The Latin, or Roman, alphabet was originally adapted from the Etruscan alphabet during the 7th century BC to write Latin. Since then it has had many different forms, and been adapted to write many other languages. According to Roman legend, the Cimmerian Sibyl, Carmenta, created the Latin alphabet by adapting the Greek alphabet used in the Greek colony of Cumae in southern Italy. This was introduced to Latium by Evander, her son. 60 years after the Trojan war. There is no historical evidence to support this story, which comes from the Roman author, Gaius Julius Hyginus (64BC - 17AD). The earliest known inscriptions in the Latin alphabet date from the 6th century BC. It was adapted from the Etruscan alphabet during the 7th century BC. The letters Y and Z were taken from the Greek alphabet to write Greek loan words. Other letters were added from time to time as the Latin alphabet was adapted for other languages.

ITC Johann Sparkling is the work of Austrian designer Viktor Solt, a perfect imitation of the handwriting of an educated person of the 18th century. ITC Johann Sparkling is intended to close the gap between highly formal copperplate scripts and the scribbled look of 'true' handwriting," says Solt. "I am not very interested in highly formal and perfect calligraphy, but rather in quick, personal-looking scripts. Usually I start with some historical samples in mind, but I do not try to copy these sources. Instead, I incorporate them into my own handwriting. It takes up to two weeks, and many sheet of paper, before the respective script becomes my own. Of course, this would not be an economic approach for individual lettering jobs, but I can conserve the custom script for future use by digitizing it." ITC Johann Sparkling should be used in fairly large point sizes and its capitals only as initials.

Worthington Arcade is a classically-proportioned capitals-only type incorporating a selection of ligatures and alternates. It loosely resembles the hand-painted architectural lettering of the 30s to the 50s, exemplified by the likes of Percy Smith’s interior signage for the BBC or George Mansell’s lettering for the University of London and the signs found on London’s bridges. However, rather than a slavish copy of any historical model, it is more an examination and evocation of certain idiosyncratic quirks of civic lettering of the period, and an attempt to create a peculiarly English titling typeface. The round letters, for example the O, Q and C, are wider than the perfect circle usually found in such designs, while the straight-sided characters, usually drawn on a square, are narrower. This lends the whole a subtle elegance that is also emphasized by the raised crossbars on the H, E and F and extended lower leg of the E. Includes old-style numerals.

Also known as Schoolbook. 900+ glyphs. After Linn Boyd Benton's and Morris Fuller Benton's 1894 lower contrast version of Scotch Modern, Didone. The part of the large project on revival and further development (by drawing many additional glyphs) of the 20th century’s typewriters’ fonts. And especially the most famous, versatile and beautiful typewriter: IBM Selectric’s golfball fonts, lost for the civilization for many decades after ‘80s, not being created since then in digital vector form. This new sub-project started in July 2018 for the restoration of the most beautiful classical typefaces, used during the 20th century on the extremely rare now IBM Selectric Composer typewriters / desktop publishing systems. Together with Nick Hamze and the Right Reverend Theodore Munk, the collectors of old typewriters. IBM showed the perfect taste by developing these best historical book typefaces of the human civilization for typewriters. So people could type then using both the real book faces, and the famous classical ones.

Babetta is a display typeface that comes with some decorative typographical features. Alongside a set of arrows and flower icons, it also includes an alternative ›E‹, some special diacritic marks, a wavy ›S‹ and a series of ligatures. It features 5 weights, a special ›Neon‹ version and supports a wide range of Latin languages. This typographical tool box provides a large and playful variety of options for headlines and logotypes. Babetta supports Latin and Cyrillic languages. The initial inspiration for Babetta was an illuminated vintage shop sign—that of a famous bookstore in Berlin called Karl-Marx-Buchhandlung that dates back to the days of East Germany. During the course of the design process, this slightly shabby historical original was kissed by an Italian Art Deco beauty and has blossomed into a new typeface with its own special charm. The aim was not to preserve the original lettering, but to use it as a starting point for typographical exploration.

This series, with 104 illustrations in three files, collects original ink drawings with absurdities, bizarre people, whimsical personalities and risky behaviors! There is a very peculiar sense of narrative in the sucession of characters, even if they came out rather spontaneously and their order is random.With a vintage look and feel, these people seem to come out of a time capsule from Victorian times. Almost everything in the Bizarries (and also in their close relatives, our Illustries, Whimsies, Ombres, Absurdies and Genteta dingbats) is invented and drawn with no references —just a handful of images were sketched from historical photography. These illustrations can be very useful for a variety of projects, either in black and white, or colored in a paint or drawing application. You can use them at any size, from a small spot illustration to a huge poster, depending on your needs. The outlines remain crisp and clear no matter how much you enlarge, reduce, distort or tweak their shapes.

Carpathian Basin Rovas The Carpathian Basin Rovas script, or Kárpát-medencei rovás in Hungarian, was used in the Carpathian Basin between about the 7th and 11th centuries. Most of the inscriptions are in Hungarian, but some were in Onogur, As-Alan, Slavic or Eurasian Avar. Carpathian Basin Rovas is thought to be a descendent of the Proto-Rovas script, which was used to the east of the Aral Sea between about the 1st century AD and 567, when the tribes who were using it, the Avars and Ogurs, started to move into the Carpathian Basin. That process took until about 670 AD, after which the Proto-Rovas script became the Carpathian Basin Rovas and the Khazarian Rovas scripts. The Proto-Rovas script was perhaps a descendent of the Aramaic script. Since 2009 efforts have been made to revive the use of this alphabet. Some letters were added to it to represent sounds in modern Hungarian that weren't used historically.

