The "Ma" in "Ma Braille" is used as a minimalist way to say "Negative Space". "Ma" in japanese arts is an "esthetical usage of emptiness". Thus this font explicits the negative space around visible braille dots in each glyph. A. Font user guide a.1. Lowercase glyphs { A..Z } In these glyphs, dots are represented as "black squares" while the negative space is displayed as 1 or 2 white filled polygons. a.2. Uppercase glyphs { a..z } In these glyphs, dots are represented as "white squares" while the negative space is displayed as 1 or 2 black filled polygons. a.3. Digits: they are just the same than a..j, but the "North US version" is also provided in ascii codes 0xE0..0xE4 (1..5) and 0xE7..0xEB (6..0). a.5. "Dashed Border": a.5.1. "Black dashed" border glyphs; { £, ¥, µ, Â, Ä, Ê, Ë, Î, Ï, Ô } a.5.2. "White dashed" border glyphs; { Ö, Õ, °, ô, ö, î, ï, û, u, õ } B. Posters Poster 1: "Font Logo" version 1, it displays "Ma Braille" text surrounded by the "black dashed border" glyphs. Poster 2: "Font Logo" version 2, it displays "MA" glyphs in big size and smaller "Braille" glyphs within "M" and within "A" as well. Poster 3: the classical pangram to test a font "The Quick Brown Fox jumps over the Lazy dog". Poster 4: Article 1 of the Human Rights: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Poster 5: the "Glyph set" (Border glyphs not included) with A..Z, a..z, digits and special characters.

Pauline Script is a Vintage inspired Monoline script. It's a contemporary script inspired by the past, now available to the Instagram era. Pauline Script is a follow up to the popular Pauline typeface. Pauline was one of my first typefaces, all the way back in 2008. Inspired by a variety of influences, from Art Deco signage, to a simple spice label, Pauline Script has very little stroke contrast and was inspired by Retro connected scripts. Over the course of its evolution, it started to take on more influence from geometric sans serif typefaces and lost the connectors. There's a strong geometric streak, derived from 1930s sans serifs like Futura. Tall ascenders and descenders give it a unique look. Now, this script version has now come full circle, utilizing the original sans serif face design and adding connectors back in, with an optically corrected dynamic slant. For invitations, signage, logos or other applications, Pauline Script is there when you need something that stands out with a touch of class and a sense of uniqueness. Turning on Contextual Alternates (non connecting ending forms) and Discretionary Ligatures (better letter connections) is highly recommended. There's a wide range of weights available. It's a playful typeface with options to either have everything connected, or alternate forms which allow for letter connections that still maintain the sense of flow of a script. Includes plenty of ligatures!

TT Geekette is an experimental variable* serif with friendly and flexible character of shapes. In this project, we wanted to get away from simplifications and dry geometry and to experiment with the smoothness, softness and plasticity of forms. And in order to make the project a little more stylish and serious, we decided to make the font monospaced. When creating TT Geekette, we did not rely on traditional writing techniques or on the influence of pen movement on the font pattern. Despite the fact that judging by certain characters TT Geekette is a serif, the font is specifically “built” and “drawn”. There are several systemic techniques in font design, such as “loops” which set the plastic rhythm for the entire typeface. Variability in TT Geekette is influenced by contrast buildup in the font—moving the slider to adjust the variability axis, you gradually move from a completely non-contrast monolinear serif font to a font with a pronounced reverse contrast. In addition, with the help of the variability slider, you can remove serifs from the monolinear essence of the font. The TT Geekette family consists of 3 styles: the TT Geekette Bones—monolinear font, the TT Geekette Muscles—reverse contrast serif, and the TT Geekette Variable font. Each style contains over 450 glyphs. And yes, technically the typeface can be used in programming, at least you are guaranteed to get your share of bright emotions. *An important clarification regarding variable fonts. At the moment, not all graphic editors, programs and browsers support variable fonts. You can check the status of support for the variability of your software here: v-fonts.com/support/

