Cover art for the 1933 sheet music of Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler's "Stormy Weather" (from the musical production "Cotton Club Parade") listed the cast of the show in a condensed hand lettered sans that typified the 1930s and the Art Deco era. This served as the inspiration for Uptown Review JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions. The Cotton Club was a whites-only night club which showcased black acts, and was originally located on 145th Street in Harlem from 1923 to 1935, then existed for a short time in the New York theater district from 1936 to 1940. After the Broadway incarnation of the club closed, its space was taken over by the Latin Quarter.

The English stone carver, artist, and typographer Eric Gill conceived the Joanna typeface as a personal design for use in books printed at his Joanna Press."" Gill saw his press work there as a continuation of the British Arts and Crafts Movement, pioneered in the 19th Century by William Morris. Joanna is notable for its almost vertical ""upright"" italics, and the unusally small size of its italic characters. Joanna is versatile and extremely legible. The letterforms are a bit narrow, so the face is very economic as well. A lot of text may be packed densely together onto a page with Joanna. Joanna mixes very well with other typefaces designed by Eric Gill; especially Gill Sans.

The birth of the monospaced types dates back to the past. There was a need for the creation of typesets for typewriters. The difficulty was to align the different glyphs in the same width. This led to particular problems with letters like “M” and “l”; the former seemed to be squeezed into the same width of all letters and the second one appeared way too streched. Despite – or perhaps because of – the impression of the typewriter is still popular with Graphic Designers. Nowadays there are even monospaced versions of primarily proportional types; for example the the Sans Mono designed by Lucas de Groot or the DIN Mono. Then again, why not the other way round?! In the first half of the Nineties, Erik Spiekermann developed a proportional type named ITC Officina based on the Letter Gothic. According to a survey on the 100 best fonts of all time conducted by FontShop, ITC Officina is in an eighth place, far ahead of its forerunner. This was the reason for me to create a wider design with a Serif and a Sans Serif based on the queen of all monospaced types – the Courier.

Many of the fonts available from Canada Type are revivals of historic brush scripts (such as Bruschetta, Coffee Script, Puma, Tiger Script). Hunter is a deserved addition to the collection. Imre Reiner's Mustang design from 1956 now enters the digital realm to continue living in this world of new typography. Hunter has a wilder streak than other brush scripts. Its irregular terminals give it an almost wooden appearance and a most natural, hand-made expression. This natural look was extended by the expansion of the original design and the addition of some alternates and ligatures, built within the font and easily accessible from any program's glyph palette. Hunter was also slightly modified to accommodate not only sentence- and lowercase-setting, but also all-capital setting, which is a flexibility hardly ever found in most brush scripts. So if you have been looking for a natural, quirky brush script for your designs, Hunter is your type!

Ersatz has its vibrant roots in the Mediterranean climate of Spain. Tired of the functional monoline sanserif fonts used throughout Europe from road signage to corporate identity, Richard Dawson and Dave Farey, British type designers who crave color and sunlight, created a style that is refreshing and lively. The basic constructions are simple and attractive, mixing lower case shapes into the capitals - and unique letterforms into the lower case. There's a raunchy feel to Ersatz, soft curves and back kicks, if you listen very carefully you can hear the sharp guitars and the soft tambourine of the Flamenco.

The design of Sanity typeface is modernized by abandoning any characteristics associated with hand writing, such as curved lines or elaborate corner details. The design is based on a rigid geometric grid and radiates confidence with its daring contrasts and provocative style. In large amounts of text the font “Sanity” can be hard to read due to a «dazzle» effect caused by alternating thick and thin strokes, particularly as the thin strokes are hardly visible at small point si es. Due to this quality, the “Sanity” font-family is best suitable for titles or large print advertisements. There are five key stylistic principles taken as a main framework for the creation of the “Sanity”: symmetry, contrast, geometry, artificiality and monospacing.

Cosmic Turtle is the belief that the world is supported by a giant turtle. It is mostly found in Hindu and Chinese mythology and the mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. I had to think of this, as the idea of the Cosmic Turtle is referenced to in the 1982 book ‘A Wild Sheep Chase’ by Haruki Murakami - my favourite author. Cosmic Turtle is a font that I made using a broken chop stick and Chinese ink. I was actually trying to create something scary for Halloween, but this is what came out and I quite like it. Cosmic Turtle is a fat display font with rough edges, wobbly glyphs and a set of double letter ligatures for you to play with.

