Zenia, offered in regular and bold weights is a homage to the streamline era of the later 1930s. It's a distinctive display family, glyphic yet still intuitive and easy to read. Use it anywhere you want that 30's streamlined feel, or perhaps in science fiction inspired work particularly those that have a 'past inspired future' feel...

Modakshar was inspired by traditional Indic handwriting scripts which ‘hang’ from a common upper horizontal bar. Adapting this motif to Latin letterforms was challenging. The typeface was first conceived in the 1970's as a design project in school. The current digital design was completed in 2002. Basic motif was inspired by traditional Indic script handwriting.

Cuadrifonte was freely inspired by the lettering from a 1917 poster – the only recorded poster designed by the architect and furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld. It is a hand-drawn bold and boxy typeface, available in 3 handcrafted styles. The family also comes with a very nice picture font, loaded with illustrations that match the typeface look and feel.

The hand-lettered movie titles from one of the William Powell-Myrna Loy "Thin Man" series of films was the basis for Intrigue JNL. Although the lettering style is decidedly from the Art Deco era, it also bears a strong resemblance to the 1980s techno movement; this font being adaptable to any era or design theme.

Designed by Morris Fuller Benton 1913-15, this Oldstyle family was digitized by Jim Rimmer in the early 2000's. It is a roman face closely styled to that of Nicholas Jensen's with a companion italic in the style of Aldus Manutius. Benton considered Cloister the ideal typeface and it does indeed lend itself to many uses.

Inspired by German grotesk from XIXth century. Driven by the spirit of 1950s Swiss Style. Designed with a hint of constructivist approach. Neue Alte Grotesk is a minimalistic typeface with a distinct character. It is created to connect both new and old. It will look good in juxtaposition with retro-styled illustrations and ultra-modern graphics.

This delightful semiscript is based on an offering from a 1930s specimen book from the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, originally called, simply, "Card Italic". Elegant without being stuffy, it is equally “at home” announcing anything from formal occasions to casual get-togethers. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

The Heraut is a typical art nouveau advertising display typeface. The design is based on the work of Hermann Hoffmann from 1901. OpenType features: over 580 Glyphs Central European Glyphs Small Capitals Contextual Alternates The ornaments typeface uses several common OpenType features to switch easily between the elements. Have a look into the Heraut specimen PDF.

Based on the typeface Sculpture, designed by Charles Allen in the 1960s for Photolettering, this font is an intriguing exercise in implicit letterforms, using cast shadows to suggest, rather than delineate. Both sublime and subliminal, it’s an excellent choice for commanding headlines. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

A sign in a London storefront, ca. 1930, pitching—surprise!—Smart Frocks provided the visual cues for designing this typeface. Singularly stylish, hip and haughty and decidedly Deco, this is the smart font to use! This font contains the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus support for Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

A quirky and unusual Art Deco monoline typeface can be found within the pages of the Esterbrook Drawlet Pen instruction book [circa the 1940s]. Drawlet was the direct competitor to Speedball Lettering pen nibs. This unusual type design of varying width and character shapes is now available digitally as Oddly Deco JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Rundfunk is a condensed font which features an unusual lowercase with an extremely low x-height and high tail ascenders that align with the capitals. It is a reworking of the original designed by Adolf Behrmann for the Berthold type foundry in 1928. Rundfunk font is ideal for projecting the look and mood of the 1930s.

The Buro is a text font, monospace, sans-serif with rounded endings. It is characterized by its monolinear outline (slight optical corrections) and its discontinuous Roman structure. He tries to reproduce the outline of a letter drawn with a pen. The design of the Buro is inspired by the cursive letters used in Olympia typewriters of the 1950s.

Dance Lesson JNL is a reinterpretation of the popular "Latin Bold" typeface. The font's name is a reference to the Latin dance craze of the 1950s, when the Cha-Cha, Meringue, Tango, Mambo and even the "Chalypso" - a hybrid of Cha-Cha and Calypso rhythms had everyone moving to the beat of Central and South America.

