An ad for the film "Marine Raiders" in the June 16, 1944 issue of Motion Picture Daily features the movie's title hand lettered in a bold, slab serif stencil design. This is now available as Forward March JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

In the 1909 edition of the Atkinson Sign Painters’ instruction books is an extra bold sans serif alphabet and numerals called “Advertisers’ Thick and Thin Plug”. This hand lettered display face is now available digitally as Sign Lettering JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

“9 Garcons...Un Cœur” (“9 Boys...One Heart”) is a 1948 French musical starring Edith Piaf. The hand lettered credits for the film are done in a condensed Art Deco sans alphabet, now available digitally as Stage Show JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

A light and playful sans serif type design with Art Nouveau influences was called “Tasso” within the pages of the 1893 edition of the Barnhart Bros. & Spindler type specimen book. This is now available as Nouveau Boutique JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

I was commissioned by Publish magazine to digitize Trio in 1990. Originally designed in a Light weight only, Trio is now available in Medium and Bold weights as well. Uppercase only, but each weight includes two alphabets, one more "deco," the other more "modern."

In the December, 1934 issue of Modern Screen magazine, a number of feature article headlines were hand lettered in a condensed slab serif with a relatively uniform stroke weight. This is now available digitally as Fan Magazine JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Titles hand lettered for articles appearing in the November, 1938 issue of Hollywood Magazine were done in a condensed Art Deco stencil style in just lower case. This novelty type design is now available as Deco Display Stencil JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

An ad promoting the 1919 silent film comedy “Back Stage” starring Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was hand lettered in a thick-and-thin sans style with Art Nouveau influences. This lettering is now available digitally as Picture Show JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

This came from an early-1900s lettering book. Never was an actual font, but it has a quaint look that should be useful. We hate to see alphabets just fade away, which is why we make fonts like this. We added a few touches.

The design for this typeface is based upon four sheets of an old latin book I purchased in Hanover (Germany) a couple of years ago. The letters preserve the rough edges of the original printing, I just added a few missing letters and some ligatures.

The very first Speedball-Lettering Book was published in 1915, and within its pages was a rough-hewn example of lettering with the name "Rapid Sho-Card Style". The design is now available as Antique Show Card JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Dick Jensen (USA) designed Serpentine, is a contemporary-looking display font, for the Visual Graphics Corporation in 1972. With the rise of digital typesetting and desktop publishing, this typeface quickly became both popular and ubiquitous. This dynamic, wide, boxy design is identifiable via tiny triangular swellings at the stroke endings - what might be called semi-serifs. Serpentine is available in six different font styles: Light, Light Oblique, Medium, Medium Oblique, Bold, and Bold Oblique. Serpentine" is a greenish rock that sometimes resembles a serpent's skin, and is often used as a decorative stone in architecture. Though this font doesn't seem at all snaky or sinuous, it does have an architectural, stone-like solidity. The subtle, almost non-existent curves and semi-serifs keep it from being too stern or cold. Although the underlying strokes of each weight are similar, the six members of the Serpentine font family all present their own individual personalities. Serpentine Light lends itself well to text for onscreen displays, for instance, while the numbers from typeface's heavier weights are seen around the world on soccer jerseys! Additionally, the oblique styles convey a streamlined sense of speed, furthermore lending Serpentine well to sport and athletic applications (especially the faster, high-speed varieties). Because of its 1970s pedigree, Serpentine has come to be known as a genuine "retro" face. This makes the typeface even more appropriate for display usage, in applications such as logo design, magazine headlines, and party flyers. If you like Serpentine, check out the following similar fonts in the Linotype portfolio: Copperplate Gothic (similar serifs) Eurostile (similar width) Princetown (another "athletic" font) Insignia (similar "techno" feeling)"

