To design a text typeface "at the top with, at the bottom without" serifs was an idea which crossed my mind at the end of the sixties. I started from the fact that what one reads in the Latin alphabet is mainly the upper half of the letters, where good distinguishableness of the individual signs, and therefore, also good legibility, is aided by serifs. The first tests of the design, by which I checked up whether the basic principle could be used also for the then current technology of setting - for double-sign matrices -, were carried out in 1970. During the first half of the seventies I created first the basic design, then also the slanted Roman and the medium types. These drawings were not very successful. My greatest concern during this initial phase was the upper case A. I had to design it in such a way that the basic principle should be adhered to and the new alphabet, at the same time, should not look too complicated. The necessary prerequisite for a design of a new alphabet for double-sign matrices, i.e. to draw each letter of all the three fonts to the same width, did not agree with this typeface. What came to the greatest harm were the two styles used for emphasis: the italics even more than the medium type. That is why I fundamentally remodelled the basic design in 1980. In the course of this work I tried to forget about the previous technological limitations and to respect only the requirements then placed on typefaces intended for photosetting. As a matter of fact, this was not very difficult; this typeface was from the very beginning conceived in such a way as to have a large x-height of lower-case letters and upper serifs that could be joined without any problems in condensed setting. I gave much more thought to the proportional relations of the individual letters, the continuity of their outer and inner silhouettes, than to the requirements of their production. The greatest number of problems arose in the colour balancing of the individual signs, as it was necessary to achieve that the upper half of each letter should have a visual counterbalance in its lower, simpler half. Specifically, this meant to find the correct shape and degree of thickening of the lower parts of the letters. These had to counterbalance the upper parts of the letters emphasized by serifs, yet they should not look too romantic or decorative, for otherwise the typeface might lose its sober character. Also the shape, length and thickness of the upper serifs had to be resolved differently than in the previous design. In the seventies and at the beginning of the eighties a typeface conceived in this way, let alone one intended for setting of common texts in magazines and books, was to all intents and purposes an experiment with an uncertain end. At this time, before typographic postmodernism, it was not the custom to abandon in such typefaces the clear-cut formal categories, let alone to attempt to combine the serif and sans serif principles in a single design. I had already designed the basic, starting, alphabets of lower case and upper case letters with the intention to derive further styles from them, differing in colour and proportions. These fonts were not to serve merely for emphasis in the context of the basic design, but were to function, especially the bold versions, also as independent display alphabets. At this stage of my work it was, for a change, the upper case L that presented the greatest problem. Its lower left part had to counterbalance the symmetrical two-sided serif in the upper half of the letter. The ITC Company submitted this design to text tests, which, in their view, were successful. The director of this company Aaron Burns then invited me to add further styles, in order to create an entire, extensive typeface family. At that time, without the possibility to use a computer and given my other considerable workload, this was a task I could not manage. I tried to come back to this, by then already very large project, several times, but every time some other, at the moment very urgent, work diverted me from it. At the beginning of the nineties several alphabets appeared which were based on the same principle. It seemed to me that to continue working on my semi-finished designs was pointless. They were, therefore, abandoned until the spring of 2005, when František Štorm digitalized the basic design. František gave the typeface the working title Areplos and this name stuck. Then he made me add small capitals and the entire bold type, inducing me at the same time to consider what to do with the italics in order that they might be at least a little italic in character, and not merely slanted Roman alphabets, as was my original intention. In the course of the subsequent summer holidays, when the weather was bad, we met in his little cottage in South Bohemia, between two ponds, and resuscitated this more than twenty-five-years-old typeface. It was like this: We were drinking good tea, František worked on the computer, added accents and some remaining signs, inclined and interpolated, while I was looking over his shoulder. There is hardly any typeface that originated in a more harmonious setting. Solpera, summer 2005 I first encountered this typeface at the exhibition of Contemporary Czech Type Design in 1982. It was there, in the Portheim Summer Palace in Prague, that I, at the age of sixteen, decided to become a typographer. Having no knowledge about the technologies, the rules of construction of an alphabet or about cultural connections, I perceived Jan Solpera's typeface as the acme of excellence. Now, many years after, replete with experience of revitalization of typefaces of both living and deceased Czech type designers, I am able to compare their differing approaches. Jan Solpera put up a fight against the digital technology and exerted creative pressure to counteract my rather loose approach. Jan prepared dozens of fresh pencil drawings on thin sketching paper in which he elaborated in detail all the style-creating elements of the alphabet. I can say with full responsibility that I have never worked on anything as meticulous as the design of the Areplos typeface. I did not invent this name; it is the name of Jan Solpera's miniature publishing house, in which he issued for example an enchanting series of memoirs of a certain shopkeeper of Jindrichuv Hradec. The idea that the publishing house and the typeface might have the same name crossed my mind instinctively as a symbol of the original designation of Areplos - to serve for text setting. What you can see here originated in Trebon and in a cottage outside the village of Domanín - I even wanted to rename my firm to The Trebon Type Foundry. When mists enfold the pond and gloom pervades one's soul, the so-called typographic weather sets in - the time to sit, peer at the monitor and click the mouse, as also our students who were present would attest. Areplos is reminiscent of the essential inspirational period of a whole generation of Czech type designers - of the seventies and eighties, which were, however, at the same time the incubation period of my generation. I believe that this typeface will be received favourably, for it represents the better aspect of the eighties. Today, at the time when the infection by ITC typefaces has not been quite cured yet, it does absolutely no harm to remind ourselves of the high quality and timeless typefaces designed then in this country.In technical terms, this family consists of two times four OpenType designs, with five types of figures, ligatures and small capitals as well as an extensive assortment of both eastern and western diacritics. I can see as a basic text typeface of smaller periodicals and informative job-prints, a typeface usable for posters and programmes of various events, but also for corporate identity. Štorm, summer 2005