Here's a stencil version of another Nick's Fonts typeface based on Chic, a Morris Fuller Benton creation for American Type Founders from the 1920s. Stylish and sophisticated as always, and now with an arts-and-crafts flair. Both versions of this font include the Unicode Latin 1252 and 1250 Central European character sets, with localization for Moldovan and Romanian.

La Bamba is the work of British designer David Quay and heavily influenced by the style of the 1950s. It comes with complete upper and lowercase alphabets as well as a set of decorated initialling capitals for added variety. La Bamba is a casual design with wedge-shaped serifs and radiates a gay, light-hearted mood.

The sheet music for the 1914 Word War I comic novelty song "When the War Breaks Out in Mexico I'm Going to Go to Montreal" had one of those overly-worded song titles popular during this period (13!), along with interesting sans serif hand lettering. It now debuts digitally as Conscription JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

A playful Art Deco face from master penman Samuel Welo is combined with design elements used in 1930s signage to create this architectural face. End caps are created with {brackets} and spaces with the design elements are _underscores. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

This older, somewhat funkier relative of the classic face, Engravers Roman, made its last appearance in the 1912 ATF Specimen Book. Here, it has been revived to do yeoman-like duty in a new century. This font contains the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus support for Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

Service Men JNL is a collection of twenty-six service industry-related messages carried by a courier. Each image is offered facing left and facing right. A blank message panel is available on both the period and comma keys for adding special text. The classic 1940s-era artwork adds a nostalgic touch to these simple reminders.

In an 1896 specimen catalog for American Type Founders there is a design called Geometric Gothic. The lettering style looks as if it’s ahead of its time; foreseeing the 1980s. With its squared characters, some pointed overhangs and modified character shapes, this type design is now available as Squared Off JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

J. M. Bergling called the inspiration for this typeface “modern”—at least, it passed for modern in 1914. Its bold, sinuous forms and unusual decorative treatment suggest stained glass of a certain era, and so its name is German for “Arts and Crafts”. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

Telegram is the work of British designer Timothy Donaldson, a casual style influenced by the ball and rod, or atomic, imagery popular during the 1950s. Donaldson called the typeface Telegram because it reminds him of dots and dashes. Telegram is a play alphabet which communicates an almost childlike innocence and is ideal for work directed at younger people.

McCadden JNL was inspired by the hand-lettered credits for the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show [1950-1958]. Its casual theme offers a lighthearted approach to titling and display work. The font gets its name from McCadden Productions (the company started by George Burns), which itself was named after a street Burns' brother William once lived on.

Picadyll is a sanserif that flirts with the 1920s Art Deco tradition but adds a modern touch. The sober letter design brings old movie posters and packaging to mind. Picadyll is a sophisticated and fun font from Swedish type designer Bo Berndal and the T4 font foundry. It is an OpenType creation, for both PC and Mac.

In the 1930s the WPA (Works Progress Administration) sponsored a Federal art project. Many posters were produced that featured government-sponsored cultural events, health and safety tips and various other topics. One such poster from Pennsylvania has the words “Work with Care” in a hand-lettered inline sans design. This became the basis for Asbury Park JNL.

Gather Serif - The Modern Classic Let your creativity flow with Gather Serif. Beautifully crafted letterforms and ligatures to give your type a modern touch of elegance. Gather Serif is packed with extra ligatures and stylistic alternative glyphs. Ligatures: CH CO DO EH EA EO IJ KA KO LA LE LH OC OO QO QU RA RC RH RI RO RS RU TH TT Th ZO fl ffl fi ffi st Language Support for: Western European, Central European, South Eastern European, South American, Esperanto.

Iowan Old Style was designed for Bitstream in 1990 by noted sign painter John Downer. Iowan Old Style is a hardy contemporary text design modeled after earlier revivals of Jenson and Griffo typefaces but with a larger x-height, tighter letterfit, and reproportioned capitals. Iowan Old Style Titling was designed by John Downer and added to the Iowan Old Style family in 2002. The cap-only character set includes several ornaments and fleurons, broadening the appeal and functionality of the typeface family. Iowan Old Style was originally designed for Bitstream in 1990 by Downer, a noted sign painter. Iowan Old Style is a hardy contemporary text design modeled after earlier revivals of Jenson and Griffo typefaces but with a larger x-height, tighter letterfit, and reproportioned capitals. Expert and old style figure font sets were added in 2000.

