Avenir Next Pro is a new take on a classic face—it’s the result of a project whose goal was to take a beautifully designed sans and update it so that its technical standards surpass the status quo, leaving us with a truly superior sans family. This family is not only an update though; in fact it is the expansion of the original concept that takes the Avenir Next design to the next level. In addition to the standard styles ranging from ultralight to heavy, this 32-font collection offers condensed faces that rival any other sans on the market in on and off—screen readability at any size alongside heavy weights that would make excellent display faces in their own right and have the ability to pair well with so many contemporary serif body types. Overall, the family’s design is clean, straightforward and works brilliantly for blocks of copy and headlines alike. Akira Kobayashi worked alongside Avenir’s esteemed creator Adrian Frutiger to bring Avenir Next Pro to life. It was Akira’s ability to bring his own finesse and ideas for expansion into the project while remaining true to Frutiger’s original intent, that makes this not just a modern typeface, but one ahead of its time. Avenir Next Variables are font files which are featuring two axis, weight and width. They have a preset instance from UltraLight to Heavy and Condensed to Roman width. The preset instances are: Condensed UltraLight, Condensed UltraLight Italic, Condensed Thin, Condensed Thin Italic, Condensed Light, Condensed Light Italic, Condensed, Condensed Italic, Condensed Demi, Condensed Demi Italic, Condensed Medium, Condensed Medium Italic, Condensed Bold, Condensed Bold Italic, Condensed Heavy, Condensed Heavy Italic, UltraLight, UltraLight Italic, Thin, Thin Italic, Light, Light Italic, Regular, Italic, Demi, Demi Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Heavy, Heavy Italic.

Avenir Next Pro is a new take on a classic face—it’s the result of a project whose goal was to take a beautifully designed sans and update it so that its technical standards surpass the status quo, leaving us with a truly superior sans family. This family is not only an update though; in fact it is the expansion of the original concept that takes the Avenir Next design to the next level. In addition to the standard styles ranging from ultralight to heavy, this 32-font collection offers condensed faces that rival any other sans on the market in on and off—screen readability at any size alongside heavy weights that would make excellent display faces in their own right and have the ability to pair well with so many contemporary serif body types. Overall, the family’s design is clean, straightforward and works brilliantly for blocks of copy and headlines alike. Akira Kobayashi worked alongside Avenir’s esteemed creator Adrian Frutiger to bring Avenir Next Pro to life. It was Akira’s ability to bring his own finesse and ideas for expansion into the project while remaining true to Frutiger’s original intent, that makes this not just a modern typeface, but one ahead of its time. Avenir Next Variables are font files which are featuring two axis, weight and width. They have a preset instance from UltraLight to Heavy and Condensed to Roman width. The preset instances are: Condensed UltraLight, Condensed UltraLight Italic, Condensed Thin, Condensed Thin Italic, Condensed Light, Condensed Light Italic, Condensed, Condensed Italic, Condensed Demi, Condensed Demi Italic, Condensed Medium, Condensed Medium Italic, Condensed Bold, Condensed Bold Italic, Condensed Heavy, Condensed Heavy Italic, UltraLight, UltraLight Italic, Thin, Thin Italic, Light, Light Italic, Regular, Italic, Demi, Demi Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Heavy, Heavy Italic.

Secession is a very readable typeface, suitable for short blocks of text. If you have grown weary of the standard sans-serif faces one sees all the time, you may want to use Secession as a fresh and distinctive substitute. Like Kunstler Grotesk, Secession is one of a number of typeface designs that attempts to reconcile Germany’s blackletter tradition with the international familiarity of roman letterforms in a simple, robust design suitable for meeting the demands of a modern industrial economy, while rejecting the extraneous ornamentation of the departing Victorian era. Unlike Kunstler Grotesk, Secession was designed with a lower case. Secession Bold was originally jointly released as Halbfette Secession by Bauer & Company of Stuttgart and H. Berthold AG of Berlin around 1898. The rest of the family was designed by HiH. The basic family of four: Text, Oblique, Bold and BoldOblique are available in two versions: one set with the standard contemporary lining or ranging numerals for spreadsheets and tables and one set of old-style figures (with OSF in font name) for use with text. The two versions of the basic family, Secession and Secession OSF were released in July 2006. Cousins include ExtraBold, SCOSF Text, and two multi-lingual versions of the text weight. Secession ML includes the Latin Extended-A character set in unicode format plus 17 ligatures and a few strays. Secession GreekML has all the characters of the ML version plus the unicode Greek set and 17 Greek ligatures. Release of the cousins took place in August and October of 2006. Click on BUYING CHOICES. Click on GLYPHS and use drop-down menus and slider to see the all the glyphs for the various fonts. Similar: Birmingham (Ref 100 Ornamental Alphabets, Solo); Spartana (Art Nouveau Display Alphabets, Solo)

