A very expanded sans serif font in capital letters inspired by the inscription on a bank note Old bank notes tend to have a very typical typography. Usually they carry decorative and elaborately designed markings. For one thing, they must be practically impossible to forge and for another, they should make a respectable and legitimate impression. And in the days of copper and steel engravings, that meant nothing less than creating ornate, shaded or otherwise complicated scripts. Designing the appropriate script was literally in the hands of the engraver. That’s why I noticed this bank note from 1948. It is the first 20 mark bill in the then newly created currency ”Deutsche Mark.“ All other bank notes of the 1948 series show daintier forms of typography with an obvious tendency toward modern face. The 1949 series which followed shortly thereafter reveals the more complicated script as well. For whatever reason, only this 20 mark bill displays this extremely expanded sans serif variation of the otherwise Roman form applied. This peculiarity led me in the year 2010 to create a complete font from the single word ”Banknote.“ Back to those days in the 40’s, the initial edition of DM bank notes was carried out by a special US-American printer who was under pressure of completing on time and whose engravers not only engraved but also designed. So that’s why the bank notes resemble dollars and don’t even look like European currency. That also explains some of the uniquely designed characters when looked at in detail. Especially the almost serif type form on the letters C, G, S and Z, but also L and T owe their look to the ”American touch.“ The ingoFont Banknote 1948 comprises all characters of the Latin typeface according to ISO 8859 for all European languages including Turkish and Baltic languages. In order to maintain the character of the original, the ”creation“ of lower case letters was waived. This factor doesn’t contribute to legibility, but this kind of type is not intended for long texts anyway; rather, it unfolds its entire attraction when used as a display font, for example on posters. Banknote 1948 is also very suitable for distortion and other alien techniques, without too much harm being done to the characteristic forms. With Banknote 1948 ingoFonts discloses a font like scripts which were used in advertising of the 1940’s and 50’s and were popular around the world. But even today the use of this kind of font can be expedient, especially considering how Banknote 1948, for its time of origin, impresses with amazingly modern detail.

Keep Calm is a family of fonts developed from the now famous World War 2 poster that was designed in 1939 but never issued, then rediscovered in 2000. As well as the original Keep Calm font, the medium weight of the poster, new weights are now available – Keep Calm Book (regular weight), Heavy and Light – and each weight comes with a complimentary italic. Version 2.0 (2017) is a comprehensive update which consists of numerous refinements and improvements across all weights. The family now contains a full complement of Latin Extended-A characters, Welsh diacritics and Irish dotted consonants. The four italics have been optically corrected with revised, ‘true italic’ forms of a and f. The crown motif from the top of the Keep Calm poster is located at the plus minus ± and section § keystrokes (Alt 0177 and Alt 0167 on Windows). The lowercase g follows the Gill/Johnston eyeglass model, but also included is an alternative, single-story g at the Alt G keystroke (Alt 0169 on a Windows keyboard), the normal location of the copyright symbol which has been relocated elsewhere in the fonts. An alternative lowercase t, without the curved wedge cutaway, is provided at the Alt T (dagger) keystroke (Alt 0134 on Windows). When I first saw the Keep Calm and Carry On poster, I wrongly assumed the letters to be Gill Sans. Recent research at the National Archive by Dr. Bex Lewis of Manchester Metropolitan University has revealed that the original poster was hand drawn by the illustrator and painter, Ernest Wallcousins. The Gill Sans influence is apparent, in the R particularly, the M’s perfectly pointed vertex is redolent of Johnston’s Underground, and the most anomalous character, the C, resembles the ‘basic lettering’ of engineers that provided the vernacular sources for the Gotham typeface. Developing the Keep Calm typeface has been an exercise in extrapolation; an intriguing challenge to build a whole, high quality font family based on the twelve available capitals of the Keep Calm poster, and on similar lettering from the other two posters in the original series. This has required the creation of new lowercase letters that are believably 1939; that maintain the influence of Gill and Johnston while also hinting at the functional imperative of a wartime drawing office. Wallcousins’s lettering balanced intuitive human qualities and the pure pleasure of drawing elegant contemporary characters, against an underlying geometry of ruled lines, perfect circles, 45° terminals, and a requirement for no-nonsense clarity.

