These charming little cartoon figures, known in the trade as "midgets", added a little extra oomph to everything from business cards to matchbook covers from the 1920s to the 1950s. Each font contains 52 different cuts, ready and waiting to spice up your layouts, and each carefully hand drawn from authentic historical sources.

The Zapf Renaissance Antiqua type family was designed by Hermann Zapf for the German Scangraphic Dr. Böger GmbH in Hamburg, from 1984–1986. The typefaces were engineered for use in digital CRT phototypesetting. This version was based on Scangraphic SH version (For Display use) and not on the SB version (for text use).

I became interested in designing Bodoni Classic because of a lazy graphic designer at Jacques Damase publishing house. He had to change a single letter on a bookcover about J. B. BODONI. The French call him Jean Baptiste instead of Giambattista! And that unknown graphic designer just took any old “J” from some newly cut Bodoni. All the new Bodoni cuts have square serifs, whereas the originals had rounded serifs and slightly concave feet. The single letter “J” with the squared off serif was for me like a road sign to start redesigning the entire Bodoni family. That’s exactly what I started in 1993 and a dozen years later I am finished. Okay, I am still adding new Bodoni Classics, but those are my personal additions. Yours very retro, Gert Wiescher

I became interested in designing Bodoni Classic because of a lazy graphic designer at Jacques Damase publishing house. He had to change a single letter on a bookcover about J. B. BODONI. The French call him Jean Baptiste instead of Giambattista! And that unknown graphic designer just took any old “J” from some newly cut Bodoni. All the new Bodoni cuts have square serifs, whereas the originals had rounded serifs and slightly concave feet. The single letter “J” with the squared off serif was for me like a road sign to start redesigning the entire Bodoni family. That’s exactly what I started in 1993 and a dozen years later I am finished. Okay, I am still adding new Bodoni Classics, but those are my personal additions. Yours very retro, Gert Wiescher

I became interested in designing Bodoni Classic because of a lazy graphic designer at Jacques Damase publishing house. He had to change a single letter on a bookcover about J. B. BODONI. The French call him Jean Baptiste instead of Giambattista! And that unknown graphic designer just took any old “J” from some newly cut Bodoni. All the new Bodoni cuts have square serifs, whereas the originals had rounded serifs and slightly concave feet. The single letter “J” with the squared off serif was for me like a road sign to start redesigning the entire Bodoni family. That’s exactly what I started in 1993 and a dozen years later I am finished. Okay, I am still adding new Bodoni Classics, but those are my personal additions. Yours very retro, Gert Wiescher

The origin of this font was a frieze in the RAF Chapel in Westminster Abbey which Michael Harvey was commissioned to design and create. It was comprised of the names of the top brass in wartime Bomber Command, namely Dowding, Harris, Newall, Tedder, Portal and Douglas. The Brief was to cut the letters in bronze and gild them. Instead, they were cut in perspex and gilded. To sit comfortably within the long and narrow vertical space available beneath the chapel’s stained glass window, extended letterforms were used with many vertical serifs omitted and with lengthened horizontal serifs. Some twenty years later, the missing upper-case letters were drawn together with the lowercase letters and Frieze, the font, was born. Subsequently, additional weights and styles were added to create a font family of six styles.

I became interested in designing Bodoni Classic because of a lazy graphic designer at Jacques Damase publishing house. He had to change a single letter on a bookcover about J. B. BODONI. The French call him Jean Baptiste instead of Giambattista! And that unknown graphic designer just took any old “J” from some newly cut Bodoni. All the new Bodoni cuts have square serifs, whereas the originals had rounded serifs and slightly concave feet. The single letter “J” with the squared off serif was for me like a road sign to start redesigning the entire Bodoni family. That’s exactly what I started in 1993 and a dozen years later I am finished. Okay, I am still adding new Bodoni Classics, but those are my personal additions. Yours very retro, Gert Wiescher

Stanzer is an interpretation of wood type combined with the idea of modern stencils. Instead of cutting every letter, we are presenting an example of how a modern stencil typeface could look like, as we have come to the conclusion that almost every letter works without cutting it. Stanzer is a Unicase typeface, available in three OpenType weights: Black, Shadow and Block. Stanzer first started as part of our diploma 2010 (it was called Stanley at that time). The basic idea behind this typeface is that it is fully stencil usable, and, unlike other stencil fonts, does not require any bridges (except for the O and Q). Almost every letter can be sprayed without inserting planks. However, Stanzer also offers the display weight Block, which is only suitable for print or online usage.

