s method for his own cuttings of his Village foundry types) so that all sizes refer to one set of original artwork. The original hot metal fonts made by Lanston Monotype (from Goudy’s drawings) and other manufacturers used two or three masters for different size ranges to have optimal relative weights—smaller type sizes would need proportionally thicker lines to not appear thin and larger sizes would require thinner lines to not appear to bulky. The variations in size ranges can also be affected by the size of the cutter head in making the master patterns. The light weights of LTC Italian Old Style were digitized from larger display sizes (14, 18, 24, 30, 36 pt) and the regular weights were digitized from smaller composition sizes (8,10,12 pt). The fitting for the regular weights is noticeably looser to allow for better setting at small sizes. Very few font revivals take this approach. Italian Old Style, originally designed by Frederic Goudy in 1924, was digitized by Paul Hunt in 2007. In 2013, it has been updated by James Grieshaber and is now offered as a Pro font. The newly expanded Pro font includes all of the original ligatures, plus small caps and expanded language coverage in all 4 Pro styles.

I was immediately fascinated with the font, Breitfette Unziale, used for Erol Büyükburç's Hop Dedik album cover when I discovered this album. I designed a completely brand new typeface that is inspired by it called Erol Unziale but I also wanted to digitize and revive this typeface since I couldn’t find a digital version of it anywhere online. I took some liberties with the original font and customized it to my liking. Here is my interpretation of Walter Haettenschweiler's font through digitization.

For everyone wishing for a modern serif that’s as clear and readable as a sans in restrictive digital environments, meet ABI by Reza Bohloul. Sans serifs are commonly used on small screens to save space and carry a modern tone and Abi is the best one. Abi now provides a serif option for these restrictive digital environments. The screen has met its serif match. Abi was created from and for the digital world. Abi supports Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Kurdish languages.

Dom was designed by Peter Dombrezian for American Type Founders in 1951–52. It is an informal unjoined script typeface that looks brushwritten. Its letters are almost monotone, freely or casually drawn. Vertical strokes of them have irregular ending at different heights, and oval axis have slightly different slopes. This typeface is to create a friendly, informal look in signs, advertising, and invitations. The Cyrillic version of the Bitstream digital font was developed by Dmitry Kirsanov for ParaType in 2008.

Diva Doodles is a picture font from Outside the Line. It has 40 little icons... of girl things such as lipstick, nail polish, perfume, shoes, hats, camera, phone, iPod, purses, shirts, skirts and a pair of PJs. If you liked the font Doodles, Doodles Too, Holiday Doodles or Holiday Doodles Too you should love Diva Doodles as it is more of the same style. It can be found in the book "Indie Fonts 3, a Compendium of Digital Type from Independent Foundries".

HWT Bernice is an ornament font system designed by Marian Bantjes. The basic shapes were designed by Bantjes for the Hamilton Wood Type Museum's border stamping machine as a contemporary application for this 150 year old machine, which punches shapes into end grain wood to form continuous border patterns. The digital version expands a bit beyond the punch machine and allows designers to assemble a multitude of options using flipped and rotated variations of these 6 basic shape sets using simple keystrokes.

Le Griffe is the work of French designer Andre-Michel Lubac. A superb calligraphic script, Le Griffe includes two fonts of separate alternates and swash characters. In contrast to its more reserved lowercase, Le Griffe's capitals are quite lively- especially those with swashes and flourishes. With Le Griffe, Lubac has imitated the skilled penmanship of free-flowing calligraphy in digital form. Now, instead of writing out beautiful text by hand, you can set it quickly and easily with this masterful type!

Artscript was Sol Hess's "attempt to convert into rigid metal the graceful penmanship of the ancient scribe". This type of script is more common in digital from but when originally released in 1948, it required special handling to avoid breakage. Extensive alternates were added based on original Hess drawings and additional sources. Both versions are combined into the Opentype version along with an expanded Central European character set as well as ligatures, Swash/Alternates, fractions, superior/inferior numerals and ornaments.

