Pure and not-so-simple Maybe it’s the air of purity, openness and transparency that they transmit, but geometric typefaces are more popular than ever among leading brands. Based on near-perfect circles, triangles and squares, geometric letterforms look uncomplicated, even though making them readable is anything but – something the designers of the first wave of geometric fonts discovered nearly a century ago. Many of the world’s most recognisable brands in technology, retail, travel, food, manufacturing and other industries continue to be drawn to the straightforward, honest character that geometric fonts convey. Fontsmith set out in 2015 to develop a typeface in the same tradition, but optimised for the demands of modern brands – online and offline usage, readability and accessibility. And, of course, with the all-important Fontsmith x-factor built in. FS Lucas is the bold and deceptively simple result. Handle with care The letterforms of FS Lucas are round and generous, along the lines of Trajan Column lettering stripped of its serifs. But beware their thorns. Their designer, Stuart de Rozario, who also crafted the award-winning FS Millbank, wanted a contrast between spiky and soft, giving sharp apexes to the more angular letterforms, such as A, M, N, v, w and z. Among his inspirations were the colourful, geometric compositions of Frank Stella, the 1920s art deco poster designs of AM Cassandre, and the triangular cosmic element symbol, which led him to tackle the capital A first, instead of the usual H. The proportions and angles of the triangular form would set the template for many of the other characters. It was this form, and the light-scattering effects of triangular prisms, that lit the path to a name for the typeface: Lucas is derived from lux, the Latin word for light. Recommended reading Early geometric typefaces were accused of putting mathematical integrity before readability. FS Lucas achieves the trick of appearing geometric, while taking the edge off elements that make reading difficult. Perfectly circlular shapes don’t read well. The way around that is to slightly thicken the vertical strokes, and pull out the curves at the corners to compensate; the O and o of FS Lucas are optical illusions. Pointed apexes aren’t as sharp as they look; the flattened tips are an essential design feature. And distinctive details such as the open terminals of the c, e, f, g, j, r and s, and the x-height bar on the i and j, aid legibility, especially on-screen. These and many other features, the product of sketching the letterforms in the first instance by hand rather than mapping them out mechanically by computer, give FS Lucas the built-in humanity and character that make it a better, easier read all-round. Marks of distinction Unlike some of its more buttoned-up geometric bedfellows, FS Lucas can’t contain its natural personality and quirks: the flick of the foot of the l, for example, and the flattish tail on the g and j. The unusual bar on the J improves character recognition, and the G is circular, without a straight stem. There’s a touch of Fontsmith about the t, too, with the curve across the left cross section in the lighter weights, and the ampersand is one of a kind. There’s a lot to like about Lucas. With its 9 weights, perfect proportions and soft but spiky take on the classic geometric font, it’s a typeface that could light up any brand.

