Quentin Schmerber’s Temeraire serif font family was not designed to be invisible. It is a typographic exploration meant to be seen — with its beauty, one could even say beheld. While some fonts aim to be as easily ignored as possible, Temeraire is offered as a gift to wide-eyed readers with its anything-but-boring character and its conspicuous inconsistency in styles. Most type families increase the weight of each character to expand the family. Instead, research into 17th century sources produced Temeraire’s wide range of letterforms, from the predictable to the odd and loosely related through time. Each style is designed to work alongside the others but are also standalone homages to specific parts of English lettering tradition: gravestone cutting, writing masters’ copperplates, Italiennes, and others. Temeraire’s Regular style is a contrast-loving Transitional Serif with vertical stress, making it great for period and classic works, ironic pieces, and modern throwbacks. The weight of the Bold squares off the ends of each glyph to give it stability, and the italic style rings true: flowing, contrasting, and purposefully inconsistent. Temeraire’s Display Black style is one salvaged from expressive gravestone artistry. The details most easily noticed are the ‘g’ with its descending bowl that has been pressed back up in the centre, and the additional serif on the ‘t’ crossbar that holds its neighbouring character at bay. (The ‘g’ and ‘Q’ have loopless alternates.) The final style is the Italienne, the horizontally stressed counterpoint to the family. By design its characters flow and bend in ways not in step with the rest of the family. All the weight has been pushed to either hemisphere within each glyph, resulting in a display style that demands space and peacefulness around it so its presence can impress. As with all TypeTogether families, Temeraire meets the current designer’s needs. Not only does its five styles shine in print work, it includes alternates for when the defaults are too boisterous and has been expertly crafted for screens. The Temeraire serif font family is resurrected from echoes in time and finds its family relation through impeccable taste.

Zuzana Licko's goal for Fairplex was to create a text face which would achieve legibility by avoiding contrast, especially in the Book weight. As a result of its low contrast, the Fairplex Book weight is somewhat reminiscent of a sans serif, yet the slight serifs preserve the recognition of serif letterforms. When creating the accompanying weights, the challenge was to balance the contrast and stem weight with the serifs. To provide a comprehensive family, Licko wanted the boldest weight to be quite heavy. This meant that the "Black" weight would need more contrast than the Book weight in order to avoid clogging up. But harmonizing the serifs proved difficult. The initial serif treatments she tried didn't stand up to the robust character of the Black weight. Several months passed without much progress, and then one evening she attended a talk by Alastair Johnston on his book "Alphabets to Order," a survey of nineteenth century type specimens. Johnston pointed out that slab serifs (also known as "Egyptians") are really more of a variation on sans serifs than on serif designs. In other words, slab serif type is more akin to sans-serif type with serifs added on than it is to a version of serif type. This sparked the idea that the solution to her serif problem for Fairplex Black might be a slab serif treatment. After all, the Book weight already shared features of sans-serif types. Shortly after this came the idea to angle the serifs. This was suggested by her husband, and was probably conjured up from his years of subconscious assimilation of the S. F. Giants logo while watching baseball, and reinforced by a similar serif treatment in John Downer's recent Council typeface design. The angled serifs added visual interest to the otherwise austere slab serifs. The intermediate weights were then derived by interpolating the Book and Black, with the exception of several characters, such as the "n," which required specially designed features to avoid collisions of serifs, and to yield a pleasing weight balance. A range of weights was interpolated before deciding on the Medium and Bold weights.

Milan-based Leftloft studio has produced a third leg to its hit Etica font family: LFT Etica Mono. Meant to be a coder’s go-to font for everyday use as much as a designer’s way to invoke a certain genre, it is part of a broader and more versatile family that already contains almost 80 sans and serif fonts. LFT Etica Mono’s ten weights carry the same modern, recognisable DNA of the Etica family while hewing to the defined requirements of a coding typeface: space, density, distinct forms, and clarity. It uses the same instroke on the ‘c’ and open form of the ‘a’ for which the Etica family is famous, but adds something new in the form of an additional italic style. Monospaced fonts usually incorporate slanted letters as italics, as does LFT Etica Mono, but its default italics have warmer, cursive shapes while the alternate italics are simply slanted. The default ‘a’ is a simplified bowl and stem instead of a two storey shape; the ‘d, f, i, l, t, y’ and others gain an outstroke tail; the ‘e’ is one smooth stroke; and the default ‘k’ is looped. These characters have basic, slanted alternates if the cursive look isn’t desired, and includes a set of arrows and geometric shapes. The monospaced design, by nature, makes the typeface useful in coding and in low readability situations. And how does LFT Etica Mono work from the designer’s perspective? The starting point was the need for a monospaced Etica companion intended for technical applications: captions in graphic layouts, small text, confined or predefined space, and overall tone. Flat terminals and counters maintain the colour and versatility of the original typeface, but choosing between the organic cursive or blunt slanted alphabet will give every layout its own character. Of particular aesthetic interest may be the & and % symbols. Designed to be applied to the common visual environment, the new LFT Etica Mono font family completes a more complex system. One benefit is to give an expressive tone — less serious and more friendly — to something inherently technical, to bytes and bots, to encode the beautiful life.

