It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Daily Funnies JNL (available in both regular and oblique versions) was inspired by and somewhat modeled after the hand lettering of Walt Kelly, the creator of the classic “Pogo” comic strip.

Ink Nouveau JNL is loosely based on the hand lettered title from a lobby card for the 1927 film “The Taxi Dancer” and is available in both regular and oblique versions. The design emulates a hastily or sloppily drawn Art Nouveau display font.

The hand lettered title on the sheet music for 1917's "If They'd Never Take You from Me" was the basis for the Art Nouveau sans design of Nouveau Romance JNL. This elegant sans serif is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Common Stencil JNL takes a vintage lettering stencil from the 1980s with imperfectly bent cutting dies [which unintentionally gave the characters a distressed or "grunge" look] and recreates it in a digital form. The design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

“Corbitt” is one of the many designs found within the pages of the 1907 Inland Type Foundry specimen book. A bold spurred serif with Art Nouveau influences, it is now available digitally as River Terrace JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

The image of an old enamel sign advertising poultry inspired Poultry and Fish JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. Horizontal cut-through lines within the Art Deco-era hand lettering adds to the uniqueness of this type design.

The hand lettered title on the cover of the 1932 sheet music for “I Wish We Could Dance Forever” was the inspiration for Dance Routine JNL. This bold Art Deco sans serif design is now available in both regular and oblique versions.

Basic Stencil JNL was inspired by a lettering stencil sold by Dymo around 1968 that featured a sans serif design with rounded corners and an overall square look to the characters. This bold stencil design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The 1933 sheet music compilation entitled "Kate Smith Memories Song Book" had the singer's name hand lettered in a bold, spurred serif typeface. This lettering design became the basis for Radio Show JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Lens Grotesk is a Neo-grotesque type family of 16 fonts born as a result of a very conscious research in the field of the neutral Swiss aesthetic. There's a reason for all the prominent examples of this design like Helvetica and Univers to be used on a daily basis for more than 70 years and it's a simple one - they just work. The closed terminals, the low contrast, uniform widths and proportions makes the Neo-grotesques feel just right. Although very often branded as stiff, the neutral Neo grotesques are here to stay and Lens Grotesk is our own reading of the popular style. Lens Grotesk takes the Neo-grotesk model one step further adding a pinch of Geometric sans-serif to the mix thus creating a way more modern and contemporary looking design. Characterized with more generous oval proportions and slightly more open terminals, Lens Grotesk keeps the modulation and rhythm needed for a slightly longer texts while visibly keeping everything in order. Zooming in you'll find traces of the Geometric aesthetic - the robust almost right angled approach of the arches and tails (look t, f, j, y) and the way more circular rounded shapes. Like all our fonts, Lens Grotesk is equipped with a range of OpenType features, stylistic alternatives and of course Cyrillic support. It comes in a pack of 16 fonts with 8 styles and their matching italics or one variable font file available with all full family purchases. Live Tester | Download Demo Fonts | Subscribe

As designers, we seek perfection and originality. The more we step back and look at our work, the more changes we tend to find necessary. Drastic modifications are inevitable. The same is true of Grayfel. Grayfel began as an exercise at insigne to explore the crowded space of neutral sans. While the world of sans serifs is admittedly crowded, I still managed to find something new and different. The final Grayfel consists of 42 full-featured OpenType fonts containing three widths: Regular, Condensed, and Extended. Every width consists of 14 fonts--seven weights with matching italics, making it a good companion for setting clear text and headlines for print and screen. OpenType features are also available. There’s figure choices, such as proportional and old style figures. Additionally, Greyfel includes sophisticated typographic attributes: ligatures, fractions, alternate characters, small caps, superscripts and subscripts. Its extended character set supports Central, Western and Eastern European languages. Optical compensations also mean the outcome of this family is a hybrid of humanistic proportions. It’s a well-finished design with optimized kerning gives it a friendly look. If you like sans serifs within the tradition of Futura, Helvetica, Avant Garde and Avenir, then you’ll love Greyfel, too. Grayfel works well in a variety of applications. Subtly neutral yet fun, it’s suitable for headlines of all sizes as well as for text. Put it to the task for marketing, packaging, editorial work, branding and even on-screen projects. Try it out: it’s not just fun and playful; it’s Grayfel.

