Since their first appearance as Italians on the pages of the 1821 William Caslon type specimens, reverse contrast typefaces have been typography's best loved quirky outcasts. Subverting the traditional relationship between thick verticals and thin horizontals made them perfect for eye-catching advertisements. The unexpected contrasts and the thick slabs produced by reverse-contrast serifs became ubiquitous in period posters, and synonymous with wild west and circus iconography. In designing Stinger, the Zetafonts design team composed by Maria Chiara Fantini, Andrea Tartarelli and Francesco Canovaro and orchestrated by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini decided to marry this subversive tradition with the workhorse approach of modernist sans serif typefaces like Univers, developing a super-family with four widths, each in five different weights, from thin to heavy. This gives the designer a full range of options for type setting, with the Normal and Fit widths providing two different text-sized alternatives, the wide width adding display and titling options and the Slim ready to deal with the space-saving necessities of extremely long texts. True italics have been added developed for all weights and variants, bringing the Stinger family to a total of 40 fonts, with a latin extended + Russian Cyrillic character set covering over 200 languages, and open type features including positional numbers, stylistic sets and alternate forms. In the crowded panorama of contemporary grotesque typefaces, all aiming to stark geometric perfection, Stinger stands out with its bold choices and strong personality. From the calligraphy-inspired terminals in the thin weights to the logo-ready sculptural approach in the heavy weights, each variant manages to look striking without forgetting the readability and flexibility lessons of modern reverse-contrast classics like those designed by Excoffon or Novarese. A variable version is included with the full family, allowing maximum flexibility and control for the designer over the wide range of expression capabilities of the Stinger super family.

The ITC Nova Lineta™ design is the first commercial typeface from Slobodan Jelesijevic. As with many typeface designs, it began as simple sketches. “I was working on a packaging design project,” recalls Jelesijevic, “and wanted an informal, slightly cursive design for the type. I could not find anything that matched my need, so I began sketching.” The preliminary design had an elegant yet fresh quality that, once developed, turned out to be perfect for Jelesijevic’s project. After its first use, however, Nova Lineta lay dormant for over a year. Other projects came and went, and new typeface ideas filled Jelesijevic’s notebook. Although Nova Lineta continued to tickle the creative crevices of his mind, no more work was done on the face. Then, in a period between projects, Jelesijevic began to polish the design – and, in the process, created extended and condensed versions to complement the normally-proportioned original. Born in Gornji Milanovac, Serbia in 1951, Jelesijevic graduated with a degree in graphic communication and lettering from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. These days, Jelesijevic is sought out not only as a typeface designer, but also as a graphic designer and illustrator. When not working on design projects, he teaches graphic communication at the Faculty of Art in Niš, Serbia. Although it is a casual and inviting design, Nova Lineta has been carefully constructed and refined. As a result, it performs exceptionally well within a wide range of sizes and in a wealth of applications. An ample x-height, open counters and distinctive character shapes also ensure a high level of legibility. And, although at first glance Nova Lineta may appear to be a sans serif design, subtle serifs make their presence known at large sizes. Nova Lineta emanates warmth when used for extensive text, and it has a fresh quality at display sizes. The small family’s range of proportions also provides added flexibility. The result is a friendly yet powerful communication tool in a remarkably modestly-sized package.

The Brass Family has a lineage that extends into English history. About five hundred years ago a devout, but anonymous Englishman gave glory to the God he worshipped by designing the capital letters and decorations of these two fonts. Originally recorded in The History Of Mediaeval Alphabets And Devices by Henry Shaw (London 1853), they are described by Alexander Nesbitt in his Decorative Alphabets And Initials (Mineola, NY 1959) as “Initials and stop ornaments from brasses in Westminster Abbey.” I wish I could say I remember seeing them when I was there, but that was forty-two years ago and all I remember was seeing the tomb of Edward the Confessor. One definition of “stop” as a noun is a point of punctuation. I have heard people from the British Isles speak of a “full stop” when referring to a period. Some may remember a 19th century form of communication called a telegram being read aloud in an old movie, with the use of the word “stop” to indicate the end of a sentence or fragment. A full dozen of these stop ornaments are provided. They occupy positions 060, 062, 094, 123, 125, 126, 135, 137, 167, 172, 177 & 190. The Brass Family consists of two fonts: Brass and Brass Too. Both fonts have an identical upper case and ornaments, but paired with different lower cases. Although the typefaces from which the lower cases were drawn are both of modern design, both are interpretations of the textura style of blackletter in use in England when the upper case and ornaments were fashioned for the Abbey. Brass is paired with Morris Gothic, which matches the color of the upper case quite well. Brass Too is paired with Wedding Regular, which is distinctly lighter than the upper case. I find it very interesting how each connects differently. The resulting fonts are unusual and most useful for evoking an historic atmosphere.

