Rian Hughes’ 15th collection of fonts, “112 Hours”, is entirely dedicated to numbers. Culled from a myriad of sources – clock faces, tickets, watches house numbers – it is an eclectic and wide-ranging set. Each font contains only numerals and related punctuation – no letters. A new book has been designed by Hughes to show the collection, and includes sample settings, complete character sets, source material and an introduction. This is available print-to-order on Blurb in paperback and hardback: http://www.blurb.com/b/5539073-112-hours-hardback http://www.blurb.com/b/5539045-112-hours-paperback From the introduction: The idea for this, the fifteenth Device Fonts collection, began when I came across an online auction site dedicated to antique clocks. I was mesmerized by the inventive and bizarre numerals on their faces. Shorn of the need to extend the internal logic of a typeface through the entire alphabet, the designers of these treasures were free to explore interesting forms and shapes that would otherwise be denied them. Given this horological starting point, I decided to produce 12 fonts, each featuring just the numbers from 1 to 12 and, where appropriate, a small set of supporting characters — in most cases, the international currency symbols, a colon, full stop, hyphen, slash and the number sign. 10, 11 and 12 I opted to place in the capital A, B and C slots. Each font is shown in its entirety here. I soon passed 12, so the next logical finish line was 24. Like a typographic Jack Bauer, I soon passed that too -— the more I researched, the more I came across interesting and unique examples that insisted on digitization, or that inspired me to explore some new design direction. The sources broadened to include tickets, numbering machines, ecclesiastical brass plates and more. Though not derived from clock faces, I opted to keep the 1-12 conceit for consistency, which allowed me to design what are effectively numerical ligatures. I finally concluded one hundred fonts over my original estimate at 112. Even though it’s not strictly divisible by 12, the number has a certain symmetry, I reasoned, and was as good a place as any to round off the project. An overview reveals a broad range that nonetheless fall into several loose categories. There are fairly faithful revivals, only diverging from their source material to even out inconsistencies and regularize weighting or shape to make them more functional in a modern context; designs taken directly from the source material, preserving all the inky grit and character of the original; designs that are loosely based on a couple of numbers from the source material but diverge dramatically for reasons of improved aesthetics or mere whim; and entirely new designs with no historical precedent. As projects like this evolve (and, to be frank, get out of hand), they can take you in directions and to places you didn’t envisage when you first set out. Along the way, I corresponded with experts in railway livery, and now know about the history of cab side and smokebox plates; I travelled to the Musée de l’imprimerie in Nantes, France, to examine their numbering machines; I photographed house numbers in Paris, Florence, Venice, Amsterdam and here in the UK; I delved into my collection of tickets, passes and printed ephemera; I visited the Science Museum in London, the Royal Signals Museum in Dorset, and the Museum of London to source early adding machines, war-time telegraphs and post-war ration books. I photographed watches at Worthing Museum, weighing scales large enough to stand on in a Brick Lane pub, and digital station clocks at Baker Street tube station. I went to the London Under-ground archive at Acton Depot, where you can see all manner of vintage enamel signs and woodblock type; I photographed grocer’s stalls in East End street markets; I dug out old clocks I recalled from childhood at my parents’ place, examined old manual typewriters and cash tills, and crouched down with a torch to look at my electricity meter. I found out that Jane Fonda kicked a policeman, and unusually for someone with a lifelong aversion to sport, picked up some horse-racing jargon. I share some of that research here. In many cases I have not been slavish about staying close to the source material if I didn’t think it warranted it, so a close comparison will reveal differences. These changes could be made for aesthetic reasons, functional reasons (the originals didn’t need to be set in any combination, for example), or just reasons of personal taste. Where reference for the additional characters were not available — which was always the case with fonts derived from clock faces — I have endeavored to design them in a sympathetic style. I may even extend some of these to the full alphabet in the future. If I do, these number-only fonts could be considered as experimental design exercises: forays into form to probe interesting new graphic possibilities.

A Large and Small cap design great for Headlines Sub heads and even works great in text. A unique look. Allows you to fit a lot of copy in a small space.

Julie Brious is a handwritten signature typeface. Its classy energetic look makes it the perfect fit for feminine logos, printed quotes, invitation cards, social media headers, product packaging and a lot more!

Pretty Salmon is a display font that can be used for all chalkboard quotes or teaching material! Its authentic look and feel will add a personal and realistic feel to your designs.

Lightmoon is an elegant and sleek script font, perfect for exquisite projects that need an authentic look! Add it to your most creative ideas, and notice how it makes them come alive!

I once tried to imagine what the children of Schoolbook and Bodoni would look like if they were married. I'm still trying to imagine that! In the meantime I drew the Jingles.

April Blossom is a sweet, brush font with a playful character. This fun will look gorgeous on all your branding materials, cards, quotes, and any other lovely projects you are working on.

Okaycat JAPAN proudly presents "Azsitra"! Newly released, Azsitra is a beautiful handwritten script. Unique texturing & style make this font unforgettable. Azsitra sits well in any design environment adding a gentle illustrated look!

