Up until the advent of vinyl plotters, computers and a myriad of other typesetting and printing changes the world has experienced over the past few decades, the art of hand lettering flourished. An early 1900s book on show card writing displayed a nice example of a Grotesk typeface (a popular style of sans serif of the time). This has been redrawn digitally as Simply Grotesk JNL and is available in four varieties - regular, oblique, condensed and condensed oblique.

The Kalyna font is interesting with its stylistic implementation through asymmetrical serif. Such design is characteristic for the Ukrainian style. The drawing of the font is based on the sketches of a famous Ukrainian graphic artist of early 20th century Heorhiy Narbut. His work set the whole school in the Ukrainian graphic art and is still very influential nowadays. The font is capital and also includes a set of ornaments in addition the standard set of symbols.

Rock Star is a original sans serif family with a distinct personality. The family has 36 font styles, ranging from ExtraLight to UltraBlack in normal and narrow styles (including italics). A wide range of weights and widths offering tremendous typographic flexibility. Rock Star is a contemporary typeface with roots in the past. It based on the sans-serifs of the late 19th and early 20th century. It would look great for corporate branding, in books and magazines.

An early 1960s hand-lettered trade publication ad for an upcoming single 45 rpm release inspired the type design of Miss Rhythm JNL. The nickname of "Miss Rhythm" was given to Ruth Brown because of her popular "jump tunes"; that is rhythm and blues with an uptempo beat. Because the trade ad for her record was the inspiration for the font, it was only fitting to use that nickname as the font's name in honor of her.

A lament is a sad song, and the music of the cowboys of the Old West had their fair share of them. However, a vintage piece of sheet music from the early part of the 20th century with the title "The Dying Cowboy" brought at least one positive trait to its mournful song. The title lettering was drawn in a fashion that emulated lettering made with quick strokes of a paintbrush, and became the inspiration for Cowboy Lament JNL.

Early 1900s songwriters had a penchant for devising lengthy titles for their compositions. A perfect example from 1909, "It Is Hard to Kiss Your Sweetheart When the Last Kiss Means 'Good Bye'" is a whopping fourteen words long. The sheet music for this piece has a hand lettered, Art Nouveau sans serif design which became the working model for La Vie Nouveau JNL [which translates to "the new life"], and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

“I Don't like No Cheap Man” is a piece of early 1900s sheet music featuring its title hand lettered in a condensed slab serif design. The influences of the Art Nouveau era are clearly found in the many eccentric character shapes within the various letters of the original artwork. Recreated in digital type, Tightwad JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions – and its font name is a variant of the “Cheap Man” portion of the song’s title.

Periodical JNL is based on one the many stylized titles from the cover of the 1920s Spanish magazine "Nuevo Mundo" (New World). Each cover displayed a beautiful piece of period artwork along with the magazine's name in different lettering styles of the time (Art Nouveau and early Art Deco). The original design features an "engraved" look and now has an oblique counterpart. Also available are solid versions (without the inside lines) in both regular and oblique styles.

The Mashq script is the oldest documented Arabic Jazm calligraphy style. It was invented by the early Muslims in the Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina, exclusively for writing the Quran and other Islamic religious texts. The Mashq style employed complex ligature and multi-level baseline rules, and therefore it went through a continuous simplification process. Around the time period Mashq was developed, the early Arab Muslims experimented with another short-lived Mashq-like style with heavily slanted vertical stems, which closely resembled the common Ḥijazi style. This style is commonly referred to as the Ma’il (slanted) style. Eventually, the early complex Mashq style was replaced as the main Islamic Arabic script, by a more simplified Mashq-derived calligraphy style that was developed in the city of Kufa, modern day Iraq, which was commonly referred to as Kufi. The Kufic style became the official Arabic script style for centuries before it was replaced by the more developed Naskh, the modern Arabic script style used today. The Mashq font family by Arabetics includes three styles of Mashq. The first is Mashq regular, which closely follows the script style of Musḥaf ‘Uthman (currently displayed in the Topkapi Museum in Turkey) with only the initial and final Haa’ baselines shifting. The second is Mashq Maail, which emphasizes the features of the Ma’il style shared with Mashq. The third is Mashq Kufi, which closely follows the script style in an adequate sample from the Quran manuscripts of the Bergstraesser Archive. All three fonts include two styles, with and without Tashkeel (dots). The Mashq and Mashq Kufi fonts include two more styles, with and without Harakat (soft vowels), and Hamza. Only three soft vowels are implemented along with their Tanween (double) forms. The Sukoon vowel is the default shape before inserting a soft vowel. Hamza was treated as a vowel in the Mashq and early Kufi manuscripts. Kashida is a zero width character. In the Mashq fonts, inserting one Kashida before the final ‘Ayn glyph group will trigger alternative shapes. In the Mashq Kufi fonts, inserting one Kashida (or two) before the final Yaa’, ‘Ayn, and Ḥaa’ glyph groups will trigger alternative shapes. The Mashq font family by Arabetics was designed to be as compatible as possible with the Arabic keyboard and Unicode alphabet used in computers today. Calligraphic variations were implemented only when they marked significant and permanent script features.

