ALS Direct is an open and dynamic typeface with clear-cut letterforms that make it instantly readable. It lends text a neutral, yet agreeable and modern feel. Direct has nine font styles convenient for the purposes of navigation signage. Regular-style letterforms are rather wide, because direction signs are likely to appear before readers at an angle, so the type needs to withstand perspective distortions. And as signs and boards may vary in size, Direct was developed to include several width variations. Condensed fonts can be used where horizontal space is limited, allowing you to keep proper height and readability of the characters. A signage typeface must be easily readable from some distance away and have simple letterfoms with clear-cut features to quickly identify characters. Designing a type for a potentially wide range of purposes calls for a universal approach. If not destined to be used for navigation in a particular building, it shouldn’t incorporate any peculiar elements to agree with certain design or architecture. All of the above determined our choice of a sans serif with large apertures and definite features allowing readers to instantly recognize letters. Descenders are made compact not to interfere with the line below. And the low contrast between thick and thin strokes renders all elements equally perceptible. The x-height is significant, close to the cap height, which inhances readability of the lowercase type. There are two reasons why directions must not be set in all caps. Firstly, lowercase letters are more diverse and include ascenders and descenders identifying some of the letters in the line. And secondly, having learned to read, people recognize word shapes rather than individual letters, which makes lowercase text more readable. With Direct being a signage typeface, first to be developed were its width variations, and different weight styles and italics were added later. Another thing to be kept in mind was that signs often use dark background colors, and black type on a white background appears smaller than white type on a black background. Direct is the first Cyrillic typeface created for navigation purposes. Before that, designers could use the Cyrillic version of Frutiger (Freeset) developed by Adrian Frutiger for the Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport, and a number of other, mostly body copy, neutral sans serif types. However, signs and boards were dominated by Arial, which Direct would be glad to replace offering elegance and lucidity of form instead of type bluntess. Direct was designed as a signage typeface, but its neutral style and clear-cut letterforms suggest various other ways of application.

Pompeian Cursive is a calligraphically-inspired display typeface featuring a limited number of alternate characters and a handful of graceful ligatures. A lively set of non-lining numerals accompanies, as well as a few calligraphically-inspired flourishes for ornament. The history of this typeface: Oswald Cooper’s relationship with the Barnhart Brothers & Spindler foundry was one instigated under the auspices of creating new styles of type in lieu of following stylistic trends. In 1927, BB&S requested that Cooper create a script-like cursive typeface design in step with Lucien Bernhard’s Schoenschrift and ATF’s similarly-styled Liberty typeface. In response to BB&S’s desire to emulate instead of innovate, Cooper wrote to Mcarthur, “I am desolated to see Barnhart’s hoist the black flag. Your own efforts through the years to boost the foundry into a place in the sun as an originator seem wasted.” Still, Cooper took up the task at hand, creating a delicate, sophisticated type design which he named Pompeian Cursive. The typeface featured a limited number of alternate characters and a handful of graceful ligatures. A lively set of non-lining numerals accompanied, as well as a few calligraphically-inspired flourishes for ornamenting the end of lines of type accompanied the typeface, as well. By reviewing the few remaining original drawings for the type, as well as copious samples of Pompeian Cursive from both Cooper & BB&S' proofing process and period-specific type specimens, Wordshape presents the first digital version of this classic hybrid script/sans typeface, complete with all original alternate characters and ornaments. Pompeian Cursive has been intensively spaced and kerned for the finest setting for weddings, announcements, and general display work. - What was the inspiration for designing the font? While researching a biographic essay for Japan’s IDEA Magazine, I came across the original proofs and drawings for Pompeian Cursive. While a number of foundries have released interpretations of Cooper’s assorted typefaces, they stray from the original rather dramatically in parts. Cooper is without a doubt my favorite type and lettering designer, and to bring a refined return to his original intentions is an immense gift. - What are its main characteristics and features? Pompeian Cursive is a typeface which functions as both a display face and a limited text face. It features classy, thoughtful, and delicate swash capitals and rugged lowercase characters with a low x-height and gracefully long ascenders and descenders. - Usage recommendations: Display type or text-setting. Perfect for newspaper work, editorial design, materials intended to invoke an "old-timey" flavor, or just about anything in need of personality.

Graduating Class JNL was inspired by the hand lettered titles found on a 1934 high school yearbook from Richmond Hill, NY called "The Senior Dome". This Art Deco era type design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A WPA (Works Progress Administration) sponsored Water Carnival taking place in Central Park in the 1930s had "Department of Parks, City of New York" in the thin Art Deco hand lettering which is now available as Parks Department JNL.

Ranch Hand JNL is a tall, condensed wood type with slab serifs. The font is somewhat bolder in weight than Nostrand JNL, but like its counterpart, fully captures the spirit and flavor of Nineteenth Century advertising, fliers and notices.

Kare is a custom font which is applicable for any type of graphic design - web, print, motion graphics etc and perfect for t-shirts and logos. Inspired by the popular and unique Motter Ombra typeface designed by Othmar Motter.

The face exudes Edwardian elegance, based on a 1905 release from American Type Founders called Meriontype. It's evocative of simpler times. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, suitable for text or display, short descenders, tall ascenders, the narrow, italic version, completing the Gothic Special family of 5 fonts in total, sans serif.

