Buffet Script is based on fantastic calligraphy by Alf Becker, arguably the greatest American sign lettering artist of all time. The Alf Becker series of nameless alphabets published by Sign of the Times magazine in 1941 has attracted letter digitizers for a few years now, so it’s really a wonder that a few of those alphabets are still in the non-digital realm. It is understandable, though, that the basis for Buffet Script was not digitally attempted until now. The page presenting this alphabet shows a jungle of letters running into each others and swashes intertwining. The massive amount of work involved in digitizing such lettering, where scanning is nowhere near being an option, is quite obvious at a mere glance. If anyone was going to commit this particular alphabet to a digital form, it would have to be redrawn stroke by stroke and curve by curve on the computer. And don't we love a challenge! But seriously, the challenge was not the main attraction. In a way, the Becker approach to lettering is so far from digital that the imagination is almost forced to work out possibilities and letter combinations to solve problems presented by the scant showings in that magazine. After a few imaginative visualizations, the digital potential becomes clear in the mind, and the eye and hand follow. The result with Whomp (another Alf Becker-inspired work) was an enormous font with a lot of alternates and ligatures. With Buffet Script the imaginative process was no different, but the result particularly shines here, because this is some of the most fascinating flowing calligraphy ever seen. Calligraphy is where the accountability of all the little extra touches, such as alternates and swashes and ligatures, is raised to a higher level than in most other type categories. Buffet Script’s OpenType programming contains discretionary ligatures, stylistic and contextual alternates, interacting with each other to allow the composition of just the right word or sentence. This font is best used where lush elegance is one of the design’s requirements.

Pepper was first conceived as an authentic alphabet of runes, but that was far too serious so it ended up as a greater spotted version of Salt.

Salt was first conceived as an authentic alphabet of runes, but that was far too serious so it ended up as a lesser spotted version of Pepper.

The Journal Sans typeface was developed in the Type Design Department of SPA of Printing Machinery in Moscow in 1940–1956 by the group of designers under Anatoly Schukin. It was based on Erbar Grotesk by Jacob Erbar and Metro Sans by William A. Dwiggins, the geometric sans-serifs of the 1920s with the pronounced industrial spirit. Journal Sans, Rublenaya (Sans-Serif), and Textbook typefaces were the main Soviet sans-serifs. So no wonder that it was digitized quite early, in the first half of 1990s. Until recently, Journal Sans consisted of three faces and retained all the problems of early digitization, such as inaccurate curves or side-bearings copied straight from metal-type version. The years of 2013 and 2014 made «irregular» geometric sans-serifs trendy, and that fact affected Journal Sans. In the old version curves were corrected and the character set was expanded by Olexa Volochay. In the new release, besides minor improvements, a substantial work has been carried out to make the old typeface work better in digital typography and contemporary design practice. Maria Selezeneva significantly worked over the design of some glyphs, expanded the character set, added some alternatives, completely changed the side-bearings and kerning. Also, the Journal Sans New has several new faces, such as true italic (the older font had slanted version for the italic), an Inline face based on the Bold, and the Display face with proportions close to the original Erbar Grotesk. The new version of Journal Sans, while keeping all peculiarities and the industrial spirit of 1920s-1950s, is indeed fully adapted to the modern digital reality. It can be useful either for bringing historical spirit into design or for modern and trendy typography, both in print and on screen. Designed by Maria Selezeneva with the participation of Alexandra Korolkova. Released by ParaType in 2014.