Poligon is a large family of geometric sans serif fonts. It is inspired by classic typefaces from the geometric-sans genre, like Futura and Avant Garde Gothic, whose shapes were constructed from circles and straight lines. Every character has been crafted to give it a distinct and individual feel. The family is an excellent choice for both corporate design and editorial design projects because of its range of weights, as well as its legibility in text. The typeface family ships in two different formats. Depending on your preference, you can install the typeface as two Variable Fonts or use the family’s eight static OpenType font files instead. Those weights run from Thin to Black. While the static-format fonts offer a good intermediary-step selection, users who install the Variable Fonts have vastly greater control over the stroke width in their upright and italic texts. The weight axes in Poligon’s Variable Fonts allow users to differentiate between almost 1,000 possible font weights. That enables you to fine-tune your text’s exact appearance on-screen or in print. But even the static fonts satisfy the need for flexibility, creating harmonious variations of texture and emphasis. Despite their rigid geometry, the fonts have a playful air to them. That playfulness and uniqueness can be dialed up by applying stylistic alternates via the fonts’ four Stylistic Sets. The first of these replaces “G”, “M”, and “&” with alternate, more outgoing shapes. Stylistic Set 2 has an alternate “ß”; Stylistic Set 3 has a “Q” with a longer tail and another “G”. Stylistic Set 3 has alternates for “A”, “K“, “Q”, “R”, “S”, “Y”, and “Z”.

Dick Jensen (USA) designed Serpentine, is a contemporary-looking display font, for the Visual Graphics Corporation in 1972. With the rise of digital typesetting and desktop publishing, this typeface quickly became both popular and ubiquitous. This dynamic, wide, boxy design is identifiable via tiny triangular swellings at the stroke endings - what might be called semi-serifs. Serpentine is available in six different font styles: Light, Light Oblique, Medium, Medium Oblique, Bold, and Bold Oblique. Serpentine" is a greenish rock that sometimes resembles a serpent's skin, and is often used as a decorative stone in architecture. Though this font doesn't seem at all snaky or sinuous, it does have an architectural, stone-like solidity. The subtle, almost non-existent curves and semi-serifs keep it from being too stern or cold. Although the underlying strokes of each weight are similar, the six members of the Serpentine font family all present their own individual personalities. Serpentine Light lends itself well to text for onscreen displays, for instance, while the numbers from typeface's heavier weights are seen around the world on soccer jerseys! Additionally, the oblique styles convey a streamlined sense of speed, furthermore lending Serpentine well to sport and athletic applications (especially the faster, high-speed varieties). Because of its 1970s pedigree, Serpentine has come to be known as a genuine "retro" face. This makes the typeface even more appropriate for display usage, in applications such as logo design, magazine headlines, and party flyers. If you like Serpentine, check out the following similar fonts in the Linotype portfolio: Copperplate Gothic (similar serifs) Eurostile (similar width) Princetown (another "athletic" font) Insignia (similar "techno" feeling)"

CA Normal is a typeface aiming for beauty without ostensible effects, merely relying on clarity and well balanced proportions. True beauty is not to be found in perfect geometry, so slight irregularities and inconsequences are spread throughout the typographic image. That’s perfection through imperfection. CA Normal merges influences from European grotesques and American gothics, breeding an experimental mongrel. The underlying concept stays in the background, giving the design a great self-evidence. Although it is doubtful if there can be such thing as neutrality, CA Normal comes pretty close to what people mean when speaking of a neutral font. Nevertheless it’s not faceless, anonymous or confound able. It’s just that the charm comes from subtle details rather than obvious design features. As good text typefaces must not be too smooth nor too agitated, CA Normal is smuggling little uneven details into the typographic image, that keep the readers eye awake. The well crafted oblique follows the grotesque tradition which knows no individually drawn italics. A rather unexpected addition is the reverse oblique, a style mainly used for maps. Under the classic surface lies a modern well equipped font, featuring small caps, a Central European character set and numerals in all kinds of flavors. Numerous ligatures round up the overall impression. By default CA Normal will set numbers as proportional lining figures. But if you prefer oldstyle figures, or tabular figures, just use the OpenType functions of your layout program. These allow access to the small caps as well, which feature a complete central European character set, brackets, punctuation and lining figures in small caps height.

