In 1948, Mergenthaler Linotype released the first weights of Trade Gothic, designed by Jackson Burke. Over the next 12 years Burke, who was the company’s Director of Typographic Development from 1948 through 1963, continued to expand the family. Trade Gothic Next is the 2008 revision of Jackson Burke’s design. Developed over a prolonged period of time, the original Trade Gothic showed many inconsistencies. Under the direction of Linotype’s Type Director Akira Kobayashi, American type designer Tom Grace, a graduate of the MA Typeface Design in Reading, redesigned, revised and expand the Trade Gothic family. Many details were improved, such as the terminals and stroke endings, symbols, and the spacing and kerning. Moreover, there are newly added compressed widths and heavy weights perfect for setting even more powerful headlines. Trade Gothic Next brings more features and better quality for today’s demanding typographers. Trade Gothic Next® font field guide including best practices, font pairings and alternatives.

Scrittura was inspired by Anton Scholtz’s font, Honeybird, and developed into a contemporary variation with three styles. Scrittura Moderna: sleek and calligraphic. A dramatic, vigorous yet elegant font, whose upright letter shapes flow into each other like molten gold. Use Moderna for marketing cosmetics and clothing, for book covers, greeting cards, wedding stationery. Scrittura Antiqua: weathered, almost grungy. A new font with an “antique” look , reminiscent of ancient parchment manuscripts. Use Antiqua for certificates, medieval banquet or wedding stationery, theatre posters and programs, and book covers. Scrittura Fantasia: magical and ghostly. A slightly distorted, evoking Halloween, the Day of the Dead, and your favorite horror movie. Use Fantasia for horror comic covers & posters, horror movie posters, CD covers, Halloween material. The font contains over 272 characters - (upper and lower case characters, punctuation, numerals, symbols and accented characters are present). It also includes "open-type"characters to enhance the flow of the text. It has all the accented characters used in the major European languages.

In August of 2009, I was commissioned by Zoo York, a New York City based skateboard company, to visit Buenos Aires to study and document street typography. As soon as my taxi driver took the bustling street Entre Ríos, it was clear that the city and I were going to be good friends. Many of the independently owned businesses on Entre Ríos are adorned with handmade signage. These signs are painted in a style called Fileteado which is a century-old Argentinian type of lettering and floral ornamentation. Nowadays, Fileteado is still a prominent part of the city’s landscape, coloring the façades of restaurants, bars and coffee shops. Calaveras and Diablitos are two new typefaces that were inspired by Fileteado. Stylistically, the fonts are a return to a rhythmic and playful sensibility reminiscent of Vitrina and Cuba, two fonts that I designed in 1996. Along with dynamism and dance, these new fonts incorporate a rigor and functionality essential to labelling any font a ‘workhorse.’ The names Calaveras and Diablitos, came from the name of a song by the infamous Buenos Aires rock band, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. —Pablo A. Medina

In August of 2009, I was commissioned by Zoo York, a New York City based skateboard company, to visit Buenos Aires to study and document street typography. As soon as my taxi driver took the bustling street Entre Ríos, it was clear that the city and I were going to be good friends. Many of the independently owned businesses on Entre Ríos are adorned with handmade signage. These signs are painted in a style called Fileteado which is a century-old Argentinian type of lettering and floral ornamentation. Nowadays, Fileteado is still a prominent part of the city’s landscape, coloring the façades of restaurants, bars and coffee shops. Calaveras and Diablitos are two new typefaces that were inspired by Fileteado. Stylistically, the fonts are a return to a rhythmic and playful sensibility reminiscent of Vitrina and Cuba, two fonts that I designed in 1996. Along with dynamism and dance, these new fonts incorporate a rigor and functionality essential to labelling any font a ‘workhorse.’ The names Calaveras and Diablitos, came from the name of a song by the infamous Buenos Aires rock band, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. —Pablo A. Medina

handwritten decorative variable font A few fonts already exist which have been drawn in accordance with the exact same principles. But these are just drawn - only drawn. The ANATOLE FRANCE retains the hand script character in spite of its stringent composition. An old portfolio of script patterns from the 1920s or 1930s, which appeared in the Georg D. W. Callwey Publishing House in Munich, includes among its pages one with a handwritten poster script, as was very typical for the 1920s. To begin with, there is the emphasized decorative character, which stands out due to stressing the stems. Next, the attempt to portray the character forms with the help of a few but always recurring basic elements is driven to the limits. Theoretically speaking, that which should have led to a contrived, geometrically determined type, obtains a likeable and pleasant look through the ductus of the manually guided brush. The classic version of ANATOLE FRANCE includes 5 fonts: Light, SemiLight, Normal, SemiBold, Bold. The variable font allows seamless font weights from 300 (Light) to 700 (Bold). Alternate letterforms are available through the appropriate OpenType features: style set 1 (O Q V) style set 2 (v w)