Protipo helps information designers work smarter. Veronika Burian and José Scaglione’s Protipo type family is an information designer’s toolbox: a low-contrast sans of three text widths with a separate headline family, accompanied by an impressive two-weight icon set, and working with the advanced variable (VAR) font format. From annual reports and wayfinding to front page infographics and poster use, designers consistently turn to the simplicity and starkness of grotesque sans fonts to get their point across. Protipo is made for such environments. When designing information you may start with the headline, which in the case of this family is called Protipo Compact and comes in eight weights. From Hairline to Black, set it large, overlap it, or let it run off the page. Protipo Compact was made to hit hard and attract attention with a different character set and different proportions than the three text fonts. It sets the stage for what’s to come. Great information designers are aces at melding form and function, so we’ve stacked the Protipo family with Narrow, Regular, and Wide versions as a way of organising your information and directing the reader. Each width has seven distinct weights (light to bold) and italics, while maintaining the round-rect shapes of its DNA. Subtle details amplify its place in the typographic universe, like an ‘a’ and ‘e’ that go from solid to supple when italicising, an ‘f’ that gains an italic descender, two versions of the lowercase ‘r’ and ‘l’, and clipped corners on diagonals to keep the tight fit inherent to this kind of design work. Protipo is not meant to be loudmouthed, but stakes its claim through refinement, breadth, and impact. Some changes at first don’t seem substantial, but the Protipo family doesn’t handle text like most in its category. Protipo helps readers find and process data in a clear and unequivocal way and accounts for the complexity involved in rendering large amounts of information while still appealing to aesthetics. Protipo is ideal in all informative situations: apps, infographics, UI, wayfinding, transport, posters, display, and even internet memes. Add to all this the icon sets and upcoming variable font capability, and you’re assured a level of creativity, productivity, and impact on a much greater scale.

Operina is based on a 16th-century lettering model of the scribe Ludovico degli Arrighi (Vicentino Ludovico degli Arrighi) used in his 1522 instructional lettering book, "La Operina da Imparare di scrivere littera Cancellarescha." This book contains what is considered to be the earliest printed examples of Chancery Cursive. Rather than try to reproduce a perfect, smooth, type-like version of Ludovico's hand, which has been attempted in the past, the designer opted to leave in some rough edges and, thereby, create a look that mimics the endearing artifacts of quill and ink lettering on parchment. When reviving an old style, a designer is faced with many challenging decisions, such as whether to aim for ultimate authenticity or to modify the alphabet for modern use. The decision here was to create a font that resembles the 16th-century Italian hand-lettering master's, but is also useful to the contemporary user. Because the letters U u W w J j and our modern Arabic numerals were not in use during the advent of these original letterforms, these had to be interpolated. To make a complete and useable font set, we also had to fashion many of the extra and diacritical characters to match the look of the alphabet. There are three fonts in this set: Romano(simple), Corsivo(more complex), and Fiore(swash). Romano is the most subdued, it contains Roman looking caps and has lining figures. Corsivo is more elaborate, it has more decorative capital letters and an alternate version of the lowercase with longer ascenders and descenders, and old style figures. Fiore, the swash font, is the most elaborate with the longest ascenders and descenders. You may not wish to use the Fiore version on its own, especially as all caps; it is meant to enhance the other two alphabets because it contains the most elaborate capitals and has many extra ligatures. P22 Operina Pro is an OpenType version that contains over 1200 characters. It features Small Caps, Old Style Figures, full European, Cyrillic and Greek character sets and a new OpenType first with automatic Roman Numerals. Just type any number and with the feature, it will convert to Roman Numerals!

