Bonhomme Richard evokes the cursive penmanship of Chevalier John Paul Jones (1747–1792), celebrated Continental Navy commander during the American Revolution, in letters from the late 18th century. The font’s name comes from Jones’s famous frigate, lost during his victorious engagement with the British in the Battle of Flamborough Head in 1779. During this battle Jones is said to have exclaimed, when urged to surrender, “I have not yet begun to fight!” (In fact, his likely words were, “I may sink, but I’ll be damned if I strike!” – i.e., surrender.) A legible script, Bonhomme Richard has an elegance about it while also conjuring the colonial era of its source material. Use to simulate historical handwriting in film props, games, formal invitations, product labels, and the like.

Johann Neudörffer the Elder's 1538 writing manual fascinated the German designer Helmut Bomm for years. Together with Albrecht Dürer and Hieronymus Andreä, Neudörffer helped create Fraktur, perhaps the most Germanic of all the blackletter styles. As a tribute to this master, and bringing its letterforms to a 21st century public, Boom released the Neudoerffer Fraktur family through Linotype in 2009. Neudoerffer Fraktur's appearance is based very much in handwriting, and Bomm had already begun using letters from prototype versions of this typeface as early as the 1990s. For years, Neudoerffer Fraktur'sletters would appear secretly and seductively in design projects like historical sign restorations or heraldry pieces. The sources that Bomm used while drawing the typeface were images from Jan Tschichold's Treasures of Calligraphy" and Albert Kapr's "Schriftkunst." The Neudoerffer Fraktur family has four separate fonts. Any user of Adobe CS applications should consider licensing Neudoerffer Fraktur Regular (the font without any numeral suffixes). This font contains three different OpenType stylistic sets. Users can pick and choose which versions of the letters that they would like to set. Anyone using Quark XPress, Microsoft Word, or other applications without support for Stylistic Sets should license Neudoeffer Fraktur Regular 1, Neudoeffer Fraktur Regular 2, and Neudoeffer Fraktur Regular 3. Each of these three fonts has letters with slightly different style of flourish, and all three may be combined with each other. Neudoerffer Fraktur Regular 1 is optimal for longer texts; Neudoerffer Fraktur Regular 2 contains alternate letters, and well as more ornamented capitals; Neudoerffer Fraktur Regular 3's letters have a stronger calligraphic accent."

Roll up! Roll up! The world’s largest three (letter-)ring circus of Great and Tall Elephantmen fonts is now touring cities and towns in your area! See the amazing exploits of fonts of heretofore unimagined heights and weights! Gasp as x-heightwire artist John Roshell walks great and tall on the typerope up above your headlines! Look in wonder as Elephantmen get greater and taller on stilts, staggering around with their trunks high in the air as well as loose around their waists! Peer cautiously into the sky as the greatest and tallest Elephantmen disappear into the clouds as they swing up on the trapeze... Yes, the Comicraft Big Top is always full of surprises... so hurry, hurry, hurry to download your ticket to the Greatest and Tallest Show on Earth in the comfort of your own home! See the families related to Elephantmen Greater & Taller: Elephantmen, Elephantmen Great & Tall, & Elephantmen Greatest & Tallest.

Roll up! Roll up! The world’s largest three (letter-)ring circus of Great and Tall Elephantmen fonts is now touring cities and towns in your area! See the amazing exploits of fonts of heretofore unimagined heights and weights! Gasp as x-heightwire artist John Roshell walks great and tall on the typerope up above your headlines! Look in wonder as Elephantmen get greater and taller on stilts, staggering around with their trunks high in the air as well as loose around their waists! Peer cautiously into the sky as the greatest and tallest Elephantmen disappear into the clouds as they swing up on the trapeze... Yes, the Comicraft Big Top is always full of surprises... so hurry, hurry, hurry to download your ticket to the Greatest and Tallest Show on Earth in the comfort of your own home! See the families related to Elephantmen Greatest & Tallest: Elephantmen, Elephantmen Great & Tall, & Elephantmen Greater & Taller.

Elephant Party playfully dances along its baseline in bold and rounded style. This warm and friendly whimsical design has lots of trunk space and is reminiscent of groovy ‘60s and ‘70s typography where letter spacing was admittedly tight, but cozy. Like snuggling up to a warm fire while toasting marshmallows. Like snuggling under a warm blanket. Like, well, you get the point. Elephant Party is an equitable font that includes a diversity of multilingual support, and will communicate your message with a funky, retro vibe and festive mood. It’ll break out into a happy dance across a wide variety of your design projects ranging from children’s books, t-shirts, posters, logotypes, product packaging, merchandise, branding and beyond. And it’ll groove across a variety of environments from print to digital media. So come on in, join the “Party”, it’s ELEPHANTASTIC! Digitized by John Bomparte.. ***Breauhare’s My Left Hand font makes a cameo appearance on the poster of Chocolola bars.

