Originally inspired by the numerals on a vintage clock face, Roloi is a layered numbers font in the deco lettering style, and includes a full set of automatic clock symbols. Its geometric forms are typical of the deco style, but stop well-short of pure geometry. The irregular stroke and character widths work together to give the forms a warm and energetic, yet cohesive, feel. Roloi offers two layering styles—the personable Fill and the more dynamic Inline. Designed to be layered over the background Regular style, they both lend the forms an added level of interest. Roloi also includes a clock symbol for any and every time of day, rounded to the nearest five-minutes. The regular weight provides the circular clock background, while the Fill and Inline styles produce the clock hands. If ligatures are activated in your text-editing program, type out any time—such as 9:32, 12:05, etc.—and the proper clock symbol will be automatically substituted. Go ahead, type any time out below! To stop the automatic clock symbol substitution, simply deactivate ligatures. Because the clock symbols are standard ligatures, every major modern browser will support their use on the web. With some programing they could even be used to make a lightweight, text-only clock. In addition to the clock symbols and basic numerals, Roloi’s glyph range covers numeric superiors and inferiors, standard and arbitrary fractions, currency symbols, all of the punctuation and symbols commonly associated with currency, unicode clock Face symbols, the A M P / a m p letters, and alternates of the 1, 2, and 4, accessible by selecting Stylistic Set 1.

The Geometry Pro family has been designed to be the final word in purely geometric fonts, and this rounded Script sub-family is a nod to the 50s style of connected logomarks. Words set with both the Regular and the Alternate (with its more flourished capitals and alternate stem connections) can be extended by using the underscore character between letters. You can freely mix and match glyphs from both fonts to create a little bit of variety, and finding that perfect combination. For a matching set of capitals (and disconnected lowercase letters): check out the Regular weights of the Geometry Soft Pro family. All the Geometry Pro fonts are strictly geometric (as drawn with a compass and a ruler fixed to 90 and 45 degree angles) but they are not slavishly modular. ALL fonts from CheapProFonts have very extensive language support: They contain some unusual diacritic letters (some of which are contained in the Latin Extended-B Unicode block) supporting: Cornish, Filipino (Tagalog), Guarani, Luxembourgian, Malagasy, Romanian, Ulithian and Welsh. They also contain all glyphs in the Latin Extended-A Unicode block (which among others cover the Central European and Baltic areas) supporting: Afrikaans, Belarusian (Lacinka), Bosnian, Catalan, Chichewa, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, Greenlandic, Hungarian, Kashubian, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Maori, Polish, Saami (Inari), Saami (North), Serbian (latin), Slovak(ian), Slovene, Sorbian (Lower), Sorbian (Upper), Turkish and Turkmen. And they of course contain all the usual "western" glyphs supporting: Albanian, Basque, Breton, Chamorro, Danish, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Frisian, Galican, German, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish (Gaelic), Italian, Northern Sotho, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Rhaeto-Romance, Sami (Lule), Sami (South), Scots (Gaelic), Spanish, Swedish, Tswana, Walloon and Yapese.

Evanston Alehouse is the first font in a larger collection of typefaces inspired by years leading up to the American prohibition. For the past two years I was living in Evanston, IL, a suburb of Chicago. After learning it was one of the birthplaces of the prohibition movement, I set out to learn more about it, and decided to develop a type collection that captures the dynamic era in our nation’s history. In the century that prefaced the ratification of the 18th amendment, saloons, taverns and alehouses boomed as the American working class enjoyed beer and discovered whiskey and gin. At the same time, the Temperance League was forming and gaining strength. By the turn of the century, these temperance societies were common in the culture of the country, with individual towns and states already on the move to abolish alcohol consumption. However, it was undeniable that by this time in history, America loved to drink. This font is inspired by the signage seen outside such drinking establishments. Back to the modern era, Evanston Alehouse is a 25 font family that includes 3 weights, 4 widths and 3 heights. It has special features that add depth to the font, with discretionary ligatures and stylistic alternatives. It also includes a complementary set of ornaments, including line breaks, frames, borders, and laurels. Here’s a snapshot of what you get with Evanston Alehouse: 2 Styles/Postions: Sharp (regular) and Round 3 Weights: Light, Medium and Black 4 Widths: 1826 (condensed), 1858 (narrow), 1893 (wide) and 1919 (expanded) 3 Heights: Capitals, lowercase and small caps 2 Alternatives: Discretionary Ligatures and Stylistic Alternatives 1 Ornament font with over 100 graphic extras