Introducing Monofonto—a meticulously crafted, technical typeface with a distinct, monospaced sans-serif design. Initially launched in 1999, Monofonto rapidly gained popularity throughout the 2000s and has since become a favorite choice of designers and developers alike. Built for clarity and precision, Monofonto is a compact sans-serif typeface, making it perfect for situations where space is limited. Its heavy strokes provide exceptional legibility even at small sizes, which is ideal for technical and scientific writing. Whether you’re working on a research paper, technical documentation, or programming code, Monofonto has got you covered. But that’s not all; Monofonto’s mathematical characters, currency symbols, and terminal block-draw characters make it the go-to typeface for all your scientific writing needs. Its vast collection of characters ensures that you have everything you need to create accurate and detailed technical documents. Monofonto comes in three styles: Regular, Italic, and Bold-Italic, giving you the flexibility to create different looks and styles for your technical documents. Its unique design and attention to detail make it an excellent choice for designers who want to showcase scientific accuracy and precision in their work. So, if you’re looking for a technical typeface that can help you create precise and accurate scientific documents, look no further than Monofonto. Its clarity, precision, and mathematical characters make it the perfect choice for any project. Try it today and experience the beauty of scientific design in your work. Most Latin-based European, Vietnamese, Greek, and most Cyrillic-based writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Buryat, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dungan, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Gikuyu, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaingang, Khalkha, Kalmyk, Kanuri, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kazakh, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Komi-Permyak, Kurdish, Kurdish (Latin), Kyrgyz, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Macedonian, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Nahuatl, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Russian, Rusyn, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tajik, Tatar, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Uzbek (Latin), Venda, Venetian, Vepsian, Vietnamese, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xavante, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec, Zarma, Zazaki, Zulu and Zuni.

PRISMATIC SPIRALS FONT! The Prismatic Spirals Font is a decorative type-system and ‘Assembling Game’, itself. Settled in squared pieces modules or tiles, embedded by unprecedented Intertwined Prismatic Structures Design, or intricate interlaced bars that may seem quite “impossible” to shape. Although it originated from the ‘Penrose Square’, it may not look totally as an Impossible Figures Type of Optical Illusions. More an “improbable” Effect in its intertwined Design, that even static can seem like a source of Kinetical Sculptures, or drive eyes into a kind of hypnosis. Prismatic Spirals has two related families, its “bold” braided version Prismatic Interlaces and the Pro version. While the default is simpler or easier to use, as all piece’s spin in same way, PRO provides a more complex intricate Design which requires typing alternating caps. Instructions: Use the Map Font Reference PDF as a guide to learn the 'tiles' position on the keyboard, then easily type and compose puzzle designs with this font! All alphanumeric keys are intuitive or easy to induce, you may easily memorize it all! Plus, often also need to consult it! *Find the Prismatic Spirals Font Map Reference Interactive PDF Here! (!) Is recommended to Print it to have the Reference in handy or just open the PDF while composing a design with this typeface to also copy and paste, when consulting is required or when it may be difficult to access, depending on the keyboard script or language. As a Tiles Type-System, the line gap space value is 0, this means that tiles line gaps are invisibly grouted, so the user can compose designs, row by row, descending to each following row by clicking Enter, same as line break, while advances on assembling characters. Background History: The first sketches of my Prismatic Knots or Spirals Designs dates back then from 2010, while started developing hand-drawn Celtic Knots and Geometric Drawings in grid paper, while engage to Typography, Sacred Geometry and the “Impossible Figures” genre… I started doing modulation tests from 2013, until around 2018, I got to unravel it in square modules or tiles from the grid, then idealized it as fonts, along with other Type projects. This took 13 years to come out since the first sketches and 6 months in edition. During the production process some additional tiles or missing pieces were thought of and added to the basic set, which firstly had only the borders, corners, crossings, nets, Trivets connectors or T parts and ends, then added with nets and borders