The Charles Bluemlein Script Collection is an intriguing reminder of the heady days of hand lettering and calligraphy in the United States. From the early 1930s through World War II, there were about 200 professional hand letterers working in New York City alone. This occupation saw its demise with the advent of photo lettering, and after digital typography, became virtually extinct. The odd way in which the Bluemlein scripts were assembled and created - by collecting different signatures and then building complete alphabets from them - is a fascinating calligraphic adventure. Because the set of constructed designs looked nothing like the original signatures, fictitious names were assigned to the new script typefaces. The typeface styles were then showcased in Higgins Ink catalogs. Alejandro Paul and Sudtipos bring the Bluemlein scripts back to life in a set of expanded digital versions, reflecting the demands of today’s designer. Extreme care has been taken to render the original scripts authentically, keeping the fictitious names originally assigned to them by Bluemlein.

The Charles Bluemlein Script Collection is an intriguing reminder of the heady days of hand lettering and calligraphy in the United States. From the early 1930s through World War II, there were about 200 professional hand letterers working in New York City alone. This occupation saw its demise with the advent of photo lettering, and after digital typography, became virtually extinct. The odd way in which the Bluemlein scripts were assembled and created - by collecting different signatures and then building complete alphabets from them - is a fascinating calligraphic adventure. Because the set of constructed designs looked nothing like the original signatures, fictitious names were assigned to the new script typefaces. The typeface styles were then showcased in Higgins Ink catalogs. Alejandro Paul and Sudtipos bring the Bluemlein scripts back to life in a set of expanded digital versions, reflecting the demands of today’s designer. Extreme care has been taken to render the original scripts authentically, keeping the fictitious names originally assigned to them by Bluemlein.

The Charles Bluemlein Script Collection is an intriguing reminder of the heady days of hand lettering and calligraphy in the United States. From the early 1930s through World War II, there were about 200 professional hand letterers working in New York City alone. This occupation saw its demise with the advent of photo lettering, and after digital typography, became virtually extinct. The odd way in which the Bluemlein scripts were assembled and created - by collecting different signatures and then building complete alphabets from them - is a fascinating calligraphic adventure. Because the set of constructed designs looked nothing like the original signatures, fictitious names were assigned to the new script typefaces. The typeface styles were then showcased in Higgins Ink catalogs. Alejandro Paul and Sudtipos bring the Bluemlein scripts back to life in a set of expanded digital versions, reflecting the demands of today’s designer. Extreme care has been taken to render the original scripts authentically, keeping the fictitious names originally assigned to them by Bluemlein.

The Charles Bluemlein Script Collection is an intriguing reminder of the heady days of hand lettering and calligraphy in the United States. From the early 1930s through World War II, there were about 200 professional hand letterers working in New York City alone. This occupation saw its demise with the advent of photo lettering, and after digital typography, became virtually extinct. The odd way in which the Bluemlein scripts were assembled and created - by collecting different signatures and then building complete alphabets from them - is a fascinating calligraphic adventure. Because the set of constructed designs looked nothing like the original signatures, fictitious names were assigned to the new script typefaces. The typeface styles were then showcased in Higgins Ink catalogs. Alejandro Paul and Sudtipos bring the Bluemlein scripts back to life in a set of expanded digital versions, reflecting the demands of today’s designer. Extreme care has been taken to render the original scripts authentically, keeping the fictitious names originally assigned to them by Bluemlein.