The joy of pure geometry, revisited. Geometric typefaces are a staple in every typographer’s toolbox since the 1920s. It was a time when iconic faces such as Futura, Erbar, and Kabel appeared on the scene and turned the world of type upside-down. Inspired by those early giants as well as later epigones with a legacy of their own (such as 1970’s Avant Garde Gothic), Flink is the Identity Letters take on this genre, characterized by a clean and focused appearance. With neat shapes and the look of pure geometry, Flink adapts to a vast range of applications and topics, from the fine print in contract to website body copy to logo design to billboard-size slogans. Its x-height is considerably larger than in classic geometric sans-serif fonts; its proportions are harmonized as opposed to strictly constructed. This makes for a more contemporary look, setting it apart from the classics. To further reduce the rigidity of a purely geometric composition, you can replace some letters with more humanist alternates, such as a, g, j, etc. This font family comes along in 8 weights from Thin to Black. Each weight consists of an Upright and Italic version. There are more than 750 characters per style, including two stylistic sets that offer variations to the look and feel of Flink, making it even more versatile. Plenty of additional Open Type Features like ligatures, case sensitive forms, old-style figures, and symbols make Flink a valuable tool for the discerning typographer. Flink is the reimagination of a classic genre, designed to suit the needs of our time. ––––– Please note: There is an upgraded Version available: Flink Neue

A typographic conundrum presented itself with the hand lettered title on the cover of the 1919 song "I Am Always Building Castles in the Air". The capitalized portion ["Castles in the Air"] was a hybrid mix of a few Art Nouveau-influenced rounded letters, yet along with this were squared letters with rounded corners (reflecting the upcoming Art Deco movement to take place in about another decade). As a complete alphabet, it didnít mix as well as in those few short words. What to do? It was decided to go with the squared look and save the rounder characters for a future project. The end result became Last Date JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

The original inspiration for Blue Parrot came from a short scene in the classic film Casablanca. For just a few seconds, the exterior of Ferrari's Blue Parrot night club is shown, complete with a wonderful hand-lettered sign... all in capital letters. Blue Parrot JNL was originally released in 2006, and it wasn't long before a few people noted that the font would also look good with a lower case alphabet. The idea of adding in lower case kicked around for a couple of years until Jeff Levine finally completed a revision of the font. In this version there's also an expanded character set thanks to the creative input of Michael Hagemann of Font Mesa.

Other guys may imitate him, but the original is still the greatest! Get in with the In Crowd and check out the font created by Mister Fontastic for Dave Gibbons Original Graphic Novel, The, ah, The Originals. Yes, Dave Gibbons now comes in lower case, it's not just what he does when he gets back from the off license. Be sure and pick up The Originals from Amazon -- now available in paperback, and probably still available as a hard case, much like Dave. After the crack about the case of beer above, I'm guessing you'll find me with a broken spine in the remainder pile. See the family related to Dave Gibbons Lower: Dave Gibbons Journal & Dave Gibbons .

A sheet music edition of an early 1900s song entitled "You Taught Me How to Love You, Now Teach Me to Forget" was hand lettered in a free-form Art Nouveau style that combined varying line widths and character shapes. This unrestricted style of lettering was popularly embraced and revived by the hippie counterculture of the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s through their rock concert posters, record album covers and tee shirt graphics. It is now available digitally as Nouveau Artiste JNL. As a side note, a 1940s reprint of the sheet music was done in a popular metal typeface, which was also redrawn digitally and available as Elite Resort JNL [in both regular and oblique versions].