Night Train is a new font built from the ground up; while Night Train may resemble an old classic wood type there are a few lines that make this font a little more modern setting it apart from other wood type revivals. If you're a railroad enthusiast you're sure to enjoy the steam locomotive graphic located on the less than and greater than keys on all versions of this font, due to the fine detail of this train illustration the best printing results will be at 600dpi or higher on a laser printer. An alternate K and R are within the Night Train fonts, for Win Type1 these alternates are on the left and right bracket keys, for Truetype and OpenType you may access the alternates by using the Character Map in Windows or Adobe Illustrator, for OpenType you may also find them on the stylistic alternates page of the glyph map in Illustrator. There's something new with Night Train that the sign making people will love, for the first time FontMesa is pleased to offer a block shadowed version in four directions. One fill font is all that is needed for all four open faced fonts, you'll need an application that works in layers in order to use the fill font with the open faced fonts, simply place the fill font in its own layer then move it behind one of the open faced fonts of Night Train. The Night Train name has been on my list to use as a font name for a few years, a friend from years ago used to sail his boat in the Mackinac race from Chicago to Mackinac Island, the name of that boat was the Night Train. Watching the 2010 Olympic four man U.S. bobsled team win gold with their sled also called Night Train has inspired me to complete this font.

Designed for global branding and supporting 93 languages, the SST® typefaces blend the organic readability and controlled structure of modern sans serif designs. In combining these attributes, the SST family is understated, versatile – and sure to be a timeless design. The SST Pan-European family has 17 fonts in total, supporting the W1G character set. It spans six weights from ultra light to heavy, each with an italic complement. In addition, three condensed designs and two monospaced (typewriter) typefaces were drawn to further expand the family’s vast range of uses. SST’s subtle design traits provide a quietly handsome and consistently friendly typographic presence that can be used for just about any typographic application. Broad range branding applicability combined with coverage for almost a hundred languages, makes SST one of the most widely accessible and usable typefaces available. Originally designed in partnership with the global consumer brand, Sony, the SST family is one of the most comprehensive type families available. Since extensive multi-lingual support was a critical design goal from the beginning, Akira Kobayashi, Monotype type director and primary designer on the project, turned to a network of local designers around the world for their individual language expertise. As a result, the details – which could be as subtle as stroke curvature and width – are consistent across Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic and multiple Asian languages. SST performs equally well in print and on-screen and the designs can be used at very small sizes in packaging and catalogs; while massive print headlines – even complicated wayfinding projects pose no stumbling blocks to the family’s typographic dexterity. While the family is also large enough to manage complicated typographic hierarchy, SST pairs handsomely with typefaces as far reaching as ITC Berkeley Old Style®, Meta®, PMN Caecilia®, Malabar® and Neue Swift®.

Introducing the spookiest typeface on the block—Darkheart! With its condensed horror style, this font will send shivers down your spine. The interlocking letterforms are reminiscent of the monstrous creatures that roamed the silver screen in the 1960s. Darkheart’s eerie letters will give your message a mournful and terrifying voice, perfect for any horror-themed project. Use this font to create movie posters, book covers, or even Halloween party invitations. And, for your convenience, Darkheart is designed with ligatures that automatically create interlinked combinations. No need to fiddle around with separate letters, let the font work its magic and create the perfect spine-tingling message. Don’t miss out on this creepy typeface—get Darkheart today and let the monsters lurch to life! 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.

TextTile is a system of heavy sans titling faces which can be utilized to carry a repeating chromatic pattern across words and letters. It stands apart from other chromatic faces, where layered effects typically interact only within each letter and do not carry through from one letter to another. The pattern repetition across letters of varying widths is achieved through OpenType substitution, using conditional alternates for each successive letter to allow for a seamless appearance across words, regardless of letter combinations. Though the pattern exists on a strict grid and the letters' widths and spacing must be highly regular in order to preserve the pattern repeat, the letterforms themselves are not rigid; rather, they appear organic, lively. The initial release includes patterns inspired by a classic buffalo plaid, separated into its horizontal and vertical components to maximize the creative possibilities for layering one-, two-, three-, and even four-color plaid patterns. Kits are available to produce the plaid pattern in detail—with overlapping diagonal hatching fully visible—or as a simplified version in which transparency can be used to simulate plaid or to create a checkered or striped effect. The TextTile family of fonts is a flexible canvas for mixing and matching a broad array of patterns to create a unique look. Check back for more pattern releases and take a look at the online specimen to see what is possible with the current offerings. Usage Notes For best results use an OpenType aware program. Enabling Contextual Alternates will ensure pattern alignment. For patterns that are made up of vertical stripes or columns using the Stylistic Alternate/Stylistic Set 1 will shift the columns. Stylistic Set 2 will change 1-0 into blocks of patterns.