What intrigued me about Buslingthorpe was the virtuoso challenge it presented, of designing a typeface that would, despite a ridiculously tiny x-height, still possess a coherent harmony betwen upper and lower case, and read confortably. At the same time, beyond pure plastic formality, I was aware that there are strong connotations of historicism in this noble style, with overtones of regal magnificence, on account of the extravagant leading and generous point size required for adequate visibility—in traditional letterpress printing such proportions, with so few characters per square inch, were pricey and devoured resources. There are two iconic early 20th century designs in the genre: Koch Antiqua (Rudolf Koch, Klingspor Foundry, 1922) and Lucian (Lucian Bernhard, Bauer Foundry, 1925). Both these have x-heights smaller than fifty percent of ascender height, which nominally defines the category. So I made these my benchmarks, and determined to outdo them in dramatic fashion. —Nick Shinn, Orangeville, March 2021

The font Speech Bubbles offers a convenient way to integrate text and image. While the font can be used to design comics, it also gives the typographer a tool to make text speak – to give words conversational dynamics and to emphasize visually the sound of the message. The font includes a total of seventy outlines and seventy bubble backgrounds selected from a survey of historic forms. What follows is a discussion of my process researching and developing the font, as well as a few user suggestions. My work on the Speech Bubbles font began with historic research. My first resource was a close friend who is a successful German comic artist. I had previously worked with him to transform his lettering art into an OpenType font. This allowed his publishing house to easily translate cartoons from German to other languages without the need to use another font, like Helvetica rounded. My friend showed me the most exciting, outstanding and graphically appealing speech bubbles from his library. I looked at early strips from Schulz (Peanuts), Bill Waterson (Calvin & Hobes), Hergé (TinTin), Franquin, as well as Walt Disney. The most inspiring was the early Krazy Kat and Ignatz (around 1915) from George Herriman. I also studied 1980’s classics Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen, Frank Miller’s Ronin and Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vandetta. Contemporary work was also a part of my research—like Liniers from Macanudo and work of Ralf König. With this overview in mind I began to work from scratch. I tried to distill the typical essence of each author’s or era’s speech bubbles style into my font. In the end I limited my work down to the seventy strongest images. An important aspect of the design process was examining each artist’s speech bubble outlines. In some cases they are carefully inked, as in most of the 80’s work. In others, such as with Herriman, they are fast drawn with a rough impetus. The form can be dynamic and round (Schultz) with a variable stroke width, or straight inked with no form contrast (Hergé). Since most outlines also carry the character of the tool that they are made with, I chose to separate the outline from the speech bubble fill-in or background. 
This technical decision offers interesting creative possibilities. For example, the font user can apply a slight offset from fill-in to outline, as it is typical to early comic strips, in which there are often print misalignments. Also, rather than work in the classic white background with black outline, one can work with colors. Many tonal outcomes are possible by contrasting the fill-in and outline color. The Speech Bubbles font offers a dynamic and quick way to flavor information while conveying a message. How is something said? Loudly? With a tint of shyness? Does a rather small message take up a lot of space? The font’s extensive survey of historic comic designs in an assembly that is useful for both pure comic purposes or more complex typographic projects. Use Speech Bubbles to give your message the right impact in your poster, ad or composition.

Geometric sans fonts in the Bauhaus tradition were the inspiration for the design of FF Mark®, for example the Universal font by Herbert Bayer, Erbar® Grotesk, Kabel®, Neuzeit Grotesk and of course Paul Renner's Futura®. From an aesthetic point of view, FF Mark is a descendant of these classics of German typeface design that intends to meet the needs of modern communication. Hannes von Döhren and Christoph Koeberlin had the support of the entire FontFont Type Department in the design of FF Mark, including Erik Spiekermann, who took over the artistic direction of the project. The teamwork resulted in carefully planned, balanced forms, which are responsible for the harmonious overall impression of the font. The capitals are not based on Roman square capitals; rather, they have a uniformly wide letter form in a comfortable ratio to the x-height. Thanks to the x-height, which is significantly larger compared to the historical models, FF Mark is also very legible in small sizes. This makes it a very flexible font in terms of its range of applications. A contrast in the stroke width is barely noticeable. At the same time, light modulation supports readability, especially in the bold styles in small sizes. The uniform line ends are obvious for a contemporary sans family nowadays (unlike some of the historical precedents, which evolved over years). Other details from the predecessors are consciously maintained and provide for added individuality in FF Mark. For example, the limbs in the uppercase "K" and "R" are offset slightly from the stem. Alternative characters with crossbars are available for the numbers "0", "1", "7" and the uppercase "Z" and the lowercase "a" also has an alternative with an open form. German typesetters have the option of uppercase umlauts with points that are set lower, as well as a long "s" from the Fraktur. And last but not least, FF Mark has the very characteristic ft-ligature of Futura. FF Mark is available in ten finely tuned weights ranging from Hairline to Black. A Book style for text setting further emphasizes the well-rounded features of this contemporary typeface. When the font was published, it also included ten carefully designed cursives for all weights. Users also have the option of various numeral sets with old-style and uppercase numbers as well as small capitals. FF Mark also has some geometric shapes and arrows based on the features of Futura. FF Mark is a modern, full-featured, geometric sans serif that you can use without hesitation for large projects in headlines as well as in texts. FF Mark's design is a nod to the historical models and transports their charm, elegance and in some cases unusual design applications into a modern font family equipped with the most current typographical features. NEW: the new FF Mark W1G versions features a pan-European character set for international communications. The W1G character set supports almost all the popular languages/writing systems in western, eastern, and central Europe based on the Latin alphabet and also several based on Cyrillic and Greek alphabets.