This type of Richard Gans, has always seemed very striking, despite having the complexity of the sources extrusion, has its own personality, and readability unusual for this type of letters. Use it for composing posters, programs or logos was very common at the time. My father, Antonio Lage Parapar, typographer by profession, who composed the texts, which not only had it for profession, but he liked to do, always he spoke of sources and decorative elements of the type foundry Richard Gans, as well as other foundries, especially those that required the mender of them, exercised creator, many of these types they have already been recovered by professionals and companies with excellent results. I've been surrounded by these movable type, and the occasional catalog unfortunately lost. One of those guys that has always struck me visually speaking was the type IMAN Richard Gans, the typographer and more of German origin arrived in Spain, back in 1874, also a pioneer. This work to revive the type mentioned, as well as create non existing glyphs between documents and parts I've been finding, is and has been a personal pleasure all I want serve as a tribute to my father (of aopodo curiously "Richard"), the only sadness it has not been completed. Richard Gans, arrived in Spain in 1874 as a representative of several European factories. then liaised with journalistic and publishing companies, which led him knowledge required of the first sector art. In 1878 he created a center importer gadgets graphic arts and three years later he created his own type foundry. The first rotary newspaper ABC, very famous and the most advanced of the time, the brand manufactured Richard Gans.

Novelty Script is a bold dynamic script, sharply delineated, yet fluid. Most of the lower case letters and many of the upper case letters have joins. The typeface was designed by Nicholas J. Werner and Gustave F. Schroeder and patented in March 1893. The original release was by the Central Type Foundry of St. Louis, Missouri. Although a part of ATF from 1892, the Central Type Foundry continued to operate under its own name until 1895. Novelty Script uses our new encoding, as noted in the All_customer_readme.txt. The Euro symbol has been moved to position 128 and the Zcaron/zcaron have been added at positions 142/158 respectively. Otherwise, Novelty Script has our usual idiosyncratic glyph selection, with the German ch/ck instead of braces, Western European accented letters, lower case “o” and “u” with Hungarian umlaut and our usual Hand-in-Hand symbol. But that is not all. With the takeover of the Central Type Foundry by ATF, a group of special characters appeared. All are included in this font, except the “&Co” and the "'s", for a total of nine in all. The “Ch” and “nd” ligatures are especially interesting because of the impact they have on the color and overall appearance of the page. Download the PDF Type Specimen for locations. This is a fun font to use. Its strength is print, where it gives a page a refreshing look. The joins sometimes have difficulty on the screen, in spite of extensive hinting. Playing around with small changes on the point size can pay dividends. Not for the faint-of-heart. Are you up to the challenge?

Who doesn't want or need an expansive contemporary extended sans that has a sense of style and swagger… what if it had a lowercase, small caps and various numeral options… how could you say no? This was the foundational argument I made for myself when I drew the initial alphabet on my birthday last year (something I do each year, draw a new font, kind of a fun OCD thing). I wanted to see a wide, utilitarian sans that had more to it than just a basic character set and didn't resemble standard geometric models. As I continued sketching, the letterforms were being influenced more by my 'lettering tendencies' than the normal mechanical trappings of drawing flat, wide letters. The letters have retained aspects of letters created by hand — stresses, modulation, naturally ending terminals. Truncation and quick clipping of strokes became antithetical to the letterforms I drew, so I continued this once I brought the design into the computer. I kept it precise and dependable, but made every attempt to keep a conscientiously crafted typeface and not let it devolve into a grid-based drone. As such, it works just as well looking back in time as much as it does assuming a lead role in a sci-fi movie. Halogen does deliver and opts not to take a short cut and provide an anemic offering of glyphs — a modern typeface offered today must provide more than just the basics and this one does — lowercase, smallcaps, old style numerals, tabular forms, stylistic and titling alternates, fractions, case-sensitive features, and even an alternate uppercase ordinal set is included. So go make cool print and digital things with it, now.

Hedon Display, nothing to hide!

