Over the course of 50 years, the charismatic and enterprising Frederic W. Goudy designed more than 100 typefaces; he was the American master of type design in the first half of the twentieth century. Goudy Old Style, designed for American Type Founders in 1915-1916, is the best known of his designs, and forms the basis for a large family of variants. Goudy said he was initially inspired by the cap lettering on a Renaissance painting, but most of the flavor of this design reflects Goudy's own individualistic style. Recognizable Goudy-isms include the upward pointing ear of the g, the diamond-shaped dots over the i and j, and the roundish upward swelling of the horizontal strokes at the base of the E and L. The italic was completed by Goudy in 1918, and is notable for its minimal slope. Goudy Bold (1916-1919) and Goudy Extra Bold (1927) were drawn not by Goudy, but by Morris Fuller Benton, who was ATF's skillful in-house designer. Goudy Catalogue was drawn by Benton in 1919-1921 and was meant to be a medium weight of Goudy Old Style. Goudy Heavyface was designed by Goudy for Monotype in 1925, and was intended to be a rival to the successful Cooper Black. Goudy Modern was designed by Goudy in 1918; its small x-height, tall ascenders and shorter caps impart a spacious and elegant feeling. Benton designed Goudy Handtooled, the shaded version that has just a hairline of white through its bold strokes. The Goudy faces, especially the bolder weights, have long been popular for display and advertising design. They continue to pop up all over the world, and still look reassuring to our modern eyes."

Neue Haas Unica by Toshi Omagari: The original purpose behind the creation of the typeface Haas Unica was to provide a sympathetic update of Helvetica. But now the font designer Toshi Omagari has decided to make this typeface his own and has thus significantly supplemented and extended it. In the late 1970s, at the same time at which hot metal typesetting was being replaced by phototypesetting, the Haas Type Foundry commissioned a group of specialists known as "Team '77" consists of Andre Gurtler, Christian Mengelt and Erich Gschwind to adapt Max Miedinger's font The characters of Haas Unica are somewhat narrower than those of Helvetica so that the larger bowls, such as those of the "b" and "d", appear more delicate and have a slightly more pleasing effect. In general, the spacing of Haas Unica was increased to provide for improved kerning and thus enhance the legibility of the typeface in smaller point sizes. Major changes were made to the lowercase "a", in that the curve of the upper bowl became rounder and its spur was eliminated. The form of the "k" was additionally modified to remove the offset leg so that both diagonals originate from the main stem. The outstroke of the uppercase "J" was also significantly curtailed. In addition to many minor alterations, such as to the length of the horizontal bars of the "E", "F" and "G" and to the angle of the tail of the "Q", the leg of the "R" was extended and made more diagonal. In the case of the numerals, the upper curve of the "2" was reduced and the lower loops of the "5" and "6" were correspondingly adapted. The sweep of the diagonal of the "7" was also reduced. Several decades later, Toshi Omagari returned to the original sketches with the objective of reinvigorating this almost totally forgotten typeface. First, however, he needed to revise the drafts prepared by Team '77 to adapt them for digital typesetting. So Omagari carefully adjusted the proportions of the glyphs, achieving a more uniform overall effect across all line weights and removed details that had become redundant for contemporary typefaces. It was also apparent from the old drafts that it had been the case that the original plan was to create more than the four weights that were published. Omagari has added five additional styles, giving his Neue Haas Unica? a total of nine weights, from Ultra Light to Extra Black. He has also greatly extended the range of glyphs. Providing as it does typographic support for Central and European languages, Greek and Cyrillic texts, Neue Haas Unica is now ready to be used for major international projects. In addition, it has been supplied with small caps and various sets of numerals. With its resolute clarity and excellent typographic support, Neue Haas Unica is suitable for use in a wide range of new contexts. The light and elegant characters can be employed in the large point sizes to create, for example, titling and logos while the very bold styles come into their own where the typography needs to be powerful and expressive. The medium weights can be used anywhere, for setting block text and headlines.

