Minuet, an informal script with crossover deco elements giving it an unmistakable 1940s flavor, is a revival and expansion of the Rondo family, the last typeface drawn by Stefan Schlesinger before his death. This family was initially supposed to be a typeface based on the strong, flowing script Schlesinger liked to use in the ads he designed, particularly the ones he did for Van Houten’s cocoa products. But for technical reasons the Lettergieterij Amsterdam mandated the face to be made from unattached letters, rather than the original connected script. Schlesinger and Dooijes finished the lowercase and the first drawings of the uppercase just before Schlesinger was sent to a prison camp in 1942. Dooijes completed the design on his own, and drew the bold according to Schlesigner’s instructions. The typeface family was finished in February of 1944, and Schlesinger was killed in October of that same year. Though he did see and approve the final proofs, he never actually saw his letters in use. It took almost four more years for the Lettergieterij Amsterdam to produce the fonts. The typeface was officially announced in November of 1948, and immediately became a bestseller. By 1966, according to a memo from the foundry, the typeface had become “almost too popular”. This digital version of Schlesigner’s and Dooijes’s work greatly expands on the metal fonts. Both weights include a complete set of lowercase alternates — based on Schlesinger’s own drawings, as well as alternative variations for some of the capitals, a few ligatures, and extended language support covering Western, Eastern and Central European languages, plus Baltic, Celtic/Welsh, Esperanto, Maltese and Turkish. Minuet is available in all popular formats. The OpenType version, Minuet Pro, takes advantage of internal font programming to combine the main and alternate fonts into a single file per weight, making all alternates and ligatures automatically available at the push of a button in OpenType supporting programs.

Hamptons BF is a beautiful, elegant sans serif with dramatic individuality. A font that steps out in Art Deco style. As a design movement Art Deco came into prominence during the 1920s and 30s when forms were typically sleek, symmetrical, geometric or highly stylized. Today the influence of this enduring style can be clearly seen in architecture, industrial design, fashion, art, graphic design, and yes, even type design. Art Deco style exemplifies luxury, glamour and modernity. I believe Hamptons BF captures something of that retro look in a nod to the past without ever looking dated, all the while retaining a contemporary flair. Named after the well-known New York resorts synonymous with style and elegance, this gothic or sans serif type is based upon University Roman, an early 1970s serif design which in turn was influenced by yet another serif design called Forum Flair (late 1960s); and that in turn owes its pedigree to the late 1930s’ Stunt Roman, which is the original source of inspiration for all of these. Quite a family tree! There’s dynamic interplay between certain wide, full-round letters such as C, D, G, O, P, Q, R, S and narrow ones like A, E, F, H, K, L, M, N, U, etc. This contrast repeats throughout certain lower case letters and serves to create a unique look of distinction. Light and Regular weights communicate a romantic, feminine appeal while the Bold offers a complementary emphasis. The font is somewhat versatile as in addition to its primary purpose for display, Hamptons BF also succeeds in settings containing short blocks of large text. It’s right at home in a variety of typographic environments: branding, packaging, signage logos, magazine headlines, invitations, menus, trendy cafes and more. Among the included OpenType features are Stylistic Alternates, Automatic Ligatures and Fractions. There is extended language support for Western, Central and Eastern Europe and Turkish.

Inspired by a former Hermann Zapf design, Hanse Textura was completely redrawn and redesigned as an English-style blackletter font with a calligraphic touch. It comes also with the historical long s which can be reached either by typing [alt] + b or by using the OT feature historical forms. I strongly recommend to activate both OT features, standard and discretionary, to access all ligatures built in the font. The keys pi and product are occupied with beautiful border elements.

Isabella was designed by Hermann Ihlenburg in 1892 for MacKellar, Smiths and Jordan, one of many type houses that were later amalgamated into American Type Founders. As testimony to its long-lived appeal, Isabella was one of the first PostScript® language typeface releases (in 1988) of Agfa Compugraphic. With its unmistakable 19th-century characteristics - swirls, loops, and surprising letter shapes - Isabella is a natural for display situations that demand high drama or, dare we say, melodrama.