Tramuntana 1 Pro was inspired by the late Renaissance and Mannerist spirit and it was designed by Ricardo Santos during 2009 for his Master in Advanced Typography (Eina-Barcelona). This project was also inspired by Robert Granjon, Garamond and Sabon typefaces. The name tramuntana (Tramontane) is the Catalonian word for the cold wind that comes from the Pyrenees mountains and goes as far as the Balearic Islands. It was designed for editorial purposes (books and magazines). This typeface family contains different font versions for different optical sizes, caption, text, subhead and display, all of them with different x-height proportions and contrast. The serifs are asymmetrical and the letterforms have geometric modulated strokes which simulates the calligraphic variations. Its design approach gives a dynamic feeling, contributing to text flow and continuous reading. The kerning has been optimized for Baltic languages and Western, Southern, and Central European languages.

Originally ZionTrain was built as a (probably first in Cyrillic!) navigation typeface for the Kharkiv identity project and Kharkiv subway and airport navigation systems. We wanted comprehensible, distinctive letterforms, that can help everybody on the way from Babylon to Zion. The project was used in Kharkiv promotion at homeland and abroad, but was rejected by the new government. As a corporate typeface it was used for a few cultural projects.

Sneakers was a typeface that I originally drew all the way back in 2005, with a release in 2006. Its most recent iteration, Sneakers Pro was released in 2009. Since then, the idea of reworking the design has lingered in the back of my head, but I wanted to add additional flexibility and value to anything offered beyond the originals. Sneakers Max does just that and I am happy to see it released and available to everyone. Sneakers Max raises the bar in terms of functionality… incorporating all of the options found in Sneakers Pro (e.g. Small Caps and a biform/unicase located now in Titling Alternates), but it expands the character offering, improves on letter designs (everything was redrawn) and explores more flexible settings by providing 5 distinct counter widths to keep more uniform multi-line settings with mixed letter heights. Special thanks to Potch Auacherdkul for his additions to the original character set and for his engineering skills.

Oriental Ornaments was inspired by the ancient design motifs of the far east. There is an assortment of 85 ornaments located under the character set and shift + character set keys.

DF Tapa is a typeface based on the vernacular, popular graphics used in Spain. They proudly announce the daily fresh snacks which are homemade and served in every proper bar.

Classic Grotesque by Rod McDonald: a traditional font with a modern face. The growing popularity of grotesque typefaces meant that many new sans serif analogues were published in the early 20th century. Setting machines were not compatible with each other but all foundries wanted to offer up-to-date fonts, and as a result numerous different typeface families appeared that seem almost identical at first glance and yet go their separate ways with regard to details. One of the first fonts created with automatic typesetting in mind was Monotype Grotesque®. Although this typeface that was designed and published by Frank Hinman Pierpont in 1926 has since been digitalised, it has never achieved the status of other grotesque fonts of this period. But Monotype Grotesque was always one of designer Rod McDonald’s favourites, and he was overjoyed when he finally got the go-ahead from Monotype in 2008 to update this “hidden treasure”. The design process lasted four years, with regular interruptions due to the need to complete projects for other clients. In retrospect, McDonald admits that he had no idea at the beginning of just how challenging and complex a task it would be to create Classic Grotesque™. It took him considerable time before he found the right approach. In his initial drafts, he tried to develop Monotype Grotesque only to find that the result was almost identical with Arial®, a typeface that is also derived in many respects from Monotype Grotesque. It was only when he went back a stage, and incorporated elements of Bauer Font’s Venus™ and Ideal Grotesk by the Julius Klinkhardt foundry into the design process, that he found the way forward. Both these typefaces had served as the original inspiration for Monotype Grotesque. The name says it all: Classic Grotesque has all the attributes of the early grotesque fonts of the 20th century: The slightly artificial nature gives the characters a formal appearance. There are very few and only minor variations in line width. The tittles of the ‘i’ and ‘j’, the umlaut diacritic and other diacritic marks are rectangular. Interestingly, it is among the uppercase letters that certain variations from the standard pattern can be found, and it is these that enliven the typeface. Hence the horizontal bars of the “E”, “F” and “L” have bevelled terminals. The chamfered terminal of the bow of the “J” has a particular flamboyance, while the slightly curved descender of the “Q” provides for additional dynamism. The character alternatives available through the OpenType option provide the designer with a wealth of opportunities. These include a closed “a”, a double-counter “g” and an “e” in which the transverse bar deviates slightly from the horizontal. The seven different weights also extend the scope of uses of Classic Grotesque. These range from the delicate Light to the super thick Extrabold. There are genuine italic versions of each weight; these are not only slightly narrower than their counterparts, but also have variant shapes. The “a” is closed, the “f” has a semi-descender while the “e” is rounded. Its neutral appearance and excellent features mean that Classic Grotesque is suitable for use in nearly all imaginable applications. Even during the design phase, McDonald used his new font to set books and in promotional projects. However, he would be pleased to learn of possible applications that he himself has not yet considered. Classic Grotesque, which has its own individual character despite its neutral and restrained appearance, is the ideal partner for your print and web project.

