Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) was called the King of Printers; he was a prolific type designer, a masterful engraver of punches and the most widely admired printer of his time. His books and typefaces were created during the 45 years he was the director of the fine press and publishing house of the Duke of Parma in Italy. He produced the best of what are known as modern" style types, basing them on the finest writing of his time. Modern types represented the ultimate typographic development of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They have characteristics quite different from the types that preceded them; such as extreme vertical stress, fine hairlines contrasted by bold main strokes, and very subtle, almost non-existent bracketing of sharply defined hairline serifs. Bodoni saw this style as beautiful and harmonious-the natural result of writing done with a well-cut pen, and the look was fashionable and admired. Other punchcutters, such as the Didot family (1689-1853) in France, and J. E. Walbaum (1768-1839) in Germany made their own versions of the modern faces. Even though some nineteenth century critics turned up their noses and called such types shattering and chilly, today the Bodoni moderns are seen in much the same light as they were in his own time. When used with care, the Bodoni types are both romantic and elegant, with a presence that adds tasteful sparkle to headlines and advertising. Parma was designed by the monotype Design Team after studying Bodoni's steel punches at the Museo Bodoniana in Parma, Italy. They also referred to specimens from the "Manuale Tipografico," a monumental collection of Bodoni's work published by his widow in 1818.

Alfarooq is the most widely known epithet for the Islamic figure Umar ibn al-Khattab (c. 586 - 644) who was a leading companion and an adviser to the Islamic prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) who later became the second Muslim Caliph after Muhammad’s death (pbuh) in 632. Muslims widely know Umar ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) as Alfarooq (i.e., he who knows and distinguishes between truth and falsehood). Alfarooq is a unique, wide, and headline Arabic display typeface. The main trait of this typeface is the novel design of its letters' tails and its dots which renders it as one of the modern stylish typefaces used for headlines and titles. This can be noticed in different letters such as Ain, Ghain, Jeem, Khah, Seen, Sheen, and others. In addition, Alfarooq font has an Arabic character set which supports Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, and Urdu letters and numerals with a limited range of specific Arabic ligatures. This typeface comes in two ultra-bold styles (i.e., Alfarooq and Alfarooq-Pro) and more than 430 distinctive glyphs with a single weight for each style. Alfarooq typeface effectively offers diverse typographic and digital usages including mainly the very large and wide poster-size works. Due to its strong baseline-stroke, Alfarooq typeface is appropriate for heading and titling works in Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, and Urdu newspapers, magazines, and other printed materials. It is also elegantly suitable for signs, book covers, advertisement light boards, street and city names, products- and services names, and titles of flyers, pamphlets, and posters. The wide style of Alfarooq font’s characters gives it more distinction when it is used in greeting cards, covers, exhibitions' signboards, external or internal walls of malls, and also the exits and entrances of airports and halls.

TT Fellows useful links: Specimen | Graphic presentation | Customization options There can't be too many universal fonts! Meet TT Fellows, a new workhorse whose functionality allows you to comfortably use the font in a variety of projects. Calm and neutral at first glance, the mood of TT Fellows can change. Working with the typeface, you can reveal its soft and friendly nature, or even the brutal one, for example, by typing the text exclusively in capital letters in the bold style. TT Fellows is easy to use and perfect for setting large text arrays. Thanks to the font's uniwidth and versatility, the font is ideal for use on websites or in periodicals. Bold styles will work harmoniously in headlines or as accents in print or on packaging. TT Fellows is a humanist sans serif with a mechanical touch. With its open shapes, the friendly neutral character of thin weights and an even softer character in bold weights, the new typeface differs in character from the classic TT Norms® and TT Commons sans serifs, while still offering the same functionality. Calm regular styles differ from bold, deliberately display and more expressive ones. By the way, TT Fellows is a unwidth typeface. It was important for us that the user could change the styles, knowing that the layout will not suffer. The typeface features equal width proportions, open apertures, and slightly squared ovals, which associatively brings it closer to other popular modern fonts. Since the idea of the typeface was focused on it being a uniwidth typeface, we needed to fit the bold styles into the regular em squares, which led to interesting graphic solutions that are noticeable, for example, in the k and ж characters, in which the branches are cut directly into the stems. TT Fellows consists of 19 styles: 9 upright, 9 italic and 1 variable, each with over 700 glyphs. The font has 26 useful OpenType features. For example, there is a switch to single-part versions of letters a and y, fractions, tabular characters, case versions of punctuation, and localized versions of characters for different languages. There is a ligature for a combination of two characters of a complex design fl. TT Fellows font field guide including best practices, font pairings and alternatives.

