Introducing Topstitch—the typeface that adds a personal touch to your design. Each character has been carefully crafted to capture the essence of hand embroidery, with modest irregularities that give it a natural and organic feel. From the subtle slant of the strokes to the tiny imperfections in the curves, Topstitch is a testament to the beauty of imperfection and the art of handmade. Use Topstitch to add a touch of personality to your branding, packaging, or any design project that needs a bit of warmth and charm. Download Topstitch and start stitching your words with love and care. With its handmade charm and unique character, Topstitch is sure to become your go-to typeface for all your home sewing-themed projects. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Welcome to the world of Permanence, where the past meets the future. Inspired by the iconic cover of Alvin Toffler’s groundbreaking hardcover, “Future Shock” from 1970, Permanence is the perfect typeface to transport you to a world of limitless possibilities. With its bold, clean lines and sleek design, Permanence captures the essence of the retro-futuristic style. Its crisp, angular shapes and unique curves evoke a sense of progress and innovation, harking back to a time when anything was possible. Permanence is more than just a typeface—it’s a vision of a better tomorrow. Its timeless design captures the optimism and hope of a bygone era, while still feeling fresh and modern. Why settle for the ordinary when you can experience the extraordinary with Permanence? Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Brown Hunter Inspired by the design style of the 1830s, the elegant Victorian style design is full of charming sharp curves. Designs with a classic Victorian style from the cruel era, people always use it for redesigning needs or creating new designs. The Brown Hunter typeface is designed in an elegant Victorian style which contains many font characters which when combined will make an attractive design and of course very cool. Included in the download package are: Brown Hunter Vic, which is a classic Victorian serif style and contains swash and alternatives, there are two types of Brown Hunter Vic, the standard one and the hold one, which contains ornaments on the inside of the body. Brown Hunter Script is an elegant street writing style made with spontaneous and sharp brush strokes giving a bold impression. Brown Hunter Dis is a Serif display style font that is intended for subtitles in designs, besides this font has 13 families from thin to heavy. Brown Hunter Black is a font with a charming black letter style and is still comfortable to read when used for body text in a classic Victorian style. This font also has 13 families from thin to heavy so it can be used for headers or body text. Brown Hunter Ornament is a font made with a unique orament shape in the classic Victorian style, besides that there are also border frames, animal vectors, silhouette logos, flowers and many more. With 4 styles and 30 different fonts, the Brown Hunter typeface when combined will create a cool design and a Victorian concept. By collecting Brown Hunter Typeface you can easily create classic, Victorian and elegant themed designs. Brown Hunter is perfect for designing vodka labels, beer, pomade, logo tattoos, book covers, t-shirts and so on.

Minimal, modular, modern—at first glance, Materia shows a contemporary flair, combining pure, strong geometrical form with a subtle, distinct appearance. Actually, the design was inspired by lettering from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century that still can be found in the East of France. While its formal origins date back as far as this, revived e. g. by the constructivists into the nineteen twenties and later on by Dutch information designer Wim Crouwel in the nineteen-sixties, the visual language of Materia still speaks of the »future«. Following a minimalistic concept the font is formally built on a grid. Wherever optical curves are needed for a smoother, more comfortable shape of letters than a simple rectangular block, diagonals cut off the egdes – like a diamond is cut to achieve more beauty. Thus headlines and texts set in Materia are given a certain »egdy« feeling, whereas their tonality is still kept well-balanced, keeping concentation all on information in a nonconfomist way. Materia comes in eight styles, from elegant Thin to attention-forcing Ultra. Even a regular Italic is available, following the classic type-set-principle. Two of the styles are explicitly designed for display use, Shadow and Code. Both are ready for combinations with Bold or each other respectively, the layering of Shadow and Code e. g. allows astonishing effects or highlighting within the letters. For OpenType-users Materia is a real Pro, containing accented Latin letters for over 70 languages, small caps, old style, tabular and lining figures and special condensed titling all caps for cases in which space is all that counts. How useful all of the above mentioned is may be seen in the book David Lynch – Lithos, designed by Koma Amok, published in 2010 by item éditions, Paris, and Hatje Cantz, Germany, which was typeset completely in Materia.

Gaslon is a slight reinterpretation and major expansion of a 1973 film type called Corvina Black, originally designed for VGC by A. Bihari. While the original typeface was popular in its own right, there were some things in it that were too quirky to work in the display applications it was intended for. Some of the letter combinations just didn't work to their visual optimum. For example the a and o were too similar, ditto the C and G, the E, F and J were too overwhelming to be set properly within certain display uses. Gaslon eliminates these problems by the inclusion of plenty of alternates for the vast majority of the original letters. In fact, the original a is itself now an alternate to a gorgeous new one. The Gaslon Alt font includes tremendous possibilities for both unicase use, and proper use in conjunction with the main font. This is our true homage to a typeface that had great potential more than three decades ago, but was overlooked by digitizers because of a few quirks it had in film type contexts. Full of curves and invitation, Gaslon ranks very high among the friendliest poster faces ever made. It is ideal for friendly store signs, children book covers, and plenty of other applications. In fact, if you're planning on contributing to a few protests around your neighborhood or city, you would probably be better off using Gaslon to help your sign/placard carry words and slogans that are big but friendly. Nothing beats "DOWN WITH GAS PRICES" set in a nice imaginative mix of the many Gaslon letters. The OpenType version of Gaslon is a single font that contains all the alternates and niceties programmed within features accessible by OT-friendly programs.