The Ouido typeface has tastefully narrow characters with enough default spacing for comfortable reading at small sizes. Equipped with features like letter-spaced small caps and conservatively drawn italics for emphasizing words that maintain the reading speed—providing the reader a pleasant overall experience. Ouido (pronounced as “widow”) is derived from the Portuguese word OUVIR which means to hear or to listen. Ouido refers to the ability to play a song on any musical instrument after listening to it a couple of times and without reading the notes. The Ouido typeface is a modernized nostalgia for music enthusiasts, a whimsical revamp of the classic serif font. It bears resemblance with printed classical music scores, characterized by each letter’s rounded strokes like how one drew clefs with passion. Each dot is a twin of the quarter note minus the stem, so weaving sentences together could feel like composing a melody. Inspired by the astounding phenomenon of absolute pitch, the visual appeal of this typeface may hone your imaginative ability to embellish your creation without needing a reference.

Are you tired of the same old fonts that everyone's using? Add a touch of nostalgia and personality to your designs with Sacharon, a retro pop font! Whether you're working on a vintage-themed project, designing a catchy poster, or simply want to stand out from the crowd, our fonts will give your work the groovy vibe it deserves. Sacharon takes inspiration from the bold and vibrant styles of the '60s and '70s, bringing back the essence of the good old days. From funky disco fonts to psychedelic lettering, we've got the perfect typefaces to transport your audience to an era of fun and excitement. Perfectly fit for logo, branding, advertising, poster, food and beverages, restaurant, book cover, album artwork, decoration, sign painting, and many more. Don't settle for ordinary typography—take a trip down memory lane with Sacharon! Browse our collection now and transform your designs into eye-catching works of art. Get ready to embrace the vibrant, nostalgic spirit of the past in a modern and trendy way. Get it now and let the grooviness begin!

Risotto Script is a sexy font designed by Felipe Calderón, it represents the texture, sound, smell and flavor of food that come in those interesting packages with different concepts. This font makes you want to eat it because it is designed with a unique texture like a lot of vegetables, it has flourishes that suggest herbs and country roots. Calligraphy with folded pen and food packaging were two of the inspirations to develop this project that will work well wherever it is applied. Risotto Script Pro has 672 glyphs that have the purpose of covering a lot of writing options with different results, by applying OpenType programming as: - Standard ligatures - Stylistics alternatives - Contextual alternates - Discretionary ligatures - Swashes - Terminal forms - Stylistic Set 1, 2, 3 and 4 - Initials (it includes leaves in some endings) NOTE: The X height is generous, in order to design signs to 8 and low size. You`d better get the “extras” for a more complete experience. Most of the Standard ligatures include Stylistics alternatives with detailed endings Multiple language options.

Scriptissimo-Forte-Swirls is the bold version of Scriptissimo but with lots of swirls. Sometimes a job just calls for lots of embellishments, that's what this version is good for. Yours very swirly, Gert Wiescher.

Lots of alternative weights, readability, contemporary.