Lens Grotesk is a Neo-grotesque type family of 16 fonts born as a result of a very conscious research in the field of the neutral Swiss aesthetic. There's a reason for all the prominent examples of this design like Helvetica and Univers to be used on a daily basis for more than 70 years and it's a simple one - they just work. The closed terminals, the low contrast, uniform widths and proportions makes the Neo-grotesques feel just right. Although very often branded as stiff, the neutral Neo grotesques are here to stay and Lens Grotesk is our own reading of the popular style. Lens Grotesk takes the Neo-grotesk model one step further adding a pinch of Geometric sans-serif to the mix thus creating a way more modern and contemporary looking design. Characterized with more generous oval proportions and slightly more open terminals, Lens Grotesk keeps the modulation and rhythm needed for a slightly longer texts while visibly keeping everything in order. Zooming in you'll find traces of the Geometric aesthetic - the robust almost right angled approach of the arches and tails (look t, f, j, y) and the way more circular rounded shapes. Like all our fonts, Lens Grotesk is equipped with a range of OpenType features, stylistic alternatives and of course Cyrillic support. It comes in a pack of 16 fonts with 8 styles and their matching italics or one variable font file available with all full family purchases. Live Tester | Download Demo Fonts | Subscribe

Geometric sans fonts in the Bauhaus tradition were the inspiration for the design of FF Mark®, for example the Universal font by Herbert Bayer, Erbar® Grotesk, Kabel®, Neuzeit Grotesk and of course Paul Renner's Futura®. From an aesthetic point of view, FF Mark is a descendant of these classics of German typeface design that intends to meet the needs of modern communication. Hannes von Döhren and Christoph Koeberlin had the support of the entire FontFont Type Department in the design of FF Mark, including Erik Spiekermann, who took over the artistic direction of the project. The teamwork resulted in carefully planned, balanced forms, which are responsible for the harmonious overall impression of the font. The capitals are not based on Roman square capitals; rather, they have a uniformly wide letter form in a comfortable ratio to the x-height. Thanks to the x-height, which is significantly larger compared to the historical models, FF Mark is also very legible in small sizes. This makes it a very flexible font in terms of its range of applications. A contrast in the stroke width is barely noticeable. At the same time, light modulation supports readability, especially in the bold styles in small sizes. The uniform line ends are obvious for a contemporary sans family nowadays (unlike some of the historical precedents, which evolved over years). Other details from the predecessors are consciously maintained and provide for added individuality in FF Mark. For example, the limbs in the uppercase "K" and "R" are offset slightly from the stem. Alternative characters with crossbars are available for the numbers "0", "1", "7" and the uppercase "Z" and the lowercase "a" also has an alternative with an open form. German typesetters have the option of uppercase umlauts with points that are set lower, as well as a long "s" from the Fraktur. And last but not least, FF Mark has the very characteristic ft-ligature of Futura. FF Mark is available in ten finely tuned weights ranging from Hairline to Black. A Book style for text setting further emphasizes the well-rounded features of this contemporary typeface. When the font was published, it also included ten carefully designed cursives for all weights. Users also have the option of various numeral sets with old-style and uppercase numbers as well as small capitals. FF Mark also has some geometric shapes and arrows based on the features of Futura. FF Mark is a modern, full-featured, geometric sans serif that you can use without hesitation for large projects in headlines as well as in texts. FF Mark's design is a nod to the historical models and transports their charm, elegance and in some cases unusual design applications into a modern font family equipped with the most current typographical features. NEW: the new FF Mark W1G versions features a pan-European character set for international communications. The W1G character set supports almost all the popular languages/writing systems in western, eastern, and central Europe based on the Latin alphabet and also several based on Cyrillic and Greek alphabets.

Runway is the font that will satisfy the need for speed in your design. Simple lines and curves, a commanding slant, and big sturdy shapes made to cruise at any speed or altitude, through summer breeze or horrible snowstorms. Runway was designed to be tight like an engine chain, powerful like the hum of the engine itself, and simply the best choice when it comes to strength and velocity in design. Initially Runway was meant to be a single font. But during the spacing and kerning stages, Patrick noticed that most of the letters, especially the vowels and the s, can clasp stylishly with the L or the T to make some really funky combinations. That's how the Alternates font was born. After building a few alternates and about 40 "clasped" combinations around the L and the T, the decision was made to take Runway to the next level: OpenType. The OpenType version of Runway is a single font that contains some serious font magic. Some of the many features the font includes: Over 430 characters for that great character map utility you have, automatic to-and-fro small-capping, discretionary ligatures that call up some pretty funky combinations automatically as you type, and a lot of stylistic and contextual alternates for many characters, ligatures and composites. If your design program of choice supports the features of OpenType fonts (Illustrator CS, Photoshop CS, InDesign CS), then you're in for a lot of enjoyment playing with Runway. For those who don't fancy OpenType or can't handle it, Runway is also available (in Regular, Caps and Alt styles) in the usual font formats for both Mac and PC.