Albertina was a typeface ahead of its time. It was in the early 1960s when designer Chris Brand, an accomplished calligrapher, aspired to draw a typeface based on the principles of calligraphy. Unfortunately, typesetting machines of that era put many restrictions on designers. Characters had to be drawn within a very coarse grid, which also defined their spacing. Technological limitations meant that italic designs often had to share the same character widths as the romans. Designers were forced to draw italic faces much wider and with more open spacing than what would be typical in calligraphic lettering or hand-set type. Not surprisingly, production of the first Albertina fonts went very slowly. Brand would submit his character drawings, and the Monotype Drawing Office would modify them to be compatible with the company's typesetting equipment. The new drawings would then be sent back to Brand for approval or rework. Most were reworked. The process took so long, in fact, that by the time the face was completed it was once again out of phase with the times: instead of being released as metal type for the Monotype composing machines it had been tailored for, Albertina debuted as phototype fonts for the Monophoto typesetter. The design's first use was for a catalog of the work of Stanley Morison, exhibited at the Albertina Library in Brussels in 1966. Sales of the design were not remarkable. With the advent of digital type technology, Albertina's story took a far happier turn. Frank E. Blokland, of the Dutch Type Library, used Brand's original, uncompromised drawings as the foundation of a digital revival. The Monophoto version had taken a considerable battering from the limitations of Monotype's unit system," recalls Blokland, "but there was no need for me to incorporate these restrictions in the digital version." With the full backing of Monotype and original designer Brand looking over Blokland's shoulder, a new design for Albertina emerged, displaying all the grace and verve of Brand's original drawings. The basic family drawn by Brand also grew into three weights, each with an italic complement and a suite of small caps and old style figures."

I was inspired to create the Rainier type family during my summer back home in the Pacific Northwest. The concept behind it may be simple - a hand crafted font family - but what it delivers is quite complex! Here is a breakdown of everything you get: FONT FAMILIES: Two sub-families with unique styles - Rainier North and Rainier West WEIGHTS: 4 weights per family, broken down numerically - 100 (light), 300 (regular), 500 (bold), 700 (black) OPENTYPE: In each family, there are tons of OpenType options, offering lots of customizable opportunities (in order to access all these goodies, you must be using Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign or Publisher). Because Rainier is 100% handmade, contextual alternatives allow each letter has three subtle variations, this way it keeps that authentic hand-drawn look. Additionally, a full alphabet with special descending swashes, as well as start and end swashes for capitals and small caps. Titling alternatives offer a full character set just to help with readability! Meant for captions or smaller text, these letterforms are easy on the eye and a great complement to the regular alphabet. Stylistic Alternatives add a little fun, providing a unified cap height, no matter what case you are using (all caps, small caps or lowercase.) Discretionary Ligatures are created only for capitals, and takes specific letter pairs and creates a unique ligature between them To get a better understanding of everything, please check out the quicker user guide (http://bit.ly/1W0Bfma) and print if you so desire (http://bit.ly/23W9ZV6) that helps you navigate your way around and get the most out of Rainier! Unfortunately those links aren't working right now and soon I will have them fixed. So sorry! ORNAMENTS: In addition to the font, you get a set of awesomely rustic ornaments designed and drawn to go specifically with Rainier! - Rustic Northwest Illustrations - Banners & Flags - Frames - Flourishes - Lines & Line Breaks - Arrows There are a lot of extras packed in this set, so make sure you check out the Ornaments User Guide to get the most out of it! Check it out here: http://bit.ly/1rRVJRx And that’s all folks! Hope you enjoy Rainier!

After my son was born, I found myself reading him a lot of books. A LOT of books. Some were good, some were great, but I found myself wanting to develop something using my skills and interests to make something that only I could make. In short, I realized my son needed to be indoctrinated—I mean, introduced into the wonderfully wild world of fonts. So, I set about to make a board book to teach about typography, called “The Clothes Letters Wear.” You can learn more about the book here. I’ve made the captivating illustrations bright and colorful, and the use of different letter forms makes for a fascinating read to delight ages young and young at heart. And, as an added bonus, this children’s book has a custom designed font. I’m always looking for an excuse to design a new font, and this book created the perfect alibi. Drum roll, please. I now give you … Cabrito (“little goat” en Español). This new serif typeface incorporates the latest research on typographic legibility for children, features to make it—well, extra legible. A little background: studies show that Bookman Old Style is one of the most readable typefaces, and as a consequence or perhaps the reason why, it is used thoroughly for children’s books. This font became my initial inspiration for the typeface. Then, I found more legibility research saying that (brace yourselves) Comic Sans is also very legible for beginning readers, much due to the large x-height and softer, easily recognizable forms. In addition, forms that are closer to handwriting also seem to be more legible. Once I threw all that into my cauldron and stewed it a bit, the result was a pleasantly rounded typeface that includes not-so-strictly geometric, handwriting-inspired forms for the b, d, p, and q. Es guapo! Cabrito’s slender weights are simple and fun, with extras that turn any “bah humbug” into a smile. Add lighter touches to your project with the typeface’s included sparkles or rainbows (not included). Splash a little more color on the page with the firmer look of the thicker weights. Cabrito’s upright variations across all weights are matched by optically altered italics, too, giving you even more variety with the font family. This modern typeface’s bundle of alternates can be accessed in any OpenType-enabled software. The fashionable options involve a significant team of alternates, swashes, and meticulously refined aspects with ball terminals and alternate titling caps to decorate the font. Also bundled are swash alternates, old style figures, and small caps. Peruse the PDF brochure to check out these options in motion. OpenType-enabled applications like the Adobe suite or Quark allows comprehensive control of ligatures and alternates. This font family also provides the glyphs to aid a variety of languages. Cabrito is a welcoming, everyday font family by Jeremy Dooley. Use it to convey warmth and friendliness on anything from candy and food packages to children’s toys, company IDs or run-of-the-mill promotional material. Cabrito’s unique appearance and high legibility make it equally at home in print as it is on a screen.

