A set of rubber stamp letters, figures and punctuation used for marking electrical or communications equipment [and made in Japan] is the basis for this serif typeface. Varying widths and some letters in more of a block style than rounded are typical of Japanese packaging text from the 1950s and 1960s. Available in regular and oblique styles.

Night Life JNL follows the classic lettering forms of the Art Deco era of the 1930s and 1940s. On the upper case letters, the A,B,E,F,H,K,P and R have extended horizontals, while the lower case a,b,e,f,h,k,p and r have those extensions removed and are more traditional in design.

An Art Nouveau, hand lettering on a Good Housekeeping magazine cover from the 1920s inspired Monthly Issue JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. Prior to the 1940s, it was not unusual to find the covers of many popular magazines hand lettered with either their names and/or content information; often in different type styles.

Printing Set JNL by Jeff Levine comes from a toy rubber stamp printing set imported from Japan in the 1950s and 1960s that's been revived, but is now imported from China. The font has a serif letter so typical of import toys of the day, but actually reads quite nicely in short headlines and specialty ad copy.

A mixture of bold and fine line helps this distinctive design evoke the spirit of the 1930s Jazz Age. Due to the modular nature of this design there may be a slight lack of smoothness to the curves at very large point sizes (around 100 pt and above).

Jetlab is a typographic time machine that drops you squarely into the techno-futuristic optimism of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s! While certain weights may conjure familiar space race-era logos from the sci-fi movies, board games, sports teams, new wave bands and sneaker brands of the late 20th century, the complete 45-weight Jetlab font family is loaded with modern features to power your retro-futuristic designs with near-infinite versatility. Features: 45 weights provide widths from squeezed to stretched and weights from light to heavy, plus reverse-stress (that's thick horizontal strokes with thin verticals) high, medium and low crossbar options upper and lowercase letters provide two distinct styles a four-axis variable font provides precise control of width, vertical & horizontal weight, and crossbar height 500 glyphs support 223 languages, including Western & Central Europe and Vietnamese

A classical 20-th century's (1900s to 1980s) typewriter font for both text and large display usage, titles, signage... A new thicker version of Selectric (2016), as if typed using not a thin carbon ribbon but a coarse fabric one. Both are available on a different models of Selectrics. Made after rare enough samples of the same style used during 1980s in the USSR. Based on the actual letter proportions of the original typewriter Selectric (2016) (Cyrillic ball). This time not monospaced as before, but proportional. The single known so far previous typewriter vector typeface with this 'ink blotting' effect (similarly expanded serifs) as in Dodo (2008) is ITC American Typewriter (1974; by Joel Kaden and Tony Stan) and all its hand drawn analogs from 1980s (and perhaps before). Which, in turn, is resembling ATF Bulletin Typewriter's (1925, 1933; by Morris Fuller Benton) overall proportions, geometry, and even had some natural ink expands in its paper sample (but not by design, as I see it).

During the 1960s Hippie movement, a large amount of the rock and roll poster art was strongly influenced by the Art Nouveau period of the early 1900s. A poster for an appearance by The Doors at San Francisco’s Cow Palace Exposition Center (presented by Fillmore East and West owner Bill Graham) featured some wonderfully eclectic Nouveau-styled serif hand lettering. Now recreated as a digital type face called Cow Palace JNL (and named for the performance venue), the font is available in both regular and oblique versions.

German Designer Klaus Sutter digitized Bazar, a brush script typeface from the 1950s originally drawn by Imre Reiner (1900-1987) and published in 1956 by D. Stempel AG. Bazar is a calligraphic brush type free from accurate horizontal and vertical strokes and a contrast to the objective body type. It has a more static character and could be perfectly applied in headlines or as a figurative word mark. Like tradional chinese calligraphers, Imre Reiner was also a painter; this is reflected in the glyphs of Bazar.