Introducing Zamora, the typeface that embodies the grit and determination of the open road. With its cracked finish and sharp Latin serifs, it’s a font that commands attention and respect. Each cut and scratch on the surface of Zamora is like a battle scar, a testament to the font’s toughness and resilience. Zamora is not just any typeface. It’s a font with a history, a story that’s written into every curve and corner. The sharp Latin serifs give Zamora a strong foothold, and the slew of ligatures that come with it give text a natural, unpredictable appearance, like the twists and turns of a winding mountain road. So whether you’re designing a poster for a rockabilly concert, creating a logo for a biker gang, or just looking to add a touch of rebel flair to your work, Zamora is the font for you. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

Designed by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Mariachiara Fantini with the help of Solenn Bordeau, Erotique is an evolution of the original design by Zetafonts for Lovelace, that challenges its romantic curves with the glitchy and fluid aesthetic of trans-modern neo-brutalist typography. The seductive "evil serif" look of the Pheimester-like Oldstyle letter shapes is made edgier by the quirky connections and unexpected calligraphic twirls that marry digital distortions to traditional penmanship. Sensuous but sharp, Erotique speaks the language of teasing, and unrequited love, over-the-top and restrained like a show of Japanese Kinbaku, and beautifully heartbreaking like a friendzone valentine. Designed for display use, this high-contrast serif typeface is ready to take center stage in projects where a subtle elegance and an edgy, aggressive touch are required. For branding use it is paired by a Erotique Ornaments, a set of interlocking patterns based on the font letter-shapes, allowing for striking packaging, digital and ambient design. For editorial use it can add a sharp sensuality to logos and titles thanks to an impressive array of alternate glyphs, subtle ligatures and a set of whiplike fleurons, collected in the Erotique Flourishes pack. The typeface has been developed in the regular, medium and bold weight plus a monoline version, all of which have been paired with an Alternate version to give immediate access the more exotic alternate letterforms. With a character set of over five hundred glyphs, all the the weights of Erotique cover almost 200 languages using extended latin, and include advanced Open Type features as Stylistic Alternates, Standard and Discretionary Ligatures, Positional Numerals, Swash and Case Sensitive Forms. If you are a typeface lover, be warned: Erotique could be your fatal attraction!

TE Mona Tharwat Emara," a masterpiece of Arabic calligraphy crafted by the renowned Egyptian calligrapher, Tharwat Emara. This exquisite Ruqaa font seamlessly blends tradition with innovation, offering a timeless elegance that captures the essence of Arabic script. Tharwat Emara, a distinguished figure in the world of calligraphy, has lent his artistic prowess to create a font that is not merely a collection of characters but an embodiment of cultural richness. Each stroke of the pen reflects the heritage of Egyptian calligraphy, echoing the historical echoes of an ancient civilization. "TE Mona Tharwat Emara" stands as a testament to Emara's dedication to perfection. The font's graceful curves and meticulously designed letterforms pay homage to the classical Ruqaa style, while subtle contemporary touches infuse it with a modern flair. It is a harmonious blend of tradition and innovation, making it an ideal choice for projects that demand sophistication and cultural resonance. Designed with precision and passion, this font is not just a typographic tool; it's a work of art that brings the beauty of Arabic calligraphy to the forefront. Each character is a brushstroke of inspiration, contributing to a seamless flow that captures the eye and mesmerizes the reader. Whether you are working on a branding project, publication, or artistic endeavor, "TE Mona Tharwat Emara" adds a touch of timeless class. Embrace the elegance of Arabic script with this font, where every detail reflects the expertise of a master calligrapher. As you embark on your creative journey, let "TE Mona Tharwat Emara" be your muse. Elevate your designs, captivate your audience, and embrace the heritage of Arabic calligraphy with this exceptional font. Embrace the legacy, embrace the art – TE Mona Tharwat Emara awaits, a font that transcends time and tradition

The Engraver’s Square Gothic—like its rounder cousin, the engraver’s sans serif, Sweet® Sans,has been one of the more widely used stationer’s lettering styles since about 1900. Its minimal forms, made without curves, were popularized long ago by bankers and others seeking a serious, established feel to their stationery. One might argue that the design is a possible precursor to Morris Fuller Benton’s Bank Gothic® typeface. Sweet® Square is based on antique engraver’s lettering templates called “masterplates.” Professional stationers use a pantograph to manually transfer letters from these masterplates to a piece of copper or steel that is then etched to serve as a plate or die. This demanding technique is rare today given that most engravers now use a photographic process to make plates, where just about any font will do. But the lettering styles engravers popularized during the first half of the twentieth century remain both familiar and appealing. Referencing various masterplates, Mark van Bronkhorst has drawn Sweet Square in nine weights. The sources offered just uppercase, small caps, and figures, yet similar, condensed examples had a lowercase, making it possible to interpret a full character set for Sweet Square. Italics were also added to give the family greater versatility. The fonts are available as basic, “/fonts/sweet/square/” character sets, and as “Pro” character sets offering special characters, a variety of typographic features, and full support for Western and Central European languages. Sweet Square gives new life to an uncommon class of typeface: an early twentieth-century commercial invention that brings a singular verve to modern design. Its unique style is as useful as it is novel. Bank Gothic is a registered trademark of Grosse Pointe Group LLC.

"PGF Caprina Pro" is an audacious and rough geometric sans-serif font inspired by the wild and untamed personality of mountain goats (the word "caprina"‘ in Spanish is related to or resembling ‘goats’)—amazing animals which can skilfully climb up slopes and withstand very cold temperatures. Was originally developed under the Latinotype team supervision and is now upgraded to this Pro version that comes in 20 font styles, with 739 glyphs each, supports now more than 200 Latin-based languages and includes a wider OpenType features range like: Stylistic Alternates ‘set 01’ for b, d, g, p, q, i, j, t, y, &, I, G, M Stylistic Alternates ‘set 02’ for d, g, j 4 Stylistic Alternate from ‘set 01’ to ‘set 04’ for Enclosed Numbers (circles and squares) Stylistic Alternate ‘set 05’ for curved 3 and ‘Zero with dot inside’ Contextual alternates automatically turns ‘zero’ into a ‘slashed zero’ in alphanumeric contexts Contextual alternates automatically turns “Il” into a serif for improve its legibility Case Sensitive when "All Caps" is activated for ß, ¡, ¿, () [] {}, ‹› «», •(bullet), *(asterisk), -(hyphen) Standard Ligatures for fi, fj, fl Discretionary Ligatures for tt, tr, www, LL, TT Lining Numbers Old Style Numbers Tabular Lining Tabular Old Style Numbers Slashed zero on every number figures Numerators and Denominators from 0 to 9 for any Fraction expression Superiors and Inferiors from 0 to 9 for any scientific notation Ordinal forms for ‘a’ and ‘o’ Localized language customization for German, Dutch, Polish, Catalan, Romanian, Moldavian, Turkish, etc. Every OpenType option is also accessible via Character Map allowing users and designers to choose an alternate design for a particular character. “PGF Caprina Pro” is well-suited for high-impact action publishing and advertising as well related with adrenalynic and extreme sport design stuff.

