Monotype Corsiva is an italic typeface made in the style of the early Italian cursives as exemplified by the work of the writing master, Ludovico degli Arrighi, in the sixteenth century. The capitals of the Monotype Corsiva font are of swash design, with characteristic flourishes, designed primarily for use as initial letters. Monotype Corsiva can be used for short text passages in advertising but is best used to add sparkle to invitations, greetings cards and menus and to give a sense of occasion to certificates and awards.

Corsica is an all-purpose geometric sans-serif typeface of visually uniform stroke thickness. The design seeks to be reminiscent of classic 20th Century grotesques with a crisp modern appearance and opentype features that are now expected. Coverage includes most Roman languages, Greek and basic Cyrillic. Each font contains a standard set of features including fractions, small capitals etc. The family contains six weights, two widths and three lowercase size options, together with an italic variant for each. The are three standard 4-font families for each size variant and a further three corresponding families for Condensed versions. The versatility provided by this extensive family has many useful applications. In particular, the choice of small, medium and large lowercase letter sizes (SX, MX, LX) allows designers to select an appropriate style for suitable impact and legibility in different situations such as headlines, captions, signage, web menus etc. Although each of the three size options will work equally well in most situations, the middle size (Corsica MX) would generally be the preferred choice for lengthy texts.

Zootype –the first original single font– was designed in 1997 by Victor Garcia of Argentina and as a winner of Linotype's Second International Type Design Contest is included in the TakeType Library. The three additional family styles –Zootype Air, Zootype Land, Zootype Water– were added in 1999. In the words of the designer, the design concept is meant to display the funny, happy joy of animal nature.’ Animal heads peek into the block forms of the letters, giving the font a unique whimsical character.

Designed for ParaType (ParaGraph) in 1989 by Elvira Slysh. Based on Slogan of Ludwig & Mayer type foundry, 1959, by Helmut Matheis. An informal flowing script simulating pointed brush calligraphy. A style of medium weight and coherent lowercase. For use in advertising and display typography.

Cabarga Cursiva is the work of the father and son team of Demetrio E. Cabarga and Leslie Cabarga, both New York designers. The details of the sharp strokes almost give the impression of a knife blade, whether straight or curved like a scimitar. The capitals should be used only as initials and are complemented by a robust lower case alphabet as well as alternate forms and ligatures.

Cosima is an effective workhorse with a touch of pointy elegance, designed by Anita Jürgeleit. Launching your new brand or creating a new user interface for your mobile devices – selecting characteristic typefaces is important, whether you're creating app design, magazine or editorial – typography is always the essential part. www.typethis.studio

The Monotype Janson font family is based on types originally cut by the Hungarian punch-cutter, Nicolas Kis circa 1690. Named after Anton Janson, a Dutch printer. The original matrices came into the hands of the Stempel foundry in Germany in 1919. New type was cast and proofs made; these were used as the source for Monotype's version of Janson. The original hand cut Janson types have a number of small design irregularities which give the typeface its unique charm. These have been carefully incorporated into the new version. The overall effect is of even color and an easy readability that makes Monotype Janson most at home in book and publishing work.

The first Clarendon was introduced in 1845 by R. Besley & Co, The Fan Street Foundry, as a general purpose bold for use in conjunction with other faces in works such as dictionaries. In some respects, Clarendon can be regarded as a refined version of the Egyptian style and as such can be used for text settings, although headline and display work is more usual.

Over the course of 50 years, the charismatic and enterprising Frederic W. Goudy designed more than 100 typefaces; he was the American master of type design in the first half of the twentieth century. Goudy Old Style, designed for American Type Founders in 1915-1916, is the best known of his designs, and forms the basis for a large family of variants. Goudy said he was initially inspired by the cap lettering on a Renaissance painting, but most of the flavor of this design reflects Goudy's own individualistic style. Recognizable Goudy-isms include the upward pointing ear of the g, the diamond-shaped dots over the i and j, and the roundish upward swelling of the horizontal strokes at the base of the E and L. The italic was completed by Goudy in 1918, and is notable for its minimal slope. Goudy Bold (1916-1919) and Goudy Extra Bold (1927) were drawn not by Goudy, but by Morris Fuller Benton, who was ATF's skillful in-house designer. Goudy Catalogue was drawn by Benton in 1919-1921 and was meant to be a medium weight of Goudy Old Style. Goudy Heavyface was designed by Goudy for Monotype in 1925, and was intended to be a rival to the successful Cooper Black. Goudy Modern was designed by Goudy in 1918; its small x-height, tall ascenders and shorter caps impart a spacious and elegant feeling. Benton designed Goudy Handtooled, the shaded version that has just a hairline of white through its bold strokes. The Goudy faces, especially the bolder weights, have long been popular for display and advertising design. They continue to pop up all over the world, and still look reassuring to our modern eyes."

Sabon was designed by Jan Tschichold and released in 1967. Sabon was created in response to the specific needs of a group of German printers who wanted a typeface that would be identical in form when produced by three different metal-casting technologies. Named after Jacques Sabon, a sixteenth century typefounder whose widow married another typefounder, Konrad Berner, who is credited with issuing the first typefounder's specimen sheet. Several types on the sheet were attributed to Claude Garamond, and one of these served Tschichold as the source for Sabon roman. The italic was based on another face on Berner's sheet, cut by Robert Granjon. Tschichold's skillful adaptation of these old style faces has produced an elegant and workmanlike book face. The Sabon font family is a popular choice for setting text.

