The font Speech Bubbles offers a convenient way to integrate text and image. While the font can be used to design comics, it also gives the typographer a tool to make text speak – to give words conversational dynamics and to emphasize visually the sound of the message. The font includes a total of seventy outlines and seventy bubble backgrounds selected from a survey of historic forms. What follows is a discussion of my process researching and developing the font, as well as a few user suggestions. My work on the Speech Bubbles font began with historic research. My first resource was a close friend who is a successful German comic artist. I had previously worked with him to transform his lettering art into an OpenType font. This allowed his publishing house to easily translate cartoons from German to other languages without the need to use another font, like Helvetica rounded. My friend showed me the most exciting, outstanding and graphically appealing speech bubbles from his library. I looked at early strips from Schulz (Peanuts), Bill Waterson (Calvin & Hobes), Hergé (TinTin), Franquin, as well as Walt Disney. The most inspiring was the early Krazy Kat and Ignatz (around 1915) from George Herriman. I also studied 1980’s classics Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen, Frank Miller’s Ronin and Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vandetta. Contemporary work was also a part of my research—like Liniers from Macanudo and work of Ralf König. With this overview in mind I began to work from scratch. I tried to distill the typical essence of each author’s or era’s speech bubbles style into my font. In the end I limited my work down to the seventy strongest images. An important aspect of the design process was examining each artist’s speech bubble outlines. In some cases they are carefully inked, as in most of the 80’s work. In others, such as with Herriman, they are fast drawn with a rough impetus. The form can be dynamic and round (Schultz) with a variable stroke width, or straight inked with no form contrast (Hergé). Since most outlines also carry the character of the tool that they are made with, I chose to separate the outline from the speech bubble fill-in or background. 
This technical decision offers interesting creative possibilities. For example, the font user can apply a slight offset from fill-in to outline, as it is typical to early comic strips, in which there are often print misalignments. Also, rather than work in the classic white background with black outline, one can work with colors. Many tonal outcomes are possible by contrasting the fill-in and outline color. The Speech Bubbles font offers a dynamic and quick way to flavor information while conveying a message. How is something said? Loudly? With a tint of shyness? Does a rather small message take up a lot of space? The font’s extensive survey of historic comic designs in an assembly that is useful for both pure comic purposes or more complex typographic projects. Use Speech Bubbles to give your message the right impact in your poster, ad or composition.

Xaver Grotesk Variable, a font that emerged in the creative landscape of 2023, stands as a testament to contemporary typographic innovation. This font is not just a mere collection of characters but a meticulously crafted expression of modernity and sophistication. Its genesis was driven by a desire to infuse the typographic realm with a fresh take on the classic grotesque style while embodying a technical allure that whispers of a slightly futuristic essence. At its core, Xaver Grotesk is a testament to the marriage of form and function. The deliberate choice of monospacing adds a unique rhythm and structure to the font, instilling it with a sense of order and balance. The low capital height introduces a distinctive visual characteristic, creating an unconventional yet captivating silhouette that stands out in various design contexts. One of the font's most striking features lies in its letter design. Each character is meticulously sculpted, bearing angular and horizontal traits that not only convey a sense of modernity but also evoke a hint of technological precision. These angular and horizontal elements work in tandem, shaping the font's overall personality and lending it a forward-thinking edge. The fusion of these elements—monospacing, low capital height, and angular/horizontal letter design—creates a harmonious interplay that sets Xaver Grotesk apart. It's not merely a collection of letters; it's an experience, a visual journey that captivates and engages the viewer. Whether used in digital interfaces, printed materials, or other design mediums, this font transcends its utilitarian purpose to become an artistic statement in itself.