Archive Garamond is a typeface roughly based on the designs of Claude Garamond (ca. 1480 – 1561), a French publisher and a leading typeface designer of that period. Garamond’s influence on type design is reflected in many typefaces that are today known under different commercial names. While the majority of contemporary digital interpretations of the “Garamond types” are cleaner and more polished versions of that genre, Archive Garamond tries to keep the rough nature which was typical in the early days of printing. Archive Garamond has a rather unique, distinctive temperament which is even more emphasised with the preserved non-uniformity, such as irregular glyph shapes or a variable baseline. Although Archive Garamond was clearly made to be used for display sizes it works surprisingly well in text. Archive Garamond is availale in three versions, each containing approximately 600 glyphs (in Pro versions). Archive Garamond Pro A Professional version of the typeface contains all glyphs, including the advanced typographic forms, such as different sets of figures, small caps, swashes, historical forms, etc. The font also enables full use of the OpenType features. It fully supports the languages listed in the language list. Archive Garamond Std A Standard version of the typeface is meant to be used for the basic typographic work. It typically contains the most common glyphs. The standard figures are proportional lining. Besides kerning this version does not contain any advanced OpenType features. A Standard file type fully supports the languages listed in the Language list. Archive Garamond Exp An Expert version contains glyphs that are supposed to be used in advanced typographic works. This type of file contains uppercase and small cap glyphs with the proportional oldstyle figures as the default set. Besides kerning this version does not contain any advanced OpenType features (all OTF features have to be replaced manually). An Expert file type fully supports the languages listed in the Language list.

It is a font based on characters called "Kanteiryu," which were used in the Edo period for signboards and the rankings of actors in stage performances such askabukiandjoruri. While inheriting the culture of "Kanteiryu," the "NewKanteiryu" font is easy to read and is arranged in a modern style, maintaining its decorative nature. You can enjoy the movements of calligraphy-like brush strokes in both vertical and horizontal typesetting. 江戸時代に歌舞伎や浄瑠璃などの舞台演芸の表看板や番付に使用された「勘亭流」と呼ばれる文字をベースにした書体です。「勘亭流」は歌舞伎の舞をイメージした曲線的なエレメントが一番の特徴ですが、他にも「字を太くして空白（隙間）をなくす＝空席がないように」「尖らせず丸みをもたす＝興行の無事円満祈願」「ハネを内側に入れる＝観客を芝居小屋に入れる」など、一般的な毛筆とは違う、縁起を担いだ独特の決まりで書かれたとても装飾性の高い文字です。セイビジンダイは「勘亭流」の文化を継承しつつ、装飾性を保ちながら読みやすく現代風にアレンジした「新勘亭流」書体です。タテ組でもヨコ組でもカリグラフィのような筆の動きが楽しめます。

You stand, poised at the brink. If you do not choose the right, the best typeface, this may be one of the greatest disasters in your history. The whole root and core and brain on which and around which your project is built seems about to perish into an ignominious end. But I do not for a moment fail to believe that Winsel shall prevail for you. This bold new face, founded from the tested mind of insigne design, will in the moment of need wield for you the full might of its ancestors. The entire strength of the British Empire’s vernacular poster lettering spanning the 1920’s to the 1950’s drives the very heart of every feature and weight this font has to offer. Winsel’s expanded design is sharp and angular, based on pointed brush strokes. Its thick, sturdy appearance will draw and direct your reader’s mind to the weight and importance of your messages and titling. Within the font’s full forces work a range of styles to achieve victory in the contest ahead: thick weights that are compact and muscular for carrying a heavier load and lighter, finer weights to lead you through your more sensitive operations. It stands equipped with OpenType features, ready to support most European Latin-based languages and providing features such as Small Caps and Titling Caps in all nine of its weights. Well-honed for the task ahead, Winsel has been crafted to ride out the storm of mediocrity and to outlive the merits of inconsequence, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. There has never been in all the world such an opportunity for you. With Winsel, you shall go on till the end. You shall write on the beaches. You shall write on the landing grounds. You shall write with growing confidence and growing strength in print or on the air. Every morn has brought forth a noble chance. Your chance this day is Winsel.

