In the Dynamic Seventies, "prismatic" typefaces were all the rage, and few were more popular than variants of Paul Renner's Futura and the Herbert Bayer-inspired Bauhaus. This family of fonts features Futura-like forms in the uppercase and Bauhaus-like forms in the lowercase, so you can mix or match to create just the perfect headline. As always, all versions contain the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets.

The American Typefounders 1893 specimen book included the pattern for this face, originally called Pontiac. Its subtle idiosyncrasies make it warm and inviting. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

If you wanted to send out a party invitation in 1923, Barnhart Brothers & Spindler recommended this typeface, which was originally called, simply, "Greeting Card". It also appears to be suitable for greetings from Mars. Available in two weights, regular and bold. Both versions of the font include the 1252 Latin and 1250 CE character sets (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

A classic late nineteenth-century face from the Dickinson Type Foundry of Boston. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1262, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

Barnhard Brothers and Spindler called this typeface Congo when it appeared in their circa-1910 type catalog. The design is characterized by strong Art Nouveau influences, tight spacing and a large x-height.

A rather droll unicase typeface, discovered in a 1970s chapbook of suggested lettering for Soviet propaganda posters, inspired this bouncy beauty. Way more fun than a barrel of Volga Boatmen. The PC Postscript, Truetype and Opentype versions contain the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

This unusual face features letterforms inspired by an Austrian travel poster designed by Johann Süssenbek in the 1930s, and rendered in a bold chiaroscuro manner. In case you're wondering, Escondido is Spanish for hidden. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

A whimsical semi-script typeface named Belcanto, designed by Edwin Sisty for Photolettering in the 1970s, provided the pattern for this typeface. Elegant and engaging, this face is sure to put a smile on yours. The PC PostScript, TrueType and OpenType versions contain the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus support for Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

A signpainter's chapbook called this style Show Card Casual, although "casual" might be understating the case a bit. Guaranteed to put some fun, and a wee bit of mischief, into your headlines. Both versions of this font include the complete Latin 1252 and Central European 1250 character sets.

J. M. Bergling called the inspiration for this typeface “modern”—at least, it passed for modern in 1914. Its bold, sinuous forms and unusual decorative treatment suggest stained glass of a certain era, and so its name is German for “Arts and Crafts”. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

A French lettering chapbook from the 1920s, entitled "Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre," provided the inspiration for this decidedly Deco exercise in alternative letterforms. Both flavors of this font feature the 1252 Latin, 1250 Central European, 1254 Turkish and 1257 Baltic character sets.

Originally released as Éclair by the French foundry Deberny, Peignot & Cie., this face is pure Art Deco in motion. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1262, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

The pattern for this graceful, subtly modulated Art Deco typeface was designed by Willard T. Sniffin for American Type Founders in the 1930s. True to the original design, the Swash Caps version features Sniffin's twelve decorative variants. The Postscript and Truetype versions contain a complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252); in addition, the Opentype version supports Unicode 1250 (Central European) languages as well.

The 1905 Barnhart Brothers & Spindler catalog featured an ultrawide face called "French Antique Extended". The letterforms have been faithfully rendered here, but this font’s kerning calls for a lot of overlapping and interlocking that the original cast-metal face wouldn't have been able to duplicate. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

Based on the 1932 typeface Newport, designed by Willard T. Sniffin for ATF, this Art Deco standard packs a lot into multi-line heads and subheads due to its very short descenders, cleverly accomplished by “fudging the baseline” on the g, p, q, and y. All versions of this font include the Unicode 1250 Central European character set in addition to the standard Unicode 1252 Latin set.

Here's a typeface from the Art Nouveau era that is equally at home in the world of contemporary science fiction, which is quite an achievement. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1262, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

The “Moorish arch” treatment of certain letters on a 2001 book on Dutch design, executed by René Knip, provided the inspiration for this exotic unicase typeface. The font also includes arabesque designs in the brace, florin and section mark positions. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin and 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan) character sets.

A rollicking fun, freewheeling font based on designs compiled by R. Henderson in the 1903 book, The Signist. Both versions of this font contain complete Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

One in the series of fonts called Whiz-Bang Wood Type, intended to be set large and tight. Spaghetti Western is a based on an Italian interpretation of a classic ultrabold Western-style face; so, fittingly, the font is named for the genre of “cowboy” film pioneered by Sergio Leone. Both versions of this font contain the complete Unicode Latin A character complement, with support for the Afrikaans, Albanian, Basque, Bosnian, Breton, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Finnish, Flemish, French, Frisian, German, Greenlandic, Hawaiian, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Maltese, Maori, Moldavan, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Provençal, Rhaeto-Romanic, Romanian, Romany, Sámi, Samoan, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish and Welsh languages, as well as discretionary ligatures and extended fractions.

The 1907 Barnhart Brothers & Spindler type specimen catalog called this unique typeface simply "Umbra". Since that name is already taken, it now has another. Due to the highly ornate nature of this face, the font has a limited character set (all accented characters, but no math operators or fractions). The Opentype version of this font supports Unicode 1250 (Central European) languages, as well as Unicode 1252 (Latin) languages.

A typeface named Times Gothic, which made its first appearance in the 1905 ATF specimen book, inspired this headline sans. Use it to add a bit of quirky visual interest to headlines and subheads. Both versions include the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets, with localization for Lithuanian, Moldovan and Romanian.

This cuddly face is based very loosely on Dave Farey's Beesknees. This version is a little more regimented but no less fun, and is notable for the addition of a lower case, not found in Farey's design. This font contains the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus support for Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

Here’s a collection of border elements taken from the pages of nineteenth and early twentieth century type specimen books of various American foundries. Download the PDF provided for each font for simple guides to constructing various borders. All characters have identical widths, so use spaces between left and right-side elements. For best results, set solid (no extra leading) and use flush left, flush right or center justification to assure proper alignment.