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

“Loyolliams” is my first designed Latin typeface which has special meanings and unforgettable memories for me. The font's name, Loyolliams, consists of two mixed syllables stand for two different names. The first syllable is derived from the name “Loyola” and the second syllable is derived from the last five letters of the name “Williams.” These two names are related to “Concordia University”—located in Montreal in Canada—where I studied at a short academic term and spent in a very special period of my life in the late 2005. This renowned Canadian academic institution was created following the 1974 merger of “Loyola College” (1896) and “Sir George Williams University” (1926). This conglomeration formed “Concordia University” and the name Concordia itself was taken from the motto of the city of Montreal, Concordia salus (meaning ‘well-being through harmony’). This font comes in two different weights; light and regular. “Loyolliams” is a square, geometric, techno, and modern font. It is suitable for T-shirts, books' covers, websites’ addresses, advertisement light boards, and titles in technical, artistic, and other types of magazines and signboards. “Loyolliams” can be used also in posters, surfaces of electrical and electronic tools, digital devices and chips, geometrical machines, trucks, tractors, calculators, mobile phones, watches, laptops, personal computers, power equipments, digital cameras, technical magazines, and other digital and electronic tools. This fonts can be effectively used in titles especially when its uppercase and lowercase letters are mixed together and when it is used in its italic mode. "Loyolliams" is suitable for writing and printing small textual paragraphs in cards, magazines advertisements, and also posters. The main characteristic of "Loyolliams" Typeface is its non-curve style in most of its alphanumeric letters. The characters are deliberately designed to have only angular and square shapes.

The ten font Turbinado™ Set was designed to be clear and easy to read with a friendly personality, ideal for advertising and packaging in both text and display settings. Included are three weights of brushed casual script, each with a dry version, two condensed all caps faces, another hand printed caps face and an Elements package with 100 brushed elements that include swashes, botanicals, shells, arrows, repeatable patterns and a few other doodads that play well with the fonts. Like our most recent release Fave, all of the fonts use the OpenType standard ligature feature to automatically differentiate consecutive lowercase letters and numbers, using separate glyphs rather than a single ligature so they can be set on a curve or colored separately, etc. They also automatically differentiate like characters that are separated by another letter when standard ligatures is enabled. The script fonts have alternate characters like swash glyphs for ends of words and a few ligatures too; single crossbar to unite the At and Att letter combinations etc. The two condensed faces also have a third set of less uniform glyphs that can be used to create a more quirky, fun and bouncy effect (see the ‘she sells seashells’ graphic above) when the discretionary ligature feature is on. The script fonts have 10+ lowercase t (and double t) crossbar alternates that can be selected from the OpenType glyph table manually, or you can enable the contextual alternates feature to automatically insert a bigger crossbar as the surrounding letters allow throughout a text box or document. Hello? Are you still there? :) And for those intrepid typographers who would rather fashion their own lowercase t to custom fit a specific design, all of the lowercase t ascenders and crossbars are also available separately in the glyph table, and can be combined manually.

Introducing Toughton Handwritten Font Unveil the beauty of handwritten elegance with Toughton, a font that breathes life into your creative projects. Designed to capture the essence of human touch, Toughton transforms words into a poetic dance of strokes and curves. The Art of Personalization Toughton isn't just a font; it's a journey through the art of personalization. Whether you're crafting wedding invitations, designing branding materials, or adding a human touch to your digital creations, Toughton's unique character will infuse your work with warmth and authenticity. Timeless Appeal With a timeless appeal that transcends trends, Toughton embraces the charm of handwritten script. Its fluid strokes and carefully crafted ligatures ensure that every word flows effortlessly, making it the perfect choice for projects that demand elegance and readability. Versatile Application From logos to social media graphics, packaging to editorial designs, Toughton adapts seamlessly to a variety of design contexts. Let your imagination run wild as you explore the versatility of this handwritten gem. Features and Functionality OpenType Features: Toughton comes with a set of OpenType features, including ligatures and alternates, to add depth and character to your text. Multilingual Support: Express yourself in various languages with Toughton's extensive multilingual support. Web and Print Ready: Whether it's for web design or print publications, Toughton is optimized for both digital and physical mediums. Elevate Your Creations Elevate your design game with Toughton Handwritten Font. It's not just a font; it's an artistic tool that allows you to tell your story with flair, grace, and a touch of humanity. Unlock the potential of your creative projects and make your message resonate with the world. Experience the magic of handwritten authenticity. Get Toughton today and let your words dance with elegance.

