Be it a blessing or a curse, when a type designer sees a shape that could be interpreted as a letter, his/her mind is off and running. My parents loved to travel; Dad drove to Florida seven different years, winding on (barely) two-lane “highways” clinging to the hills of Kentucky and Tennessee. My brothers and I saw many of these letters along the way. Watch those Curves .

Gaytan (Bulgarian for braid) is a fresh new insight on archaic letterforms. A family of two unicase typefaces - a modern looking sans and more classic looking serif, equipped with many alternates, so they can suit any typographic taste. Gaytan's unique design was inspired by Old Church Slavonic Cyrillic, Bulgarian Ustav and the Russian Vyaz stiles, as well as the avant-garde works of Bulgarian type designers in late 1970s.

Garstang Engraved is the latest in Greater Albion's series of ‘wood type’ inspired fonts. Garstang Engraved is a hand-cut Roman, suggesting the late Victorian era, but the type of thing that continued in use well into the twentieth century. If you want a title face that has versatility and suggests a past history, as well as the art of finely cut wood type, then this is it!

Although wood types were at their peak of use during the letterpress era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there is a growing revival movement of "boutique" print shops who have embraced the look and texture of this form of printing. More modern in design that many of its counterparts, Pleasantwood JNL is still a nice addition to the wood type library re-drawn digitally by Jeff Levine Fonts.

A random scan from a late nineteenth-century German type specimen book, encountered on the internet, provided the pattern for this surprisingly contemporary face. Although all of the characters are parallel to the baseline, the unusual dimensional treatment tends to give the impression that they slant upward to the right. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode 1252 Latin and Unicode 1250 Central European character sets.

Obelysk Grotesk was designed by the Lanston Drawing Office in the late 1980s. This face is a reconstruction of Spire (1937) drawn by Sol Hess. The skeleton of Spire Roman stands with the serifs removed. Like Spire, this font has no lower case, but does offer alternate cap styles in some of the lower case positions. Spire and Obelysk have both been used prominently in the fashion industry.

The Danish designer Nina Lee Storm designed Noa for use on television and computer screens during the late 1990s. She began her six-member type family with the creation of bitmap fonts, developing their print outlines only secondarily. Noa’s letters exhibit a tall x-height, coupled with very short ascenders and descenders. Storm is proud to report that her typeface also looks very “Danish.” Why don't you give it a try?

Lansere is an art-deco typeface inspired by lettering of Russian graphic artist, painter and sculptor Evgeniy Lansere (1875–1946). A strongly geometric lettering style of his late book covers and an elegance of early ones has been combined in a modern typeface . This all-caps font has two versions for each letter and more than 60 discretionary ligatures (both Latin and Cyrillic). The initial graphic idea by Denis Bashev.

I haven’t been sleeping well lately: I wake up every night around 5 and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the Bogeyman! Wait… Bogeyman? Excellent name for a new font! Bogeyman is a handmade display font. It comes in two varieties: regular and eroded, both with their Italics. Use it for your posters, book covers and packaging, but you’ll have to promise not to scare your kids with it!

Chapeau is loosely inspired by a Johnny Cash letter written on an old IBM typewriter. The original typeface called “Doric” was a rare example of a proportionally aligned typewriter face, supplied by IBM in the late 1960s. Based on simple geometric shapes, Chapeau is a low contrast sans-serif with rounded endings. The letterforms have been carefully aligned to avoid exceeding width and to achieve an efficient, contemporary appearance.

In the late 1920s Walter Tiemann cut this font for Klingspor Brothers in Offenbach am Main. It comes close to Luthersche Fraktur and, though quite slender, possesses a good gray value and readability. This blackletter font fits excellently into narrow columns. Kleist Fraktur contains a bunch of useful ligatures, and by typing 'N - o - period', marking this combination and activating OT feature Ordinals you get an oldstyle numbersign.

Island Time JNL is based on the hand-lettered title from a piece of 1940s sheet music called "An Island Melody". This Art Deco typeface is perfect for projects where a clean, yet attractive headline font is needed. The font's name is based on the euphamism popular amongst Caribbean Islanders that when someone is excessively late for an appointment, date or event they are running on "island time".

If you're anything like me, you're absolutely in love with all things farmhouse! That gorgeous, rustic style is just about everywhere lately, and I just can't get enough! So, in honor of this elegant trend, I've created, Buttermilk Farmhouse - a rustic, delicate calligraphy script that can be used on everything from signage, to branding, to editorials. Don't be shy, give this baby a test drive and see what you can do!