As a late work the “Meier Kapitalis” forms an arch within the typographic creations of the Swiss type designer Hans Meier who died in 2014. The first sketches of this typeface can be found in the teaching manual “The Development of Script and Type” (German: “Die Schriftentwicklung”; French “Le développement des caractères”) which was published in 1994, however, under the title “Roman Lapidary, 1st Century”. The booklet was first published by the Syntax Press, Cham, Switzerland and contains an introduction by Max Caflisch in which he writes: „The present work, „The Development of Script and Type“ is a concise, authoritative textbook, concentrating on the essentials in a wide survey from ancient Greek inscriptions to the printer’s typefaces of the present day. His (Meier’s) 72 varieties of letterforms enable the student or general reader to understand the history of script and type, while more than 60 of his own calligraphic specimens provide excellent models for all who practice this art.“ Unfortunately, the “Meier Kapitalis” is one of the few typeface families in this publication which has been digitized. It was to be the last type project fully realized by Meier. In cooperation with Elsner+Flake, the typeface family was developed and expanded and now contains the four cuts: Roman, Medium, Demi Bold and Bold with either a complement of characters for 78 Latin-based languages (EL=EuropaPlus) or in West-Layout.

Like many cities in the Midlands and North of England, Stoke-on-Trent has a rich history linked to making and industry. In Stoke’s case it was pottery. In the early 1900s bottle kilns could be seen covering the landscape of the six towns making up Stoke-on-Trent with hundreds of factories producing some of the best ceramics in the world. But by the 1990s most of these had gone. Torn down for development of housing or just left to rot. During the next few decades Stoke continued to change. The industry was in a decline and Stoke itself was seen as another poor midlands city with a dwindling industry. Then in 2008, Spode, one of the largest and most famousceramics factories in Stoke entered into administration. Pens cast aside, drawings left half finished, designs left in the turned-off kilns; Spode factory was abandoned. This was a real shock and the way everything was getting thrown into skips to be put on the tip was heartbreaking. Thankfully people salvaged some of the technical drawings, sketch design, old sample pieces and ceramics that people hard worked so hard on. Potbank has been in development over a number of years taking inspiration from the heritage and designs from the ceramics industry. It has a mixed Clarendon and Antiqua style structure with its main purpose to be used as a printed type.

At this pivotal juncture, where every choice casts long shadows, the imperative of pinpointing the archetype of typefaces is of paramount importance. One mere oversight, and the soul of your endeavor risks being lost in the mists of time. Yet, amidst these crossroads, "Winsel" emerges as the North Star in your typographical odyssey. Birthed in the revered sanctums of insigne design, this typeface is a magnum opus, echoing the artistic brilliance of British poster craft from epochs of golden jazz to times of renaissance. Winsel, in its sheer magnificence, stands as a testament to artistry, each stroke demanding undivided reverence. Be it the valiant weights reminiscent of a guardian sentinel or the graceful finesse mirroring a maestro's touch, Winsel is an unparalleled behemoth. Imbued with the finesse of OpenType, it's poised to embrace the multifaceted European Latin tapestry, while its Small Caps and Titling Caps take pride of place across its grand suite of nine weights. Sculpted with precision, Winsel is the beacon that challenges the ordinary and pledges to be an immortal testament. Seldom has the cosmos aligned to present such an illustrious moment. Fortified with Winsel, you stand on the precipice of legend. Carve your tales into the annals of perpetuity, voice your ethos with unyielding conviction, and let each letter be a symphony of undying commitment. In this epoch, in this narrative, Winsel beckons you to etch history.

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

Pellegrino Artusi was a celebrated Italian food writer, who is credited with the creation of one of the most influential cookbooks in the history of Italian cuisine. Taking inspiration from his legacy, Francesco Canovaro decided to work on a typographic homage to the delicacy and finesse of Italian traditional cuisine. Aptly named Artusi, the typeface is an enchanting combination of traditional Italian style, contemporary refinement and a playful touch of innovation. It is a transitional serif typeface with both text and display versions, developed on a wide range of seven weights and including a huge range of alternates, OpenType features and ligatures. Each weight of Artusi works like a different course in a balanced meal. Lighter weights are our starters, with their high contrast between thicks and thins, delicate curves, balanced proportions and subtle spiky serifs. The main course are naturally the regular and bold weights, where traditional Italian old style is enriched with a peppery kick of modern details. For dessert, the heavy weights offer luscious curves, opulent calligraphic swashes and eye-catching details, suitable for packaging and logos. When it comes to typography, let Pellegrino Artusi’s legacy inspire you. From packaging to web pages, Artusi typeface will bring a feeling of tradition, craft and quality to any project. Because, as Pellegrino would say, “To make a great impression, you have to choose the finest ingredients”... Buon Appetito!

