Impressed by the quality of the Aachen typeface that was originally designed for Letraset in 1969 and extended to include Aachen Medium in 1977, Jim Wasco of Monotype Imaging has extended this robust display design to create an entire family. Derived from the serif-accented Egyptienne fonts dating to the early 20th century, Aachen has serifs that are very solid but considerably shorter than those of its precursor. The incorporated geometrical elements, such as right angles and straight lines, provide the slender letters of Aachen with a slightly technological, stencil-like quality. Despite this, the effect of Aachen is by no means static; its dynamism means that this typeface, originally designed for use in headlines, has come to be used with particular frequency in sport- and fitness-related contexts. Jim Wasco, for many years a type designer at Monotype Imaging, recognized the potential of Aachen and decided to extend the typeface to create an entire typeface family. He appropriated the existing Aachen Bold in unchanged form and first created the less heavy cuts, Thin and Regular. Wasco admits that he found designing the forms for Thin a particular challenge. It took him several attempts before he was able to achieve consistency within the glyphs for Thin and, at the same time, retain sufficient affinity with the original Aachen Bold. But he finally managed to adapt the short serifs and the condensed and slightly geometrical quality of the letters to the needs of Thin. The weights Light, Book, Medium and Semibold were generated by means of interpolation. Supplemented by Extralight and Extrabold, the new Neue Aachen can now boast a total of nine different weights. Wasco initially relied on his predilection for genuine cursives in his designs for the Italic cuts. But it became apparent with these first trial runs that the soft curves of cursives did not suit Aachen and led to the loss of too much of its original character. Wasco thus decided to compromise by using both inclined and cursive letters. Neue Aachen Italic is somewhat narrower than its upright counterparts; the lower case 'a' has a closed form while the 'f' has been given a descender, but the letters have otherwise not been given additional adornments. The range of glyphs available for Neue Aachen has been significantly extended, so that the typeface can now be used to set texts not only in Western but also Central European languages. Wasco has also added a double-counter lowercase 'g' while relying on the availability of alternative letters in the format sets for the enhancement of the legibility of Neue Aachen when used to set texts. The seven new weights and completely new Italic variants have enormously increased the potential applications of Aachen and the range of creative options for the designer. While the Bold weights have proved their worth as display fonts, the new Book and Regular cuts are ideal for setting text. And the subtlety of Ultra Light will provide your projects with a quite unique flair. The new possibilities and opportunities in terms of design and applications that Neue Aachen offers you are not restricted to print production; you can also create internet pages thanks to its availability as a web font.

The Ysobel™ typeface family is not only elegant; it is also exceptionally legible and space economical. A collaborative design effort between Robin Nicholas, as lead designer and project director, Delve Withrington and Alice Savoie of Monotype Imaging, the project had the primary design goal of creating a typeface family for setting text in newspapers and periodicals. The result, however, is also ideal for any application that requires quick and easy assimilation of text. According to Nicholas, “The idea for the design started when I was asked to develop a custom version of Century Schoolbook. I wanted to give the design a more contemporary feel, although the client ultimately decided to keep their typeface closer to the original. The project nevertheless gave me ideas for a new design. Since designing Nimrod, some 30 years ago, I had wanted to make a more modern typeface family for newspapers and magazines – this seemed the ideal candidate.” Ysobel (pronounced “Isabel”) has the soft, inviting letter shapes of Century Schoolbook but contrasts these with more incised serifs and terminals. Its capitals are also narrower than those of Century Schoolbook, and care was taken to ensure that they harmonize perfectly with the lowercase. Ysobel’s x-height is full-bodied without disrupting lowercase proportions. In addition, curved terminals, such as those in the “C,” “c” and “e,” were drawn more open as an aid to legibility and readability in text copy. Weight stress is near vertical, and hairlines are robust to ensure character fidelity in small point sizes. Development began with the text version of the family, which has four weights, each with an italic companion. All weights feature lining and old style numerals, fractions, superiors and extended Latin language coverage. Small caps are also available in the Roman Regular design. Ysobel Display is a completely redrawn version of the typeface; it is narrower, and has a slightly smaller x-height, thinner hairlines and subtle design changes to improve its appearance when set at large sizes. The Display Italic received particular attention to make it ideal for setting headlines, subheads and short blocks of copy. Changes include a slightly greater italic angle and more cursive treatment of some letter shapes. Alternative styles of capital “J” and “Q,” to provide variation, are available in all weights.

ITC Christoph's Quill is just about everything you could want in a typeface: it's distinctive, beautiful, and exceptionally versatile. According to designer Russell Bean, ITC Christoph's Quill is the culmination of experimentation with a graphics tablet that spanned several years. Then one day, as if by magic, it all just fell into place. The design seemed to flow from my pen." Bean was born in Australia and, except for a brief stint with a photo-lettering firm in Southern California, has spent most of his career working down under. "I can recall a deep fascination for the written word," he says. "Even before learning to spell, read or write, I think I recognized that this was a means of visual communication." Bean's first job was in a small ad agency as a trainee in the production department, where he learned art techniques and how to handle print, as well as "the value of visual impressions," he says. His career path meandered from one design job to another, but always in the general direction of fonts and typefaces. Today, his workload consists of logo design commissions, font editing, typography and print production consultation to a select group of loyal clients - still leaving time, notes Bean, "to pursue my type design ambitions." ITC Christoph's Quill began life as a simple, visually striking font of caps, lowercase, punctuation and numerals. To this Bean added a bold weight, for when a little more strength is desirable. Next came a flock of alternate characters. Finally, Bean drew a set of decorative caps, a suite of logos, and a sprinkling of beginning and ending swashes. The net result is a type family that can add a signature flourish to a vast range of projects: from invitations and menus to logos, signage, packaging and more."