It is a font based on "yose-style characters" used in entertainment during the Edo period for signboards and the rankings of rakugo performers and flyers to attract customers. Kanji in the original yose-style characters is balanced with kana, and is made easier to read by controlling brushstrokes at oblique angles, rising to the right. While the font is arranged in a contemporary style tailored to both horizontal and vertical typesetting, you can still enjoy the essence of handwritten yose-style characters. 江戸時代に使用された演芸文字で落語の看板や番付、客寄せのビラに使用された「寄席文字」をベースにした書体です。寄席文字は舞台芸能で使われる勘亭流と、提灯や半纏に使われた字体の折衷で生まれた文字といわれ、「枠いっぱいに墨たっぷりの太い線でフトコロ（隙間）を埋めて書く= 空席がないように」「右肩上がりに書く= ますます盛況に」と縁起を担いだ装飾文字です。セイビオオキドは、手書きレタリングから引き継がれた寄席文字です。寄席文字本来の漢字とかなのバランスの違いを整え、右肩あがりもおさえて読みやすく、タテヨコでも組みやすく現代風にアレンジしていますが、手書きの寄席文字のような組みができます。

A handwritten ”font for technicians“ from ca. 1900. Very geometrical, rigid forms borrowed from the typical characteristics of Jugendstil / Art Nouveau. This script is found in an old magazine which was issued sometime in the years shortly before WWI. The original copy, produced by means of a galvanized plate, is just 7 centimeters wide. It served as the model for technical professions in which, at that time, the captions of drawings were still done by hand. ingoFonts has not only digitized this beautiful typeface, we have also extended it to a whole family. In »Maier’s Alte Nr. 8« special attention was given to ensure the ”uneven“ edges, typical of handwritten script, remained effectively noticeable even in the digitized form. As a result, this ”technical“ font retains a handmade touch, while »Maier’s Neue Nr. 8« is the clean version with exact contours. The Art Nouveau forms, which are characteristic for the period of origin around the turn of the century around 1900, look especially pretty. The high degree of abstraction also seems strange in Maier's No. 8, especially when the age of the original is known. It is generally assumed that it was not until the Bauhaus in the late 1920s that such "modern" typefaces were created. Maier's No. 8 is a generation older! So many of today's supposedly "ultramodern" typefaces look quite old in comparison. In addition to the original two weights, Light and Bold, the Maiers Neue Nr. 8 got a regular and a extra-bold weight. Furthermore, the Neue is also available in italics. Although this is only a slanted version, unlike common practice, it is inclined to the left. Maier’s Nr. 8 Pro is suitable for all European languages. It includes ”Latin Extended-A,“ for Central and Eastern Europe incl. Turkish, and even Cyrillic and Greek, too. The font includes several stylistic alternates as well as a number of ligatures.

