It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that these letter shapes are familiar. They have the unmistakable color and weight of Cooper Black, Oswald Cooper's most famous typeface from 1921. What should be a surprise is that these letters are actually from George Auriol's Robur Noir (or Robur Black), published in France circa 1909 by the Peignot foundry as a bolder, solid counterpart to its popular Auriol typeface (1901). This face precedes Cooper Black by a dozen of years and a whole Great War. Cooper Black has always been a bit of a strange typographical apparition to anyone who tried to explain its original purpose, instant popularity in the 1920s, and major revival in the late 1960s. BB&S and Oswald Cooper PR aside, it is quite evident that the majority of Cooper Black's forms did not evolve from Cooper Old Style, as its originators claimed. And the claim that it collected various Art Nouveau elements is of course too ambiguous to be questioned. But when compared with Robur Noir, the "elements" in question can hardly be debated. The chronology of this "machine age" ad face in metal is amusing and stands as somewhat of a general index of post-Great War global industrial competition: - 1901: Peignot releases Auriol, based on the handwriting of George Auriol (the "quintessential Art Nouveau designer," according to Steven Heller and Louise Fili), and it becomes very popular. - 1909-1912: Peignot releases the Robur family of faces. The eight styles released are Robur Noir and its italic, a condensed version called Robur Noir Allongée (Elongated) and its italic, an outline version called Clair De Lune and its condensed/elongated, a lined/striped version called Robur Tigre, and its condensed/elongated counterpart. - 1914 to 1918: World War One uses up economies on both sides of the Atlantic, claims Georges Peignot with a bullet to the forehead, and non-war industry stalls for 4 years. - 1921: BB&S releases Cooper Black with a lot of hype to hungry publishing, manufacturing and advertising industries. - 1924: Robert Middleton releases Ludlow Black. - 1924: The Stevens Shanks foundry, the British successor to the Figgins legacy, releases its own exact copies of Robur Noir and Robur Noir Allongée, alongside a lined version called Royal Lining. - 1925: Oswald Cooper releases his Cooper Black Condensed, with similar math to Robur Noir Allongée (20% reduction in width and vectical stroke). - 1925: Monotype releases Frederick Goudy's Goudy Heavy, an "answer to Cooper Black". Type historians gravely note it as the "teacher steals from his student" scandal. Goudy Heavy Condensed follows a few years later. - 1928: Linotype releases Chauncey Griffith's Pabst Extra Bold. The condensed counterpart is released in 1931. When type production technologies changed and it was time to retool the old faces for the Typositor age, Cooper Black was a frontrunning candidate, while Robur Noir was all but erased from history. This was mostly due to its commercial revival by flourishing and media-driven music and advertising industries. By the late 1960s variations and spinoffs of Cooper Black were in every typesetting catalog. In the early- to mid-1970s, VGC, wanting to capitalize on the Art Nouveau onslaught, published an uncredited exact copy of Robur Black under the name Skylark. But that also went with the dust of history and PR when digital tech came around, and Cooper Black was once again a prime retooling candidate. The "old fellows stole all of our best ideas" indeed. So almost a hundred years after its initial fizz, Robur is here in digital form, to reclaim its rightful position as the inspiration for, and the best alternative to, Cooper Black. Given that its forms date back to the turn of the century, a time when foundry output had a closer relationship to calligraphic and humanist craft, its shapes are truer to brush strokes and much more idiosyncratic than Cooper Black in their totality's construct. Robur and Robur Italic come in all popular font formats. Language support includes Western, Central and Eastern European character sets, as well as Baltic, Esperanto, Maltese, Turkish, and Celtic/Welsh languages. A range of complementary f-ligatures and a few alternates letters are included within the fonts.

These four typefaces, Berlinette NB, Lyonette NB, Marseillette NB and Parisette NB, were designed from the same basic shape, a geometric form that avoids strict horizontals and uses more offbeat triangular shapes. Lyonette is a fanciful type, gentle and precocious. It seems aloof at times but isn�t really. The frivolity and quirkiness of the narrow width is offset by the fey, finger-like horizontals, vaguely reminiscent of strange encounters and dark closets. It�s great for fashion advertising with literary pretensions. Or maybe a kinder, gentler sci-fi movie.

ITC Verkehr was designed by Mott Jordan, who based its forms on those of narrow sans serif typefaces but also chose a departure from the tradition to set the font apart from the rest. The upper half of each character is heavier than the lower half, although this is usually the other way around. Diagonal strokes, like the horizontal of the lower case e, relax the otherwise regular, bar-like look of the font. ITC Verkehr is suited exclusively for use in headlines and display in larger point sizes.