Madrone is an Adobe Originals typeface designed by Barbara Lind in 1991. Madrone was digitized from proofs of the woodtype collection in the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. A fat face roman, Madrone is typical of popular early nineteenth-century styles. Fat face types are characterized by their squatness and extreme letter width. One familiar version of this design is Bodoni Ultra Bold. Madrone is eye-catching for display uses in advertising and packaging.

Bulletin Script was a style offered by several American wood type manufacturers in the late 19th Century. It may actually be one of the most iconic styles of the late 1960 Psychedelic era when Victorian revival was in full swing. The style known as "Bulletin Script No. 2” varies from the more commonly seen Bulletin in that its bottom strokes have a concave swash to them rather than rounded bulbous bottom terminals. This new digitization features over 300 glyphs including Central European characters.

Occasionally a type design is started - then set aside for whatever reason - before eventually being completed. More often than not, the original source material is forgotten, so proper attribution cannot be made. Such is the case for a hand lettered Art Nouveau alphabet likely found within the pages of an early Speedball lettering book from around the 1920s. This playful and casual design is now digitally reproduced as Nouveau Signage JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Ano Angular was originally designed for a fashion company. It was to be used as a headline type, half way between the logo we had designed — made up of straight lines only — and our circle-based Ano typeface, which was to be used for text. Its design is based on the idea of mixing circles with triangles into letter shapes in a modular, constructed way. The effect is digital, mathematical, remeniscent of the typography of 1980s arcade games such as Asteroids.

The typeface was designed at the Polygraphmash type design bureau in 1940-56 (project headed by Anatoly Shchukin) based on Erbar-Grotesk typeface of Ludwig & Mayer company, 1929 by Jakob Erbar, and on Metro typeface of Mergenthaler Linotype, 1929 by William A. Dwiggins. A sans serif of geometric style. For use for text and display typography. In 2014 designer Olexa Volochay made some corrections in original digital data and extended character set. The family was rereleased in ParaType in 2014.

In a career spanning the early 1900s through 1940, George M. Cohan wrote and produced over 50 plays, 300 songs and was also an actor, singer and dancer. Many of his works honored his Irish roots, and the cover of one piece of sheet music called “The Irish American” (1905) had its title hand lettered in a condensed Art Nouveau type design with tiny spurred serifs. This is now available digitally as Dress Rehearsal JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

ZT Voltra is a stylish and charismatic serif type family that brings modern and vintage feels that allow you to make a visual journey from thinnest body slab to a very thick expanded display serif. ZT Voltra works in modern digital interfaces on mobile and web platforms also suitable in humanist serif touch for prints and any design projects. Twelve weights with seven expanded widths cover everything from an airy thin to a good looking heavyweight and support for 100+ languages.

Zagolovochnaya was based on the letterforms of Zagolovochnaya gazetnaya (Newspaper Display) type family of Polygraphmash in 1962 by Iraida Chepil et al. The face was a revival of Cyrillic version of Caslon designed in the late 1930s. The artworks of Zagolovochnaya gazetnaya were redrawn by Isay Slutsker (1924-2002) in the late 1990s. In spite of its name the font is useful both for display and text matter. The digital version was developed for ParaType in 2002 by Manvel Shmavonyan.

Inspired by the classical “Fell Types”, especially the charmingly quirky weights designed by Peter De Walpergen. WT Solaire is a liberal interpretation of those cuts, meant for the digital age. Its design reflects an elegant tension between tradition and modernity. Its elegance and sharpness make it a perfect fit for any project that requires impact and subtlety at the same time. It is especially meant for editorial design, be it magazines or books, but it also works well with images.

Linotype Schwennel is part of the Take Type Library, selected from the contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. This prize-winning font was designed by the German artist Svenja Voss. The figures seem to have been somehow eroded, parts of some strokes are completely missing, contours seem washed away. The eye works to put the pieces together to form a meaningful series of figures. The second weight, lila+negro, completes the letter fragments of the lila weight. Missing pieces are filled in and contours completed, making the resulting text stronger and a bit more legible. Linotype Schnwennel is intended exclusively for headlines in larger point sizes.