The infield dirt is raked, the outfield grass is mowed and the baselines chalked. So grab a beer, smother a stadium dog with mustard and relish, take a seat on the bleachers and get ready -- that handsome devil SPILLS is back on the mound and ready for a comeback! It’s true, Manager [the person who coaches a baseball team is a ‘manager’ not a coach] John JG Roshell has coaxed the wily veteran out of retirement, and he’s returned to the field with the wisdom of extra years and the addition of five new pitches (fonts): Stadium, Dugout, Outfield, Infield, Pennant and Base. The stadium is packed to capacity and we're pretty sure the first time he’s at the plate, it’s gonna be strike-out city! [to continue the logic of the baseball pitching ace as font metaphor, the pitcher would hopefully prevent a home run not facilitate one.] See the families related to Spills: SpillProof .

With reference to the Type Heritage Project, this font (designer unknown) was cut by Henry Brehmer of New York for the Dickinson Type Foundary of Boston in c1879 and had the original trade name of Renaissant. John F. Cumming later cut a light-face derivative called “Artistic.” A history of the un-patented face can be found at the Type Heritage Project website. Ressonant has a full character set as well as ligatures, superiors, inferiors, numerators, denominators, old style figures, and auto-fractions. There are also alternate caps for N and M as in the original, and, unlike the original, comes in four weights. This font is a documented revival of a 19th-century typeface. The year, country, designer and/or foundry of origin will be published in a series of textbooks entitled “The Type Heritage Project.” Volume I explores quintessential Victorian faces, a spectacular trove of innovative gems; you can see samples by clicking the Type Heritage Project link above.

Fifteen hundred years from now, a man will be selected to go back in time to prevent a catastrophic event which turned his world into a dystopia. Sent back in time, he was enveloped in empyrean fire, the strands of energy that make up time itself. Crash-landing near Astro City in late 1985, he learned how to master and channel the empyrean forces that had suffused his body -- finally learning to control his powers in time to prevent the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger, the event he had been sent to avert. He described himself to journalists as nothing more than "a Good Samaritan", and has continued to help his fellow man in Astro City ever since. John JG Roshell has also been struggling with the empyrean challenge of fitting all of Kurt Busiek's ASTRO CITY dialogue into balloons with the regular Samaritan font, so he created the Samaritan Tall font to help his fellow comic book letterers! It's kinda the same thing, really.

Tiresias was designed for subtitling by Dr. John Gill from the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), in the United Kingdom. The Tiresias font is designed to have characters that are easy to distinguish from each other, especially important for the visually impaired. The following key factors were considered during the design process: character shapes, relative weight of character stokes, intercharacter spacing, and aspect ratios that affect the maximum size at which the type could be used. The benefits of the Tiresias font are greatest on lower resolution displays, such as televisions, train and airline information terminals, and low resolution displays on wireless communication and handheld devices. InfoFont is for printed instructions on public terminals where legibility is the primary consideration; these instructions are often read at a distance of 30 to 70 cm. Infofont is not designed for large quantities of text. The Tiresias LPfont is a large print typeface specifically designed for people with low vision. Large print publications should be designed to specifically help with reading problems, and should not just be an enlarged version of the ordinary print. The Tiresias LPfont family, made up of roman, italic, and bold weights, was designed to address and solve these issues. The RNIB developed PCfont for people with low vision to use on computer screens. It is designed for use at larger sizes only. PCfont includes delta hinting technology in the font to ensure pixel-perfect display at key sizes. Signfont is for fixed (not internally illuminated) signage. The recommended usage is white or yellow characters on a matt dark background. Note that the “Z” versions have slashed zeroes, and are identical in all other respects. These faces were developed together with Dr. John Gill of the National Institute of the Blind, Dr. Janet Silver; optometrist of Moorfields Eye Hospital, Chris Sharville of Laker Sharville Design Associates, and Peter O'Donnell; type consultant. Tiresias himself is a figure from Greek mythology, a blind prophet from Thebes.