Oxford Street is a signage font that began as a redrawing of the capital letters used for street nameplates in the borough of Westminster in Central London. The nameplates were designed in 1967 by the Design Research Unit using custom lettering based on Adrian Frutiger’s Univers typeface, a curious combination of Univers 69 Bold Ultra Condensed, a weight that doesn’t seem to exist but which would flatten the long curves of glyphs such as O, C and D, and Universe 67 Bold Condensed with its more rounded lobes on glyphs like B, P and R. Letters were then remodelled to improve their use on street signs. Thin strokes like the inner diagonals of M and N were thickened to create a more monolinear alphabet; the high interior apexes were lowered and the wide joins thinned. The crossbar of the A was lowered, the K was made double junction, and the tail of the Q was given a baseline curve. K-Type Oxford Street continues the process of impertinent improvement and includes myriad minor adjustments and several more conspicuous amendments. The stroke junctions of M and N are further narrowed and their interior apexes modified. The middle apex of the W is narrowed and the glyph is a little more condensed. The C and S are drawn more open, terminals slightly shortened. The K-Type font adds a new lowercase which is also made more monolinear so better suited to signage, loosely based on Univers but also taking inspiration from the Transport typeface both in a taller x-height and character formation. The lowercase L has a curled foot, the k is double junctioned to match the uppercase, and terminals of a, c, e, g and s are drawn shorter for openness and clarity. A full repertoire of Latin Extended-A characters features low-rise diacritics that keep congestion to a minimum in multiple lines of text. The font tips the hat to signage history by including stylistic alternates for M, W and w that have the pointed middles of the earlier MOT street sign typeface. Incidentally, Alistair Hall (‘London Street Signs’, Batsford, 2020) notes that when the manufacturer of signs was changed in 2007, Helvetica Bold Condensed was substituted in place of the custom design, “an unfortunate case of an off-the-peg suit replacing a tailored one” and a blunder that has happily since been rectified, though offending nameplates can still be spotted by discerning font fans.

‘Skiart Serif Subtle’ is now available online. Originally inspired by the san serif font ‘Skia’ by Mathew Carter for Apple. ‘Skiart’ was designed to feel more like a serifed font, but without any serifs. It took a step between sans serif and serif fonts. Next on the path towards a serif font came Skiart Serif Mini, with tiny serifs added. This was a true serif font, all be it on the small side. Skiart Serif Subtle is less of a serif than Skiart Serif Mini, in that it doesn’t have actual 'serifs' as such. It has a subtle flare where a serif might normally be found. It remains fully readable and feels as clean and normal as any of the best body copy serifs, and yet still has the strong solid bones of all the other Skiart font families. If compared to one of the more commonly used serifs like ‘Times New Roman’, the ‘Skiart Serif Subtle’ lowercase is more open with a taller x-height, increasing its readability and friendliness. The serifs are smaller and less distracting. They are not pretending to be ligatures. Where ‘Times’ makes its p q b d forms out of a barely touching oval and stem, the ‘Serif Subtle’ forms are much more firmly attached, appearing clearly as single letters. The standard setting for the a’s and g’s are round single story, feeling warmer and more inviting in the ‘Serif Mini’ font. Much more friendly than the stuffy double-storied versions in fonts such as ‘Times’ etc.

In the typedesign industry the terms ‘nova’, ‘neue’, ‘next’, ‘new’ are often used to refer to a typeface that has been modified in different ways: redesign, technical readjustments, greater number of characters, etc. At Latinotype we are now starting to use the word ‘niu’ to refer to these kinds of typefaces. Niu is an adaptation of the original word ‘new’, i.e., we have adapted this English word to the phonology and spelling of our own language but keeping the original meaning. Race mixing, diversity, change and adaptation are part of the essence of Latin American culture and, at Latinotype, we are all constantly expressing these elements in everything we do. Latin Power! Hernández Niu was designed by César Araya and Daniel Hernández. The font is based on the design of Hernández Bold: the thickest weight has been adapted to fit small text better. Five new styles have been added, ranging from neutral to more expressive fonts. Hernández Niu is a display slab serif font of thickened serifs, functional expressive ink-traps and true italics. Detailed forms and counterforms allow this typeface to be used in very large sizes. Hernández Niu is well-suited for publishing, small text and headlines. A wide variety of weights make the font a perfect choice for hierarchical type-setting, branding, logotypes, magazines, etc. This font consists of 6 weights, ranging from Extra Light to Heavy, each with matching true italics. Hernández Niu comes with a set of 397 characters, making it possible to use the font in 212 different languages.