Compatil is the first comprehensive type system which enables all typographical elements to be used to full effect in order to reproduce the message conveyed by text information. Four different type styles with a total of 16 weights including italics have been merged into a unique typographical network. There are now no limits to the font user's creativity. The system is a product of technical innovation and constitutes a new design approach which meets the highest aesthetic standards. For almost two years, a team of experts from Linotype has been working with initiator Professor Olaf Leu under the direction of Silja Bilz, Erik Faulhaber and Reinhard Haus to create the Compatil type system. Despite the Internet and TV, it is essential today to be able to absorb information quickly by being able to read it with ease. A fact that is becoming increasingly important both on-screen and on paper. It is the role of the font to increase legibility and to ensure typographically perfect results for text design work. The new Compatil type system meets all these needs. The Compatil is a part of the Platinum Collection. The following four different styles are available: Compatil Exquisit, Compatil Fact, Compatil Letter and Compatil Text. Compatil is available in various font formats: 16 separate OT Pro fonts including the small caps and Adobe Central European character set for OpenType-supporting applications like Adobe InDesign, or as 32 separate OpenType Com fonts for office communication, with the following special features: 1. Optimized display capabilities for computer screens eXcellent Screen Fonts (XSF-quality). 2. An extended, international character set, which supports 48 different languages for Microsoft Office applications like MS Word or as 64 PostScript fonts, which can be used in non-OpenType-supporting applications like Quark XPress.

Compatil is the first comprehensive type system which enables all typographical elements to be used to full effect in order to reproduce the message conveyed by text information. Four different type styles with a total of 16 weights including italics have been merged into a unique typographical network. There are now no limits to the font user's creativity. The system is a product of technical innovation and constitutes a new design approach which meets the highest aesthetic standards. For almost two years, a team of experts from Linotype has been working with initiator Professor Olaf Leu under the direction of Silja Bilz, Erik Faulhaber and Reinhard Haus to create the Compatil type system. Despite the Internet and TV, it is essential today to be able to absorb information quickly by being able to read it with ease. A fact that is becoming increasingly important both on-screen and on paper. It is the role of the font to increase legibility and to ensure typographically perfect results for text design work. The new Compatil type system meets all these needs. The Compatil is a part of the Platinum Collection. The following four different styles are available: Compatil Exquisit, Compatil Fact, Compatil Letter and Compatil Text. Compatil is available in various font formats: 16 separate OT Pro fonts including the small caps and Adobe Central European character set for OpenType-supporting applications like Adobe InDesign, or as 32 separate OpenType Com fonts for office communication, with the following special features: 1. Optimized display capabilities for computer screens eXcellent Screen Fonts (XSF-quality). 2. An extended, international character set, which supports 48 different languages for Microsoft Office applications like MS Word or as 64 PostScript fonts, which can be used in non-OpenType-supporting applications like Quark XPress.

Jill Bell's typefaces are energetic, highly decorative, and refreshingly unpredictable. Some are friendly and childlike, while others are rough and nervous. Her latest creation is ITC Swank, a connected script whose shabby-chic" sophistication communicates a worn elegance. Bell begins the design process "with black stuff on white paper," she explains, preferring to draw letters before she digitizes them. Often the inspiration for her typefaces comes from a piece of hand-lettering. "Bruno began as a reminder to buy cat food," she says, "and ITC Swank started out as a small bit of lettering for Wurlitzer Pianos." Bell finds that working with blocks of lettering is a good start for script typefaces. "If I'm drawing a script typeface, I have to write out sentences in the letters first," she explains. "Drawing each letter separately doesn't establish the flow and spontaneity that scripts deserve." Bell's newest design is ITC Swank. It's a somewhat tattered formal script with definite links to early copperplate scripts. Though probably not for wedding invitations, Swank's elegant underpinnings are evident, with its slightly narrow proportions and a baseline that can best be called "bouncy." Graphic designers will appreciate the abundance of swash letters, making it easy to create distinctive headlines and short blocks of copy. Bell has a fondness for the "open, genuine" quality of Chinese and Japanese calligraphy. "Eastern styles incorporate the natural flow of the hand," she says. "Natural, human qualities shine through. Mistakes are accepted, not scorned as in the 'white-out' Western culture." This philosophy is evident in Bell's own designs. Whether it's ITC Clover 's carefree spirit, the slightly spooky Hollyweird, Caribbean 's< rustic charm or the weathered elegance of ITC Swank, there is a natural honesty in her work."

