Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) was called the King of Printers; he was a prolific type designer, a masterful engraver of punches and the most widely admired printer of his time. His books and typefaces were created during the 45 years he was the director of the fine press and publishing house of the Duke of Parma in Italy. He produced the best of what are known as modern" style types, basing them on the finest writing of his time. Modern types represented the ultimate typographic development of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They have characteristics quite different from the types that preceded them; such as extreme vertical stress, fine hairlines contrasted by bold main strokes, and very subtle, almost non-existent bracketing of sharply defined hairline serifs. Bodoni saw this style as beautiful and harmonious-the natural result of writing done with a well-cut pen, and the look was fashionable and admired. Other punchcutters, such as the Didot family (1689-1853) in France, and J. E. Walbaum (1768-1839) in Germany made their own versions of the modern faces. Even though some nineteenth century critics turned up their noses and called such types shattering and chilly, today the Bodoni moderns are seen in much the same light as they were in his own time. When used with care, the Bodoni types are both romantic and elegant, with a presence that adds tasteful sparkle to headlines and advertising. Parma was designed by the monotype Design Team after studying Bodoni's steel punches at the Museo Bodoniana in Parma, Italy. They also referred to specimens from the "Manuale Tipografico," a monumental collection of Bodoni's work published by his widow in 1818.

Karl-Heinz Lange presented his first drafts of Rotola during a Typoart® type design competition in 1985 under the name "Boutique". A year later, Norbert du Vinage, former manager of the type design department, integrated "Boutique" in his production plan. Due the Fall of the Wall, it took about 18 years until Lange finished this font family in cooperation with Elsner+Flake. Karl-Heinz Lange was born on July 29, 1929 in Wiesenkirch in West Prussia. He was enrolled in the Humanistic Gymnasium at Elbing from 1939 to 1945 and changed to the Wernigerode High School after his family had to flee to central Germany. From 1949 to 1951, Karl-Heinz Lange studied at the Werkkunstschule Halle, where one of his teachers was Professor Post. After 1951, he continued his studies at the Hochschule for Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig with an emphasis on book design. He received his diploma in 1955 with distinction based on his design of a hot metal typeface. From 1956 to 1961, Karl-Heinz Lange worked as a lecturer for Type and Commercial Graphics at the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst in Magdeburg. From 1961 to 1963, he taught at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, and finally as a freelance commercial designer in Magdeburg. He worked on a variety of assignments, one of which was the design of trick films. From 1969 to 1976 he took the position of Artistic Director of the Henschelverlag, Berlin; from 1976 to 1994 he was Professor of Type and Typography at the Fachschule für Werbung und Gestaltung in Berlin; and, until 2004, he taught at various institutes for advanced professional education. From 2005 to 2007 he taught at the Fachhochschule Magdeburg/Stendal. Karl-Heinz Lange was awarded the second prize at the "International Type Design Contest 1971" for a headline typeface, and, in 1984, at the XI. Biannual of Graphic Design in Brno, he won a Silver Medal for the design of his typeface family Publica. He created the telephone book typeface Minima and re-designed the Typoart Super Grotesk® (Arno Drescher, 1930) as well as the Newspaper typeface Magna® by Herbert Thannhaeuser for the use on digital typesetting systems. To the day of his death on June 29, 2010, Karl-Heinz Lange lived and worked as a type designer. Among others, he closely followed the designs of the typefaces which were developed under his guidance for Typoart®: "Publica®", "Typoart Super Grotesk®" and "Minima®" which he launched as "Publicala", "Minimala" and "Superla" in 2009. In cooperation with Elsner+Flake, he developed the Typeface family "Rotola" between 2006 and 2009 as well as the script families of the "Viabella®" series. To the end, he followed the development of his first typeface, the "Diplom Antiqua", which he also wanted to bring to market together with Elsner+Flake.

What can be better than releasing a hot summer font in winter time! Honestly - all the images are ice blue or white. Christmas stuff is everywhere and 'Jingle Bells' torment your ears! But here it comes to catch you: Bold and orange! www.typethis.studio

We are very happy to announce the release of our first collaboration with master calligrapher, designer and illustrator Gabriel Martínez Meave from México. The first in the series of new designs is Wordless Script, an emotional calligraphic typeface published by Sudtipos. Speechless. Breathless. Wordless. There are letters that transcend simple functionality and sheer legibility, to be recognized instead by their style, their charm, their emotion. It’s like when we don’t remember the exact sentences, but we recall the tone of the voice of a loved one: it just doesn’t matter WHAT he or she said, but HOW he or she said it. Wordless Script is the font of choice for writing those things that go beyond words. Based on the connected-scripts of late 18th-century England, this typeface preserves the irregular finish and gestural strokes of the pointed nib. It is, so to speak, a personal rendition of the English roundhand as originally executed with the bird’s quill. Imbued with a Rococo, neoclassical, romantic spirit, Wordless radiates the gallantry of a time when the celebrated «douceur de vivre» that Talleyrand was so fond of was still alive and well; echoes of which still haunt us in our eclectic 21st-century, which has once again come to appreciate these magnificent styles of old. Wordless features alternate variants of most letters, ligatures and multiple calligraphic endings, ideal for elegant labels, high-end packaging and personalized stationery, as well as compositions for selected brands, exquisite titlings, verses, letters and short texts, like those meant to be read with the eyes only or intended for whispering into someone’s ear.