At VetteLetters we like food but we also appreciate our drinks. Yes, of the non-alcoholic kind as well. Like milk. Contrary to what Arnold Schwartzenegger once said, Milk is not just for babies. It contains a whole lot of stuff that is genuinely good for you. Like proteins, carbohydrates, minerals (calcium a.o.) and many vitamins. One time visiting The Hague, Donald DBXL spotted a tile tableau on a brick wall, advertising a dairy factory called ‘De Sierkan’. Yellow sans serif letters on a bright blue background, dating back to the late 19th century, immediately grabbed DBXL’s attention. Especially because the tableau showed both regular and bold letters with some lovely peculiarities here and there. De Sierkan appeared to have been a milk factory solely operating in The Hague from 1879 until 1961. A number of these wall adverts are still to be seen in The Hague streets today. Photos were taken for later reference. Later is now, the lettering has been digitized, missing characters added, and VLNL Melk sees the light of day. VLNL Melk is an all-caps geometric display sans serif family of three weights, Regular, Bold and Black. The basic shape of the letters is a rectangle with rounded corners, leaving a sturdy no-nonsense look and feel. It has a distinct historic aura, but with both feet in this digital day and age. It can equally well be used for the logo of a hipster coffee place, as the cover of a historic novel. Actually, VLNL Melk kan be applied in a wide range of designs like logos, posters, flyers, book covers and magazine headlines.

"Istanbul Type" has a modern streak which is the result of a harmonization of width and height especially in the lowercase letters to support legibility. "Istanbul City" has the modernity of the west and the orientalist texture of the east as the city that unites the Asian and European continents. "Istanbul Type" also includes these features. It is a unique character that reflects the spirit of "Istanbul City". Many letter alternatives prepared with care have been created for all letters. You can make dozens of combinations from a word using these alternative letters. "Istanbul Type" is an effective set for creating identities for branding, posters, book covers, headlines, logotypes, restaurants, menu cards, wedding invitations and so on. "Istanbul Type" provides advanced typographical support for Latin-based languages. An extended character set, supporting Central, Western and Eastern European languages, rounds up the family. The designation “Istanbul Type 500 Regular” forms the central point. The first figure of the number describes the stroke thickness: 100 Thin to 900 Bold. "Istanbul Type" 5 weights and italics total 10 types. The family contains a set of 2.200+ characters. Case-Sensitive Forms, Classes and Features, Fractions, Superior, Inferior, Denominator, Numerator, Old Style Figures just one touch easy In all graphic programs. Attention! "Typography Line" is not suitable for use. When using it for special effects, it may be necessary to "Convert / Create Outlines" it first and then "Pathfinder Unite" it. You might have a crush on this typeface :) Do not hesitate to consult me for information about fonts before, during and after purchasing. You can contact me at "buyuksel@hotmail.com". Enjoy using it.

"Istanbul Type Variable" has a modern streak which is the result of a harmonization of width and height especially in the lowercase letters to support legibility. "Istanbul City" has the modernity of the west and the orientalist texture of the east as the city that unites the Asian and European continents. "Istanbul Type Variable" also includes these features. It is a unique character that reflects the spirit of "Istanbul City". Many letter alternatives prepared with care have been created for all letters. You can make dozens of combinations from a word using these alternative letters. "Istanbul Type Variable" is an effective set for creating identities for branding, posters, book covers, headlines, logotypes, restaurants, menu cards, wedding invitations and so on. "Istanbul Type Variable" provides advanced typographical support for Latin-based languages. An extended character set, supporting Central, Western and Eastern European languages, rounds up the family. The designation “Istanbul Type Variable 500 Regular” forms the central point. The first figure of the number describes the stroke thickness: 100 Thin to 900 Bold. "Istanbul Type Variable" 5 weights and italics total 10 types. The family contains a set of 2.200+ characters. Case-Sensitive Forms, Classes and Features, Fractions, Superior, Inferior, Denominator, Numerator, Old Style Figures just one touch easy In all graphic programs. Attention! "Typography Line" is not suitable for use. When using it for special effects, it may be necessary to "Convert / Create Outlines" it first and then "Pathfinder Unite" it. You might have a crush on this typeface :) Do not hesitate to consult me for information about fonts before, during and after purchasing. You can contact me at "buyuksel@hotmail.com". Enjoy using it.