An Unusual Hero Script Mervale Script Pro is based on inspiration from the 1940's Fawcett Publications “Mary Marvel” comic. This unusual brush lettered script blends script and serif capitals with a mix of unusual brush strokes to create a lively font that draws attention. Clean letterforms with an eclectic offbeat flavor in letter stances lends Mervale Script Pro to a unique variety of uses from casual to lightly sophisticated. The stylistic alternates feature adds swash capitals to the mix to offer even more diversity. See the 5th graphic for a comprehensive character map preview. OpenType features include: A collection of ligatures. Full set of Inferiors and Superiors for limitless fractions. Tabular, Proportional, and Oldstyle figure sets. Stylistic Alternates for Caps to Swash Caps conversion.

FACE FRONT, True Believers, This is The Issue You’ve Been Waiting For! In response to requests from our Hawkeyed customers, we’re making this Super Team of fonts -- which our fontmeister Assembled for the pages of THE AVENGERS -- available for the first time! A handsome collection of characters that would put a Norse God to shame, FACE FRONT is composed of Earth’s Mightiest regular, italic, bold and bold italic faces -- in UPPER and lower case. And now, these Living Legends can now be yours! Rick Jones not included! Remastered Face Front includes improved spacing and kerning, an upright Bold weight, Central European & Cyrillic characters,Crossbar I Technology™ to place it in exactly the right spots, plus hearts, stars & music notes for Manga lettering.

The P22 Underground Pro font family started in 1997 as the first and only officially licensed revival of Edward Johnston’s London Underground railway lettering. The original design by Richard Kegler sought to be as true to the original as possible. In 2007 P22 revised and expanded the fonts into a massive character set with additional weights, language support, and stylistic alternates. Endeavoring to make this font family a more versatile and useful tool for a designer, P22 sought to add true italics to this stalwart type design. The only other existing italic interpretation of Johnston’s Underground type was executed by the inimitable Dave Farey and Richard Dawson at Housestyle Graphics. We asked Dave Farey to imagine an Underground italic that would pair well with the P22 Underground, done as if Edward Johnston himself might approach the design challenge. This new italic version was then expanded for all six of the existing P22 Underground weights and characters sets by James Todd of JTD Type. Final mastering of the P22 Underground Pro roman and italic with a streamlined yet still expansive language coverage by P22 partner Patrick Griffin of Canada Type. These refinements remain true to the original Johnston design while employing contemporary typographic finesse to create six weights with optional alternates to increase legibility. The new P22 Underground Pro family is now a rock-solid and very versatile humanist sans serif font family that should be a cornerstone of any designer’s typographic toolkit. After five years in development, the new P22 Underground Pro is the most iconic and useful font family ever presented by P22 Type Foundry.

Introducing MosKovi Script, an enchanting and audacious typeface that seamlessly melds the captivating essence of vintage Soviet design with modern-day allure. This font exudes an air of mystery, evoking the clandestine charm of the Cold War era while breathing new life into the world of typography. Each stroke reflects the precision and strength of Soviet engineering, transporting you to a time when secrets were whispered in dimly lit alleys, and espionage thrived beneath the iron curtain. MosKovi Script's elegant curves and sharp edges intertwine like spies engaged in a delicate dance, daring you to uncover its hidden messages. Embark on a journey through history with MosKovi Script, a typographic marvel that captures the courage and resilience of a bygone era while captivating the hearts of modern design enthusiasts worldwide.

Marathon was originally designed by Rudolf Koch in 1931 for Schriftgiesserei Klingspor. It is a roman with short ascenders and descenders. The serifs are small, but longer at the ends of the arms of E, F and L, M is rather splayed and is without top serifs, like M in other typefeaces designed by Rudolf Koch. The lowercase g has no link and an open tail, again like the g in other Koch types. U has the lower-case design. In the W the middle strokes cross, the lower case w has no middle serif. The figures are short-ranging. Ute Harder from the Fachhochschule Hamburg had redesigned Marathon with the help and supervision of Professor Jovica Veljovic. She has added a book weight to offer more flexibility with this beautiful typeface.

Signal1885 is the abbreviated name for "(Sig)nature Jour(nal)" a font that harkens back to an era, when fine handwriting filled journals with observations of science and adventure. Intimate and reflective of an individual entering his thoughts in his personal journal or a ship’s captain documenting his voyage on a daily basis. Signal1885 is penmanship that reflects hand forms from by-gone days. Its a minimal glyph set which can be used at various sizes as small as 18 points. It includes a selection of ink drips and smudges, that are the “mark” of a hand done entry. These can be placed in strategic places on the type to indicate a hand dragging through or dripping fresh ink on to the paper. Set sail- and keep a diary of your voyage.