THE DANISH RUNES Prior to 500 AD the 24-rune Elder Futhark was used in Denmark. From 500 AD to 800 AD there were many transitional futharks, reflecting a change from the 24-rune Futhark to the 16-rune Futharks. By the end of this period, the 24-rune Futhark went completely out of use and the 16-rune Futharks had prevailed. From 900 AD some of the runes changed, visually and phonetically. This occurred again about 950 AD and 1100 AD due to language changes. Runes dated to 1300 AD show evidence of being influenced by the Latin alphabet. Runes found in Skåne, Halland and Blekinge in Sweden, and runes found in Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, is counted among Danish runes, because in the Runic period, this was Danish land.

French Calligraphic JNL is actually more semi-calligraphic in nature. Its name takes a descriptive liberty because of the sharp, angled pen strokes of the original hand lettered example found in the 1930s publication "100 Alphabets Publicitaires" by M. Moullet. The design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Used Cars JNL is based on one of the many unique alphabets created by the late Alf R. Becker for Signs of the Times magazine from the 1930s through the 1950s. Special thanks to Tod Swormstedt of ST Media (who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio) for providing the reference material for this design

Vintage sheet music for the 1920s song "Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go with Friday on Saturday Night?" yielded the hand lettered Art Nouveau alphabet for Nouveau Display JNL. Because the Art Nouveau movement was so influential in the graphic designs of the 1960s "Love Generation" counter culture, this typeface blends itself well with projects crossing many decades and varying styles.

Retro Signs JNL collects nearly 50 designs modeled from old water transfer sign decals once manufactured by the Duro Decal Company of Chicago, Illinois and adds in a generous amount of additional phrases newly-drawn in the same hand lettered style. These vintage sign panels are perfect for creating nostalgic signage to fit projects centered around the 1950s and early 1960s.

Hand lettering on the packaging for an Arrow "Commander" Staple Remover seen in an online auction is the inspiration for the unusual and angular typeface comprising Staple Remover JNL. The Art Deco era of the 1930s and 1940s offers many wonderful examples of stylized and experimental lettering, and this, by far is one of the more eclectic styles of the time.

This bouncy little number is based on handlettering often found on greeting cards in the 1950s and 1960s, and often the work of Alan Denney. Wild and wacky (and maybe a little bit tacky), this monocase font is a sure attention-getter. This font contains the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus support for Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

This exuberant face was suggested by a piece of French sheet music from the 1930s for the song Sur un Air de Shimmy, The name comes from an Australian song from the 1950s about a noncompliant boomerang. Both versions of this font contain the Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

The Dollfus Mieg Company was founded in 1800 by Daniel Dollfus (1769-1818) and Anne-Marie Mieg (1770-1852). In the 1890s and again in 1901 it published Monograms and Alphabets for Combination, a book with alphabets and monograms for cross-stitching. This book served as example for several digital fonts by Paulo W. Here you can get one of them,

The unusually-shaped hand lettering of Penny Wise JNL was modeled from the cover of the 1936 sheet music for "You Dropped Me Like a Red Hot Penny", and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Although it was drawn during the Art Deco period, this type of lettering design style was revived during the Hippie movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

At the apex of the 1960s-70s Hippie movement, San Franscisco's Haight-Ashbury district was the epicenter of the Love Generation, and the Fillmore (East and West) were the city's musical venues. Inspired by a 1970 concert poster, the Art Nouveau influence was strongly felt in the hand lettering from that poster, which is the basis for Flower Children JNL.

Because of the large influx of Irish immigrants during the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was not unusual for songwriters of the day to craft songs around Irish themes, offering a nostalgic link to their homeland. One such 1917 piece entitled "You Brought Ireland Right Over to Me" had the title hand lettered on the sheet music cover in a sans serif design reflecting the popular Art Nouveau movement of the day. This design is now available digitally as Retro Nouveau JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Neuzeit Grotesk was originally designed by Wilhelm Pischner (1904-1989) and was released by the font foundry D. Stempel in 1928-1939. In 1970, the German Standards Committee advised the standard use of Neuzeit-Grotesk for official signage and traffic directional systems, and the abbreviation DIN was added to the name of the font. DIN" stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung (The German Institute for Industrial Standards). Neuzeit Grotesk was also once the standard in the German printing industry. It has been seen as a straightforward and utilitarian typeface, with no unusual or distracting features. Like other typefaces from the 1920s, it reflects the philosophy of those times, "Form is Function." Today, however, because of its familiarity and practicality, Neuzeit™ Grotesk has acquired an almost cheerful and reassuring aura. Try it out for signage, magazine headlines, or flyers. See also Neuzeit S for text weights of Neuzeit Grotesk.