Over the past couple of years I received quite a number of unusual and surprising requests to modify my type designs to suit projects of personal nature, but none top the ones that asked me to typeset and modify tattoos using Burgues Script or Adios. At first the whole idea was amusing to me, kind of like an inside joke. I had worked in corporate branding for a few years before becoming a type designer, and suddenly I was being asked to get involved in personal branding, as literally “personal” and “branding” as the expression can get. After a few such requests I began pondering the whole thing from a professional perspective. It was typography, after all, no matter how unusual the method or medium. A very personal kind of typography, too. The messages being typeset were commemorating friends, family, births, deaths, loves, principles, and things that influenced people in a deep and direct way, so much so that they chose to etch that influence on their bodies and wear it forever. And when you decide to wear something forever, style is of the essence. After digging into the tattooing scene, I have a whole new respect for tattoo artists. Wielding that machine is not easy, and driving pigment into people’s skin is an enormous responsibility. Not to mention that they're some of the very few who still use a crafty, hands-on process that is all but obsolete in other ornamentation methods. Some artists go the extra mile and take the time to develop their own lettering for tattooing purposes, and some are inventive enough to create letters based on the tattoo’s concept. But they are not the norm. Generally speaking, most tattoo artists use generic type designs to typeset words. Even the popular blackletter designs have become quite generic over the past few decades. I still cringe when I see something like Bank Script embedded into people’s skin, turning them into breathing, walking shareholder invitations or government bonds. There’s been quite a few attempts at making fonts out of whatever original tattoo designer typefaces can be found out there - wavy pseudo-comical letters, or rough thick brush scripts, but as far as I could tell a stylish skin script was never attempted in the digital age. And that’s why I decided to design Piel Script. Piel is Spanish for skin. In a way, Piel Script is a removed cousin of Burgues Script. Although the initial sketches were infused with some 1930s showcard lettering ideas (particularly those of B. Boley, whose amazing work was shown in Sign of the Times magazine), most of the important decisions about letter shapes and connectivity were reached by observing whatever strengths and weaknesses can be seen in tattoos using Burgues. Tattoos using Adios also provided some minor input. In retrospect, I suppose Affair exercised some influence as well, albeit in a minor way. I guess what I'm trying to say is there is as much of me in Piel Script as there is in any of the other major scripts I designed, even though the driving vision for it is entirely different from anything else I have ever done. I hope you like Piel Script. If you decide it to use it on your skin, I'll be very flattered. If you decide to use it on your skateboard or book cover, I'll be just as happy. Scripts can't get any more personal than this. Piel Script received the Letter2 award, where they selected the best 53 typefaces of the last decade, organised by ATypI.

Exodus is one of my favorite fonts so far inspired by old manuscripts and sci fi movies. Its a decorative display font. See the whole presentation here: Behance.net

Samuel Welo offered the pattern for this font as a titling font for silent movies. Its rustic charm has held up well, some eighty years on. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1262, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

Many people asked why we removed Design or Die of our collection. After years of hibernation in our vault, one of the sexiest italics of the Classic Type-Ø-Tones is back. New subtle changes for a definitive version of this Luis Mendo type.

Bastard is a contemporary blackletter typeface and was one of the first created using a personal computer. It was drawn using primitive font design software in 1988, and refined and published two years later. It has now been revised to feature an expanded character set.

Our first font of Grecian was so old that it had been cast in a hand mold. Extremely popular face in the nineteenth century, made by many foundries and wood type makers in various widths. Lowercase was added by some foundries in later years.

Neeskens, by Enric Jardí. A few years ago we used to talk about Neeskens as the font preferred by the crew of Ganimedes' commercial vessels. Now we see it as one of most solid geometrics of our typefaces. Neeskens has two versions: solid and inline.

Morning Sweetest and Morning Sweetest Neue is a Classic feat Modern serif family. It's clean and smooth with 9 variable weight combining the regular and italic and much alternative inside. Suitable to create any branding, product packaging, invitation, quotes, t-shirt, label, poster, logo etc.

The Bicicleta family recaptures the ambiance of a bicycle journey I took many years ago along the Portuguese coast and embodies a vintage flair that appeals to me. A little reminiscing is always never a bad thing. The Bicicleta family is classic, clean and stylish.

The 1907 sheet music for "Take Me Back to Dear Old Dixie" had the song title hand lettered in a decorative serif typeface with strong Art Nouveau influences. This design is now available digitally as Fancy Nouveau JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Aylea a modern and relaxed display font. It embodies playfulness and authenticity and is the perfect choice for any children activity, school project, Christmas, New Year, Birthday and many more. Add this playful font to your designs and notice how it makes them come alive!

Some years ago I was walking along a street on the eastside of Manhattan and stopped in front of an old building that housed a power station. Lotsa Lotta is my version of the concrete letters displayed over the entrance that spoke the buildings purpose.

Jacky Hand is a waxy new font totally drawn by my 6 year old son while practicing his handwriting. This is a totally diverse font perfect for a wide range of uses from horror posters to childlike naiveté, or to inject some preppy school spirit.