Originally designed in 1996, Mrs Eaves was Zuzana Licko’s first attempt at the design of a traditional typeface. It was styled after Baskerville, the famous transitional serif typeface designed in 1757 by John Baskerville in Birmingham, England. Mrs Eaves was named after Baskerville’s live in housekeeper, Sarah Eaves, whom he later married. One of Baskerville’s intents was to develop typefaces that pushed the contrast between thick and thin strokes, partially to show off the new printing and paper making techniques of his time. As a result his types were often criticized for being too perfect, stark, and difficult to read. Licko noticed that subsequent interpretations and revivals of Baskerville had continued along the same path of perfection, using as a model the qualities of the lead type itself, not the printed specimens. Upon studying books printed by Baskerville at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, Licko decided to base her design on the printed samples which were heavier and had more character due to the imprint of lead type into paper and the resulting ink spread. She reduced the contrast while retaining the overall openness and lightness of Baskerville by giving the lower case characters a wider proportion. She then reduced the x-height relative to the cap height to avoid increasing the set width. There is something unique about Mrs Eaves and it’s difficult to define. Its individual characters are at times awkward looking—the W being narrow, the L uncommonly wide, the flare of the strokes leading into the serifs unusually pronounced. Taken individually, at first sight some of the characters don’t seem to fit together. The spacing is generally too loose for large bodies of text, it sort of rambles along. Yet when used in the right circumstance it imparts a very particular feel that sets it clearly apart from many likeminded types. It has an undefined quality that resonates with people. This paradox (imperfect yet pleasing) is perhaps best illustrated by design critic and historian Robin Kinross who has pointed out the limitation of the “loose” spacing that Licko employed, among other things, yet simultaneously designated the Mrs Eaves type specimen with an honorable mention in the 1999 American Center for Design competition. Proof, perhaps, that type is best judged in the context of its usage. Even with all its shortcomings, Mrs Eaves has outsold all Emigre fonts by twofold. On MyFonts, one of the largest on-line type sellers, Mrs Eaves has been among the 20 best selling types for years, listed among such classics as Helvetica, Univers, Bodoni and Franklin Gothic. Due to its commercial and popular success it has come to define the Emigre type foundry. While Licko initially set out to design a traditional text face, we never specified how Mrs Eaves could be best used. Typefaces will find their own way. But if there’s one particular common usage that stands out, it must be literary—Mrs Eaves loves to adorn book covers and relishes short blurbs on the flaps and backs of dust covers. Trips to bookstores are always a treat for us as we find our Mrs Eaves staring out at us from dozens of book covers in the most elegant compositions, each time surprising us with her many talents. And Mrs Eaves feels just as comfortable in a wide variety of other locales such as CD covers (Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief being our favorite), restaurant menus, logos, and poetry books, where it gives elegant presence to short texts. One area where Mrs Eaves seems less comfortable is in the setting of long texts, particularly in environments such as the interiors of books, magazines, and newspapers. It seems to handle long texts well only if there is ample space. A good example is the book /CD/DVD release The Band: A Musical History published by Capitol Records. Here, Mrs Eaves was given appropriate set width and generous line spacing. In such cases its wide proportions provide a luxurious feel which invites reading. Economy of space was not one of the goals behind the original Mrs Eaves design. With the introduction of Mrs Eaves XL, Licko addresses this issue. Since Mrs Eaves is one of our most popular typefaces, it’s not surprising that over the years we've received many suggestions for additions to the family. The predominant top three wishes are: greater space economy; the addition of a bold italic style; and the desire to pair it with a sans design. The XL series answers these requests with a comprehensive set of new fonts including a narrow, and a companion series of Mrs Eaves Sans styles to be released soon. The main distinguishing features of Mrs Eaves XL are its larger x-height with shorter ascenders and descenders and overall tighter spacing. These additional fonts expand the Mrs Eaves family for a larger variety of uses, specifically those requiring space economy. The larger x-height also allows a smaller point size to be used while maintaining readability. Mrs Eaves XL also has a narrow counterpart to the regular, with a set width of about 92 percent which fulfills even more compact uses. At first, this may not seem particularly narrow, but the goal was to provide an alternative to the regular that would work well as a compact text face while maintaining the full characteristics of the regular, rather than an extreme narrow which would be more suitable for headline use. Four years in the making, we're excited to finally let Mrs Eaves XL find its way into the world and see where and how it will pop up next.

The Charles Bluemlein Script Collection is an intriguing reminder of the heady days of hand lettering and calligraphy in the United States. From the early 1930s through World War II, there were about 200 professional hand letterers working in New York City alone. This occupation saw its demise with the advent of photo lettering, and after digital typography, became virtually extinct. The odd way in which the Bluemlein scripts were assembled and created - by collecting different signatures and then building complete alphabets from them - is a fascinating calligraphic adventure. Because the set of constructed designs looked nothing like the original signatures, fictitious names were assigned to the new script typefaces. The typeface styles were then showcased in Higgins Ink catalogs. Alejandro Paul and Sudtipos bring the Bluemlein scripts back to life in a set of expanded digital versions, reflecting the demands of today’s designer. Extreme care has been taken to render the original scripts authentically, keeping the fictitious names originally assigned to them by Bluemlein.