Unique and decorative signage for many drive-ins, motels, food stores and other businesses of the 1940s had what was referred to as “privilege signs” provided by one of the major cola brands. Consisting of the brand’s emblem on a decorative panel, the remainder of the sign would carry the desired message of the storekeeper (such as “Drive-In”) in prismatic, embossed metal letters. Inspired by the Art Deco sans serif style of those vintage signs, Privilege Sign Two JNL recreates the type design in both regular and oblique versions. The typefaces are solid black, but adding a selected color and a prismatic effect from your favorite graphics program can reproduce the look and feel of those old businesses. This is a companion font to Privilege Sign JNL, which recreates the condensed sans serif lettering of other privilege signs from the 1950s and early 1960s.

French Stencil Moderne JNL is modeled from an alphabet found in the 1930s publication "100 Alphabets Publicitaires" by M. Moullet, and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Strongly resembling the stencil motif of Futura Black, this French stencil alphabet has enough variations to give it a unique design flavor all its own.

The Journal Sans typeface was developed in the Type Design Department of SPA of Printing Machinery in Moscow in 1940–1956 by the group of designers under Anatoly Schukin. It was based on Erbar Grotesk by Jacob Erbar and Metro Sans by William A. Dwiggins, the geometric sans-serifs of the 1920s with the pronounced industrial spirit. Journal Sans, Rublenaya (Sans-Serif), and Textbook typefaces were the main Soviet sans-serifs. So no wonder that it was digitized quite early, in the first half of 1990s. Until recently, Journal Sans consisted of three faces and retained all the problems of early digitization, such as inaccurate curves or side-bearings copied straight from metal-type version. The years of 2013 and 2014 made «irregular» geometric sans-serifs trendy, and that fact affected Journal Sans. In the old version curves were corrected and the character set was expanded by Olexa Volochay. In the new release, besides minor improvements, a substantial work has been carried out to make the old typeface work better in digital typography and contemporary design practice. Maria Selezeneva significantly worked over the design of some glyphs, expanded the character set, added some alternatives, completely changed the side-bearings and kerning. Also, the Journal Sans New has several new faces, such as true italic (the older font had slanted version for the italic), an Inline face based on the Bold, and the Display face with proportions close to the original Erbar Grotesk. The new version of Journal Sans, while keeping all peculiarities and the industrial spirit of 1920s-1950s, is indeed fully adapted to the modern digital reality. It can be useful either for bringing historical spirit into design or for modern and trendy typography, both in print and on screen. Designed by Maria Selezeneva with the participation of Alexandra Korolkova. Released by ParaType in 2014.

THE NORWEGIAN RUNES The oldest runes discovered in Norway date from 400 AD. They were based upon the 24 - rune Elder Futhark of Germanic origin. Two of the runes in the Elder Futhark, Pertra and Eoh, have never been found in any Norwegian rune text. From 550 AD to 700 AD there was a transition period between the older 24-rune Futhark and the newer 16-rune Futharks. By the end of this period, the 24-rune Futhark went completely out of use and the 16-rune Futharks had prevailed. Then, about 900 AD, the Shorttwiggs-runes were introduced from Sweden. Shortly thereafter, from 1000 AD, Futharks with more than 16 runes became more prevalent, as these were more consistent with the Latin alphabet. These types of runes were used in Norway up to 1800 AD.

1769® Display is an elegant and modern serif typeface inspired by the history of France and more particularly the Romantic movement (1700s and 1800s). The roundness of its characters and its numerous ligatures reflect the grace, refinement and sensitivity that were omnipresent during the 18th century. Its name refers to the birth of Napoleon Bonaparte, the fascinating or revolting emperor, the emblematic figure of this period.

Shtozer is a retro-themed display typeface based on designs of 1960s and 1970s and additionally inspired by Cyrillic ornate lettering Vyaz. It comes in 8 weights, with 5 width variations each, all accompanied with respective obliques - making 80 styles altogether. Shtozer is a font family with extensive language coverage including Cyrillic script. It also contains numerous OpenType features and alternate glyphs to vivify the typesetting.