PM Showman is based on vintage hand-painted sign writing from the 1900s through the 1960s. Seen on everything from office signs to posters, it was a staple of business communication and entertainment advertising in the early 20th century. We meticulously hand-drew each font, modeling the spacing and quirkiness of the original letterforms to give PM Showman an authentic hand-painted look.

Will Ransom designed the exemplar for this series for Barnhart Brothers & Spindler in the early 1900s. The typeface was originally named "Parsons", after the advertising director of a Chicago department store (evidently a very BIG customer of BB&S). Both versions of this font contain the Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

During the early years of the 20th Century, America's fascination with automobiles was just beginning. The cover for a 1916 piece of sheet music for the comedy song "On the Old Back Seat of the Henry Ford" had the title hand lettered by a round nib pen in an Art Nouveau style. This is now available digitally as Running Board JNL.

Arial is one of the most widely used designs of the last 30 years. Drawn in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders for use in an early IBM® laser printer, Arial has become a staple for textual content. While it is widely believed that Arial's design was based on Helvetica, it is more accurate to consider Monotype Grotesque as its ancestor.

Bastion is an ultra-bold text-style font derived from some turn of the century hand lettered signage. It is characteristic of the very bold lettering used in a lot of advertising and product packaging in the early 1900s, a style of lettering which was also the inspiration for the Cooper font, though we think Bastion has a much more attractive overall look.

In late 1988 or early 1989 I noticed that the circular form of the sickle and the linear form of the hammer could be used to form all the letters of the alphabet. The result of that realization was RedLetter, a novelty or letterbat font. It is caps-only with the lower-case letters containing smaller versions of upper-case letters.

The Charta family of fonts draws its inspiration from the letter styles used in early manuscripts and printed books. Charta is also remarkably versatile: it’s equally at home in a traditional or modern context and can be used for a wide range of applications from an automobile badge to a newspaper masthead and from a fashion label to a candy bar wrapper.

Arioso was a part of the 1990 program Type before Gutenberg, which included the work of twelve contemporary font designers and represented styles from across the ages. The calligraphic style of Arioso stems from an early form of Old Face developed in the 14th and 15th centureis in Italy. It is a mixture of Roman capitals and Carolingian lower case.

Inspired by a handwritten Cyrillic placard seen in a book about the Soviet Union, Statue of Liberty's Underwear was envisioned as having been written with a very thick pen with a flat tip held horizontally. Additionally, the letterforms were sculpted to resemble lettering common in early 20th-century Russian constructivism pieces. A Cyrillic alphabet, or "azbuka", set was included in the font.

SK Shriftovik is a geometrical, caps and small caps only, sans serif typeface inspired by the works of constructivists of the early XX century. Due to its structure, this display typeface is good for posters and magazines. The SK Shriftovik typeface supports many languages, including extended Latin and Cyrillic. The font contains many ligature combinations and stylistic alternatives that significantly transform the text.

Madeleine is an open script face with influence from early 50s scripts. The stroke doesn't have much variation, and the characters are wide and flowing. The script also features OpenType end swashes and discretionary ligatures to extend the twirling and fluid nature of the script. This mischievous script is useful for informal invitations, scrap booking or whenever you need a retro look.

It's all about these subtle nuances that make a neutral sans typeface different. Pure geometry with a human touch is a recipe that works in every generation. Inspired by classical fonts from the early 20th century, General rides the line between traditional and modern styles. With its 5 light weights, the General family is a strong tool for a clean design.

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.

A charming series of 26 holiday “type warmers” based on the works of Carl S. Junge for the Barnhart Brothers & Spindler type foundry in the 1920s. Single-color cuts are in the uppercase positions, while 13 of the cuts suitable for two-color usage occupy the lowercase in adjacent pairs; e.g., a and b, c and d, and so on.

The chamfered block style of lettering has been a workhorse for years. From the early signage of the 1800s to military markings to the techno fonts of the 1980s and beyond, its clean and simple look gets the message across easily and boldly. Industrialist JNL and its oblique partner were modeled from the title on a piece of sheet music from the 1940s.

Positive Vibe JNL is a meeting of two eras... The model for this font was Jeff Levine's Two Reeler JNL, modeled after title cards in a Charlie Chaplin movie from the beginning of the 1900s. With a few stroke weight shifts, this versatile font takes on the image of the "Peace and Love" generation of the mid-60s and early 70s.