integrations. Usage Suggestions: This type-system enables the user to ornate and generate endless decorative patterns, borders, labyrinthine designs, Mosaics, motifs, etc. It can seem just like a puzzle, but a much greater tool instead for higher purposes as to compose Enigmas and use seriously. As like also to write Real Text by assembling the key characters or pieces, this way you can literarily reproduce any Pixel Design or font to its Prismatic Spirals correspondent form, as Kufic Arabic script and further languages and compose messages easily… This Typeface was made to be contemplated, applied, and manufactured on Infinite Decorative Designs as Pavements, Tapestry, Frames, Prints, Fabrics, Bookplates, Coloring Books, Cards, covers or architectonic frontispieces, storefronts, and Jewelry, for example. Usage Tips: Notice that the line-height must be fixed to 100% or 1,0. In some cases, as on Microsoft Word for example, the line-height default is set to 1,15. So you’ll need to change to 1,0 plus remove space after paragraph, in the same dropdown menu on Paragraph section. Considering Word files too, since the text used for mapping the Designs, won't make any literal orthographical sense, the user must select to ignore the Spellcheck underlined in red, by clicking over each misspelled error or in revision, so it can be better appreciated. Also unfolding environments as Adobe Software’s, the Designer will use the character menu to set body size and line gap to same value, as a calculator to fit a layout for example of 1,000 pts high with 9 tiles high, both body size and line gap will be 111.1111 pts. Further Tips: Whenever an architect picks this decorative system to design pavements floor or walls, a printed instruction version of the layout using the ‘map’ font may be helpful and required to the masons that will lay the tiles, to place the pieces and its directions in the right way. Regarding to export PNGs images in Software’s for layered Typesetting as Adobe Illustrator a final procedure may be required, once the designs are done and can be backup it, expanding and applying merge filter, will remove a few possible line glitches and be perfected. Technical Specifications: With 8 styles and 4 subfamilies with 2 complementary weights each (Regular and Bold) therefore, Original Contour, Filled, Decor, with reticle’s decorations and 2 Map fonts with key captions. *All fonts match perfectly when central pasted for layered typesetting. All fonts have 106 glyphs, in which 48 are different keys repeated twice in both caps and shift, plus few more that were repeated for facilitating. It was settled this way in order for exchanging with Prismatic Spirals Pro font which has 96 different keys or 2 versions of each. Concerning tiles manufacturing and Printed Products as stickers or Stencils, any of its repeated pieces was measured and just rotated in different directions in each key, so when sided by other pieces in any direction will fit perfectly without mispatching errors. Copyright Disclaimer: The Font Software’s are protected by Copyright and its licenses grant the user the right to design, apply contours, plus print and manufacture in flat 2D planes only. In case of the advent of the same structures and set of pieces built in 3D Solid form, Font licenses will not be valid or authorized for casting it. © 2023 André T. A. Corrêa “Dr. Andréground” & MMC-TypEngine.

PRISMATIC INTERLACES TYPEFACE! Prismatic Interlaces is a decorative system and ‘Assembling Game’, itself. Settled in squared pieces modules or tiles, embedded by unprecedented Intertwined Prismatic Structures Design, or intricate interlaced bars that may seem quite “impossible” to shape. Although it originated from the ‘Penrose Square’, it may not look totally as an Impossible Figures Type of Optical Illusions. More an “improbable” Effect in its intertwined Design, that even static can seem like a source of Kinetical Sculptures, or drive eyes into a kind of hypnosis. Prismatic Interlaces has two related families, both as a kind of lighter weight versions Prismatic Spirals Default & Pro. While Default is simpler or easier to use, same way as Prismatic Interlaces, Pro provides a more complex intricate Design that requires typing alternating caps. Instructions: Use the Map Font Reference PDF as a guide to learn the 'tiles' position on the keyboard, then easily type and compose puzzle designs with this font! All alphanumeric keys are intuitive or easy to induce, you may easily memorize it all! Plus, often also need to consult it! *Find the Prismatic Interlaces Font Map Reference Interactive PDF Here! (!) Is recommended to Print it to have the Reference in handy or just open the PDF while composing a design with this typeface to also copy and paste, when consulting is required or when it may be difficult to access, depending on the keyboard script or language. As a Tiles Type-System, the line gap space value is 0, this means that tiles line gaps are invisibly grouted, so the user can compose designs, row by row, descending to each following row by clicking Enter, same as line break, while