Pure and not-so-simple Maybe it’s the air of purity, openness and transparency that they transmit, but geometric typefaces are more popular than ever among leading brands. Based on near-perfect circles, triangles and squares, geometric letterforms look uncomplicated, even though making them readable is anything but – something the designers of the first wave of geometric fonts discovered nearly a century ago. Many of the world’s most recognisable brands in technology, retail, travel, food, manufacturing and other industries continue to be drawn to the straightforward, honest character that geometric fonts convey. Fontsmith set out in 2015 to develop a typeface in the same tradition, but optimised for the demands of modern brands – online and offline usage, readability and accessibility. And, of course, with the all-important Fontsmith x-factor built in. FS Lucas is the bold and deceptively simple result. Handle with care The letterforms of FS Lucas are round and generous, along the lines of Trajan Column lettering stripped of its serifs. But beware their thorns. Their designer, Stuart de Rozario, who also crafted the award-winning FS Millbank, wanted a contrast between spiky and soft, giving sharp apexes to the more angular letterforms, such as A, M, N, v, w and z. Among his inspirations were the colourful, geometric compositions of Frank Stella, the 1920s art deco poster designs of AM Cassandre, and the triangular cosmic element symbol, which led him to tackle the capital A first, instead of the usual H. The proportions and angles of the triangular form would set the template for many of the other characters. It was this form, and the light-scattering effects of triangular prisms, that lit the path to a name for the typeface: Lucas is derived from lux, the Latin word for light. Recommended reading Early geometric typefaces were accused of putting mathematical integrity before readability. FS Lucas achieves the trick of appearing geometric, while taking the edge off elements that make reading difficult. Perfectly circlular shapes don’t read well. The way around that is to slightly thicken the vertical strokes, and pull out the curves at the corners to compensate; the O and o of FS Lucas are optical illusions. Pointed apexes aren’t as sharp as they look; the flattened tips are an essential design feature. And distinctive details such as the open terminals of the c, e, f, g, j, r and s, and the x-height bar on the i and j, aid legibility, especially on-screen. These and many other features, the product of sketching the letterforms in the first instance by hand rather than mapping them out mechanically by computer, give FS Lucas the built-in humanity and character that make it a better, easier read all-round. Marks of distinction Unlike some of its more buttoned-up geometric bedfellows, FS Lucas can’t contain its natural personality and quirks: the flick of the foot of the l, for example, and the flattish tail on the g and j. The unusual bar on the J improves character recognition, and the G is circular, without a straight stem. There’s a touch of Fontsmith about the t, too, with the curve across the left cross section in the lighter weights, and the ampersand is one of a kind. There’s a lot to like about Lucas. With its 9 weights, perfect proportions and soft but spiky take on the classic geometric font, it’s a typeface that could light up any brand.

Spectrum font is based on a design by Jan van Krimpen, who worked on his font from 1941 to 1943 for use in a Bible of the Spectrum publishing house in Utrecht. The bible project was later cancelled but the font was so beautifully formed and universal that the Monotype Corporation in London completed it. Distinctive are the reserved elegance and unmistakeable beauty of form. The italic was kept fine and is a wonderful complement to the other weights, making it perfect for emphasis in text. The form of the lower case italic g is reminiscent of van Krimpen's italic for Lutetia and Romanée. A similar font in form is the Perpetua from Eric Gill. It displays not only similar forms to those of Spectrum, both fonts also have uniquely designed old style figures. The 7 is particularly unusual with its slanted horizontal stroke and marked bend to the left in the lower third of the form. Spectrum is an extremely legible font even in smaller point sizes and is just as suitable for headlines as for long texts.

PF Champion Script Pro is perhaps the most advanced and powerful calligraphic family ever made. It received an award for Excellence in Type Design from the International Type Design Competition ‘Modern Cyrillic 2009’ which was held in Moscow. Most recently, it received another award from the 3rd International Eastern Type Design Competition - Granshan Awards 2010. This typeface was first presented in June 2007 at the 3rd International Conference on Typography and Visual Communication (ICTVC) and was met with rave reviews. It is based mainly on the manuscripts of the 18th century English calligrapher Joseph Champion. Developed over a period of two and a half years, each one of the 2 weights is loaded with 4300 glyphs(!), offering simultaneous support for all European languages based on the Latin, Greek and Cyrillic scripts. Furthermore, a wide selection of alternate forms and ligatures is included for all languages, in order to accommodate diverse design aesthetics. These alternates are either applied automatically through an advanced programming scheme, or manually through several OpenType features. An attempt was made to design a contemporary script typeface with classic roots, by following certain guidelines, i.e. lowercase characters were designed so they are less inclined, have a higher x-height and are less condensed than the original. Several characters were stripped-off their connecting lines in order to enhance legibility. Four sets of alternate swashed capitals as well as a plethora of ornaments and frames (117) was included. Small caps and their alternate forms were designed to replace the capitals which disrupt the flow of text within a sentence with their extravagant swashes. All characters were carefully designed with the proper weight in order to sustain harsh printing conditions (on special papers), a situation which affects mainly the light connecting parts of calligraphic typefaces. Finally, it was programmed in such a way as to preserve handwriting qualities, by designing an extensive array of ligatures and alternate glyphs in all languages, never before released or incorporated within the same font.

