Born in Fulda, Germany, Martina Theisen studied communications design in Mainz. She spent many years working for the television company, SWR Mainz. Now she works as a designer and illustrator. She creates fonts, as well as illustrates children's books and school textbooks. For Linotype Typentypo (2002, part of TakeType 4), she designed the display faces Linotype Creatures, Linotype Improfil Outline and Black (profiles of funny faces), Linotype Smileface, Linotype Maenneken and Linotype Astrolo (hand-drawn astrological symbols).

Developed at ParaType in 1995 by Alexander Tarbeev, based on TextBook, 1987, by Emma Zakharova. For use in advertising and display typography.

Personal Note JNL gets its inspiration from a semi-calligraphic pen alphabet found in the 1960 edition of the Speedball® lettering textbook and is offered in both regular and oblique versions.

Roundpoint Pen JNL is based on instructional lettering found in an old Speedball® Pen textbook. The effect of a round nib pen letter evokes the charm of the 1920s or 1930s.

From a vintage textbook on "modern" lettering circa the 1930s or 1940s comes a simple chamfered sans with oddly irregular shapes. Amateur Lettering JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Designed at Polygraphmash in 1958 by Elena Tsaregorodtseva; Latin characters and italic were added in 1987 by Emma Zakharova. An early sans serif ('Grotesque'), it was developed for primers and the first level school textbooks.

The pages of the Speedball® Lettering Textbook have yielded a number of classic typefaces for digital designers. Frontiersman JNL and Frontiersman Black JNL have the wonderful hand-lettered look that adds just the right touch of nostalgia to any layout.

Littera project is a modern interpretation of one of the most widespread sans serifs in USSR "TextBook font". It is not an exact revival, but an interpretation of its typographic feel executed in two different ways: Littera Plain and Littera Text.

Littera project is a modern interpretation of one of the most widespread sans serifs in USSR "TextBook font". It is not an exact revival, but an interpretation of its typographic feel executed in two different ways: Littera Plain and Littera Text.

Lettering found on the cover of 1915 textbook pamphlets from the Woman’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences, Inc. [of Scranton, PA] inspired the creation of Nouveau Formal JNL. This attractive serif typeface is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Art Department JNL is a fun, casual serif typeface which fits perfectly with any number of visual projects. This is one of the many hand-lettered alphabets found in various Speedball® lettering textbooks that has been re-drawn digitally by Jeff Levine.

Every designer has a favorite geometric sans serif. For a century, they've been a staple for text that needs to be clear, strong, architectural, and objective. Mimolette offers a sans serif family that's great for text and display alike—the panache of Neutraface, the readability of Avenir, the sleekness of Avant Garde, the strength of Mark, the architecture of Gotham, and the classic lines of Futura—but she's entirely her own creature, and she's designed to offer maximum versatility and beauty at an affordable price. And she's got some nifty features, too! Her italic is a true italic, not just an oblique. Are the uberpointy diagonals (AMVW) not working in a particular context? Activate Stylistic Set 01, and they become flat-topped! Want more playful cursive alternatives in the italic? Activate Stylistic Set 02, and you've got them in the A, E, K, Q, R, and k. She's got true small caps in all styles! She's got true fractions in all styles, as well as oldstyle (small cap) and lining numerals, in both tabular and proportional widths. Best of all, perhaps, Mimolette was made with love, as always, by yer pals in the Ampersand Forest.

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).