Back when shop window decoration was done with a brush, every window designer had his own style. In this vein the sans serif Altrincham was created. But even as a text font, it has stood the test of time, since it is very easy to read even in smaller point sizes, thanks to its relatively large x-height. With the Altrincham Condensed and Altrincham Wide Bold two other fonts have been created to perfectly complement the font family.

In the German city of Bad Neuenahr you can visit a spa called Thermal Badehaus. This beautiful art deco building has an even more beautiful art deco lettering covering its facade. I had to work with only a couple of glyphs ('Thermal Badehaus' to be exact) and tried to capture their beauty in the remaining glyphs. The result is a font called Badehaus (Bath House in German). It is a bold, all caps typeface, with some unique glyphs.

Cern is a family of20 weights of neutral, yet formally nuanced grotesk typefaces that takes inspiration from the original metal types from Switzerland, yet had a slightly larger x-height for more pronounced legibility. Cern is designed to be highly readable in print and on-screen. The italic variations are true italics and have been designed for smooth, fluid reading and text-setting. The Cern family works equally well for text typesetting and for display design work.

A lament is a sad song, and the music of the cowboys of the Old West had their fair share of them. However, a vintage piece of sheet music from the early part of the 20th century with the title "The Dying Cowboy" brought at least one positive trait to its mournful song. The title lettering was drawn in a fashion that emulated lettering made with quick strokes of a paintbrush, and became the inspiration for Cowboy Lament JNL.

Daiquiri is a revival of a handlettered font in two weights, from an ad for Puerto Rico Rum dating back to the forties or fifties. I found the ad on a French antique market on my last visit for Mardi Gras in Nice. The ad read "Breeze through the heat, be a Daiquiri fan". That's why they had this "fan" in the illustration! Did they want you to rotate like a fan when you had enough Daiquiris? Or did they just do it for that little "Jeu des mots"? Anyway I found the handlettering very pretty, so I took those few letters and made a whole font out of them. I think Daiquiri has that touch that brings those happy and uncomplicated times back when advertising was still fun. I started something like 20 years later in advertising and things had gotten more stringent. We already had to satisfy those marketing guys with their scholarly attitude. They have taken all the fun out of the job, for the creators as well as for the consumers. I would like to see more uncomplicated ads like this again, yours Gert Wiescher

Coral had its origins in the font Leah. I had requests from users that I create a cursive version of Leah. (In a cursive font the letters are joined together as in handwriting). In the process of development it changed sufficiently that I decided to release it under its own name. Hence "Coral". Coral is relaxed but very readable. It is, perhaps, a tad more formal and regular than Leah but not sufficiently so as to detract from its relaxed quality. The font is fully professional: carefully letterspaced and kerned. It contains over 235 characters - (upper and lower case characters, punctuation, numerals, symbols and accented characters are present). (It has all the accented characters used in the major European languages).

As as a computer programmer, it is my job to stare at screens of text all day. For my first font, I completed a simple monospaced font, Debug, based on my own handwriting. Mickey Mono is much more ambitious: I wanted a humanist design - something with organic curves. It had to be clean and fresh. It had to have the advantages of Debug, like distinctive numerals (to distinguish between 8 and 3) and huge punctuation characters (so I could read complicated Perl one liners). Mickey Mono would be a good friend to me as I struggled through difficult coding tasks. It has a wide range of Latin Extended characters and diacritics, so it can speak French, Portuguese, and Ruby. Enjoy!

You may recognize the looks of Retroxoid - if not, then let me help you out: Retroxoid is actually a font I made back in 2007. I ran prints of the font, through a very bad copymachine, used a wet cloth to make the print look worn, scanned the prints and voila! Retrozoid, my very first Open Type font, was born! Now in 2010, Retroxoid has risen from the past, and is ready to burst your designs with clean, round and futuristic shapes!

I bought something online, but when I received it, it wasn’t exactly what I had hoped it would be. So I read the return policy and sent it back. And… came up with this font and its name in the process! Return Policy is a hand drawn slab serif, inspired by a bunch of slab serifs from the early 20th century. Return Policy has been given a ‘grunge’ overhaul, making it ideal for sturdy products, websites with an industrial look and manly posters.