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

EUROPEAN SANS PRO VARIABLE ABOUT FAMILY: What makes "European Sans Pro Variable" elegant, friendly and contemporary is its very rounded curves with very open terminals. "European Sans Pro Variable" has been designed with a higher "x-height" than other fonts in its class to make tiny readability more obvious in any use situation. It will be ideal for use in small sizes such as business cards or mobile applications. This typeface is also equipped with powerful OpenType features to satisfy the most demanding professionals. It has solid features like case sensitivity, small, true capitals, full ligatures, tabular figures for tables, old style figures to elegantly insert numbers into your sentences and more alternative characters to give personality to your projects. The extended, "European Sans Pro Variable" supports around 85 languages in the Latin, Cyrillic and Greek scripts, and its non-Latin components were developed with native consultants. With over 1200+ glyphs per style, "European Sans Pro" cares about localised letterforms and has the OpenType features to match. FEATURE SUMMARY: - 9 weights: Thin, ExtraLight, Light, Book, Regular, Medium, Bold, ExtraBold, and Black. - 4 widths: Normal, Narrow, Condensed, and Extra Condensed. - Matching italics (12º) for all weights and widths . - Matching small caps for all weights and widths. - Lining and old style figures (proportional and tabular). - Alternate characters (A, G, M, N, R, U, a, g, l, m, n, u, y). - Unlimeted fractions. - Automatic ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). - 24 Dingbats + 19 Social Media and Block Chain icons. - Extended language support: Most Latin-based scripts (including Vietnamese), Cyrillic, and Greek. - Extended currency support. You can contact me at buyuksel@hotmail.com, pre-purchase and post-purchase with questions and for technical support. You can enjoy using it.

“Corinthiago” feels equally charming and elegant. This stunning handwritten font is a stylish homage to classic calligraphy. It features a varying baseline, smooth lines, gorgeous glyphs and stunning alternates Alternates to help enrich your designs: 1. Titling (titl) alternates, are accents for initial letters. is the first stroke that is long and and slightly curved according to the letters, both lowercase and uppercase. 2. Swash (swsh) alternates, is an accent at the end of a letter, is an additional stroke to end writing. 3. Stylistic alternate (Salt), is an alternative glyph to add style emphasis. 4. Stylistic set (SS), some additional glyphs for design alternatives. If you use a combination of two lowercase with a combination of tilt and swsh it will produce a harmonic letter that you can use for a logo, no problem also for a logo consisting of more than two letters, all you have to make sure is starts with a titl and ends with swsh. All glyph alternates (titl, swsh, Salt and SS) are also supported by multiple languages. Another OpenType that is also very important is Ligature (league), this font consists of 51 Ligatures including: Abe, Ade, Ale, Ab, Ad, Af, Aj, Ak, Al, Am, An, Ao, Ap, As, Ax, Ay, Az, aa, ar, be, cc, da, de, di, do, du, dy, ee, er, ii, ir, is, le, ll, lt, om, on, oo, op, or, ov, ow, ox, oy, oz, ss, st, th, tl, tt, ur and uu. We continue to see the possibility to update ligatures in the future. This font is the right choice for a modern design, can be applied to invitations, writing messages in the form of quotes, book and magazine covers, and of course for your brand logo text.

Mutable is as flamboyant and changeable as its name suggests. These characterful fonts were designed specifically for display purposes. It’s an exuberant type family that’s jam-packed with alternates and bestowed with a loud personality. This typeface is defined by its barbed serifs and elegantly curved terminals, or “foxtails” as they are sometimes known. An extremely large x-height amplifies the friendliness and buoyancy of the lowercase glyphs. These qualities give Mutable a unique aesthetic that will undoubtedly give your logotypes, headlines, and titles a distinctive appeal. Mutable has a strong Art Nouveau influence and was mainly inspired by Ed Benguiat’s Tiffany and the mysterious Pretorian typeface accredited to P.M. Shanks and Sons of London. Special OpenType features include 523 alternates that will make each word resonate beautifully when used in titling and branding situations. With so many alternates available, you may find it difficult to stop playing and settle on a selection... but that’s a good thing, right? Small Caps are also included (along with their matching diacritics and alternates) – these are designed to harmonise with regular lowercase forms making unicase-style typography a cinch. Mutable has a total glyph count of over 2,400 characters. There are 9 weights across 2 widths, ranging from a delicate and wispy Narrow Thin to a chunky and imposing Ultra. And... it’s variable! This allows you to select any width or weight in between, making Mutable even more... erm... mutable! This type family has an extensive character set that covers all Latin European languages. Finally, you can test drive Mutable immediately as the Regular weight is offered as a free download. Key features: 9 Weights 2 Widths Variable Small Caps 500+ Alternates Old Style Figures European Language Support (Latin) 2400+ Glyphs per font

Once, Blackletter was a calligraphy style. Full of ligatures, with letters bumping into each other to create an unapologetic picket-fence pattern. Some even claimed that the regularity improved legibility! But then Blackletter was cast into metal, and only a handful of established ligatures survived, while most interletter connections were disentangled. Everyone since followed suit, and hundreds of years later, digital Blackletter fonts were modelled mostly on the metal fonts that prevailed rather than the original handwriting. Up until now! AJ Quadrata is an authentic revival of the textura quadrata hand, and its major inspiration is a 15th-century Latin manuscript of the Bible from Zwolle, the Netherlands. The typeface is delivered in two flavors. The default cut is a modern take on textura quadrata that can be useful for today and tomorrow. The standard ligatures feature employs nearly all letters. The tittle of i retains its original, hasty squiggle form (except for the Turkish localization). Discretionary ligatures include medieval ligatures da, de, do, pa, pe, po (and their mixed-case counterparts!). Stylistic sets allow to use historic letter variants such as long s and rotunda r, closed-counter a, and alternate capitals. AJ Quadrata Medieval is perfect for setting Latin. Default forms of capital F, H and O are swapped with the alternates. The squiggles above i only appear for disamibiguation nearby m, n or u, as in original manuscripts. Discretionary ligatures and historic variants are promoted to the standard ligatures feature to make room in the discretionary ligatures feature for a variety of scribal abbreviations. Dedicated stylistic sets include medieval punctuation and justification alternates — glyphs with elongated terminals used for lengthening lines that end up too short. The Rubrum styles can be layered and colored to create the illuminated effect on the capital letters. Besides a faithful rendition of extended Latin including Vietnamese, numerous synthetic additions are included: polytonic Greek, Armenian, and Cyrillic (with Bulgarian and Serbian/Macedonian localizations). Both flavors of the typeface can be considered a starting point that can be further customized using OpenType features, including Stylistic Sets (some features differ between AJ Quadrata and AJ Quadrata Medieval): ss01 Alt E ss02 Descending F / Roman F ss03 Uncial H / Roman H ss04 Angular O / Round O ss05 Contextual closed-counter a ss06 Diamond-dot i j / Always dotted i, j ss07 Contextual rotunda r / No r rotunda ss08 Contextual long s / No long s ss09 Dotless y ss10 Serbian Cyrillic ss11 Alt Cyrillic de ss12 Alt Cyrillic zhe ss13 Alt Cyrillic sha ss14-ss17 [reserved for future use] ss18 Scribal punctuation ss19 Alt linking hyphen ss20 Justification alternates