Who is not totally captured when looking at those marvelously handmade old manuscripts, where letters, borders and elements were so masterfully realized with some touch of Gold leaf (or Silver in some cases) that was making of an ordinary book a piece of art? The name of the pack “Illuminated” comes, like the ancient art used for the old manuscripts, from the latin word “Illuminare” (to light up) and it’s symbol of great value, preciousness and beauty skilfully created with patience and love from artists for centuries. What we at Fontscafe wanted to give you was the opportunity to get a whole “ready to use” set of fonts that could, in a modern and revised form, give that “Illuminated” feeling to our “Digital Era”. A set of new tools to make your art shining!

Museum Tertia Cursive is inspired by a beautiful set of 126 matrices in the Swedish Norstedts type collection. These types were probably manufactured in Germany before 1750. The matrices are part of a set imported to Sweden by J.P. Lindh from Breitkopf & Härtel 1818. Now this exquisite design is available again, thanks to type designer Torbjörn Olsson. Please note modern additions like the ?-mark, @-sign and €-sign. Museum Tertia Cursive is an OpenType creation, for both PC and Mac. Swedish type foundry T4 premiere new fonts every month. Museum Tertia Cursive is our eighth introduction. Museum Tertia Cursive is part of the growing Museum type family. Museum also includes three different border fonts, an ornament font with some of Granjon's arabesques and a flowery Fournier font with Rococo capitals.

In Dutch, a Mandarijn is a Tangerine. I found out that it is called a Mandarin in Australia as well! I really like Mandarins, so I thought I’d give them their well-deserved place in the spotlights by naming a font after them. The whispers part - well, that’s just because it sounded good. Mandarin Whispers is a very nice brush font, which was actually not made with a brush, but with a cheapie marker pen. It comes with all the bells & whistles, so have a ball!

Shell Shock was inspired by stencil typefaces used on military tanks and ammunition boxes. It can be enhanced with a separate set of bombs and warning signs for the typographer in power. Shell Shock Cloak is the ultimate add-on for Shell Shock. This 3-layered 'Cloaking Device' enhances the existing Shell Shock. Put the 3 Cloak layers on top of Shell Shock and suddenly it's camouflaged and you will hardly be able to find it. Use only one extra Cloak layer to give Shell Shock that cool distorted look, like those damaged warsigns on military vehicles. If you only use the Cloak layers you can create background patterns and structures. Try using different color combinations and you'll be surprised by the possibilities of Shell Shock Cloak. It's preferably seen on clothing, skateboards, party flyers, posters or other daring design.

Like a bright star shimmering on a still and quiet summer night, Arched Gothic Condensed is a glowing example of Victorian type. Thin in the middle with clumpy wedges on top and bottom, it truly bears the spirit of a bygone era. Originally known as Concave Extra Condensed, this typeface has shed its waist-high spur notches and gained new figures and lowercase letters. Developed around 1885 by the James Conners & Son Foundry (New York), Arched Gothic Condensed is a marvel of sparkle and glitter in nineteenth century typeface design. Arched Gothic Condensed is also available in the OpenType Std format. Some new characters have been added to this OpenType version. Advanced features currently work in Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress 7. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

Mundane information—the sort you might ignore—often appears in the form of very simple, utilitarian lettering, devoid of personality, the sort of industrial lettering you find on old blueprints, park restrooms, and electrical boxes. MVB Diazo is such a thing. It looks like lettering done earnestly with a plastic template. The monoline caps—constructed from straight lines and simple curves—have rounded details as if rendered by a blunt pen on a topographical survey or by a router on a rustic campground sign. The MVB Diazo fonts are compact, available in two widths: Condensed and Extra Condensed. Each width offers four weights from Light to Black. The fonts are perfect for wherever plain and boring letterforms are required. All widths and weights are also available in two distressed textures (#1 and #2) that accentuate the industrial character of the design. Rough #1 is gritty, with finer texture for use at larger sizes. Rough #2 exhibits more damage, the roughness apparent when used at smaller sizes. The Rough fonts include alternates of a number of glyphs so that variation of texture is possible when letters repeat in a word.