Alias Vertical is a sans serif typeface with a vertical cut-off point for letter endings. The vertical cut-offs bend round characters (b, c, o, etc) into a squarish, high-shouldered shape, suggesting Roger Excoffon’s Antique Olive. In mid-weights, the typeface mixes Antique Olive with typefaces such as Gill or Johnston, for example the shape of the t, the l borrowing Johnston’s flick. Vertical has the same minimal difference in weight between verticals and horizontals as Gill and Johnston, and the same sharp connection point where curves meet straight lines. Like Antique Olive, Vertical has a narrow connection point here, adding contrast and definition. The overall effect feels austere at lighter weights and strident and graphic at bolder weights, and sharp and incised throughout. In the Bold and Black weights, the squarish and top heavy shape of Antique Olive is most noticeable. For example the wide uppercase, with the B having almost-even width between top and bottom curves, and the almost-overhang of the top curve of the G. But Vertical does not have as extreme an aesthetic or square shape as Antique Olive. As well as its wide design, the upper case is given extra authority by being a slightly heavier weight than the lower case. This is a device borrowed from Gill, and other ‘old’ typefaces, where the upper case is presented as a titling design. Modern sensibilities are more focussed on an even colour between upper and lower case. Vertical was originally intended as a sister typeface to Ano, like AnoAngular or AnoStencil. Vertical developed into a similar but separate design. Ano was designed for use in Another Man — in its modular, circle-base design, and the way there aren’t the amendments usually made in bolder weights to ensure letter clarity. This is for layouts where different weights are used together in different sizes so that the overall letter weight is the same, a feature of the magazine. Where Ano is simple and graphic, Vertical has nuance and texture. It is a pragmatic, utility design. In the balance between graphic and typographic, its focus is the latter.

ITC Peter's Miro is the work of New York designer John Peter. It was inspired by the letters used by Joan Miro in his paintings. No one used letterforms more frequently in his work than Joan Miro," says Peter. For his typeface, however, "considerable liberty has been taken with his [Miro's] original letters and missing characters have been added." The letters are a simple script, irregularly and almost crudely written, but bursting with energy. To give designers free rein with their creativity, Peter designed two complete versions of the alphabet in both upper- and lowercase, Peter's Miro and Peter's Miro Too."

John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, didn't hit his stride until he'd left that lofty office. It was during his many years in Congress that he assured his legacy, not least because of his long, masterful oratory opposing slavery. His speeches, in fact, won him the nickname "Old Man Eloquent." So when I decided to simulate Adams's penmanship in his legendary diary (which he kept for nearly 70 years), it seemed fitting to call the font by that name. I focused on his handwriting from about 1810, when he was Ambassador to Russia, but also consulted pages from later years. Old Man Eloquent has both regular and bold weights. The OpenType version has more than 450 glyphs, including alternate uppercase characters, old-style and lining figures, and numerous ligatures; all formats contain several common (English) words.

Many street nameplates in Britain use versions of Kindersley serif capitals designed by David Kindersley in the 1950s. K-Type Kindersley Sans is an unfussy alternative to the signage stalwart, perfectly suited to newer environments and more contemporary tastes. Kindersley Sans is a humanist sans-serif that conserves the Gill-inspired character and some of the calligraphic qualities of Kindersley’s lettering, it retains the Roman proportions and its Britishness, but traditional prettiness and intricacy are discarded in favour of a clean modernity. For purposes where Transport (MOT) is considered too formal and Kindersley too old-fashioned, Kindersley Sans offers an open and amiable up-to-date alternative. The typeface is comfortably spaced and carefully kerned to deliver beautiful results with ease, and although designed with nameplates in mind, it excels as an all-purpose text face in print and on screen. The tail of the uppercase Q has minimal descent to avoid constriction. Kindersley Sans includes a lowercase designed for signage with short descenders to prevent unsightly congestion. A generous x-height assists legibility, and characters are designed for easy reading and distinctiveness. The curved foot of the lowercase L distinguishes it from the uppercase i. The six fonts contain a full complement of Latin Extended-A characters, Welsh diacritics and Irish dotted consonants, so European language nameplates need not be a source of frustration. The ascent and descent of accented characters has been kept to an acceptable minimum.

The Roos family is a digitization and expansion of the last typeface designed by Sjoerd Hendrik De Roos, called De Roos Romein (and Cursief). It was designed and produced during the years of the second World War, and unveiled in the summer of 1947 to celebrate De Roos's 70th birthday. In 1948, the first fonts produced were used for a special edition of the Dutch Constitution on which Juliana took the oath during her inauguration as the Queen of the Netherlands. To this day this typeface is widely regarded as De Roos's best design, with one of the most beautiful italics ever drawn. In contrast with all his previous roman faces, which were based on the Jenson model, De Roos's last type recalls the letter forms of the Renaissance, specifically those of Claude Garamont from around 1530, but with a much refined and elegant treatment, with stems sloping towards the ascending, slightly cupped serifs, a tall and distinguished lowercase, and an economic width that really shines in the spectacular italic, which harmonizes extremely well with its roman partner. The Roos family contains romans, italics and small caps in regular, semibold and display weights, as well as a magnificent set of initial caps. All the fonts contain extended language support, surpassing the usual Western Latin codepages to include characters for Central and Eastern European languages, as well as Baltic, Celtic/Welsh, Esperanto, Maltese, and Turkish.