Here I am, once again digging up 60-year sign lettering and trying to reconcile it with the typography of my own time. The truth is I've had this particular Alf Becker alphabet in my sights for a few years now. But in the typical way chaos shuffles the days, Buffet Script and Whomp won the battle for my attentions way back when, then Storefront beat the odds by a nose a couple of years ago. Nevertheless, revisiting Alf Becker’s work is always a breath of fresh air for me, not to mention the ego boost I get from confirming that I can still hack my way through the challenges, which is something I think people ask themselves about more often as they get older. You can never tell what may influence your work, or in this case remind you to dig it out of dust drawers and finally mould it into one of your own experiences. On my recent visits to the States and Canada, I noticed that quite a few high-end steak houses try their best to recreate an urban American 1930s atmosphere. This is quite evident in their menus, wall art, lighting, music, and so on. The ambience says your money is well spent here, because your food was originally choice-cut by a butcher who wears a suit, cooked by a chef who may be your neighbour 20 minutes from downtown, and delivered by a waitress who can do the Charleston when the lights dim and who just wouldn't mind laughing with you over drinks at the bar later. So Steak is just that, a face for menus and wall art in those places that see themselves in the kind of jazzy, noirish world where one-liners rule and exclamation points are part of a foreign language. As is usual with my lettering-inspired faces, there is very little left of the original Alf Becker alphabet. Of course, the challenges present in bringing typographic functionality to what is essentially pure hand lettering gives the spirit of the original art a hell of a rollercoaster ride. But I think that spirit survived the adventure, and may in fact be even somewhat magnified here. This font is over 850 glyphs. It’s loaded with ligatures, swashes, ending forms, alternates, ascender and descender variations, and extended Latin language support. Steak comes in 3 versions. According to your taste you can choose Barbecue, Braised or Smoked. It’s up to you!

With its extended complement, this comprehensive redesign of Bank Gothic by Elsner+Flake offers a wide spectrum for usage. After 80 years, the typeface Bank Gothic, designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1930, is still as desirable for all areas of graphic design as it has ever been. Its usage spans the design of headlines to exterior design. Game manufacturers adopt this spry typeface, so reminiscent of the Bauhaus and its geometric forms, as often as do architects and web designers. The creative path of the Bank Gothic from hot metal type via phototypesetting to digital variations created by desktop designers has by now taken on great breadth. The number of cuts has increased. The original Roman weight has been augmented by Oblique and Italic variants. The original versions came with just a complement of Small Caps. Now, they are, however, enlarged by often quite individualized lower case letters. In order to do justice to the form changes and in order to differentiate between the various versions, the Bank Gothic, since 2007 a US trademark of the Grosse Pointe Group (Trademark FontHaus, USA), is nowadays available under a variety of different names. Some of these variations remain close to the original concept, others strive for greater individualism in their designs. The typeface family which was cut by the American typefoundry ATF (American Type Founders) in the early 1930’s consisted of a normal and a narrow type family, each one in the weights Light, Medium and Bold. In addition to its basic ornamental structure which has its origin in square or rectangular geometric forms, there is another unique feature of the Bank Gothic: the normally round upper case letters such as B, C, G, O, P, Q, R and U are also rectangular. The one exception is the upper case letter D, which remains round, most likely for legibility reasons (there is the danger of mistaking it for the letter O.) Because of the huge success of this type design, which follows the design principles of the more square and the more contemporary adaption of the already existing Copperplate, it was soon adopted by all of the major type and typesetting manufacturers. Thus, the Bank Gothic appeared at Linotype; as Commerce Gothic it was brought out by Ludlow; and as Deluxe Gothic on Intertype typesetters. Among others, it was also available from Monotype and sold under the name Stationer’s Gothic. In 1936, Linotype introduced 6pt and 12pt weights of the condensed version as Card Gothic. Lateron, Linotype came out with Bank Gothic Medium Condensed in larger sizes and a more narrow set width and named it Poster Gothic. With the advent of photoypesetters and CRT technologies, the Bank Gothic experienced an even wider acceptance. The first digital versions, designed according to present computing technologies, was created by Bitstream whose PostScript fonts in Regular and Medium weights have been available through FontShop since 1991. These were followed by digital redesigns by FontHaus, USA, and, in 1996, by Elsner+Flake who were also the first company to add cursive cuts. In 2009, they extended the family to 16 weights in both Roman and Oblique designs. In addition, they created the long-awaited Cyrillic complement. In 2010, Elsner+Flake completed the set with lowercase letters and small caps. Since its redesign the type family has been available from Elsner+Flake under the name Bank Sans®. The character set of the Bank Sans® Caps and the Bank Sans® covers almost all latin-based languages (Europe Plus) as well as the Cyrillic character set MAC OS Cyrillic and MS Windows 1251. Both families are available in Normal, Condensed and Compressed weights in 4 stroke widths each (Light, Regular, Medium and Bold). The basic stroke widths of the different weights have been kept even which allows the mixing of, for instance, normal upper case letters and the more narrow small caps. This gives the family an even wider and more interactive range of use. There are, furthermore, extensive sets of numerals which can be accessed via OpenType-Features. The Bank Sans® type family, as opposed to the Bank Sans® Caps family, contains, instead of the optically reduced upper case letters, newly designed lower case letters and the matching small caps. Bank Sans® fonts are available in the formats OpenType and TrueType.