I was inspired by the letters of the mythical “Ideales” tobacco package, designed in 1936 in Barcelona by Carlos Vives, director of the designers studio of the Rieusset graphical industry. We have also studied other geometrical models from the 1920s, to be highlighted among them the alphabet drawn by Cornelis André Vlaanderen at Amsterdam in 1928, which would have been very probably the inspiration for the famous tobacco package. Eutopia has been born with the aim to be useful for the current graphic communications. For that purpose almost 400 glyphs have been designed and more than 2200 kerning pairs have been defined. The multiple diacritic signs have been prepared to allow a multilingual use in most of the languages based on Latin alphabet. The OpenType features have been used to get alternate characters of “A” and “g”, and also ligatures, lowercase numbers and other typographic refinements.

Angelline Script Font! If you are needing a touch of casual chic calligraphy for your designs, this font was created for you! Angellyne was built with OpenType features and includes beginning and ending swashes, alternate characters for both lowercase and uppercase letters, loads of different swash alternates for lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation, alternates, ligatures and it also supports other languages :) with many glyphs! Accessing the swashes / opentype features / glyphs: This font works best in a program that supports OpenType features such as Adobe Indesign, Adobe Illustrator CS, or Adobe Photoshop CC. You can access the swashes and alternates from the 'Glyphs Panel' in these programs. More Questions? Here are some (potential) answers! You are not permitted to resell this font in any way. Multilingual Support is included for Western European Languages Also, the sans-serif font used in the preview images is Gotham :) Cheers!

Introducing the love script Paris Helen! If you are needing a touch of casual chic calligraphy for your designs, this font was created for you! What's Included: Paris Helen (OTF) Paris Helen Slant (OTF) Paris Helen was built with OpenType features and includes beginning and ending swashes alternate characters for both lowercase letters, when combine it would be love letters (without space), numbers, punctuation and these also supports other languages :) Accessing the swashes / opentype features / glyphs: This font works best in a program that supports OpenType features such as Adobe Indesign, Adobe Illustrator CS, or Adobe Photoshop CC. You can access the swashes and alternates from the 'Glyphs Panel' in these programs. More Questions? Here are some (potential) answers! You are not permitted to resell this font in any way. Multilingual Support is included for Western European Languages Also, the sans-serif font used in the preview images is Gotham :) Cheers!

Monospaced become very popular among graphic designers. Nevertheless, I’ve noticed that in most cases that designers use monospaced typefaces is not because of their particular features caused by the strict rules of design — all characters share the same advanced width — rather because of it’s ‘electronic derived’ appearance. So, I decided to create a typeface that keeps the characteristics that, in my opinion attract designers to this particular sort of types, but deliberately break the main rule: characters do not share the same width — but they they look like they do! Characters are better balanced compared to truly monospaced types, giving more even typographic color while used in text setting. One weight might enough to please electronic type lovers. Designed in 2000.

Nyfors was a sudden idea. I noticed an ad in a magazine, with some handtexted words. I don't recall what the ad was about, neither the words. When I later on tried to remember how the single characters looked like and began to draw them, the result wasn't bad at all. I am not longer sure that they resemble the characters in the ad, but it doesn't matter. Nyfors is a nice handtexted typeface, whatever its origin. There is a small stream in Tyresö where I live and work, called Nyfors. During some centuries there was a center of small scale industries along it, and they used its water to run their machinery. The typeface has its name from that stream. Nyfors was released in 1995.