I love geometric sans serifs, their crispness and rationality. Le Havre taps into this style, but for a while, I've wanted to create a font recalling the printed Futura of the 1940s, which seems to have an elusive quality all its own. After seeing an old manual on a World War II ship, I developed a plan for "Le Havre Metal" but chose to shelve the project due to Le Havre's small x-height. That's where Steagal comes in. When Robbie de Villiers and I began the Chatype project in early 2012 (a project which led one publication to label me the Edward Johnston of Chattanooga!), we started closely studying the vernacular lettering of Chattanooga. During that time, I also visited Switzerland, where I saw how designers were using a new, handmade aesthetic with a geometric base. I was motivated to make a new face combining some of these same influences. The primary inspiration for the new design came from the hand-lettering of sign painters in the United States, circa 1930s through 1950s. My Chatype research turned up a poster from the Tennessee Valley Authority in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which exhibited a number of quirks from the unique hand and style of one of these sign artists. Completing the first draft of Steagal, however, I found that the face appeared somewhat European in character. I turned then to the work of Morris Fuller Benton for a distinctly American take and discovered a number of features that would help define Steagal as a "1930s American" vernacular typeface--features I later learned also inspired Morris Fuller Benton's Eagle. The overall development of Steagal was surprisingly difficult, knowing when to deliberately distort optical artifacts and when to keep them in place. Part of type design is correcting optical illusions, and I found myself absentmindedly adjusting the optical effects. In the end, though, I was able to draw inspiration from period signs, inscriptions, period posters, and architecture while retaining just enough of the naive sensibility. Steagal has softened edges, which simulate brush strokes and retain the feeling of the human hand. The standard version has unique quirks that are not too intrusive. Overshoots have almost been eliminated, and joins have minimal corrections. The rounded forms are mathematically perfect, geometric figures without optical corrections. As a variation to the standard, the “Rough” version stands as the "bad signpainter" version with plenty of character. Steagal Regular comes in five weights and is packed with OpenType features. Steagal includes three Art Deco Alternate sets, optically compensated rounded forms, a monospaced variant, and numerous other features. In all, there are over 200 alternate characters. To see these features in action, please see the informative .pdf brochure. OpenType capable applications such as Quark or the Adobe Creative suite can take full advantage of the automatically replacing ligatures and alternates. Steagal also includes support for all Western European languages. Steagal is a great way to subtly draw attention to your work. Its unique quirks grab the eye with a authority that few typefaces possess. Embrace its vernacular, hand-brushed look, and see what this geometric sans serif can do for you.

Named for the Zulu traditional spear, Assegai evokes the long, slim outline of the weapon, and the strength of the Zulu warrior. The font combines the irregular shapes of tribal African art with the simple, clean elegance of contemporary design. It is especially useful for headings, subheading, for shorter passages and also works as a body font since it has both upper and lower case and is striking and readable.

Gritalina Modern Calligraphy is a new modern script font with an irregular baseline. Trendy and feminine style. Gritalina looks lovely on wedding invitations, thank you cards, quotes, greeting cards, logos, business cards and more. Perfect for using in ink or watercolour. Including initial and terminal letters, alternates and multiple language support. This font is available in several modern swirls that can make your work look elegant, sweet and perfect.

Bold and angular. SbB Powertrain's glyphs are constructed from simple shapes. All straight edges and lots of right angles, but surprisingly friendly. A wide range of weights and widths make Powertrain perfect for branding projects, posters, logos or any project where you need maximum flexibility. Ten weights and five widths Small caps Stylistic alternatives Opentype figure styles Complete version includes a variable typeface with three axes: weight, width and slant.

Rogshine is a textured brush font, a contemporary approach to design, naturally handmade with irregular base lines. Suitable for use in title design like clothing, invitations, book titles, stationery designs, quotes, branding, logos, greeting cards, t-shirts, packaging designs, posters, and more. Rogshine includes a complete set of upper and lower case letters, as well as multi-language support, numbers, punctuation, binders. Thank you very much for watching and enjoying it!

Bravely- Handwritten Font is an handwritten script font based on the expression of real handwriting, lets you transform type into an exciting and beautiful piece of work. The irregular, hand-lettered look adds a real human touch to things and comes along with a lot of loving details. Combine all font-styles the way you want, add some ornamental swashes or banners and even a single word becomes magnificent.

Before typography had 'rules', lettering artists set down designs that have endured as classics. A perfect example is Brenham JNL, which was modeled after an antique wood type. The extra elongation of some characters, the irregular shapes of others and the overall hand-made charm of the entire design makes this digital font the perfect choice for replicating broadsides, posters and anything needing a nostalgic look as if from the past.

Within the pages of an early-1900s instructional book on show card lettering was found a marvelous example of an alphabet that typifies the Art Nouveau movement of the era and served as the inspiration for Nouveau Riche JNL. Angular, artistic and reminiscent (in some ways) of ancient Greek lettering, this design has many unusual letterforms. Check out the interpretive K and R for the best examples of this art style.

Very thin fluid strokes and high speed letters form this casual script entitled TCF Plana. TCF Plana is elegant and functional, expressive yet harmonious, with more bounce and irregularity of rhythm than usual formal script typefaces. TCF Plana was executed with a ball-point pen and then digitised so it would convincingly mimic handwriting by using a plethora of contextual alternates which makes the words look much more natural and beautiful.

This version of Goudy Text is based on drawings from which Frederic Goudy based his Goudy Text typeface. However, there is a big difference between his original drawings (in The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering) and the subsequent metal type version, and my version maintains the greater warmth (and irregularities) of the original drawings. Goudy's Lombardy caps look especially nice when used as initial capitals with Goudy Text.