Sortie Super is a take on one of the kings of display lettering - Caslon's high-contrast, reversed stress 'Italian' style. It looks great at big sizes and in short flurries... and shouldn't be used in confined spaces.  When compared with the original face, the weight and contrast of Sortie Super has been exaggerated. To add gravity to the letters I've increased their width overall and reduced the spacing to a hair-line fracture for added visual impact. Characters like 'S', 'E','O' and 'Z' are relatively close to their historical precedents - however the terminals on the 'C-G-S-З-Є', which have been drawn so to be more consistent. Other aspects, such as the leg of the 'R' and 'Я', the apex of the 'A' and the spur of the 'G' are revised and simplified, to help spacing and optical weight across the alphabet. Also, to reduce visual noise terminals in characters like 'C', 'J' and 'R'' are horizontally aligned. Meanwhile, the central horizontal strokes in the 'B', 'P' and 'R' etc are reduced to a hairline, so as to create a more simplified system of thick-to-thin.  The temptation when drawing this kind of esoteric display alphabet is to start to rely on modular components. Which, while copy-paste-repeat is a sure-fire way to make the face more visually consistent, it's a lazy method that risks allowing the font become soulless and mechanical. An early experiment I made was making a monospaced version, which was useful in headlines, but it lost that loving feeling. So, by maintaining a handful of flourishes – the tail of the '?', the inky drop of the '!', the bulbous gloop of arms of the 'Ж' and 'К', the swirling legs in the 'R', 'Я' and 'Л', the big-bowling weight of the 'J' and 'U' – plus a few in-built inconsistencies and a bit of its own silliness, Sortie Super retains some of the organic warmth of its ancestor. Conversely, the counters, apertures and negative space are largely rigidly geometric, which helps give the revival font a bit of a modern touch. Sortie Super is an uppercase-only display font that comes with Western, Central and East European Latin, extended Cyrillic, Pinyin, as well as a set of hairline graphic features and symbols.

Nulshock, the name itself invokes images of a bold, industrial design, with sleek, precise lines and curves that scream of the latest high-tech advancements. This typeface is not for the faint of heart, as it delivers your message with an unapologetic, explosive impact that will leave a lasting impression. Designed with the utmost attention to detail, Nulshock’s precise mechanical curves and accurate optical adjustments make it a natural fit for even the most demanding of high-tech environments. Its ultra-modern design and wide, industrial style set it apart from other fonts, making it the perfect choice for headlines, labels, indicators, logos, product names, and titles. And with a range of seven weights to choose from, you can fine-tune Nulshock’s visual impact to suit your specific needs. From the lightest weight for a more delicate touch, to the heaviest weight for maximum impact, Nulshock has you covered. But Nulshock isn’t just a pretty face—it’s also highly functional. With a wide range of symbols, including mathematical symbols, monetary symbols, fractions, and numeric ordinals, Nulshock is a versatile tool for any design project. In short, Nulshock is a font that demands attention, and it delivers on that demand with an ultra-modern, wide design that is optimized for high-tech environments. So if you’re looking to make a bold statement with your next design project, Nulshock is the typeface for you. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Introducing Narcis, the delightful retro bold script font that's bound to add a touch of nostalgia and flair to any project! This charming typeface boasts a unique blend of boldness and elegance, making it perfect for various design purposes. With its alternate and ligature glyphs, Narcis offers a wonderful range of creative possibilities. These additional characters add extra variety to your text, giving it a truly personalized and artistic feel. Whether you're designing a logo, poster, invitation, or any other project, Narcis' alternates and ligatures will help you achieve a distinct and eye-catching look. But that's not all! Narcis is also impressively versatile when it comes to language support, accommodating up to 87 languages. This means you can confidently express yourself in multiple languages without compromising on the font's aesthetics or legibility. Narcis comes in both regular and italic styles, allowing you to emphasize specific parts of your text or create a dynamic interplay between the two styles. The regular style