A sign of something better When designer Stuart de Rozario surveyed the fonts used in signage on London’s public transport systems, he reached a dead end. They seemed staid, sterile, lacking in personality, and ill-suited to use by modern brands. He was pointed in another direction entirely. ‘The driving force behind my thoughts was to design something more current and fresh without compromising legibility and clarity. A font with both personality and function, that’s versatile and large and small sizes, and effortless to read, but which also says something new.’ Speed reading Late for a meeting and can’t find your way? Trying to catch a flight? Lost in a hospital? Reading signs is a different business to reading a book or a newspaper. Text on signs needs to be deciphered quickly and effortlessly. So the legibility criteria for signage letterforms are different to those for normal reading, too. Throughout FS Millbank’s uppercase and lowercase alphabets, characters have been given features for extra definition, including: wide ink traps on the A, K, M, V, W, X and Y; a serifed i, accentuated spurs on the a, d, l u; and different x-height shapes on the b, g, p and q. Distinctive forms and generous, open internal shapes all help the quick reading of sign text, and wide, open terminals and counters allow similar letter shapes to be distinguished easily when viewed at different angles. Running down a corridor, maybe... Positive/negative Standard type tends to glow on the kind of dark backgrounds often used for signage, and look heavier than its true weight. To correct the imbalance caused by this optical trick, special weights of the typeface have to be drawn for these ‘negative’, light-on-dark applications. These are lighter than their comparable positive weights to overcome the ‘glow’ effect. After extensive tests of the negative weights, at all sizes, we achieved the right optical balance. Glowing, glowing, gone. Icons This wouldn’t be a signage typeface without its own set of icons, or symbols, to help people find what they’re looking for. So, to sit alongside the positive and negative fonts, we’ve created a comprehensive set of 172 icons, covering a wide range of applications from transport and user interface to information and directional. Designed within the typeface capital height, they sit on the baseline and are spaced centrally.

A silk screened sign promoting a mattress sale that was spotted on Flickr features Art Deco-influenced sans serif lettering that is the basis for Innerspring JNL.

A very graphic font with emphasis on legibility, dynamics and modern. Recommended for posters, titles, book covers, books, greeting cards, signage, packaging, invitations, magazine articles and advertising.

A collection of over 50 border patterns based on geometric motifs from various African tribes, including the Ashanti, Bushongo, and Zulu. Use for stationery, greeting cards, etc.

The Depot Trapharet 2D is based on lettering of Lviv tram stands describing the city tram routes. The font is characterized by brutal simplicity bordering with primitivity.

Highriser is a highly legible, uppercase-only bold condensed sans. Designed to be used for headlines, or visual identities, both digital and print. One weight, fits all.

A lovely decorative Victorian period font taken directly from samples printed on an old press right from the metal type in the collection of typophile Steve Saxe.

Printing Press Extras JNL is another collection of classic printing embellishments and stock cuts from Jeff Levine, with a few new ones thrown in for good measure.

In Shipment JNL is modeled after lettering made from an industrial stencil cutting machine - generally used for marking shipping and inventory information on boxes. Limited character set.

GG Casual is based on a hand lettering style of Gerald Gallo. The family is casual and informal and is ideal for use in conveying these qualities.

Fun, little illustrations in line and reverse of what one finds in an office-- or at least my office. See Food Doodles for more matching little drawings.

Amazon Lily font is a cute and playful font. Can be placed on many concepts. It would be more appropriate if used for something fun and funny.

Antique Decorations JNL collects more images of vintage letterpress embellishments [primarily from wood type sources]; redrawn in digital format and made available in one convenient font file.

The font DXOldStandardGroteskNo2 was developed on the basis of the Grotesk Condensed font, which was issued by Russian type foundry from the beginning of the 20th century.

Decolot font was created being impressed by the art deco era. It is built on simple geometric forms. The font is ideal for posters design, invitations, headlines.

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, regular, slab serifs, a very useful design for display, upper and lower case.

XComputerBugs is a pictorial font of insects, mostly butterflies and moths. A few are based on actual species, but most are fanciful and meant only for decoration.

Arabic and English font, designed according to font standards, based on quarters and a half circles. The font will add a wonderful touch to your visual works.

Scriptofino is a very fine and elegant script with lots of contrast. It is based on traditional American letterforms of Jefferson's day. Your fine typedesigner, Gert Wiescher

A "serious"(serif) font with a crazy touch. The idea was born on dozens of papers, thanks to a not-steady-at-all hand guided by coffee.

One of the classic display types of the 19th century, an Egyptian with bracketed serifs. There are many variants of this face and its uses are many.

Martel is a variation on Carolingian Uncial calligraphy, with some elements of classic Celtic calligraphy and some characteristics peculiar to continental lettering of the early middle ages.

Amanila simplifies elegance into one truly outstanding handwritten font. This font is the perfect fit for all of your logos, branding, social media, and crafty DIY projects.

Party Invite JNL is a thin, condensed Art Deco sans based on lettering from a letterpress holiday stock cut (the predecessor to clip art) from the 1940s.

Altra is a family based on a tracing of an old clip art font. I liked the gentle calligraphic look. Consider it a sans serif with style.

KP Duty JNL emulates the lettering found on military equipment. It's a bold and macho design, perfectly suited for any project which has an armed forces theme.

The playful, casual hand lettering on the 1941 movie poster for “Blondie Goes Latin” inspired Latin Fiesta JNL which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Pia is a new typeface named in honor of one of the most fun people we know, Sophia Williams aka Pia. Extended Character set for multilanguage support.

This simulated font is based on the characteristic Hindi calligraphy and includes upper and lower case alphabets, numerals, and a collection of Indian symbols and border components.

Pinback was inspired by the science fiction movies of the 60s and 70s. The name is taken from one of the protagonists of John Carpenter’s Dark Star.

Streeter JNL is an all caps titling font based on the classic Beton Bold Condensed typeface. The Beton family of fonts was a printer's favorite for decades.