I became interested in designing Bodoni Classic because of a lazy graphic designer at Jacques Damase publishing house. He had to change a single letter on a bookcover about J. B. BODONI. The French call him Jean Baptiste instead of Giambattista! And that unknown graphic designer just took any old “J” from some newly cut Bodoni. All the new Bodoni cuts have square serifs, whereas the originals had rounded serifs and slightly concave feet. The single letter “J” with the squared off serif was for me like a road sign to start redesigning the entire Bodoni family. That’s exactly what I started in 1993 and a dozen years later I am finished. Okay, I am still adding new Bodoni Classics, but those are my personal additions. Yours very retro, Gert Wiescher

Conrad X. 'Cobb' Shinn (Sept. 4, 1887- Jan. 28, 1951) was a Fillmore, Indiana-born post card illustrator who sold a series of successful novelty postcard lines which included (among others) Charlie Chaplin, automobiles and the Dutch culture in the beginning years of the 20th Century. After serving in World War I, Shinn found the market for novelty postcards dwindling, and he also lent his artistic skills to cartoon features and illustrating many children's books [including his own, under the nickname 'Uncle Cobb'] which taught easy step-by-step drawing methods. Some time in the 1920s, he eventually migrated into the field of supplying electrotypes and stereotypes of 'stock cuts' of photos and line art to the printing trade. In the days of letterpress printing, this was the forerunner of paper clip art and its successor, electronic clip art. Purchasing many of his designs from 'journeyman' artists of the time, the diversity of Cobb Shinn's stock cuts library grew with the passing years, reflecting changing times, styles and topics. Some of the illustrators whose signed works were presented in Shinn's 'CUTalogs' [as he called his stock cuts catalogs] include Mary Clemmitt, Louis H. Hippe, E.C. Klinge, Nelson White, Harvey Fuller, Bess Livings, Lois Head, Harvey Peake and Van Tuyl. Upon his passing in 1951, it's not known how long the Indianapolis-based company existed before finally closing its doors. One of the more popular series of cartoons were the line illustrations of men and women affectionately called 'little big head guys' by many modern fans of these cuts because the heads of the characters were drawn somewhat larger than the rest of their bodies. Shinn Kickers JNL is a collection twenty-six of these illustrations, and just like a kick in the shin (as the pun in the name implies), these charming cartoons get your attention.

The extremely narrow Robotik was created by the British typeface designer David Quai and appeared with ITC in 1989. The figures are robust and strong and form tightly packed, bar-like lines. The characters' slim, narrow and angular forms suggest mechanical exactness and cool distance. The similarity of the forms are also reminiscent of machinery and the letters form chains of words. The form principle shows parallels with the constructivism of Moscow after the First World War. Robotik is best used for headlines in large point sizes.

Knul is an elegant modern typeface with a subtle mono-line appearance. Balanced engineered geometry with delicate hand touches allows for practical typesetting without complications. Knuls' mechanical simplicity is best suited to identity, editorial, advertising and software applications. Details include six weights with italics and over 600 characters per style. Opentype features consist of six variations of numerals, including inferiors, superiors, fractions, lining and tabular. Language support covers Western, South, Central Europe and Cyrillic—Remastered to version 2.0 for improved OpenType features and usability.

Kodiak was designed by 40+ year sign painting veteran, Brian Grant, and is loosely based on the works of many great sign painting masters. Brian and Charles Borges de Oliveira teamed up to bring this beautiful sign painters classic to the digital age. Kodiak retains the warmth of a hand lettered font without being stiff and mechanical. Great for period style lettering to modern day logos. With over 160 alternates and 10 ornaments you are bound to find the right look for your next design!