offers a bold and confident appearance, while the italic style adds a touch of sophistication and movement to your design. Whether you're a seasoned designer or just starting on your creative journey, Narcis is sure to become your go-to font for adding that retro touch with a modern twist. Its warm and friendly demeanor will instantly win you over, making every project a joyful and visually captivating experience. So go ahead and give Narcis a try – you won't be disappointed! Language Support : Afrikaans, Albanian, Asu, Basque, Bemba, Bena, Breton, Chiga, Colognian, Cornish, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Embu, English, Estonian, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Galician, Ganda, German, Gusi,i Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jola-Fonyi, Kabuverdianu, Kalenjin, Kamba, Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lower Sorbian, Luo, Luxembourgish, Luyia, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malagasy, Maltese, Manx, Meru, Morisyen, North Ndebele, Norwegian, Bokmål, Norwegian, Nynorsk, Nyankole, Oromo, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Romanian, Romansh, Rombo, Rundi, Rwa, Samburu, Sango, Sangu, Scottish, Gaelic, Sena, Shambala, Shona, Slovak, Soga, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Swiss, German, Taita, Teso, Turkish, Upper, Sorbian, Uzbek (Latin), Volapük, Vunjo, Walser, Welsh, Western Frisian, Zulu How to access alternate glyphs? To access alternate glyphs in Adobe InDesign or Illustrator, choose Window Type & Tables Glyphs In Photoshop, choose Window Glyphs. In the panel that opens, click the Show menu and choose Alternates for Selection. Double-click an alternate's thumbnail to swap them out. Mock ups and backgrounds used are not included. Thank you! Enjoy!

TT Travels useful links: Specimen | Graphic presentation | Customization options About TT Travels: TT Travels is a geometric grotesque with wide proportions and peculiar shapes of circles and brackets. TT Travels incorporates two stylistic sets which add completely different characters to the type family. The first set ss01 (aka salt) makes the font more humanistic, thanks to the ductal and smooth design of the characters defining the style. And if you want to work with the futuristic version of TT Travels, we recommend that you enable the second set (ss02). In this set, most of the characters defining the style change to characters possessing experimental forms of graphemes. For the convenience of the TT Travels font family use and for working within a complex text hierarchy, we've created 9 weights (Thin, X-Light, Light, Regular, Medium, DemiBold, Bold, X-Bold, Black) and added 9 true Italics. TT Travels also implements standard and discretionary ligatures, oldstyle figures, slashed zero, and much more. The full list of OpenType features used in TT Travels is: ordn, sups, sinf, numr, dnom, onum, tnum, pnum, liga, dlig, salt, ss01, ss02, case, frac, zero. TT Travels language support: Acehnese, Afar, Albanian, Alsatian, Aragonese, Arumanian, Asu, Aymara, Banjar, Basque, Belarusian (cyr), Bemba, Bena, Betawi, Bislama, Boholano, Bosnian (cyr), Bosnian (lat), Breton, Bulgarian (cyr), Cebuano, Chamorro, Chiga, Colognian, Cornish, Corsican, Cree, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Embu, English, Erzya, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Gaelic, Gagauz (lat), Galician, German, Gusii, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiri Motu, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Innu-aimun, Interlingua, Irish, Italian, Javanese, Judaeo-Spanish, Judaeo-Spanish, Kalenjin, Karachay-Balkar (lat), Karaim (lat), Karakalpak (lat), Kashubian, Khasi, Khvarshi, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kongo, Kumyk, Kurdish (lat), Ladin, Latvian, Laz, Leonese, Lithuanian, Luganda, Luo, Luxembourgish, Luyia, Macedonian, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malay, Manx, Maori, Mauritian Creole, Minangkabau, Moldavian (lat), Montenegrin (lat), Mordvin-moksha, Morisyen, Nahuatl, Nauruan, Ndebele, Nias, Nogai, Norwegian, Nyankole, Occitan, Oromo, Palauan, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rheto-Romance, Rohingya, Romanian, Romansh, Rombo, Rundi, Russian, Rusyn, Rwa, Salar, Samburu, Samoan, Sango, Sangu, Scots, Sena, Serbian (cyr), Serbian (lat), Seychellois Creole, Shambala, Shona, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Sundanese, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Swiss German, Swiss German, Tagalog, Tahitian, Taita, Tatar, Tetum, Tok Pisin, Tongan, Tsonga, Tswana, Turkish, Turkmen (lat), Ukrainian, Uyghur, Vepsian, Volapük, Võro, Vunjo, Xhosa, Zaza, Zulu.