Bodihel is a cute and chunky charactered display font. Add this colorful and bold display font to each of your creative ideas and notice how it makes them come alive! Get inspired by its authentic feel and use it to create gorgeous wedding invitations, beautiful stationary art, eye-catching social media posts, and cute greeting cards. I highly recommend using a program that supports OpenType features and Glyphs panels such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe InDesign, or CorelDraw, so you can see and access all Glyph variations. FEATURE: ALL CAPS We hope you enjoy the font, please feel free to comment if you have any thoughts or feedback. Or simply send me a PM or email me. Thank you!

As the most classic and traditional style pack of the Fonts Café, the Ottanio family take a place of honor in the list of the Fonts Café handmade Vintage style fonts. Clearly born for being noticed, the boldness and the almost imperceptible, but present to the eyes of subconscious mind, irregularities of the Ottanio Family has been well balanced to create a set of handmade Serif fonts that can be used as “jack of all trades” where traditions, origins and a touch of Vintage style are required. From the integrity of the Ottanio Regular, the stronger style of the Shaded version and the scraped look of the Stamp option, the whole Ottanio Pack will be the perpetual solution always useful to have on hand!

Sansmatica is a clean and modern sans serif typeface. It has 28 fonts that work as a multi-purpose design solution. It consists of regular and condensed fonts that can be used for different cases: regular fonts are perfect for copy while Sansmatica condensed fonts are more specific - they make emotional associations and are perfect when you want your headlines or advertising to be noticeable. Also suite great for greeting cards, posters, branding, name card, stationary, design title, blog header, art quote, typography. Sansmatica has 7 weights with light looking more modern, fashionable and the bold giving a more rugged impression is perfect for headlines, logos, quotes, and more! It is interesting to use bold condensed fonts – both vertical lines and weight draw attention.

Cleveden was inspired by some lettering sighted on a neglected and somewhat tarnished brass plaque, affixed to an elderly office building. The elegance and character (somehow playful and formal at the same time) of the letterforms shone through the tarnished state of the plaque. As an aside the brass plaque in question was on the former business premises of a long established firm of accountants. We suspect the ethics of that profession would preclude us identifying which one. Our efforts to identify their engraver have proven unavailing. Cleveden is a family of four typefaces, Regular, Bold, Capitals and Capitals Bold. They are ideal for designs that call for distinctive formality and especially lend themselves to signage, certificates, and -dare it be said- engraved plaques!

HS Ali was designed in memoriam of my brother - Ali Abu Afash who was martyred during the last aggression on Gaza in summer 2014. HS Ali introduced a modern OpenType Arabic typeface, which had the characterstic, features of Kufi style with noticeable both curvy and sharp segments; beside the refinements of its letters that made it more readable. HS Ali is a display font that has been designed to be used in titles in modern graphic and publication projects. It supports Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Kurdish languages and contains four weights: Light, regular, medium and bold which can be condsiderd as and elaboration to the library of Arabic fonts contemporary models that meet the variant purposes of designs for all tastes.

Good Castyll is our newest display font, and it has a laid-back, unique feel to it. It was created with a genuine hand touch, so it seems natural when viewed. This font is ideal for adding a touch of class to your creative work. Start creating fantastic projects with this font, and you’ll notice a distinct difference in the way it’s used. This font is perfect for games, sporting events, branding, banners, posters, movie titles, book titles, quotes, logotypes, and more. of course, your various design projects will be perfect and extraordinary if you use this font because this font is equipped with a complimentary font family, both for titles and subtitles and sentence text, start using our fonts for your amazing projects.

