I like playing around with brushes and Chinese ink. I always have some kind of idea of what the final design should look like, but once it’s done, it never ever looks like what I had in mind. Apex Brush is one of those designs: it started off as a few brush strokes, but before I knew it, I had a really nice set of matching brush fonts! Use it for any design that needs a bit of rough, a splash of ink and a pinch of rebel.

Years ago the company that developed Fontographer marketed a program called Font-o-Matic, a program that distorted fonts in various ways. 99% of what it produced was garbage, but every once in a while it would yield something interesting. Since I had designed a lot of typefaces by that time, I had lots of material to feed it and it was fun to see what it produced. KolkFizzy is one of rare results that was interesting enough to save and clean up. The source font is Kolkman.

By the late 1920s, lettering and design had already begun to feel the influences of what would become the Art Deco Movement. The sheet music for the 1927 song "Without You Sweetheart" had its title hand lettered in a block style letter with rounded corners – with the exception of the 'S' and 'R' in "Sweetheart"; reflecting design elements of both styles. For consistency, those letters were changed to fit the rest of the design, and the result is the digital font College Nouveau JNL, available in both regular and oblique versions.

Years ago the company that developed Fontographer marketed a program called Font-o-Matic, a program that distorted fonts in various ways. 99% of what it produced was garbage, but every once in a while it would yield something interesting. Since I had designed a lot of typefaces by that time, I had lots of material to feed it and it was fun to see what it produced. BaumSquiggle is one of rare results that was interesting enough to save and clean up. The source font is Baumfuss.

When I was painting this font, I suddenly had the movie Cool Runnings (1993, directed by Jon Turteltaub) in my head. I had to name the font, so I came up with Smooth Brushings. Of course, this font has nothing to do with the movie. Smooth Brushings is an all caps brush font, which was made with a stiff brush and some China Ink. Upper and lower case glyphs can be mixed. It is a very legible and clear font, ideally suited for posters, product packaging and book covers.

The Techno sound of the 1990s, a personal computer, a font creation software and some inspiration had been the sources to the F2F (Face2Face) font series. Alessio Leonardi and his friends had the demand to create new unusual faces that should be used in the leading german techno magazine "Frontpage". Even typeset in 6 point to nearly unreadability it was a pleasure for the kids to read and decrypt the messages. About Al Retto: "Al" means "Alessio Leonardi" and Retto "straight", but if you read it as an italian world means "in the a**".

Can you imagine the delight that the printers of the Incunabula era would have had if they had such a tool as this font with a hundred and fifty glyphs of decorative capitals. The printers of that era were lucky to have more than a handful such delights. These Decorated initials and drop caps are all based on early period exemplars, dating to prior to 1525, from a wide range of printers such as Thomas de Blavis to Günther Zainer. Every Proportional Lime Font comes equipped with a complete character map.

I originally wanted to call this font Instant Pudding. When I was a kid, we sometimes had instant pudding (the ‘add cold milk and rest in the fridge’ kind) for dessert. My brother and I loved the stuff, especially when some of the pudding powder had not dissolved and had turned into brightly coloured speckles! But this font, alas, did not ‘feel’ like instant pudding, so I hunted the internet for other, more obscure, puddings. I found Spoonbread. Apparently it is a pudding-like Southern American dish, made from cornmeal. I have never tasted it, nor do I particularly like corn (most of it is GMO anyway), but the font and the name became friends. And who am I to tear this beautiful relationship asunder? Spoonbread - use it for your packaging, your books, your posters and your games. And when you make Spoonbread, use organic cornmeal!

