The market for humanistic sans serif type families is saturated, so what can a new release add, and what does it take to stand out from the crowd? Asterisk Sans Pro (named after my favourite glyph to make) aims to be a highly versatile type family; massively useful due to its pan-European language support and bounty of OpenType features which make it the ideal choice for demanding typography. The look is contemporary; details which give the fonts character at large sizes all but disappear when small, making the middle weights suitable for large chunks of text. The family ranges from a hairline ultra light to a pretty weighty black – a must in a new typeface. Asterisk Sans Pro supports Latin, modern Greek and Cyrillic, with localized forms for Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian to boot. This is rare enough, but to have small caps for all these scripts in both upright and italic fonts is a big plus. Your client may not need all this language support right now, but this typeface gives them the option to grow while keeping a consistent look, and at a similar price point to families with a much narrower scope. The ability to customize Asterisk Sans Pro through the use of Stylistic Sets in OpenType savvy layout programs means you are really in control. Want more italic forms in the uprights? Go for it. A more Roman italic? Easy! The spurless m, n, r and u, accessible through SS13 give a graphic, almost bauhaus feel. The Dutch IJ glyph can be changed to a much cooler thing using SS14, and the family even supports ij-acute. Other OpenType features include a wealth of numeral styles (tabular and proportional, lining and oldstyle, plus small cap figures, numerators, denominators, subscript and superscript) and automatic fractions. There are also case-sensitive forms for all caps settings, a bunch of useful arrows, and superscript lower case Latin letters. All in, there are well over 1200 glyphs per font, making Asterisk Sans Pro an invaluable tool in your typeface arsenal, great for everything from corporate identities to editorial work, apps to cookbooks.

“There is just something magical about type design,” says Sebastian Lester. “If you draw a successful typeface it can travel the world, taking a part of you with it.” If this is true, his Soho® Gothic family has taken him far and wide. Understated, modern and exceptionally versatile, the family has been put to good use in just about every application imaginable. A good choice for virtually any type of project, The Soho Gothic family performs equally well as the backbone of a global brand as it would in an edgy fashion magazine. Versatile, extensive, customizable, and multilingual – the Soho Gothic typeface family has it all.With the same proportions as Soho, its slab serif cousin, Soho Gothic ranges across seven weights, from a willowy hairline to a brawny ultra – each with a complementary italic.Lester took care to ensure that the Soho and Soho Gothic designs work in perfect harmony. According to him, “The typefaces were developed alongside each other so that I could consider every aspect of each design and be certain that they would be absolutely compatible.”Soho Gothic is a more understated and more subtle design than Soho. Features that give the design its distinctive tone are the flat, crisp apexes of the diagonal characters like the A and V, and the marked horizontal stress in the a, g and s. “I wanted the family as a whole to radiate effortless modernity,” recalls Lester, “to be a master communicator that works in all conditions and at all sizes.” A collection of alternate and “semi-slab” characters were also part of Lester’s plan. “I like to develop alternate characters for all my type designs,” he says. “I believe they give graphic designers greater flexibility and make a typeface more valuable.” Soho Gothic is available as OpenType® Pro fonts that have an extended character set which supports most Central European and many Eastern European languages. If you’re looking to complete your designs, consider pairing it with Bembo® Book,Joanna® Nova,Neue Frutiger®,PMN Caecilia®,or ITC Stone® Serif.