Born on May 8, 1892 in Reno Nevada, Lewis Franklin (“Lew” ) Hymers left an indelible mark as a caricaturist, cartoonist and graphic artist. At the age of twenty [in 1912] he worked for the San Francisco Chronicle. During World War I he worked for the Washington Post. He even was employed for a time by Walt Disney as an animator - but most of his life was spent in either Tujunga, California or his birthplace of Reno, Nevada as a self-employed illustrator. Hymers inked a feature for the Nevada State Journal called “Seen About Town”, which was published during the 1930s and 1940s. In this panel, he caricaturized many of the familiar faces around Reno. He also designed signs, logos, post cards and numerous other commercial illustrations for clients, but what has endeared him to a number of fans was his vast library of stock cuts (the predecessor to paper and electronic clip art) which feature his humorous characters in various professions and life situations. So popular is his work amongst those “in the know” that a clip art book collection of over seven hundred of his drawings that was issued by Dover Publications [but long out of print] commands asking prices ranging from just under $15 to well over $100 for a single copy. Lew Hymers passed away on February 5, 1953 just a few months shy of his 61st birthday. Although his artwork depicts the 1930s and 1940s lifestyles, equipment and conveniences, more than sixty years after his death they stand up amazingly well as cheerful pieces of nostalgia. The twenty-seven images (and some variants) in Hymers JNL were painstakingly re-drawn from scans of one of his catalogs and is but just a tiny fraction of the hundreds upon hundreds of illustrations from the pen of this prolific artist.

Jana Nikolic was finishing her degree program at the Faculty of Applied Arts, in Belgrade, with a final project that would combine her two majors: type and book design. Three stories from William Saroyan's My Name Is Aram would provide the text for the book, to be set in a typeface that Nikolic would design. Nikolic knew something special was happening the moment she put pen to paper. The letters just emerged," she recalls. "I started to explore a few new pens and found one I loved. I was able to make its tip bend with pressure." Like the family Saroyan writes about, the design flowing from Nikolic's pen would be simple but a little quirky. "When there were a whole bunch of little black letters around me," continues Nikolic, "I saw that this was going to be a very interesting typeface family." Nikolic drew Latin and Cyrillic letters, lowercase and capital letters, wide letters and narrow letters. She was surprised at how quickly and easily the design came. "There were no badly written letters," she says. "I hardly had to rework them and they fit together remarkably well." ITC Aram's standard character complement consists of one set of lowercase letters and two sets of capitals: one narrow and the other wide. The wide caps can be used with the standard lowercase, or mixed with the narrow caps for a variation on "cap and small cap" copy. The ITC Aram create the opportunity to mix and combine the letters into playful typographic expressions. Words and sentences that twinkle; text that seems light and alive - one runs the risk of creating work that is both delightful and charming when setting copy in ITC Aram."

Compatil is the first comprehensive type system which enables all typographical elements to be used to full effect in order to reproduce the message conveyed by text information. Four different type styles with a total of 16 weights including italics have been merged into a unique typographical network. There are now no limits to the font user's creativity. The system is a product of technical innovation and constitutes a new design approach which meets the highest aesthetic standards. For almost two years, a team of experts from Linotype has been working with initiator Professor Olaf Leu under the direction of Silja Bilz, Erik Faulhaber and Reinhard Haus to create the Compatil type system. Despite the Internet and TV, it is essential today to be able to absorb information quickly by being able to read it with ease. A fact that is becoming increasingly important both on-screen and on paper. It is the role of the font to increase legibility and to ensure typographically perfect results for text design work. The new Compatil type system meets all these needs. The Compatil is a part of the Platinum Collection. The following four different styles are available: Compatil Exquisit, Compatil Fact, Compatil Letter and Compatil Text. Compatil is available in various font formats: 16 separate OT Pro fonts including the small caps and Adobe Central European character set for OpenType-supporting applications like Adobe InDesign, or as 32 separate OpenType Com fonts for office communication, with the following special features: 1. Optimized display capabilities for computer screens eXcellent Screen Fonts (XSF-quality). 2. An extended, international character set, which supports 48 different languages for Microsoft Office applications like MS Word or as 64 PostScript fonts, which can be used in non-OpenType-supporting applications like Quark XPress.