Stubby is a display type family with 11 styles, was made for titles, headlines and also packages, posters and everything that provide space for a rude, fat and widish type. You should try Stubby in your text blocks if you're looking for an informal shape with some handwriting taste, there are eleven styles mixing from a narrowed thin to a sloppy ultrabold. Stubby has a tight spacing made to fit in squeeze places, not so elegant or clean but definitely an original choice for your real life project.

Borden is a rounded hand-printed caps font ideal for your graphic project. Usage recommendations : Title, short text, children’s book, poster, book cover, brochure, label, magazine. "The friendly hand-drawn charms of the Borden family […] Designed by Ewen Prigent, the Borden family is a hand rendered, all-caps design ideal for all sorts of playful settings. With its narrow condensed letterforms and rough rendering, this family is a good fit when space is limited in your design but you don’t want to compromise its friendly tone." www.fonts.com - newsletter - march 2014

MVB Peccadillo is an interpreted revival of a metal typeface popular in the 19th Century, then known as Skeleton Antique. Highly condensed with extra short descenders, the face makes a big impact in a narrow space. Holly Goldsmith worked from letterpress-printed specimens of 96-point, antique metal type, deliberately retaining subtle distortions due to type wear and letterpress impression. Alan Dague-Greene, referring to printed samples of Skeleton Antique, adapted the design to create two additional optical sizes: “Eight” for smaller text and “Twenty-four” for subheads.

Burdigala is a clean-cut, modern yet classic typeface inspired by Didones and Aicher’s Rotis family. The Semi Serif is ideal for larger amounts of (printed) texts in brochures, magazines and books. It is slighty narrow in order to conserve space, but spacious enough to faciliate reading and overall clarity. The expanded versions of the semi serif, being wider and more open, works equally well in media intended both for print and on-screen reading, e.g. in Pdf-documents etc. Burdigala is the ancient Roman name of the city of Bordeaux France.

Linotype Lichtwerk, from German designer Bernd Pfannkuchen, is part of the Take Type Library, chosen from the entries of the Linotype-sponsored International Digital Type Design Contest 1999 for inclusion on the Take Type 3 CD. This display font contains very narrow forms with a high x-height. It is reminiscent of the constructivism of the 1920s and was designed with a small number of basic forms. The high, thin letters form words and an overall picture which almost flickers on the page. Linotype Lichtwerk with its technical look is suited exclusively for headlines.

Introducing a retro narrow grotesque called "Agitaciya" (Agitation). Bring back to the Soviet Era Agitation inspired by Soviet posters, movie titles and book covers. The letterforms are straight and condensed and come in 2 styles: uppercase and small caps alternatives. It has Extended LATIN and Extended CYRILLIC letters. "Agitaciya"created for titles, poster design, web design, branding and packaging works, illustrations, badges and other typography works. *ST Agitaciya supports 15+ languages: English, German, Spanish, Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Dutch, Norsk, Dannish, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Kazakh, and probably others )

LOGX-30 is a geometric, all-caps, display typeface. As a brother of LOGX-10 and LOGX-20 , this is the most narrow version in a series of three related typefaces. LOGX-30 is designed, like other LOGX versions, for a wide range of graphic designs and visual identifications. I think that it works best in works with a technical, geometric style, and rather striving for minimalism. Both the normal and the italic version can be used together to compose graphics, photos, large and small text in an interesting way.

JollyGood Proper Condensed is another member of the JollyGood family. It is an informal, hand-lettered font with a narrower weight so you can fit more text while still being fun & legible. It is a complete complete family with 4 weights in regular and italic (8 fonts in total), plus 4 rough versions. It has an amazing character set, with support for most european languages, as well as alternates and ligatures. JollyGood Proper Condensed is suitable for packaging, children's books, greeting cards or wherever you need a fun touch in your text.

Frank Marciuliano designed the basic forms of Linotype Constitution around those of the swash alphabets of the 18th century. While the capitals are generously designed, the lower case letters have more reserved forms and are narrower. The characters of Constitution seem to have been set to paper with a feather and ink. The marked stroke contrast and elegant forms makes it a dynamic and sentimental font. The capitals can be used as initials mixed with other fonts, but Constitution is also good for texts which should give a feeling of nostalgia.

This family was inspired mainly (Normal and Italic style ) by a Didot pattern font used in Rennes (France, Britanny) by Cousin-Danelle, printers, for Antiquités historiques et monumentales ‡ visiter de Montfort ‡ Corseul, par Dinan... Saint Malo... etc. an historic guidebook for a journey through a part of (French) Brittany in 1820, and many other books. The present version contains 1820 Modern Normal and Italic, 1820 Modern Large Normal and 1820 Modern Narrow Normal, each style with small caps. This font may be used together with 1906 French News and/or 1906 Titrage.