The Generic Typeface Collection is a series of sans-serif typefaces inspired by the craftsmanship of graphic design, typesetting, and printing in the analogue era – before Adobe, Macintosh computers and desktop publishing – when dinosaurs ruled the earth. With the use of various typesetting apparatuses or dry transfer type, photo copiers, and shooting layouts and paste-ups to film, the printed results was not as exact, precise and predictable as it is today. When examining old prints, it is difficult not to like the way that characters in over- or underexposed film have a special type of vibe to them that is often sadly lost in today’s pursuit of total perfection. Encouraged by this, I saw a need for a collection of typefaces that are non-clinical and non-conformist, and some that are coarse, rough and distorted – errors that might come from poor exposure when put on film, enlargements from small point texts, or maybe quality loss from successive generations of photocopies. Or all of the above. This is an attempt to incorporate spirit and personality into a set of typefaces without losing distinction. You might call it a homage to non-perfection. I call it human. The Generic Typeface Collection consists of 11 fonts divided into four series. The three standard series – the Formal Release series, the Coarse Copy series, and the Rough Display series – all contain three fonts each. The Extra Splendor series contains a couple of shadow fonts for that little extra sparkle. Formal Release – Handcrafted & Clean The Formal Release series features sans-serif typefaces for everyday use. They are handcrafted and clean, human and uncomplicated. The Formal Release series contains three typefaces that add tons of personality to any text. G10 FR ‘Slim’ – a slightly under-exposed and clean typeface in a regular weight (228 glyphs - 1 alternate) G20 FR ‘Classic’ – a properly exposed clean typeface in a bold weight (228 glyphs - 1 alternate) G30 FR ‘Bulky’ – a heavily over-exposed clean typeface in an ultra weight (228 glyphs - 1 alternate) Coarse Copy – Dirty & Rough The Coarse Copy series features non-conformist typefaces that are worn and rough, maybe after going through that bad copier a few times too much. The Coarse Copy series contains three sans-serif typefaces that add tons of spirit to any text without compromising too much on legibility. Try them on in poster-sizes and everyone will know that you mean business. G40 CC ‘Slender’ – an under-exposed coarse typeface in a regular weight (228 glyphs - 1 alternate) G50 CC ‘Typic’ – a properly exposed coarse typeface in a bold weight (228 glyphs - 1 alternate) G60 CC ‘Huge’ – a heavily over-exposed coarse typeface in an ultra weight (228 glyphs - 1 alternate) Rough Display – Faded & Decorative The Rough Display series features attention-seeking decorative typefaces in three feature-packed fonts. Faded and gritty like the image distortion and degradation from successive generations of photocopies, they are eye-catching typefaces intended to stand out in bigger point sizes. Use these typefaces for signage, headlines and similar situations were a strong typographic statement is desired. We have packed no less than 1,334 alternate characters and 212 discretionary ligatures into this series for a greater chance of not having characters that look exactly the same more than once. G70 RD ‘Slinky’ – an under-exposed rough and decorative typeface in a regular weight (741 glyphs – 448 alternates – 66 discretionary ligatures) G80 RD ‘Standard’ – a properly-exposed rough and decorative typeface in a bold weight (748 glyphs – 448 alternates – 73 discretionary ligatures) G90 RD ‘Swollen’ – a heavily over-exposed rough and decorative typeface in an ultra weight (748 glyphs – 448 alternates – 73 discretionary ligatures) Extra Splendor – Sparkling & Extraordinary The Extra Splendor series features two shadow typefaces for that little extra sparkle. One clean shadow to be used with G20 FR ‘Classic’, and one rough shadow to be used with G80 RD ‘Standard’. Having the shadows separate from the main typeface adds another layer of expressiveness in that you can try out color combinations for that extra splendor. Tips for matching (applies to both the base font and the shadow font): Set the kerning to Metric, not optical. Increase tracking to accommodate for the shadows extra width. G25 ES ‘Classic Shadow’ – a clean shadow to be used with G20 FR ‘Classic’ (228 glyphs – 1 alternate) G85 ES ‘Standard Shadow’ – a rough shadow to be used with 80 RD ‘Standard’ (227 glyphs) OpenType features – alternate characters and discretionary ligatures – can be accessed by using OpenType friendly professional design applications, such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Photoshop.

Sometimes you get an idea stuck in your head and the only way to get rid of that demon is to put something down on paper. A year later the doodles became a skeleton, and then the skeleton had a body, then the body had a name, then the name got a personality. What was left was a clean set of ten fonts that encompass a very simple skeleton with a lot of visual appeal. During the process, I saw ways to expand the typeface's display capabilities by producing inline styles as well as a down-and-dirty rough set. Each font has a full set of glyphs that include Central European and Small Cap characters.

Brolly Fight is a fun, slim line font with off-kilter lines. I had so much fun creating this one! It has a stick figure art deco feel. It's fun and playful, with lots of ligatures and alternates to play with. Mix and match lowercase and uppercase letters for a unique look. There are four alternate ampersands, and fun double letter ligatures, as well as playful ligatures for r, k + a, e, o, u combinations. That high lowercase o with an underscore has a twin lowercase a alternate you can access too! Mix and match capitals and lowercase (plus the ligatures & alternates) to create unique text designs. Now with a bold version!