Kayto Script is the second collaboration of Erwin Indrawan as the calligrapher and Dexsar Harry Anugrah of Majestype as the typeface designer. Today the resurgence of calligraphy has reached the summit, with social media as the vehicle, we are now familiar with many styles of calligraphy. One of the popular styles is brush lettering, especially the pointed brush calligraphy. Kayto Script is an exploration in pointed brush calligraphy. It’s an interpretation of modern brush calligraphy that combines cursive writing with the East Asian calligraphy flair. Kayto is made with a real brush and held perpendicular to the paper so the brush can twist and turn freely to follow the movement of the hand. This technique gives a natural gesture and energetic look to the strokes. Kayto has a unique rhythm of brush pressure to generate the thick-and-thin strokes... the beating heart of brush calligraphy. Instead of the mechanical thick-and-thin strokes like the regular calligraphy, Kayto is written with a lot of variety of pressure that is somewhat melodic but still conform with the discipline. The result is a script that feels personal and characterized with lively energy. And just like handwriting, every letter in Kayto script is crafted with many varieties of glyphs and ligatures to make an unlimited combination of personalized lettering. Because of its natural letterforms, Kayto Script is best suited to complement anything that is earthy or has nature as the ground. Erwin, the calligrapher, has used Kayto in many of his watercolor illustrations. Another ideas are wedding names on invitations or place cards, logo for any natural products, inspirational quotes, business cards and the list goes on... but in the end, if you wish for something personal and truly one of a kind then Kayto script the one you want. Also, Kayto offer a free version called "Kayto Doodles" designed by Adiet Pramudya.

Chef Script is an experimental font designed by Carlos Fabian Camargo G. Its fantasy design contains 1463 glyphs to compose words, phrases and short messages on small and large sizes. The idea was born in a sketchbook that was perfected again by hand and achieving "non-neutral drawings" on tracing paper. With bezier digitization the empty and full parts of letters appeared with soft and eloquent curves as calligraphic result produces optimal readability. Chef Script combines warmth and good humor running in countless design applications such as labels and base plates, covers, posters, movie titles, seals and any printed design that needs an unusual typographic tool. In that sense, Chef Script is influenced by Speedball lettering manual (1957), Ross F. George. The illustrative nature of "ChefScript-complete" does not look anything like the traditional type design hierarchies. Therefore offers 7 hierarchical resource groups to design comfortable contexts flavored with illustration and typography: • ChefScript-Basic: Letters with horizontal and vertical thrifty proportions mimic an uninterrupted calligraphy brush made with flat tip. Thus its letters have ascenders and descenders strokes perpendicular to its base line and equal to the height of the lowercase. • ChefScript-Swashes: Letters expressive and unique flourishes to design highlighted words or phrases. • ChefScript-Caps: Uppercase with lowercase height give the impression of interrupted uppercase italics writing within what is written with uninterrupted lowercase letters producing strong contrast within a paragraph fragment. • ChefScript-Containers: Container drawings designed to exchange with infinite possibilities each order so that its inferior serve to store information written or drawn. • ChefScript-Dingbats: Pictograms that communicate: kitchen, chef, restaurant, food, etc. • ChefScript-Numbers: Bulky and useful numbers to highlight prices or figures containing points or dollar signs. • Chef Script-Words: Predesigned words with uninterrupted letters diagonally leveled highlighting various thoughts in writing.

Fazeta is a type family that uses the optical sections. It is a modern static antiqua (it has not obliqued axis, serifs without slopes) but distant from ceremonious and rigid look of this type category. Inspiration was typeproduction from Czechoslovakia 60’s - J. Týfa, V. Preissig, J. Linzboth or A. Krátky. Common factor of this typefaces is vivid and sharp design with stable serifs, tend to rational construction rather than calligraphy and some sophisticated small details vitalized general impression. In this case are facetted asymmetrical arches (some abbreviation). Specific of this typeface is a short arch of glyph “f” that allows comfortable typesetting without ligatures obligation. In character set are besides classical ligatures discretionary ligatures for special occasions. Another surprising element is that all vertical strokes are slightly expanded upwards. These details become invisible in small text but in larger sizes impressed the eye and fix attention to headline. For traditional text feeling are here alternative glyphs “a, c, f, j, k, r, y, K, R” terminated with typical serif. Typeface is graded by optical size into 3 variants - caption (robust structure with low contrast, suitable for size 6 - 9 pt), text (medium contrast, suitable for ordinary text about 10 pt) and display (high contrast and subtle details for 20 pt and higher). Every variant has 5 weights (light, regular, medium, bold and black) with italics. Typeface is with their naked cold expression suitable for neutral text without emotional feelings. In contrast with most antique typefaces this is intended for modern glossy white paper where crisp details can excelled. Every font contains 1140 glyphs, between them original small capitals, various digits, fractions, indexes, matematical symbols, arrows, borders and many alternative glyphs. To see more please check the PDF specimen.