At one time, the Hampton Publishing Company of New York specialized in producing reading and activity books for children. The “Letters and Numbers Stencil Book” (probably from the late 1940s or early 1950s) was the basis for Kiddie Stencil JNL. This bold sans serif type style replicates the handmade steel rule dies used for cutting the stencil pages of the book, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Ahhh, who doesn't want to sleep late? That’s excactly what a “sovetryne” wants ... even though he/she often sleeps way to much! But that’s not the case with this font. It’s legible, even though it’s slightly worn. Change between upper- and lowercase letters to variate the typing - and turn on ligatures, in order to use the substitution of double letters such as aa, bb, cc and many more!

Excellent futuristic font with pretty rounded angles will fit any title or heading. It supports more than 20 European languages. This font is unique for it's elegant and thin letters. Font's idea came to the designer in the late autumn when tender yellow leaves fell to his hands. The combination of straight lines and bows had sparked a thought about the font, that could be used as awesome decoration.

ZILETTI POP is a font used by Girolamo Ziletti in Venice in mid/late 1500. A typographic caracter characterized by a Venetian style cage with slight geometrical imperfections but with a great perceptual level. This is a multilayered variant with a wide range of possibility in variations in terms of end results. With the use of the color your artworks will have news optical effects. Ideal for Covers, Posters, Logos…

Rufina was as tall and thin as a reed. Elegant but with that distance that well-defined forms seem to impose. Her voice, however, was sweeter, closer, and when she spoke her name, like a slow whisper, one felt like what she had come to say could be read in her image. Rufina’s story can only be told through a detour because her origin does not coincide with her birth. Rufina was born on a Sunday afternoon while her father was drawing black letters on a white background, and her mother was trying to join those same letters to form words that could tell a story. But her origin goes much further back, and that is why she is pierced by a story that precedes her, even though it is not her own. Maybe her origin can be traced back to that autumn night in which that tall man with that distant demeanor ran into that woman with that sweet smile and elegant aspect. He looked at her in such a way that he was trapped by that gaze, even though they found no words to say to each other, and they stayed in silence. Somehow, some words leaked into that gaze because since that moment they were never apart again. Later, after they started talking, projects started coming up and then coexistence and arguments, routines and mismatches. But in that chaos of crossed words in their life together, something was stable through the silence of the gazes. In those gazes, the silent words sustained that indescribable love that they didn’t even try to understand. And in one of those silences, Rufina appeared, when that man told that woman that he needed a text to try out his new font, and she saw him look at her with that same fascination of the first time, and she started to write something with those forms that he was giving her as a gift. Rufina was as tall and thin as a reed, wrote her mother when Rufina was born. Photo (Fragilité): Karin Topolanski / Post: Raw (www.raw.com.uy) - María Pérez Gutiérrez

A gentle breeze caressed his face as his body took on the easy posture of a dancer on break. Flickering sparklets of light sprinkled the glass-smooth surface of the aqua liquid on which he floated. His mind wandered; he was only days away from his scheduled departure date. This day was no different from a hundred other days he had spent melded to his windsurfer, skittering along the breadth of the modest lake, soaking up the sun's rays and forgetting about the entire rest of the world. Lake Quannapowitt, and the town of Wakefield, Massachusetts, were familiar to Steve, a long-time resident of the picturesque New England town. This is where he grew up; this is where he married and lived for many years; and this is the place he was preparing to leave, not one week hence. Not generally prone to nostalgia, it was in just such a state he nonetheless found himself once Zephyrus retreated, as was his custom, periodically, while patrolling the resplendent lake. Steve was going to miss the lake, and he was going to miss the town. How many hours of how many days had he spent exactly like this, standing on his motionless board, waiting for his sail to fill, and staring at the lake's shores, its tiny beach, the town Common with its carefully maintained greenery, and equally well-tended gazebo, the Center church - its spire shadow piercing the water's edge, like a scissor-cut the better to begin a full-fabric tear? Yes, he was going to miss this place - this town which all of a sudden had become a place out of time, just as he was about to become a person out of place. Once this idea struck him, he couldn't shake it. He was transported back in time four score years, now watching his ancestors walk along the shore. Nothing in view belied this belief - not the church's century old architecture, not the gazebo frozen in time, nor the timeless sands of the beach, nor the unchanging Common. Everything belonged exactly where it was, and where it always would be. This, he decided, was how he would remember his hometown. And this is when it occurred to Steve to design a typeface that would evoke these images and musings - a typeface with an old-fashioned look, reflected in high crossbars, an x-height small in size relative to its uppercase, and an intangible quality reminiscent of small-town quaintness. Wakefield, the typeface, was born on Lake Quannapowitt in the town for which it was named, shortly before Steve moved away. It is at once a tribute to his birthplace and a keepsake.