Ashemore developed as a result of my visits to Barcelona, Spain and to Germany, followed soon after by a visit to Asheville, North Carolina. Blending the styles of art and architecture from these three areas may seem initially to result in an unusual formula, but the distinct and flamboyant style of Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts style combined with the more strict rules of a sans serif transfer well into a beautiful and very usable blend of these individually eccentric forms. The resulting font retains the Art Nouveau and Craftsman style flavors, which shine through the typeface despite its geometric base. One of the font’s defining characteristics is the unique terminators of its C, G and S. This face’s texture and rhythm also moves well in longer texts. These and other features give Ashemore a restrained bohemian vibe that seems particularly appropriate for a coffee house or an art gallery. The Ashemore family has a full range of six weights from thin to black and includes condensed and extended options for a total of 36 fonts. The typeface also includes some unique OpenType alternates that make the superfamily even more versatile. Ashemore is equipped for complex professional typography, including alternates, small caps and many alternate characters. The face also has a number of numeral sets, including tabular figures, fractions, old-style, lining figures and superiors and inferiors. OpenType-capable applications such as Quark or the Adobe Suite can take full advantage of automatic ligatures and alternates. You can find these features demonstrated in the .pdf brochure. Ashemore also includes the glyphs to support a wide range of languages, including Central, Eastern and Western European languages. In all, Ashemore supports over 40 languages that use the extended Latin script, making the new addition a great choice for multi-lingual publications and packaging. Ashemore was designed by Jeremy Dooley with production assistance from Lucas Azevedo and Marcelo Magalhaes. Kerning assistance from iKern.

Ambiguity is a type family with five distinct personalities or ‘states’, created as a tool for coaxing designers and brands out of their comfort zone. It embraces both tradition and radicality, as well as generosity and thrift, encouraging us to question our beliefs about the intersection of style and meaning. The family is designed by Charles Nix, who describes Ambiguity as “as much thought experiment as typeface.” Its five states—Tradition, Radical, Thrift, Generous and Normate—each express or subvert different aspects of typographic tradition. Tradition is conservative, relying on historical letter shapes. Radical rejects inherited ideas of proportion, making typically slender letterforms wide, and wide letterforms slender. “It’s contrarian,” says Nix. Thrift cherry picks the condensed shapes from Tradition and Radical, while Generous does the same for wide forms. Normate sits at the center, a synthetic blend of all of the others. “Tradition is very comforting,” says Nix. “It’s the mask of conservatism. It’s calming because it delivers the proportions we expect. With Thrift more fits into a smaller space, so it’s great where words want to get large, like gigantic headlines, or text needs to cram in, like small screen type. You get a sense of carefree and luxury from the Generous cut. One would expect the Radical to be used in a sort of Dadaist way, but in a classic context it provides an enjoyable jolt.” Ambiguity is a litmus test. Designers could spend hours trying on typefaces that offer just one of these voices. Ambiguity provides five different personalities—ideas—beliefs—each of which also work seamlessly together. “It’s a palettea, like idea cards,” he says. “It’s a way of making yourself see differently. My hope is that traditionalists will try on radical clothes and vice versa. It’s a way of exploring outside your comfort zone, breaking out of the doldrums, by stepping through a variety of voices.”