Hispania Script is a distinctive and distinctly nineteenth century script. It was released by Schelter & Giesecke of Leipzig, Germany around 1890. Particularly noteworthy are the sharply-pointed legs of the upper case ‘K’ & ‘R’ that seem to be characteristic of the period. Similar strokes, often with a slight curve, may be seen in typefaces like Alt-Romanish and Tinteretto by Schelter & Giesecke, Artistic and Lateinsch by Bauer and Berthold and the poster lettering of Edward Penfield. The angle of this script (approximately 24 degrees) and the sharp delicate points must have made the manufacture of this face in metal type a challenge. The resulting type was probably quite fragile and subject to accidental damage. Additionally, the sharp points would be subject to wear. With digital type, these concerns are eliminated. As far as I know, no one has ever dropped a digital letter on the floor. Nonetheless, creating a digital outline for a typeface like Hispania Script, with many crossing strokes, can be quite time-consuming. Even with an accurate scan of a good quality original, it is usually necessary to construct each crossing stroke separately and then remove the overlap in order to obtain a sharp and convincing intersection. Steep internal angles are often defined with two points, rather than one, to minimize ink or toner fill that can muddy the rendering in smaller sizes. Like all formal scripts, Hispania Script is always useful for announcements and invitations. However, the distinctiveness of of this design strongly suggests that there are other applications that may benefit from its use. Step outside the box and try it in some unexpected places. It is the unexpected that often draws a person’s eye.

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.

A long time ago, I lived and worked in the English Lake District. When I first arrived there, I camped out not far from a neolithic monument called Castlerigg Stone Circle. Castlerigg Stone Circle is one of the most beautiful stone circles in the whole of Britain; the views are great and it makes for a nice walk from Keswick. This rather grungy font was made with a Sharpie pen I initially wanted to throw away, because it was dry, but then decided I could at least get one more font out of it. The result is Castlerigg - a rather neolithic looking all caps font. Castlerigg comes with double letter ligatures for the lower case.

Gothiks is a powerfull 6-weight display sanserif influenced by Texturas. The rithm and verticality of Texturas can be easily identified on the letters with diagonal strokes like A N M K k V v W w X x Y y Z z: here they are all vertical. This kind of morphology was chosen because it accepts condensation in a very natural way, giving to this compact sanserif a very unique personality. The intermediate weights can be used for short texts while extreme weights are excellent for big sizes. It has an extensive character set — with extensive language support — and many OpenType features like fractions, small capitals and different figure sets. Default figures align with lowercase.

Zira is a playful hand-drawn font family designed by Daniel Bak (Artcity). It is available in three handy weights: regular, bold and screaming. It contains international language accent marks and diacriticals, including Greek and Cyrillic. Zira can be considered as smoothed serif version of Cornelius font. Zira as Cornelius as well is a chimpanzee character in the novel and movie series Planet of the Apes. Dr. Zira is a chimpanzee psychologist and veterinarian, who specializes in the study of humans, in the novel and subsequent movie series Planet of the Apes. Zira was played in the first three Apes movies by actress Kim Hunter. Unique among the Apes characters, Zira has blue eyes. Zira is the fiancée (later wife) of Cornelius, and both are ultimately responsible to the Minister of Science, Dr. Zaius. Zira's character and role are essentially the same in both the novel and the movies, though some story details differ. Her work in each involves both working with humans under laboratory conditions (e.g. learning and behavioural experiments), and working on them physically (lobotomy and other brain surgeries, vivisection, physical endurance and tolerance experiments, and subsequent autopsies). Zira is an outspoken liberal by nature, deploring war and militancy (and despising the gorillas, who seem to make both a way of life), and eager to seek and develop intelligence anywhere it can be found. Zira literally stands for her principles - or refuses to stand, as the case may be.