Bartdeng is a luxury Handwritten Font with a new stylish, a perfection style of the letters you want to use, modern handwriting with many alternatives. Now this is an OpenType! It's smart and in line with your wishes! You are welcome to use it, suitable for various purposes: logo, signatures, corporate symbol, wedding invitation, title, creative, t-shirt, business card, letterhead, nameplate, headings, label, poster, news, badge, letterhead, cutting, hot stamping, quotation, etc. Bartdeng Features 535 glyphs and alternative characters. Includes the initial letter to terminal, alternative, ligature and multiple language support. Programs that support OpenType features such as Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe Indesign, Corel Draw, and Microsoft Office.

Introducing Sonneta, a free flowing, modern hand drawn script. With a spontaneous feel and lots of alternates, it's a perfect typeface for your branding projects or anywhere you need a fresh hand drawn look. Sonneta has three complete character sets plus alternates, swashes and ligatures making it look authentically handwritten - no duplication of characters here. Note the three distinct styles of capitals, making it a truly versatile font. We particularly like using the large, extravagant caps for monograms. There are also eleven swashes to provide a nice finishing touch to your design. Sonneta pairs beautifully with both sans and serif styles. We think it's particularly successful when paired with ultra thin sans. Check out the previews to see more.

Sometimes you get an idea stuck in your head and the only way to get rid of that demon is to put something down on paper. A year later the doodles became a skeleton, and then the skeleton had a body, then the body had a name, then the name got a personality. What was left was a clean set of ten fonts that encompass a very simple skeleton with a lot of visual appeal. During the process, I saw ways to expand the typeface’s display capabilities by producing inline styles as well as a down-and-dirty rough set. Each font has a full set of glyphs that include Central European and Small Cap characters.

Cloister Initials™ have become FontHaus's most popular decorative initials font since we began selling it in 1993. First released in 1919 for ATF, Goudy's "Cloister Initials", sometimes called Goudy Initials is recognized as "one of the most beautifully designed set of initials ever made". We agree. Our digital revival is historically accurate because it was referenced from the actual ATF 144-point brass matrices acquired at the now legendary and final ATF auction in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1993. The exquisite design of each character inspire it's use. Perfect for holiday invitations, elegant note pads, as drop caps or in period design. We've even sold these initials for use as company logos.

I live in a small hamlet near the Rhine river. It is a sleepy little town and it doesn’t have any facilities. For groceries I need to go to the next town. The only road leading to that town has been closed for half a year, because of ‘maintenance’, so doing groceries got a lot trickier. The fastest way to travel is through yet another hamlet in the forest, on a very narrow road with extremely bumpy shoulders. Yes, you’ve guessed it: it is a Bumpy Ride. Bumpy Ride was made using a so called Brush Pen. It comes with all the accents and a sweet set of alternates for the lower case letters.

Hello All.... Introducing!! Anatomia is a beautiful script with a new lovely stylish, a perfection style of the letters you want to use, modern handwriting with many alternatives. Now this is an opentype! It's smart and in line with your wishes! You are welcome to use it, suitable for various purposes: logo, signatures, corporate symbol, wedding invitation, title, creative, t-shirt, business card, letterhead, nameplate, headings, label, poster, news, badge, letterhead, cutting, hot stamping, quotation, etc. Anatomia Features 567 glyphs and alternative characters. Includes the initial letter to terminal, alternative, ligature and multiple language support. Programs that support OpenType features such as Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe Indesign, Corel Draw, and Microsoft Office.