Houschka was named after Georg Houschka, a sadly defunct confectioner’s shop in Salzburg, Austria, which had a wonderful 1930’s frontage and distinctively rounded letterforms in the sign above the door. Houschka Pro is the follow up to the original Houschka type family which first appeared back in 1999. Character shapes have been improved, kerning and spacing refined, and OpenType features include CE, Baltic, Turkish & Cyrillic language support plus small caps, 3 stylistic sets, contextual alternates, ligatures and 4 sets of numerals. Houschka is a clean and legible modern sans serif typeface which shares the humanist qualities of Gill Sans and Johnston but retains a uniquely charming character of its own (particularly in signature glyphs A, G, Q, W, u & w). The monolinear structure, rounded corners and rolling curves give Houschka a soft and friendly appearance. Houschka Alt Pro is a carbon copy of the Houschka Pro family with one key difference: the rounded signature glyphs A & W on the default positions swap places with their straight alternates.

Jesus Saves is a font based on the familiar old logo that has “JESUS” hidden within a maze-like set of multi-branched vertical bars. The characters appear to be an alien, cryptic language at first sight, perhaps even a Japanese, Chinese, or Korean language, thanks to the unusual figures created by the combinations of various letters. It is a teaser for the eyes, as well as a visual feast of De Stijl-type art. It is an attention-getting font that is cool to look at, an eye puzzle that is enticing to decipher. It’s a great font to use for striking logos (see Gallery Images) by the judicious use of ligatures, where in word settings ligatures may be used at the beginnings of words, the middle or the endings of words. Jesus Heals is the missing spaces from the Jesus Saves font, sort of like a doughnut hole font! If you use this font to fill in the spaces in the Jesus Saves font, it becomes whole, or healed, thus the name. Jesus Lives is a raised block/3D or three dimensional version of Jesus Heals. For color combinations in apps that support layering, Jesus Lives synchs and has perfect kerning register with Jesus Heals, as Jesus Heals has with Jesus Saves. The digitization was done by fontmeister John Bomparte.

Spencer is a calligraphic semi-serif type family that has been carefully designed to provide easily distinguishable letterforms that are practical in use, as well as aesthetically appealing. It's natural and organic forms comes from a deep consideration of the efficiency of the visible word and provides the typeface with a distinct and unique voice.

 Named after Herbert Spencer, an educator and researcher of legibility at the Royal College of Art in the sixties and seventies, and influenced by other early typographers and legibility researchers, such as Walter Tracy and John Harris. Spencer was designed as part of a legibility study by Sofie Beier and Kevin Larson.

Castellar is a capital letter typeface from John Peters, named after a location in the Alps. It first appeared in 1957 with Monotype. Peters modelled the design on the Roman script Scriptura Quadrata as it was used in the first two centuries of the Roman Empire. One distinguishing characteristic is the quadratic proportions of many letters, which are however mixed with circular and narrow forms. The original script was called Scriptura Quadrata because the ancient engravers used rectangular stone plates for their work. Castellar is a typical title typeface and is best used in large and very large point sizes to highlight its classic elegance.

Binner was designed by John F. Cumming in 1898 and is an alphabet with a strongly historic character. It takes the reader back to the early part of the 20th century, when typefaces of this kind could be found in advertisements on houses and posters. The robust figures display a marked stroke contrast. Particularly striking are the high middle strokes of the E and F as well as the wavy connecting stroke of the H. The curves of the R and P extend well into the lower third of the characters. With its robust figures, Binner is best used for headlines in middle and larger point sizes.

Take Bauhaus Bugler, dip it in chocolate, and what do you get? Bauhaus Bugler Soft, of course! Or dip it in butter! You can achieve all sorts of yummy, appealing images with the softness of Bauhaus Bugler Soft, whether it be food, cosmetics, fabric softener, or any number of other fluffy things! Unlike its fellow Bugler fonts, Bauhaus Bugler Soft’s design never appeared in Harry Warren’s 6th grade class newsletter, The Broadwater Bugler, but its design came about during that same period in 1975. Because of this, it has been officially designated an honorary Bugler font! Its theme of broad curves that leap over and under conjure visions of fashion and high-end department stores with their dress boxes and shopping bags, plus hair products, cosmetics, couture, and other stylish personal merchandise of the highest caliber. Bauhaus Bugler Soft also has an art deco flavor, especially when all capitals are used. It comes with two alternate versions of the upper and lower Y to give users more freedom of choice. Put Bauhaus Bugler Soft in your “haus” today! Digitized by John Bomparte.

