The Bitstream version of Melior, a twentieth century modern face commissioned by Stempel and designed by Hermann Zapf in 1952. It is based on Zapf’s thoughts about the squared-off circle known as a super-ellipse. The type was originally intended as a newspaper text face by Linotype. Hermann Zapf’s Melior exhibits a robust character through classic and objective forms. Versatile and extremely legible, it can be used for a variety of texts and point sizes. Cyrillic version was developed by Natalya Vasilyeva and licensed by ParaType in 2002.

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, suitable for display, or text, closely related to Latin.

A contemporary revival of early 20th century fonts, the Square Slabserif 711™ typeface family from the Bitstream library is perfect for contemporary print and interactive design projects. Its geometric structure of right angles and opposing round corners are ideally suited to current imaging devices. An added benefit is that they also give the design an enduring industrial strength demeanor. Available as three weights with relatively condensed proportions, the Square Slabserif 711 family will surely be a valuable addition to any professional collection of fonts.

An unsold 1973 TV pilot for the series “Catch 22” (based on Joseph Heller’s 1961 book and the subsequent 1970 movie) had its title hand lettered in an extra bold stencil type style. Heller coined the phrase as a satire on absurd military rules and bureaucracy. Although the show’s title provided only five characters to work with, there was enough inspiration there to create the military styled Enlisted Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. According to Wikipedia: “A catch-22 is a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations.”

Romantic, decorative Adios Script is one of Alejandro Paul’s most elaborate and technically refined faces to date. Inspired by designs in “how-to” commercial lettering guides of the 1940s, it has been refined and brought into the 21st century through a huge variety of ornate swash letterforms. The lowercase “h” alone offers 43 variants. Hundreds of ornamental ascenders and descenders allow a beautiful interplay of strokes and combinations, while avoiding overlaps or conflicts. Adios Script features a mind-boggling 1,470 characters in total, in OpenType format. Adios Script received a Certificate of Excellence from the Type Directors Club.

A warm script font with a down-home feel. Digitally revived from a vintage photo-typesetting face. The character set has been expanded and modernized.

Chapter 11 is a pseudo-random typewriter font with the ribbon on the fritz. The single font contains four different character sets of varying ranges. If your program supports advanced OpenType features, activate the contextual alternates to see the ghost in the machine while you type. Otherwise, character variations are accessible through any character map or glyph palette, so you can manually mix and match your setting. This font is highly recommended for use in filling out government bailout forms. It will make the whole world believe you actually need it.

digitization of autentic medieval blackletters from Anton Koberger and Otavia Scotus german typographers, from incunabula books

This font is a collection of simple calligraphic ornaments suitable for invitations, gift tags, and anything that can benefit from a “spoonful of sugar” visually.

Vtg Stencil Germany No.101 is modeled after historic stencil plates from Bavaria. The design is a blackletter chancery, a romantic reprise of a style that was common in German writing offices from the 14th to the 16th century. The flourishes stylistically quote the Baroque period. A talented mind, perhaps around 1890, has transformed the textura shapes into a modular stencil system. Many elements are repeated throughout the glyph set - see for example the initial swashes on the letters A, B, U etc. Overall, this decorative blackletter doesn’t look like a stencil design. Maybe it was originally used by a sign painter, and all the typical stencil bridges would have been painted over in the final work. If you’re looking for a decorative blackletter font with a unique touch and a romantic feel, you will love Germany No.101.

Sweet Titling No. 11 is a 2009 addition to the Sweet Collection of engraved lettering styles from the 20th Century. This obscure, art deco design would have been used for engraved letterhead, business cards, etc., and likely first appeared in the 1920s or ’30s.