This font can be used as a play'n learn tool to teach the meaning of these modern day communication symbols. Each alphabetical character can be printed with or without the corresponding roman symbols. NOTE: comes with an interpretation guide in pdf format.

Here's another collection of ornate border elements gleaned from the 1888 specimen books of James Conner's Sons United States Type Foundry in New York City. Refer to the PDF guide for detailed, yet simple, instructions for constructing nine delightfully different border patterns.

This font can be used as a play'n learn tool to teach the meaning of these modern day communication symbols. Each alphabetical character can be printed with or without the corresponding roman symbols. NOTE: comes with an interpretation guide in pdf format.

This font can be used as a play'n learn tool to teach the meaning of these modern day communication symbols. Each alphabetical character can be printed with or without the corresponding roman symbols. NOTE: comes with an interpretation guide in pdf format.

This font can be used as a play'n learn tool to teach the meaning of these modern day communication symbols. Each alphabetical character can be printed with or without the corresponding roman symbols. NOTE: comes with an interpretation guide in pdf format.

BC Away is a display typeface. It has emerged from the idea of drawing letterforms with a single-line path. Thanks to this idea, the characters are designed out of standard and conventional forms. Character designs are a combination of sharp corners and smooth curves, at the same time keeping readability. Some parts have been left blank in accordance with the letter forms. The name 'Away' represents these blanks. Also, the word 'a way' refers to the design of letterforms using a single-way.

Switched On and Switched Off where two fonts developed by placing points on a pre-defined square grid template. The experiment was to explore all the variations possible by just using straight connecting lines on a grid. I stumbled on the final concept, almost accidentally, and was amazed by the numerous possibilities. Both designs where created to work together. By adjusting the stroke and inline proportions between the two fonts, I was able to achieve a good overall color balance between 'Switched On' (dark letters on a light background), and the 'Switched Off' design as a knockout treatment (light letters on a dark background). Used in this way, both fonts visually appear similar in overall weight and proportion. They harmonize well together. Used separately, they make for some interesting visual effects and headline treatments. The fonts are best used at large point sizes, but they are still legible in a variety of smaller sizes. I think that by experimenting with these two fonts one can achieve some stunning visual effects. Explore and have fun.

Carnero™ is a feisty hybrid of precise geometry and calligraphic flair; a design that walks that fine line between being sensible and a standout. In an increasingly monotone typographic landscape – Carnero has a unique pulse that moves the reader along with a new energy. Carnero gives life to simple utility with kinetic letter shapes, open apertures, and generous counters Drawn by Steve Matteson for the Monotype Studio, Carnero’s versatility is its strength. From digital ads and applications to packaging and branding, Carnero is comfortable and contemporary. The lightest and boldest weights create inviting headlines, while the middle weights read well for body copy. Used together, they build a lively brand and a clear hierarchy. Matteson infused Carnero with a modernist exterior resting on a 10th century calligraphic foundation. Delightful flourishes on the capital R and K, and lowercase a, k and l, give the design a distinctive demeanor; while the alternate italic swash caps are a saucy nod to the scribes. The result is a design that is warm, approachable – and a bit lighthearted. Matteson describes Carnero as, “transcending the static posture of the geometric sans genre.” The Carnero family is a compact collection of six distinct weights, ranging from an engaging light to an authoritative black, each with an italic counterpart. Its extended Latin character set ensures worry-free localization for eastern/western European languages. This is a design that will prove its value many times over. Matteson has drawn over 80 distinctive typeface families for major corporations, branding firms and retail sales. His passions for the outdoors and performing music balances an intense focus on work – and subtly finds its way into typefaces like Carnero. Matteson has designed custom fonts for three generations of the Microsoft Xbox® game console, the original core fonts for the Android® mobile-phone platform, in addition to branding typefaces for Toyota®, Rocket Mortgage®, and Google®. He also drew the Kootenay™ family, Monotype’s proprietary branding typeface. Matteson’s retail designs range from the elegant and utilitarian Open Serif™ (a companion to Google’s Open Sans), to a growing series of Frederic Goudy revivals. Carnero Variables are font files which are featuring one axis and have a preset instance from Light to Black.