Like traditional athletic block typefaces, VTF Charisma is built with chiseled cornersand a rigid skeleton. However, an underlying formula of fervor and functionality emerges in execution. The typeface features traditional block tendencies that are challenged by expressive angles and deviations in line weight that harken to penmanship. Uniquely tapered terminals seen in letters like "a", "c", and "s" demonstrate a strong visual energy while increasing legibility. The legs of angled letterforms like the "A", "v", and "y" are cropped in a way that further reinforces this motif. These stylistic cues are employed throughout the family’s 7 weights, ranging from Thin to Black with an accompanying Oblique variant for each. VTF Charisma is equipped with a hefty 970 glyphs that support Small Caps, fractions, extensive Latin characters, stylistic alternates and more. Paired with its dynamic charm and strong visual appearance, the family’s horizon of capabilities broadens.

Feast your eyes on Paiute, the sultry script that'll have your design looking hotter than a Vegas summer! This font is so seductive, it'll make your audience swoon harder than when Elvis was at the Sands. The exaggerated top stroke and sharply slanted terminals give Paiute a look that's straight out of the vintage Vegas scene. It's like the Rat Pack meets Marilyn Monroe in a smoky casino bar. Whether you're designing a magazine cover, book cover, or movie poster, Paiute is the perfect choice for that extra touch of va-va-voom. It's like sprinkling glitter on your design - except it won't get stuck in your hair. So why settle for boring fonts when you can make your project stand out like a sequined jumpsuit? Let Paiute help you bring that authentic 1960s Vegas vibe to your marketing. Your audience will be shouting "Viva Las Paiute" in no time!

IT’S MAILBAG TIME! Dear Jolly JG Roshell and Rascally Richard Starkings, Comicraft Fonts are a thing of Beauty and a Joy Forever! You guys must be a Wild Bunch, and I roar with delight whenever a new comicbookfonts release appears in my emailbox. But I have to level with you daredevils...what about us Letterhacks? We need representation too! We haven’t spent years hammering away on our typewriters to be ignored! BRING BACK THE LETTER HACK! In fearless font form. You know it makes sense! Truly Yours, Forbush, Irving, senior. We give up! We can’t resist your appeals, threats and commands ANY LONGER!!! We may crack under the strain, but this month’s release IS two (count 'em) Letterhacks! That’s right, a pair of fantastic fonts that recreate the look and feel of your Marvelous Letters of the Sixties! It’s a Bullpen Bulletin! It’s an Iconoclastic Item!

Museum Fournier is inspired by a set of Rococo capitals designed by Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune circa 1760. The matrices are part of a set imported to Sweden by J.P. Lindh in 1818 from Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig, Germany. They are now in the Nordiska Museum in Stockholm. Type designer Torbjörn Olsson has expanded the original 31 lead matrices in the collection to 55 characters. Please note that the font contains capitals only, no lower case letters and no figures either. Museum Fournier is an OpenType creation, for both PC and Mac. Swedish type foundry T4 premiere new fonts every month. Museum Fournier is our ninth introduction. Museum Fournier is part of the growing Museum type family. Museum also includes three different border fonts, an ornament font with some of Granjon's arabesques and Museum Tertia Cursive, an exquisite 1700's typeface with modern additions.

The island of Fuerteventura is more known for its white sand beaches and windsurf-friendly constant winds than for its typographic marvels. Still, it's on the walls of a ballroom next to its white-sand beaches that Debora Manetti found the hand-painted letterforms that she took as inspiration for her typeface Sala de Fiestas. The resulting font was a condensed sans serif full of curious details and a jumpy latino vibe that many years after still keeps its freshness and vernacular charme. Francesco Canovaro took the original typeface as a starting point for a grand tour into sign-painter aesthetics, developing a reboot of the original into a new type family: Salad. While being faithful to the original proportions and feeling, Salad provides extreme versatility through its five-weights range, its extended charset and its set of Open Type features including stylistic sets, alternates, positional numerals, small capitals and case sensitive forms. While the roman family with its italic counterpart provide a good workhorse tool for informal branding, packaging and editorial projects, the interlocking and the inline weights add additional possibilities for display purposes. This is enriched by the inclusion in the typeface of a set hand-drawn decorative dingbats that further complement the sign painting vibe of the family. All Zetafonts expertise in handmade lettering, typographic design and water sports has been put to test to assure Salad is the best typographical alternative to a a trip to Canary Islands!

