Tacit is the first typeface to be the creative outcome of a PhD thesis in graphic design. The work's main study had the aim of documenting design processes in an effort to externalise the tacit (experiential) knowledge of graphic designers. Initially the task was only to design several glyphs but the work resulted in a full typeface. Tacit is an elegant sans serif with a distinctive character and is legible at small and large point sizes.

ITC Stylus is the work of American designer Dennis Pasternak, who based its forms on those of freehand architectural lettering from historical and contemporary sources. Pasternak points out that while the typeface emulates hand lettering, no pencil drawings or scanned art were used in its creation. The letters bounce slightly across the baseline, giving the typeface the look of true handwriting. ITC Stylus emanates warmth when used for extended text and a fresh quality in display sizes.

Patterned after cheap neon signage, this face has class, all of it low. Uppercase only, the lowercase positions are filled with an assortment of cheesy neon graphics, intended to be used at twice the point size of the caps. Named after a 70s TV show about a hotel with a defective neon sign. Both versions of this font contain the Unicode 1252 Latin and Unicode 1250 Central European character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

It is inspired by the friendliness and cordiality of neo-humanist typefaces with a mix of rounded shapes, some apexed characters, and a little bit of black. Although it follows the ductus, D Sari is also a daring font with less pointed shapes, as is the case with regular neo-humanist typefaces. D Sari has 22 variants, which make it a very dynamic typeface. Well-suited for highlighting lettering, magazines, motion graphics, advertising, logotypes, signs, etc.

This font was created for the birth of a baby in June 2008. It's a melting font, including various types : blackletter script, bastarde, humanistic... a joyful interpretation for a joyful event. It is intended for use as web-site titles, posters and flyers design, but primarily for greeting cards, invitations, party, menus... as a very fancy and joyful font... This font remains clear and easy to read from 8 or 9 points to 72 and much more...

Manufactory JNL and its oblique counterpart were re-drawn from examples of a now-antique typeface used within many advertisements found throughout the pages of The American Stationer magazine, circa 1879. The term ‘manufactory’ was popular during this era; the word being a more archaic form of ‘factory’. There is a bit of Western flavor to this type design, as the spurred serifs and the top and bottom strokes are heavier than the vertical and mid-point stroke weights.

The slab serif Waterloo Bold was designed by Alan Meeks. He chose unique and individual forms to give this alphabet its unmistakable character. The cross strokes of the capitals are not in the optical center, the serifs have light furrows, and the figures have a slight slant tot he right, giving this font a dynamic, flowing look. Waterloo Bold is reminiscent of cigars, whiskey and the 1930s and should be used only in headlines in large point sizes.

Bob Alonso’s Aftershock was designed to resemble woodcut or linocut lettering; its irregular shapes make it stand out from its background. Dominant features of this typeface are its generally square forms and its emphasized horizontal strokes. The strong, heavy alphabet makes an overall regular impression in spite of the idiosyncracies of its individual characters. To emphasize the unique contours of the forms, it is best to use Aftershock in larger point sizes and exclusively in headlines.

GeometricoSlab. Round with strong serifs. Should it express power? Geometric and Slabserifs: a relatively rare combination. GeometricoSlab takes its cue from Herb Lubalin’s typeface family of the same name, and by using optical corrections with restraint, it looks a touch more uncompromising. The flexible, partly asymmetrical arrangement of the serifs avoids an overly heavy effect. The typeface family is suitable for both headlines and small point sizes and is related Geometrico Sans Curious? Try GeometricSlab free of charge.

A handlettered headline in the January 1953 issue of Park East magazine by wacko album artist Jim Flora provided the inspiration for this exercise in extreme lettering. Check out the [brackets] and the bullet point... like, endsville, daddy-o. Due to the complexity of this typeface, the font has no math operators. The Postscript and Truetype versions contain a complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252); in addition, the Opentype version supports Unicode 1250 (Central European) languages as well.

"Atnew" is a modern typeface that includes six individual fonts (ExtraLight, Light, Regular, Medium, SemiBold, Bold) and a variable font ranging between Light (50pt) and Bold (200pt). Keeping geometric shapes but with soft curves gives fonts a playful feel. They can be used in interfaces, websites, posters, stationery, tv show credits, and many other purposes. It could be for your everyday activities like journaling. The variable font version provides more flexibility for your needs by fine-tuning weight points.

Onyon is a bizarre typeface with vertical stems that thicken in the middle and narrow at the ends. It was created as an experiment to see what a typeface would look like if the vertical stems were diamond or rhombus shaped. The letters are angular with unusual triangular serifs and they have no curves. It is a harsh, cruel typeface that will make your eyes water if you use it at small point sizes for text.