Rex Stephane, designed by Mans Greback, is a striking blackletter font that artfully blends medieval influences with modern geometric shapes. Inspired by the tall stature of Gothic architecture, merged with sharpened edges, this font captures the essence of strict ruling while having an elegance of the Middle Ages. First imagined while exploring an abandoned castle, the typeface is based on ancient manuscripts adorned with calligraphic lettering. These texts became the foundation for Rex Stephane, as Mans Greback aimed to recreate the rich history and grandeur of the medieval era while adding his own contemporary twist. The font is built with advanced OpenType functionality and has a guaranteed top-notch quality, containing stylistic and contextual alternates, ligatures, and more features; all to give you full control and customizability. It has extensive lingual support, covering all Latin-based languages, from Northern Europe to South Africa, from America to South-East Asia. It contains all characters and symbols you'll ever need, including all punctuation and numbers. Mans Greback is a Swedish typeface designer with a passion for creating unique and versatile fonts. With an extensive background in design and typography, Mans has built a reputation for his meticulous attention to detail and prolific craftsmanship. His many fonts are widely used by designers around the world, making his work synonymous with creativity and innovation.

The "Tichy" typeface is intended for use in titles, headlines and in short text blocks, like citates. However, the typeface is legible even in larger text blocks. It's strong appeal allows the typeface's usage mixed with other graphic elements of the layout without compromising it's readability and it's presence. The typeface's simple initial module (double braked at 135 degrees straight line), the strict rules of forming the letters lead to an unique typeface - masculine, strong and still legible. The Cyrillic glyphs are influenced by the work of the great Bulgarian typographers Boris Angelushev, Vassil Yonchev and Alexander Poplilov, who developed Cyrillic further in 60-s and 70-s of the XX century. Western, East European, Cyrillic, Baltic and Turkish codepages are supported. The font file contains all the basic ligatures, alternate glyphs and kern pairs. It can be used both on Windows and MacOS based computers. The history of "Tichy" typeface began many years ago with a project for logotype design for a small company. It was a kind of designer's game to try making some letters just using one single module. Development of the other glyphs of the latin alphabet was for many years a mandatory exercise for the young colleagues in our studio. Suddenly we realized that this project matured and creation of a new typeface started.

Sultan is a revival and expansion of a 1954 Matrin Kausche typeface called Mosaik. This design highlights the unmistakable Arabic/Moorish calligraphy influence on Celtic lettering, by way of the highly active Andalusian culture from the ninth century until the crusades in the early eleventh century. Although Celtic lettering evolved on its own and prompted different calligraphic styles after the crusades, elements of the Arabic influence survived with it, its appeal remaining evident to this very day. For instance, this kind of lettering is very similar to the one Louis Tiffany used to make the most recognizable athletic insignia in North America - the New York Yankees logo, which is now over 110 years old, and has inspired hundreds of spin-offs in many athletic and non-athletic fields all over the world. The original character set made by Kausche was quite minimal, consisting of only numerals and uppercase letters along with a few alternates. But in this digital version the set has been considerably expanded into uppercase, lowercase, numerals, punctuation, a complete set of accented characters, and more than 15 alternate letters built into the font. Sultan is a great font choice particularly for design contexts of fantasy, middle ages legend, mystical and new age content, pirate literature, and Irish history. But it is also an excellent all-purpose display and poster font in general.

The Pagnol typeface has been designed with a principle developed by A. M. Cassandre in 1937, when the great French designer created the Peignot typeface following paleographic studies on the evolution of letterforms. Researches in the history of writing have proved that the lowercase "a" is at its origin nothing but the "A" shape transformed through centuries by scribes until the invention of printing. A large number of lowercases meanwhile kept their original shapes. If the scribes’ hand didn’t find the necessity to simplify them, it is only because these letters could be easily written. Integrating the classical shapes of capitals to the lowercases has already been used, keeping the lowercases which are only a deformation of capitals. Nevertheless, the respect of readability imposes to keep ascendants and descendants from traditional lowercases which serve as optical focus points in a text and make reading easier. The particularity of Pagnol is to use rounded shapes on top and bottom of pointed capital letters to make them fit with corresponding lowercases (Aa, Mm, Nn, Vv, Ww, Zz). Lowercases proportions are wide, to be in tune with classic lowercase shapes in order to optimize readability. Five weights in roman and italic have been designed to offer a wide palette of typographic possibilities in all sizes and all paper and screen supports.

Entendre Rough defies the conventions of most distressed typefaces, as it is an actual text typeface family. Sure, you can use it for your big display type, but you can also use it for body text. Entendre Rough is a stately, commanding and handsome distressed sans serif typeface family that pulls reference from Trajan capitals, the history of English calligraphy, and a variety of other sources to summon a sense of warmth, consideration, trust and authority. Entendre Rough spans 22 weights and styles including Regular and Condensed versions. The large x-height and refined characteristics of the family lend the family a sober and sophisticated appearance that is suitable for both print design and on-screen use. Entendre Rough includes Central and Eastern European language support as well as Western European language support, including Greek and Cyrillic. Entendre Rough’s generous x-height and medium-length ascenders and descenders offer pronounced readability, making the family useful for text typesetting both in print and on screen. Within, humanist elements are tempered with monumental construction, making the heavier weights go-tos for display design work. All of the Entendre Rough family of typefaces feature Western, Eastern and Central European language support alongside nuanced Greek and Cyrillic. Entendre Rough pairs well with our non-distressed Entendre family and our rounded sans serif family Elpy, sharing similar proportions and spacing.