Sola is a simplistic, stylish, and modern san serif type font with the unique addition of rounded corners. When creating this font, Bank Gothic originally influenced me, however when I made the square shapes lower case the font didn't retain its sophistication, so it was designed narrower. The result is this warm and soft looking font that works for all types of design, from posters and fliers to logos and business cards. Sola also features standard ligature, stylistic alternates, titling characters with extended width, and a set of standard pictograms.

Poplar is an Adobe Originals typeface designed by Barbara Lind in 1990 for the Adobe Wood Type series. Poplar, a Gothic condensed, was designed from photographs taken by Rob Roy Kelly of the one surviving copy of an 1830 William Leavenworth type specimen book. Leavenworth possessed unusual artistic abilities, and his treatment of the letterform counters as narrow slits made it the only wood type of its kind displayed during the nineteenth century. Poplar is an excellent display face, its simplicity making it useful for a broad range of work.

Gadevox Black Letter is a vintage-inspired font, everything and more. It’s bold yet elegant, soft yet striking. It has an old-world feel that is still very modern and I know you will love the vintage details on each letter. This font will complement your visual project and make it stand out so make sure to have it today!

Linotype Aperto is a typical text font in the style of transitional faces, like its often-used cousin Times. It is available in roman, semibold and bold weights, each with its matching italic. The roman weight is complete with old style figures and small caps. Its balanced, reserved appearance makes Aperto extremely flexible, good for long texts as well as headlines.

Habana Vieja is inspired by hand-painted signage in Havana’s old town. Letters are defined by their drop-shadow and worn outlines; suggestive of a sunny environment. This playful sans-serif, bold font, will work well used for headings and short paragraphs especially for posters or signage. Habana Vieja is extended, containing West European diacritics, making it suitable for multilingual environments and publications.

Painter is a bold script font, with wide and wet brush strokes. It is articulate and clean, holds a high quality and comes with many features. Some of them are contextual and stylistic alternates, support for hundreds of languages, ligatures and a lot of special characters. The typeface is created by Måns Grebäck and works great for logotypes and other graphics that require a confident, handcrafted impression. Use > or < after a word to add a swash effect. Example: Painter>

The American Sign Museum in Cincinnati houses an amazing collection of vintage signage from all kinds of sources and covering many eras of retail advertising. Someone visiting the museum posted online an image of one particular piece of glass with hand lettering saying “gold leaf” in a bold Art Deco stencil style. Etched Stencil JNL was inspired by that image and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Eurocine is an expansive display typeface – a square sans serif that’s perfect for titling, headlines, logotype and branding. This 36-font family is packed with features to make it supremely versatile. This typeface attempts to capture the mood of movie credits from European Cinema in the 1970s, with a focus on Giallo films in particular. In terms of style, Eurocine sits somewhere between Walter Baum and Konrad Friedrich Bauer’s Folio, and Aldo Novarese’s Eurostile. With Eurocine you get a more versatile typeface by way of its small caps and additional stylistic sets giving you extended caps, extended small caps, and petite caps, as well as upper and lowercase unicase. Creating typographic masterpieces of your own will be so much easier! Key features: • 6 Weights in Roman and Oblique • 3 Widths – Narrow, Regular, Wide • Extended Caps • Small Caps • Extended Small Caps • Petite Caps • Unicase • Old Style Figures • European Language Support (Latin) • 1,200 glyphs per font.

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.

Muller Specimen: http://bit.ly/mullers Muller Narrow Specimen: http://bit.ly/mullerns The very first sketches of Muller were made about four years ago. In the process they changed to the point where they had nothing in common with the original idea. As it is with most work we do, when we seek perfection, changes are inevitable. It was specifically designed with a wider structure for better appearance in small sizes and the extra attention to the detail was needed for the big sizes. We managed to find the right balance for the perfect universal font family. The family consists of 20 weights, ranging from Thin to Heavy with matching Italics. This font family is suited for everything, ranging from advertising, packaging, editorial and branding, to web and screen projects. Muller comes with a complete range of figure options, including proportional and old style figures, each in its tabular version. It also includes advanced typographic features such as ligatures, fractions, alternate characters, case-sensitive forms, superscripts and subscripts.

Looking to add a little Arts & Crafts flavor to your next project? Perhaps you just need a distinctive, new sans serif design? And one with a large international character set. In either case, ITC New Rennie Mackintosh™ may be the typeface for you. Its narrow proportions saves space, and the design shines at large sizes. While it can be an excellent typeface for Art Nouveau flavored labels, name tags and chapter call-outs, this is a suite of fonts that you can also turn to for a bevy of print and on screen uses. Games and apps, as well as print headlines and menus all benefit from ITC New Rennie Mackintosh’s vintage vibe. Based on Phill Grimshaw’s original 1996 design, Monotype Studio designers reimagined the iconic family, added lowercase characters, a new weight structure of light, regular and a more robust bold design; each with an italic counterpart. In addition, a large international character set that include support for many Western and Eastern European languages – including Cyrillic and Greek – give the family a deep typographic bench. An added benefit: the new designs can also be combined with Grimshaw’s original ornament and initial character fonts.