Honest draws inspiration from the serif fonts prevalent in print media during the 1970s and 1980s. Its letter shapes are well-suited for prominent uses like logos and striking headlines due to their distinctive style. The font's large x-height makes it suitable for tight leading in headlines. Honest offers a variety of options, including seven different weights and two styles: Standard and Italic.

Roadstar is a script designed in the style of the classic American advertising font from the 1940's-1950's. Roadstar is a retro brush-style script designed for logotype, packaging, posters, T-shirts, signage & design projects with a retro & vintage feel. Roadstar comes with two styles that both contain all upper and lower case characters, punctuation, numerals and mathematical operators, as well as all accented characters.

Here's a lettering style that just might be exactly on your wavelength. Add just the right dose of vintage freak-a-delia to your retro graphics with this original psychedelic-style design. Great for music posters, album graphics, book titles, etc. Evoke a warpy, wavy, whimsical vibe that harks back to the carefree 1960s or early 1970s era with Sixties Flashback; it's pure hippie, trippy fun!

From alphabets created for book illustrations in the 1970s to lettering created for a book jacket in the 1990s, the Mentor family of typefaces has developed along its own slow and circuitous path. Always present in its evolution, though, has been the influence of three 20th century design giants: Eric Gill, Reynolds Stone, and Hermann Zapf, as filtered through the meticulous sensibility of Michael Harvey.

Although less prevalent today, a cover charge was added to better class night clubs of the 1930s and 1940s to discourage patronage by people of questionable social graces. The general idea was that the lower strata of society (meaning the "average Joe" or "hoi polloi") would balk at paying an extra fee just for entrance to a place of good entertainment and fine dining.

For decades, spot illustrations - whether by hot type, photoengraving, clip art or (in later years) digital means provided decorative and often lighthearted breaks in reading printed copy. This collection of twenty-six cartoon images has been meticulously re-drawn in digital format from 1920s-1930s era source material. By adding a simple caption underneath a design, your ad copy can be enhanced with these wonderful period pieces.

Mayak is a geometric sans serif inspired by the Soviet constructivist fonts of the 1920s-1930s. It contains traditional upper and lower case characters as well as small caps and a great number of stylistic alternates. The font comes in 12 styles: 4 weights in 3 widths. Mayak was designed by Yana Nosenko with contributions from Dmitry Kirsanov and released by ParaType in 2017.

I believe it was Picasso who had a Blue Period between 1901 and 1904. It seems that I have one myself - really not comparing myself to Picasso btw… Recently I created Blue Sheep font and now this one: Little Boy Blue. Little Boy Blue is a very legible, easy-on-the-eye font for texts, books, covers and packaging. Comes with 50 shades of diacritics.

Balcony Seats JNL is a different take on Jeff Levine's Aisle Seats JNL. The original font was modeled from Redikut die-cut cardboard letters - used in the 1940's and 1950's for display and show card work). Although the basic letter shapes are similar, the horizontal stroke weights have been narrowed, providing a type variation with a classic Art Deco "thick and thin" look.

This typeface is inspired from the old display fonts that used to decorate the world around us, but just because we don't see such beautiful signage these days, doesn't mean we should lose the great typefaces used. Foreman is a condensed serif display typeface, with hard geometric lines inspired from fonts used in the 1930s and 1940s, and very much used by the American Art Deco movement.

Neue Rinjani is a all-caps sans serif with Wide Stretch contemporary typographic, vintage futuristic art-deco touch Streamline influence of the 1930s and 1940s. A mix from the old Euro-American signage/advertising letters and modern clean sans serif, carefully mousecrafted to bring you the genuine feel of the era. If you're into classic/vintage letter designs, then this typeface suits best for you.

The hand lettering found on a small catalog sheet for decorative decals from the 1930s-1940s era was the perfect source material for Crestview Six JNL. Handmade typefaces or signage from past decades offer a wonderfully humanistic change from the perfectly-crafted designs of printer's type (or digital type in the modern era). The font's name comes from the old alpha-numerical phone exchanges of the past.