FranklinGothicHandLight is part of a series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked. When I was in advertising – before computers – a very time consuming part of my daily work was sketching headlines. I used to be able to sketch headlines in Franklin Gothic, Times, Futura, Helvetica and several scripts. We had a kind of huge inverted camera – which we called Lucy. We projected the alphabet onto a sheet of transparent paper, outlined the letters with a fineliner and then filled them in. It was very tedious work, but the resulting headline had its own charm and we had a permanent race going on who was best and fastest. I won most of the time! They used to call me the fastest "Magic Marker" this side of the Atlantic. Great days, just like today! Your sentimental type designer from the past Gert Wiescher

FranklinGothicHandDemi is part of a series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked. When I was in advertising – before computers – a very time consuming part of my daily work was sketching headlines. I used to be able to sketch headlines in Franklin Gothic, Times, Futura, Helvetica and several scripts. We had a kind of huge inverted camera – which we called Lucy. We projected the alphabet onto a sheet of transparent paper, outlined the letters with a fineliner and then filled them in. It was very tedious work, but the resulting headline had its own charm and we had a permanent race going on who was best and fastest. I won most of the time! They used to call me the fastest "Magic Marker" this side of the Atlantic. Great days, just like today! Your sentimental type designer from the past Gert Wiescher

Ela Demiserif is the typeface I originally designed for the business of my second wife and mother of my two sons; her name is, of course, Michaela. Ela - the typeface - is suitable for magazines, newspapers, posters, advertiments, books, text, documentation/business reports, business correspondence, multimedia, and corporate design. Because lately this typeface became very popular I decided to extend it to eight weights and I added italic and smallcaps versions to it. So now Ela is a full fledged typeface.

A Geometrical font. This idea flashed to me in one of the boring classes we had in college. Since its my special masterpiece we come really cheap at its price of just $8.

Günter Jäntsch designed Pierrot in 1973. Its irregular flowing letterforms express the design from this time, where many personal irregular designs had been made. Pierrot is suitable for invitation cards, posters and signage.

The origin of Quirky lay in the Duke Ellington number It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. For some time I had wanted to create a font from expanded stroked lines. I wanted to produce a light-hearted font, but with some classic touches. One day, whilst doodling in Adobe Illustrator, Quirky’s letterforms just appeared on screen as if from nowhere. First I drew the test word ‘hamburgefonts’ and then just kept going, unable to stop. Character after character appeared as if by magic. From the start, Quirky had a life of its own. The letterforms are rather more sophisticated than merely outlined stroked lines. Subtle adjustments to compensate for optical effects have been been incorporated. For example, horizontal stems have thicknesses slightly less than vertical stems and where stems join together, the thickening effect has been reduced by cutting into the joint. Being almost monoline, Quirky works well reversed out of a solid background and for TV credits. The Quirky fonts are fun fonts, so set, laugh and enjoy! I hope Quirky will give you as much pleasure in using it as I got in creating it! Shortly after the roman version was born, an italic version and then a thin version were created to form a family of three fonts.

Monotype Bembo is generally regarded as one of the most handsome revivals of Aldus Manutius' 15th century roman type, but the original had no italic counterpart. The story is told that Stanley Morison commissioned Alfred Fairbank, a renowned calligrapher, to create the first italic for Bembo, which was released as metal fonts in 1929. Alfred Fairbank, however, claimed that he drew the design as an independent project and then sold his drawings to Monotype. According to him, the statement has been made that I was asked to design an italic for the Bembo roman. This is not so. Had the request been made, the italic type produced would have been different." Whichever version you believe, it was obvious that Fairbank's design - while undeniably beautiful - was not harmonious with Bembo roman. A second, more conventional italic was eventually drawn and added to the Bembo family. Fairbank's first design, which was based on the work of sixteenth-century writing master Ludovico degli Arrighi, managed to have a modest life of its own as a standalone font of metal type. It never made the leap into phototype fonts, however, and the face could have been lost, were it not for Robin Nicholas, Monotype Imaging's Head of Typography in the United Kingdom, and Carl Crossgrove, a senior designer for Monotype Imaging in the US. Nicholas and Crossgrove used the original drawings for Fairbank as the starting point for a new digital design, but this was only the beginning. They improved spacing, added subtle kerning and optimized the design for digital imaging. In addition, Nicholas created an alternative set of lowercase letters, fancy and swash capitals and enough alternate characters to personalize virtually any design project. By the time his work was complete, Nicholas and Crossgrove had created a small type family that included Fairbank, a revived version of the earlier metal font, and Fairbank Chancery, a more calligraphic rendition of the design. An additional suite of ornate caps, elegant ligatures, and beginning and ending letters accompanies both fonts, as does a full complement of lowercase swash characters. Now, instead of a failed Bembo italic, Fairbank emerges in its true glory: a sumptuous, elegant design that will lend a note of grace to holiday greetings, invitations, and any application where its Italianate beauty is called for."