Fifteen hundred years from now, a man will be selected to go back in time to prevent a catastrophic event which turned his world into a dystopia. Sent back in time, he was enveloped in empyrean fire, the strands of energy that make up time itself. Crash-landing near Astro City in late 1985, he learned how to master and channel the empyrean forces that had suffused his body -- finally learning to control his powers in time to prevent the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger, the event he had been sent to avert. He described himself to journalists as nothing more than "a Good Samaritan", and has continued to help his fellow man in Astro City ever since. John JG Roshell has also been struggling with the empyrean challenge of fitting all of Kurt Busiek's Astro City dialogue into balloons with the regular Samaritan font, so he created the Samaritan Tall font to help his fellow comic book letterers! It's kinda the same thing really. See the families related to Samaritan Tall: Samaritan &

Eurotypo BKL is a family of fonts inspired in on one of the most beautiful British Typography ever done. This version of Baskerville tries to reflect the taste of his fine style, compatible with the bluntness of the digital present. As many other designers and foundries, our intention has been to represent the atmosphere of Baskerville's style, than simply relive the shapes of its letters. Actually, capitals fits almost to a square proportions, lowercases are more open, ascenders and descenders are shorter, offering more space for enlarge the "x" high. The beauty of his letterforms can enrich headlines; this font can also be used as body text for its good legibility and accurate kerning. John Baskerville (1706-1775) was born 1706 in Wolverley, England. He was a great typographer and printer who published a remarkable edition of Virgil in 1757. His typefaces were greatly admired by Benjamin Franklin; He also has improved and developed many innovations in printing, paper and ink production. Baskerville’s typefaces are regarded as transitional types that represents the link between Old Roman Style and Modern Roman typography.

Monotype’s hot metal Bell series from 1931 was based on original types made by the punchcutter Richard Austin for the foundry of John Bell in the 1780s. The different sizes of Monotype’s series were not all based on the same model. As type historian James Mosley wrote on Typophile, “For 18 point and above (the metal type was cut in sizes up to 36 point) Monotype’s model was a larger type [than the model used for the text sizes], the ‘Great Primer’ cut by Austin. This has greater contrast in the capitals and a flat foot to letter a.” The digital Bell closely follows the design of the hot metal 18pt version, and is therefore somewhat lighter in color than the text sizes of Monotype’s original metal face. James Mosley’s Typophile article can be found here.

The font family Univers? is one of the greatest typographic achievements of the second half of the 20th century. The family has the advantage of having a variety of weights and styles, which, even when combined, give an impression of steadiness and homogeneity. The clear, objective forms of Univers make this a legible font suitable for almost any typographic need. In 1954 the French type foundry Deberny & Peignot wanted to add a linear sans serif type in several weights to the range of the Lumitype fonts. Adrian Frutiger, the foundry's art director, suggested refraining from adapting an existing alphabet. He wanted to instead make a new font that would, above all, be suitable for the typesetting of longer texts - quite an exciting challenge for a sans-serif font at that time. Starting with his old sketches from his student days at the School for the Applied Arts in Zurich, he created the Univers type family. In 1957, the family was released by Deberny & Piegnot, and afterwards, it was produced by Linotype. The Deberny & Peignot type library was acquired in 1972 by Haas, and the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas Type Foundry) was folded into the D. Stempel AG/Linotype collection in 1985/1989. Adrian Frutiger continues to do design work with Linotype right up to the present day. In 1997, Frutiger and the design staff at Linotype completed a large joint project of completely re-designing and updating the Univers family. The result: Univers Next - available with 59 weights and 4 Linotype Univers Typewriter weights. With its sturdy, clean forms Univers can facilitate an expression of cool elegance and rational competence. Univers has the uncanny ability to combine well with fonts of many different styles and origins: Old style fonts such as: Janson Text, Meridien, Sabon, Wilke. Modern-stressed fonts such as: Linotype Centennial, Walbaum. Slab serif fonts such as Egyptienne F, Serifa. Script and brush fonts such as: Brush Script, Mistral, Ruling Script. Blackletter fonts such as: Duc De Berry, Grace, San Marco. Even fun fonts such as F2F OCRAlexczyk, Linotype Red Babe, Linotype Seven."