advances on assembling characters. Background History: The first sketches of my Prismatic Knots or Spirals Designs dates back then from 2010, while started developing hand-drawn Celtic Knots and Geometric Drawings in grid paper, while engage to Typography, Sacred Geometry and the “Impossible Figures” genre… I started doing modulation tests from 2013, until around 2018, I got to unravel it in square modules or tiles from the grid, then idealized it as fonts, along with other Type projects. This took 13 years to come out since the first sketches and 6 months in edition. During the production process some additional tiles or missing pieces were thought of and added to the basic set, which firstly had only the borders, corners, crossings, nets, Trivets connectors or T parts and ends, then added with nets and borders integrations. Usage Suggestions: This type-system enables the user to ornate and generate endless decorative patterns, borders, labyrinthine designs, Mosaics, motifs, etc. It can seem just like a puzzle, but a much greater tool instead for higher purposes as to compose Enigmas and use seriously. As like also to write Real Text by assembling the key characters or pieces, this way you can literarily reproduce any Pixel Design or font to its Prismatic Spirals correspondent form, as Kufic Arabic script and further languages and compose messages easily… This Typeface was made to be contemplated, applied, and manufactured on Infinite Decorative Designs as Pavements, Tapestry, Frames, Prints, Fabrics, Bookplates, Coloring Books, Cards, covers or architectonic frontispieces, storefronts, and Jewelry, for example. Usage Tips: Notice that the line-height must be fixed to 100% or 1,0. In some cases, as on Microsoft Word for example, the line-height default is set to 1,15. So you’ll need to change to 1,0 plus remove space after paragraph, in the same dropdown menu on Paragraph section. Considering Word files too, since the text used for mapping the Designs, won't make any literal orthographical sense, the user must select to ignore the Spellcheck underlined in red, by clicking over each misspelled error or in revision, so it can be better appreciated. Also unfolding environments as Adobe Software’s, the Designer will use the character menu to set body size and line gap to same value, as a calculator to fit a layout for example of 1,000 pts high with 9 tiles high, both body size and line gap will be 111.1111 pts. Further Tips: Whenever an architect picks this decorative system to design pavements floor or walls, a printed instruction version of the layout using the ‘map’ font may be helpful and required to the masons that will lay the tiles, to place the pieces and its directions in the right way. Regarding to export PNGs images in Software’s for layered Typesetting as Adobe Illustrator a final procedure may be required, once the designs are done and can be backup it, expanding and applying merge filter, will remove a few possible line glitches and be perfected. Technical Specifications: With 8 styles and 4 subfamilies with 2 complementary weights each (Regular and Bold) therefore, Original Contour, Filled, Decor, with reticle’s decorations and 2 Map fonts with key captions. *All fonts match perfectly when central pasted for layered typesetting. All fonts have 106 glyphs, in which 49 are different keys repeated twice in both caps and shift, plus few more that were repeated for facilitating. It was settled this way in order for exchanging with Prismatic Spirals Pro font which has 96 different keys or 2 versions of each. Concerning tiles manufacturing and Printed Products as stickers or Stencils, any of its repeated pieces was measured and just rotated in different directions in each key, so when sided by other pieces in any direction will fit perfectly without mispatching errors. Copyright Disclaimer: The Font Software’s are protected by Copyright and its licenses grant the user the right to design, apply contours, plus print and manufacture in flat 2D planes only. In case of the advent of the same structures and set of pieces built in 3D Solid form, Font licenses will not be valid or authorized for casting it. © 2023 André T. A. Corrêa “Dr. Andréground” & MMC-TypEngine.

TT Firs Neue useful links: Specimen | Graphic presentation | Customization options TT Firs Neue is reborn! We have rethought the font to introduce the next-generation typeface. After analyzing each contour and graphic element, we rebuilt the font, preserving its best features while making any necessary adjustments. We have created a flawless and modern sans serif using the new technical capabilities of the studio. TT Firs Neue is a Scandinavian sans serif that combines expressive graphic elements with the versatility of use. In the latest 2023 edition, the font's display elements have become even more attractive, while the overall font balance has also been improved. This is the result of the visual research we did before working on the update. Here is what has changed. The visual elements of the font are now logically coherent. We got rid of the ones that did not suit