Carnero™ is a feisty hybrid of precise geometry and calligraphic flair; a design that walks that fine line between being sensible and a standout. In an increasingly monotone typographic landscape – Carnero has a unique pulse that moves the reader along with a new energy. Carnero gives life to simple utility with kinetic letter shapes, open apertures, and generous counters. Drawn by Steve Matteson for the Monotype Studio, Carnero’s versatility is its strength. From digital ads and applications to packaging and branding, Carnero is comfortable and contemporary. The lightest and boldest weights create inviting headlines, while the middle weights read well for body copy. Used together, they build a lively brand and a clear hierarchy. Matteson infused Carnero with a modernist exterior resting on a 10th century calligraphic foundation. Delightful flourishes on the capital R and K, and lowercase a, k and l, give the design a distinctive demeanor; while the alternate italic swash caps are a saucy nod to the scribes. The result is a design that is warm, approachable – and a bit lighthearted. Matteson describes Carnero as, “transcending the static posture of the geometric sans genre.” The Carnero family is a compact collection of six distinct weights, ranging from an engaging light to an authoritative black, each with an italic counterpart. Its extended Latin character set ensures worry-free localization for eastern/western European languages. This is a design that will prove its value many times over. Matteson has drawn over 80 distinctive typeface families for major corporations, branding firms and retail sales. His passions for the outdoors and performing music balances an intense focus on work – and subtly finds its way into typefaces like Carnero. Matteson has designed custom fonts for three generations of the Microsoft Xbox® game console, the original core fonts for the Android® mobile-phone platform, in addition to branding typefaces for Toyota®, Rocket Mortgage®, and Google®. He also drew the Kootenay™ family, Monotype’s proprietary branding typeface. Matteson’s retail designs range from the elegant and utilitarian Open Serif™ (a companion to Google’s Open Sans), to a growing series of Frederic Goudy revivals. Carnero Variables are font files which are featuring one axis and have a preset instance from Light to Black.

Hi Everyone! Introducing our newest font : BRACING ! This is a new modern “racing speed car motor theme” display font. BRACING is a sophisticated cool font which will be perfect for branding, logo, sticker, decal, signage, flyer, brochure etc. There are many industries that is suitable for this font : car, racing, automotive, tournament, cup, futuristic startup, etc

The first release of XLaserTrain, a toy train font, was constructed by taking bits from the four LetterTrain fonts. Version 2, released in late 2010, added a great many cars with holiday and party themes. The bold version has smoke over the cars and you may have to adjust line spacing (leading) to have it display properly.

After the Second World War, the Ionic style replaced Modern Face as the favored typeface for newsprint. A couple decades later, it was in turn replaced by the next generation of newspaper fonts, a mix of Old Face, Transitional and Modern Face forms. Olympian itself tends toward the Old Face style but is nevertheless an example of this new generation, a result of a time of change and experimentation.

This book and newspaper font was designed by Francesco Simoncini in 1958. After the Second World War brought type design to a standstill, the years of reconstruction meant a reconsideration of old values in the typographical world as well as in Europe in general. Aster is the result of this movement, displaying instead of Modern Face influence, a tendency toward Transitional characteristics and giving text a light feel.

Soldier Slab Stencil Dstrssd. is a grungy military stencil font. The bold slab characters provide a great base to present the distressed effect. The font has been developed from a war related computer game project. The font contains 26 letters of the English alphabet in capitals and alternative capitals are represented when typing in lowercase letters. Each font also contains numbers, punctuation and a range of Latin characters as displayed.