Flatpen is a font that was written with a pen we used to call "Redis-Pen". It had a flat, round tip that enabled you to write letters, with the same width of stroke.

Schoolblock is the typeface German schoolchildren learn to imitate when they are taught the printed letters. I just had to do this one for use in a German schoolbook. Your education-designer, Gert Wiescher

Ruly is my newest font creation. My roommate in college always had the coolest writing. I thought that it deserved to be a font. The font is a great choice for newsletters, cards, etc.

Crayon En Folie ('Pencil Madness' in French) is a straightforward pencil font, created with an extra thick black pencil. Use it for books, posters and packaging. Comes with a coloring box full of diacritics.

When the right late seventies / early eighties message is needed, Toisy comes to the rescue. Founded on a mix of references from letterforms of the time, this new original nods to a style that defined an era. A sexy theme font that conveys a clear image of what was truly chic thirty years ago, this alphabet is deeply rooted in sultry memories of soft, endless nights. Exaggerate contrast between strokes and angular lines combine with rounded corners to provide a unique character and a look that sharply differs when set in all caps or lower case, thanks to an uncommon treatment of density and proportions. Set it real tight, as was typographically in fashion circa 1981. Toisy and Toisy Greek include a set of 13 matching images inspired in leisure stuff and the clothing of the last days of disco. They are different from the set included with Toisy Alt.

CAPITALIZED, geometric, bold and round. If the typo­grapher sees a font like that, it's enough to make his toes curl. But sometimes it just has to be that way. Geometrically constructed fonts do not necessarily have to be pointed and angular; It also works consistently around. And if I say it consistently, then in this case, that's done consistently. The basis for the BOULE is the circle. The letters are drawn with constant line width, the “corners“ and endings all have the same radius, the lines are all the same thickness. The BOULE consists only of capitals. There is only one difference in the use of uppercase and lowercase letters: in the uppercase letters, the round letters are circular, while the lowercase letters are narrow. The character set of the Boule contains all letters and accents to support the Western, Northern, Central and Eastern European languages with Latin alphabet. The BOULE is not only very fat, it also runs very tight; that is, the glyphs are very close to each other. To avoid "holes" due to unfortunate letter combinations, the BOULE contains ligatures for FT, ST, TT and TZ. There are also other versions of the font: BOULE Brillant on the one hand. In this version, simple highlights simulate a light incidence from the top right. These light edges give the font a decorative effect that makes it easy to think of wet sausages or balloons in some shapes. And finally the BOULE Contour. As the name implies, it is the outer contour of the letters, combined with a shadow at the bottom left. The name BOULE (French for ball) says it already: this font is globated. Therefore, it is also very suitable for all three-dimensional alienation effects. With simple light and shadow you can achieve a very convincing 3D effect with little effort.

Some time ago I bought my smallest book ever: Kate Greenaway’s Alphabet* 57 x 72 mm. I thought it was the sweetest little book I had ever seen. Not knowing about the fame of the designer Kate Greenaway (1846-1901), I put it in some dark drawer and looked at it from time to time. Kate’s books were all outstanding successes in English publishing history; she was an icon of the Victorian era. Some of those books are still being reprinted today. This little gem I had accidentally acquired has become very rare and I have not found any reprints yet. So I thought maybe I could adapt her drawings for use on today’s computers. I ventured to redraw her delicate illustrations, blowing them up 300 percent, being forced to simplify them without losing her touch. It took quite some time! While redrawing them, I discovered that she most certainly drew them in at least three different sessions as well. Then I scanned my drawings and put them in a font. To make the font more usable, I added the ten numerals in Kate’s style; the original does not have those. I hope she would have liked my adaptations. Yours in a very preserving mood, Gert Wiescher. * Kate Greenaway’s Alphabet, edited by George Rutledge & Sons, London and New York, ca. 1885.