Among the countless typefaces available today, the Modern Face style is relatively underrepresented. During the 19th century and then later with the competition from the mechanized hot metal types and film setting, a number of attractive headline types appeared in this style. For text, however, the available types were limited to those based on tried and true classics like Walbaum, Didot and Bodoni, which were created between 1780 and 1830, as well as a few variations from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The demand for new Modern text types remained nonexistant until the 1960s. Such was the situation when the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas Type Foundry) commissioned me to come up with a concept and sketches of a new hot metal type. I was able to convince the director of the foundry that there was a niche to be filled with contemporary Modern typography. Another reason for the production of a new type was of a technical nature: the introduction of a new setting technique should not be limited to existing typefaces, but instead should lead to innovative text types suited to the demands of the new applications. André Gürtler, Basilia's designer: I began to work on the concept and initial designs of the new text type in 1968. I wanted to give the type a classical look, expressed above all in the strong stroke contrast between the robust verticals and fine horizontal strokes and serifs. This is one of the main characteristics of Modern typography.""This new typeface, Basilia, is distinguished by its soft, open appearance as well as a number of details which together mark a departure from historical models. For example, it has nothing of Bodoni's round letters and their angular, narrow spacing, and displays instead round forms with a much softer stroke in the curves. It was very important to me to avoid the Modern characteristic of stiff, vertical, grid-like strokes and to create instead a lighter, more transparent type. I retained the Modern style by using straight horizontal serifs at right angles to the strokes to still give the type its sense of rigidity." Three sketches for Basilia (normal, italic, and bold) were finished in 1973. Only the 9-point size was produced at first. In the following years, basic weights were made and adapted to filmsetting."

Turnkey is a modern grotesque typeface, it could be described as a neo-grotesque with hints of geometric shapes. A workhorse typeface designed to be versatile for both small and large sizes, ink traps have been used as a design feature above 26pt and a technical feature when printing small body text. The combination of 36 weights and styles allows you the freedom to create. Each weight includes extended support for over 90 languages (Including Cyrillic), fractions, tabular figures, arrows, ligatures, alternate glyphs, and more. Demo licenses are available from colttypeco.com In addition to a standard style set, the Turnkey family also has an italic set plus soft versions of both. Turnkey Soft is a slightly rounded version of the standard and italic, which looks more friendly, warm, and soft. It's corporate but with a personality. Current instances are: Turnkey Standard - Thin, Thin Italic, Extra Light, Extra Light Italic, Light, Light Italic, Regular, Regular Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, SemiBold, SemiBold Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Extra Bold, Extra Bold Italic, Heavy, Heavy Italic. Turnkey Soft - Thin, Thin Italic, Extra Light, Extra Light Italic, Light, Light Italic, Regular, Regular Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, SemiBold, SemiBold Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Extra Bold, Extra Bold Italic, Heavy, Heavy Italic When used as body type, Turnkey pairs well with: Take Note, Stroom and Markout. Turnkey is perfect for; headings, titles, body copy, logos, magazines, editorial design, corporate branding, brand identity, websites, blogs, apps, games, ebooks, publications, and signage. Turnkey can be found in the Typodarium 2024 OpenType features: Access All Alternates, Glyph Composition / Decomposition, Discretionary Ligatures, Denominators, Fractions, Kerning, Standard Ligatures, Localized Forms, Mark Positioning, Mark to Mark Positioning, Numerators, Proportional Figures, Scientific Inferiors, Stylistic Set 1, Stylistic Set 2, Stylistic Set 3, Subscript, Superscript, Tabular Figures. Support for 95 languages: Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, Afrikaans, Albanian, Asu, Basque, Bemba, Bena, Breton, Catalan, Chiga, Colognian, Cornish, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Embu, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Galician, Ganda, German, Gusii, Hungarian, Inari Sami, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jola-Fonyi, Kabuverdianu, Kalenjin, Kamba, Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lower Sorbian, Luo, Luxembourgish, Luyia, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malagasy, Maltese, Manx, Meru, Morisyen, North Ndebele, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Nyankole, Oromo, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Romanian, Romansh, Rombo, Rundi, Rwa, Samburu, Sango, Sangu, Scottish Gaelic, Sena, Serbian, Shambala, Shona, Slovak, Soga, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Swiss German, Taita, Teso, Turkish, Upper Sorbian, Uzbek (Latin), Volapük, Vunjo, Walser, Welsh, Western Frisian, Zulu