A mix of Renaissance & tropical atmosphere Basco is an exploration of the Renaissance style, a period in which letterforms were informed primarily by hand writing. It is clearly a contemporary interpretation of calligraphic shapes forms. The serifs are subtly asymmetrical. Slightly curved arches on the n, m and u are noticeable, creating an interesting tension in the text. Bruno Mello’s distinctive style is most obvious in his mastery of super fluid curves. It is a result of his extensive exploration of calligraphic forms, their tensions and dynamics, mixing angularities with curves. The roman weights include alternate swashes, as well as initial and terminal glyphs. The italics, based on chancellery script, feature simple stroke endings, most visible on the s and c. ➼ Basco minisite

Cal Roman Modern is one more font from PKG “Cal” (Calligraphic) group. This time for calligraphic sketches we used a wide brush instead of the iron pen. Instead of minuscule letters, there are Small Caps (which are the same weight as capitals). Because there is no difference in the stroke thickness of capital letters and lowercase capital letters the difference in height is only one pen width, because of that, it is possible to use small capitals together with capital letters without noticing a difference in the thickness of the letters. Cal Roman Modern font is rhythmic, informal elegant, bright and light. As such, this font is widely used in the typographic creation of shorter text forms: magazine, catalogs and book titles, logos, posters, movie spots, banners...

The idea of a brand-new grotesk is certainly rather foolish – there are already lots of these typefaces in the world and, quite simply, nothing is more beautiful than the original Gill. The sans-serif chapter of typography is now closed by hundreds of technically perfect imitations of Syntax and Frutiger, which are, however, for the most part based on the cool din-aesthetics. The only chance, when looking for inspiration, is to go very far... A grotesk does not afford such a variety as a serif typeface, it is dull and can soon tire the eye. This is why books are not set in sans serif faces. A grotesk is, however, always welcome for expressing different degrees of emphasis, for headings, marginal notes, captions, registers, in short for any service accompaniment of a book, including its titlings. We also often come across a text in which we want to distinguish the individual speaking or writing persons by the use of different typefaces. The condition is that such grotesk should blend in perfectly with the proportions, colour and above all with the expression of the basic, serif typeface. In the area of non-fiction typography, what we appreciate in sans-serif typefaces is that they are clamorous in inscriptions and economic in the setting. John Sans is to be a modest servant and at the same time an original loudspeaker; it wishes to inhabit libraries of educated persons and to shout from billboards. A year ago we completed the transcription of the typefaces of John Baskerville, whose heritage still stands out vividly in our memory. Baskerville cleverly incorporated certain constructional elements in the design of the individual letters of his typeface. These elements include above all the alternation of softand sharp stroke endings. The frequency of these endings in the text and their rhythm produce a balanced impression. The anchoring of the letters on the surface varies and they do not look monotonous when they are read. We attempted to use these tricks also in the creation of a sans-serif typeface. Except that, if we wished to create a genuine “Baroque grotesk”, all the decorativeness of the original would have to be repeated, which would result in a parody. On the contrary, to achieve a mere contrast with the soft Baskerville it is sufficient to choose any other hard grotesk and not to take a great deal of time over designing a new one. Between these two extremes, we chose a path starting with the construction of an almost monolinear skeleton, to which the elements of Baskerville were carefully attached. After many tests of the text, however, some of the flourishes had to be removed again. Anything that is superfluous or ornamental is against the substance of a grotesk typeface. The monolinear character can be impinged upon in those places where any consistency would become a burden. The fine shading and softening is for the benefit of both legibility and aesthetics. The more marked incisions of all crotches are a characteristic feature of this typeface, especially in the bold designs. The colour of the Text, Medium and Bold designs is commensurate with their serif counterparts. The White and X-Black designs already exceed the framework of book graphics and are suitable for use in advertisements and magazines. The original concept of the italics copying faithfully Baskerville’s morphology turned out to be a blind alley. This design would restrict the independent use of the grotesk typeface. We, therefore, began to model the new italics only after the completion of the upright designs. The features which these new italics and Baskerville have in common are the angle of the slope and the softened sloped strokes of the lower case letters. There are also certain reminiscences in the details (K, k). More complicated are the signs & and @, in the case of which regard is paid to distinguishing, in the design, the upright, sloped @ small caps forms. The one-storey lower-case g and the absence of a descender in the lower-case f contributes to the open and simple expression of the design. Also the inclusion of non-aligning figures in the basic designs and of aligning figures in small caps serves the purpose of harmonization of the sans-serif families with the serif families. Non-aligning figures link up better with lower-case letters in the text. If John Sans looks like many other modern typefaces, it is just as well. It certainly is not to the detriment of a Latin typeface as a means of communication, if different typographers in different places of the world arrive in different ways at a similar result.