This old classic font has an interesting history, it was originally cut with lowercase by the Bruce Type Foundry in 1865 and listed as Ornamented No. 1514. Around 1903 the Bruce foundry was bought by ATF, in 1933 this font was revived by ATF as Caps only and was given the Gold Rush name but was sometimes called Klondike. A similar version of this font with lowercase and radiused serifs was produced by the James Conner's Sons Type Foundry around 1888. In the past other foundries such as the Carroll foundry, Type Founders of Phoenix and the Los Angeles Type Foundry have produced an all caps version of this font. After examining several printed sources of this font from more recent books I found that the original from Bruce's 1882 book was by far the best in design quality, it was also the only printed source that included the lowercase. New open faced, ornamented and distressed versions have been added to this old classic font, there are also many extended characters for Western, Central and Eastern European countries. The Gold Rush Trail OpenType version has alternate double letter pairs included in the font and will automatically be substituted when used in Adobe CS products or other software that takes advantage of OpenType features. Also available is a spurred version of this font listed under the name Gold Spur.

This new addition to my Video Store font series takes a scratched lettering style and pairs it with a wildly spontaneous brush font with horrific effect! Given life by an unknowable hand, this font clawed into the misty midnight inspired by retro horror movies, ghost stories and unsettling fireside tales. A boiling pot of misspent youth reading Edgar Allen Poe, M.R. James and H.P. Lovecraft. Outright Horror comes with an all-caps scratched style font with a subtly controlled Art Deco feel and a contrasting brush font that ramps up the fear! Consider it’s Regular style the skeleton that holds the Bold creeping flesh, ready for some horrific Halloween designs! It also comes with numerals, punctuation, language support, custom underlines and automatic ligatures. Contents: Outright Horror Regular Outright Horror Bold Underlines

Geometric font inspired by shop signs in 4 styles Anisette has sprouted as a way to test some ideas of designs. It has started with a simple line construction (not outlines as usual) that can be easily expanded and condensed in its width in Illustrator. Subsequently, this principle of multiple widths and extreme weights permitted to Jean François Porchez to have a better understanding with the limitations associated with the use of MultipleMaster to create intermediate font weights. Anisette built around the idea of two widths capitals can be described as a geometric sanserif typeface influenced by the 30s and the Art Deco movement. Its design relies on multiple sources, from Banjo through Cassandre posters, but especially lettering of Paul Iribe. In France, at that time, the Art Deco spirit is mainly capitals. Gérard Blanchard has pointed to Jean Francois that Art Nouveau typefaces designed by Bellery-Desfontaines was featured before the Banjo with this principle of two widths capitals. The complementarity between the two typefaces are these wide capitals mixed with narrow capitals for the Anisette while the Anisette Petite – in its latest version proposes capitals on a square proportions, intermediate between the two others sets. Of course, the Anisette Petite fonts also includes lowercases too. Anisette Petite, a geometric font inspired by shop signs in 4 styles So, when Jean François Porchez has decided to create lowercases the story became more complicated. His stylistic references couldn’t be restricted anymore to the French Art-déco period but to the shop signs present in our cities throughout the twentieth century. These signs, lettering pieces aren’t the typical foundry typefaces. Simply because the influences of these painted letters are different, not directly connected to foundry roots which generally follow typography history. The outcome is a palette of slightly strange shapes, without strictly not following geometrical, mechanical and historical principles such as those that typically appear in typefaces marketed by foundries. As an example, the Anisette Petite r starts with a small and visible sort of apex that no other similar glyphs such as n or m feature, but present at the end of the l and y. The famous g loop is actually inspired by Chancery scripts, which has nothing to do with the lettering. The goal is of course to mix forms without direct reports, in order to properly celebrate this lettering spirit. This is why the e almost finishes horizontally as the Rotis – and the top a which must logically follow this principle and is drawn more round-curly. This weird choice seemed so odd to its designer that he shared his doubts and asked for advise to Jeremy Tankard who immediately was reassuring: “Oddly, your new top a is fine, it brings roundness to the typeface, when the previous pushes towards Anisette Petite to unwanted austerity.” The Anisette Petite, since its early days, is a mixture of non-consistent but charming shapes. Anisette, an Art Déco typeface Anisette Petite Club des directeurs artistiques, 46e palmarès Bukva:raz 2001