Jill Bell's typefaces are energetic, highly decorative, and refreshingly unpredictable. Some are friendly and childlike, while others are rough and nervous. Her latest creation is ITC Swank, a connected script whose shabby-chic" sophistication communicates a worn elegance. Bell begins the design process "with black stuff on white paper," she explains, preferring to draw letters before she digitizes them. Often the inspiration for her typefaces comes from a piece of hand-lettering. "Bruno began as a reminder to buy cat food," she says, "and ITC Swank started out as a small bit of lettering for Wurlitzer Pianos." Bell finds that working with blocks of lettering is a good start for script typefaces. "If I'm drawing a script typeface, I have to write out sentences in the letters first," she explains. "Drawing each letter separately doesn't establish the flow and spontaneity that scripts deserve." Bell's newest design is ITC Swank. It's a somewhat tattered formal script with definite links to early copperplate scripts. Though probably not for wedding invitations, Swank's elegant underpinnings are evident, with its slightly narrow proportions and a baseline that can best be called "bouncy." Graphic designers will appreciate the abundance of swash letters, making it easy to create distinctive headlines and short blocks of copy. Bell has a fondness for the "open, genuine" quality of Chinese and Japanese calligraphy. "Eastern styles incorporate the natural flow of the hand," she says. "Natural, human qualities shine through. Mistakes are accepted, not scorned as in the 'white-out' Western culture." This philosophy is evident in Bell's own designs. Whether it's ITC Clover 's carefree spirit, the slightly spooky Hollyweird, Caribbean 's< rustic charm or the weathered elegance of ITC Swank, there is a natural honesty in her work."

Palo Slab is an epic font family made up of 9 weights in four widths, along with italic & oblique options to total a massive 108 styles. Using our 2020 release Palo as the base, the slab version began to take on its own life and personality to become a unique entity in its own right. From super punchy heavy weights to the delicate lighter weights, the Palo Slab super family is a versatile beast that offers you ultimate flexibility. The heavy weights ranging from Compressed Black to Wide Black are built with super tight spacing and love to be big and bold, so perfect for showing off your brand. The Italic styles add curves to the slab feel, providing a beautiful flow, but we've also included an oblique option if you want to use the blockier version. Palo Slab features extensive latin language support as well as OpenType features such as case sensitive punctuation, old style figures, scientific numbers and ligatures, + arrows. You can check out our 2020 release Palo here.

Neo Sans began as an intriguing assignment from a branding agency. The agency’s client wanted an “ultra modern” type family that was "futuristic without being gimmicky or ephemeral.” When a bureaucratic decision cancelled the project, Monotype staff designer Sebastian Lester decided to finish the design on his own. “I was left with a sketchbook full of ideas,” he said, “and thought it would be a shame not to see what came of them.” Lester decided that the principal ingredient of an "ultra modern" typeface was simplicity of character structure: a carefully drawn, monoline form, open letter shapes and smooth, strong curves. By further amplifying these qualities, he crossed the line from modern to futuristic. Two highly functional and versatile typefaces emerged. These are Neo Sans and Neo Tech, designs Lester describes as "legible without being neutral, nuanced without being fussy, and expressive without being distracting." Both the Neo Sans and the more minimalist Neo Tech families are available in six weights, ranging from Light to Ultra, with companion italics. Neo Tech offers a suite of alternate characters.

Pacific Northwest Letters is a fun, handwritten font by Cultivated Mind. Pacific Northwest has been carefully hand painted and comes in two styles (Regular/Rough). This font includes a set of lower case letters and Pacific Northwest hand painted Labels B.

Zoran Kostik began designing the Just Square font family in 1999, based on a logo that his son, an art student, had designed. The design project grew until Kostic had designed eight weights, for both the Latin and the Cyrillic writing systems. Just Square is a very geometric and constricted face best used in experimental designs (i.e., logos, web sites, flyers, and expressive headlines).

Corona was designed by C.H. Griffith and appeared with Mergenthaler Linotype in 1941. It is a part of Griffith’s Legibility Group’, on which he began working in 1922 and which contains typefaces especially well-suited to newsprint. Corona is based on forms of the Ionic type, perhaps the first style designed specifically for newspapers. The font is relatively small but gives an impression of strength and modernity.

I began my work on Emona while still struggling with Birka. I took the superellyptic form as the basic shape, and that gives the typeface some of its characteristics. It is strictly vertical. It is easy to classify it in the same section as Bodoni & Company. Emona is what Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, was called in the Roman days. Emona was released in 1992.

A long-set aside Art Deco typeface design begun (but not completed) may or not have been from a vintage source, but its roots go well back into Art Deco lettering. Taking the existing letters and thickening their weights, removing the counters and ending up with a completely new, solid alphabet design resulted in Deco Redux JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

This display font has an oriental character reminiscent of brush stroke calligraphy and all things Japanese. My original working title for this font was ‘Spanner’, because the lower case ‘c’, with which the design began, looked rather like the head of a spanner. I originally had in mind something more mechanical, but as it evolved and developed the font itself obviously had other ideas!