I had a chat recently with a customer who is a big fan of lettering from the psychedelic poster era. The discussion got me thinking about poster lettering we hadn't yet made into fonts, and a particular sample from a Jimi Hendrix poster I had played around with but never finished making into a font. So I went back to the drawing board and the result is the new Hendrix font. Unlike many of our other Psychedelic fonts which are stripped down to their basic character forms, this font includes the outlines characteristic of a lot of poster lettering from that period. It also includes variant versions of a number of the characters

Popless is a hand-lettered font duo with matching swashes. It includes: - a handwritten script font with lots of ligatures to give your designs a true handwritten look; - a fun hand-lettered serif font that pairs well with the handwritten font; - a set of swashes to help decorate your text; - a bonus slanted version of the script font for an extra dose of drama. Each style containes: - A-Z, a-z, 0-9 - Accents - Symbols and punctuation - Ligatures - Stylistic alternates (b, f, h, k, l in the script font) Perfect for beautiful and easy designs with a handwritten feel, such as postcards and notes, creating logotypes, social media posts, branding and packaging, and more.

Mak is a display font with a Ukrainian feeling inspired by Ukrainian music. Customize weight and contrast to the smallest value to your needs with a variable version of Mak. This is a big update of the first free two styles of Mak (SemiBold High & Black High) that were created in 2019 and become widespread among free display fonts. The big update wasn't been only adding more weights and contrasts but also changing a lot of glyphs and adding new ones. Now Mak supports all Latin-based languages and European Cyrillic. Experiments with historical forms, contrasts, and daring shapes to create a new image of Ukrainian Cyrillic and Latin based on it.

Splendor was originally produced and released in 1930 by Schriftgu� AG, Dresden. The typeface was designed by Berlin designer Wilhelm Berg. Ralph M. Unger, who in the last few years has created a whole series of revivals and redesigns from the hot metal era, ?retrieved? this jewel of a typeface design, redesigning, complementing and digitally remastering it for profonts. Splendor is a broad nip, non-connecting handwriting script of timeless elegance, charm and beauty. It needs tight setting with plenty of space around it. The font contains a number of alternate characters: Two uppercase As, Ss (with descender); in addition, two uppercase Ms, Ns and Zs as well as two lowercase zs.

Sometimes you get an idea stuck in your head and the only way to get rid of that demon is to put something down on paper. A year later the doodles became a skeleton, and then the skeleton had a body, then the body had a name, then the name got a personality. What was left was a clean set of ten fonts that encompass a very simple skeleton with a lot of visual appeal. During the process, I saw ways to expand the typeface's display capabilities by producing inline styles as well as a down-and-dirty rough set. Each font has a full set of glyphs that include Central European and Small Cap characters.

The Ctoxina family is growing. Due to the success the author decided to add an outline version of the font. The typeface is now available in 6 different styles: light, light italic, regular, italic, bold and bold italic. The Atoxina family is designed especially for the burgeoning market of starships and other space cruisers. The fonts are ideal for internal and external use (including zero-g and occasional bursts of cosmic rays), and with their simplified forms are expected to survive well in non-linear galaxies. With their unusual diagonal half-pixels the fonts are striking as abstract designs at astronomical sizes, where small text may be placed within the black holes formed inside the letters.

This script font was inspired from a lot of manuscripts, notes and drafts, written by the famous American poet Walt Whitman. It is a very elegant type, in spite of a few curious ligatures, often concerning the r or z small letters. Notice the very characteristic “th”. It is used as variously as web-site titles, posters and fliers design or greeting cards, all various sorts of presentations, menus, certificates, letters. This font, in spite of its small size, supports very strong enlargements as well as small sizes ( the original size was about 36 to 48 pts ). When printed, it remains perfectly legible and elegant from 9/11 pts even if using an ordinary inkjet printer.

Splendor was originally produced and released in 1930 by Schriftgu� AG, Dresden. The typeface was designed by Berlin designer Wilhelm Berg. Ralph M. Unger, who in the last few years has created a whole series of revivals and redesigns from the hot metal era, ?retrieved? this jewel of a typeface design, redesigning, complementing and digitally remastering it for profonts. Splendor is a broad nip, non-connecting handwriting script of timeless elegance, charm and beauty. It needs tight setting with plenty of space around it. The font contains a number of alternate characters: Two uppercase As, Ss (with descender); in addition, two uppercase Ms, Ns and Zs as well as two lowercase zs.