This font is, like, totally inspired by the handwriting of, like, teenage girls. You’ll note that the [ ] keys are actually adorable little hearts! Totally rad! This font includes enough European characters to fill a loose leaf binder.

Kirshaw is not your grandfather's sans serif from the 1950s and 1960s. All those old classics like Helvetica, Futura, Franklin Gothic, and Univers are showing their age like an old Elvis Presley song. Kirshaw is a clean, rounded design with sharp contrasting edges. Like those classics, Kirshaw is easy to read in small body copy and captions, plus it's delightfully modern and stylish for headlines and logos. I designed Kirshaw and Kirkly while undergoing cancer treatment at Stanford Medical Center. Font design was always in the back of my mind and now I had extra time. Kirshaw is a distinctive, modern, easy-to-read sans serif family consists of 14 weights (including italics). It’s an Adobe Latin 3 Character Set containing 350 glyphs per style (including special characters).

I became interested in designing Bodoni Classic because of a lazy graphic designer at Jacques Damase publishing house. He had to change a single letter on a bookcover about J. B. BODONI. The French call him Jean Baptiste instead of Giambattista! And that unknown graphic designer just took any old “J” from some newly cut Bodoni. All the new Bodoni cuts have square serifs, whereas the originals had rounded serifs and slightly concave feet. The single letter “J” with the squared off serif was for me like a road sign to start redesigning the entire Bodoni family. That’s exactly what I started in 1993 and a dozen years later I am finished. Okay, I am still adding new Bodoni Classics, but those are my personal additions. Yours very retro, Gert Wiescher

I became interested in designing Bodoni Classic because of a lazy graphic designer at Jacques Damase publishing house. He had to change a single letter on a bookcover about J. B. BODONI. The French call him Jean Baptiste instead of Giambattista! And that unknown graphic designer just took any old “J” from some newly cut Bodoni. All the new Bodoni cuts have square serifs, whereas the originals had rounded serifs and slightly concave feet. The single letter “J” with the squared off serif was for me like a road sign to start redesigning the entire Bodoni family. That’s exactly what I started in 1993 and a dozen years later I am finished. Okay, I am still adding new Bodoni Classics, but those are my personal additions. Yours very retro, Gert Wiescher

I became interested in designing Bodoni Classic because of a lazy graphic designer at Jacques Damase publishing house. He had to change a single letter on a bookcover about J. B. BODONI. The French call him Jean Baptiste instead of Giambattista! And that unknown graphic designer just took any old “J” from some newly cut Bodoni. All the new Bodoni cuts have square serifs, whereas the originals had rounded serifs and slightly concave feet. The single letter “J” with the squared off serif was for me like a road sign to start redesigning the entire Bodoni family. That’s exactly what I started in 1993 and a dozen years later I am finished. Okay, I am still adding new Bodoni Classics, but those are my personal additions. Yours very retro, Gert Wiescher

I became interested in designing Bodoni Classic because of a lazy graphic designer at Jacques Damase publishing house. He had to change a single letter on a bookcover about J. B. BODONI. The French call him Jean Baptiste instead of Giambattista! And that unknown graphic designer just took any old “J” from some newly cut Bodoni. All the new Bodoni cuts have square serifs, whereas the originals had rounded serifs and slightly concave feet. The single letter “J” with the squared off serif was for me like a road sign to start redesigning the entire Bodoni family. That’s exactly what I started in 1993 and a dozen years later I am finished. Okay, I am still adding new Bodoni Classics, but those are my personal additions. Yours very retro, Gert Wiescher