Compatil is the first comprehensive type system which enables all typographical elements to be used to full effect in order to reproduce the message conveyed by text information. Four different type styles with a total of 16 weights including italics have been merged into a unique typographical network. There are now no limits to the font user's creativity. The system is a product of technical innovation and constitutes a new design approach which meets the highest aesthetic standards. For almost two years, a team of experts from Linotype has been working with initiator Professor Olaf Leu under the direction of Silja Bilz, Erik Faulhaber and Reinhard Haus to create the Compatil type system. Despite the Internet and TV, it is essential today to be able to absorb information quickly by being able to read it with ease. A fact that is becoming increasingly important both on-screen and on paper. It is the role of the font to increase legibility and to ensure typographically perfect results for text design work. The new Compatil type system meets all these needs. The Compatil is a part of the Platinum Collection. The following four different styles are available: Compatil Exquisit, Compatil Fact, Compatil Letter and Compatil Text. Compatil is available in various font formats: 16 separate OT Pro fonts including the small caps and Adobe Central European character set for OpenType-supporting applications like Adobe InDesign, or as 32 separate OpenType Com fonts for office communication, with the following special features: 1. Optimized display capabilities for computer screens eXcellent Screen Fonts (XSF-quality). 2. An extended, international character set, which supports 48 different languages for Microsoft Office applications like MS Word or as 64 PostScript fonts, which can be used in non-OpenType-supporting applications like Quark XPress.

Introducing Chainprinter, the typeface that channels the raw power of vintage computing. This all-caps font takes inspiration from the mighty chainprinter—a machine that printed at breakneck speeds, slicing through paper at the speed of a chainsaw. It was a marvel of 1960s technology, and now you can capture its unique texture with this stunning typeface. Incorporate Chainprinter into your next project and transport your audience back to the early days of computing. Use it to create posters, flyers, or even business cards that pay homage to the pioneers of computing history. And if you need a cleaner, more modern version, check out Typodermic’s Linefeed—the perfect complement to Chainprinter’s raw style. So why settle for boring, generic fonts when you can tap into the raw power of Chainprinter? Try it today and experience the thrill of vintage computing in every letter. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Plantin is a family of text typefaces created by Monotype in 1913. Their namesake, Christophe Plantin (Christoffel Plantijn in Dutch), was born in France during the year 1520. In 1549, he moved to Antwerp, located in present-day Belgium. There he began printing in 1555. For a brief time, he also worked at the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands. Typefaces used in Christophe Plantin's books inspired future typographic developments. In 1913, the English Monotype Corporation's manager Frank Hinman Pierpont directed the Plantin revival. Based on 16th century specimens from the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, specifically a type cut by Robert Granjon and a separate cursive Italic, the Plantin" typeface was conceived. Plantin was drawn for use in mechanical typesetting on the international publishing markets. Plantin, and the historical models that inspired it, are old-style typefaces in the French manner, but with x-height that are larger than those found in Claude Garamond's work. Plantin would go on to influence another Monotype design, Times New Roman. Stanley Morison and Victor Larent used Plantin as a reference during that typeface's cutting. Like Garamond, Plantin is exceptionally legible and makes a classic, elegant impression. Plantin is indeed a remarkably accommodating type face. The firm modelling of the strokes and the serifs in the letters make the mass appearance stronger than usual; the absence of thin elements ensures a good result on coated papers; and the compact structure of the letters, without loss of size makes Plantin one of the economical faces in use. In short, it is essentially an all-purpose face, excellent for periodical or jobbing work, and very effective in many sorts of book and magazine publishing. Plantin's Bold weight was especially optimized to provide ample contrast: bulkiness was avoided by introducing a slight sharpening to the serifs' forms."