Dynasty is an extensive and versatile family that exploration and modernisation of the typographic quirks associated with the 'American Gothic' type school (in much the same way as English Grotesque was an exploration of Gill/Johnston idea-space) and adds chamfered elements to dots and tails to emphasise and extend the early machine-made aesthetic. Elegantly clean and readable at headline and small text settings, where (as with all fonts in small sizes) the introduction of tracking will improve legibility.

A classic-modern sans serif appearing in two forms — ”standard“ and a ”stylistic alternate“ with uncial script-orientated characters which give the font a completely different ”look.“ Faber Sans is a sans serif in the classic-modern style of type creations of the early 20th century — godfathered by Futura from Paul Renner and Gill Sans from Eric Gill. Unlike classic sans serifs, Faber Sans includes a ”true“ italic. Faber Sans Pro will perfectly pair with the accompnying Roman Faber Serif Pro.

Emblema is an evocative font that exudes Art Deco style from early decades of the 20th Century. Its geometric shapes give a clean and modern look to any design where it is applied. Emblema was designed in 12 subtly different weights and is ideal for achieving the same weight in a single word when using different point sizes. Open Type users can access an extensive set of alternative and ornamental characters including 3 different size sets of caps, providing the utmost in versatility.

Immerse your designs in the refreshing essence of the early morning with Morning Waves Font. Inspired by the gentle breeze preceding rainfall, this font effortlessly captures a cute and bold aesthetic. Made for versatility, it serves as the perfect choice for logos, packaging, brochures, cover titles, fashion statements, and enchanting wedding invitations. Elevate your design with the lively and beautiful touch of Morning Waves, infusing every project with a charming vibrancy that resonates with the tranquility of a misty morning.

This is the rounded version of Penta! »Penta« is a new Sans typeface, designed in the American tradition with contrast between the up- and downstrokes. The contrast is hardly visible on the »thin« cut, but the heavier the weights get, the more contrast becomes visible. That makes this font very useful, almost linear in the lighter weights and very distinct rhythm in the heavier ones. »Penta« is extremly versatile, it can be used for bodycopy in the lighter weights and for heavy headlines.

A compact geometric sans serif typeface influenced by Bauhaus and the early modernist era. Precise shapes are optically adjusted to create a clear, natural typeface with excellent legibility across various applications. Corbert compact is part of the popular Corbert type system; other widths include Normal, Condensed and Wide. Details include over 590 characters; OpenType features consist of five variations of numerals, including inferiors, superiors, fractions, alternative lowercase a, e and g, and language support covering Western, South, and Central Europe.

Creepy...crumbly...spooky... that's Terror JNL. Originally an experimental outline font made in the early days of Jeff Levine's typographic work, it's been revised and properly spaced for the design professional. The font is based on Ray Larabie's 1990's freeware release Foo - and a hand-traced, weathered-look was applied to the letter shapes. There's no kerning and a limited character set - but Terror JNL is still perfect for any headline that depicts "things that go bump in the night"...

Sweet Monica is an elegant script with a creative mood and perfect form, inspired by today's beautiful calligraphy. thick, balanced and varied, born for luxury and beauty. In my example I show how this script can be used. It's great for logotypes, branding, wedding invitations, romantic cards, alcohol labels, packaging, name spelling and more. Sweet Monica comes with beautiful uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation. In addition to the main character set, there are many alternative characters, early and late sweeps.

Linotype Bariton is part of the Take Type Library, chosen from contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. Designer Alexej Chekoulaev designed his font in one weight to mirror the Zeitgeist of the early 1930s. The characters of this extremely bold font are based on the form of a rectangle though its rounded edges soften its look a bit. Linotype Bariton should be used only in larger point sizes in headlines which should really catch the eye.