The image of a set of vintage French tin stencils spotted online was the starting point in designing Freight Yard Stencil JNL. A more traditional ‘B’ and ‘R’ replaces the original characters (which looked kind of awkward due to extra ‘stencil breaks’ within the letters). However, there are a few interesting variants in other characters to set the design apart from similar stencil fonts. Work Yard Stencil JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Mouzambik is a simple, condensed sans-serif font with a bold and intricate personality. It comes in three styles: regular, Inktrap, and Smooth, each with italics. Crafted with intention, it maintains its allure in both large and small point sizes. This font is ideal for headlines, billboards, magazines, websites, titles, posters, branding, and logos. With an abundance of ligatures, alternates, and other features to choose from, you can ensure your project stands out from the rest.

The pLatinum family was created in 1998. Ink, scanner, Fontographer and as a result Regular and Italic styles of pLatinum typeface. Kyrillitsa'99 International type design competition Award winning typeface. The design style is “Irregular Serif”. The glyphs of pLatinum roman are reminiscent of the Russian types of early eighteenth century—especially in the smaller point sizes. An Italic, surprisingly close to the handwriting copybooks of mid-eighteenth century, is a later addition to the design.

Deconstructed JNL is another set of rubber stamp alphabet letters and numbers from a 1930s toy printing set. The original typeface of this set is Cheltenham Open. The stamps were printed out and scanned, creating this limited-character font with dual characteristics. At small point sizes it replicates inked rubber stamp impressions, but in larger format it shows angular lines and erratic character shapes as if made from cut paper or lettering that was intentionally made to look damaged.

I wanted to mix the handmade look with both comic and grafitti, but leaving an organic laid back feeling. The result is this: Pausefisk. A font with smooth, handdrawn curves and a total of 6 different versions of each letter. Pausefisk is actually something from my childhood: when the TV-programs where finished (yes, there were no TV after midnight!) the only thing to see was a camera pointed at a fishtank...and that went on for hours!

Shababa is a hand-drawn 3-D font. The linework is fairly relaxed, mostly smooth with some distressed edges. There is lots of texturing from the pen strokes which becomes more evident at larger point sizes. This looseness enhances the smooth technicality of the properly extruded forms. With extended codepages for Cyrillic, Romanian, Turkish, Baltic & Central Europe, Shababa is suitable for multilingual environments & publications. It also features West European diacritics, ligatures & a sprinkling of dingbats for extra fun!

Thebes is a font based on an ancient Coptic script. The Copts are Egyptian Christians, and theirspoken language is a dialect of ancient Egyptian. Their letters, however, are Hellenized andresemble the Greek Alphabet and do not have any relationship to hieroglyphics. Thebes comes with full punctuation, a character 535 glyphcharacter set that allows the user to type in most Western European Latinalphabet languages, Cyrillic, and Modern Greek. Being a decorative font, it works best at larger point sizes.

Linotype Animalia is part of the Take Type Library, chosen from the contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. The font was designed by German artist Johannes Plass and is full of surprises. It is like a walk through the zoo, where the j is a shark chasing a small fish and the K is a moose gazing at the sky. Linotype Animalia is intended exclusively for use in headlines with large point sizes.

Linotype Zurpreis is a family of two typefaces created by the Swedish designer Bo Berndal in 1999. The letterforms in these faces are made up almost entirely of curves, giving them a slightly handmade, inky, or psychedelic appearance. The round characters dance and bounce along their baseline, lending a fun and uneven quality to text set with the fonts. Linotype Zurpreis is best used in sizes above 12 points, either for short passages of text, or headlines.

Big headlines, big mastheads, big cover art. Big, big, big–big is best when big. The exquisiteness of Freight Big Pro’s hairline strokes and elegantly pointed serifs provide a striking contrast to its surroundings. Very useful when you really wanna knock someone’s socks off but with the touch of a feather so they’ll know something happened but not how it happened. Freight Big Pro, sublimely subliminal. Go ahead, slip one on (or under) your covers–we won’t tell.

Rick Bradley - known for his Fine Hand, Bible Script, Bradley Hand and Calligraphic Ornaments - drew this font from a gravestone in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, dated 1241. The irregularity lends a special charm to this 'English dialect' version of the international Lombardic style, while the ornamental points reflect the mediaeval 'horror vacui', fear of empty spaces where the evil one might creep in with his influences. Perhaps most useful as a display font, but complete with lower case and extras.

Linotype Schnitz is part of the Take Type Library, selected from the contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. Designed by the Finnish artist Osmo Niemi, the characters seem to contain no round forms at all. Linotype Schnitz looks as though it were chiseled and has an angular, almost brittle feel. The restless and lively appearance makes Linotype Schnitz particular well-suited to headlines and shorter texts with point sizes of 12 and larger.