PF Champion Script Pro is perhaps the most advanced and powerful calligraphic family ever made. It received an award for Excellence in Type Design from the International Type Design Competition ‘Modern Cyrillic 2009’ which was held in Moscow. Most recently, it received another award from the 3rd International Eastern Type Design Competition - Granshan Awards 2010. This typeface was first presented in June 2007 at the 3rd International Conference on Typography and Visual Communication (ICTVC) and was met with rave reviews. It is based mainly on the manuscripts of the 18th century English calligrapher Joseph Champion. Developed over a period of two and a half years, each one of the 2 weights is loaded with 4300 glyphs(!), offering simultaneous support for all European languages based on the Latin, Greek and Cyrillic scripts. Furthermore, a wide selection of alternate forms and ligatures is included for all languages, in order to accommodate diverse design aesthetics. These alternates are either applied automatically through an advanced programming scheme, or manually through several OpenType features. An attempt was made to design a contemporary script typeface with classic roots, by following certain guidelines, i.e. lowercase characters were designed so they are less inclined, have a higher x-height and are less condensed than the original. Several characters were stripped-off their connecting lines in order to enhance legibility. Four sets of alternate swashed capitals as well as a plethora of ornaments and frames (117) was included. Small caps and their alternate forms were designed to replace the capitals which disrupt the flow of text within a sentence with their extravagant swashes. All characters were carefully designed with the proper weight in order to sustain harsh printing conditions (on special papers), a situation which affects mainly the light connecting parts of calligraphic typefaces. Finally, it was programmed in such a way as to preserve handwriting qualities, by designing an extensive array of ligatures and alternate glyphs in all languages, never before released or incorporated within the same font.

Malabar is a type family for extensive text. Its design was developed with a nod toward newspapers. Malabar's characters are seriffed and of the Old Style genre. A strong diagonal axis is apparent within the curves. Sturdy serifs help strengthen the line of text in small point sizes, as well as define the overall feeling of the face. Malabar's x-height is very high, a deliberate choice that makes the most important parts of lowercase letters visibly larger in tiny settings. The height of the capital letters is also rather diminutive, allowing for better character fit, as well as eliminating a bit of clumsiness in German, which often includes quite a few uppercase letters. Diacritical marks and additional alphabetic forms required by many Western, Central, and Eastern European languages are naturally a part of the character set, including those needed in the Baltic states, for Romanian, and for Turkish. Malabar's accents are bold and direct, sitting well with their base glyphs. The family includes three weights, each with a companion Italic. Malabar Regular is equipped with small caps, and both it and Malabar Italic include oldstyle figures. All members of the family have both proportional and tabular-width lining figures, as well as special variants of certain punctuation marks vertically adjusted for all-caps text setting. Malabar is informed both by contemporary ideas of typeface design (sheared terminals, the wider-drawn s) as well as by 16th-century masters. Malabar Heavy and Heavy Italic are very loud; their blackness almost shouts out from the page. The Regular's wedge serifs become more slab-ish in nature as the letters' weight increases. Malabar Heavy and Heavy Italic are best relegated to headline use only. Malabar Bold and Bold Italic may be used for text emphasis, a job for which the Heavy is to dark. Malabar received a Certificate of Excellence in Type Design at the Type Directors Club of New York TDC2 competition in 2009.