Handwriting of a strong Carelian personality revived: It’s autumn time once again, harvesting season, mushroom & berry time – the favourite season of my Karelian aunt Katri. A postcard she sent me more than twenty years ago had inspired me to SyysScript, “Script of Autumn” in Finnish. Katri had a very kind but also energetic personality, and I always thought her handwriting was a mirror of it. By making SyysScript I felt I could revive some of her unforgettable character. My Finnish autumn font has by now become a favourite for many and is branding fine food in both the Eastern and the Western hemisphere – even far beyond the arctic circle. “SyysScript“ is actually a growing family. For enhanced functionality in small sizes I added “SyysScript Eco” a year ago, a style with shortened extensions and simplified letterforms especially suited for packaging. And this autumn, a special one for Finland which is celebrating its 99th birthday, SyysScript grew again: Two long awaited newcomers, “SyysScript FeltTip” and “SyysScript FeltTip Eco” joined the family. They are bolder and softer than the previous styles but keep their positive, lighthearted feel. Use them to make a powerful individual mark on any background. – They are equally well suited for paper, packaging, a screen or even a concrete wall! Language support: Western and Central European, Extended Cyrillic.

Once upon a midnight dreary, this Comicraftsman pondered, weak and weary, For a name synonymous with Mighty and Marvelous comics lore. Solid, Outline, Inline was the nameless font I'd crafted, I nodded, nearly napping o'er the work I'd grafted When suddenly came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my cubicle door. "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my cubicle door-- Calling out "EXCELSIOR!" Then an Amazing Vision beguiled my sad fancy into smilin', By the Spectacular decorum of the countenance it wore, "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven," he said, "thou art sure no craven, And thy font should not remain nameless here forevermore!" Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow From comic books surcease of sorrow, letters that called out "EXCELSIOR!" Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking Fancy unto fancy, thinking of the nominative neuter singular thing Like Some Silvered Surfer wandering from the Nightly shore-- The Vision shrieked, upstarting--"Tell me what thy lordly name is thus!" Quoth the Craftsman: "EXCELSIUS!"

There are a few professions in which being left-handed confers an advantage-think of the great southpaw pitchers in major league baseball, like Sandy Koufax. Now, think of all the great left-handed calligraphers. Not so easy, right? Here's a hint: Luis Siquot. Far from being an advantage, Siquot's lefty orientation proved a hurdle to overcome. When I was young, I had serious problems writing," he recalls. "If there was a lot of text, I almost always soiled the paper with wet ink as my hand followed the pen." Then, a friend told Siquot about a special store in London that catered to left-handed people. It was there that he found an Osmiroid pen specially designed for left-handed calligraphers. ITC Cali is based on Siquot's use of this pen. "Electronic scans of my calligraphy were the foundation of the design," he says. "I was careful to leave in some imperfections to avoid an excessively mechanical look, and added the little notches in the strokes to imitate the texture of writing on a rough cotton paper." ITC Cali works equally well in text and display sizes, but it is a calligraphic script, Siquot warns, "and shouldn't be set in all capitals." That said, ITC Cali is a remarkably versatile design, well-suited to a variety of communication projects."

When Candy Script was officially released and in the hands of a few designers, I was in the middle of a three-week trip in North America. After returning to Buenos Aires, I found a few reactions to the font in my inbox. Alongside the congratulatory notes, flattering samples of the face in use, and the inevitable three or four “How do I use it?” emails, one interesting note asked me to consider an italic counterpart. 