Introducing Junegull, the typeface that seamlessly blends retro-tech design with a contemporary twist. With its friendly all-caps rounded sans, Junegull is like a breath of fresh air—a perfect combination of technological prowess and gentle charm. But don’t let its cuddly appearance fool you; Junegull is like a murderous mechanical teddy bear, with a sharp edge that’s ready to take on any design challenge. For those who crave something wilder, Junegull Beach is the font for you. This wild sibling is perfect for those who want to take their designs to the next level. With Junegull Beach, every letter pair is carefully crafted to give you a more realistic, sandy feel. It’s like taking a walk on the beach, with every letter a grain of sand that transports you to a world of creativity. What sets Junegull Beach apart is its tailor-made pairs, giving you a font that’s uniquely yours. Whether you’re designing a logo, a website, or a poster, Junegull Beach will help you stand out from the crowd with its dynamic and playful style. So why settle for an ordinary font when you can have Junegull and Junegull Beach? With their retro-tech design and contemporary charm, these fonts are a must-have for any designer looking to create something truly extraordinary. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

I spend a lot of time following two obsessions: packaging and hand lettering. Alongside a few other minor obsessions, those two have been my major ones for so many years now, I've finally reached the point where I can actually claim them as “obsessions” without getting a dramatic reaction from the little voice in the back of my head. When you spend so much time researching and studying a subject, you become very focused, directionally and objectively. But of course some of the research material you run into turns out to be tangential to whatever your focus happens to be at the time, so you absorb what you can from it, then shelf it — like the celebrity bobblehead that amused you for a while, but is now an almost invisible ornament eating dust and feathers somewhere in your environment. And just like the bobblehead may fall off the shelf one day to remind you of its existence, some of my lettering research material unveiled itself in my head one day for no particular reason. Hand lettering is now mostly perceived as an American art. Someone with my historical knowledge about lettering may be snooty enough to go as far as pointing out the British origins of almost everything American, including lettering — but for the most part, the contemporary perspective associates great lettering with America. The same perspective also associates blackletter, gothics and sans serifs with Germany. So you can imagine my simultaneous surprise and impatience when, in my research for one of my American lettering-based fonts, I ran into a German lettering book from 1953, by an artist called Bentele. It was no use for me because it didn't propel my focus at that particular time, but a few months ago I was marveling at what we take for granted — the sky is blue, blackletter is German, lettering is American — and found myself flipping through the pages of that book again. The lettering in that book is upbeat and casual sign making stuff, but it has a slightly strange and youthful experimentation at its heart. I suppose I find it strange because it deviates a lot from the American stuff I'm used to working with for so long now. To make a long story short, what’s inside that German book served as the semilla, which is Spanish for seed, for the typeface you see all over these pages. With Semilla, my normal routine went out the window. My life for a while was all Bezier all the time. No special analog or digital brushes or pens were used in drawing these forms. They're the product of a true Bezier process, all starting with a point creating a curve to another point, which draws a curve to another point, and so on. It’s a very time-consuming process, but at the end I am satisfied that it can get to pretty much the same results easier and more traditional methods accomplish. And as usual with my fonts, the OpenType is plenty and a lot of fun. Experimenting with substitution and automation is still a great pleasure for me. It is the OpenType that always saves me from the seemingly endless work hours every type designer must inevitably have to face at one point in his career. The artful photos used in this booklet are by French photographer and designer Stéphane Giner. He is very deserving of your patronage, so please keep an eye out for his marvelous work. I hope you like Semilla and enjoy using it. I have a feeling that it marks a transition to a more curious and flexible period in my career, but only time will tell.