Ciseaux was inspired and is dedicated to the art of paper cutting. Early paper cutting artists were often royalty, but it soon became a folk art practiced by commoners whose cutouts decorated their homes. By the seventeenth century it had spread throughout the world. The Japanese called it Mon-kiri, the German's Scherenschnitte and Turkey even boasted a guild devoted to the art form. In Poland the designs were traditionally symmetrical and often used layers of colors to form pictorial collages. When Russian invaders confiscated scissors, villagers were found to cut their intricate designs with sheep shears! The art form later developed into cutting out elaborate designs of nature scenes and people, celebrating special occasions and even decorating legal documents. Ciseaux letterforms mimic paper cutting art in its shapes with a rather loose and almost joyous rhythm. The overall effect is somewhat earthy and natural yet it has an element of sophistication that cannot be ignored. Just like paper cutting, Ciseaux can be used for special occasions like invitations, brochures, identities, restaurant menus, and if you dare, some awesome looking paper graffiti. Available in TT, PS and Opentype for Mac and Windows.

Gimcrack is "showy but cheap or badly made" - that's what a search on the internet says. Well, that description fits this font quite well - although it was deliberately made that way!

This is the kind of font which is up to trouble. Not trouble in a bad way, but trouble like when you are in no way prepared what is going to happen. The font is handmade and playful - and to help that playfullness come to live, the 5 different versions of each letter helps! Watch your words change while you write with Budskab! And, by the way..."budskab" is message in danish...just thought you should know!

AwanZaman has a three-phase story, beginning with Dr Mamoun Sakkal’s two Arabic styles and culminating with Juliet Shen’s Latin extension. AwanZaman started as simply Awan, a commission for a modern, clean, monoline typeface for writing headlines and story titles in a forward-thinking Kuwaiti newspaper. Awan was based on the geometric forms of Kufic script, while in phase two, a second typeface (Zaman) was designed to add enough calligraphic Naskh details to make it easy to read in demanding newspaper settings. Together these two phases give the typeface a warm, familiar, and progressive look, as well as an explanatory two-part name — AwanZaman. Since most editorials use typical Naskh headline fonts with an exaggerated baseline, Awan’s rational forms immediately distinguish it as a modern and progressive voice in the crowded field of Arabic editorial typefaces. As the companion Arabic typeface, Zaman has the same basic proportions and forms as Awan, but with many cursive, energetic, and playful details. And since modern monoline fonts are increasingly being used to set extended texts, more features were borrowed from Naskh calligraphy to expand the typeface’s use from headlines into text setting. When using the AwanZaman Arabic family, Awan (geometric Kufic forms) is the starting point. To add the sweeping, energetic personality of Zaman (calligraphic Naskh forms), simply activate an alternate character through the option of 20 stylistic sets available in any OpenType-savvy software. The two typefaces function as one file — the AwanZaman Arabic family — allowing users to combine features from both designs to transform the appearance of text from geometric and formal to playful and informal. The third phase of AwanZaman’s development introduced a companion Latin typeface designed by Juliet Shen to fulfil the persistent need in the Arabic fonts market for modern and geometric bilingual type families. Due to the Arabic’s monolinear strokes, AwanZaman Latin was destined to be a sans serif with a tall x-height, larger counters, and corresponding stem thickness to harmonise with the Arabic’s overall text colour and page presence. But it needed much more. One of AwanZaman’s chief assets is making the two languages look on a par when typeset side by side. Arabic and English readers will have a different sense of what that entails, but this type family defers to the Arabic — graceful and artistic with a good mix of straight stems and curved forms. Latin in general doesn’t aesthetically flow the way Arabic does, yet the tone of the Latin needed to mirror both the Arabic’s more squarish curves and formal personality of Awan and the undulating and more playful shapes of Zaman without looking outlandish. That need was met by creating some novel Latin characters, which are accessed through four stylistic sets the same way as AwanZaman Arabic. The alternates are not just clever in the way they look and how they echo the Arabic aesthetic, but also in harmonising the disparate languages and serving designers well when needing a balanced, bilingual text face with a warm and lively voice. AwanZaman is a clever, seven-weight powerhouse that makes extensive use of OpenType’s stylistic sets (20 in the Arabic and four in the Latin) so writers and designers can make the most of everything from a single glyph in display sizes down to dense text in paragraphs. As AwanZaman Arabic has no italic, neither does the Latin; contextual distinction normally handled by italics is achieved by exploiting the family’s seven weights. AwanZaman’s intricate OpenType programming supports Persian and Urdu, with features such as the returning tail of Barri Yeh treated properly. From its inception in geometry to its melding of two worlds with novel forms, AwanZaman is a personal labor by designers Dr Mamoun Sakkal and Juliet Shen, and embodies the TypeTogether ideals of serving the global community with innovative and stylish typeface solutions. The complete AwanZaman Arabic and Latin families, along with our entire catalogue, have been optimised for today’s varied screen uses.

