Up until the late 1920s, it was a popular habit in American songwriting to use African Americans as the topic of compositions using denigrating themes, words and even exaggerated character illustrations on the covers of the published sheet music. One such example of what was considered "entertainment" for its time was a piece entitled "Little Black Me". While this now socially and morally unacceptable piece of forgettable tripe is collected by some only for the historical documentation of the times they reflected, one good "positive" came out of this negative chapter of our country's musical heritage: The beautiful floral ornamented letters in the song's title has yielded Fancy Free JNL. Originally hand-lettered on an arc, these spurred Roman letters have been re-drawn, and are offered in both the regular design and a companion version with the ornamentation removed for lettering that is less ornate.

Toward the end of the 1920s, Art Deco influences were starting to creep into modern design. The hand lettered title on the cover of the1928 sheet music for “Fascinatin’ Vamp” not only embraced the new Deco movement, but sent it on a wild typographic ride. Letters of mixed thicknesses and stylings made up the two word title, and this unusual group of letter shapes became the inspiration for Free Form Deco JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Sultan free is an Arabic text typeface for desktop applications. Sultan free is a freestyle script. It is available in One style, calligraphic, and very dynamic. This makes it suitable for large display sizes, especially in the area of advertising, while still functioning well as a text face. The font includes a support for Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Sultan free typeface comes with many opentype features.

The titles and credits from the 1960 French film “Le Passage Du Rhin” (English release title: “Tomorrow is My Turn”)” are hand made in a free form bold alphabet resembling both cut paper and quickly sketched lettering. This avant garde style inspired the digital type revival, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

One of the examples in the 1916 publication “Baker’s Showcard Book” [an early 20th Century instructional book on sign lettering] was simply called “Plain Poster”. Somewhat Art Nouveau in style, but with many ‘nonconforming’ character shapes and widths, this novelty design is available digitally as Free Form Showcard JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

This chunky serif handwriting is fun but still completely legible for children.

Bodoni Classic Free Style is my really fat, high contrast free flowing, liberated designed, script-like non-script extension to my ever expanding Bodoni Classic family.

Schneidler-Initialen (initials) was designed in 1936-37 by Friedrich Hermann Ernst Schneidler (1882-1956). Originally known as Schneidler Mediaeval, the font was revived and released by GroupType in 1994.

These are the classical arabesques published in Ludwig Petzendorfer's Schriften-Atlas. Eine Sammlung der wichtigsten Schreib- und Druckschriften aus alter und neuer Zeit nebst Initialen, Monogrammen, Mappen, Landeskarten und heraldischen Motiven fur die praktischen Zwecke des Kunstgewerbes, 1889. See Frompac 1889 Arabesques for another example of these arabesques.

A comprehensive and faithful rendition of Rudolf Koch’s first release, usually referred to as “Fette Deutsche Schrift” or "Koch-Schrift". In addition to the regular character set, the font includes a large number of alternates and ligatures, plus two sets of ornamental initials (Initialen mit Zierstrichen und Punkten zur Koch-Schrift, and Initialen zur halbfetten deutschen Schrift von Rudolf Koch). The main sources used during the font design process were a sample page from Hendlmeier, W. (1994), Kunstwerke der Schrift, Hannover: Bund für Deutsche Schrift und Sprache (p. 164), and several specimen sheets from the Gebrüder Klingspor Type Foundry for Koch’s “Deutsche Schrift” type family. Specimen, detailed character map, OpenType features, and font samples available at Alter Littera’s The Oldtype “Deutsche Schrift” Font Page.

The font here used is the Intellecta's Frompac joined and art worked with the classical arabesques published in the Ludwig Petzendorfer's Schriften-Atlas. Eine Sammlung der wichtigsten Schreib- und Druckschriften aus alter und neuer Zeit nebst Initialen, Monogrammen, Mappen, Landeskarten und heraldischen Motiven f¸r die praktischen Zwecke des Kunstgewerbes, 1889.

Two fonts entirely of decorative initials of which the uppercase basic letters of RMU Initials One are occupied by Walthari initials, the lowercase ones by Eckmann initials, both released first by Rudhard, '92sche Gie, 'dferei, Offenbach, Germany, about 1900. RMU Initials Two consists of Jubilaeumsinitialen in the uppercases and Augsburger Initialen in the lowercases.

Schnorr is a family of three fonts drawn by a German designer, Peter Schnorr. Schnorr Dekorativ is one of the less frequently seen of the alphabets he designed and one of the few for which he designed as lower case. Like many of the alphabets of the period, Schnorr Dekorativ is a delicate design. To provide a little more presence, we have added a DEMIBOLD version. Included in both Schnorr Dekorativ and Schnorr Demibold are an ornament of Schnorr’s design, seven T-ligatures and an alternate lower case t. 123=Ta, 125=Te, 135=Th, 137=Ornament, 167=Ti, 172=To, 188=Tr, 190=Tu and 177=alternate t. Schnorr’s design for the lower case t is unusual and not readily recognized. The alternate may be used to improve readability. Schnorr Initialen was designed as an upper case only design and as such is quite popular. It is often seen under the name of Odessa. Our font is a fresh scan and is paired with our Schnorr Demibold to provide a compatible lower case, along with all the rest of the auxiliary characters. Schnorr Initialen includes all the extras supplied with Schnorr Dekorativ and Schnorr Demibold: 123=Ta, 125=Te, 135=Th, 137=Ornament, 167=Ti, 172=To, 188=Tr, 190=Tu and 177=alternate t. In addition, Schnorr Initialen also includes an alternate uppercase I (172) and five lotus ornaments (123, 125, 167, 188 and 190).

Shàngó, inspired by the initials from Professor F.H. Ernst Schneidler's classic design released in 1936 as Schneidler-Mediaeval mit Initialen, is an elegant design that looks best when used at large sizes, as the original name suggests. Shàngó is available in two styles: Classic, available in 3 weights, and Gothic, available in 4 weights. Shàngó is a member of the extended Shàngó family (Classic, Chiseled, Sans, Gothic).

Linotype Venezia Initiale is part of the Take Type Library, selected from the contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. Designed by German artist Robert Kolben, the font is based on the classic forms of Roman writing in the 1st and 2nd centuries found chiseled on countless buildings and monuments. Linotype Venezia Initiale is a timeless, elegant font particularly well-suited to headlines or as initials in combination with other fonts, working especiall well with sans serif alphabets.

Flight is the work of British calligraphic artist Timothy Donaldson, whose specialty is the experimentation with different design tools. Flight is named for the free-flowing lines of its forms which bring to mind a freedom of movement. It was first rendered in pencil using a quick sketching technique. The stem junctions were then carefully thickened to produce a futuristic style without losing its calligraphic origins. The capitals are intended for initialling purposes only. Flight is a lighthearted font with elegant letterforms.

Four fonts entirely of decorative initials of which the uppercase basic letters of RMU Initials One are occupied by Walthari initials, the lowercase ones by Eckmann initials, both released first by Rudhard’sche Gießerei, Offenbach, Germany, about 1900. RMU Initials Two consists of Jubilaeumsinitialen in the uppercases and Augsburger Initialen in the lowercases. RMU Initials Three comes with floral ornaments, whereby the lowercase initials can be colorized by yourself due to non-joining elements. RMU Initials Four consists of hand drawn initials by Rudolf Koch and letters of a former Klingspor font called Queen.