Blackletter typefaces follow certain fixed rules, both in respect to their forms and to the orthography. Possibly, they were a reaction to the half-developed Carolingian minuscule which was soon to end in the Latin script. Narrow, ordered script was to replace the round, hesitant and shattered shapes of letters in order to simplify writing, to unify the meaning of individual letters, and to save some parchment, too. Opposed to the practice common in monasterial scriptoriums where Uncial, Irish and Carolingian inspiration flew freely and as a result, the styles of writing differed in each monastery, the blackletter type was to define one, common standard. It was to express spiritual verticality, in perfect tune with the architecture of the Gothic era. Typography became an integral part of the overall style of the period. The pointed arch and the blackletter type were the vanguard of the spectacular transformation from the Middle Ages towards the modern era, they were a celebration of a time when works of art were not signed by their makers yet. Some unfortunate souls keep linking blackletter solely with Germany and the Third Reich, while the truth is that its direct predecessor, the Gothic minuscule, evolved mostly in France. Even Hitler himself indicated blackletter type obsolete in the age of steel, iron and concrete – thus making a significant contribution to the spreading of the Latin script in Germany. Once we leave our prejudice aside, we find that the shapes of blackletter type have exceptional potential, unheard of in sans-serif letterforms. The lower case letters fit into an imaginary rectangle which is easily extended both upwards and sideways. In its scope and in the name itself, the Moyenage type family project is to celebrate the diversity of the Middle Ages. I begun realizing the urge to design my own blackletter when visiting the beer gardens of Munich and while walking through the villages of rural Austria. The letters from the notice boards of inns are scented with spring air, with the flowers of cudweed, with white sausage and weissbier. The crooked calligraphic hooks and beaks seem to imitate the hearty yodeling of local drinkers and the rustle of the giant skirts of girls who distribute the giant wreaths of beer jugs. Moyenage is, however, a modern replica of blackletter, so it contains some otherwise unacceptable Latin script elements in upper case. I chose these keeping the modern reader in mind, striving for better legibility. The font is drawn as if written with a flat pen or brush, and with the ambition to, perhaps, serve as a calligraphic model. In medium width, the face is surprisingly well legible; it is perfect for menus as well as posters and CD covers for some of the heavier kinds of music. It has five types of numerals and also a set of Cyrillic script, symbolising the lovelorn union of Germans and Russians in the 20th century. Thus, it is well suited for the setting of bilingual texts of the German classic literature, which, according to the ancient rules, must not be set in Latin script.

I love geometric sans serifs, their crispness and rationality. Le Havre taps into this style, but for a while, I've wanted to create a font recalling the printed Futura of the 1940s, which seems to have an elusive quality all its own. After seeing an old manual on a World War II ship, I developed a plan for "Le Havre Metal" but chose to shelve the project due to Le Havre's small x-height. That's where Steagal comes in. When Robbie de Villiers and I began the Chatype project in early 2012 (a project which led one publication to label me the Edward Johnston of Chattanooga!), we started closely studying the vernacular lettering of Chattanooga. During that time, I also visited Switzerland, where I saw how designers were using a new, handmade aesthetic with a geometric base. I was motivated to make a new face combining some of these same influences. The primary inspiration for the new design came from the hand-lettering of sign painters in the United States, circa 1930s through 1950s. My Chatype research turned up a poster from the Tennessee Valley Authority in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which exhibited a number of quirks from the unique hand and style of one of these sign artists. Completing the first draft of Steagal, however, I found that the face appeared somewhat European in character. I turned then to the work of Morris Fuller Benton for a distinctly American take and discovered a number of features that would help define Steagal as a "1930s American" vernacular typeface--features I later learned also inspired Morris Fuller Benton's Eagle. The overall development of Steagal was surprisingly difficult, knowing when to deliberately distort optical artifacts and when to keep them in place. Part of type design is correcting optical illusions, and I found myself absentmindedly adjusting the optical effects. In the end, though, I was able to draw inspiration from period signs, inscriptions, period posters, and architecture while retaining just enough of the naive sensibility. Steagal has softened edges, which simulate brush strokes and retain the feeling of the human hand. The standard version has unique quirks that are not too intrusive. Overshoots have almost been eliminated, and joins have minimal corrections. The rounded forms are mathematically perfect, geometric figures without optical corrections. As a variation to the standard, the “Rough” version stands as the "bad signpainter" version with plenty of character. Steagal Regular comes in five weights and is packed with OpenType features. Steagal includes three Art Deco Alternate sets, optically compensated rounded forms, a monospaced variant, and numerous other features. In all, there are over 200 alternate characters. To see these features in action, please see the informative .pdf brochure. OpenType capable applications such as Quark or the Adobe Creative suite can take full advantage of the automatically replacing ligatures and alternates. Steagal also includes support for all Western European languages. Steagal is a great way to subtly draw attention to your work. Its unique quirks grab the eye with a authority that few typefaces possess. Embrace its vernacular, hand-brushed look, and see what this geometric sans serif can do for you.