Merry Fleurons is a bit of fun for Christmas, New Year and the holidays. It's ideal for decorating your own cards, party banners and any sort of Christmas publications. Need Holly? Christmas Trees? Baubles? Candy Canes? Angels? Merry Fleurons is just what you need.

The design for this typeface is based upon four sheets of an old latin book I purchased in Hanover (Germany) a couple of years ago. The letters preserve the rough edges of the original printing, I just added a few missing letters and some ligatures.

Vasili Vasilyevich Radlof or Wilhelm Radloff (Russian: Василий Васильевич Радлов; German: Wilhelm Radloff; 17 January 1837 - 12 May 1918) was a German-born Russian orientalist and founder of Turcology. Radloff is a German-born Russian Turcologist who researches the Turkish world from different perspectives, opens a new era in the history of Turkology by bringing them to light, and devoted 60 years of his 81-year life to these studies. He published his work known as Radloff's Atlas with a runic font specially developed for the Old Turkish Runic Alphabet. I made the Turkish Runic Font using Radloff's Atlas. I developed this Anglo Saxon Futhark font based on this font and adapted it to Anglo Saxon script.

The Handel Gothic? typeface has been a mainstay of graphic communication for over 40 years - all the while looking as current as tomorrow. Designed by Don Handel in the mid-1960s, and used in the 1973 United Airlines logo developed by Saul Bass, Handel Gothic was an instant success when released to the graphic design community. Its generous lowercase x-height, full-bodied counters and square proportions make the design highly readable at a wide range of sizes. Handel Gothic's slightly idiosyncratic character shapes gave the face a futuristic look 40 years ago that retains its power today. In addition, its Uncial-like lowercase is instantly identifiable - and unique among sans serif typestyles.

The Handel Gothic™ typeface has been a mainstay of graphic communication for over 40 years - all the while looking as current as tomorrow. Designed by Don Handel in the mid-1960s, and used in the 1973 United Airlines logo developed by Saul Bass, Handel Gothic was an instant success when released to the graphic design community. Its generous lowercase x-height, full-bodied counters and square proportions make the design highly readable at a wide range of sizes. Handel Gothic's slightly idiosyncratic character shapes gave the face a futuristic look 40 years ago that retains its power today. In addition, its Uncial-like lowercase is instantly identifiable - and unique among sans serif typestyles.

Printers Lot JNL is another eclectic mix of cartoons, ornaments, catch words, decorations and embellishments re-drawn from vintage source material used in the days of letterpress printing. For those who like to assemble their own larger borders, a set of elements is on the 2-9 keystrokes, but it must be noted that some manual adjustment is necessary to line up all of the parts in a complete border pattern. From a Happy New Year greeting to whimsical cartoon characters; from singular ornamental design elements to beautiful brackets, this mix of subjects is a great overview of the kinds of cuts found in printers' job case drawers in years gone by.

Senko Hanabi (線香花火 - Japanese: incense-stick fireworks) is a type of Japanese sparkler. These traditional sparklers are said to evoke “mono no aware” - “an empathy toward things”; the flash of sadness when reminded of the fleeting nature of life. I am always a bit melancholic this time of the year, so when I created this font, I wanted to give it a suitable name. Senko Hanabi was made using a brush and Chinese ink. It is a beautiful font, which comes with stylistic alternates, discretionary ligatures and a sparkling amount of diacritics. Remains for me to wish you all a very happy new year. Let’s do our best to make it one worth remembering!

Bonita is a bold handlettering style based on movie poster lettering from the early 20th century. It's similar to the typeface Broadway, but much bolder and far less formal.