With designs drawn specifically for comfortable reading in everything from on-screen digital content to print in periodicals and books, Mundo Serif is ready to take on just about any project. Carl Crossgrove drew the suite of typefaces to complement his Mundo Sans family’s classic humanistic design traits – and added a subtle modern influence. Restrained stroke modulation, generous counters, commanding x-height and tall ascenders ensure that content set in Mundo Serif is both legible and easy on the eyes. While primarily designed for text copy in print and on screen, Mundo Serif becomes a powerful display type tool in the lightest and boldest weights. Headlines, navigational links and banners are naturals for this versatile collection of typefaces. Mundo Serif is a large family. Nine weights, each with an italic companion, enable precise typographic tuning. Captions, subheads, pull quotes and long-form copy can be melded to create a welcoming page of modulated text. For best results in digital environments, skipping a weight – or even two – ensures hierarchical clarity. Crossgrove did extensive testing of Mundo Serif to ensure the best possible on-screen readability. To further guarantee optimal digital imaging of the family, he gave the design generous inter-character spacing and slightly expanded intricate characters like the lowercase a and g. If the goal is diversified or multi-platform branding, look no further than Mundo Sans. The two designs harmonize with each other perfectly in weight, typographic color and proportion. Both designs benefit from large international character set that includes support for most Central European and many Eastern European languages. For a stronger contrast, pair Mundo Serif with virtually any sans serif grotesque design. Crossgrove has designed a variety of typefaces ranging from the futuristic and organic Biome™ to the warm, clean lines of the Mundo Sans. His work for Monotype also often takes Crossgrove into the realm of custom fronts for branding and non-Latin scripts.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Price Didone has inspired a full alphabetic font - Mastadoni, so if you're after more than numerals, head over there! Price Didone is a font with a singular purpose: The setting of elegant, stylish price tags. As such it is non-alphabetic, featuring instead numerals, a large array of currency symbols, and a smattering of typographic niceties such as quotes, brackets, pilcrow, daggers and a very curvaceous ampersand. Certain currency symbols that are not independent glyphs (Q, Ft, kr etc.) are included as their constituent letters, some of which also have automatic ligatures for that little something extra. There are currency symbols included which have not (yet) been accepted to unicode, such as the Russian Ruble and Bitcoin symbols. For ease of access, these can be typed using the standard ligatures feature. See features below for the full list. Features: Automatic Fractions - with fractions feature engaged, arbitrary fractions are a doddle. Stylistic Sets: SS01 - an alternate look for 4 SS02 - a double stroked dollar symbol SS03- the # sign becomes a stylish numero Stylistic Alternates - for software that doesn't support stylistic sets, the above three features are grouped into the one SALT feature. Standard Ligatures - certain typed combinations automatically change to different glyphs: B|| = Bitcoin symbol P- = Russian Ruble RM = Malaysian Rimgit symbol Rp = Indonesian Rupiah Rs = Rupees Ft = Hungarian Forint kr = Kroner symbol % off;%off;%ff = Special percent off ligature Discretionary Ligatures - this feature sets decimal prices like $5.95 with the numerals after the period smaller and raised from the baseline, underlined by a nice swoosh. It also shrinks the dollar, sterling, and Euro symbols for a more authentic look. While intended for one sole purpose, Price Didone could nevertheless be quite versatile. Quote marks and typographic symbols can be used for decoration. Everybody loves a nice ampersand and this is one I'm really proud of. Or you might just want some pretty numbers for your house, or sports jersey, or just to stand out a little from the rest of your text. Whatever use you may have in mind, go for it. And do let me know if your currency symbol isn't included, and I'll quickly add it to the glyph set in future versions.

Full of life Hispanic Didot in 2 optical sizes Retiro is a daring interpretation of Spanish typography. Severe, austere and yet, full of life, Retiro is a vernacular version of Castilian and Andalusian in a typical Didot. Named after a lovely park in Madrid, Retiro started life as a a bespoke typeface designed to give a unique voice to the magazine Madriz. In 2006, the founder of Madriz was looking for a Didot for his new magazine. The Didot is the archetypal typeface used in high-end magazines. Retiro is a synthesis of these high contrast styles mixed with an Hispanic mind. Result is then, after 2-3 years of work, a typeface with countless variations to establish typographic shades adapted to different sections and pages of the Madriz. In 2014, it was necessary to further revise the typeface before its launch at Typofonderie. In order to keep its originality, the unique weight was retained, but complemented with optical size variants to set highly contrasted headlines into various sizes, visually balanced. How to use Retiro optical sizes? Each font provided in Retiro family is named according to the scale of body size: 24 pt and 64 pt. Of course, these names are referring to the body sizes used in typographic design. In the “glorious old days,” the letterpress period, it was customary to cut punches directly to the size at which typefaces would be used. The punchcutter had to visually adapt his design to the engraving size. The aim was to optimize the best contrast and general weight, but also to respect both design’s and reader’s needs. In Retiro’s case, intended for large titling sizes, it’s an adaptation of this ancient practice for our contemporary uses. Although each font is named by a typographic point size, do not feel obliged to use this font at this precise size, but why not, in larger or smaller. It’s rather the concept of gradients that must be preserved in layouts, rather than strictly size numbers. It’s up to the designer to select the right font size for his own designs. Granshan Awards 2012 Creative Review Type Annual 2011 Designpreis 2011 Club des directeurs artistiques, 41e palmarès Type Directors Club 2010 Certificate of Type design Excellence

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.