Linotype Read My Hand is part of the Take Type Library, selected from contestants in Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. It is the digitalized handwriting of its Dutch designer, Leon Hulst. As is common of handwriting fonts, the forms of the letters seem spontaneous and individual. Read My Hand is a dynamic font suitable for texts with point sizes larger than 12 and particularly good for documents which should have a personal touch.

Linotype Gneisenauette is part of the Take Type Library, selected from the contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. The handwriting font was designed by Latvian artist Gustavs A. Grinbergs and is available in eight weights. Linotype Gneisenauette is a dynamic font which also reflects a bit of the optimistic spirit of the 1950s. The font is best used for headlines or middle length texts with a point size 12 or larger.

A geometric sans serif with a square chiseled appearance. Precise curves are met with straight lines and tapered angles to produce a fresh, technical typeface. It’s large x-height and neutral width give it good legibility at small point sizes. These refined rectangular features make it ideally suited to a wide range of modern applications. Details include 550 characters with alternative lowercase a, e, g and y. 5 variations of numerals, manually edited kerning and Opentype features.

This American original was designed in 1901 by Frederic W. Goudy for the American Type Founders in Jersey City. Copperplate Gothic is an all caps font which looks like a sans serif at first glance. But closer examination reveals tiny, pointy serifs which almost seem to round off the letters. Designers rely on this font’s lofty and sublime impression and it is often seen in advertisements, but it has also made a place for itself in private and business correspondence and corporate design. The AB and BC designations in the style names refer to the relative sizes of the capitals and small capitals.

The GateKeeper typeface was inspired by old horror movies, and the various poster typography that went with some of them. A loose and pointy typestyle, GateKeeper embodies the dark side of typography and life, with a creepy and on edge feeling. With large and small capitals, it is easy to exchange cases in events of double characters, which can lend for a very interesting offbeat quality. Usable for any ocassion, but most suitable for dark matter. Learn about the GateKeeper, study his methods, and pass his test. Get the GateKeeper typeface today, and you are on your way!

The peculiarity of this alphabet is already its origin: the basic drawing was created by narrowing Roman capitals with corresponding lowercase letters. The goal was to create a monumental font for architecture and book covers. Surprisingly, however, Amor Sans has found its way into corporate identity, offices, magazines and packaging design. Its slightly narrowed, economical design predestines it for quick reading of shorter texts, which is why it is also excellent for theater posters and programs. Its moderate width proportions and rich selection of arrows and pointers are excellently used in public spaces. Amor Sans has a neutral expression that works harmoniously in any architectural style. It will serve as an orientation system in a medieval monastery as well as in a modern building, while remaining distinctive even in the dark. The family consists of ten cuts with many functions, such as small capitals, Cyrillic, several types of numerals, a number of ligatures and stylistic alternatives.

The award-winning Scala family (1990-1993) is a worldwide bestseller and has established itself as a ‘classic’ among digital fonts. It was one of the first serious digital text fonts to support small caps, ligatures and different set of numbers. In fact Scala and Scala Sans (1990-1993) are two different typefaces sharing a common form principle: the skeletons of both Scala and Scala Sans are identical. Scala’s dark colour and low contrast works to prevent the thin parts from breaking up. The generous length of Scala italic’s serifs gives it a strong rhythm. The bold weight has the same character widths as the normal weight, so changing a text from normal into bold does not affect the set width. Another part of Scala is very popular among its users: Scala Hands, containing more than one hundred decorative hands and pointers, is a free bonus. Scala Jewels is a set of four highly decorative typefaces, based on the bold capitals of Scala.

A tessellation is a pattern in which a shape or tile fits together with copies of itself to fill the plane with no gaps or overlaps. One type of tessellation is formed with sides of center-point rotation, that is, one half of an edge is rotated 180 degrees to form the other half. If a square template is made with sides of identical center-point rotation, there are exactly four shapes that are possible. If these shapes or tiles are fit together not edge to edge but vertex to vertex, the result is a checkerboard-like pattern of tiles and voids. However, the voids have four edges formed by the four possible shapes that the tiles can have, so the voids are limited to the same four shapes that that make up the tiles. The FabFours have 22 tile families that allow a wide variety of fascinating patterns. They form one, two, three, and four tile tessellation. Eleven of the seventeen symmetry groups can be formed with these patterns. In each tile family two of the shapes have two possible orientations, one shape has four possible orientations, and one has eight, for a total of 16 tiles. Each font has two families, one on letters A-P the other on a-p. For some of the families there are also other tiles using the same edge but using triangular and hexagonal templates. To get proper results, the leading must be set equal to the point size of the font. I discovered these fabulous families and their decorative possibilities as I was working on a book about tessellations. I have not been able to find anyone else who has written about these families of four and their decorative possibilities when arranged vertex to vertex.