Approach is a modern approximation to the early grotesques. An utilitarian low contrast font, a bit mechanic but plenty of character. One of its characteristic elements is a kind of ‘elbow pipe’ shape that is present in many letters like the tail of the a, f, j, t, R, Q or 1 among others. Besides, the synthetic punctuation and quotes give it a more contemporary appearance. Approach tries to feel fresh against all odds, being familiar but different. For more details see the PDF.

Naftera font family has been designed for Graviton Font Foundry by Pablo Balcells in 2019. It is a mechanical, geometric sans serif typeface with display swashed characters and soft rounded endings that provide a strong but refined aesthetic. Naftera has been conceived to be most suitable for logos, headlines and display design pieces as well as short length text blocks. Naftera consists of 10 styles, 8 of which containing small caps and huge glyph coverage for several languages. The 2 Stencil styles are free.

The "Architect's Font" for Everyone! Having taught Mechanical Drawing - BC (before computers), I have always wanted to digitize my every day lettering as I have previously done with my calligraphic lettering. Based on my own daily lettering style, which in turn is modeled after the hand lettering of draftsmen and architects, Fran Hand comes with Regular and Italic versions each for the same low price. Use "Fran Hand" for writing letters, fax cover sheets, invoices, spec drawings, or for enjoying a change from the prosaic and commonplace.

NoExit is an industrial vernacular type system with multiple widths. Originally designed for the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, its inspiration was an old sign that said “STAIRWAY” found the hotel’s old building. A pointed uppercase letter A stood up against the mechanic aspect of the rest of the letters, and that discrepancy was love at first sight. From that, we developed a type system in multiple widths and weights that looks best at large sizes. It’s an ideal typeface for signage systems, magazine headlines, posters and packaging.

ITC Riva is the work of English designer Martin Wait and appeared with ITC in 1994. Its letters form gently flowing words and sentences and the light stroke contrast makes the font stable yet lively. The contemporary typefaces of the 18th century influenced the forms of ITC Riva and its overall image brings to mind flowing white sundresses, fields of flowers and tea parties. Perfect for invitations and greeting cards, the capitals of ITC Riva can also be used as initials and combined with other alphabets.

Tritura is my personal take on textura fonts. Several methods of drawing were used, both analog and digital, to bring its overall rough feel. Each and every character was designed not from historical references, but from my view on this very peculiar typographic style. Instead of following established rules of character construction, I preferred to just keep in mind the mechanics of the pens used in textura drawings, as well as the little I already knew from the style, to create my own characters from there.

ITC Eras font is the work of French designers Albert Boton and Albert Hollenstein. It is a typical sans serif typeface distinguished by its unusual slight forward slant and subtle variations in stroke weight. ITC Eras is an open and airy typeface inspired by both Greek stone-cut lapidary letters as well as Roman capitals.

This typeface is mostly composed of images of dinosaur skeletons drawn by Matthew Schenk and used as stencils for decoration. I thought they would also make a nice typeface. Check the key map—some of the very large critters are cut into pieces and put on several keys—this may help printing in some situations.

The "C Elle F" is a typographic family, as a stencil letter, originally intended for cutting and engraving to carry out marking and signaling work. But of course, the very characteristic shape of these letters evokes much more. This typographic family can therefore be used for communication in various fields, commercial, import-export, military, etc.

Duquesne Dark Woodcut is a new typeface in the spirit of 19th century American wood cut typefaces. There is an almost rustic simplicity to its heavily serifed letter forms, ideal for capturing the spirit of the mid-west, or early Victorian Britain. Long live the era of the Cowboy and the Steam Navigation Canal!

Supernouveau is a handfull and easy to use font with 244 pieces of art nouveau elements of decoration : frames, cuts, tailipieces, headpieces among others... Ready to use to make patterns, book coovers, públishing design, package material and all you need in your design with a XIX to XX centuru first decades feeling of beauty.