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, which can be translated in English as “Dreaming Love Fighting of Poliphilus”, is a romance about a mysterious arcane allegory in which the main protagonist, Poliphilo, pursues his love, Polia, through a dreamlike landscape. In the end, he is reconciled with her by the “Fountain of Venus”. The author of the book is anonymous, however, an acrostic formed by the first, elaborately decorated letter in each chapter in the original Italian reads “POLIAM FRATER FRANCISCVS COLVMNA PERAMAVIT”, which means “Brother Francesco Colonna has dearly loved Polia”. Despite this clue, the book has also been attributed to many other authors. The identity of the illustrator is less certain than that of the author. It was first published in Venice, in December 1499, by Aldo Manutio. This first edition presents an elegant and unique page layout, with refined woodcut illustrations in an Early Renaissance style and a refined Roman font, cut by Francesco da Bologna, which is a revised version of the type used in 1496 for the De Aetna of Pietro Bembo. The print quality is very high for the time, but nevertheless it presents many inconsistencies and imperfections due to the non-ideal inking and adherence of the matrix to the paper. For that reason numerous samples of the original have been used to create every single glyph which will result in an appropriate reconstruction and not a mere and humble reproduction. Some letters like \J, \U and \W were extrapolated, because they are not part of the original alphabet of the period. Some letters like \Q, \X, \Y, \Z and \h have been updated to more modern variants, but the original shape is accessible by Stylistic Alternates Opentype Feature, which also changes the shape of the \V and the \v. The original numerals \zero, \one, \tree, \four and \six have been accompanied by reconstructions of the missing numbers and extended by modern figures. Finally, swashed lower cases and original scribal abbreviations were also included. The font has joined by a matching Italic variant, closely inspired from Aldo Manuzio's 1501 "Vergilius", the first book printed entirely in Italic type by Francesco da Bologna.

Before the mid-to-late 1970s, when retailers started to embrace UPC (universal price code) technology on a grand scale, pricing merchandise took on many forms. One method especially popular with variety stores (such as Woolworth's, McCrory's, Kress, etc.) were pre-printed price tags that came in small pads and were inserted into metal holders. Shelf Tags JNL recreates a vintage price tag based on examples seen online, and allows the user different ways to create their own vintage-style price tags. You can either utilize the round pen nib style numbers and price marks to place on any size or type tag, or type out prices using the reversed characters (white on black) along with the two end caps provided to form a complete tag unit. For the more adventurous, a complete blank tag is also provided in case the desire is to print a solid color tag background and [using the regular numbers] crate prices in custom colors. Two sets of smaller number (for "floating" cents prices) are also provided in regular numbers and reverse panels. As an extra bonus, there is a set of 1 through zero, dollar sign, cents sign and decimal point individual black-on-white outlined panels for making individual pricing numbers. The keyboard layout for the various characters is as follows: asterisk key - regular cents sign (no panel) dollar sign key - regular dollar sign (no panel) period key - regular decimal point (no panel) left and right parenthesis keys - panel end caps (to form price tags) colon key - reverse decimal point on black panel 1 thru 0 keys - regular numbers (no panels) A through J keys - small regular numbers (no panels) K and L keys - truncated [shorter width] end caps M through Y keys - individual price numbers (black on white with black border a through j keys - reverse numbers on black panels k key - reverse dollar sign on black panel l key - reverse cents sign on black panel m through v keys - reverse small numbers on black panels w through z keys - blank rectangular panels of varying widths equal sign key - full black panel price tag hyphen key - blank rectangular black panel based on the width of most number panels