In the course of the re-vitalization of its Typoart typeface inventory, Elsner+Flake decided in 2006 to offer the “Kis Antiqua” by Hildegard Korger, in a re-worked form and with an extended sortiment, as an OpenType Pro-version. After consultation with Hildegard Korger, Elsner+Flake tasked the Leipzig type designer Erhard Kaiser with the execution of the re-design and expansion of the sortiment. Detlef Schäfer writes in “Fotosatzschriften Type-Design+Schrifthersteller”, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 1989: No other printing type has ever generated as far-reaching a controversy as this typeface which Jan Tschichold called the most beautiful of all the old Antiqua types. For a long time, it was thought to have been designed by Anton Janson. In 1720 a large number of the original types were displayed in the catalog of the „Ehrhardische Gycery“ (Ehrhardt Typefoundry) in Leipzig. Recently, thanks to the research performed by Beatrice Warde and especially György Haimann, it has been proven unambiguously that the originator of this typeface was Miklós (Nicholas) Tótfalusi Kis (pronounced „Kisch“) who was born in 1650 in the Hungarian town of Tótfal. His calvinistic church had sent him to the Netherlands to oversee the printing of a Hungarian language bible. He studied printing and punch cutting and earned special recognition for his Armenian and Hebrew types. Upon his return to Hungary, an emergency situation forced him to sell several of his matrice sets to the Ehrhardt Typefoundry in Leipzig. In Hungary he printed from his own typefaces, but religious tensions arose between him and one of his church elders. He died at an early age in 1702. The significant characteristics of the “Dutch Antiqua” by Kis are the larger body size, relatively small lower case letters and strong upper case letters, which show clearly defined contrasts in the stroke widths. The “Kis Antiqua” is less elegant than the Garamond, rather somewhat austere in a calvinistic way, but its expression is unique and full of tension. The upper and lower case serifs are only slightly concave, and the upper case O as well as the lower case o have, for the first time, a vertical axis. In the replica, sensitively and respectfully (responsibly) drawn by Hildegard Korger, these characteristics of this pleasantly readable and beautiful face have been well met. For Typoart it was clear that this typeface has to appear under its only true name “Kis Antiqua.” It will be used primarily in book design. Elsner+Flake added two headline weights, which are available as a separate font family Kis Antiqua Now TH Pro Designer: Miklós (Nicholas) Tótfalusi Kis, 1686 Hildegard Korger, 1986-1988 Erhard Kaiser, 2008

Centennial Script was designed and cut by Hermann Ihlenburg in 1876 (the centennial of American independence, hence the typeface's name) for the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan foundry in Philadelphia. Ihlenburg was then only 33 years old, and these beautiful forms put him on his way to become the most prolific and innovative deco, ornamental and script typeface designer and punch cutter of the nineteenth century. In trying to be a true homage to the history of the new world, Centennial Script transcends its then-contemporary deco fashion to embrace script elements historically similar to lettering found on maps or political documents of the 18th century. Letters like the p and s extend themselves high and mighty to accentuate words and lines of text in a fancy hand-drawn manner. The dots on the i and j are those of a careful scribe who acknowledges the importance of the document being lettered. The lowercase letters connect with two slight angular motions of the hand, also very carefully and elegantly. Even the ligatures and ending swashes Ihlenburg made for this face were reminiscent of a mapmaker's patient hand, though Ihlenburg's elegant touch in them cannot be mistaken. Although Centennial Script was one of the few Ihlenburg faces to make it to film type technology, the transition was neither credited nor faultless. The film type version was a bit sloppy in the way the connectors were made, so the lowercase needed a lot of manual work to typeset properly. To alleviate such waste of time for the user of this digital version, the connectors were redrawn according to the original metal ones made by Ihlenburg himself, and tested thoroughly in print to ensure the quality of the typeface's flowing cursive nature. This wasn't an easy task, and very time-consuming, since the changing angles on both ends of the connection made it impossible to escape from having to build every lowercase letter with both left and right connectors that would fit with the rest of the letters. This is one typeface that couldn't be revived in any other manner than the way it was originally made, regardless of more than 130 years of technological advances since the face was designed. Centennial Script comes in all popular font formats, and supports most Latin-based languages. Also included is an Alts fonts that contains alternates, ligatures, snap-on swash endings, some ornaments, as well as a complete set of the lowercase without left side connectors, for a more natural combination when following a majuscule, or just in case the user finds it fit to set the copy in a non-connecting script instead of the face's original connected flow. Centennial Script Pro, the OpenType version, combines the main font with the Alts font in a feature-packed single font. Use the ligature feature to set wordmarks like Mr, Ms, Mrs, Dr, and &Co, the stylistic alternates feature to replace some letters with their alternative forms, the contextual alternates feature for better uppercase-lowercase sequences, and the titling feature to set your text in a disconnected script. Centennial Script is the only script we currently know of that can be set connected or disconnected simultaneously, either using the titling feature in the OpenType Pro version, or manually in the other formats.