Minimal, modular, modern—at first glance, Materia shows a contemporary flair, combining pure, strong geometrical form with a subtle, distinct appearance. Actually, the design was inspired by lettering from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century that still can be found in the East of France. While its formal origins date back as far as this, revived e. g. by the constructivists into the nineteen twenties and later on by Dutch information designer Wim Crouwel in the nineteen-sixties, the visual language of Materia still speaks of the »future«. Following a minimalistic concept the font is formally built on a grid. Wherever optical curves are needed for a smoother, more comfortable shape of letters than a simple rectangular block, diagonals cut off the egdes – like a diamond is cut to achieve more beauty. Thus headlines and texts set in Materia are given a certain »egdy« feeling, whereas their tonality is still kept well-balanced, keeping concentation all on information in a nonconfomist way. Materia comes in eight styles, from elegant Thin to attention-forcing Ultra. Even a regular Italic is available, following the classic type-set-principle. Two of the styles are explicitly designed for display use, Shadow and Code. Both are ready for combinations with Bold or each other respectively, the layering of Shadow and Code e. g. allows astonishing effects or highlighting within the letters. For OpenType-users Materia is a real Pro, containing accented Latin letters for over 70 languages, small caps, old style, tabular and lining figures and special condensed titling all caps for cases in which space is all that counts. How useful all of the above mentioned is may be seen in the book David Lynch – Lithos, designed by Koma Amok, published in 2010 by item éditions, Paris, and Hatje Cantz, Germany, which was typeset completely in Materia.

Kake’s upper case letters are inspired by a hand-painted sign outside a temple in Ubud, Bali. The rest of the font is made to fit the style. The hand-made aesthetic is increased by the implementation of contextual alternates, which automatically swap glyphs to alternate forms to avoid the monotony of repeating letters. The amount of variations for each glyph is dependent on letter frequency in English; there are more a’s and e’s than q’s and j’s. Even with only two variations of some glyphs, the programming makes sure that no two matching glyphs are ever next to eachother, and for the most part they will rarely be even two letters apart. This all makes for type that looks like it isn't type. The glyphs bounce and subtly change weight with willful abandon. Some of the letters on that original sign are somewhat quirky. If you're not a fan you can engage stylistic alternates or stylistic sets to change the C, G, S, Y, c, s and y glyphs to a less idiosyncratic form. These variations still have variations themselves, so with contextual alternates on, they will look as random as all the rest. Case sensitive forms and automatic fractions are included, as are 98 ornaments, ranging from the useful to the (let’s just say) esoteric. These can be accessed from the glyph palette. I know you've probably never realized you need an anchor, a fuel pump, skull and crossbones and chess symbols in the same font before, but that doesn't mean you don't! Kake is full on display typography. It’s legible for small blocks of copy but don't go setting essays in it. Unless you really want to... in which case, go for it.

Defense is an unyielding rectangular slab-serif stencil face designed with consistently balanced letterforms and a refined finish. It’s extremely angular geometric form commands attention in display settings, yet is also legible in short text blocks. The stencil mark width varies accordingly with each weight, helping to further define each style. Numerous alternate character sets allow room for customization, while the expanded ligatures push letter combinations to the limit. Stylistically, Defense’s almost crude, sharp-cornered construction is balanced by it’s sophisticated finish and attention to detail, often unrealized in similar faces of this genre. The upright weights are complimented by pairings of true italics, completely rebuilt, slightly narrower in width with modified letterforms, increasing their contrast and flow. Features include: Precision kerning Standard Ligatures set including 'f' ligatures (fi, fl, ff, fh, fj, ffl, ffi, ffj) Discretionary Ligatures set including (ft, rt, ae, oe, st, ft, ct, oc, oo, ry, AE, OE, AL, TH, HE, AK, AN, TT, HD, AM, AP, AR, NF, NE, NH, NL, NB, FL, ND, FE, AB, OB, OD, OF, OG, OH, OK, OL, OM, ON, OO, OP, OQ, OR, OU, AH, UE, UF, UB, UD, UH, UK, UL, UM, UN, UP, UR, UU, MP, XY, YX, KY, WY, VY, AF, FF, FI) Alternate characters (O, o, S, s, a, h circumflex, @, ®, ™, ¶, $, &, _, and various ligature alternates) Case forms (shifts various punctuation marks up to a position that works better with all-capital sequences) Capital Spacing (globally adjusts inter-glyph spacing for all-capital text) Slashed zero Full set of numerators/denominators Automatic fraction feature (supports any fraction combination) Extended language support (Latin-1 and Latin Extended-A) *Requires an application with OpenType and/or Unicode support.