The Monotype Janson font family is based on types originally cut by the Hungarian punch-cutter, Nicolas Kis circa 1690. Named after Anton Janson, a Dutch printer. The original matrices came into the hands of the Stempel foundry in Germany in 1919. New type was cast and proofs made; these were used as the source for Monotype's version of Janson. The original hand cut Janson types have a number of small design irregularities which give the typeface its unique charm. These have been carefully incorporated into the new version. The overall effect is of even color and an easy readability that makes Monotype Janson most at home in book and publishing work.

Set of ornaments based on the decorative motifs used by the first typographic workshop in Buenos Aires: “Imprenta de Niños Expósitos”, between 1780 and 1824. This set is the product of an extensive historical research that aims to identify the type that came from Europe to the City during colonial times, and during the first years of Argentina’s independence. This group has a lot of diversity, which fluctuates between organic baroque forms and geometric neoclassical. Its characters can be used in editorial design along with Roman typefaces, they work individually or grouped to form different figures, guards or frames. It was baptized in honor to the first printer who worked in the workshop: the Spanish Agustín Garrigós.

Whenever I've stayed in Munich my friend Michael Bundscherer and I go on a typographical expedition. When we talk about that, we remember the bygone world of sign painter. On one of the facades of a furniture shop in Munich, you can discover the lettering of the name in golden letters. This one convinced us because of the simple elegance Art Deco. These letters on the facade are in any case the character set, which forms the basis of this document. The missing (especially the lowercase letters and the numbers) were modeled. The "OPEN" called version tries to replicate the 3-D effect. The font is particularly suitable for shorter texts and headlines.

FA Komunikat is an experimental and geometrical typeface based on simple elements: a circle, it's parts and straight lines. The typeface communicate the spirit of future, dynamism and modernity. FA Komunikat design was based on the sketch of unique lettering from 1932 made by Władysław Strzemiński, Polish vanguard abstract painter, an artist and a typographer. Strzemiński claimed that modern economic letter forms should be standardized and based on lines and arches. He wrote that readability is a matter of habit and after a practice the new letter forms would be very well readable for everyone. In 2004 Artur Frankowski revived original design creating set of characters, widen up with numerals, punctuation marks and diactrics.

The Bitstream version of Caslon Bold of the American Type Founders, 1905. Based on William Caslon I’s first English Old Style typefaces of 1725. Caslon modeled his designs based on late 17th century Dutch types, but his artistic skills enabled him to improve those models, bringing a variety of forms and subtlety of details. Strokes in Caslon fonts are somewhat heavier than in earlier Old Style fonts, serifs are thicker and a bit stubby. Italic letters have uneven slope. A text set in Caslon looks legible and aesthetically appealing. Caslon is a favorite font of English printers for setting of classical literature. Cyrillic version was developed for ParaType in 2002 by Isay Slutsker and Manvel Shmavonyan.

A casual and fun-loving font based on the work of showcard artist Albanis Ashmun Kelly, from his 1911 book “Expert Sign Painter,” and named for a long-running comic strip. Both versions of this font contain the complete Unicode Latin A character complement, with support for the Afrikaans, Albanian, Basque, Bosnian, Breton, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Finnish, Flemish, French, Frisian, German, Greenlandic, Hawaiian, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Maltese, Maori, Moldavan, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Provençal, Rhaeto-Romanic, Romanian, Romany, Sámi, Samoan, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish and Welsh languages, as well as discretionary ligatures and extended fractions.

In researching historic decorative material offered by Lanston Monotype as well as other metal foundries such as Barnhart Brothers and Spindler, there were occasionally ornaments that defied description. Perhaps it was a Victorian sense of humor or someone really thought these were a good idea or perhaps popular taste has just changed so much over the last hundred years, or our forbearers were completely insane. In any case, LTC is somewhat proud to present a collection of the most bizarre, disturbing and baffling printers ornaments we could find. Along with mutant fowl-children and frolicsome amphibians, there are also Masonic and other secret fraternal symbols that may not be creepy to everyone, but just enough to be moderately disturbing.

Eisley started as an experiment with creating brushes in illustrator. I began by drawing each letter and tweaking until each one balanced next to one another. I painted over 50 paint brush strokes to give a variety of different looks to the final characters. Strategically crafted to look as real and as spontaneous as a sign painter might paint up (although possibly running a bit dry on paint giving the end result a vintage and grungy effect). Eisley is perfect for use in any design branding that requires vintage or distressed display lettering. Eisley is perfect for use in any design branding that requires vintage or distressed display text. Great fun to use AND personalize with your own flair.