Scottish typefounders exerted a strong influence on the development of "transitional" typefaces, the bridge from "oldstyle" (Jenson, Garamond) to "modern" (Bodoni, Didot) designs. Scotch Roman designs were first cut by Englishman Richard Austin and cast by the Scottish typefounder Alexander Wilson and Son in Glasgow. Scotch Roman font has wide proportions, short descenders, bracketed serifs, and large, strong capitals. Its subtle charm makes it suitable for any text setting, particularly books and magazines.

For many type lovers, Broadway is the quintessential Art Deco typeface. Designed as an all-caps typeface in 1927 by Morris Fuller Benton for ATF, it was expanded two years later with a lower case designed by Sol Hess, who also drew the inline version, Broadway Engraved.

John Baskerville (1706-1775) was an accomplished writing master and printer from Birmingham, England. He was the designer of several types, punchcut by John Handy, which are the basis for the fonts that bear the name Baskerville today. The excellent quality of his printing influenced such famous printers as Didot in France and Bodoni in Italy. Though he was known internationally as an innovator of technique and style, his high standards for paper and ink quality made it difficult for him to compete with local commercial printers. However, his fellow Englishmen imitated his types, and in 1768, Isaac Moore punchcut a version of Baskerville's letterforms for the Fry Foundry. Baskerville produced a masterpiece folio Bible for Cambridge University, and today, his types are considered to be fine representations of eighteenth century rationalism and neoclassicism. Legible and eminently dignified, Baskerville makes an excellent text typeface; and its sharp, high-contrast forms make it suitable for elegant advertising pieces as well. The Linotype portfolio offers many versions of this design: ITC New Baskerville® was designed by John Quaranda in 1978. Baskerville Cyrillic was designed by the Linotype Design Studio. Baskerville Greek was designed by Matthew Carter in 1978. Baskerville™ Classico was designed by Franko Luin in 1995."

Bodoni expresses the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; its serifs are flat, think and unbracketed, while the stress is always on the mathematically vertical strokes. Bodoni believed in plenty of white space and therefore descenders are long. The M is rather narrow; in the Q the tail at first descends vertically and the R has a curled tail. The italic, like most continental modern faces, has roman serifs. Monotype Bodoni provides a clear-cut effect due to its simplicity. It reproduces well, particularly in sizes over 12pt. This font is slightly darker than Bauer Bodoni. The contrast makes Monotype Bodoni appear more condensed.

A rather narrow and compact design, Monotype Clearface combines both old style and antique characteristics. The lowercase letters are tall, the ascenders and descenders quite short. The intention was to produce a typeface that was easy to read in small sizes, hence the name. Monotype Clearface Bold was first cut for mechanical composition in 1922, and was based on the Clearface Gothic design created by Morris Fuller Benton for ATF in 1910. Although designed as a text face, Monotype Clearface is now more commonly used in advertising and display work.

Lydian is an unusual sans serif face with strongly calligraphic letter shapes, originally cut by American Type Founders. The eye-catching nature of the Lydian font family has made it popular for use in magazines and advertising as well as in newspapers for headlines and introductions. The cursive has an even more marked pen-drawn structure.

Monotype Gallia's design was initially developed by Wadsworth A. Parker for the American Type Founders (ATF) in 1927. Monotype released its own version in 1928. Its style is embodied with the spirit of the American Art Deco age and the Roaring 20s. It makes a superb headline selection, and has also been used effectively for packaging as well. Also try the typeface on signage, menus, invitations, or stationary. If you like Monotype Gallia, check out Monotype Broadway, too!

The rather wide, caps-only Monotype Engravers family imitates scripts that evolved from copperplate and steel plate engravers hands of the nineteenth century, which were a quite expressive medium! Monotype Engravers' letters show a strong contrast between thick and thin strokes and have sharply cut serifs. In 1899, Robert Wiebking (who worked for a number of foundries in his time) designed an all-caps typeface named Engravers Roman."" Shortly thereafter, American Type Founders, Inc. (ATF) released another successful ancestor of this design in 1902, ""Engravers Bold,"" designed by Morris Fuller Benton. Engravers Bold was also released by the Barnhart Brothes & Spinder foundry. Also made available by Lanston Monotype at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Engravers faces soon became a popular choice for letter heads, advertising and stationery.

In the early years of the twentieth century a number of romans with a soft and slightly script like quality were evolved. Although they did not represent the future in terms of the major design influences that were to appear after the First World War, they were a break with the past, and were developed further in the nineteen twenties and thirties. Monotype Bernard Condensed is closely associated with this period, a condensed roman evoking an easy charm. The Monotype Bernard Condensed font offers many display applications where warmth and friendliness is required.

The earliest form of Ionic was brought out by Vincent Figgins in 1821 and was intended for display work. In 1863 a more refined version appeared which had more contrast between thick and thin strokes and the serifs were bracketed. Further developments were made, however the robustness of the Egyptian style was retained making the face suitable for newspaper text setting. With a large x-height and strong hairlines and serifs, the Ionic font family became widely used by the newspaper industry as a body type and provided a model for many twentieth century newspaper typefaces.

Monotype Sorts is a collection of symbols for use with a wide range of contemporary typefaces. The Monotype Sorts font contains useful bullets, stars, arrows and figures in circles.

This updating of Berthold’s Ideal Grotesque was supervised at Monotype in 1926 by F.H. Pierpont. With some of the eccentricities in the borrowed original reduced, this series retains enough character to have become one of the world’s great sanserifs.