The Vtg Stencil fonts from astype are based on real world stencils from several countries. All styles offering an extended Latin character set. » pdf specimen «

The Vtg Stencil fonts from astype are based on real world stencils from several countries. In the case of French stencils the challenge was special, because of the varieties of different widths and weights between the stencil sets – so I made France No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5. The most unique and eye-catching elements of typical French stencils are the figures 1, 2, 3, 7 and a specially 5. The figure 5 changes in style on smaller stencil sizes, its bobble getting replaced by something like a “breve”. The letters J and Q can differ in style too. While the local stencil lettering styles are gradually disappearing in other countries, there are regions in France, such as Normandy and Brittany, where these stencils are still in use today. They are used for technical lettering, which is what stencils were originally intended for, but also for ads and information signs in a more artistic or patriotic context. Over the time, these stencil letters became a globally recognized landmark of French design and French taste. All styles offering an extended Latin character set. » pdf specimen «

In March 2010, Émile Fradin, a modest peasant farmer from central France, died at the age of 103. To his grave he took the secret behind one of the most controversial archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. A discovery which put into question the very origins of the written word and the paternity of European culture. It was the uncovering of peculiar artefacts would come to be known as the Glozel runes. The discovery of the Glozel runes On the first day of March 1924, a not yet 18-year-old Fradin was ploughing his family’s field in the hamlet of Glozel, when his cow stumbled into a hole. When he and his grandfather, Claude, looked closer, they discovered a mass of broken stone, under which lay an underground chamber. Within, they discovered pottery fragments, carved bones, and a peculiar clay tablet covered in bizarre characters that neither of the two could decipher. The family requested a subsidy for excavation works to be carried out, but were refused by the regional authority. With that disappointment, it seemed as though the discovery would fade into obscurity. However, the following year, news of Fradin’s unusual clay tablet reached the ears of the physician and amateur archeologist, Antonin Morlet. By the end of May 1925, Morlet began the first of his excavations.4 Within the first two years alone, he had amassed some 3,000 finds.

The Vtg Stencil fonts from astype are based on real world stencils from several countries. All styles offering an extended Latin character set. » pdf specimen «

The inspiration for Fence Post JNL comes out of an early 1900s manual for sign writing. A number of changes were made to make the design more aesthetically pleasing, but it retains its novelty effect of evoking the look of wooden fence posts or Western-themed typography.

Équipage is a French word meaning ‘crew’. It is used for the crew on boats, airplanes, but it also applies to horse-drawn carriages and all that goes with it. Originally the word means ‘to fit out’ and it is probably derived from the Norse word ‘skipa’, which means ‘arrange, fit out a ship’. Then, if you’re really interested, the word ‘ship’ hails from this same word, just like the Danish ‘skib’, Middle Dutch ‘ship’, Dutch ‘schip’ and German ‘Schiff’. See? You learn something every day! Équipage is a really nice, handmade serif font. It is quite elegant and would look fantastic on labels, postcards and book covers. Comes with extensive language support and a set of alternates for the lower case glyphs.

Papillon Woodcuts is a digital revival of an ornate alphabet by French engraver Jean Michel Papillon dating back to 1760, when engraving was very fashionable in France. Each letter is displayed with a different themed background, such as a ship at sea; a fancy table topped with a bounty of fruits; flying birds; a parasol with flowers; playful cherubs; rich textured drapes and tapestries; and many more. These woodcut initials are especially beautiful when used at the beginning of a paragraph as in olden texts.

The reason for Nicolien van der Keur to design the Rougon font was the translation of twenty novels written by Emile Zola, a French writer, and translated by Martine Delfos. It follows the lives of the members of the two titular branches of a fictional family living during the Second French Empire (1852–1870) and is one of the most prominent works of the French naturalism literary movement. This series deserved a font with French roots and corresponded to the period in which Zola’s books were written and published, the period between 1870 and 1893, the end of the nineteenth century. Extensive research into French historical typefaces has led to a type specimen from the French type foundry Deberny et Cie in Paris around 1907. It turned out to be good and helpful source as it contained a sample of a typeface that reflected the content and style of the novels, but also represented the period in which the books were written in France. A large part of the novels are about the generations of Rougon, so it seemed a natural choice to give the font that name. It is available in one weight and contains stylized portraits of Emile Zola and the French Marianne. This font also contains various ornaments.