I fell in love at the age of twelve in Wales, recalls Bernard Philpot. "My father brought me to a small graveyard in the Welsh hills to show me two headstones carved by the great Eric Gill. I instantly fell in love with the beauty of the carving and the perfection of the letterforms. I still go back to marvel at these works of art." However, the ITC Bolthole™ design, Philpot's first commercial typographic endeavor, is quite unlike the works of Eric Gill that first captured his heart. Bolthole is a craggy sans serif with a definite grumpy attitude. It's not terribly legible, and, if more than a few words are set in the design, it's not very readable. To round out its cranky personality, Bolthole does not like to be set in small sizes. Like Cheez Whiz® and bullfights, you either love or hate this typeface. But whichever emotion dominates, there is no denying that Bolthole has a personality to be reckoned with - one with ample magnetism to ensure reader attraction. If used to set brief blocks of display copy, the typeface makes a powerful statement. Bolthole was originally designed to complement a whimsical ad for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. As Philpot recalls, "although the ad didn't win any awards, the type attracted some very positive comments for its original look and feel." Philpot studied graphic design and typography at the London School of Printing, and soon after graduation found himself working in a large advertising agency in London. According to Philpot, "After designing type for everything from packaging to ads, I thought it time to convert one of my designs into a complete font - and Bolthole was born." ITC Bolthole could very well be the Shrek™ of typeface design - which might not be such a bad thing."

Helvetica’s 50-year anniversary celebrations in 2007 were overwhelming and contagious. We saw the movie. Twice. We bought the shirts and the buttons. We dug out the homage books and re-read the hate articles. We mourned the fading non-color of an old black shirt proudly exclaiming that “HELVETICA IS NOT AN ADOBE FONT”. We took part in long conversations discussing the merits of the Swiss classic, that most sacred of typographic dreamboats, outlasting its builder and tenants to go on alone and saturate the world with the fundamental truth of its perfect logarithm. We swooned again over its subtleties (“Ah, that mermaid of an R!”). We rehashed decades-old debates about “Hakzidenz,” “improvement in mind” and “less is more.” We dutifully cursed every single one of Helvetica’s knockoffs. We breathed deeply and closed our eyes on perfect Shakti Gawain-style visualizations of David Carson hack'n'slashing Arial — using a Swiss Army knife, no less — with all the infernal post-brutality of his creative disturbance and disturbed creativity. We then sailed without hesitation into the absurdities of analyzing Helvetica’s role in globalization and upcoming world blandness (China beware! Helvetica will invade you as silently and transparently as a sheet of rice paper!). And at the end of a perfect celebratory day, we positively affirmed à la Shakti, and solemnly whispered the energy of our affirmation unto the universal mind: “We appreciate Helvetica for getting us this far. We are now ready for release and await the arrival of the next head snatcher.” The great hype of Swisspalooza '07 prompted a look at Max Miedinger, the designer of Neue Haas Grotesk (later renamed to Helvetica). Surprisingly, what little biographical information available about Miedinger indicates that he was a typography consultant and type sales rep for the Haas foundry until 1956, after which time he was a freelance graphic designer — rather than the full-time type designer most Helvetica enthusiasts presume him to have been. It was under that freelance capacity that he was commissioned to design the regular and bold weights of Neue Haas Grotesk typeface. His role in designing Helvetica was never really trumpeted until long after the typeface attained global popularity. And, again surprisingly, Miedinger designed two more typefaces that seem to have been lost to the dust of film type history. One is called Pro Arte (1954), a very condensed Playbill-like slab serif that is similar to many of its genre. The other, made in 1964, is much more interesting. Its original name was Horizontal. Here it is, lest it becomes a Haas-been, presented to you in digital form by Canada Type under the name of its original designer, Miedinger, the Helvetica King. The original film face was a simple set of bold, panoramically wide caps and figures that give off a first impression of being an ultra wide Gothic incarnation of Microgramma. Upon a second look, they are clearly more than that. This face is a quirky, very non-Akzidental take on the vernacular, mostly an exercise in geometric modularity, but also includes some unconventional solutions to typical problems (like thinning the midline strokes across the board to minimize clogging in three-storey forms). This digital version introduces four new weights, ranging from Thin to Medium, alongside the bold original. The Miedinger package comes in all popular font formats, and supports Western, Central and Eastern European languages, as well as Esperanto, Maltese, Turkish and Celtic/Welsh. A few counter-less alternates are included in the fonts.