Are you tired of stiff, uptight typefaces cramping your creative style? Introducing Rinse—the vintage t-shirt typeface that’s all about taking it easy. With its rough and ready look, Rinse is based on the classic Goudy Heavyface Italic, but with a far-out twist that’s perfect for all your laid-back messaging needs. The letter pair ligatures add some extra funk to break up the monotony of repeating letters, giving your text a natural and mellow feel. So why settle for boring, uptight fonts when you can let Rinse infuse your message with some classic retro style and fun-loving personality? Whether you’re designing a t-shirt, a poster, or just want to add a little vintage flair to your next project, Rinse is the typeface that will keep it cool. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Back in 2006 when we first released our Happy Holidays font, we thought the War on Christmas was over! We'd taken down our Menorahs, our Christmas trees, reclining Buddhas and red, black and green Kwanzaa decorations, and were prepared to sprinkle nothing more than a little Season's Greetings over our end of year celebrations. When we saw our friends and neighbors at department stores, we'd greet them with a simple, cordial, non-denominational “Happy Holidays.” But the font showed up at our company party this year having learned over 200 new languages (and, it must be said, a little bit loaded on Stylistic Alternates) in a mood to celebrate EVERYTHING. It was wishing people happy Bodhi Day, Solstice, Festivus, you name it! It even brought (count 'em) THREE new outfits based on the colors of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. So may the designs on the cups of the hot beverages that take you through the long dark coffee break of the soul that stretches from Halloween to Thanksgiving to New Year's Day be a little more festive this year with the refreshed, Remastered, all-inclusive spirit of Happy Holidays!

The curves are vintage and the serifs are big. They're so big that for years I never had the courage to tackle this intimidating font. But when fellow signmaker Frank Smith laid the groundwork for this intriguing typeface by Frank H. Atkinson, I couldn't pass on the opportunity to take it from paper to keyboard. After all, at over 100 years old, I felt this alphabet had never been given a proper, digital treatment. So how did this face survive the last century? Well, for those who don't know the history, it survived in Atkinson's ubiquitous book, Sign Painting, published first in 1908, the generational standard for anyone interested in sign-related type design. The layouts and lettering treatments in this book have influenced countless designers for more than a hundred years, but most haunting to me was this strange face with the big serifs. Well, I'm haunted no more. The work is done, the kerning is complete, and nothing but a mouse-click separates a very old idea from the modern world. It's wide, it's big, and with those crazy serifs, it is definitely eccentric-!!!

Many years ago, we bought a bunch of proofs that had apparently come from the defunct Van Loey-Nouri foundry in Belgium. Cognac was an incomplete alphabet among them, which we completed. Just a guess, but 1910 seems like a probable date for this art nouveau design.

English designer Richard Bradley created the Calligraphic Ornaments symbol font for ITC in the 1990s. Drawn in a lively traditional style similar to fine calligraphy, this font's characters set the perfect holiday spirit with little teddy bears, a Santa Claus, ringing bells, holly leaves, and other charms.

Toronto Gothic was developed from a headline in a 1920s issue of the Toronto Star. In a previous life, it was probably Condensed Titling Gothic #11, but in this form its rounded corners and irregular lines are meant to make it look worn from years of use.

Sherwood is a reproduction of an unusually small wood type font from England, dating from the last years of the 18th century. Somewhat reminiscent of Caslon Old Face. The original wood type is used at Sherwood Letterpress and can be seen on the Sherwood home page.

Heavy Black is all capital brush font, made from real brush pen with original texture. it can work with any design project, such as clothing or street wear logos, headlines, social media, quotes, and more. The original texture will give a strong impression on your design.

Urmeba JNL has an odd history. Originally conceived a few years back as a... well... ‘barf’ font, this limited-character type design was revised by Jeff Levine into a less-offensive idea... that of friendly little amoebas (such as you'd find in a glass of water).

Remember party banners made out of string and letters on cutout card shapes? Well, Valentine's letters is the typeface equivalent of these joyful banners. Valentine's Letters will let you string heart shapes, each bearing an individual character across the page, making a romance filled banner. Have fun!

Australis is a hybrid roman font that won first prize in the Morisawa International Type Design Competition in 2002. After 10 years the family is finally complete and its release coincides with the reopening of the competition in 2012, in Japan. Designed by Francisco Gálvez Pizarro.

Stencil Sheet JNL was modeled from an antique brass stencil sign that was custom hand punched for the customer. Sets of punch dies were available for years that allowed rubber stamp shops and similar trades to make custom stencils out of sheets of zinc or brass.

For many type lovers, Broadway is the quintessential Art Deco typeface. Designed as an all-caps typeface in 1927 by Morris Fuller Benton for ATF, it was expanded two years later with a lower case designed by Sol Hess, who also drew the inline version, Broadway Engraved.

This came from a shop near Munich, Germany, and was a very poor proof with no font name on it. Never did identify it. When we cleaned it up, we liked it pretty well. We think it is typical of some early twentieth century art nouveau fonts.