Lettering by an uncredited designer on a French travel poster from 1929 provided the inspiration for this ultrabold headline typeface, a curious blend of symmetry and asymmetry. The font’s small descender height allows tight line spacing while maintaining legibility, even in relatively small sizes. Both versions of this font include the complete Latin 1252 and CE 1250 character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

I have completely redone the spacing in this font, making the sidebearings more conventional. And after replacing the kerning with fresh pairs working together with the new spacing the font looks like a real gem. I love it! The inline version has a wider spacing after the letters CEK = no connecting words. Otherwise just as lovely and retro! Nick Curtis says: "Here’s a strange hybrid: I took the lower case from the formal script font Stuyvesant, straightened out its rather extreme 22° slant, and combined them with caps from the font Bellevue, again making them upright, and adding an inline effect. The result is a font that flows very nicely, with a nice balance between clean lowercase characters and swashy caps. Thanks to Deb Dunbar for naming this font. Fontleroy Brown is the solid version, produced at the request of the King of Ding, Jeff Levine." ALL fonts from CheapProFonts have very extensive language support: They contain some unusual diacritic letters (some of which are contained in the Latin Extended-B Unicode block) supporting: Cornish, Filipino (Tagalog), Guarani, Luxembourgian, Malagasy, Romanian, Ulithian and Welsh. They also contain all glyphs in the Latin Extended-A Unicode block (which among others cover the Central European and Baltic areas) supporting: Afrikaans, Belarusian (Lacinka), Bosnian, Catalan, Chichewa, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, Greenlandic, Hungarian, Kashubian, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Maori, Polish, Saami (Inari), Saami (North), Serbian (latin), Slovak(ian), Slovene, Sorbian (Lower), Sorbian (Upper), Turkish and Turkmen. And they of course contain all the usual “western” glyphs supporting: Albanian, Basque, Breton, Chamorro, Danish, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Frisian, Galican, German, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish (Gaelic), Italian, Northern Sotho, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Rhaeto-Romance, Sami (Lule), Sami (South), Scots (Gaelic), Spanish, Swedish, Tswana, Walloon and Yapese.

This pseudo-Egyptian fantasy originally was named Karnac, and was unearthed in the pages of the 1888 American Type Founders Specimen Book. This version derives it name from a continuing character from Johnny Carson's stint on the Tonight show. Both versions of this font include the Unicode Latin 1252 and 1250 Central European character sets, with localization for Moldovan and Romanian.

Cross the irrepressible Samuel Welo with a bit of found matchbook art and voilà! You have this retro charmer, proudly found on the kind of neon signs that offered an invitation to dine and dance. To continue the baseline treatment between words—or to extend it on either side—use the _Underscore character. Both versions of the font include complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1524 character sets, with localization for Moldovan, Romanian and Turkish.

Inlines that go over, under sideways, down! Deck out your headlines in grand style with this unusual inline face, based on Dektiv, a seventies-style classic from "Homage to the Alphabet." Both versions include the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets, as well as localization for Moldovan and Romanian.

This industrial-strength titling face takes its design cues from Hans Eduard Meier's Syntax Antigua. This version is bolder and beefier, so your headlines will grab and hold attention in a refined and genteel manner. Both versions include complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1524 character sets, with localization for Moldovan, Romanian and Turkish.

An unusual handlettered alphabet from the 1922 chapbook Modern Show Card Writing, by Joseph Bertram Jowitt, provided the pattern for this whimsical face. Its letterforms, as well as its name, conjure up visions of faraway places, and is sure to add a unique charm to your next project. This font contains the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus support for Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

A whimsical monoline slab-serif font with understated elegance, based on lettering from an old ad discovered by a friend in Spain. Both versions of this font contain the complete Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

Samuel Welo offered the pattern for this font as a titling font for silent movies. Its rustic charm has held up well, some eighty years on. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1262, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

Blandford Press strikes again, with a delightful, delicious, de-lovely offering from their 1946 tome, Lettering for the Commercial Artist. The editor, A. H. Hunter, called this one simply "The Elegant Alphabet" and cautioned that it, "being neither quick nor easy, needs to be used with discrimination." Or not...

Here’s a typeface with a stance as big as Texas. It’s based on Vincent Pacella’s 1960s oeuvre for Photo-Lettering, Inc. called Pacella Vega Extended 10, and named for a county in Central Texas, home of Possum Kingdom Lake. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode Latin 1252 and Central European 1250 character sets.

Here’s another nostalgic beauty from the Central Type Foundry of St. Louis, originally titled Harpers, designed for the popular newsweekly of the same name. Its bouncy, quirky letterforms will add vitality and visual interest to your headlines and subheads. All versions of this font include the Unicode 1250 Central European character set in addition to the standard Unicode 1252 Latin set.

This elegant semicursive face is based on the works of J. M. Bergling from his 1914 classic Art Alphabets and Lettering. Suitable for announcements, awards and invitations, or for distinctive and unusual drop caps. Both versions of this font contain the Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

Here’s a techno typeface with a difference. Its monoline stroke and sharp terminals are softened by rounded corners, and its perceptual monospaced widths have been subtly altered and strategically kerned to improve the visual flow. This font contains the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus support for Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

This roly-poly, rollicking display font is based on a design from the 1946 book Blue print text book of sign and show card lettering by Charles Louis Henry Wagner, who seems to have had an aversion to combination words (like blueprint, textbook and showcard).

An interesting, unusual and righteously funky variation on the classic “Barnum” style of lettering, this typeface was originally named "Dado". As any woodworker knows, dado is also the name of a slot ploughed, chiseled or cut in wood: in other words, a groove thang. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin and 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan) character sets.