Sandra Oh is a quirky modern take on the classic serif fonts of the 20th century, updated here with a wiggle in her walk and a giggle in her talk. A Chankstore classic from the earlier days of the internet, this font is now available in OpenType format for the first time. Perfect for indie films or youtube videos.

This little charmer combines an uppercase designed by American lettering artist J. M. Bergling with a lowercase designed by English architect Roland W. Paul. The result has a wiggle in its walk and a giggle in its talk: oh, baby, that’s what I like! Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

Kusukusu means 'chuckle' or 'giggle' in Japanese. It is a feminine, hand written font with a happy feel to it. Kusukusu comes in different styles, has all the diacritics you need and has been kerned by hand.

The hand lettering found throughout the movie trailer for 1942's "Mr. and Mrs. North" inspired Criminal Intent JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Le rock is the newborn sister of my first typeface Jazmo and a relative of my music-inspired font family. Le Rock seems to wiggle and jiggle a little as if it invites you to dance. This is caused by the gaps in the individual characters. The typeface can also be seen as eroded, carved and sculpted by mother nature. But besides, the design of Le Rock can also be associated with the characteristics of stones: Solid and since ever, here, there and everywhere. To walk on, lean against, to be surrounded by, to build with and to shelter in. It cannot be denied, that there are also some comic art influences. The font is outspoken enough to be used in any form of graphic design, like poster and flyers, but at the same time it remains readable enough for longer texts.

Come on... You want Jiminy, don’t you? It’s FUN! And carefree! It will turn any project into something enjoyable. You really must have it! But don’t just listen to me, Mr. Cat and Mr. Fox. Let your conscience be your guide...

SwirlityText is a fussy, over-the-top calligraphic typeface with lots of curves and wiggles. It comes in two weights, each with an oblique style.

Günter Gerhard Lange designed this “fun” typeface for Berthold in 1957. Although a departure from his more serious designs, Champion shows Mr. Lange’s diversity.

This slick, marker style font was created by our fontmeister, Mr Fontastic, based on the slick, marker style of... Well, Mr Fontastic himself! Check it out in the pages of Marvel's classic DAREDEVIL story GUARDIAN DEVIL. DD scribe and indy movie maker Kevin Smith himself told us it was the coolest font he'd ever seen in his entire life! No, sorry, that is a lie, but he did tell us he liked the design work Mr Fontastic created for the JAY & SILENT BOB trades, No, seriously, he did. We wouldn't lie to you. Well, except for that last time. By the way, this font also doubles as a dynamite sound effect font, that's why we're charging you twice as much as usual. No, sorry, lying again. About the price, not the sound effect thing.

Evil Intentions is that lighthearted spooky font your looking for this Halloween! Inspired by an old Hanna Barbera comic Mr and Mrs. J. Evil Scientist, comes this visually shaken but friendly san serif font to stir you up. The Contextual Alternates feature in this font automatically alternates between the Capitals and alternate Capitals of the font to mix things up a bit and keep your type-settings lively, and the Stylistic Alternates feature throws a handful of playful ligatures in to even further make the letters playfully dance.

Albion’s Incised Masthead combines the heavy Black Letter forms of Greater Albion’s “Albion’s Old Masthead” with the ‘Hand-Tooled’ incised look demonstrated so readily by Mr Goudy. Another tribute to the engraver’s art…

In german lustig means funny. Furthermore Mr. Lustig is a character in one of Karel Čapek's miraculous fairy tales. In addition it's also a lively hand-lettered font equipped with playful interlocking ligatures. Have fun!

Based on Mr. Hubbard's own hand printing, Richfont Medium is an extremely casual design. Actually light in weight, it renders best at 14 point and above. Richfont Light and Bold are available from the designer.

Orenji is the Japanese word for Orange: it is a phonetic translation of the English word. I was actually looking for a certain shade of orange (the color), when I stumbled upon this fun word. I already toyed with the idea of creating a font loosely based on my son Sam's handwriting and I figured Orenji would be a good name for it. Orenji is a fun, cute and extravagant font. It has some uniquely shaped glyphs, comes with a giggle and a hug and more diacritics than you can throw a banana at.