Conthey™ is a highly customisable unicase sans serif family designed for headlines and display use. Its modern, sharp and friendly character will add a fresh, positive vibe to your projects. Conthey customization options include weight variants from hairline to extra bold, width variants from narrow to normal, as well as style variants - possibility to change the mood of the font - from normal unicase, which is already a little cheerful in character, to even more playful, neo-deco proportioned unicase. Conthey feels at home when used for modern branding, magazine layout, headlines and posters. Variable fonts, broad choice of styles and additional alternative stylistic set give the family a great versatility and uniqueness. Conthey consists of 126 fonts in 3 width variants and 3 style variants - 63 uprights and their corresponding italics. Conthey family contains also 2 variable 3-axis fonts, with axes: weight, width and style (that changes internal proportions of some letters, like A H a e g and more). The family has extended language support as well as broad number of OpenType features, such as alternative stylistic set, discretionary ligatures, titling alternates, contextual alternates, slashed zero, fractions, superscript and subscript, ordinals, currencies and symbols.

Typeface for posters and signage. An extensive range of opentype features are incorporated:- Small Capitals, Title forms, stylistic alternates, old-style and lining numerals, ‘small capitals’ numerals, ligatures and so forth. A touch of flair an distinction is given to these solid letter forms by the provision of tiny serifs. Why not use Signwriter Standard and make an emphatic statement today!

Lore - A handwritten Old English font for past, present & future Tomes, Bibles & Grimoires! Lore comes in 3 variants x 2 (regular & hollow) with different upper case letters: Nokturnia - ordinary Pandemonia - fiery swirls and curls Nekromantea - straight and harsh. The hollow versions, preferably used for headlines and display text, are the original hand drawn versions with more anchor points and intentional uneven line work.

Matita Informal is part of a larger type family developed from 2005-2019 with handwriting in mind. A humanistic informal sans serif in five weights containing swashes, alternative characters, old style, lining, tabular & proportional figures. The family share proportions and weights to ensure all fonts (family members) work together well. Matita Informal is a very friendly typeface suitable for many purposes.

Gayatri is sans serif font with high contrast and smooth lines. Its large variety of glyphs, including accents, old-style numbers, ligatures,... will give you freedom for all of your projects. It offers a large choice of uses such as magazine, branding, edition and so on. Gayatri is available in 16 styles from thin to black, in roman and italic.

Numis was born out of a coin collecting hobby. A quick survey of coins from the late medieval to modern periods to today led to this unicase design. The rounded corners and smoothed edges are meant to evoke a the slightly worn letterfaces found on old coins; a process that tends to bolden the text before being rubbed away completely.

Eckhardt Showcard JNL and Eckhardt Showcard Two JNL are drawn from more lettering found in an old sign painting book. Jeff Levine has continued naming a series of fonts for the late Albert Eckhardt, Jr. (1929-2005) who had owned Allied Signs in Miami, Florida from 1959 until his passing. Al was a talented lettering artist and a good friend to Jeff.

Library Book Initials JNL was modeled from examples of Sidney Gaunt's Publicity Initials; originally sold in metal type by Barnhart Brothers and Spindler as a companion to the Publicity Gothic typeface. The smoothed-down lines of the original characters allow for these initials to balace better when set against complementary type faces. A regular version is on the upper case keys, with an oblique version on the lower case keys.

Transport New is a redrawing of the typeface designed for British road signs. In addition to the familiar Heavy and Medium weights, Transport New extrapolates and adds a previously unreleased Light weight font originally planned for back-lit signage but never actually applied. Version 3.0 of Transport New features significant improvements including numerous outline and spacing refinements, and a full complement of Latin Extended-A characters. Also, to align Transport New with the 2015 release of Motorway, the other typeface used for UK road signage, Italic fonts for all three weights have been added. Originally designed by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert beginning in 1957 and first published on the Preston bypass in 1958, the original Transport font has subtle eccentricities which add to its distinctiveness, and drawing the New version involved walking a tightrope between impertinently eliminating awkwardness and maintaining idiosyncrasy. The Grotesk roots of the glyphs were investigated and cheekily fine-tuned – uncomfortably close terminals of characters such as 5, 6, C, G, and e were shortened, the S and s were given a more upright aspect and their protruding lower terminals tucked in, overly wide glyphs like the number 4 were narrowed, and some claustrophobic counters were slightly opened up. The question mark was redesigned and parentheses given some stroke contrast. The x height was edged fractionally even taller. The Heavy font is actually more of a Bold, and the Light is pretty much a regular weight, but the original nomenclature has been retained for old times’ sake.