Smart Sans is a personal tribute to Leslie (Sam) Smart, the first type director to be hired by a major typesetting house in Canada. Smart was a twentieth century design pioneer who raised the standards of Canadian typography. Together with three of his peers, he established the first Type Directors Club in Toronto. After Smart's death in 1998, type designer Rod McDonald decided that something should be done to commemorate Smart's life and achievements. I had first thought of establishing a scholarship in Sam's name, but a typeface design soon replaced this idea," says McDonald. "Once I decided to design a typeface, however, it became a foregone conclusion that it would be a sans serif - for no other reason than that I loved the name Smart Sans." Two typefaces served as inspiration for McDonald's work. "Like thousands of designers, I'm keen on Matthew Carter's Helvetica Compressed series. And, when I was younger, I also loved Fred Lambert's Compacta," says McDonald. "I thought there might be a place for a small range that could take over from these 'old workhorses' and, in the process, bring a fresher look to the genre." McDonald drew three weights for the Smart Sans family, all ideally suited for setting attention-getting headlines and powerful display copy. The two-storied 'g' contributes to the design's lively personality, and the short 'r' helps maintain tight, even spacing. Smart Sans is the perfect homage to a great typographer, because it raises the bar on what to expect from condensed sans serif typefaces. Sam Smart would be pleased."

Body graphic project at Behance Body is a type family designed for Zetafonts by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini with Andrea Tartarelli. Conceived as a contemporary alternative to modernist superfamilies like Univers or Helvetica, Body tries to maximize text readability while providing a wide range of options for the designer. It comes in two variants (Body Text and Body Grotesque), each in four widths and four weights: regular and bold for basic typesetting, light and extrabold for display use. Body Grotesque applies to the sans serif modernist skeleton little imperfections and quirks inspired by our research in early 20th century type specimens. Curves are slightly more calligraphic and a light inverse contrast is applied to bold weights, giving the typeface a slight vintage appearance in display use. Body Text, on the contrary, challenges the modernist aesthetics maximizing horizontal lines and using open terminals for letters like “s” and “a” that appear normally dark in modernist grotesques. For both variants, the normal width family is slightly condensed in an effort to maximize space usage; the Slim width is provided for extremely dense texts or side notes while the Fit width is optimized for display usage as in logos, headings or titles. The Large width manages to look elegant in its light weight while becoming a valid heading or subtitle font in its extrabold weights. All the 64 fonts in the Body superfamily include a complete latin extended character set with small caps for over 70 languages, Russian cyrillic, open type positional numbers, stylist sets and alternate forms.

A title card listing the supporting cast of the 1950 Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame drama “In a Lonely Place” provided the hand lettered slab serif type design that served as the model for Post Production JNL – available in both regular and oblique versions.

Vintage (circa 1960s) packaging for Parker Cartridge Pen Erasers had the product description printed in bold stencil lettering featuring a squared look with rounded corners. This design has been recreated digitally as Marketing Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The title on the 1925 sheet music for “By the Light of the Stars” was hand lettered in an eccentric Art Nouveau type style with varying character shapes and line widths. This is now available as Erratic Nouveau JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

The hand lettered titles and credits from the 1958 war film “The Young Lions” command your attention with a bold block slab serif type style. This design has been digitally recreated as No Entry JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A bold, condensed slab serif face A July 9, 1935 trade paper ad for Paramount Pictures’ 1st quarter film releases sported hand lettering with chamfered slab serifs. This condensed type design is now available as Preferred Shares JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Stockville JNL is a total rebuild of the wood type design originally found in Arvada JNL. All angular lines were straightened to give the lettering a more classic look. Bold, brash and block style, this headline typeface is available in both regular and oblique styles.