Linotype Sansara, from Swiss designer Grégoire Poget, is part of the TakeType Library, chosen from the entries of the Linotype-sponsored International Digital Type Design Contest 1999 for inclusion on the TakeType 3 CD. This fun font is a type experiment behind whose oriental facade hide Arabic letters, recognizable only at second glance. This font displays generous, pointed ascenders and descenders as well as a bar-like emphasis on the upper third of the figures which connects lines and words and gives them a decorative look. Linotype Sansara reveals an astounding variety of details which bring to mind 1001 Arabian Nights, flowing gowns and snake charmers. This font is best for display in point sizes of 14 or larger.

Celebrity is a new execution of a film type concept put forth by Willy Wirtz in 1971. The original idea, called Latus, had many irregularities and unfit characters that are now fixed and expanded in this digital version. Celebrity's construct combines extreme thicks with hairline thins to build forms that contribute to a type totality that is at once modern and techno, as well as retro-deco. Eye catching and memorable, Celebrity is ideal for use on posters, book covers, media sleeves and packaging. It also has enough geometric appeal to inspire unique logos and set attractive titling. Celebrity comes in all popular font formats, and includes a very expanded Latin character set.

This font offers beautiful abstract typographic harmony for a wide variety of design projects, including natural handwriting in digital form for designs, quote designs, for social media business designs, advertisements, trademarks, promotional banners, posts, posters, signatures, and all. the design requires handwriting or whatever design you want. This font is equipped with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, punctuation marks, swhases and several variations on each character including multi-language. This font is best suited for open type friendly applications. How to get alternative glyphs from open type fonts: http://adobe.ly/1m1fn4Y PUA Character Code - Fully accessible without additional design software. We hope you enjoy this font. Feel free to send whatever message you want to convey. Thank you Regards Twinletter

Xylo is a rugged, no-nonsense typeface that was originally designed in 1924 by the Benjamin Krebs type foundry in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Even back then, Xylo must have been very popular; the design made it at least as far as England. In 1995, after finding its design in an old London printer's reference book, the Letraset Type Studio faithfully converted Xylo into digital format. A time-proven display face, Xylo will convey a feeling of power and strength in any application. Best used big in headlines or logos; Xylo exudes an expressionistic and art deco spirit that just as much at home today as it was during the roaring 20s!

This modernized rustic Baroque Roman face paraphrases freely its model from the first half of the 18th century. The shape of the letters has been cleared from all unevenness and softness, but has retained its lively expression. It is deliberately rather cooler than the reverently digitized Baroque Roman type faces, since it was necessary to adjust it with regard to the visual experience of the contemporary reader. In addition, it has bold designs and aligning figures, which also considerably extends the range of its application. It is an entirely reliable text type face for the most demanding extensive works. Thanks to its calm expression and excellent legibility it is widely used when printing series of professional literature.

The pages of vintage type foundry catalogs yield so much wonderful type design and artwork. Found within their pages are hundreds of classic text and display faces alongside delicately engraved cuts as well as print shop borders, ornaments and embellishments. These books are treasure troves of their respective times, and Typesetter Ornaments JNL preserves some of that art in digital form. Redrawn from this source material are twenty-six basic design elements that include corner pieces, end pieces, pointing hands, spot illustrations and other designs. Also included are old style parentheses, brackets, an Rx (prescription symbol), two cent signs and a few extra elements located on the number keys and their caps shift counterparts.

Clawmark - Strong Brush Font.The modern and powerful hand painted font you've been looking for. Each character is carefully crafted until the result is perfect. A lot of detail is preserved when characters are digitized, so uppercase looks fantastic up close Clawmark combines attractive curves with a fresh urban edge; delivering a stylish script which is guaranteed to add an eye-catching appeal to your story books, illustrations, comic books, t-shirts, posters, greeting cards, logos, branding, stickers, svg, crafting and all for display purposes. The alternative characters were divided into several Open Type features such as Swash, Stylistic Sets, Stylistic Alternates, Contextual Alternates, and Ligature. The Open Type features can be accessed by using Open Type savvy programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop Corel Draw X version, And Microsoft Word. This font is also support multi language.