Changing nature of work FS Industrie is an extraordinarily versatile new type system, with 70 variants built around five different widths and seven different weights. Type in the future will be increasingly variable, and FS Industrie is specifically designed to address the changing needs of brands. As more of the things we make exist primarily in a digital space, so our need to create type that can adapt within that space grows. It is the spirit of variable design, adaptation and flexibility that drove us to create FS Industrie. A typeface for future work in a future world. FS Industrie is a response to the changing nature of type, for brands that are responding to the changing nature of work. Industrial style Stylistically, FS Industrie feels direct and simple without sacrificing its humanity. It takes inspiration from German fonts of the 1930s, with their roots in manufacturing and signage. A classic sense of functional utility combined with a progressive view of where type is heading. Expressions in width A fundamental challenge with variable type is to ensure that craft and precision is preserved at every interval. Each width and weight is drawn by hand, with subtle variations in terminals and angles as you progress through the system. This ensures each variant can play to its unique strengths, while also pairing perfectly with its siblings. From the closed terminals of the Condensed and the open terminals of the Extended. FS Industrie is a design system that maintains a practical, grounded and robust tone throughout every variable style. Variable nature The 70 styles offer a range of expression. Each width contrasts with the next to clearly define typographic roles in graphic layouts. Every glyph is crafted with adaptability and scalability in mind, creating a pliable design space for the user. The proportions of each letterform flex as weight scales up, stem weights increase as letter width broadens. These subtle design changes create an optically consistent visual impression.

The ITC Nova Lineta™ design is the first commercial typeface from Slobodan Jelesijevic. As with many typeface designs, it began as simple sketches. “I was working on a packaging design project,” recalls Jelesijevic, “and wanted an informal, slightly cursive design for the type. I could not find anything that matched my need, so I began sketching.” The preliminary design had an elegant yet fresh quality that, once developed, turned out to be perfect for Jelesijevic’s project. After its first use, however, Nova Lineta lay dormant for over a year. Other projects came and went, and new typeface ideas filled Jelesijevic’s notebook. Although Nova Lineta continued to tickle the creative crevices of his mind, no more work was done on the face. Then, in a period between projects, Jelesijevic began to polish the design – and, in the process, created extended and condensed versions to complement the normally-proportioned original. Born in Gornji Milanovac, Serbia in 1951, Jelesijevic graduated with a degree in graphic communication and lettering from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. These days, Jelesijevic is sought out not only as a typeface designer, but also as a graphic designer and illustrator. When not working on design projects, he teaches graphic communication at the Faculty of Art in Niš, Serbia. Although it is a casual and inviting design, Nova Lineta has been carefully constructed and refined. As a result, it performs exceptionally well within a wide range of sizes and in a wealth of applications. An ample x-height, open counters and distinctive character shapes also ensure a high level of legibility. And, although at first glance Nova Lineta may appear to be a sans serif design, subtle serifs make their presence known at large sizes. Nova Lineta emanates warmth when used for extensive text, and it has a fresh quality at display sizes. The small family’s range of proportions also provides added flexibility. The result is a friendly yet powerful communication tool in a remarkably modestly-sized package.

Sancoale Softened is the new rounded companion to Sancoale. While the original Sancoale is crisp and defined, its delicate forms also lend themselves well to a lighter, more rounded version. The stems of Sancoale Softened are blunted, and its corners have been carefully rounded, avoiding the “sausage” look seen with some rounded fonts. This blend of definition and delicacy makes the Sancoale Superfamily versatile and appropriate for a variety of applications. The design minimizes the characters to their essence, leaving a default set of simple characters without notches or spurs. However, the typeface family’s slightly technological feel still appears friendly and approachable to the reader. It’s slightly condensed proportions and tall x-height also make the design readable at a wide range of sizes, which works especially well for web pages. These softer letterforms give Softened its unique, futuristic look--great for distinguishing your text or display. There are six weights with true italics. All insigne fonts are fully loaded with OpenType features. Sancoale Softened is also equipped for complex professional typography, including alternates with stems, small caps and plenty of alts, including “normalized” capitals and lowercase letters. The face includes a number of numeral sets, including fractions, old-style and lining figures with superiors and inferiors. OpenType capable applications such as Quark or the Adobe suite can take full advantage of automatically replacing ligatures and alternates. You can find these features demonstrated in the .pdf brochure. The Sancoale family also includes the glyphs to support a wide range of languages, including Central, Eastern and Western European languages. In all, Sancoale Softened supports over 40 languages that use the extended Latin script, making the new addition a great choice for multi-lingual publications and packaging. Sancoale Softened continues with Sancoale’s successfully simple, geometric and legible structure. With its suitability for a wide range of uses, the Sancoale superfamily is a very economical and versatile addition to any designer’s font collection.