I've been learning to read Cyrillic and Greek letters lately, mainly because I've been playing the game GeoGuessr. (If you haven't played it, I highly recommend! It plops you down somewhere in the world in Google Street View, and you have to figure out where you are.) Cyrillic shows up in so many more places than Russia! You can see it in Bulgaria, Mongolia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kyrgyzstan, and more. Because of that, I made sure to include a fun double-uppercase version of those alphabet sets in Sleepy Bear. They're styled the same way as the Latin characters: all uppercase height, with some lowercase-styled letters thrown in at that same height for a fun look for all ages. I've also made two weights of Sleepy Bear: a plump and smooth regular weight, and a lighter weight that's built to stack on top of the regular (though you can use it on its own). Just type out a word in Sleepy Bear, copy it, and then change the copy to Sleepy Bear Light. You'll get a great outline look in seconds! All characters are extensively cleaned up, with smooth curves and rounded ends. Sleepy Bear is great for all print projects, and also cuts out of all materials like a dream. It's a cute and quirky monoline font family that's great for all of your family's designs. Each font contains over 850 glyphs, and includes: - Latin and extended Latin characters to support over 100 languages; - Cyrillic and Greek double-uppercase alphabet sets; - 18 fractions; - Punctuation galore; - 38 double-letter ligatures for variety (including international pairs like KK and II); - And a half-dozen alternates for even more variety!

Aquawax FX was developed by Francesco Canovaro as a new variant of the Aquawax family, one of the most beloved Zetafonts classics. This new typefamily is characterised by a contemporary and elegant design, that revisits the original design of 2008 with new geometric inventions, twisted with the current fluid zeitgeist. Aquawax FX builds on the original Aquawax family by adding counter-inktraps to the letterforms and emphasizing the inner contrast of curves and corners creating a smoother, flowing and dynamic look. While inktraps are a design feature that prevents ink from bleeding or filling small spaces in letterforms to achieve a cleaner, more readable look, anti-inktraps characterize the design with a distinctive watery appearance, suitable for logo design and titles. This watery effect is possible through a slight rounding of the inner and outer corners, keeping the original cuts at the letter terminals. A Space variant pushes FX experimentation furthermore, providing an alternate stencil-like style that takes legibility to the extreme, ready for logos and sci-fi headings. This does not limit the usability of Aquawax FX to mere display intent. The Aquawax FX font family includes two versions (Roman and Space), each with nine weights, ranging from Thin to Heavy, and matching italics. With a total of 36 variants plus one variable version, Aquawax FX is a versatile type family that can be used for a variety of design projects, from branding and packaging to editorial design and advertising. Aquawax FX offers a fresh re-interpretation of the original Aquawax letterforms and proportions, with a dynamic and flowing look that is sure to make your projects stand out.

The new sans-serif Franzi typeface family – as neutral as can be, but at the same time individual and striking. Its unmistakable character lies in the detail, with no effect pushing itself to the fore. As a wide-running typeface with a relatively large x-height, the typeface family is perfectly suited to small text sizes but, with its elegant details, it leaves nothing to be desired in display applications either. Originally designed with constructed, often rectangular elements, Franzi has gradually been rounded during the development process and is now less hard in order to guarantee optimal legibility. Franzi Variable is designed alongside the italic and the weight axes. The italics are softly and elegantly drawn, while the upright characters appear much more severe. The design appeal reveals itself in the two-storey ‘a’ – a tribute to legibility in body copy; however, for those who prefer the geometric in applications, an alternative single-storey ‘a’ is also available. All styles have small caps, superscript and subscript lowercase letters, lining, non-lining and small caps figures, fractions as well as several ligatures, alternative fonts, symbols and arrows. The Latin uppercase letters are also available as discreet swash variants. In addition to the extended Latin alphabet, the typeface family also includes the complete Greek, Cyrillic and International Phonetic Alphabet IPA. Franzi was created as a further development of an order to produce a sign for a therapy practice in Vienna’s Franz-Hochedlinger-Gasse – hence the name, which is more common as an abbreviation for Franziska than as a diminutive for the male name Franz: Franzi is therefore a hybrid typeface name which has female tendencies.