I had experimented with a few different angles during the initial brainstorming of the concept but never really thought of Candy Script as an upright italic character set. A few trials confirmed to me that an italic Candy Script would be a bad idea. However, some of these trials showed conceptual promise of their own, so I decided to pursue them and see where they would go. Initially, it seemed a few changes to the Candy Script forms would work well at angles ranging from 18 to 24 degrees, but as the typeface evolved, I realized all the forms had to be modified considerably for a typeface of this style to work as both a digital font and a true emulation of real hand-lettering. Those were the pre-birth contractions of the idea for this font. I called it Sugar Pie because it has a sweet taste similar to Candy Script, mostly due to its round-to-sharp terminal concept. This in turn echoes the concept of the clean brush scripts found in the different film type processes of late 1960s and early 1970s.
 
While Candy Script’s main visual appeal counts on the loops, swashes, and stroke extensions working within a concept of casual form variation, Sugar Pie is artistically a straightforward packaging typeface. Its many ligatures and alternates are just as visually effective as Candy Script’s but in a subtler and less pronounced fashion. The alternates and ligatures in Sugar Pie offer many nice variations on the main character set. Use them to achieve the right degree of softness you desire for your design. Take a look of the How to use PDF file in our gallery section for inspiration.

We popped the Doohickey into the Framistat and out popped this Whatchamacallit! Is it fat? is it thin? Is it tall? Is it short? Is it light? Is it heavy? Is it condensed?! is it expanded?! Yes, yes, yes and yes -- It’s all of the above and more! Our resident mad scientist John “Mr. Fontastic” Roshell has developed a single contraption that can handle any design emergency, from crimelords to supervillain team-ups to alien invasions. Whatchamacallit is a friendly and readable sans-serif, inspired by some of our all-time favorites -- Gill Sans, Futura, Venus and Antique Olive. But, like its machinery-contraption namesakes Doohickey and Framistat, Whatchamacallit has a lively personality -- the strokes are a little wavy, the ends a bit bulbous, and the circles are like little loaves of bread, rising in the Whatchamacallit's oven... delicious!

Kevin Simpson was five years old when the stylized "E" of the Electrolux vacuum cleaner logo caught his eye. This is his earliest recollection of an interest that ultimately became an obsession. Type remains his major preoccupation, and he admits to attempting to work a good typeface design into any project where he can get away with it. Aitos was inspired by a metal sculpture Simpson saw while driving through the French countryside. "The statue was very strong. It was heavily weathered and had obviously been there for some time, yet it also seemed very delicate and light." Aitos, like the statue, is a rugged design. At first glance, it is chunky and bold, perhaps a little jarring. If you look again, however, you'll see it has refined qualities. Aitos commands attention - yet is still affable.

Clover is a modern retro font with a light, bubbly feel! This font is perfect if you are after a fun script font that has a lot of edge! The versatility of this font reaches wide. Use this one for branding, logos, advertisements, shirts, stickers, social media, invitations and more! The complete package includes a complimentary shadow version for easy and perfect layering every time! Clover will take you right back to the 70's but still provide a fresh look to your designs!

Magazin ST is powerful but delicate. What fascinated me seeing, a couple of letters, in Bob Roy Kelly's book (American Wood Type:1828-1900) were the little squares in the corners that represent a glow from lighting coming from below and from the right. Such ambiguity excited me and I thought that today with digital resources it wouldn't take long to do it. Seeing it working is excellent. Look In the posters what it is for and the effects it produces, including the sensation of relief.- L.S.

Ultima Pro is a geometric sans serif typeface family of eight styles – light, regular, bold and black in roman and italic respectably. Ultima Pro typeface is an upgrade addition to Ultima family (2010). All glyphs have gone through shape refinements, and the amount of glyphs was significantly extended, which enabled support of more Latin languages as well as full support of Cyrillic. Fonts released in OpenType format with some opentype features. The typeface is ideal for use in display sizes though is quite legible in text.