I spend a lot of time following two obsessions: packaging and hand lettering. Alongside a few other minor obsessions, those two have been my major ones for so many years now, I've finally reached the point where I can actually claim them as “obsessions” without getting a dramatic reaction from the little voice in the back of my head. When you spend so much time researching and studying a subject, you become very focused, directionally and objectively. But of course some of the research material you run into turns out to be tangential to whatever your focus happens to be at the time, so you absorb what you can from it, then shelf it — like the celebrity bobblehead that amused you for a while, but is now an almost invisible ornament eating dust and feathers somewhere in your environment. And just like the bobblehead may fall off the shelf one day to remind you of its existence, some of my lettering research material unveiled itself in my head one day for no particular reason. Hand lettering is now mostly perceived as an American art. Someone with my historical knowledge about lettering may be snooty enough to go as far as pointing out the British origins of almost everything American, including lettering — but for the most part, the contemporary perspective associates great lettering with America. The same perspective also associates blackletter, gothics and sans serifs with Germany. So you can imagine my simultaneous surprise and impatience when, in my research for one of my American lettering-based fonts, I ran into a German lettering book from 1953, by an artist called Bentele. It was no use for me because it didn't propel my focus at that particular time, but a few months ago I was marveling at what we take for granted — the sky is blue, blackletter is German, lettering is American — and found myself flipping through the pages of that book again. The lettering in that book is upbeat and casual sign making stuff, but it has a slightly strange and youthful experimentation at its heart. I suppose I find it strange because it deviates a lot from the American stuff I'm used to working with for so long now. To make a long story short, what’s inside that German book served as the semilla, which is Spanish for seed, for the typeface you see all over these pages. With Semilla, my normal routine went out the window. My life for a while was all Bezier all the time. No special analog or digital brushes or pens were used in drawing these forms. They're the product of a true Bezier process, all starting with a point creating a curve to another point, which draws a curve to another point, and so on. It’s a very time-consuming process, but at the end I am satisfied that it can get to pretty much the same results easier and more traditional methods accomplish. And as usual with my fonts, the OpenType is plenty and a lot of fun. Experimenting with substitution and automation is still a great pleasure for me. It is the OpenType that always saves me from the seemingly endless work hours every type designer must inevitably have to face at one point in his career. The artful photos used in this booklet are by French photographer and designer Stéphane Giner. He is very deserving of your patronage, so please keep an eye out for his marvelous work. I hope you like Semilla and enjoy using it. I have a feeling that it marks a transition to a more curious and flexible period in my career, but only time will tell.

❧ Useful links: Luther’s Manuscripts at the UNESCO Memory of the World at Google Arts and Culture Martin Luther font on Kickstarter (with Film about the creation) Each letter of the Martin Luther font is strictly based on original samples found in Martin Luther’s 500 year old handwritten manuscripts. Letters that occur more often for example vowels have two or more different versions stored in the font. (➶ Figure 4) These alternative forms are exchanged automatically by the font as you type, and create a vivid look that comes close to actual handwriting. The font avoids that two identical letters are placed next to each other like, for example the two “o” in the word “look”. ➸ What Historic Sources is the Font based on? Two historic documents were used to base the font on. The notes Luther took before giving his speech in Worms in 1521 and a 6 page letter he wrote immediately after to Emperor Charles V., summarising his speech (➶ Figure 2). Both documents have been added to the UNESCO “Memory of the World” and can be seen at the Google Arts and Culture website. ➸ The Creation of a Handwriting Font The creation of a handwriting font is very different from the creation of a regular font. Harald Geisler has specialised in recreating handwriting in preceding projects with Albert Einstein’s, Sigmund Freud’s and his own handwriting. His experience working with Archives and Museums has gone into this project. First Geisler analyses the movement in the writing to understand how each letter is drawn. This involves partially learning how to write like a person. In this process not the outlines of the sample are reproduced but the original movement path of the handwriting (➶ Figure 3). In a second step width and contrast is added to reproduce Martin Luther’s characteristic impetus and the writing tools used at the time. (Link: Youtube Playlist showcasing the creation of individual letters) How about signs that can’t be found in archives? Some Glyphs can not be found in 500 year old manuscripts, for example the @-sign. Towards the end of the creation one collects a profund amount of details about how a writer moves on paper and addresses certain tasks moving the pen. Keeping this knowledge in mind an improvisation can be based on similar letter forms. For example the @ sign is based on of the movement of a lowercase a and parenthesis. ➸ Features of the Martin Luther font ❶ Extensive Documentation of the creation of the font, including high quality reproduction of the used manuscripts. ❷ Additional texts from Historian Dr. Henning Jürgens and Palaeographer (and Luther handwriting expert) Prof. Ulrich Bubenheimer ❸ Alternating Letters - in handwriting every word looks a bit different. To avoid that two identical letterforms are placed next to each other (for example in the word look) the font actively changes between different versions of letters as you type. ❹ Ligatures - characteristic writing forms when two letters are combined (for example “ct”) (➶ Figure 5) ❺ Terminal Letterforms - renders a special letterform when letter is at the end of a word. (➶ Figure 8) ❻ ‘’’Initial and Medial Letterforms''' - some letterforms are different when placed in the beginning or middle of a word, for example the lowercase s. ❼ Luther Rose - is a seal Luther used to authorise his correspondence. Today it is a widely recognized symbol for Luther. When you enter the numbers of Luthers year of birth and death 14831546 using the Martin Luther PRO font, it will render a stylised version of the Luther Rose. (➶ Figure 7) ❽ Historic letter-forms - letter-forms that are specific to medieval writing around 1500. For example the long-s or h with a loop at the bottom. (➶ Figure 6) ⚑ Multi language support - see the technical information tab for a full list of supported languages. (➶ Figure 11) ➸ The different Styles explained ❋ Martin Luther PRO - this includes all features listed above and is geared towards writing texts that are more readable today. It features alternating letters to create a natural handwriting look as well as two stylistic sets accessible through the OpenType menu. Historic forms are available through the glyph picker. ❋ Martin Luther Historic - this font creates a historically correct reproduction (i.e. with long-s) of Luther’s medieval latin handwriting. It features alternating letters to create a natural handwriting look as well as two stylistic sets accessible through the OpenType menu. ❋ Martin Luther Expert-1 - Dedicated access to the first set of letters only. ❋ Martin Luther Expert-2 - Dedicated access to the second set of letters only. ❈❈❈ Family Pack - recieve all fonts at a discounted price. ❈❈❈ ➸ Kickstarter The creation and development of the Martin Luther font was financed by 500 supporters on ➸Kickstarter.