Cairoli was originally cast by Italian foundry Nebiolo in 1928, as a license of a design by Wagner & Schmidt, known as Neue moderne Grotesk. Its solid grotesque design (later developed as Aurora by Weber and Akzidenz-Grotesk by Haas) was extremely successful: it anticipated the versatility of sans serif superfamilies thanks to its range of weights and widths, while still retaining some eccentricities from end-of the century lead and wood type. In 2020 the Italiantype team directed by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Mario De Libero decided to produce a revival of Cairoli, extending the original weight and width range and developing both a faithful Classic version and a Now variant. The Cairoli Classic family keeps the original low x-height range, very display-oriented, and normalizes the design while emphasizing the original peculiarities like the hook cuts in curved letters, the high-waisted uppercase R and the squared ovals of the letterforms. Cairoli Now is developed with an higher x-height, more suited for text and digital use, and adds to the original design deeper ink-traps and round punctuation, while slightly correcting the curves for a more contemporary look. Born as an exercise in subtlety and love for lost letterforms, Cairoli stands, like its lead ancestor from a century ago, at the crossroads between artsy craftsmanship and industrial needs. Its deviations from the norm are small enough to give it personality without affecting readability, and the expanded weight and width range make it into a workhorse superfamily with open type features (alternates, stylistic sets, positional numbers) and coverage of over two hundred languages using the latin extended alphabet.

The designer of ITC Medea , Silvio Napoleone said: “I've always had an interest in early letter shapes, particularly how they influenced modern typographic designs. While I was on vacation in Greece, I had a chance to see, first-hand, examples of early letterforms and typography. They really made an impression on me.” The idea of combining the ancient and the modern to create something new was the primary inspiration behind ITC Medea. ITC Medea is essentially a careful blending of the modern sans serif with the elegant forms of the uncial. At first glance, Medea appears to be constructed of geometric shapes. However, closer inspection reveals many calligraphic subtleties. Stroke terminals are flared slightly in characters like the 'e' and 'c.' The top curve of the 'd' is more pronounced than the bottom, and characters like the 'o' are elliptical rather than round. “I gravitated towards the simplicity and legibility of the uncial and half-uncial,” Napoleone recalls. “I thought it would make a great titling font, and I was surprised at how attractive ITC Medea looked in a body text.”

Extraordinary impact and visual conspicuousness. Poipoi is a super 3D sans family for posters, logos and all display. The basic idea is not a brand new. The Stacking type system has been used since before wood type age. As you imagined, colored wood type(woodcut), many other engravings and contemporary printer machine print many colors separately with different printing plates for each color. Poipoi uses the same system for 3d effect. Please use Photoshop or Illustrator, or your favorite graphic design apps that can handle layers. Layers are the printing plates of wood type. You should be able to change text color for each layer. Poipoi "Standard" style is the base of this font family. You can add effects by stacking Highlight and shadow layers. Stacked layers in different color make the text in 3D. Instruction 1. Type your text as you like. 2. Set font-name "Poipoi" and font-style "Standard" 3. Set color of "Standard" layer. 4. Duplicate the "Standard" layer twice (One for Highlight, one for Shadow). 4'. The layer order should be Highlight, Standard, and Shadow from top to bottom. 5. Set font-style and color of "Highlight" and "Shadow" layers. 6. Adjust tracking if you need. (Please use same tracking value for all 3 layers.) For further detail, https://www.dropbox.com/s/xymis7dh5hwxn9q/Poipoi.pdf Poipoi Standard, Highlighted, and shadowed style can be used solely. Rounded terminals add soft, cute, and casual impressions to your design. Spec: Over 400 glyphs! Basic Latin ✓ Western Europe ✓ Central Europe ✓ South Eastern Europe ✓ Mac Roman ✓ Windows 1252 ✓ Adobe Latin 1 ✓ Adobe Latin 2 ✓ Adobe Latin 3 ✓ Almost all Latins are covered.