Styling is a simple, light, sans-serif typeface inspired on old cars and planes with an aerodynamic shape. The font comes in 5 weights plus italics. Styling and Styling Alt families offer professionals a wide range of creative options. Styling was created in 2014, while its designer was 30,000 feet in the air and the plane was flying over some Latin America cities. A flight full of flavours and shapes. This typeface is the result of anxiety and speed. Keep on rollin’ and fly high with Styling!

The Zanerian Manual of Alphabets and Engrossing, published in numerous editions since 1895, featured many elegant and elaborate script typefaces. However, it seems that, from time to time, calligraphers just want to have fun, and this little number is definitely fun. Light, lively and just a little loopy, Red Hot Mama is sure to add just the right amount of spice to your special project. Both versions contain the complete Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

Calendula is a humanistic font with low contrast and one-sided serifs. There are eight styles: four regular of different weights from Light to Bold and corresponding italics. The main set of regular styles is close to upright italics, so the font is percieved as informal and friendly. However, Calendula allows you to combine business with pleasure by switching the stylistic set, and turns into a calm text font with traditional upright forms. The font was designed by Natalia Vasilyeva and released by Paratype in 2017.

The German designers Gerd Sebastian Jakob and Jörg Ewald Meißner developed the Linotype Puritas family in 1999. The family, which has six text styles as well as a ornament set, displays a very geometric design, which harks back to the German modernist experiments with typography and lettering from the 1920s. The letters in Linotype Puritas Light, Linotype Puritas Medium, and Linotype Puritas Bold all have a slight slant to them. Not to be confused with an italic-grade slant, which may be found in the Light, Medium, and Bold Italic styles, these acute slants add a dynamic quality to text. The Linotype Puritas Ornaments font contains several dingbats and border elements, all drawn in the same line style as the companion letters. The entire Linotype Puritas family is included in the Take Type 4 collection from Linotype GmbH."

ITC Photoplay is another gem from Nick Curtis. Unearthed from the 1927 edition of Samuel Welo's Studio Handbook for Artists and Advertisers, the design's original suggested use was for title and caption cards for silent movies. A monoweight design that bridges the gap between turn-of-the-century decorative type and Art Deco, ITC Photoplay is both casual and stylish. And, yes, the cap S" is supposed to look that that. To expand this already handy typeface's versatility, a Black weight has been added to the original design. Curtis has also created an array of alternate characters, a couple of conjunctions, and a handful of "bishop's fingers" to help make your point. ITC Photoplay is eminently suitable for all those occasions when you need to say, "Unhand that fair damsel, you dastardly cad!", and really mean it."

Wakandan is an alphabet designed by Hannah Beachler, and used in the 2018 film Black Panther. It is based on Nsibidi symbols. In the film it is used to transliterate English text in the credits and other on-screen text. Another script used in the film was developed by Oluwaseun Osewa and inspired by Nsibidi, a system of symbols used in southeastern Nigeria between about 400 and 1400 AD. In addition, the symbols of several different ancient languages ​​were also used for the alphabet. Like Old North Arabia, Old Tifinagh. I did not draw for this font, except for a few letters. I transferred the sound values ​​from the ancient writing languages ​​fonts that I had made before to the Wakanda font, so I did not take much time, I finished it in 4-5 hours.

Lately I have been experimenting with different foods. At home, we eat a lot of Asian food, but I thought it would be nice to broaden my culinary horizon a bit. So far I have (successfully) added Georgian beef and walnut soup, Tacos (after a suggestion by my friend Stuart), Surinam Roti and various vegetarian dishes to our menu. When I created this font, I had to think of Gumbo - a dish I have never made. Gumbo is a handmade display font that comes in a rotund regular and an obese bold (with Italics). Use it for your book covers, product packaging and sticky notes. Gumbo comes with cute ‘end of word’ ligatures - just type the glyph + space and presto: you have a little swash. As for the dish Gumbo, well, I will make that this weekend!