Berling is an old style typeface based on the classical Venetian model used by Aldus Manutius at the end of the fifteenth century. Berling was first cut by the Berling foundry in 1951 with further weights released in 1958. The Berling font family is intended primarily for setting text in books~ journals and magazines.

Printers Assistants JNL is a collection of vintage letterpress stock cuts and embellishments features monthly title blocks (for newsletters or calendars of events) in an Art Deco style, a cartoon character counting [with fingers] one through five to emphasize selling points and assorted cartoons and decorations sure to please any lover of nostalgic art.

Botobe is a new script from Swedish type designer Bo Berndal and the T4 font foundry. Botobe is a playful and friendly script that has lots of character. It gives text a genuine handwritten style and comes in two different cuts, regular and italic. It is an OpenType creation, for both PC and Mac.

Andis’ rough cut makes it an interesting display typeface, but thanks to its generous x-height and firm serifs, Andis works equally well in text sizes. The typeface’s idiosyncratic italic builds a strong contrast with the roman. Andis is both functional and expressive; using it lends a humanistic touch to editorial or advertising work.

Alambart is one of a new series of ‘wood type’ inspired fonts. Alambart is a hand-cut oblique 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, this is it!

Green is the work of British designer Timothy Donaldson, known for his experimentation with letter forms. This typeface features a sharp stroke contrast and eccentric lower case letters, giving it a vital, clean-cut style. Green is perfect in both large display sizes and small text sizes and gives any work a fresh, new look.

Fresh Pineapple, Delicious handwritten font. It is a beautiful quirky font that perfect for a lettering project like t-shirt design, mugs, advertisements, cutting vinyl, silhouettes, book covers, posters, business cards, social media and more. It supports multiple languages and offers PUA encoding. The doodles make this font so perfect. Hope you love it

PaperCutAlmond breathes just the hands-on self-made authentic happy feeling you may be looking for. Each and every glyph is based on a paper letter cut by hand with a pair of scissors by me in my studio. Ideal for packaging for organic products, illustrated goods, book covers, editorial illustrations and other freestyle projects.

The titles and credits from the 1960 French film “Le Passage Du Rhin” (English release title: “Tomorrow is My Turn”)” are hand made in a free form bold alphabet resembling both cut paper and quickly sketched lettering. This avant garde style inspired the digital type revival, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Meoowly is an amazing display font. It is the perfect choice for cat related and anything project! This display font is the perfect choice for making original and outstanding designs. This font is PUA encoded which means you can access all of the cute glyphs with ease! It also features a wealth of including ligatures.

Rapido is a kind of Italic hand lettering typeface. We designed it with the phenomenon of writing fast and perfect cutting edges. Rapido is available in Light, Regular and Ultra Bold weights to make your work look perfect at various movements. Rapido will work best on magazines/ menus/ books quotes and everything you're gonna initiate.

introducing UNDER SUMMER - handwritten script - UNDER SUMMER is natural handwritten font. It is great for quotes, card, banner, book, cutting, silhouette, social media content and anything of your project. I created some ligatures to make it look so natural. Features: - Uppercase - Number & punctuations - Multilingual - PUA encoded I hope you love it... regards, Abo Daniel Studio

Buratino font got its name from a title character of Russian fairy tale — a clone of Pinocchio. Initially font was cut from a log and then scanned and converted into outline format. The font contains just upper case characters. Can be used in advertising and display typography. Designer — Gennady Fridman. Released by ParaType in 2009.

Stonecut JNL is an adaptation of a novelty display face found in one of the Dan X. Solo lettering books. Resembling letters made from cut stone, both the inline and solid black versions are perfect for themes encompassing outdoors, the Stone Age, "macho" events or anything where an unpolished or rustic look can be adapted.

Back in the days when we earned our living with a travelling magic show, we took the shaded font Lithotint, filled it in, modified some characters, and here is the result. In those days, to use the font we had to cut and paste stats of individual letters by hand. You have it easier!