It's a very happy day when we stumble upon beautiful alphabets that were never digitized. It is even a happier day when the beautiful alphabet finds its way to us through friends and people who like our work. Some two months ago, the forms of this gorgeous font were pointed to us by a friend who saw it in an old Dover Publications specimen book showcasing historical alphabets. It was there under the name Vanessa, with nothing else to go by. We looked and researched for further information but found nothing else. So this gem comes to you like a coal that winked its way out of the ashes because it wanted to shine again. Flirt is very authentic art deco with a noticeable element of artistic pride, swashy delicate majuscules and very aristocratic, fashionable and flirty minuscules. The majuscules can be used as every other capitals usually are, or as initial caps. The minuscules can very nicely stand on their own quite independently from the caps whenever desired. These letters are quite similar to the hand lettering used on of the kind of theater posters, specifically burlesque and opera entertainment, which are now considered very retro-chic and fashionable to see hanging on walls in home or office. The initial specimen we worked from showed a single basic art deco alphabet with numerals which seemed as they belonged to another font. That alphabet became the base Flirt font, the numerals were redrawn to fit much better with the minuscules, and the character set was greatly expanded to include punctuation, accented characters, and many many alternates, especially for the majuscules. Majuscules with a descending right vertical stroke were a common artistic touch in the high days of theater posters, so we thought they would be great additions to the character set. These alternates can be found all over the font. So to maximize the design fun, have a character map or glyphs palette handy when you use Flirt. After the base font was finished, we thought it would be a good idea to give it a bold treatment unlike anything seen out there, and the farthest thing from the mechanical bolds seen everywhere now. This bolding treatment consisted of thickening the lowercase's vertical strokes inwards, but leaving the horizontal stroke weight as is, and thickening only the thicker vertical strokes of the uppercase. The result is quite the visual feat. We encourage you to test both the regular and bold weights and see for yourself.

Zebramatic - A Lettering Safari Zebramatic is a font for editorial design use, to create headlines and titles in eye-catching stripes. Constructed to offer flexible and a variety of graphical possibilities, Zebramatic type is easy to use. The font is offered in three styles: POW, SLAM and WHAM. These styles work both as ready-made fonts and as patterns to create unique, individualized type. The font design’s full potential is unleashed by layering glyphs from two or all three styles in different colors or shades. Working with the different styles I was reminded of the late Jackson Pollock poured paintings—in particular the documentation of his painting process by Hanz Namuth and Paul Falkernburg in the film Jackson Pollock 51. In Pollock’s pictures the complex allure arises from how he layered the poured and dripped paint onto the canvas. Similar joyful experience and exciting results emerge by layering the different styles of Zebramatic type. Texture In the heart of the Design is Zebramatics unique texture. It is based on an analog distorted stripe pattern. The distortion is applied to a grade that makes the pattern complex but still consistent and legible. You can view some of the initial stripe patterns in the background of examples in the Gallery. Zebramatic POW, SLAM and WHAM each offer a distinct pallet of stripes—a unique zebra hide. POW and WHAM use different distortions of the same line width. SLAM is cut from a wider pattern with thicker stripes. The letter cut and kerning is consistent throughout styles. Design Concept Attention-grabbing textured or weathered fonts are ideal for headlines, ads, magazines and posters. In these situations rugged individuality, letter flow, and outline features are magnified and exposed. Textured fonts also immediately raise the design questions of how to create alignment across a word and deal with repeated letters. Zebramatic was conceived as an especially flexible font, one that could be used conveniently in a single style or by superimposing, interchanging and layering styles to create a unique type. The different styles are completely interchangeable (identical metrics and kerning). This architecture gives the typographer the freedom to decide which form or forms fit best to the specific project. Alignment and repetition were special concerns in the design process. The striped patterns in Zebramatic are carefully conceived to align horizontally but not to match. Matching patterns would create strong letter-pairs that would “stick out” of the word. For example, take the problematic word “stuff”. If Zebramatic aligned alphabetically, the texture of S T and U would align perfectly. The repeated F is also a problem. Imagine a headline that says »LOOK HERE«. If the letters OO and EE have copied »unique« glyphs - the headline suggests mass production, perhaps even that the designer does not care. Some OpenType features can work automatically around such disenchanting situations by accessing different glyphs from the extended glyph-table. However these automations are also repeated; the generated solutions become patterns themselves. Flip and stack To master the situation described above, Zebramatic offers a different programmatic practice. To eliminate alphabetic alignment, the letters in Zebramatic are developed individually. To avoid repetition, the designer can flip between the three styles (POW, SLAM, WHAM) providing three choices per glyph. Stacking layers in different sequences provides theoretical 27 (3*3*3) unique letterforms. A last variable to play with is color (i.e. red, blue, black). Images illustrating the layering potential of Zebramatic are provided in the Gallery. The design is robust and convenient. The font is easily operated through the main font panel (vs. the hidden sub-sub-menu for OpenType related features). The process of accessing different glyphs is also applicable in programs that do not support OpenType extensively (i.e. Word or older Versions of Illustrator). International Specs Zebramatic is ready for your international typographic safari. The font contains an international character set and additional symbols – useful in editorial and graphic design. The font comes in OpenType PostScript flavored and TrueType Format.