Letuncial is a sans-serif typeface in which the shapes of the letters are derived from uncial, a writing style in the early medieval period. Like uncial, it has no true upper-case letters. Rather it has two sets of letters that are interchangeable. Fonts Letunical Inline Overlay-Middle and Letunical Inline Overlay Inside are designed to be layered with Letunical Inline to produce bicolored or tricolored letters and Letunical Shadow Inside is designed to layered with Letunical Shadow to produce bicolored letters.

Sonetto is a typeface designed for the making of poetry books comprised of two styles: Regular, for setting prose, and Italic for verses. It is the result of a typographical exploration carried out at the UBA Type Design Master’s which sought to relate italics and cursive italics. Initial drawings were based on Griffo’s italics and early 16th century italian manuscripts that showcased connections between letters. Sonetto is in fact a historical revival, not of a particular style, but rather of a broader concept.

Steve Jackaman. In the early 1980's, Steve worked at Typographic House in Boston, Massachusetts. At the time, 'Typo' House, as it was affectionately known, was the largest type house in New England. This font was designed and produced during his tenure. The design was so popular that it became available commercially through VGC, and was known as TH Alphabet Soup. Completely redrawn and remastered, Alphabet Soup Pro contains all the high-end features expected in a quality OpenType Pro font.

Bannertype is – at least for my feeling – the most German of all fonts. It was used heavily mostly in newsprint and advertising in the early 1900s. I designed a dirty version of the narrow font in 4 stages of dirtiness, plus one free shadow font. Since the font has too many points I cannot generate a OTF-version, I am over the limit for that. But I have tried this TrueType version and it works like a jiffy in MacOS 10.8.2!

Gilmore Sans Extra Bold Extra Condensed Titling is a sans serif typeface that was inspired from early designs by the renowned English typographer Eric Gill. It was designed in 1992 by A. Pat Hickson (P&P Hickson) and Steve Jackaman (ITF) exclusively for the Red Rooster Collection. It has a clean, fresh, sturdy feel that is exceptionally powerful at display size. The typeface lends itself well to a variety of projects, including everything from packaging to signage to high-profile advertising campaigns.

This series of faces was designed initially by Morris Fuller Benton, circa 1900. The design is a refinement of Taylor Gothic from 1897. It features a sans serif thick and thin design with angular stems. Pre-dating art deco, this design feels quaint, yet it still has a touch of modernism. Frederic Goudy designed a bold version of Globe Gothic in 1905 for ATF. The Bold and Bold Italic digital versions have been added to the LTC library in early 2007.

Sheet music for the 1910 composition "Good-By Betty Brown" has its title hand lettered in a thick and thin, condensed sans serif design reminiscent of lettering found in later comic strips and books of the 1930s and 1940s. Transcending both the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles, Funny Papers JNL gets its name from the slang reference Americans of the early 20th Century gave the Sunday comics pages in their local newspapers, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

MB Empire is a font that like MB vintage has its roots in early 20th century design, It has a distinctly english feel with its style references to the classic Gill Sans. It has a very traditional look whilst still maintaining its own modernist individuality. It comes in six weights with italics and has extended language support. With many opentype features including oldstlye & lining figures, automatic fractions and more its a font family that will work for almost any application.

G&G is the only authorized digitized version of the original handlettering of early 20th Century architects Charles and Henry Greene. This font is both accurate and authentic -- it was adapted directly from the Greenes' original plans for The Gamble House in Pasadena, California, and others. G&G contains both Upper and Lower-case characters, consistent with the Greenes' use of lower-case to explain fine construction details on their plans. G&G is very successful in creating the illusion of hand lettering.

Popular music of the early 1900s included a genre called two step; round dances utilizing a sliding step with a tempo in either march or polka time. 1911's "Daughters of the American Revolution" was one such march/two step. The cover of the sheet music had the title hand lettered in a slightly rounded sans serif type design in the Art Nouveau style popular during that era. It is now available as Two Step Nouveau JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

According to Wikipedia, Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The name originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Manhattan. With this in mind, Tin Pan Alley JNL, a typeface based on the bold hand lettering from a vintage piece of sheet music is aptly named.