GRUND is a new fontographic adaption of a remarkable 1920s epigraphical find in the city of Leipsic. This old well-known European trade fair hotspot struggled with a severe shortage of exhibition space around 1920. The solution was to dig deeper into the matter – literally – and 1924 the world’s first underground trade fair exhibition hall was opened right under the city’s central market square. After several changes of use during the past decades the sophisticated Art Deco entrance structure (architect: Otto Droge) was re-opened in December 2013 as a gateway to a new subway rail track. – The original brass lettering of the UNTERGRUNDMESSHALLE MARKT has been retrieved – and served as the inspiration for this new and unique font. If you’d like to see more exceptional Art Deco type, have a look at my Arthur series. __________________________________________________________________________________________

The Face2Face (F2F) series was inspired by the techno sound of the mid-1990s, personal computers and new font creation software. For years, Alexander Branczyk and his friends formed a unique type design collective, which churned out a substantial amount of fresh, new fonts, none of which complied with the traditional rules of typography. Many of these typefaces were used to create layouts for the leading German techno magazine of the 1990s, Frontpage. Branczyk and his fellows would even set in type at 6 points, in order to make it nearly unreadable. It was a pleasure for the kids to read and decrypt these messages! F2F Monako Stoned was inspired by the Apple system font Monaco, and is one of 41 Face2Face fonts included in the Take Type 5 collection from Linotype. Branczyk designed 16 of these himself."

Hollywood Revue JNL gets its design inspiration and name from a vintage movie poster for "The Hollywood Revue of 1929". The letter style shows early Art Deco influences, yet the hand lettering was done in the late 1920s toward the end of the Art Nouveau period. MGM produced this early "talkie" all-star musical with a cast that included Jack Benny, John Gilbert, Conrad Nagel, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Polly Moran and many others. This is the motion picture where Cliff ("Ukelele Ike") Edwards introduced "Singin' in the Rain" (composed by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown). Years later, Freed was a producer at MGM and gathered up many of the songs he and Brown wrote during the 1920s to form the musical core of the 1952 Gene Kelly-Debbie Reynolds-Donald O'Conner musical "Singin' in the Rain".

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.

Based on the lettering used on Alan Turing’s famous code-breaking machine at Bletchley Park, the “Bombe”, and the subsequent British answer to the German Enigma machine, the Typex. Research done at Bletchley Park on their restored and antique machines provided the inspiration. The unusual shapes for the capitals have all been retained - the square O, the monospaced characters and other eccentricities that make it unique. This reference material was then extended to the numerals (which did not exist in the original) and a full international character complement. The initial design of the bombe was produced in 1939 at the UK Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park by Alan Turing, with an important refinement devised in 1940 by Gordon Welchman. It was based on a device that had been designed in 1938 in Poland at the Biuro Szyfrów (Cipher Bureau) by cryptologist Marian Rejewski, and known as the "cryptologic bomb" (Polish: bomba kryptologiczna). The Bombe was used to break the German Enigma code on a daily basis, and was a vital part of the Allied war effort. The British “Typex" (alternatively, Type X or TypeX) machines were an adaptation of the commercial German Enigma with a number of enhancements that greatly increased its security. It was used from 1937 until the mid-1950s, when other more modern military encryption systems came into use.