After doing this for so many years, one would think my fascination with the old history of writing would have mellowed out by now. The truth is that alongside being a calligraphy history buff, I'm a pop technology freak. Maybe even keener on the tech thing, since I just can't seem to get enough new gadgets. And after working with type technologies for so many years, I'm starting to think that writing and design technologies as we now know them, being about 2.5 post-computer generations, keep becoming more and more detached from what the very old humanity arts/tasks they essentially want to facilitate. In a world where command-z is a frequently used key combination, it’s difficult to justify expecting a Morris-made book or a Zaner-drawn sentence, but accidental artistic “mutations” become welcome, marketable features. When fluid pens were introduced, their liquid saturation influenced type design to a great extent almost overnight an influence professional designers tend to play down. Now round stroke endings are a common sight, and the saturation is so clean and measured, unlike any liquid-paper relationship possible in reality. Some designers even illustrate their work by overlaying perfect circles at stroke ends, in order to illustrate how “geometric” their work was. Because if it’s measured with precise geometry, it’s got to be meaningful design. And once in a while, by a total freak accident, the now-cherished mutations prove to have existed long before the technology that caused them. Rolling Pen was cued by just such a thing: A rounded, circular, roll-flowing calligraphy from the late nineteenth century seemingly one of those experimental takes on what inspired Business Penmanship, another font of mine. Looking at it now it certainly seems to be friendlier, more legible, and maybe even more practical and easier to execute than the standard business penmanship of those days, but I guess friendliness and simplicity were at odds with the stiff manner business liked to present itself back then, so that kind of thing remained buried in the professional penman’s oddities drawer. It would be quite a few years before all this curviness and rounding were thought of as symbolic of graceful movement, which brought such a flow closer to the idea of fine art. Even though in this case the accidental mutation just happens to not be a mutation after all, the whole technology-transforms-application argument still applies here. I'm almost sure “business” will be the last thing on people’s minds when they use this font today. One extreme example of that level of disconnect between origin and current application is shown here, with the so-called business penmanship strutting around in gloss and neon. Rolling Pen is another cup of mine that runneth over with alternates, swashes, ligatures, and other techy perks. To explore its full potential, please use it in a program that supports OpenType features for advanced typography. Enjoy the new Rolling Pen designed by Ale Paul with Neon’s visual poetry by Tomás García.

Razumec is a carefully crafted display serif typeface with a highly unique personality. Its epic yet warm sentiment is established by a skillful blend of slab and wedge serifs, tapered stems, curves with raised center, and creative weight distribution. Proper pronunciation of these style elements influenced wide proportions and medium-to-high contrast. Besides its main typology, it incorporates subtle allusions to a spectrum of typographic and visual traditions, from calligraphy, ordinary handwriting, blackletter, and medieval uncial script to the neoclassical Didone and industrial typefaces. All of these flavors are combined tastefully and consistently throughout the whole set. With its rich visual identity, Razumec is primarily intended for display usage, as shown in the promo images. It's perfect for branding and packaging. Fantastic for projects focusing on storytelling like fairy tales, epic fantasy books, board and video games with historic or adventurous themes. Superb for theme magazines, quotes, headlines, museum and concert brochures. On the other side, its authentic historical voice works great as a strong counterpart point in ultra-modern contemporary designs for print and screen. Web design, motion graphics, conceptual art, posters, and social media material are just the first few ideas. The laborious production process focused on achieving a high level of classical typographic virtues rather than having an extensive character set. Beautiful stylistically consistent characters with balanced weight and width, high-quality curves, meticulous spacing and kerning, well-articulated diacritics, and punctuation were priorities. Special attention is given to solving problematic letter pairs through contextual alternates, which enable better spacing and smooth joints (hence the recommendation to always keep the Contextual alternates feature on for this font. Learn more about it HERE). Razumec is a small but well-executed and thoroughly tested font. Font family comprises nine weights plus variable font.* * Variable font lets you access all the weights through the single font file. In apps that support it, you will find a slider where you can pick any number from 100 to 900 corresponding to 800 possible font weights. Learn more about variable fonts and their support on the following two links: VF ABOUT and VF SUPPORT.

Inspired by a biography of Coco Chanel and trying to capture the quintessential mood of classical fashion elegance, Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini designed Coco Gothic looking for the effect that the first geometric sans typefaces (like Futura, Kabel or the italian eponyms like Semplicità) had when printed on paper. The crisp modernist shapes acquired in printing charme and warmth through a slight rounding of the corners that is translated digitally in the design of Coco Gothic. This signature touch is enhanced by the inclusion of light humanist touches to the proportions of the letters, resulting in the unique mix that makes Coco Gothic one of our best sellers, with a look that is both contemporary and vintage. After six years from the original project (that has spawned in the meanwhile successful families like Cocogoose and Coco Sharp), we went back to the design to completely redraw and expand the original family, creating with a Pro version that has better on-screen readability, a wider weight range, variable type versions and more language coverage (with Coco Gothic Arabic adding a new script to the latin, greek and Cyrillic of the original). Coco Gothic Pro comes in three subfamilies, each with seven weights with matching italics and featuring an extended character set with open type support for small caps, ligatures, alternates, European languages, Greek and Cyrillic alphabets. The original, body-text optimised Coco Gothic and Coco Gothic Alternate subfamilies have been kept for compatibility with the previous version, while a new Coco Gothic Display subfamily has been developed with a complete redesign aimed at display usage, featuring tighter spacing and optimised letterforms. A distinguishing feature of Coco Gothic Pro is the inclusion of ten alternate historical sets that allow you to use the typeface as a true “typographic time machine”, selecting period letterforms that range from art deco and nouveau, to modernism and to eighties’ minimalism. Equipped with such an array of historical variants, Coco Gothic Pro becomes an encyclopedia of styles from the last century, ready to transform itself and adapt to the mood of your text.