Back in 2013 I released an all caps font called Rum Doodle. Rum Doodle is a really nice, really weird font with angular glyphs and a unique look. I decided that it would be nice to tweak this font a bit and design a lower case for it. The result is Chew On This. I chose that name for no apparent reason - so don’t make a fuss about it…

Bebedot originated from doodles and scrabbles in notebooks; irregular forms very well might contain a style for an alphabet. Once used for an intro spread in Wired magazine (#6.04, April 1998): "To keep up you need the right answers. To get ahead you need the right questions". The name was inspired by a women clothing poster at the San Francisco bus stands. The dot is for the com that never came.

Introducing Hoicky, a quirky irregular font. Each character in this font has a different tilt angle, plus there is a ligature that makes this font even more unique. Hoicky also perfect for branding design, posters, apparel, logotype, header, quote, invitation, greeting card, cover, poster, fashion design and any more. Come with lot of ligatures character, its help you to make great lettering. This font is also support multi language.

Introducing new Morgini Serif Typefaces with lots of alternative characters, SWASH and unique ligatures. It appears regularly and boldly with lower and uppercase letters, numbers, punctuation marks plus multilingual letters. A must have for every modern graphic designer now! Morgini is a very versatile font. Perfect for branding projects, logos, magazine imagery, wedding invitations, posters, apparel, packaging, website headers, or simply as a stylish text overlay onto any background image.

Papyrus is a roman calligraphic typeface with distinctive human touches like rough edges, irregular curves, and high horizontal strokes in the caps. It imparts a warm and friendly ambience to everything from restaurant menus to book covers. American Chris Costello created the popular font Papyrus in 1983 and counts it as one of his proudest accomplishments. In addition to designing type, Costello is a prolific graphic designer, illustrator, and web designer.

Inspired by an old house font of an anthroposophical hospital in Germany, this font was created: coarse, irregular, with corners and edges. In nature there are no right angles, no symmetries, no evenness: and so is this font. Tis is not a fine font, Like a woodcut this font roars: Look at me, I am here! Ideal for posters, leaflets, posters, billboards. Designed by Joachim Frank (Germany) in 2021

Vaston is textured brush font, featuring a contemporary approach to design, and a handmade, natural irregular baseline. It is also equipped with alternatives and ligatures. Suitable for use in title design as well as apparel, invitations, books tittle, stationery design, quotes, branding, logos, greeting card, t-shirt, packaging design, poster and more. Vaston includes a complete set of uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as multi-language support, numbers, punctuation.

Sugar Garden Script is a new modern script font with an irregular baseline. Trendy and feminine style. Sugar Garden looks lovely on wedding invitations, thank you cards, quotes, greeting cards, logos, business cards and more. Perfect for using in ink or watercolour. Including initial and terminal letters, alternates and multiple language support. I made this font very carefully so that each letter looked very unique and had various beautiful alternatives.

This comical styled Jester Script font was created to suit various design applications within the typeface market and is aimed at people looking for a clown styled brush script typeface that is very unconventional indeed. Designed and produced by Paul O'Connell of POCT, it is a distinct styled font script, loosely drawn with irregular rounded edges and curves to create a free flowing handwritten font that will appeal to everyone.

Ragilone brush font, featuring a contemporary approach to design, and a handmade, natural irregular baseline. It is also equipped with alternatives and ligatures. Suitable for use in title design as well as apparel, invitations, books tittle, stationery design, quotes, branding, logos, greeting card, t-shirt, packaging design, poster and more. Ragilone Brush includes a complete set of uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as multi-language support, numbers, punctuation.

Arthur is an edgy modern serif font. The long, classic serifs make for a unique high-contrast typeface that's all stylish. It appears regularly and boldly with lower and uppercase letters, numbers, punctuation marks plus multilingual letters. A must have for every modern graphic designer now! Features Include: Uppercase and lowercase Number Punctuation (OpenType Standard) Accents (Multilingual Characters) Alternative Style Ligatures and Style Sets Works on PC and Mac Simple installation

Chipper is the work of British designer Andrew Smith, an adorably awkward typeface resembling the first printing of a child. Shaky lines and irregular forms combine for this naive look, which is completed by tiny specks surrounding each form as well as a number of illustrations. Chipper reflects an innocent fun and is perfect for children's greeting cards, certificates, or magazines and advertising for or about the little ones.

Looking for a real fun whack-a-doodle typestyle? You may have just found your match with the Chilidog PB typeface. Chilidog PB began as a digitization of the film typeface called Nectar by LetterGraphics. This font is filled with irregular shapes, shifting weights, and a collection of ligatures that give it real personality. It's a real eyecatcher, but don't take my word for it, give it a spin for yourself.