Antique Tuscan No.9 was one of the earlier wood-type designs by William Hamilton Page. It was first shown among the specimens produced in 1859, shortly after Page entered into a new partnership with Samuel Mowry, owner of the Mowry Axle Company. The new company was named Page and Company and was located at the Mowry facility in the Greenville section of Norwich, Connecticut. Antique Tuscan No.9 is an extra-condensed version of the tuscan style that had been released in moveable type by Vincent Figgins of London in 1817 and had become so popular for advertising in the intervening years. Because of the extreme compression in the design, we might be tempted to describe it as "Triple-X," but that might be misleading. The analogy would, of course, be to clothing sizes, not movie ratings. Because of the compression, this typeface reads best when set extra-extra-extra large. For printing, we recommend 36 points or larger. For the screen, we suggest at least 72 points. An unusual and distinctive design, it is best used with discretion. If I were doing a term paper for school or submitting an article to a magazine for publication, I might use it for the title page, to grab someone’s attention. I would certainly not use it for the main body of text - not if I expected anyone to read what I wrote. If you wonder why we make this recommendation, take the Ten-Point challenge. Print this paragraph using Antique Tuscan No.9 and set the font size at 10 points. If you are young and blessed with good eyesight, you will probably be able to read it - with effort. So, here is the challenge: hand it to your Grandmother and ask HER to read it.

Few fonts reach cult status. Despite its ubiquity—and perhaps because of its lack of subtlety—for a hundred years Cooper continues to draw the faithful. It’s even come to define an entire typographic genre and recently starred in its own documentary. Cooper Nouveau is Dave West’s imaginative contribution to the Cooper oeuvre. Drawn in 1966, Nouveau refreshes Oswald Cooper’s original italic with an energetic pitch, simplified contours, and a plump friendly figure. Uniform strokes and generous curves push the font’s playful personality and springy silhouette even further. A selection of swashed characters and ligatures offers options for lively logos and strong captions. While Cooper Nouveau looks laid-back and easy-going, it’s more than capable of pulling it’s own typographic weight. Put it to work where relaxed needs to project confident. Set Nouveau large for eye-magnet posters, packaging, and advertisements. Maximize its youthful energy for kids’ themes, craft action, and apparel bounce. Or set it alongside a master like Benguiat Buffalo or Chalet to show how Cooper Nouveau can communicate on paper and screens with an inherent ability to speak the language of style in many tongues. But like any cult icon: beware! Cooper has a way of setting the needle, and Nouveau just may become your go-to design fix. FEATURES ALTERNATES: Cooper Nouveau contains several alternate characters, which add flair to your designs and can help solve spacing issues LIGATURES: Many letter combinations in Cooper Nouveau form a ligature to solve spacing issues and produce more pleasing designs. COOPER NOUVEAU CREDITS Typeface Design: Dave West Digitization: Dave Foster Typeface Direction: Ben Kiel, with Ken Barber Like all good subversives, House Industries hides in plain sight while amplifying the look, feel and style of the world’s most interesting brands, products and people. Based in Delaware, visually influencing the world.

Breaking from our catalog of typefaces to create a new handwritten font family, Modern Love was born out of our desire to see what would happen if we took a step back from the norm. We weren’t looking for the perfection of the many calligraphy techniques, but more of a natural way of writing with the same tools. Our escapist experiment into casual lettering culminated into 4 fonts: Modern Love Regular, Grunge, Rough and Caps. Modern Love Regular is a hand-painted script, each glyph individually designed with a pointed brush and walnut ink. The aim was to create an effortless hand-drawn feel while keeping the contrast high density. Playful, yet polished, this font works very well when accentuated with the family’s two distinctive styles: Modern Love Grunge, simulating a washed-out effect, perfect to add a vintage look to your projects; and Modern Love Rough, with its crunchy borders, makes letters visibly rough-around-the edges and gives large letters an unmistakeable pop. All three fonts include a hand-painted set of ornaments, swashes and alternates to limitlessly customize and decorate your texts, accessible through Opentype features. Modern Love Caps is the fourth font, a handwritten Sans Serif that ties the family together with its simplicity and readability. Designed with a pointed nib and Indian ink, this font boasts a different style that perfectly complements Modern Love Regular, Grunge and Rough. The result is a fresh font family perfect to create headlines, posters, DIY hand-lettered artwork, books, holiday cards, wrapping paper, invitations, T-shirts, labels, packaging for cosmetics, fashion supplies, food products, artisanal goods, and an endless array of options for your projects. Modern Love…when brush meets passion. Check out also ‘Modern Love Slanted’ Turquoise Nautica