The typeface DIY Fantasy Stamp is designed in 2020 for the font foundry Typo Graphic Design by Manuel Viergutz. The display typeface is inspired by the crafts of 20s and 40s. The basis for this authentic stamp font was a letter case with a rubber stamp from Simplex. This analog character set of 85 stamps, was digitally extended to 500+ glyphs. 5 font-styles (Sharp, Dirty, Rough, Invert, Heavy) with 546 glyphs (Adobe Latin 3) incl. decorative extras like icons, arrows, dingbats, emojis, symbols, geometric shapes, catchwords, decorative ligatures (type the word #LOVE for ❤ or #SMILE for ☺ as OpenType-Feature dlig) and stylistic alternates (4 stylistic sets). For use in logos, magazines, posters, advertisement plus as webfont for decorative headlines. The font works best for display size. Have fun with this font & use the DEMO-FONT (with reduced glyph-set) FOR FREE! Font Spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons ■ Font Name: DIY Fantasy Stamp ■ Font Weights: Sharp, Dirty, Rough, Invert, Heavy + DEMO (with reduced glyph-set) ■ Font Cate­gory: Dis­play for head­line size ■ Glyph Set: 546 glyphs (Adobe Latin 3) ■ Spe­cials: Decorative extras like arrows, emojis, ornaments, geometric shapes, catchwords, decorative ligatures (type the word #LOVE for ❤ or #SMILE for ☺ as Open­Type Fea­ture. dlig) and stylistic alternates (4 stylistic sets) ■ Design Date: 2020 ■ Type Desi­gner: Manuel Viergutz

Eksja is a modern slab serif available in four weights, each with a corresponding italic. All the fonts in the family have small caps, the extended latin character set, diacritical f-ligatures, enclosed numerals (numbers in circles) and case-sensitive punctuation. The general design of the typeface has been with a strong human touch in mind. The ends of the serifs have been given a subtle rounding, just enough to take the edge off which, when coupled with the largely humanist structure of the design, creates an open, friendly and approachable design, abandoning the usual geometric severity commonly associated with slab serif typefaces. Eksja contains quite a comprehensive numerals system. Obviously, each font has the standard proportionally and tabularly spaced lining and old-style figures but, crucially, the tabular numerals share the exact same width in each font variant. That means that you can choose to use the thin, regular, bold, black and their italic forms all in the same setting and they will always line up. In addition to the 'normal' numerals there are super-script and sub-script numerals and OpenType fractions that can be automatically composed as you type. There are also the enclosed numerals, numbers inside a circle, that are useful for numerically listing items and, thanks to the wizardry of OpenType, they can contain any number of digits (typically, enclosed numerals are precomposed single digits, only encompassing the 0–9 range, the enclosed numerals in Eksja can go to double digits, triple digits or, in fact, any number of digits*). *The automation of the enclosed numerals is accessed via either "Stylistic Set #1" or "Stylistic Alternates" which requires the use of an application that supports OpenType stylistic sets or stylistic alternates, such as Adobe's InDesign or Photoshop.

Digitization of some of classic William H Bradley's characters, from America vintage heritage

Screentext JNL is a serif bitmap font for both digital and print applications.

Designed by R.H. Middleton for Ludlow, circa 1930. Digitally engineered by Steve Jackaman.

Sayonax is an oriental simulation typeface, in digital pixelated styles, by Intellecta Design.

Designed by R.H. Middleton for Ludlow, circa 1937. Digitally engineered by Steve Jackaman.

Designed by R.H. Middleton for Ludlow, circa 1929-30. Digitally engineered by Steve Jackaman.