Francesco Canovaro created Bakemono as a way to explore the design space around the duality of fixed/proportional width. He was also interested in the concept of monowidth design, inherent in monospaced typefaces, that can bring flexibility and ease of use also to proportional type - allowing you to change the weight of a word without losing the text alignment. In his research on fixed width type design he mixed the lessons of mechanical typewriter technology with the intuitions of eastern brush calligraphy, which has been dealing with for centuries with fixed space grids. The name of the typeface comes from the Japanese shape-shifter yokais that could change their form freely between human and animal, and aptly describes the metamorphic nature of this wide superfamily coming in proportional, monospace and intermediate subfamilies. With a design mixing the expansion principles of the brush with the sharp technicality of typewriter and system fonts, Bakemono can both excel at text size in its regular widths optimized for legibility as well as owning the page at display size with its uncommon design details. Bakemono reflects its multicultural nature with its extended latin + cyrillic charset, soon to be expanded with Bakemono Arabic (exploring the fascinating world of monospaced arabic script) and Bakemono Kana (our first experiment in cjk scripts). • Suggested uses: born to allow you to change the weight of a word without losing the text alignment, Bakemono can both excel at text size in its regular widths optimised for legibility as well as owning the page at display size with its uncommon design details. Perfect for contemporary branding, web design, packaging and countless other projects; • 21 styles: 7 weights x 3 different styles + 1 variable font; • 839 glyphs in each weight; • Useful OpenType features: Access All Alternates, Contextual Alternates, Case-Sensitive Forms, Glyph Composition / Decomposition, Denominators, Fractions, Localized Forms, Mark Positioning, Mark to Mark Positioning, Alternate Annotation Forms, Numerators, Ordinals, Scientific Inferiors, 7 Stylistic Sets, Subscript, Superscript, Slashed Zero • 217 languages supported (extended Latin and Cyrillic alphabets): English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, German, Javanese (Latin), Vietnamese, Turkish, Italian, Polish, Afaan Oromo, Azeri, Tagalog, Sundanese (Latin), Filipino, Moldovan, Romanian, Indonesian, Dutch, Cebuano, Igbo, Malay, Uzbek (Latin), Kurdish (Latin), Swahili, Hungarian, Czech, Haitian Creole, Hiligaynon, Afrikaans, Somali, Zulu, Serbian, Swedish, Bulgarian, Shona, Quechua, Albanian, Catalan, Chichewa, Ilocano, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Neapolitan, Xhosa, Tshiluba, Slovak, Danish, Gikuyu, Finnish, Norwegian, Sicilian, Sotho (Southern), Kirundi, Tswana, Sotho (Northern), Belarusian (Latin), Turkmen (Latin), Bemba, Lombard, Lithuanian, Tsonga, Wolof, Jamaican, Dholuo, Galician, Ganda, Low Saxon, Waray-Waray, Makhuwa, Bikol, Kapampangan (Latin), Aymara, Ndebele, Slovenian, Tumbuka, Venetian, Genoese, Piedmontese, Swazi, Zazaki, Latvian, Nahuatl, Silesian, Bashkir (Latin), Sardinian, Estonian, Afar, Cape Verdean Creole, Maasai, Occitan, Tetum, Oshiwambo, Basque, Welsh, Chavacano, Dawan, Montenegrin, Walloon, Asturian, Kaqchikel, Ossetian (Latin), Zapotec, Frisian, Guadeloupean Creole, Q’eqchi’, Karakalpak (Latin), Crimean Tatar (Latin), Sango, Luxembourgish, Samoan, Maltese, Tzotzil, Fijian, Friulian, Icelandic, Sranan, Wayuu, Papiamento, Aromanian, Corsican, Breton, Amis, Gagauz (Latin), Māori, Tok Pisin, Tongan, Alsatian, Atayal, Kiribati, Seychellois Creole, Võro, Tahitian, Scottish Gaelic, Chamorro, Greenlandic (Kalaallisut), Kashubian, Faroese, Rarotongan, Sorbian (Upper Sorbian), Karelian (Latin), Romansh, Chickasaw, Arvanitic (Latin), Nagamese Creole, Saramaccan, Ladin, Kaingang, Palauan, Sami (Northern Sami), Sorbian (Lower Sorbian), Drehu, Wallisian, Aragonese, Mirandese, Tuvaluan, Xavante, Zuni, Montagnais, Hawaiian, Marquesan, Niuean, Yapese, Vepsian, Bislama, Hopi, Megleno-Romanian, Creek, Aranese, Rotokas, Tokelauan, Mohawk, Onĕipŏt, Warlpiri, Cimbrian, Sami (Lule Sami), Jèrriais, Arrernte, Murrinh-Patha, Kala Lagaw Ya, Cofán, Gwich’in, Seri, Sami (Southern Sami), Istro-Romanian, Wik-Mungkan, Anuta, Cornish, Sami (Inari Sami), Yindjibarndi, Noongar, Hotcąk (Latin), Meriam Mir, Manx, Shawnee, Gooniyandi, Ido, Wiradjuri, Hän, Ngiyambaa, Delaware, Potawatomi, Abenaki, Esperanto, Folkspraak, Interglossa, Interlingua, Latin, Latino sine Flexione, Lojban, Novial, Occidental, Old Icelandic, Old Norse, Slovio (Latin), Volapük