At one time very recently, serifs were lost to the design sinners of the world. Now see them found again. Unearthed and rediscovered. Retribution is not far off. We have been unchained from the belief that gothics have provided us no way back from a lack of variety and interest.

Paralucent Slab is an addition to the ever-popular Paralucent family. Paralucent is versatile all-purpose modern sans and slab serif design. Available in seven weights, from Thin to Heavy, with corresponding italics, it avoids some of the more eccentric calligraphic quirks of Akzidenz or Helvetica or the cool precision of Univers for an elegant, functional, yet warm design. Several core ideas inform Paralucent’s design. Prime attention has given to the negative space between characters, giving a more even “colour”, especially in text. For example, the J, L and T have shorter arms than comparable sans typefaces, while the M and W are wider. The A has a lower bar, opening up the interior counter. An unusually high lower-case x-height again helps to give a more even colour and improve legibility. Care has been taken to rationalise repeated elements like the tails on lower-case letters, or the Q and the “ear” of the g. Typographic design solutions that are consistent across all these features add more stylistic cohesion. ‘Ink traps’ are exaggerated incisions used to open up a letter's narrower internal angles, which can become clogged with ink, especially in small point sizes. Now largely redundant due to the high quality of modern print, they are still sometimes used as a stylistic quirk or design feature. Now that digital fonts are often reversed or outlined, or enlarged to enormous sizes, these can also lead to unexpected or obtrusive results. Paralucent takes these inevitable digital manipulations into account, and adds optical corrections without resort to ink traps. The family has been picked up by many UK and US publishers, featuring heavily in magazines like Loaded, Heat and TV Quick, as well as high-end coffee-table photography books and gallery websites. The addition of the Slab family adds even more options for running text and headline.

The first thought that crosses a type designer’s mind upon seeing a slab serif is: I wonder what it would look if it was serifless. And so, after building Henderson Slab , I followed my instincts and gave it a sans serif companion. Henderson Sans comes in seven weights plus italics, each of which casting an eye on the crafty lettering origins of what is now the ubiquitous mode of corporate communication. This sans serif is a glyph-for-glyph match for Henderson Slab , inheriting pretty much all of its features and quirks, like the wealth of alternates and swashed variants — simple, endearing or otherwise. Henderson Sans is a family of seven weights plus italics, all full of open features and extended Latin language support. (Basic version do not include alternates, swashes, etc).

There are many script typefaces but there is only one Scripticus. Scripticus is like a chameleon: In whatever surroundings you put it, it adapts itself and looks like it couldn't be anywhere else. Be it a sales advertisement, a music Website, a comic strip or a journal with complex chemical formula – Scripticus always solves the problem in a natural and leisurely way. And it never makes compromises concerning clarity. But where does Scripticus come from? … From the good old high school blackboard! Blackboards have become almost obsolete in teaching, but be it a black or white background – clear, strong characters placed on the board while the facts are explained are still one of the best ways to make and keep things understandable. Scripticus is dedicated to my high school chemistry teacher who was an expert in just this. While the letterforms come from different inspirations, its aim is the same as the pedagogical aim of my teacher: Combining clarity with a strong personality. Scripticus has a special trick to give it its natural look: Four alternates for each letter and each number plus rotation coding make the glyphs appear in lively melodic flow. In this way even mathematic equations look nice! Scripticus has a lot of OT-features that help it do its job. They are: capital spacing, localized forms, subscript, scientific inferiors, superscript, numerators, denominators, fractions, ordinals, tabular figures, historical forms, ligatures, stylistic alternates, stylistic set and ornaments. Finally, as is my general goal in type design – Scripticus supports close to one hundred languages from Latin extended to Cyrillic extended.