the font's concept and kept the most attractive ones. The changes affected letters with diagonal strokes "M, N, И", and figures "2, 3, 6, 9". All round characters' shapes have been standardized for all font styles. In the previous version, all glyphs looked different: more square or oval, depending on the font's weight. We made the shapes consistent for the font to feel more integral. Glyphs containing bowls have also changed. We have worked on the balance, altering the height and shape of the bowls. Like rounded ones, we aspired to make the glyphs more balanced for all font styles. The shapes of the letters "J, M, N, S, W, З, И" and Black font style characters have changed. The individuality of these glyphs was slightly different from the whole set, which became apparent in larger sizes. We have improved the shapes and made them more suitable for the font's style. Letters with diagonal strokes and triangular glyphs, such as "A, V, Y, D". We have brought the characters to a consistent logic in their shapes by refining the angles and weight of diagonals in different font styles. The glyphs' terminals follow the same logic in the new version. We have preserved and perfected the old shapes. Ligatures and stylistic sets have been updated entirely and expanded. We have researched Scandinavian languages and designed ligatures and diacritical sets that would definitely be useful for designers. We have redesigned diacritical marks, figures, and punctuation marks. Now all characters follow the same logic and contribute to a well-balanced impression of the font. The character set in each font style has been increased from 934 to 1719, and the number of OpenType features—from 24 to 40. The new font includes 23 font styles: 11 roman, 11 italic, and 1 variable font. The variable font has also become a significant technological advancement for TT Firs Neue. We retained a warm sentiment towards TT Firs Neue's previous success while redesigning the font and implementing substantial alterations. The 2023 font has been developed according to new technical standards that have become significantly higher in the past 5 years. TT Firs Neue is a font well-suited for a wide range of contexts. It can be used for headings, text fragments, visual merchandising and building decoration, and the web. The font is visually aesthetic on podcast and video covers and is an ideal choice for packaging design and brand identity. TT Firs Neue OpenType features: aalt, ccmp, locl, subs, sinf, sups, numr, dnom, frac, ordn, tnum, onum, lnum, pnum, case, dlig, liga, c2sc, smcp, ss01, ss02, ss03, ss04, ss05, ss06, ss07, ss08, ss09, ss10, ss11, ss12, ss13, ss14, ss15, ss16, ss17, ss18, ss19, ss20, calt. TT Firs Neue language support: English, Albanian, Basque, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Maltese, Moldavian (lat), Montenegrin (lat), Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian (lat), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss German, Valencian, Azerbaijani, Kazakh (lat), Turkish, Uzbek (lat), Acehnese, Banjar, Betawi, Bislama, Boholano, Cebuano, Chamorro, Fijian, Filipino, Hiri Motu, Ilocano, Indonesian, Javanese, Khasi, Malay, Marshallese, Minangkabau, Nauruan, Nias, Palauan, Rohingya, Salar, Samoan, Sasak, Sundanese, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tok Pisin, Tongan, Uyghur, Afar, Asu, Aymara, Bemba, Bena, Chichewa, Chiga, Embu, Gikuyu, Gusii, Jola-Fonyi, Kabuverdianu, Kalenjin, Kamba, Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kongo, Luba-Kasai, Luganda, Luo, Luyia, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malagasy, Mauritian Creole, Meru, Morisyen, Ndebele, Nyankole, Oromo, Rombo, Rundi, Rwa, Samburu, Sango, Sangu, Sena, Seychellois Creole, Shambala, Shona, Soga, Somali, Sotho, Swahili, Swazi, Taita, Teso, Tsonga, Tswana, Vunjo, Wolof, Xhosa, Zulu, Ganda, Maori, Alsatian, Aragonese, Arumanian, Asturian, Belarusian (lat), Bosnian (lat), Breton, Bulgarian (lat), Colognian, Cornish, Corsican, Esperanto, Faroese, Frisian, Friulian, Gaelic, Gagauz (lat), Galician, Interlingua, Judaeo-Spanish, Karaim (lat), Kashubian, Ladin, Leonese, Manx, Occitan, Rheto-Romance, Romansh, Scots, Silesian, Sorbian, Vastese, Volapük, Võro, Walloon, Walser, Welsh, Karakalpak (lat), Kurdish (lat), Talysh (lat), Tsakhur (Azerbaijan), Turkmen (lat), Zaza, Aleut (lat), Cree, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Innu-aimun, Lakota, Karachay-Balkar (lat), Karelian, Livvi-Karelian, Ludic, Tatar, Vepsian, Guarani, Nahuatl, Quechua, Russian, Belarusian (cyr), Bosnian (cyr), Bulgarian (cyr), Macedonian, Serbian (cyr), Ukrainian, Kazakh (cyr), Kirghiz, Tadzhik, Turkmen (cyr), Uzbek (cyr), Lezgian, Abazin, Agul, Archi, Avar, Dargwa, Ingush, Kabardian, Kabardino-Cherkess, Karachay-Balkar (cyr), Khvarshi, Kumyk, Lak, Nogai, Rutul, Tabasaran, Tsakhur, Buryat, Komi-Permyak, Komi-Zyrian, Siberian Tatar, Tofalar, Touva, Bashkir, Chechen (cyr), Chuvash, Erzya, Kryashen Tatar, Mordvin-moksha, Tatar Volgaic, Udmurt, Uighur, Rusyn, Montenegrin (cyr), Romani (cyr), Dungan, Karakalpak (cyr), Shughni, Mongolian, Adyghe, Kalmyk.