Varese Outlined is the perfect font for giving content a retro, dimensional, and playful feel. Use it for headlines or short body text for an optimistic or nostalgic tone. It comes in two variations, outlined and shadow. It has standard uncolored and colored options. Please see the slides to know what each color font is named. This geometric and modular typeface was inspired by Italian posters of the 1920s and 1930s. Its design playfully explores the boundaries between unity and variety. The blocky characteristics lend it well to tightly composed text either horizontally or vertically. The lowercase is similar in form to the uppercase, yet many of the lowercase letters have interior spaces (counterforms). It comes with standard ligatures; ff, fi, fl, ffl and three alternate glyphs for number 1. The color fonts in Varese Outlined are vector-based and in the fully scalable SVG OpenType format. Color fonts are supported by Photoshop 2017, Illustrator and InDesign 2018, and QuarkXPress 2018 (and later versions). Those who do not want a color font should purchase the files simply named “Regular” and “Outlined”. These will not have any color words in the names. Varese Outlined has two siblings; Varese and Varese Soft. The designer suggests pairing Varese Outlined with his ornamental fonts FormPattern or FormPattern Color Two, Three, or Six.

NOMAD —Regular is a stand alone font. Nomad -Regular is a clean, interesting revival font. It is a Display font. Nomad, now exclusively in OpenType .oft by Joseph V Coniglio of Coniglio Type. It is a narrow boldfaced font. Its analog source was comprised of an extremely limited die cut, truly generic, craft, peel-and-stick vinyl set of capital letters of ascenders and numbers. It was purchased at a five & dime stores, hardware department from the 1970's. My father owned an original set of characters: Nomad-Regular is nicely expanded to meet the needs of OpenType. The original adhesive labels adhered to the bows of that small boats so fisherman wouldn't get turned away at the Canadian border for not having their vessels tagged and listed with the appropriate license name and numbers, recorded by customs. It was a required serialization of letters and numbers marked on the side of their vessels. On the other hand, most beer and whisky drinking fishers, card players and bait casters would rather not deal with it, but the boat could not cross over the border without them. (Once part of Market LTD from the 1990's, a collection of limited faces, mostly alpha-numeric and some just plain numeric, used primarily in retail and display situations and titling.) Designer: Joseph V Coniglio Author: Coniglio Type

Époque initially came from composing a fashion catalogue with some materials from the Brazilian Amazon. The pieces of the collection used natural caoutchouc as raw material and the design of capital letters use forms that refer to the typography of the historical period 1890 - 1910 in which caoutchouc was the main driving force of the Amazonian economy. This typeface has a complete set of numerals, a set of standard ligatures, in addition to alternates in specific glyphs and a large set of discretionary ligatures composed mainly for UPPERCASE. Époque family is comprised of four weights without italics(with an alternate set in place). It’s a typeface recommended for titles, logos, and posters.

Clearface Gothic first appeared in 1910, designed by Morris Fuller Benton, the world-famously prolific typeface artist. In addition to Clearface Gothic, Benton also designed classics like Franklin Gothic, Century Expanded, and many other types. Clearface Gothic is a sans serif face with light forms displaying the Zeitgeist of the turn of the 20th century. Distinguishing characteristics are the open forms of the a" and "c," the arched "k," and the upward-tilting horizontal stroke of the "e." The relatively narrow typeface, with its open inner white spaces, is extremely legible even in small point sizes. There is no accompanying italic. This digital version of Clearface Gothic was made in 1984 by the Linotype Design Studio."

The 1940s-era hand-lettered title on vintage sheet music for the song hit "Donkey Serenade" had an interpretation of the classic typeface "Broadway" used in a Mexican/Southwest motif with wavy lines cutting through the letters. Adapting Playwright JNL (itself, a hand-lettered interpretation of "Broadway") to this style, the festive design is now a digital typeface called Southwest Serenade JNL.

Colin Brignall designed the Tango typeface in 1974. A groovy swirl of a font, Tango looks like disco party ready to lift off. Tango is one of many fonts that have come to symbolize the party music of the 1970s, familiar forms can be found on countless album covers from that era. Tango is a child of it's times - flashy, lively, and fun!

Rummy is powerful, precise, and packed with personality. Simple and initially unassuming, Rummy may seem a reluctant hero. But, when called upon, Rummy will lend you all of its considerable strength and versatility in order to win the day. Influenced by sports branding and 1940s film, Rummy is an underdog that won't let you down. Need more height? Try Rummy Tall!