A few emails sent to Canada Type have asked for more “bad scripts”. A few others asked for "more Mascara-like treatments". And some asked for more fonts of “distressed elegance”. Whatever you like to call this style of doubled-script font, sightings of designs using it have become common within the last few years. Such fonts have become the standard in expressing elegant confusion, old chaos in modern settings, recycled histories, and rebellious ideas. This style is quite often seen on chic clothing, music packaging, some sports paraphernalia, surfer and skateboarder gear, even book covers. That said, the Heathen font was made to include an advantageous feature that other distressed scripts do not normally have: More intertwined over-swashing in the majuscules. This over-swashing is quite useful in settings where the stroke and fill colors differ, or complement each other. It is also quite the point of emphasis where the idea is to show elegance gone ancient, old thoughts in a modern wrapper, rust never sleeping, or the very basic limits of the world’s nature. The original Heathen was made by redrawing Phil Martin’s Polonaise majuscules and superposing them over the majuscules of Scroll, another Canada Type font. The lowercase is a superposition of Scroll’s lowercase atop a pre-release version of Sterling Script, yet another Canada Type font. Heathen Two was made in a similar way, by combining two pre-release Canada Type scripts.

Whether with pen on paper, or in digital, realistically connecting vertical handwriting is never an easy task to accomplish. After working with many handwriting fonts, and after intently dissecting so many different handwritings, one tends to expect such things to be quirky, disconnected, and almost never upright. In fact, in spite of vertical handwriting’s academically-sung virtues of rationality, efficiency, clarity and logic, very few people manage to deviate from the natural slant when writing. Even fewer manage to make the vertical handwriting connect and keep its natural flow. Calligraphy and upright cursive aside, it is almost impossible to make a vertical letters connect and maintain a real handwriting appearance. This is where the genius of this design comes in to bridge the gap between upright handwriting and calligraphy. Sincerely is based on one of the most fascinating handwriting designs to ever come out of Germany: Karlgeorg Hoefer’s 1968 Elegance for the Ludwig & Mayer foundry. It is a handwriting with the full meaning of the word, yet it possesses the rare, very commanding and appealing trait of being both vertical and connected while managing to remain realistic. It is the ultimate branding iron of handwriting fonts. When set and printed, Sincerely simply cannot be ignored. Ideal for humanity-asserting poster designs, lettering of short wording with plenty of space, poetry, notes, greeting cards, craft literature, book covers, history-related designs, and a whole range of other applications.

South Picene (also known as Paleo-Sabellic, Mid-Adriatic or Eastern Italic) is an extinct Italic language belonging to the Sabellic subfamily. It is apparently unrelated to the North Picene language, which is not understood and therefore unclassified. South Picene texts were at first relatively inscrutable even though some words were clearly Indo-European. The discovery in 1983 that two of the apparently redundant punctuation marks were in reality simplified letters led to an incremental improvement in their understanding and a first translation in 1985. Difficulties remain. It may represent a third branch of Sabellic, along with Oscan and Umbrian (and their dialects), or the whole Sabellic linguistic area may be best regarded as a linguistic continuum. The paucity of evidence from most of the 'minor dialects' contributes to these difficulties. The corpus of South Picene inscriptions consists of 23 inscriptions on stone or bronze dating from as early as the 6th century BC to as late as the 4th century BC. The dating is estimated according to the features of the letters and in some cases the archaeological context. As the known history of the Picentes does not begin until their subjugation by Rome in the 3rd century, the inscriptions open an earlier window onto their culture as far back as the late Roman Kingdom. Most are stelai or cippi of sandstone or limestone in whole or fragmentary condition sculpted for funerary contexts, but some are monumental statues.

Introducing Wolfhagen Blackletter, an extraordinary font that embodies the perfect blend of medieval-modern elegance. With its strikingly bold and stylish appearance, this typeface effortlessly merges timeless aesthetics with contemporary flair. What sets Wolfhagen Blackletter apart is its ability to seamlessly transcend borders, thanks to its extensive multilingual support, empowering your creative endeavors on a global scale. This font is a true embodiment of sophistication, making it ideal for headlines, art crafts, logotypes, and beyond. Its unique charm and exquisite design concept bring an unparalleled allure to any project it graces. The intricate details and intricate strokes of Wolfhagen Blackletter capture the essence of medieval craftsmanship while infusing it with a modern twist, resulting in a truly captivating and versatile typeface. We created Wolfhagen Blackletter with a vision to offer designers a font that would stand out from the crowd and leave a lasting impression. The marriage of medieval inspiration with contemporary design was a deliberate choice, as we sought to evoke a sense of timeless elegance while meeting the demands of the modern creative landscape. Unleash the power of Wolfhagen Blackletter, and witness the transformation of your projects into works of art. This font embodies the harmonious convergence of past and present, enabling you to communicate your ideas with a touch of history and a dash of contemporary sophistication. Discover the uniqueness of Wolfhagen Blackletter and embark on a creative journey that is both captivating and unforgettable.