A typeface with lightly-worn futurism, Sagittarius is equally at home among the beauty and wellness aisles, or the coils of the warp core. The Sagittarius typeface was designed by Jonathan Hoefler in 2021. A decorative adaptation of Hoefler’s Peristyle typeface (2017), Sagittarius’s rounded corners and streamlined shapes recall the digital aesthetic of the first alphabets designed for machine reading, a style that survives as a cheeky Space Age invocation of futurism. Sagittarius was created for The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, where it first appeared in 2021. From the desk of the designer: Typeface designers spend a lot of time chasing down strange valences. We try to figure out what’s producing that whiff of Art Deco, or that vaguely militaristic air, or what’s making a once solemn typeface suddenly feel tongue-in-cheek. If we can identify the source of these qualities, we can cultivate them, and change the direction of the design; more often, we just extinguish them without mercy. Sometimes, we get the chance to follow a third path, which is how we arrived at Sagittarius. During the development of Peristyle, our family of compact, high-contrast sans serifs, I often found myself unwittingly humming space-age pop songs. Nothing about Peristyle’s chic and elegant letterforms suggested the deadpan romp of “The Planet Plan” by United Future Organization, let alone “Music To Watch Space Girls By” from the ill-advised (but delicious) Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock’s Music from Outer Space, but there they were. Something in the fonts was provoking an afterimage of the otherworldly, as if the typeface was sliding in and out of a parallel universe of high-tech spycraft and low-tech brawls with rubber-masked aliens. It might have had something to do with a new eyeglass prescription. But I liked the effect, and started thinking about creating an alternate, space-age version of the typeface, one with a little more funk, and a lot more fun. I wondered if softer edges, a measured dose of seventies retrofuturism, and some proper draftsmanship might produce a typeface not only suitable for sci-fi potboilers, but for more serious projects, too: why not a line of skin care products, a fitness system, a high-end digital camera, or a music festival? I put a pin in the idea, wondering if there’d ever be a project that called for equal parts sobriety and fantasy. And almost immediately, exactly such a project appeared. The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Jesse Sheidlower is a lexicographer, a former Editor at Large for the Oxford English Dictionary, and a longtime friend. He’s someone who takes equal pleasure in the words ‘usufructuary’ and ‘megaboss,’ and therefore a welcome collaborator for the typeface designer whose love of the Flemish baroque is matched by a fondness for alphabets made of logs. Jesse was preparing to launch The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, a comprehensive online resource dedicated to the terminology of the genre, whose combination of scholarship and joy was a perfect fit for the typeface I imagined. For linguists, there’d be well-researched citations to explain how the hitherto uninvented ‘force field’ and ‘warp speed’ came to enter the lexicon. For science fiction fans, there’d be definitive (and sometimes surprising) histories of the argot of Stars both Trek and Wars. And for everyone, there’d be the pleasure of discovering science fiction’s less enduring contributions, from ‘saucerman’ to ‘braintape,’ each ripe for a comeback. A moderated, crowdsourced project, the dictionary is now online and growing every day. You’ll find it dressed in three font families from H&Co: Whitney ScreenSmart for its text, Decimal for its navigational icons, and Sagittarius for its headlines — with some of the font’s more fantastical alternate characters turned on. The New Typeface Sagittarius is a typeface whose rounded corners and streamlined forms give it a romantically scientific voice. In the interest of versatility, its letterforms make only oblique references to specific technologies, helping the typeface remain open to interpretation. But for projects that need the full-throated voice of science fiction, a few sets of digital accessories are included, which designers can introduce at their own discretion. There are alternate letters with futuristic pedigrees, from the barless A popularized by Danne & Blackburn’s 1975 ‘worm’ logo for NASA, to a disconnected K recalling the 1968 RCA logo by Lippincott & Margulies. A collection of digitally-inspired symbols are included for decorative use, from the evocative MICR symbols of electronic banking, to the obligatory barcodes that forever haunt human–machine interactions. More widely applicable are the font’s arrows and manicules, and the automatic substitutions that resolve thirty-four awkward combinations of letters with streamlined ligatures. About the Name Sagittarius is one of thirteen constellations of the zodiac, and home to some of astronomy’s most inspiring discoveries. In 1977, a powerful radio signal originating in the Sagittarius constellation was considered by many to be the most compelling recorded evidence of extraterrestrial life. Thanks to an astronomer’s enthusiastically penned comment, the 72-second transmission became known as the Wow! signal, and it galvanized support for one of science’s most affecting projects, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). More recently, Sagittarius has been identified as the location of a staggering celestial discovery: a supermassive black hole, some 44 million kilometers in diameter, in the Galactic Center of the Milky Way. <