Linotype Univers is a completely reworked version of the original Univers typeface family designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1957. After a long process of painstakingly detailed revision, Frutiger and the design staff at Linotype completed this large joint project in 1997. The result: a brilliant and cohesive font family of 63 weights and styles including the 4 monospaced typewriter weights. All the existing weights were completely redrawn, with careful attention paid to making the proportions more consistent with each other and improving fine details such as curves and thick-to-thin stroke ratios. The family was expanded from 27 to 63 weights, providing a much larger framework to graphic designers for choosing just the right style. The bold and condensed weights were reworked for improved legibility and on-screen application. The stroke weights were revised for consistency within each face as well as in relationship to the other weights. By following Frutiger's original designs, the humanist character of the sans serif Univers now comes through more distinctly. The systemized numbering system has also been updated. With its sturdy, clean forms Univers can facilitate an expression of cool elegance and rational competence. In fact, the strong familial relationships between all the styles and weights make it a serviceable choice for large graphic design projects that require versatility with consistency. Frutiger was successful in staying true to his initial aims; the new Linotype Univers does indeed work in longer texts as well as for display settings. In 2010 the typeface family was extended and renamed into a more logical naming of "Univers Next" to fit better in the Platinum Collection naming.

Released on the occasion of the 2012 London Olympics, Olympukes 2012 was a new set of pictograms telling the ‘real’ story of the Olympics and extending the unofficial project that began in 2004. The occasion of the London games provided an opportunity to revisit the complex contradictions of the modern Olympics and to acknowledge the geopolitical shifts of the intervening eight years. The 2012 games arrived at a time of great economic and political uncertainty for the nation and Europe. Greece – the host of the 2004 games – was now located at Ground Zero of a disintegrating Eurozone and the United Kingdom was two years into a programme of austerity enacted by the coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Given that the previous London Olympics had been held in 1948, in a climate of recovery and austerity after a devastating World War (1948’s Olympiad was dubbed the ‘Austerity Games’) there was a sick irony to the 2012 games' arrival. The suppression of human rights in order to deliver the perfect games for PRoC’s Beijing games shocked no-one and yet, in London, the security measures seemed grossly excessive. Then again, in a country with an estimated 1.8 million cctv cameras, perhaps we shouldn’t have been so surprised. Another aspect of the Olympics that returned for 2012 was the unfettered commercialism – if you think the Games are about pure sport, about noble human endeavour, think again. Please note that Barnbrook Fonts is in no way affiliated with, or has received any endorsement from, the International Olympic Committee, the organising committees of the Olympic Games, or any national Olympic committee.

Linotype Univers is a completely reworked version of the original Univers Univers typeface family designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1957. After a long process of painstakingly detailed revision, Frutiger and the design staff at Linotype completed this large joint project in 1997. The result: a brilliant and cohesive font family of 63 weights and styles including the 4 monospaced typewriter weights. All the existing weights were completely redrawn, with careful attention paid to making the proportions more consistent with each other and improving fine details such as curves and thick-to-thin stroke ratios. The family was expanded from 27 to 63 weights, providing a much larger framework to graphic designers for choosing just the right style. The bold and condensed weights were reworked for improved legibility and on-screen application. The stroke weights were revised for consistency within each face as well as in relationship to the other weights. By following Frutiger's original designs, the humanist character of the sans serif Univers now comes through more distinctly. T he systemized numbering system has also been updated. With its sturdy, clean forms Univers can facilitate an expression of cool elegance and rational competence. In fact, the strong familial relationships between all the styles and weights make it a serviceable choice for large graphic design projects that require versatility with consistency. Frutiger was successful in staying true to his initial aims; the new Linotype Univers does indeed work in longer texts as well as for display settings. In 2010 the typeface family was extended and renamed into a more logical naming of "Univers Next" to fit better in the Platinum Collection naming.