Delight Muffin is a display serif font in thickly designed weights for modern, friendly, and stylish design purposes. Generally, every letter of this font is in rounded shapes with a few spaces given. The top and the bottom parts of the letter are the thinnest ones with hardly invisible differences between the thick and the thin lines, which contrast the low lines. With Delight Muffin’s legibility, it is possible to use the font in various text sizes. Features: Stylistic Sets Ligatures Multilingual Supports PUA Encoded Numerals and Punctuations Delight Muffin fits for various design projects, such as posters, banners, logos, magazine covers, quotes, headings, printed products, invitations, name cards, merchandise, social media, etc. Find out more ways to use this font by taking a look at the font preview. Thanks for purchasing our fonts. Hopefully, you have a great experience using our font. Feel free to contact us for further information when you have a problem using the font. Thank you. Happy designing.

VLNL Boulangerie was originally an incomplete set of early 20th century wood type letters, that Donald Roos found in a dust covered carton box stashed away somewhere at the Royal Academy in The Hague. Charmed by the letter forms Donald decided to print them on paper with a printing press. Next he digitised the prints as they came out, including small imperfections and damages. The missing characters were composed and added digitally to complete the alphabet. (See if you can spot those!?) We think VLNL Boulangerie is a little French in appearance (hence the name), it's joyful, warm, a little crunchy and round-ish. It defenitely has that ‘je-ne-sais-quoi’ that seperates it from most wood type grotesques. It can be perfect for lettering on a storefront window of – let's say a bread shop or a lunchroom. Or a logo for a downtown hipster café. VLNL Boulangerie hardly has any limitations actually.

Originally commissioned in 1979 as a new corporate typeface for Volkswagen AG, the VAG Rounded™ family’s geometric sans letterforms feature distinct rounded terminals, imparting the design with a friendly, approachable demeanor. With its design led by Gerry Barney, the VAG Rounded family remained in use for Volkswagen AG’s unified, worldwide automobile marketing for over a decade. The design was released for public use in 1989, and was bundled with many desktop publishing software titles available at the time. This opened the door for millions of computer users to work with the VAG Rounded type family. Available in four weights—from thin to black the VAG Rounded family is an apt choice for logo design, identity systems, or any application where a typographic warmth is desired. For contrast in voice, consider pairing the design with a more reserved serif typeface, or a sans serif with narrow styles, such as those found in the Alternate Gothic, Trade Gothic, or FF DIN type families.

Characterized by quickness, lightness, and ease of movement, Bird Script is a font which challenges many aspects of type-design: every single stroke, comes directly from the author’s hand and tries to reflect not only the tool used, but also his feelings at the moment of writing. Bird Script is a font filled up with the energic gestures of what it’s called gestural calligraphy, a not very explored field in typography, where hardly ever a letter comes the same way two times: When manipulating the pen, the letterer seeks for the beauty of the differences and the grace of a confident execution. Originally done with a flat speedball pen nib nº5 and retouched with pencil for the bolder elements, it turned into a very pleasant to the eyes font which dances between the formal rules of typography and the artistic look of calligraphy. Bird Script Pro and Bird Script Light Pro come with many ligatures, alternates and ornaments. Into the standard ligatures we find lots of pairs of two and three ligated letters so when they are activated the font seems alive. However if none of them are activated, the font gives a really particular text pattern, specially in smaller sizes. Get Bird Script, add rhythm to your work.

A display fontface for titles inspired on Latin America, Ethnic, Native, Tribal, Mysthical, Handmade, Aboriginal, Pre-Hispanic, Pre-Columbian, Textured. By mid-1997 I was developed the early type edition was called «Muisca Sans» as my work for the degree in Graphic Design (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), based on the concept of pre-Columbian figures characteristics within some of the very few visual elements recovered from the Muisca culture, ancient pre-Columbian tribe disappeared before the arrival of the Spaniards in what is now central Colombia. In fact, the name of the capital Bogotá (the capital of Colombia) goes back to Bacatá as primary or village downtown of what was once the imperial capital of tribe Muisca. Although this unfinished early typographic project has not yet been published, Tequendama is the evolution of the first one. Tequendama reminds the myth of Muisca culture and religion of this tribe. The god Bochica, a wise old man with a white beard heard the cries of his tribe suffered against flooding of their land losing harvests before the divine punishment resulted by the offended god Chibchacun. However Bochica appeared wearing a white robe sitting on a huge rainbow and he broken the mountain towards the southwest wise old man with a golden staff broke the mountain to drain the flooded savanna. This emblematic and iconic place would later be called as «Salto de Tequendama». Tequendama name also been adopted to a nearby province to Bogotá.