Actium is a contemporary multilingual sans serif typeface developed to help perfect typography automatically. Type Mafia has focussed on words with odd combinations of capital letters and numbers, such as product names and postal codes such as WD40 and H1N5, jump out of the text. They sit awkwardly together as the numerals have been designed to work with the lowercase, not the uppercase letters – affecting readability.To fix this Type Mafia invented Smart Capo™. Smart Capo™ Smart Capo is a feature that automatically activates once you type an uppercase letter together with a number. When a capital letter is sat next to a numeral, Smart Capo converts the letter to a mid-cap — a contemporary alternative to small caps — and the default old-style numeral to a lining numeral. Actium’s mid-caps and lining numerals have been designed with the same height (between cap and x-height) so they sit comfortably next to each other and fit more harmoniously into text. Smart Capo applies equal attention to capitalised words without any numbers, such as NAVO and USA, and are also automatically set into mid-capitals. Working on its own, Smart Capo saves time and money for the typographer — taking the pain out of text formatting — and makes it a more pleasurable experience for the reader. This feature is made possible by the use of ‘contextual alternates’, an OpenType feature used in modern font software, working with a set of characters specially designed at mid-cap height. By default these changes automatically take place so it doesn't need to be switched on, it will just work. Actium Actium’s design has an unusual diagonal contrast — much more common in a serifed face than in a sans serif — giving it more bite. The typeface looks elegant when set in large sizes and remains very legible when shown in small sizes. The family consists of six weights in two styles, making a dozen fonts. Weights range from light to black in roman and true italic. All fonts are fully loaded with functional elements. Actium boasts an extended Latin character set and with Greek. This means a wide range of Western languages are supported: perfect for use in bilingual publications and packaging. For numerals, each font includes old-style and lining figures in both proportional and tabular widths, with superiors and inferiors. These allow you to select the right set of numbers for the right task.

Developed over several years by the late Otl Aicher and first released in the late 1980s, the Rotis® typeface has become a timeless classic. ROTIS II SANS HISTORY Aicher was a renowned German designer and corporate image consultant. He created the four basic designs of Rotis – sans serif, semi sans, semi seif and serif – within an extended typeface family concept, wherein all designs share a common cap height, lowercase x-height, basic stem weight and general proportions. While each version is part of the large, integrated family, each was also designed to function on its own as a distinctive typestyle. The result is that all members of the Rotis family combine smoothly with each other. Aicher, however, did not design the Rotis family with the weights and proportions normal for more contemporary releases. Rotis Sans Serif, for example, was drawn with just six weights and only two italics. Starting in 2010, Robin Nicholas, senior designer for Monotype Imaging in the UK, and freelance designer Alice Savoie collaborated to bring Rotis Sans Serif up to current standards. The result is Rotis II Sans, a completely new addition to the Rotis family. “We devised our approach together,” recalls Savoie, “deciding which weights to start with, what kind of alterations to make to the original Rotis, etc. I went to work on the typefaces, regularly submitting proofs to Robin. We would then decide in tandem on the next steps to take.” Nicholas elaborates, “We revisited the range of weights and added matching italics so that the new additions to the family offer increased versatility. We optimized the outlines, corrected the weight of several letters and re-examined overall spacing and kerning. In addition to a new set of numerals, with a height similar to the capitals, we also drew case-sensitive punctuation.” ROTIS II SANS USAGE The new Rotis II Sans suite comprises 14 typefaces: seven weights, ranging from extra light to black, each with a companion italic. The designs are available as OpenType® Pro fonts, allowing for automatic insertion of ligatures and fractions. Pro fonts also offer an extended character set supporting most Central European and many Eastern European languages. Aicher’s original Rotis designs were widely used for branding and advertising. With the addition of Rotis II Sans, the family is again poised to become a powerful communicator.

Morris Sans is a newly revised and extended version of a small geometric family of typefaces originally produced by Morris Fuller Benton in 1930 for ATF. His initial design consisted of an alphabet of squared capital letters with a unique twist that characterized its appearance: corners with rounded exteriors and right-angle interiors. The types were intended for use in the fine print found on business cards, banking or financial forms, and contracts. But over the ensuing decades, this design became a popular element in all sorts of design environments, and several foundries revived the typeface in digital form. Since digital fonts are bicameral, with slots for both upper and lowercase letters, new cuts of the type opted filled the lowercase slots with small caps. In 2006, Linotype commissioned its own version of the typeface-an extension for 21st century use. Under the advisement of Linotype's type director Akira Kobayashi, Dan Reynolds redrew the uppercase and added an original lowercase for the first time. Additionally, a number of extras were brought into the fonts, including six figure styles (tabular and proportional lining figures, tabular and proportional oldstyle figures, and special tabular and proportional small cap" figures). Small caps, which have become an iconic element over time, are accessible in each font as an OpenType feature. To differentiate this version from the original, Linotype's new family is named Morris Sans, in honor of Morris Fuller Benton. All fonts in the Morris Sans family are OpenType Com fonts; they include a character set capable of setting 48 European languages that employ the Roman alphabet, including all Central and Eastern Europe languages, those from the Baltics, and Turkish. This glyph coverage extends to the small caps as well. Morris Sans is a wide typeface, especially in its regular widths; the condensed faces set a more conventional line of text. The new lowercase letters are less geometric than the uppercase, except for those that share the same basic forms (e.g., c, o, and s). Instead of following this geometric trend, the new lowercase tends to strengthen the humanist elements that were present in several characters from the original type, including the uppercase D and the figures 5, 6, and 9. Morris Sans also sports a number of glyphic flares, like the stroke found on the original uppercase Q. Morris Sans is a clean, modern design best suited for headlines, advertising, posters, expressive signage (especially on storefronts), and corporate identity work."