Cocogoose Pro Narrows has been completely re-engineered in 2020 to include extra features and technologies. A darkmode weight range has been added to the whole family, to keep consistency of effect when the typeface is used in reverse on the web and in dark mode interfaces. Also, a new Ultra Compressed subfamily has been developed for display usage. Designed by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini in 2013, Cocogoose was first expanded in 2015 with the help of Francesco Canovaro who co-designed the decorative display weights and Andrea Tartarelli who developed the condensed widths. In 2020 a full redesign of the typeface has been published: Cocogoose Pro now includes new widths, weights, open type features and characters, thanks to the help of Mario De Libero. Influenced by vernacular sign-painting and modernist ideals, Cocogoose is drawn on a classic geometric sans skeleton, softened by rounded corners and slight visual corrections. Its very low contrast, dark colour and tall x-height make it a solid choice for all designers looking for a powerful display typeface for logos, headings and vintage-inspired branding. The tall x-height makes texts set in Cocogoose very readable even at small sizes, while the bold regular weight allows for maximum impact when used as a branding, signage or decorative typeface. Cocogoose Pro was designed as a highly reliable tool for design problem solving, and given all the features a graphic designer needs, starting from its wide range of widths and weights. Its 2000+ latin, cyrillic and greek characters make sure it covers over 200 languages worldwide, while its comprehensive set of open type features allows faultless typesetting thanks to small capitals, positional numbers & case sensitive forms. A wide range of alternate letterforms, developed along nine different stylistic sets, gives you an extra level of design fine-tuning. The layerable and colour-ready display variants include inline, outline, shadow and a letterpress version that can simulate the effect of old print, also thanks to programmed randomization of its letters.

Well lookee here: an authentically distressed "rough" version of our best-selling Cornhusker font! Standing tall as an Illinois cornfield in September, Cornhusker Rough is a faux-printed, condensed sans designed by a champion cornhusker. Inspired by 1940s Midwestern signage, it's warm & inky characters are perfectly at home in logos, beverage bottles and food packaging, restaurant menus, travel advertisements, websites, stationery, handmade product packaging and so much more. If you're looking for a hand-crafted typeface with punch (who can fit into tight spaces!) then Cornhusker Rough is the font for you. This inspired revival excels in both retro & modern designs. Cornhusker Rough includes capital letters, small caps, and alternate cuts (with diacritics) of A, E, F, J, X, Y, ᴀ, ᴇ, ғ, ᴊ, x, ʏ, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and a sharp German double s in both cap and smallcap. Please note: Cornhusker Rough features a highly detailed, realistic inkplate texture. This font may render slowly in some applications. This font is not affiliated with or endorsed by the University of Nebraska. WHAT'S INCLUDED Cornhusker Regular includes an installable digital Opentype Font file in a single weight. This file contains a basic Latin character set with a full set of uppercase and small caps, multilingual diacritics, numbers, international currency figures, punctuation and pagination symbols. The font also includes alternate cuts for select uppercase and smallcap letters (located in stylistic sets). It is compatible with Adobe CS and CC, Microsoft Word and other type editing apps. SUPPORTED LANGUAGES Afrikaans, Alsatian, Basque, Bislama, Breton, Catalan, Chamorro, Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese, Finnish, Flemish, Franco-Provencal, French, Frisian, Friulian, Galician, German, Greenlandic, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Ladin, Latin, Luxembourgish, Malay, Manx Gaelic, Northern Sotho, Norwegian (Bokmål), Norwegian (Nynorsk), Occitan, Portuguese, Rhaeto-Romance, Romansh, Sami (Inari), Sami (Lule), Sami (Northern), Sami (Skolt), Sami (Southern), Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Walloon and Welsh.