Round, firm, and bursting at the seams with good humor, ITC Mister Chuckles is based on the premise that barrel shapes have pleasant associations. Think: beer-barrel polkas, a barrel of fun, or a barrel of laughs, and you'll get the idea. Designer Nick Curtis has combined sans serif sturdiness, a hint of 1930s deco and a handful of giggles in this remarkably versatile all-cap face. If the typographic occasion calls for mirth and merriment, invite Mister Chuckles to the party. You'll have more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

Stinky School Book was created to letter the adventures of a particular Mr. Stinky the Elf, but you can use it for that informal look when used for body copy or as a display face for headlines.

In digitizing this old font, we took great liberties with the design, removing some jarring elements. The result reads much more smoothly than the original, retaining the overall character of the original. Hope you don't mind, Mr. Beeler.

Reading is fun; legible with a playful wiggle, a bit of texture, and a lively set of double-letter ligatures. Reading wants to be read aloud and sounded out - lightened by comic relief and sweetened by a bit of style. The upper case is relatively straight, the lower case - slightly jumbled, and Reading’s numbers have excellent curls.

Worthing aims to combine Victorian charm with modern-day requirements for legibility and clarity, and we hope, demonstrates that traditional elegance still has its place in the modern world. Meanwhile, for those who are curious about the naming of our fonts, Mr Lloyd our designer was reading Mr Wells (H. G.) War of the Worlds recently. No doubt some of you will remember the part that Worthing in Sussex played in that story. Worthing is offered in three styles: regular, alternate and shaded. It's ideal for Victorian and Edwardian era inspired design work, posters and signage, as well as for book covers, chapter headings and so forth.

Dausby is the elegantly slanted handwriting of the 1850s. It was based on records written with a flexible tip dip pen and jet black ink by Mr. Dausby. Made for those of you who are just looking for an affordable handwriting font.

Shortly after the creation of Chauncy Deluxxe, Chank realized that he needed a condensed font to go with the regular version of his handwriting. The solution was Coffeedance, a fun, light, dancing, dandy handmade font. Makes me think of frozen treats as the lines wiggle a bit like they’re shivering. Brrrr. Coffeedance was Chank’s Font of the Month for November 1998.

From the vintage record cover, "Music from MR. LUCKY", composed and conducted by Henry Mancini, comes this offbeat and full of life condensed serif typeface. A uniform stroke structure and a light baseline bounce give this typeface a festive yet serious duality of a personality.

Nice typographic experiment consisting of the progressive "bodonization" I have summarized in two steps, by a letter drawn with the same concentration and intensity with which Paris Hilton reading a book, to get something like the sketches that Mr. Gianbattista used to Wrap the sandwich.

An expressive disconnected script and a stylish display face that play together devilishly well. Add some handsome extras to the mix and voilà Blueshift, ​​a hand-drawn family with a remarkable contemporary accent. Splendid designs are guaranteed for all​!​ (​And tonight Mr. Kite is topping the bill.)

This roly-poly romp through the alphabet is based on Jürgen Riebling's irrepressible Mr. Big from the 1970s. Big, bold, bubbly and a little brash, it's a natural choice for happy headlines. Both versions contain the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets.

Mr. Nakata is another one of my favorite Haruki Murakami characters. Nakata typeface is handwritten, sloppy and messy, but comes with intelligent features like alternates and ligatures, to make it look more like handwriting and less like a font. Of course, Nakata speaks most Roman-based languages.

A postcard for a 1952 DeSoto automobile, combined with the (non)sensibilities of legendary British lettering artist Cecil Wade, yielded this slightly tacky and thoroughly wacky gaggle of letters. Use liberally whenever levity, brevity (the soul of wit), or a bit of mischief is called for. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin and 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan) character sets.

Mr. Gogoll's successful revival of Arno Drescher’s Super Grotesk was awarded the 1999 Kurt Christians Award. The Drescher Grotesk family consists of seven roman weights, including a version designed for use at small point sizes. Drescher Grotesk is a classic German geometric design, complete with the original “angled” brackets.