The famous roman type cut in Venice by Nicolas Jenson, and used in 1470 for his printing of the tract, De Evangelica Praeparatione, Eusebius, has usually been declared the seminal and definitive representative of a class of types known as Venetian Old Style. The Jenson type is thought to have been the primary model for types that immediately followed. Subsequent 15th-century Venetian Old Style types, cut by other punchcutters in Venice and elsewhere in Italy, are also worthy of study, but have been largely neglected by 20th-century type designers. There were many versions of Venetian Old Style types produced in the final quarter of the quattrocento. The exact number is unknown, but numerous printed examples survive, though the actual types, matrices, and punches are long gone. All these types are not, however, conspicuously Jensonian in character. Each shows a liberal amount of individuality, inconsistency, and eccentricity. My fascination with these historical types began in the 1970s and eventually led to the production of my first text typeface, Iowan Old Style (Bitstream, 1991). Sometime in the early 1990s, I started doodling letters for another Venetian typeface. The letters were pieced together from sections of circles and squares. The n, a standard lowercase control character in a text typeface, came first. Its most unusual feature was its head serif, a bisected quadrant of a circle. My aim was to see if its sharp beak would work with blunt, rectangular, foot serifs. Next, I wanted to see if I could construct a set of capital letters by following a similar design system. Rectangular serifs, or what we today call "slab serifs," were common in early roman printing types, particularly text types cut in Italy before 1500. Slab serifs are evident on both lowercase and uppercase characters in roman types of the Incunabula period, but they are seen mainly at the feet of the lowercase letters. The head serifs on lowercase letters of early roman types were usually angled. They were not arched, like mine. Oddly, there seems to be no actual historical precedent for my approach. Another characteristic of my arched serif is that the side opposite the arch is flat, not concave. Arched, concave serifs were used extensively in early italic types, a genre which first appeared more than a quarter century after roman types. Their forms followed humanistic cursive writing, common in Italy since before movable type was used there. Initially, italic characters were all lowercase, set with upright capitals (a practice I much admire and would like to see revived). Sloped italic capitals were not introduced until the middle of the sixteenth century, and they have very little to do with the evolution of humanist scripts. In contrast to the cursive writing on which italic types were based, formal book hands used by humanist scholars to transcribe classical texts served as a source of inspiration for the lowercase letters of the first roman types cut in Italy. While book hands were not as informal as cursive scripts, they still had features which could be said to be more calligraphic than geometric in detail. Over time, though, the copied vestiges of calligraphy virtually disappeared from roman fonts, and type became more rational. This profound change in the way type developed was also due in part to popular interest in the classical inscriptions of Roman antiquity. Imperial Roman letters, or majuscules, became models for the capital letters in nearly all early roman printing types. So it was, that the first letters in my typeface arose from pondering how shapes of lowercase letters and capital letters relate to one another in terms of classical ideals and geometric proportions, two pinnacles in a range of artistic notions which emerged during the Italian Renaissance. Indeed, such ideas are interesting to explore, but in the field of type design they often lead to dead ends. It is generally acknowledged, for instance, that pure geometry, as a strict approach to type design, has limitations. No roman alphabet, based solely on the circle and square, has ever been ideal for continuous reading. This much, I knew from the start. In the course of developing my typeface for text, innumerable compromises were made. Even though the finished letterforms retain a measure of geometric structure, they were modified again and again to improve their performance en masse. Each modification caused further deviation from my original scheme, and gave every font a slightly different direction. In the lower case letters especially, I made countless variations, and diverged significantly from my original plan. For example, not all the arcs remained radial, and they were designed to vary from font to font. Such variety added to the individuality of each style. The counters of many letters are described by intersecting arcs or angled facets, and the bowls are not round. In the capitals, angular bracketing was used practically everywhere stems and serifs meet, accentuating the terseness of the characters. As a result of all my tinkering, the entire family took on a kind of rich, familiar, coarseness - akin to roman types of the late 1400s. In his book, Printing Types D. B. Updike wrote: "Almost all Italian roman fonts in the last half of the fifteenth century had an air of "security" and generous ease extremely agreeable to the eye. Indeed, there is nothing better than fine Italian roman type in the whole history of typography." It does seem a shame that only in the 20th century have revivals of these beautiful types found acceptance in the English language. For four centuries (circa 1500 - circa 1900) Venetian Old Style faces were definitely not in favor in any living language. Recently, though, reinterpretations of early Italian printing types have been returning with a vengeance. The name Vendetta, which as an Italian sound I like, struck me as being a word that could be taken to signifiy a comeback of types designed in the Venetian style. In closing, I should add that a large measure of Vendetta's overall character comes from a synthesis of ideas, old and new. Hallmarks of roman type design from the Incunabula period are blended with contemporary concerns for the optimal display of letterforms on computer screens. Vendetta is thus not a historical revival. It is instead an indirect but personal digital homage to the roman types of punchcutters whose work was influenced by the example Jenson set in 1470. John Downer.