Pitshanger is loosely derived from a shop sign in Limogues, France.

Café de Paris is, clearly, inspired by all things French, especially the quirky typefaces that adorn French shopfronts from cafes to charcuteries and bistros to boulangeries. My intention was a fresh, crisp, modern take on a classic theme, with just a soupcon of Art Nouveau, which is characteristic of so much of French typography (See also Studio K’s Paris Metro font) C'est chic - n'est-ce pas?

Bucanera Antiqued is the black ship of Bucanera's family, sure you will use it in any dark or dirty project. Try the Open Type version to reach its numerous swashes, flourished and alternate characters.

This font was inspired by the lettering on a shop sign along a very classy shopping street in Bordeaux, France. There were similar styles among mid-nineteenth century types.

Côte is a display monospace handwriting font. The typeface is a distinct hand drawn font using a felt marker. The Côte name is derived from the French word meaning "coast" and is also used to describe winemaking vineyards and regions throughout France. One of the most popular regions in the south of France is the French Riviera also known as the Côte d'Azur. Côte is great for display work, invitations, writing, architecture, posters, wine labels and headings.

Velouté is named after one of the original French Mother Sauces, it is a surprisingly bold and velvety script with delicate flourishes that demand your attention. Velouté's unique mix of classic, contemporary, bold and delicate detail is ideally suited for Special Invitations, Coffee shops, Restaurants, Boutiques and Menus.

Towards the end of the 1400s, in Lyon (France), was living Barthélémy Buyer, descendant of a rich family of merchants. In the end of 1472, he engaged a typographist from Liège (Belgium): Guillaume Le Roy. The first book stemming from their print shop was the Compendium breve ( by Pope Innocent III.) using Blackletter “textura”. Many books followed, most often illustrated with wood carving. In 1483, to print a French translated “Eneide”, they used a venetian “Rotunda” blackletter. Our font was inspired by this “Rotunda” set, with historical forms and ligatures enriched with accented letters and other characters not existing in the original.

Millefeuille literally means ‘thousand leaf’. It is a French dessert, consisting of many very thin layers of puff pastry and such fillings as whipped cream, custard, fruit, etc. Millefeuille font is a hand drawn display typeface, ideally suited for invitations, posters and product packaging. Comes with a rich filling of diacritics.

Make a bold statement with this modern, angular design - go wild and use it together with it's partner font, PolkaDot Wrench. This typeface features over 90 extended characters for setting European languages such as Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish & Welsh.

This is based on a mid-Victorian Connor's foundry font originally known as Manhattan. One of several old faces known in America as "French Clarendons", in Europe as "Italians", and, wait for it, in France as "American".

While viewing a YouTube video of film footage in and around New York in the mid-1930s, one scene showed some people “window shopping” by the storefront office of the French Line, an international steamship service. A screen capture allowed the storefront sign to be recreated as the digital typeface Steamship JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

This font is a late 19th Century French script overview inspired by numerous French letters, from around years 1850-1860, during the second French empire, under Napoleon the third. Most of them were written with very tiny characters on light sheets of paper, as postage prices were calculated from the letter's weight. The TTF and OTF versions are enriched with more than 50 ligatures and/or alternate characters. We also offer a choice of two sorts of Capitals. Why "1859 Solferino"? It was the last battle of the Italian independence war, opposing the victorious Franco-Italian army to Austria in June 24, 1859. The Red Cross was inspired directly from the carnage remaining on the battle field.

Nada Fraktur is a modern geometrical blackletter made to serve your hip intentions. Think hip-hop album sleeves, your local t-shirt print shop, and Tumblr-boy action. The goal with this typeface is to blend medieval aesthetic with sharp modern cuts. You could say that the font is sort of monospaced, but it is not. The typeface includes an extended character set to support Central and Eastern European as well as Western European Languages.

When Sputnik launched in 1957, the world was launched into the Space Age, baby! It was rockets and soda shops, souped-up jalopies and Fairlane convertibles with radios blaring. Rock and Roll. American Bandstand and the Race to Space. Astro aims to call back those exciting days with a look that might have graced the sign of your local drive-in or donut shop. The uppercase characters look like they could fly, suggesting spacecraft, UFOs. Use it for Retro future events or business branding. It also seems to work exceptionally well, strangely, with French, Icelandic, Japanese and African names and anything to do with fish.