Experience the amazing feeling with Lastlap that will make your work a lot easier than before. It is a display font designed in a racing theme. In accordance with its theme, Lastlap expresses a brave feeling with its dramatic bold style suitable to use in titles, logos, and any other designs with large-sized texts. Enjoy other incredible features available on this font. Features: Multilingual Supports PUA Encoded Numerals and Punctuation Lastlap fits best on various design projects such as posters, banners, logos, book covers, headings, printed products, merchandise, social media, etc. Find out more ways to use this font by taking a look at the font preview. Get it now. Happy designing

The history of Able’s connection with the Harry Potter phenomenon is really up in the air. It’s a catch-22 in this business - you either promote your own work and negotiate expensive exclusive licenses, or you work with a promoter and sell your designs to anyone and everyone. It could have been an in-house designer at Rowling’s publisher, Scholastic, or a freelancer who proposed Able for the headings and such. The responsible party licensed it from T26, and JK Rowling’s storytelling made it a star. (I suppose it’s ironic that there’s a whole lot of unwritten history in the typography business.) Able’s rise to fame really is a classic love story between reading and type design. If the books weren’t so popular, Able might still be waiting for some Mexican fast food chain to pick it up for packaging design. The movie deal certainly made the font all the more recognizable, what with its merchandising campaign. Popularity can also cripple a great decorative face. It’s always being recognized as “The Harry Potter Font.” It might just have to wait a few decades for the Potter phenomenon to subside to be freed from the “Chamber of Pigeonholed Fonts.” In the meantime, I’m sure that a lot of fledgling graphic design apprentices are reading their new Potter books, being charmed by the idea of type design when they’re not turning the pages too fast to notice.

Franz Kafka’s manuscripts have always been a source of inspiration for designer Julia Sysmäläinen. At first she was just interested in literary aspects but later she noticed that content and visual form can not be separated in the work of this ingenious writer. Analyzing Kafka’s handwriting at the Berlin National Library, Julia was inspired to design the typeface FF Mister – by now a well known classic. Over the years, FF Mister K became a handsome typeface family and even produced offspring: the Josef K Patterns. Some of Kafka’s most expressive letterforms were the starting point for these decorative ornaments. How do the Patterns work? Outlines and fillings correspond to the uppercase and the lowercase letters on your keyboard. You can use them separately or layer them on top of each other. If you write a line of “pattern-text” in lowercase and repeat it underneath in uppercase you get a row of fillings followed by a row of outlines. Now you can color them and then set line space = 0 to get a single line of layered colored ornaments. Alternatively, activating OpenType / stylistic set / stylistic alternates will also unite the two lines to a single layered line. Further magic can be done with OpenType / contextual alternates turned on. On the gallery page of this font family is a downloadable Josef K Patterns.pdf with an alphabetical overview of forms. Hundreds of patterns are possible … we’d love to see some of yours and present them here on the website!

Caltic-Holiday, Caltic-Festival, and Caltic-Straight are three eye-catching, very bold typefaces that are suitable for posters and signage. Caltic-Holiday and Caltic-Festival base letter shapes on trapezoids with curved sides but with curves that are reversed going from one to the other. Caltic-Straight has letters based on trapezoids with straight sides. None are suited for text and with their built-in spacing will not work as all upper-case or all lower-case. All three come in two widths, regular and wide, giving the Caltic family six members. Caltic has nothing to do with Celts. The Calt refers to the calt or contextual alternative OpenType feature that makes this typeface work. When the letters on the upper-case keys alternate with the letters on the lower-case keys, they fit snuggly together. As long as the user has a word processor that supports the contextual alternatives feature, there is no need for the user to alternate letters; the calt feature does it automatically. Although the fonts seem similar to hand-drawn lettering that was done on posters and signs during the hippie era of the 1960s and 1970s, I can find nothing quite like them. My inspiration for them is older, in a newspaper from 1932 that led to the typeface family PoultySign. Caltic (and Lentzers) are the result of seeing what else I could do with the inspiration that sprang from that 1932 newspaper.