Carilliantine updates the organic curves of Art Nouveau typefaces typified by John F. Cumming's Desdemona, designed around 1886. A contemporary monoline sans reinterpretation rather than a more traditional serif, its high-waisted emphasis lends it an elegance and class. Carilliantine is replete with hundreds of two- and three-letter ligatures that bring a customised uniqueness to any headline. These are on by default, and can be toggled on or off in the Opentype palette of Adobe apps, or chosen individually according to taste from the Glyphs menu. Suitable for upmarket food packaging, wine labels, restaurants, folk bands, sword and sorcery trilogies, cosmetics and fashion brands that nod to the refinement of yesteryear, but are very much of today.

Answer Songs have been around for [probably] just as long as there have been songs. 1917's "If I Catch the Guy Who Wrote Poor Butterfly" was the answer to the 1916 hit "Poor Butterfly" [by Raymond Hubbell and John Golden], which in turn was inspired by the Puccini opera "Madame Butterfly". "Poor Butterfly" was so popular that this "answer" tune had as part of its lyrics "That melody haunts me in my sleep; it seems to creep." Nonetheless, the sheet music for William Jerome and Arthur Green's comic lament had the title hand lettered with an oval nib lettering pen and is now availably as a digital type face called Dip Pen JNL.

A piece of British sheet music for “You’re Sweeter than I Thought You Were” [from the 1935 film “Jack of All Trades” starring Jack Hulbert] provided inspiration for a digital typeface based on the credits for Hulbert and the film that rather than the song’s title. What’s interesting is the lettering style was influenced by Art Nouveau at a time when Art Deco was gaining in popularity. The result is Sweet Treats JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. (According to Wikipedia, John Norman ‘Jack’ Hulbert (April 24, 1892 – March 25, 1978) was a British actor, director, screenwriter and singer, specializing primarily in comedy productions, and often working alongside his wife Cicely Courtneidge.)

Kismet has the look of a modern, ornamental alphabet, but looks are deceiving: the typeface was designed by John F. Cumming in 1879. The basic forms are strictly constructed, most based on the form of a circle, a shape which also appears again and again in the ornamentation. Cumming decorated his figures generously with spiral elements and tiny circles in the middle of the letters. Characteristics which suggest the beginning of the Jugendstil are the floral designs and some individual forms, for example, T, M or P. Small, pointed serifs add a sobering element to all the flowery, oriental decoration. Used sparingly in headlines, the extravagant Kismet will be sure to attract attention.

Johann Carl Ludwig Prillwitz, the German punch cutter and type founder, cut the first classic Didot letters even earlier than Walbaum. The earliest proof of so-called Prillwitz letters is dated 12 April 1790. Inspired by the big discoveries of archaeology and through the translations of classical authors, the bourgeoisie was enthused about the Greek and Roman ideal of aesthetics. The enthusiasm for the Greek and Roman experienced a revival and was also shared by Goethe and contemporaries. »Seeking the country of Greece with one’s soul«. All Literates who are considered nowadays as German Classics of that time kept coming back to the Greek topics, thinking of Schiller and Wieland. The works of Wieland were published in Leipzig by Göschen. Göschen used typefaces which had been produced by until then unknown punch cutter. This punch cutter from Jena created with these typefaces master works of classicist German typography. They can stand without any exaggeration on the same level as that of Didot and Bodoni. This unknown gentleman was known as Johann Carl Ludwig Prillwitz. Prillwitz published his typefaces on 12th April 1790 for the first time. This date is significant because this happened ten years before Walbaum. Prillwitz was an owner of a very successful foundry. When the last of his 7 children died shortly before reaching adulthood his hope of his works was destroyed, Prillwitz lost his will to live. He died six months later. His wife followed him shortly after. The typeface Prillwitz as a digital font was created in three optical styles (Normal, Book and Display). The typeface Prillwitz Press was created especially for a printing in small sizes for newspapers. »Prillwitz Press« combines aesthetic and functional attributes which make written text highly readable. It was originally designed for a newspaper with medium contrast to withstand harsh printing conditions. Its structure is quite narrow which makes this typeface ideal for body text and headlines where space is at premium. For the Normal – even more for the Book – a soft and reader-friendly outline was created through a so-called »Schmitz« and optimized in numerous test prints. The arris character and the common maximal stroke width contrast of the known classicist typefaces (Didot/Bodoni) were edited by the study of the original prints. This was also done in order to reach a very good readability in small type sizes. This typeface is perfectly suited to scientific and belletristic works. Accordingly it has three styles: Regular, Bold and Italic as Highlighting (1). The typeface Prillwitz is a complete new interpretation and continuing development of the conservated originals from 1790. They have been kept in the German Library in Leipzig. It was always given the priority to keep the strong roughness and at the same time optimizing the readability of this striking font. The type family has all important characters for an efficient and typographic high quality work. ----------- (1) Accentuation of particular words or word orders (e.g. proper names, terms etc.). Typographic means for Highlighting could be Italic, SmallCaps or semi-bold.