The concept of the Baroque Roman type face is something which is remote from us. Ungrateful theorists gave Baroque type faces the ill-sounding attribute "Transitional", as if the Baroque Roman type face wilfully diverted from the tradition and at the same time did not manage to mature. This "transition" was originally meant as an intermediate stage between the Aldine/Garamond Roman face of the Renaissance, and its modern counterpart, as represented by Bodoni or Didot. Otherwise there was also a "transition" from a slanted axis of the shadow to a perpendicular one. What a petty detail led to the pejorative designation of Baroque type faces! If a bookseller were to tell his customers that they are about to choose a book which is set in some sort of transitional type face, he would probably go bust. After all, a reader, for his money, would not put up with some typographical experimentation. He wants to read a book without losing his eyesight while doing so. Nevertheless, it was Baroque typography which gave the world the most legible type faces. In those days the craft of punch-cutting was gradually separating itself from that of book-printing, but also from publishing and bookselling. Previously all these activities could be performed by a single person. The punch-cutter, who at that time was already fully occupied with the production of letters, achieved better results than he would have achieved if his creative talents were to be diffused in a printing office or a bookseller's shop. Thus it was possible that for example the printer John Baskerville did not cut a single letter in his entire lifetime, for he used the services of the accomplished punch-cutter John Handy. It became the custom that one type founder supplied type to multiple printing offices, so that the same type faces appeared in various parts of the world. The type face was losing its national character. In the Renaissance period it is still quite easy to distinguish for example a French Roman type face from a Venetian one; in the Baroque period this could be achieved only with great difficulties. Imagination and variety of shapes, which so far have been reserved only to the fine arts, now come into play. Thanks to technological progress, book printers are now able to reproduce hairstrokes and imitate calligraphic type faces. Scripts and elaborate ornaments are no longer the privilege of copper-engravers. Also the appearance of the basic, body design is slowly undergoing a change. The Renaissance canonical stiffness is now replaced with colour and contrast. The page of the book is suddenly darker, its lay-out more varied and its lines more compact. For Baroque type designers made a simple, yet ingenious discovery - they enlarged the x-height and reduced the ascenders to the cap-height. The type face thus became seemingly larger, and hence more legible, but at the same time more economical in composition; the type area was increasing to the detriment of the margins. Paper was expensive, and the aim of all the publishers was, therefore, to sell as many ideas in as small a book block as possible. A narrowed, bold majuscule, designed for use on the title page, appeared for the first time in the Late Baroque period. Also the title page was laid out with the highest possible economy. It comprised as a rule the brief contents of the book and the address of the bookseller, i.e. roughly that which is now placed on the flaps and in the imprint lines. Bold upper-case letters in the first line dramatically give way to the more subtle italics, the third line is highlighted with vermilion; a few words set in lower-case letters are scattered in-between, and then vermilion appears again. Somewhere in the middle there is an ornament, a monogram or an engraving as a kind of climax of the drama, while at the foot of the title-page all this din is quietened by a line with the name of the printer and the year expressed in Roman numerals, set in 8-point body size. Every Baroque title-page could well pass muster as a striking poster. The pride of every book printer was the publication of a type specimen book - a typographical manual. Among these manuals the one published by Fournier stands out - also as regards the selection of the texts for the specimen type matter. It reveals the scope of knowledge and education of the master typographers of that period. The same Fournier established a system of typographical measurement which, revised by Didot, is still used today. Baskerville introduced the smoothing of paper by a hot steel roller, in order that he could print astonishingly sharp letters, etc. ... In other words - Baroque typography deserves anything else but the attribute "transitional". In the first half of the 18th century, besides persons whose names are prominent and well-known up to the present, as was Caslon, there were many type founders who did not manage to publish their manuals or forgot to become famous in some other way. They often imitated the type faces of their more experienced contemporaries, but many of them arrived at a quite strange, even weird originality, which ran completely outside the mainstream of typographical art. The prints from which we have drawn inspiration for these six digital designs come from Paris, Vienna and Prague, from the period around 1750. The transcription of letters in their intact form is our firm principle. Does it mean, therefore, that the task of the digital restorer is to copy meticulously the outline of the letter with all inadequacies of the particular imprint? No. The type face should not to evoke the rustic atmosphere of letterpress after printing, but to analyze the appearance of the punches before they are imprinted. It is also necessary to take account of the size of the type face and to avoid excessive enlargement or reduction. Let us keep in mind that every size requires its own design. The longer we work on the computer where a change in size is child's play, the more we are convinced that the appearance of a letter is tied to its proportions, and therefore, to a fixed size. We are also aware of the fact that the computer is a straightjacket of the type face and that the dictate of mathematical vectors effectively kills any hint of naturalness. That is why we strive to preserve in these six alphabets the numerous anomalies to which later no type designer ever returned due to their obvious eccentricity. Please accept this PostScript study as an attempt (possibly futile, possibly inspirational) to brush up the warm magic of Baroque prints. Hopefully it will give pleasure in today's modern type designer's nihilism.