Quill-formed roman/gothic with an olde-worlde flavor. Some background in the designer's own words: "A series of fonts came to mind which would be rooted in the medieval era -for me, a period of intense interest. Prior to Gutenberg's development of commercial printing with type on paper in the mid-1400s, books were still being written out by hand, on vellum. At that time, a Bible cost more than a common workman could hope to earn in his entire lifetime. Men like William Tyndale devoted their energies to translating the Scriptures for the benefit of ordinary people in their own language, and were burned to death at the stake for doing so. Those in authority correctly recognized a terminal threat to the fabric of feudal society, which revolved around the church. "This religious metamorphosis was reflected in letterforms: which, like buildings, reflect the mood of the period in which they take shape. The medieval era produced the Gothic cathedrals; their strong vertical emphasis was expressive of the vertical relationship then existing between man and God. The rich tracery to be seen in the interstices and vaulted ceilings typified the complex social dynamics of feudalism. Parallels could be clearly seen in Gothic type, with its vertical strokes and decorated capitals. Taken as a whole, Gothicism represented a mystical approach to life, filled with symbolism and imagery. To the common man, letters and words were like other sacred icons: too high for his own understanding, but belonging to God, and worthy of respect. "Roman type, soon adopted in preference to Gothic by contemporary printer-publishers (whose primary market was the scholarly class) represented a more democratic, urbane approach to life, where the words were merely the vehicle for the idea, and letters merely a necessary convenience for making words. The common man could read, consider and debate what was printed, without having the least reverence for the image. In fact, the less the medium interfered with the message, the better. The most successful typefaces were like the Roman legions of old; machine-like in their ordered functionality and anonymity. Meanwhile, Gutenberg's Gothic letterform, in which the greatest technological revolution of history had first been clothed, soon became relegated to a Germanic anachronism, limited to a declining sphere of influence. "An interesting Bible in my possession dating from 1610 perfectly illustrates this duality of function and form. The text is set in Gothic black-letter type, while the side-notes appear in Roman. Thus the complex pattern of the text retains the mystical, sacred quality of the hand-scripted manuscript (often rendered in Latin, which a cleric would read aloud to others), while the clear, open side-notes are designed to supplement a personal Bible study. "Tyndale is one of a series of fonts in process which explore the transition between Gothic and Roman forms. The hybrid letters have more of the idiosyncrasies of the pen (and thus, the human hand) about them, rather than the anonymity imbued by the engraving machine. They are an attempt to achieve the mystery and wonder of the Gothic era while retaining the legibility and clarity best revealed in the Roman form. "Reformers such as Tyndale were consumed with a passion to make the gospel available and understood to the masses of pilgrims who, in search of a religious experience, thronged into the soaring, gilded cathedrals. Centuries later, our need for communion with God remains the same, in spite of all our technology and sophistication. How can our finite minds, our human logic, comprehend the transcendent mystery of God's great sacrifice, his love beyond understanding? Tyndale suffered martyrdom that the Bible, through the medium of printing, might be brought to our hands, our hearts and our minds. It is a privilege for me to dedicate my typeface in his memory."

Over the past couple of years I received quite a number of unusual and surprising requests to modify my type designs to suit projects of personal nature, but none top the ones that asked me to typeset and modify tattoos using Burgues Script or Adios. At first the whole idea was amusing to me, kind of like an inside joke. I had worked in corporate branding for a few years before becoming a type designer, and suddenly I was being asked to get involved in personal branding, as literally “personal” and “branding” as the expression can get. After a few such requests I began pondering the whole thing from a professional perspective. It was typography, after all, no matter how unusual the method or medium. A very personal kind of typography, too. The messages being typeset were commemorating friends, family, births, deaths, loves, principles, and things that influenced people in a deep and direct way, so much so that they chose to etch that influence on their bodies and wear it forever. And when you decide to wear something forever, style is of the essence. After digging into the tattooing scene, I have a whole new respect for tattoo artists. Wielding that machine is not easy, and driving pigment into people’s skin is an enormous responsibility. Not to mention that they're some of the very few who still use a crafty, hands-on process that is all but obsolete in other ornamentation methods. Some artists go the extra mile and take the time to develop their own lettering for tattooing purposes, and some are inventive enough to create letters based on the tattoo’s concept. But they are not the norm. Generally speaking, most tattoo artists use generic type designs to typeset words. Even the popular blackletter designs have become quite generic over the past few decades. I still cringe when I see something like Bank Script embedded into people’s skin, turning them into breathing, walking shareholder invitations or government bonds. There’s been quite a few attempts at making fonts out of whatever original tattoo designer typefaces can be found out there - wavy pseudo-comical letters, or rough thick brush scripts, but as far as I could tell a stylish skin script was never attempted in the digital age. And that’s why I decided to design Piel Script. Piel is Spanish for skin. In a way, Piel Script is a removed cousin of Burgues Script. Although the initial sketches were infused with some 1930s showcard lettering ideas (particularly those of B. Boley, whose amazing work was shown in Sign of the Times magazine), most of the important decisions about letter shapes and connectivity were reached by observing whatever strengths and weaknesses can be seen in tattoos using Burgues. Tattoos using Adios also provided some minor input. In retrospect, I suppose Affair exercised some influence as well, albeit in a minor way. I guess what I'm trying to say is there is as much of me in Piel Script as there is in any of the other major scripts I designed, even though the driving vision for it is entirely different from anything else I have ever done. I hope you like Piel Script. If you decide it to use it on your skin, I'll be very flattered. If you decide to use it on your skateboard or book cover, I'll be just as happy. Scripts can't get any more personal than this. Piel Script received the Letter2 award, where they selected the best 53 typefaces of the last decade, organised by ATypI.