Turbayne is an all caps serif display revival of book cover titling originally drawn by A.A. Turbayne in 1896 London. Expanding upon the original drawings, Turbayne includes basic Latin, western and south eastern European language support, and includes opentype features such as ligatures, stylistic alternates, and even ornaments. Reflecting the refinement of the late Victorian era without being gaudy, it is perfect for designing headlines, labels, logotypes, posters, invitations, t-shirts and so much more.

Calamity Wayne is a reverse-contrast slab serif, inspired by the ‘wild west’ French Clarendons (aka Italians or Egyptians) of the late-1800s. Despite the idiosyncrasies that make it ideal for display and headline uses, it is also surprisingly legible in text settings. Calamity Wayne supports Latin, Cyrillic and Greek, and is available in OTF and TTF formats. Acknowledgement: I am very grateful to David Jonathan Ross (https://djr.com) for his support and encouragement.

Kailey Force contains 3 powerful effects for her kissing cousin: Kailey. The Bold (Drop Shadow), the Brave (Distressed), and the Beautiful (Combined). Kailey is a hand lettered, voluptuous typeface that is very special to the Great Lakes Lettering team. This oblique font is inspired by Molly Jacques’ “signature” lettering style, using bold brush strokes, fluid flourishes, and distinctive characters. Kailey has a distinct feminine feel that takes on a bold attitude to match her curves.

Alleghieri was developed from several different examples of late Renaissance lettering. While it is based on a style which is clearly intended for quick, easy writing, we've preserved many of the unusual character forms and elaborations to give it a lot of personality. The result is stylish and unique, with a real feel of the Renaissance, but great readability as well. The full version includes a large selection of variant character forms and special characters.

Eleonora tends to defy standard categories. Had the typeface been designed in about 1790, it might've been called a "late transitional face" and lumped together with Bell and Bulmer. But it's a modern typeface, showing more restraint in its finer details than even Baskerville. Also noteworthy: it has no traditional, script-like italic but a more severe oblique with baseline serifs and other roman features. Has regular, italic, bold, and bold italic styles.

Twista is a typeface from the realm of impossible constructions, from letters of illusions, the world of M.C. Escher. It takes its place in the tradition of typefaces playing with 3-dimensional drawings on a 2-dimensional surface. iÍt tricks the eye and attracts our gaze. Carefully choose which messages you set in Twista, they might be read with an invisible question mark added at the end. All letters and characters come in two versions.

Big Hug Weeny is a playful contemporary handwritten font, inspired by fun good old days cartoon in the late 80s and 90s. It will elevate a wide range of design projects to the highest level. You can use this font for many design ideas such as stickers, t-shirt designs, amazing logo designs, magazine or book covers, comics, cartoon drawings, and many more. This font will add a super cool touch to your designs!

The hand-lettered title on a piece of sheet music for 1938's "Don't Be That Way" (as recorded by Benny Goodman) featured squared letters with rounded corners, slight variants in line thickness and interesting "overhangs". Additionally, some letters closed off on one end while others were opened, giving the impression of a slight "maze" effect. This unique song title was enough of an inspiration to be turned into Musical Arrangement JNL.

Tactical is nothing more than a testosterone-laced typeface. Rigid, mechanical and unforgiving. Originally conceived in 2007 while I was working through the early sketches of Ginza, Tactical features hard 45-degree angles and the presence of a curve for curve’s sake is just not there. Complimenting the original is a Stencil variant (inspired by the military, marathon video game, explosion-influenced name) and matching Obliques—altogether creating a sharply coordinating family.

Introducing Rumble Brave Vintage Fonts Packages. Lately I've been happy to see the design style with its vintage Victorian classic. Hence from that I launched fonts packages with vintage style. In this package, there are three types of letters: serif, script, and dingbat. The three font combinations are compatible with the Victorian classic design concept. You can also use each font by itself, without combining it with the others in the package.

This font was inspired by the old form of the so called "Kurrentschrift" German handwriting, based on late medieval cursive. It is also known as "Alte Deutsche schrift" ("Old German script"). It was taught in German schools until 1941, when Adolf Hitler decided to forbid it. As it is a little hard to read, we are proposing here two versions: the "pure" Kurrentschrift, and an adapted "Easy" one, with simplified difficult characters.