I spend a lot of time following two obsessions: packaging and hand lettering. Alongside a few other minor obsessions, those two have been my major ones for so many years now, I've finally reached the point where I can actually claim them as “obsessions” without getting a dramatic reaction from the little voice in the back of my head. When you spend so much time researching and studying a subject, you become very focused, directionally and objectively. But of course some of the research material you run into turns out to be tangential to whatever your focus happens to be at the time, so you absorb what you can from it, then shelf it — like the celebrity bobblehead that amused you for a while, but is now an almost invisible ornament eating dust and feathers somewhere in your environment. And just like the bobblehead may fall off the shelf one day to remind you of its existence, some of my lettering research material unveiled itself in my head one day for no particular reason. Hand lettering is now mostly perceived as an American art. Someone with my historical knowledge about lettering may be snooty enough to go as far as pointing out the British origins of almost everything American, including lettering — but for the most part, the contemporary perspective associates great lettering with America. The same perspective also associates blackletter, gothics and sans serifs with Germany. So you can imagine my simultaneous surprise and impatience when, in my research for one of my American lettering-based fonts, I ran into a German lettering book from 1953, by an artist called Bentele. It was no use for me because it didn't propel my focus at that particular time, but a few months ago I was marveling at what we take for granted — the sky is blue, blackletter is German, lettering is American — and found myself flipping through the pages of that book again. The lettering in that book is upbeat and casual sign making stuff, but it has a slightly strange and youthful experimentation at its heart. I suppose I find it strange because it deviates a lot from the American stuff I'm used to working with for so long now. To make a long story short, what’s inside that German book served as the semilla, which is Spanish for seed, for the typeface you see all over these pages. With Semilla, my normal routine went out the window. My life for a while was all Bezier all the time. No special analog or digital brushes or pens were used in drawing these forms. They're the product of a true Bezier process, all starting with a point creating a curve to another point, which draws a curve to another point, and so on. It’s a very time-consuming process, but at the end I am satisfied that it can get to pretty much the same results easier and more traditional methods accomplish. And as usual with my fonts, the OpenType is plenty and a lot of fun. Experimenting with substitution and automation is still a great pleasure for me. It is the OpenType that always saves me from the seemingly endless work hours every type designer must inevitably have to face at one point in his career. The artful photos used in this booklet are by French photographer and designer Stéphane Giner. He is very deserving of your patronage, so please keep an eye out for his marvelous work. I hope you like Semilla and enjoy using it. I have a feeling that it marks a transition to a more curious and flexible period in my career, but only time will tell.