Malaga Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.

Soledad Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.

Balloon Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.

Casual Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.

Based on the seals of the Fifty Names to summon the Elders.

Based on the S. H. de Roos design, Amsterdam Foundry circa 1923.

Modern text font based on a Hansen Type Foundry font (circa 1872).

Based on the popular VGC typeface designed by Ronald Arnholm in 1972.

Pavane is based on the calligraphy of Art Nouveau designer Rudolph Koch.

Outlined techno font designed on the 1990s. Perfect for true expressive artworks

Rudolfo is based on the calligraphy of Art Nouveau designer Rudolph Koch.

Giulio Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.

Elmore Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.

Pedro Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.

Somerset Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.

A collection of 174 flower designs based on '50s and '60s textiles.

Fratturato Digitale is a contemporary modular take on a fraktur-style font.

An original design based on Progreso from the Gans foundry circa 1923.

Falcon Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.

Eight tons of Meat-eating TYRANNOSAURUS REX vs. one Vegetarian BRONTOSAUR? CRUNCHTIME!

The sort of thing you used to see on hand painted signs.

Based on ‘Players,’ a typeface from English designer Adrian Williams, circa 1976.

Inspired by hand written letters on a street sign in Tel Aviv

Antiqua Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.

Melville Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.

Sterling Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.

FF Mutual is a friendly geometric sans serif full of subtle, unexpected details. Designer Luis Bandovas drew inspiration from an unlikely source—the credits from one of his favorite childhood shows, Space 1999—and turned that spark into a typeface that is warm and approachable, but contemporary. Bandovas built FF Mutual on a geometric skeleton, but the typeface has enough humanist touches to offset the rigidity usually found geometric designs. These touches are most apparent in the italics, where curved strokes on the “a” and “l” bring a softness to text. Generous spacing, angular details on letters like the “r” and “t,” and flared terminals on the “e,” “s,” and “c,” add further character to the design. FF Mutual’s bold shapes and retro-inspired warmth make it ideal for headlines, where the subtle details can really shine. The typeface is similarly well-suited for small blocks of text such as captions and call-outs, packaging design, and branding.

Smashed Typeface is a reversed-contrast, slab serif, display font. Was inspired by the old west days that we can often see in printing, circus posters and wanted notices in western movies, even tho the style was really used in many parts of the world during that period. This style is sometimes called as "circus letter" too. Was designed to have a modern look, using straighter lines and an extended style, can be used on various situations like posters, logos for restaurants, alternative business like an old washing station (as you can see on the next images), music bands etc. I believe that is a promising typography that can be used by various designers in a lot of diverse project. It counts with 226 multi language characters, one weight on version 1.0, on a next version I hope to take this project to another level, creating a variable typeface from condensed to really extended weights. It would complete this typography and eliminate the limits of use.

Bennet, Richard Lipton’s spirited serif superfamily, was inspired by Moth Design’s logotype and stationery system for the North Bennet Street School in Boston. Initially modest in concept, Bennet grew to an expansive suite of 96 fonts tuned for editorial use. The three widths of Bennet’s Display and Banner sizes—Regular, Condensed, and Extra Condensed—are ideal for precise fitting of newspaper and magazine headlines. Lipton developed graded text styles for the series, offering users precise variations to help compensate for varying degrees of ink spread on different types of paper stock during the printing process. For example, because of ink absorption, the lightest grade—Bennet Text One—printed on low-quality newsprint stock will have the same gray value as the darkest grade—Bennet Text Four—on superior coated paper. (Bennet Text Two is the default grade and offered here.) Bennet also provides for a stellar reading experience in digital media, its carefully considered details vibrant yet legible on-screen.