Totem Forms is based on a series of aluminum and rubber wall constructions currently showing in Europe and the United States. Mirek's work has been shown internationally for many years and this is his first foray into type development.

The basic idea of this type family was to keep the "ductus" of the fraktur calligraphy only. And to adapt it to draw a sans serif typography which still keep the magic rhythm and colour of the original letters.

FP Dancer attempts to combine a constructed face with an upright script face. The goal was a type family that combines softness and friendliness with more strength. Typographica.org selected this font as one of the best typefaces for 2007.

This is Solotype's alternative sans serif version of the once popular caps-only font Atlanta issued by the Central Type Foundry in St. Louis in 1885. As we often do, we have created a lowercase, adding to its versatility.

Inkblock is based on various ink printing and rubbings from an ancient wood type set. Inkblock the alphabet has lots of detail, so looks great printed large. It's a good headline font or whenever an antique look is needed.

Gallard is a two weights family that contains the display type of the great cartoonist and illustrator Miguel Gallardo. In addition, as we usually do for this kind of author fonts, there is a collection of drawings called Victims.

This singsong font is Chock Full o’Notes to help semibreviate your lettering with melodic minims, quarter notes and quavers! NOTE, however that we cannot take responsibility for any arrangement that my seem out of tune to the trained eye.

Introducing The Smell After Rain by Tlatous Type. The smell after rain is a Modern Handwritten Font. this font is perfect for product packaging, branding project, megazine, social media, wedding, or just used to express words above the background.

Introducing a new layered bold script font called Hardsign .Hardsign inspired by classic signage and vintage font. Hardsign came with open type features and multilingual accent good for logotype, poster, badge, book cover, tshirt design, packaging and any more.

Take a look at Embarla Firgasto - my new enchanting family of four styles. They pair beautifully together in all kinds of applications. Embarla Firgasto comes with uppercase, lowercase, standard punctuation and special letters for most of the European languages.

Typesetter JNL is based on an old-style 'grotesk' (or 'grotesque') text face popular with printers and rubber stamp makers since the 1800s. The nonconformist character shapes and line widths are reminiscent of hand-cut type of the era.

This font perfectly made to be applied especially in logo, and the other various formal forms such as invitations, labels, logos, magazines, books, greeting / wedding cards, packaging, fashion, make up, stationery, novels, labels or any type of advertising purpose.

The basic idea of this type family was to keep the "ductus" of the fraktur calligraphy only. And to adapt it to draw a sans serif typography which still keep the magic rhythm and colour of the original letters.

Fonts without curved lines were quite popular in Victorian times. We drew this one back in the days of T-squares and triangles, and based it on a type that we felt could stand to be improved. (Arrogant, eh?)

Robert Wiebking based the Engravure face on the Engravers faces developed by American Type Founders around 1903. Engravure can be used as a titling font for magazines, brochures, and book covers. It is also suitable for packaging and stationery.

Here’s a classic face from Dutch master type designer Sjoerd H. de Roos. Use it where timeless elegance is the goal. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

Amidst the pages of the 1946 foreign-printed "100 Alphabets Publicitaires" ("100 Advertising Alphabets") was an example of a beautiful vertical script type design with a somewhat calligraphic look. This became the work model for Script Spot Initials JNL.

Sophistica is a stylish and classic typeface and twist harmoniously together. The Eleanor font style will make you love designing and taking advantage of the cool designs for this font. Keep following us for updates on making further fonts

Brondi is based on a wood type specimen from a french foundry, featuring a weird grotesque with inverted contrast and extremely tight spacing. It was used for large displays mainly in advertising. The font is a caps version only.

Rustic Setting JNL is the solidified version of Rustic Stencil JNL. Originally modeled from lettering on the cover a children's book, the solid version of this Western-inspired typeface is reminiscent of the classic wood types of the era.

I saw an old logo for Giro d'Italia on telly, and was just smitten by the truly ugly type: just ruler and compass work, no intakes or optical corrections whatsoever. I just had to turn that into a font.

Originally issued as Apollo by the Central Type Foundry of Saint Louis, this face evokes the glamor of late Victorian era. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

Although wood types are found throughout the world, most of the decorative one originated in the United States. This one would work well on theatrical playbills, and advertising for tourist railroads, wild west shows and concerts in the park.

Here's a hipster face that evokes the Beat era, taking its name from Louis Nye's catchphrase on "The Steve Allen Show." Both versions of this font support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

Hair is another beautiful URW++ FontForum contribution by Wojtek Ruhnau. It is a technically ambitious multi-line script-like type design that should be used carefully and in large sizes only. However, set properly, Hair renders beautifully and charmingly.

A surprisingly modern looking condensed sans serif issued by Mackellar, Smiths & Jordan foundry in 1887. Its narrow width makes it useful for long copy headlines. Designed by the freelance type cutter Charles Beeler who did many fonts for Mackellar.

Vingiloth is a delicate script which simulates natural handwriting. Vingiloth includes Vingiloth Regular and Vingiloth Caps, designed to contrast and compliment each other with elegant beauty and contemporary style, making it an excellent fit for projects of all types.

Dave West's eponymous Futura Casual, designed for Photo-Lettering, Inc. in the 1960s, inspired this loosy-goosy take on a classic face. Both versions of the font contain the complete Unicode Latin 1252 and Central European 1250 character sets.