Quill-formed roman/gothic with an olde-worlde flavor. Some background in the designer's own words: "A series of fonts came to mind which would be rooted in the medieval era -for me, a period of intense interest. Prior to Gutenberg's development of commercial printing with type on paper in the mid-1400s, books were still being written out by hand, on vellum. At that time, a Bible cost more than a common workman could hope to earn in his entire lifetime. Men like William Tyndale devoted their energies to translating the Scriptures for the benefit of ordinary people in their own language, and were burned to death at the stake for doing so. Those in authority correctly recognized a terminal threat to the fabric of feudal society, which revolved around the church. "This religious metamorphosis was reflected in letterforms: which, like buildings, reflect the mood of the period in which they take shape. The medieval era produced the Gothic cathedrals; their strong vertical emphasis was expressive of the vertical relationship then existing between man and God. The rich tracery to be seen in the interstices and vaulted ceilings typified the complex social dynamics of feudalism. Parallels could be clearly seen in Gothic type, with its vertical strokes and decorated capitals. Taken as a whole, Gothicism represented a mystical approach to life, filled with symbolism and imagery. To the common man, letters and words were like other sacred icons: too high for his own understanding, but belonging to God, and worthy of respect. "Roman type, soon adopted in preference to Gothic by contemporary printer-publishers (whose primary market was the scholarly class) represented a more democratic, urbane approach to life, where the words were merely the vehicle for the idea, and letters merely a necessary convenience for making words. The common man could read, consider and debate what was printed, without having the least reverence for the image. In fact, the less the medium interfered with the message, the better. The most successful typefaces were like the Roman legions of old; machine-like in their ordered functionality and anonymity. Meanwhile, Gutenberg's Gothic letterform, in which the greatest technological revolution of history had first been clothed, soon became relegated to a Germanic anachronism, limited to a declining sphere of influence. "An interesting Bible in my possession dating from 1610 perfectly illustrates this duality of function and form. The text is set in Gothic black-letter type, while the side-notes appear in Roman. Thus the complex pattern of the text retains the mystical, sacred quality of the hand-scripted manuscript (often rendered in Latin, which a cleric would read aloud to others), while the clear, open side-notes are designed to supplement a personal Bible study. "Tyndale is one of a series of fonts in process which explore the transition between Gothic and Roman forms. The hybrid letters have more of the idiosyncrasies of the pen (and thus, the human hand) about them, rather than the anonymity imbued by the engraving machine. They are an attempt to achieve the mystery and wonder of the Gothic era while retaining the legibility and clarity best revealed in the Roman form. "Reformers such as Tyndale were consumed with a passion to make the gospel available and understood to the masses of pilgrims who, in search of a religious experience, thronged into the soaring, gilded cathedrals. Centuries later, our need for communion with God remains the same, in spite of all our technology and sophistication. How can our finite minds, our human logic, comprehend the transcendent mystery of God's great sacrifice, his love beyond understanding? Tyndale suffered martyrdom that the Bible, through the medium of printing, might be brought to our hands, our hearts and our minds. It is a privilege for me to dedicate my typeface in his memory."