Crox™ is a sans-serif professional typeface inspired by crude geometry, creativity, and art. In the font family, there are 19 styles, including upright and italic, It is constructed of big lowercase letters with a maximum x-height for excellent optical reading. English letters are supported as a numerator and denominator set, this feature may aid in the creation of fractions using letters and numbers, as well as for sophisticated scripting and various scientific fractions forms. All weights support over 25 professional OpenType features within each style, with extensive coverage of western languages. These features were originally planned for personal and professional use, including multi-alternative characters in Styles: 1, 2, 4, 10, 11. Operational styles 6, 7 are enhanced with some scientific forms, to write the fit derived (SI units' expressions). Otherwise, it supports a wide range of professional factory pricing styles for business and marketing, as well as retail pricing styles in Sets 5, 8, and 9, with ligatures, old-style numerals, ordinals, swashes... Crox™ is enhanced with a poster weight like the fantastical type to fulfill your creative needs in three styles: poster, poster oblique, and poster italic for ADS and web design, branding, or product design. Glyphs: More than 970 glyphs, including those accessible with OpenType features. Powerful OpenType features: Standard Ligature, Alternate access, Automatic ordinals (English, French...), Case sensitive, localized forms, Numerator set, Denominator set, Subscript, Superscript, Swash, Stylistic alternate, Styles 1,2,3,4,5(Pricing style 1), 6(Derived Units),7(Advanced Fractions for Scientific units, Derived Units Vulgar Form), Set 8 (Pricing Style 2), Set (Pricing Style 3), Proportional Old-style, Tabular Old-style, Proportional Lining, Tabular Lining, Zero with slash, Fractions (Default, Automatic). Suitable for: logo and modern branding, web design, packaging, Product packaging, Articles, scientific document, Product user guides, multiple works in the Media, Design, ADS... Specimen Crox™ is a trademark of Yassine Abdi.

Rahere Roman Display is an elegant design with flared stems and subtle old style features, influenced by Berthold Wolpe’s wonderful Albertus font and (to a lesser extent) fonts based on Roman square capitals. It’s a classic design for the modern age, appealing to serious typographers, graphic designers and anyone looking for a beautiful, multipurpose font that also offers value for money. Originally conceived as a display companion for the Rahere Sans typeface family, Rahere Roman harmonizes perfectly with its sans counterpart: use it for headings, sub-headings or pull-out quotes. Want an eye-catching introduction? The small caps have been sized to optically align with the x-height of Rahere Sans or start a paragraph with a swash drop cap. There are also ornaments and devices on hand to spice things up. Of course, Rahere Roman Display works beautifully as a standalone font too. Although predominantly a display font, with a quick flick of its lowercase switch, Rahere Roman transforms effortlessly into a readable text font. Like a Swiss Army Knife, this is a hugely versatile font, capable of conveying different messages from classic and romantic to historical and modern. It’s suitable for a wide range of applications including: branding, posters, advertising, packaging, labels, signage, wedding stationery, museums, art galleries and book covers. Weighing in at well over 2,000 glyphs, Rahere Roman contains a myriad of alternative characters (mostly capitals) including two sets of small caps that allow certain letter combinations - such as RO, LA, LI, TY, etc. - to mimic ligatures. The advantage of this is that if letter spacing is increased or decreased, the letter combinations aren’t fixed and can move too, which helps the space between letters to remain even. However, for lovers of ligatures there is still a bucketload of goodies to play with, including the obligatory ‘OO’ ligature. If that’s not enough, the font also contains start & end swashes, alternative numerals, seven ampersands, ornaments and devices. .ss01 - Initial swash capitals .ss06 - Superior small capitals (aligned to the cap height) .ss07 - Small capitals (sitting on the baseline)

Made in Germany, Referenz Grotesk is a typeface full of references referring to the type design history of Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design. Its typographic history holds a broad spectrum of shapes and characters, including F.H. Ernst Schneidler (1882–1956), Imre Reiner (1900–1987), Walter Brudi (1907–1987), Kurt Weidemann (1922–2011) and Frank Heine (1964–2003). During extensive research phases for Referenz Grotesk included collection and analysis. This led to further research in the Academy’s collection and archive where the majority of Weidemann’s estate is housed next to works of other designers and professors like F.H. Ernst Schneidler and Walter Brudi. Another place of research was the typesetting workshop where Schneidler had previously taught and worked. Some of his freshly cast fonts were tested and used there for the first time and are still stored in several of the type cases. Regarding the more recent history, for instance about the Emigre designer Frank Heine, former colleagues and professors have been consulted. These studies resulted in the new font Referenz Grotesk that includes traces of Kurt Weidemann’s Corporate as well as calligraphic hints that link to Schneidler’s Stuttgarter Schule (Stuttgart School) where writing played an important role during the form finding process. For the regular text fonts these features are integrated in a subtle manner whereas several alternative glyphs pick up more expressive forms. The final sans serif type family has a clarity and contemporary straightness that becomes more characteristic in its heavier weights. Additionally more than 60 alternative glyphs per weight allow for individual combinations that can be tailored specifically for each application and context. They open up a broad range of visual expressions, from subtle to playful and eccentric characteristics. Referenz Grotesk is available in six weights: Light, Regular, Medium, Bold, Extra Bold and Black, plus italics. In addition, the family includes multiple OpenType functions such as Stylistic Sets, Tabular Figures and Case Sensitive forms. Variable version of the font is included when you license the full pack.