2030 font is inspired by the typography of the early 20th century, the Futura of Paul Reener, Cassandre and Charles Loupot’s works and, on a broader level by modernism and art déco mouvements. Geometric, with classicals proportions, this typefaces is a re-interpretation, in a actual form, of the alphabets from this period. The lines are straight, but the letters are easy to read and nice to watch thanks to optical corrections. Build with 9 weights of 700 glyphs, italics and small caps.

Sombrieul is Greater Albion’s greatest and grandest Edwardian display typeface yet. Just the thing for any project with a late 19th/early 20th century inspiration. Sombrieul has a LOT of opentype features:- stylistic alternates, ligatures, discretionary ligatures, small capitals, title forms, swash capitals, old-style and lining numerals, numeral title forms. Of course, these features don’t allow for infinite variability in appearance, there must be some limits after all! They do allow for a lot of variety, however! There are over 1,000 glyphs...

The font was developed as a part of a corporate identity project for a pillow shop on the base of existing logo. It’s an attempt to reflect the space of a dream -- virtual reality where objects don’t have solid shapes, but present just hardly noticed disappearing contours. This idea determines the design of letters that resemble illustrations rather then alphabetical symbols and are based on ultra thin stems. The font was designed by Elena Kolesnikova and released by ParaType in 2009.

A geometric sans serif typeface influenced by Bauhaus and the early modernist era. Precise shapes are optically adjusted to create a clear, natural typeface with excellent legibility. Corbert is a regular, self-evident design that works well across a wide range of applications. Details include nine weights with matching italics and over 540 characters per style. Opentype features consist of five variations of numerals, including inferiors, superiors, fractions, alternative lowercase a, e and g, and language support covering Western, South, and Central Europe.

Madrone is an Adobe Originals typeface designed by Barbara Lind in 1991. Madrone was digitized from proofs of the woodtype collection in the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. A fat face roman, Madrone is typical of popular early nineteenth-century styles. Fat face types are characterized by their squatness and extreme letter width. One familiar version of this design is Bodoni Ultra Bold. Madrone is eye-catching for display uses in advertising and packaging.

Dan Hardie, a Miami-based graphic artist and creative consultant at Mutiny, Inc. shared an image he’d spotted online of some interesting signage formerly on the front of the Miami Medical Building. Comprised of hand-cut metal characters (with a thoroughly avant-garde “Art Deco meets Modernist” approach), this instantly became a font design idea unusual and quirky enough to develop as a digital typeface. The end result is Office Visit JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Mariken van Nieumeghen is a late medieval Dutch text from the early 16th century. The protagonist of the play (a young maid called Mariken) spends seven years with the devil (called Moenen), after which she is miraculously released. Mariken is a handmade font, which was based on the works of Robert Granjon (1545-1588), a French type designer and printer. Use it for product packaging, books and posters. Comes in 3 weights (with italics) and a hellish amount of diacritics.

Campton is an unconventional typeface based on the first steps of the newly born sans serif genre in the early twentieth century. Its character draws inspiration from Gill Sans and Johnston Sans while combining it with contemporary elements. The result is a modern and unorthodox family that is perfectly suited for graphic design application ranging from editorial and corporate design to web and interaction design. Campton comes in nine weights with matching italics and is equipped with a wide range of opentype features.

Edits and Credits JNL is a cheerful sans serif typeface modeled from ceramic letters in a movie titling set from the late 40s or early 1950s. In the original kit, letters would be lined up accordingly against a contrasting background and photographed for home or professional movie and slide titles. Note: The cap height is slightly smaller than normal for the respective point size. This will give the effect of wider line spacing - similar to that of home movie titles.

Microsoft Sans Serif™ Regular is a very legible User Interface (UI) font. It was designed to be metrically compatible with the MS Sans bitmap font that shipped in early versions of Microsoft Windows. The original MS Sans was in the inflexible .fon bitmap format and could not be scaled. Microsoft Sans Serif Regular is much more flexible and legible as it font antialiasing and scalable user interfaces. Character Set: Latin-1, WGL Pan-European (Eastern Europe, Cyrillic, Greek and Turkish).

Occasionally a type design is started - then set aside for whatever reason - before eventually being completed. More often than not, the original source material is forgotten, so proper attribution cannot be made. Such is the case for a hand lettered Art Nouveau alphabet likely found within the pages of an early Speedball lettering book from around the 1920s. This playful and casual design is now digitally reproduced as Nouveau Signage JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.