I took Arquà’s curvy lines from some details in art nuveau posters from late 1800 / early ‘900, then I added to the mix a little bit of elegance with some weird contrast (look at the S). One hour in the hoven and a modern looking display font came out in 2 weights: Goodboy and the doppelganger Badboy perfect to mix up.

Good Vibes is a three-variation font family with a groovy retro vibe. This lettering style conjures up the early 1970s and the whimsical post-psychedelic graphic era. Stack the three styles to build different combinations of shaded and outlined layers. Good Vibes, as it's name suggests, has a charming and lively funkiness that will add splash and pizzazz to your designs.

Clairvaux is a part of the 1990 program Type before Gutenberg, which included the work of twelve contemporary font designers and represented styles from across the ages. Linotype offers a package including all these fonts on its web page, www.fonts.de. Herbert Maring developed his Clairvaux based on early Gothic typefaces. Its clever design resulted in highly stylized yet legible characters.

An old rubber stamp printing set called the Aristocrat Sign Marker was the inspiration for this font from Jeff Levine. The letter shapes are truly reminiscent of the 1920s and early 30s with their casual playfulness, hence the font's name of Casual Friday JNL. To add a more nostalgic touch, the characters show slight imperfection of shape, as if hand-lettered.

We have created this font as a complement for the 825 Karolus. It is a set of decorated letters in the style of those used by the scribes during the early medieval era. It is inspired from a manuscript copy of "The Hobbit" (in Caroline style) that we obtained in the year 2000 as a present for our daughter’s 15th birthday.

This font started life in 1893 at the Boston Type Foundry, but was also cast at the Central Type Foundry. Both were members of the ATF combine formed in 1892. Like so many interesting fonts of its day, it was issued without a lowercase, limiting its use to display headlines. Sometime in the early 1990s, we designed a lowercase to go with it.

The inspiration for this typeface—originally called Elefanta—enjoyed popularity stateside in the late nineteenth century, an import from the Karl Brendler & Söhne foundry of Vienna. Its graceful yet playful elegance makes it suited for a wide range of projects where projecting warmth is desirable. Both versions contain the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets.

A playful, casual take on round nib pen lettering was spotted amongst some online scans from an old lettering book. The free-form and stylized shapes of the letters and numbers are reminiscent of old-time show cards, movie titles and signage in vogue around the early 1900s through the 1920s. Fancy Show Card JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Par Avion's design draws something of its inspiration from the wings of the old BSA Motorcycles logo and was developed in parallel with our Vinea typeface family. “Par Avion” means ‘By Air’ - remember those little blue stickers in the Post Office - for sending Air Mail? We think this typeface design has a lovely streamlined feel of the early jet-era about it.

Handmade Caslon JNL is a somewhat imperfect version of one of the many Caslon faces in use during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Based on vintage source material, Handmade Caslon JNL is the right typeface for projects reflecting antiquity, a hand-made look or where slightly imperfect lettering adds a bit of the "real world" to the message.

An early 20th-Century French lettering book displayed at an online image sharing site stood out with a hand-lettered version of a classic Victorian font. The lettering - a spur serif top and a split serif (or "Western-style") bottom is the basis for Jeff Levine's Les Folies JNL. All of the nuances and idiosyncracies of hand-lettering are left intact.

Show Card Deco JNL is a hybrid of examples from hand lettered titles found on various song folios from the Carl Fischer Music Library circa the 1930s and is available in both regular and oblique versions. This particular typeface lends itself perfectly to show cards, posters, headlines and display titling which captures the modern, streamlined design of the Art Deco era.

Here’s a warm, casual text font based on an early twentieth century work by lettering artist Elizabeth Colwell, released by American Type Founders in 1923. For this update, all four fonts have been completely redrawn, and many new characters have been added. Both versions of this font contain the complete Latin A Extended character set, as well as extended ligatures and fractions.

There was a time in this country when many young people studied a trade via a correspondence course through the mail. While this method still exists, it's now more common to find students taking online classes. From an early-1960s course in sign painting comes Sign Merchant JNL, a classic brush stroke type design popularized on show cards and posters.

Klondike began life as an update of the discontinued Elemeno font Pourpoint. It took on a life of its own early in the design process and went in a completely different direction. Standard Klondike is best at very large sizes and evokes a disco or neon feel. Klondike Solid works at smaller sizes to compliment the regular version or on its own.

Gilmore Fahrenheit is a glyphic, sans serif typeface that was inspired from early designs by the renowned English typographer Eric Gill. It was designed in 1992 by A. Pat Hickson (P&P Hickson) and Steve Jackaman (ITF) exclusively for the Red Rooster Collection. It was designed with true small caps, has an italicized geometric look, and possesses legibility reminiscent of Swiss typefaces.