IMPORTANT: This is the VARIABLE VERSION of PG GROTESQUE This is my interpretation of Edel Grotesk – a “lost typeface” from circa 1914 produced by Johannes Wagner GmbH of Ingolstadt, Germany. PG Grotesque is definitely not a revival, or even a faithful reproduction of that typeface as I was unable to source enough accurate references. What I have done is take the essence and unique characteristics of that typeface and brought this forgotten gem right into the 21st century. This variable version includes 99 instances spread across 9 weights and 6 widths with the ability fine tune the width, weight, and italic angle to your exact preference. Distinctive features include high-waisted capitals, a straight-legged capital ‘R’, and flattened arches in the ‘a’ and ‘g’ glyphs. Using PG Grotesque will give your typography a distinctly retro feel with its vintage heritage inherent in every character. You will find this is an incredibly versatile typeface with added value from its extensive language coverage along with small caps availability at the click of a button. PG Grotesque will prove to be a valuable asset in your type arsenal. See full details and hi-res images at https://paulogoode.com/pg-grotesque

After the popular successes of Exocet and Mason, Emigre has once again teamed up with Jonathan Barnbrook to bring you his latest venture into type land. Priori is a logical progression from Mason, a typeface he designed around ten years ago. Where Mason was designed purely for display purposes and featured only caps, Priori includes lower case, companion serif and sans serif versions, alternates and, according to its creator, is shooting for text face status - a bold claim from a designer who loves to wear his influences on his sleeve and who has little use for typography that aspires to be "neutral" or "transparent." Like many of Barnbrook's typeface designs, Priori is based on his interest in British typography of the early 20th century. It is inspired by the work of famous British typographers, such as Eric Gill and Edward Johnston. But it also embraces all of the signage and lettering that Barnbrook observes in the streets, cathedrals, and public buildings of his London neighborhood. This mixing of native influences with a contemporary pop culture intent is what gives Barnbrook's types a distinct and unique flavor. Like its creator, Priori is a one of a kind.

After the popular successes of Exocet and Mason, Emigre has once again teamed up with Jonathan Barnbrook to bring you his latest venture into type land. Priori is a logical progression from Mason, a typeface he designed around ten years ago. Where Mason was designed purely for display purposes and featured only caps, Priori includes lower case, companion serif and sans serif versions, alternates and, according to its creator, is shooting for text face status - a bold claim from a designer who loves to wear his influences on his sleeve and who has little use for typography that aspires to be "neutral" or "transparent." Like many of Barnbrook's typeface designs, Priori is based on his interest in British typography of the early 20th century. It is inspired by the work of famous British typographers, such as Eric Gill and Edward Johnston. But it also embraces all of the signage and lettering that Barnbrook observes in the streets, cathedrals, and public buildings of his London neighborhood. This mixing of native influences with a contemporary pop culture intent is what gives Barnbrook's types a distinct and unique flavor. Like its creator, Priori is a one of a kind.

Mayence is the French name of Mainz, German city where Johannes Gutenberg was born. It's a manuscript font inspired in the author's calligraphy, with an angular structure, marked by a certain impulsiveness. Besides being a continuous-line font, Mayence explores some deviations and imperfections in the calligraphy practice, as accumulations of paint and anomalies in the thickness variation, characteristics which gives it more naturality. Its main difference is the set of over 430 ligatures (Premium version), based on the research and selection of important character sequences, rather frequent in several languages. For this, a study was done about the diphthongs, triphthongs and di-tri-tetra-pentagraphs more common in languages such as English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Hungarian, Croatian, among others. Ligatures with up to 2 characters are enabled by default and with more than 2 characters are enabled by the Discretionary Ligatures option. Mayence also contains several ligatures based on common words in English and Spanish, exclusive ligatures with numbers and another standard, discretionary, historic and Unicode ligatures. It has 9 different ampersands (&), which can be chosen by the user according to the application context. When you enable the Titling Alternates (in OpenType-savvy programs), these 9 ampersand styles are converted to their forms of seal, with different purposes of use. To enrich your graphic applications, Mayence brings the Ornaments Version, for construction of impressive lines, borders, textures and the geometric shapes that you want, according to your creativity! To see the features available in each version, open or download the User Guide pdf, in the Gallery section. All text fonts are available in OpenType PS format and have extended character set to support CE, Baltic, Turkish, as well as Western European languages and additional Celtic characters.