Hand lettered titling on the 1945 sheet music for “Don’t Forget To-Night, To-Morrow” is in a simple, condensed sans serif style with a slight hint of Art Deco influence. This is now available as Handmade Headline JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Business Lunch JNL is an extra bold hairline serif font based on Monotype’s Falstaff, which in turn was greatly influenced by Bodoni Extra Bold. Great for posters, menu headers and other forms of headlining, Business Lunch JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Based on William Page’s Skeleton Antique wood type (circa 1865), Local Printer JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions. Primarily used for text passages, the type design also works well in headlines and sub-headlines needing less emphasis and a touch of subtlety.

From the cover of the 1932 sheet music for “A Great Big Bunch of You” comes a hand-lettered Art Deco type design; boldly hand lettered with contrasting angled lines and varying character widths. Deco Romance JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A unique and stylized type design with Art Deco influence was found within the French publication “Modèles de lettres modernes par Georges Léculier” (“Models of Modern Letters by Léculier”). This lettering is now digitally available as Deco Wide JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Vintage packaging [circa 1940s] for a sewing machine attachment used for making lattice-type stitching had its information hand lettered in a casual Art Deco sans serif design. This became the basis of Home Economics JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A classic example of Art Deco lettering made with a round nib ink pen was found within the pages of “Lettering” by Harry B. Wright (circa 1950). Now available as a digital type font, Pen Moderne JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The hand lettered title and credits for the 1937 film “Easy Living” (starring Jean Arthur and Edward Arnold) featured playful, casual Art Deco sans serif lettering. This became the working model for Nice and Easy JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Slabserif Grotesk JNL was modeled from an example of a wood type design called Antique Light Face, and is available in both regular and oblique versions. The numerals (although an odd fit to the overall design) make this vintage font quite unusual and charming.

The hand lettered title on the cover of the 1934 sheet music for "What A Night" not only acted as a design model for What A Night JNL but also as its namesake. The digital type face is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The Dec., 1936 - Jan., 1937 edition of Radio Mirror offered up a condensed, hand lettered sans serif type design that - although an Art Deco style- is also somewhat futuristic in design. This is now available as Condensed Moderne JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

The 1960 revised edition of Sam Welo’s “Studio Handbook – Letter and Design for Artists and Advertisers” showcased a beautiful, semi-condensed Art Deco alphabet called “Modern Gothic”. It has been digitally redrawn and is available as Restauranteur JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

A condensed type design with Art Deco influences was used for titles within the February, 1938 issue of Modern Screen Magazine. The digital version is named for the famous “Tinsel Town” street intersection. Hollywood and Vine JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The hand lettered title on the 1945 sheet music for the song "Louisiana Hayride" is an Art Deco design with a nod to the preceding Art Nouveau era. It is now available as Barn Dance JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Within the pages of the Pettingill & Co. (Boston) 1901-02 specimen book is Camelot Old Style – a thin stroke spurred serif typeface with traces of Art Nouveau influence. This had been redrawn digitally as Pettiford JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Amongst a number of items for sale in an online auction was a font of metal type featuring a thin, condensed serif font with decidedly Art Deco styling. This was the inspiration for Department Store JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The unusual hand lettering found on the 1945 sheet music for “Chinese Song” provided not only the design inspiration but the font’s name as well. A hybrid of Asian and Art Deco influences, Chinese Song JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

An example from the vintage lettering book "100 Alphabets Publicitaire" ("100 Advertising Alphabets") provided the inspiration for French Lettering JNL. This stylized Victorian [or Western] type face evokes the era of fanciful lettering design from the late 1800s. Available in both regular and oblique versions.

An ad in the May 3, 1928 issue of “The Film Daily” for the movie “Drums of Love” featured extra bold, sans serif hand lettering in an Art Deco style. This is now available as Drum Rhythm JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

The cover of a 1932 edition of “Sunset magazine” (a publication for homeowners living in the west and southwest area of the United States) featured a lovely Art Deco serif alphabet that is now available as Western Suburbs JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

The 1938 sheet music for the official Coast Guard Marching Song "Semper Paratus" "(Always Ready)" offered up a hand lettered title in a bold block style with rounded corners and an inline. This is now available as Stationer JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.