ROARRR! THE STYLES -Pantera Pro is the most complete style, and although its default look is mono-rhythmic it gets really playful and crazy like the examples of the posters by just activating the Decorative Ligatures button in the Open-type Panel of Adobe Illustrator. However, I recommend using also the Glyphs Panel because there you'll find much more variants per letter. Pantera Pro is in fact, coded in a way the combination of thicknesses will always look fantastic. -Pantera Black Left, and Pantera Black Right are actually “lite” versions of Pantera Pro: They have very little Open-Type code, so what you see here is what you get. Pantera Black Left has its left strokes thick, while Pantera Black Right has its right strokes thick. -Pantera White is a lovely member in this family that looks lighter and airy, hence its name. With the feature Standard Ligatures activated (liga) the font gets very playful. -Pantera Caps is based on sign painters lettering and since it follows the same pointed brush rules as the other styles, it matches perfectly. -Pantera Claws like its name suggests, is a set of icons that were done by our dear panther. THE STORY It is said that typography can never be as expressive as calligraphy, but sometimes it can get close enough. I tend to think that calligraphic trials, in order to work well as potential fonts, need first to go through very strict filters before going digital: While calligraphy is synonym of freedom (once its rules are mastered), type-design, in the other hand, has its battlefield a little tighter and tougher. When I practice pointed brush lettering, there are so many things happening on the paper. And most of them are delicious. The ones who know my work may see that although many of my fonts are very expressive, my handmade brush trials are much more lively than them. With that in mind, this time I tried to go further and rescue more of those things that are lost in the process of thinking type when first sketches are calligraphic. I wondered if I could create something wild, hence its name Panther, by understanding the randomness that sometimes calligraphy conveys and turning it to something systemic: With Pantera, I created an ordered disorder. Like it happens a lot in many kinds of lettering styles, in order to enrich the written word the scribe mixes the thickness of the strokes and the width of the letters. Like one of my favorite mentors say (1), they make thoughtful gestures Some lively strokes go down with a thick, while some do that with a thin. Some letters are very narrow, meaning some of them will need to be very wide to compensate. Why not?. The calligrapher is always thinking on the following letters, and he/she designs in his head the combination of thicks and thins before he/she executes them. He/she knows the playful rhythm the words will have before writing them. It takes time and skill to master this and achieve graceful results. Going back to the font, in Pantera, this combination of varying thicknesses and widths of letters were Open-Type coded so the user will see satisfactory results by just enabling or disabling some buttons on the glyphs panel. I'm very pleased with the result since it’s not very easy to find fonts which play with the words' rhythm like Pantera does, following of course, a strong calligraphic base. I believe that if you were on the prowl for innovative fonts, this is your chance to go wild and get Pantera! NOTES (1) Phrase by Yves Leterme. In fact, it’s the title of a book by him. EPILOGUE Esta fuente está dedicada a mi panterita