Named after the strong cold winds on Southern France, the Mistral font family is another original creation displaying the panache of the French graphic artist Roger Excoffon. Mistral is an informal script in which all letters link up in vigorous strokes. First issued in 1953, its brush-like stems look spontaneous and fresh. The descenders are fairly long and the whole alphabet has a distinctive and unforgettable effect on the page. Mistral is a good complement to sans serif typefaces. Mistral is a trademark of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, which may be registered in certain jurisdictions, exclusively licensed through Linotype Library GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.

This family was inspired mainly (Normal and Italic style ) by a Didot pattern font used in Rennes (France, Britanny) by Cousin-Danelle, printers, for Antiquités historiques et monumentales ‡ visiter de Montfort ‡ Corseul, par Dinan... Saint Malo... etc. an historic guidebook for a journey through a part of (French) Brittany in 1820, and many other books. The present version contains 1820 Modern Normal and Italic, 1820 Modern Large Normal and 1820 Modern Narrow Normal, each style with small caps. This font may be used together with 1906 French News and/or 1906 Titrage.

A 1970s Photolettering catalog indentified the pattern for this typeface as "Exotique" ...from France, no less. Named for a French expression meaning “pun,” this face is, indeed, witty and playful, with nary a groan in sight. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode 1252 Latin and Unicode 1250 Central European character sets.

French Art Deco lettering found within the pages of the 1934 publication L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre (roughly translated to “The Rational Path Art of the Letter”) have provided a number of designs well-suited for digital revival. A hand lettered sans with varying character widths was the basis for Colmar JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. As the source of the lettering design was a French publication, the typeface is named for the city of Colmar, which (according to Wikipedia) is the third-largest commune of the Alsace region in north-eastern France.

GUI Design Icons is pack of about 200 icons for every possible user interface (GUI). What makes this font special is combinations. There are background and foreground objects which you can combine any way you like. Imagine you have an icon of shopping cart. By just adding another symbol, you can make an icon for adding that item to shopping cart, removing the item, showing favorites or any other possible combination. See image example for some fresh ideas!

Carabelle is based on the Nebiolo type foundry’s Calipso design. Newly redrawn and with many original details added, this old typeface has been revitalized. Noble and sweet, Carabelle plays the elegant companion for cup cake shops, wedding invitations or culinary tours through France and Italy.

Canby JNL is the "solid" version of Jeff Levine's stencil font Shipped JNL.

Dime Store is a font inspired by childhood memories of dime stores in downtowns and shopping malls in the 1970s. The font was tweaked and digitized by Bob Alonso, who also digitized Breauhare’s Cooper Goodtime font. Dime Store is a cool, hip, nostalgic way of creating a decorative display, and at times it seems to have a slightly futuristic look, too.

Either Futuristic or Space ship logo - it will sure fit to a mysterious poster.

Coquillage is French for seashell or shellfish. Since I’m going to France this year for a camping holiday with my family, I thought it was a good idea to give this charming connected script a ‘holiday name’! Coquillage was handmade with a Japanese pen. It is a lovely connected script and comes with double-letter ligatures and a full range of diacritics.

Bestan is inspired by the typography of the ship's steel containers and industrial-based business branding. Added a slight touch of futuristic vibes to make Bestan appears as a fresh game-changer, either for corporation purpose and also modern urban vibes to your visual graphic design stuff.

When designing a font, I often imagine how I think it should be used or where I'd be likely to see it out in the real world. With Barataria I envisioned it on decorative, antique-looking signs hanging outside shops in the French Quarter of New Orleans - hence the name. Barataria is based on samples of 1920s period poster lettering. It's a bold, heavy roman font with strong, rounded character forms. Barataria also has some unique alternative character forms, like the super-looped 'g' shown in the sample.

Henri Abraham Chatelain was a cartographer and publisher of the famous Atlas Historique, ou Nouvelle Introduction a L'Histoire, a world atlas released between 1705 and 1732 in Amsterdam. A few years ago, at an antique book shop in London, I bought a page from Chatelain's atlas—a page covering the Near East, India, the Indian Ocean—that had a particularly alluring, oblique handlettering style. The text is in French, which gave me plenty of samples of diacritics and accented characters. The overall effect is neat and legible, with a distinctly historical flair.