Whimsical, timeless, and elegant. Three words typically used to describe yours truly, and when one is introducing my latest typeface, Astariah. Drawing inspiration from typefaces of the late 1800s, Astariah is perfect for all designs requiring a splash of quirky elegance. UPDATE: Astariah now includes an additional ‘Outline’ style that perfectly aligns with the original. Both styles also host a variety of discretionary ligatures and stylistic alternates, providing buckets more creative potential!

Ganelon is a new, original design by Dave Nalle in the style of the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 1800s. It draws on some of the design characteristics of lettering by artists from English and American branches of the movement, with additional original features. Ganelon Lower Case features the main upper case character set of Ganelon, but instead of small caps it has a full set of lower case letters.

In the heyday of "Tin Pan Alley", a song plugger was one whose job it was to bring a publisher's song to the attention of performers, show producers and radio station executives; the forerunner of the promotion man who visited disk jockeys with new record releases in the hopes of getting them played on the air. Song Plugger JNL was based on hand lettering spotted on some late-1920s-early 1930s sheet music.

Viento is the evolution, devolution and revolution of the classic Brisa font. Drawn in a rough way for quick times in a fast culture, this font is a top-of-the-range option for casual text, invites, recipes, menus and of course, packaging your favorite express lane foods. Viento comes with programmed features for ligatures and kerning, and extended support for a large number of Latin lingos. Designed by Koziupa and digitized by Ale Paul.

I've always admired the work of Rudolph Koch. Culpepper is what I think Neuland would have looked like if it had been developed with lowercase, small caps and a range of weights. I started work on this series in the late 80’s and, like so many of my ideas, it was shelved when life drew me in another direction. Culpepper is the name of one of the islands in the Galapagos chain.

Menoka is an elegant and modern serif typeface inspired by the late renaissance period. Menoka was designed with a very thin hairline and long serifs, this reflects the elegance and sophistication that was evident during the 17th century. With over 90 stylistic ligatures, Menoka is great for headlines and short to medium texts. Menoka is compatible with 93 languages and contains 433 glyphs, including several alternatives. I hope you enjoy using the Menoka typeface.

Eckhardt Signwriter JNL is based on a casual display lettering face popular with many sign painters and show card writers of yesteryear, best suited for large print projects. Jeff Levine has named this font (along with others in a series) after 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.

Poem Script is a mixed collection of interpretations conjuring a late nineteenth century American pen script style. Though not an actual Italian letterform, this style was called “Italian Alphabet” stemming from an old penman’s term for an alphabet where the stress or shades are opposite their normal placement. The American variant followed from the late eighteenth century British hand also confusingly called “Italian Hand,” which itself evolved from some seventeenth century French batarde scripts. It showcases the phenomenal control and mastery of hand skills required to create such ornamental and lively letters centuries ago. Producing the shaded strokes in reversed positions such as this required holding the pen in a position horizontal to the baseline, or the letterforms would have to be written backwards or by rotating the paper at peculiar and extreme angles to achieve the effect. Exotic, elaborate and very attractive, Poem Script contains plenty of variations on each letter and comes with hundreds of calligraphic ornaments. Poem Script received a Certificate of Excellence at the Type Directors Club NY and was selected at the Bienal Tipos Latinos 2012.

In Northern Sumatra, the crystal clear waters of Lake Toba lap gently against the surrounding mountains. In the middle of the lake sits the island of Samosir, for centuries the secluded home of the Batak people. Visitors arrive by ferry into the tiny town of Tuk Tuk, escaping the heat and humidity of the Sumatran jungle. Throughout the village, restaurants and guest houses are adorned with hand-painted signs in bright colors. Perhaps due to Sumatra's long history of European colonization, the letterforms are reminiscent of those used for posters and handbills in America and Europe at the end of the 19th century, but with a distinctly Southeast Asian flavor. Charles Nix, intrigued by the combination of Victorian fancy and Batak arabesque, photographed, sketched and translated the letterforms into a design that is now ITC Batak. Named for the proud ancestors of Samosir's inhabitants, it is a bold condensed letter with hexagonal serifs - a sort of properly dressed grotesque. Batak is available in either Condensed or Condensed Bold.

Keswick is a beautiful small town in the English Lake District. It is a good place to hang out for a while and explore the surrounding National Park. During your stay you could visit the Keswick Pencil Factory - which brings us to this nice font… Keswick font was created using a 6B pencil (the crumbly, soft kind) and a lot of patience. I have to admit, the pencil used was not made in Keswick. Sorry 'bout that…