Nebulen is a beautiful and feminine serif font created by a romantic and lovely look. Nebulen was built with Open Type features, stylistic Alternate and Ligature makes your project will be awesome.

Hi! Introducing a script font named Sweettooth. It's fully handcrafted and has a natural look. Also it has several ligatures to make it more authentic. Thank you and have a great day!

Westwood is the work of American West Coast designer David Westwood, a bold display typeface featuring a fine linocut effect. Westwood exhibits a dramatic, eye-catching style with a rough-hewn look.

Oksana Text Swash has swashed initials and ampersand for Oksana Text italics in six weights from Thin to Heavy. For all-in-one fonts please look to OpenType version of Oksana Text.

Mythical Prince is a beautiful and smooth sans serif font created by a romantic and lovely look. It is perfect for greeting cards, wedding invitations, posters, logotypes, product branding, and much more.

Playing around with a previous design, Jeff Levine came up with Cut Paper Stencil JNL, a typeface with both an Art Deco flair and the look of letters made from cut paper.

This design from Jeff Levine defies description. It's kind of techno, somewhat of a novelty and definitely unusual. Diagon JNL is the perfect font for projects that need a very different look.

Rat Infested Mailbox is a strange, exaggerated typeface with a seriously worn-out look. It can be used for posters, cards and websites. It will certainly give your designs an unusual touch.

Minimalisto is a typeface made by designer Keith Hayden. The distinguishing feature of this font is the simplistic style of each letter. This simplicity gives each letter a modern and sophisticated look.

Fife Gallery is a stylish and incredibly elegant modern calligraphy font. It looks stunning on wedding invitations, quotes, greeting cards, logos, business cards and every other design which needs a handwritten touch.

New Molly is a modern script.This font looks fresh, stylish, elegant and natural. This font is great for logo branding & invitations, wedding design, photography, quotes, posters, watermark, special events and much more.

Made in a soft style with inktrap variations, Agressiva font combines authenticity with uniqueness so that it looks different from others. suitable for use in casual themed graphic designs such as logos.

Brobane is a clean and lining brush script. It looks stunning on wedding invitations, thank you cards, quotes, greeting cards, logos, business cards and every other design which needs a handwritten touch.

Blackburn is a distressed text font designed to capture the look of old printing at small sizes. Based on a 19th century French type specimen, it contains a complete international character set.

I once tried to imagine what the children of Schoolbook and Bodoni would look like if they were married. I'm still trying to imagine that! In the meantime I drew the Jingles.

Examples of Australian brass stencils used for baling form the basis of Farming Stencil JNL. The hand-cut look of this typeface gives a more casual approach to a standard stencil design.

Based on examples of common medieval Gothic typefaces, High German has lots of character, giving an immediate impression of the densely packed pages of the 'traditional' backward looking printers of the day.

The Beauty Festival Font Duo is a handwritten script that is combined with a slick yet playful looking sans. The duo works very well for a lot of different types of projects.

Regulaire is my laid back comic font, inspired by graffiti and my everyday regular handwriting. Works quite nice for kids products, comics, party posters - or anything that needs a casual comic look!

Syafiqa is a chic handwritten font that can be used for all chalkboard quotes or teaching material! Its authentic look and feel will add a personal and realistic feel to your designs.

Lordcorps is a simple and casual display font with a military feel. With its neat and beautiful arrangement of letters, this typeface will look outstanding in both formal and non-formal designs.

A vintage angry looking typeface named "Predators Cuspid". It has a grunge scratched texture effect. Protruding "fangs" can be achieved by using a capital letters. Thank you and have a nice day!

With virtually no characters containing negative space to kern, Mainline JNL is an experimental typeface with a monospaced, fixed width design, utilizing a retro-techno-1980s look for a clean headline feel.

Selaris is a beautiful and feminine serif font created by a romantic and lovely look. Selaris was built with Open Type features, stylistic Alternate and Ligature makes your project will be awesome.

Harrumph is a fat poster style font with a retro look. It comes with contextual and stylistic alternates for every letter and has more diacritics than you can poke a stick at.

Parkitecture JNL is the latest font to embrace the angles and lines of the Art Deco era. Bold and solid in look and feel, it gives nostalgic headlines a "solid" retro appearance.

Paperboy is a hand drawn serif with a whimsical look. With its playful attitude, Paperboy takes out the seriousness that comes with serif fonts, even though it follows the same typographic principles.

WTF Ghosrain is a creepy and spooky looking display font. It is perfectly suitable for any Halloween-related project or crafty idea! This font is perfect for making Halloween poster or flyer.

Golden Treasure is a vintage font with an original, decorative look and seamless connected letters. All available characters you can see on the 5th screenshot. Thank you and have a great day!

Summer Kali is a cool and cute-looking display font. Add to each of your party invitation, swimming gathering or pretty much any design that requires a touch of youth and joy

This font from the same family as Scripio A and Scripio B. The truth it more likely their cousin, very much it is not similar to them. Though looks not so bad.