Lycia (Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 Trm̃mis; Greek: Λυκία, Lykia; Turkish: Likya) was a geopolitical region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Muğla on the southern coast of Turkey, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, and Burdur Province inland. Known to history since the records of ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire in the Late Bronze Age, it was populated by speakers of the Luwian language group. Written records began to be inscribed in stone in the Lycian language (a later form of Luwian) after Lycia's involuntary incorporation into the Achaemenid Empire in the Iron Age. At that time (546 BC) the Luwian speakers were decimated, and Lycia received an influx of Persian speakers. Ancient sources seem to indicate that an older name of the region was Alope (Ancient Greek: Ἀλόπη, Alópē). Lycia fought for the Persians in the Persian Wars, but on the defeat of the Achaemenid Empire by the Greeks, it became intermittently a free agent. After a brief membership in the Athenian Empire, it seceded and became independent (its treaty with Athens had omitted the usual non-secession clause), was under the Persians again, revolted again, was conquered by Mausolus of Caria, returned to the Persians, and finally fell under Macedonian hegemony upon the defeat of the Persians by Alexander the Great. Due to the influx of Greek speakers and the sparsity of the remaining Lycian speakers, Lycia was rapidly Hellenized under the Macedonians, and the Lycian language disappeared from inscriptions and coinage.

An inscriptional titling font for truly epic headlines. Allrounder Monument is an inscriptional, dignified member of the Allrounder superfamily. This all-caps typeface with delicate serifs was inspired by ancient inscriptions on columns, monuments, and buildings in Rome: letters as old as two millennia that radiate their own classic charm. Allrounder Monument picks up this atmosphere in order to create a typographic tool that lives up to contemporary demands. It infuses today’s designs with a hint of history and an air of exclusivity. Allrounder Monument is a timeless titling typeface. You might use it for posters, magazines, book covers, greeting cards, advertising or packaging work, and even signage. If you want an even more spectacular and exciting headline or title, additional Discretionary Ligatures and a Stylistic Set provide the necessary OpenType power to achieve this goal with ease. As Allrounder Monument is a part of the Allrounder superfamily, you can combine the three weights Book, Regular and Medium with the corresponding weights of Allrounder Grotesk. The Allrounder superfamily is a series of typefaces sharing the same color and horizontal metrics (cap height, small cap height and x-height): a typesetting system whose components match each other perfectly. Any other part of this design kit, e. g., Allrounder Grotesk or Allrounder Antiqua, may be easily combined with Allrounder Monument. Whenever you need a truly epic headline, Allrounder Monument is the best horse in your barn. Ad astra!

This is the redrawn and expanded version of an alphabet Rebecca Alaccari made back in 2009 as a bespoke font for a tourism agency looking to recapture the appeal of New Orleans after the hurricane Katrina disaster robbed it of its core industries. The brief back then was to "revive the unique spirit of what always made Nola great for new adults, which is the excellent combination of history, romance, food and music." No word of a lie, the brief actually contained "new adults." Storyville contains two interchangeable sets of forms drawn in the doodly, loose and organic way now conspicuously popular with today's young designers, almost every one of whom thinks they will get to design something for a boutique coffee bar somewhere. Well, this whole thing perhaps means freedom, youth, fun, happiness, good stuff like that. But just in case, a little caution doesn't hurt: Use this font only if you know what you're doing. We don't want to go back to the 1990s. Please. We were nearly done for by that exposure the first time around. The ligatures feature in this font does some pseudo-randomization, so the forms in doubled letters don't repeat. Serious fun can be had by also applying the stylistic alternates feature, or picking a letter in the middle of a setting and disabling the ligatures feature. Or various sequences of all that. If you don't like any of that stuff, just forget about it. Uh, wutever.

Zarlino is an original typeface in the Blackletter style. It does not solidly adhere to any of the historical Blackletter classifications, but draws from all of them, with some characters owing more to the Roman than the Fraktur. Zarlino Delux includes three complete sets of upper case, ranging from the simple to the embellished to the even more embellished, two complete sets of lower case, and two more sets of embellished alternates for selected lower case characters. These alternates are available through Stylisitic Sets in OpenType aware applications. For use in non-OpenType aware applications, Zarlino Delux comes with a set of separate, standard fonts, one for each style. These standard fonts are also available for individual purchase. Zarlino was named by my cousin, a musician. Gioseffo Zarlino was a sixteenth century composer and musical theorist. Among other things, he offered detailed advice on the setting of words to music. With its blends of the old and the new, the simple and the ornate, Zarlino is suitable for many uses, from the elegant to the aggressive.

Storefront is what the prolific and talented American sign painters of the 1920s and 1930s would have created if they had access to the advanced lettering and type technologies we have today. Rooted in an incomplete Alf Becker alphabet sample, Storefront is my usual overdose on alternates and swashes, my eternal attempt at giving typesetting that ever-elusive handmade impression. Though the main shapes, especially the majuscules, are almost a standard recitation of the natural evolution of nineteenth century scripts, the additional variants available within the font provide a leap in time to what sign makers and packagers are doing today. I can honestly say that Storefront’s influences are probably less historic and more in line with my recent travels and frequent supermarket visits. It’s difficult to avoid current visual culture when you're constantly bombarded with it. Not that I try. I certainly welcome the overflow. I'm probably addicted to it by now. With a very cool aesthetic, plenty of alternates and swashes, extended Latin language support, Storefront is over a thousand glyphs for your branding, packaging, and sign making pleasure.