Lady Edith harkens back to the days of flappers and cocktail parties. The early part of the twentieth century, when Art Deco was at it’s height and high fashion was all the rage. A time of beauty, class and elegance. A minimalistic font with clean lines and just enough flare to make it unique. The perfect font for any occasion that needs a bit of high end magic. There is no lower case for Lady Edith as it is a decorative font. The Upper case version serves both the upper and lower case keys. Lady Edith has a glyph count of 397 and supports the following languages; Supported Languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Asu, Basque, Bemba, Bena, Bosnian, Catalan, Chiga, Colognian, Cornish, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Embu, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Galician, German, Gusii, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Kabuverdianu, Kalaallisut, Kalenjin, Kamba, Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Latvian, Lithuanian, Low German, Lower Sorbian, Luo, Luxembourgish, Luyia, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malagasy, Malay, Maltese, Manx, Meru, Morisyen, North Ndebele, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Nyankole, Oromo, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Romansh, Rombo, Rundi, Rwa, Samburu, Sango, Sangu, Scottish Gaelic, Sena, Shambala, Shona, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Swiss German, Taita, Teso, Turkmen, Upper Sorbian, Vunjo, Walser, Zulu

Milibus, the refined and expertly crafted scientific sans-serif typeface, is a design marvel that stands out from the crowd with its unparalleled mechanistic aesthetic. Drawing inspiration from utilitarian alphabets like DIN and plotter fonts from the 1980s, Milibus is a testament to the fusion of technical and artistic excellence. Crafted with an eye for detail, Milibus boasts robotic angles that lend it a distinctive character that is both modern and vintage. The angle cut stroke endings are typical of industrial typefaces such as Expressway, making Milibus the go-to choice for designs that require a bold and commanding presence. In addition to its exquisite visual appeal, Milibus is also highly functional. Available in three weights and italics, it is a versatile typeface that can be used for a wide range of design projects. From scientific papers to technical manuals, Milibus is the perfect choice for those who demand precision and clarity in their typography. In short, Milibus is an exceptional scientific sans-serif typeface that is a testament to the beauty of mechanistic design. With its technical look, robotic angles, and angle cut stroke endings, Milibus is a design marvel that will elevate your designs to the next level. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

I spend a lot of time following two obsessions: packaging and hand lettering. Alongside a few other minor obsessions, those two have been my major ones for so many years now, I've finally reached the point where I can actually claim them as “obsessions” without getting a dramatic reaction from the little voice in the back of my head. When you spend so much time researching and studying a subject, you become very focused, directionally and objectively. But of course some of the research material you run into turns out to be tangential to whatever your focus happens to be at the time, so you absorb what you can from it, then shelf it — like the celebrity bobblehead that amused you for a while, but is now an almost invisible ornament eating dust and feathers somewhere in your environment. And just like the bobblehead may fall off the shelf one day to remind you of its existence, some of my lettering research material unveiled itself in my head one day for no particular reason. Hand lettering is now mostly perceived as an American art. Someone with my historical knowledge about lettering may be snooty enough to go as far as pointing out the British origins of almost everything American, including lettering — but for the most part, the contemporary perspective associates great lettering with America. The same perspective also associates blackletter, gothics and sans serifs with Germany. So you can imagine my simultaneous surprise and impatience when, in my research for one of my American lettering-based fonts, I ran into a German lettering book from 1953, by an artist called Bentele. It was no use for me because it didn't propel my focus at that particular time, but a few months ago I was marveling at what we take for granted — the sky is blue, blackletter is German, lettering is American — and found myself flipping through the pages of that book again. The lettering in that book is upbeat and casual sign making stuff, but it has a slightly strange and youthful experimentation at its heart. I suppose I find it strange because it deviates a lot from the American stuff I'm used to working with for so long now. To make a long story short, what’s inside that German book served as the semilla, which is Spanish for seed, for the typeface you see all over these pages. With Semilla, my normal routine went out the window. My life for a while was all Bezier all the time. No special analog or digital brushes or pens were used in drawing these forms. They're the product of a true Bezier process, all starting with a point creating a curve to another point, which draws a curve to another point, and so on. It’s a very time-consuming process, but at the end I am satisfied that it can get to pretty much the same results easier and more traditional methods accomplish. And as usual with my fonts, the OpenType is plenty and a lot of fun. Experimenting with substitution and automation is still a great pleasure for me. It is the OpenType that always saves me from the seemingly endless work hours every type designer must inevitably have to face at one point in his career. The artful photos used in this booklet are by French photographer and designer Stéphane Giner. He is very deserving of your patronage, so please keep an eye out for his marvelous work. I hope you like Semilla and enjoy using it. I have a feeling that it marks a transition to a more curious and flexible period in my career, but only time will tell.