The Thief Bird is an informal grotesque font. Although informal and grotesque may seem to be two quite different ideas, we have to dig into the origin of this typeface in order to understand the matter. The concept behind The Thief Bird was inspired by the adaptation that the vintage sign painters made when they took the grotesque style characters they saw in newspapers and magazines and reproduced them using a brush, aiming to make the prices of the products displayed on wooden boards stand out, as opposed to highlighting large headlines (such as the idea behind fonts like Franklin Gothic). The Thief Bird takes the language from sign painters and turns it into a font --this time around not aiming to set prices but to bring children stories to life. Thus, some legibility features from grotesque fonts were mixed with the brush calligraphy to add grace and zest to a font intended for children. The Thief Bird is a playful display font, with cheerful ligatures and alternate characters. It is really attractive for setting short paragraphs that tell stories for little people. The Thief Bird has one single weight and it’s ideal to be used in storybooks, candy packaging, films, toys, logos, labels, etc. The font has an extended set of 643 characters supporting 219 Latin languages. It has a complete set of small caps, sensitive cases, more than 30 pairs of ligatures, alternate characters and much more. This cool, informal and laid back typeface will be the perfect match for illustrations of fairy tales, comics for children and any product or publishing for the little ones. The Thief Bird supports this languages: Abenaki, Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Amis, Anuta, Aragonese, Aranese, Aromanian, Arrernte, Arvanitic (Latin), Asturian, Atayal, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Bemba, Bikol, Bislama, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Chickasaw, Cimbrian, Cofán, Corsican Creek,Crimean Tatar (Latin),Croatian, Czech, Dawan, Delaware, Dholuo, Drehu, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian Filipino, Finnish, Folkspraak, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Gikuyu, Gooniyandi, Greenlandic (Kalaallisut)Guadeloupean, Creole, Gwich’in, Haitian, Creole, Hän, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hopi, Hotcąk (Latin), Hungarian, Icelandic, Ido, IgboI, locano, Indonesian, Interglossa, Interlingua, Irish, Istro-Romanian, Italian, Jamaican, Javanese (Latin), Jèrriais, Kala Lagaw Ya, Kapampangan (Latin), Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Karelian (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kiribati, Kirundi, Klingon, Ladin, Latin, Latino sine Flexione, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lojban, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Manx, Māori, Marquesan, Megleno-Romanian, Meriam Mir, Mirandese, Mohawk, Moldovan, Montagnais, Montenegrin, Murrinh-Patha, Nagamese Creole, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Ngiyambaa, Niuean, Noongar, Norwegian, Novial, Occidental, Occitan, Old Icelandic, Old Norse, Oshiwambo, Ossetian (Latin), Palauan, Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Potawatomi, Q’eqchi’, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Rotokas, Sami (Inari Sami), Sami (Lule Sami), Sami (Northern Sami), Sami (Southern Sami), Samoan, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Seri, Seychellois Creole, Shawnee, Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Slovio (Latin), Somali, Sorbian (Lower Sorbian), Sorbian (Upper Sorbian), Sotho (Northern), Sotho (Southern), Spanish, Sranan, Sundanese (Latin), Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tok Pisin, Tokelauan, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Tzotzil, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Volapük, Võro, Wallisian, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Warlpiri, Wayuu, Welsh, Wik-Mungkan, Wiradjuri, Wolof, Xavante, Xhosa, Yapese, Yindjibarndi, Zapotec, Zulu, Zuni.