Brother Dreams is a captivating brush font that exudes a raw and artistic vibe. With its bold capitalized letterforms and ragged edges, this typeface brings a unique and rebellious touch to your designs. The defining feature of Brother Dreams lies in its rugged and ragged edges, giving the font a handcrafted and slightly distressed appearance. This font is designed with expressive brush strokes, capturing the essence of brush calligraphy. The bold capitalized letterforms command attention, making a powerful statement with their unconventional and untamed style. Inspired by the untamed spirit of artistic expression, Brother Dreams embodies a sense of creativity and authenticity. The rough and ragged edges add a touch of uniqueness and individuality to each letter, as if they were painted with passion and emotion. This font embraces imperfection and celebrates the beauty of artistic spontaneity. Each letter of Brother Dreams is meticulously crafted to maintain its boldness and legibility while embracing the rugged and ragged edges. The resulting composition is a balance of artistic expression and readability. This font allows your message to stand out with its raw energy and rebellious charm. Enjoy the various features available in this font. Features: Multilingual Supports PUA Encoded Numerals and Punctuations Brother Dreams is ideal for headlines, titles, logos, and any design that requires a lively and energetic display. Whether you're working on posters, packaging, branding materials, or any project that needs a touch of liveliness, this font will bring a contagious sense of cheer. Find out more ways to use this font by taking a look at the font preview. Thanks for purchasing our fonts. Hopefully, you have a great time using our font. Feel free to contact us anytime for further information or when you have trouble with the font. Thanks a lot and happy designing.

Antique Tuscan No.9 was one of the earlier wood-type designs by William Hamilton Page. It was first shown among the specimens produced in 1859, shortly after Page entered into a new partnership with Samuel Mowry, owner of the Mowry Axle Company. The new company was named Page and Company and was located at the Mowry facility in the Greenville section of Norwich, Connecticut. Antique Tuscan No.9 is an extra-condensed version of the tuscan style that had been released in moveable type by Vincent Figgins of London in 1817 and had become so popular for advertising in the intervening years. Because of the extreme compression in the design, we might be tempted to describe it as "Triple-X," but that might be misleading. The analogy would, of course, be to clothing sizes, not movie ratings. Because of the compression, this typeface reads best when set extra-extra-extra large. For printing, we recommend 36 points or larger. For the screen, we suggest at least 72 points. An unusual and distinctive design, it is best used with discretion. If I were doing a term paper for school or submitting an article to a magazine for publication, I might use it for the title page, to grab someone’s attention. I would certainly not use it for the main body of text - not if I expected anyone to read what I wrote. If you wonder why we make this recommendation, take the Ten-Point challenge. Print this paragraph using Antique Tuscan No.9 and set the font size at 10 points. If you are young and blessed with good eyesight, you will probably be able to read it - with effort. So, here is the challenge: hand it to your Grandmother and ask HER to read it.

ITC Don't Panic's distressed shapes and craggy outlines evoke the feeling you get when you're just barely in control of a situation. This is type design on the edge. ITC Panic is further down the emotional track, when you've actually lost control and there is no hope in sight. Thompson says the inspiration for these faces arrived one day in the mail. I received an envelope that looked like it had a rough trip; the type that was stamped on it had a tired, ragged appearance. Ironically, the haggard envelope woke me up. I got excited and wanted to replicate the look as a font of type." Thompson designed ITC Don't Panic, then stood back and looked at it and decided it cried out for a more agitated companion. ITC Don't Panic gave birth to the positively psychotic offspring, ITC Panic. Both are all-cap designs with alternate characters in the unshift position. Creating an authentically disturbed appearance proved to be a challenge for Thompson. "I tried to design agitated characters, but they looked staged. So I tried multiple photocopies, but that didn't work. Eventually, I laser-printed the basic characters, wadded up the lasers, then flattened them out and stomped on them with heavy boots. The end result was scanned and used as the basis for the rest of the design." Thompson's work on web sites and multimedia has influenced his interest in type and typography that transcends the cool, unemotional nature of the computer."

ITC Don't Panic 's distressed shapes and craggy outlines evoke the feeling you get when you're just barely in control of a situation. This is type design on the edge. ITC Panic is further down the emotional track, when you've actually lost control and there is no hope in sight. Thompson says the inspiration for these faces arrived one day in the mail. I received an envelope that looked like it had a rough trip; the type that was stamped on it had a tired, ragged appearance. Ironically, the haggard envelope woke me up. I got excited and wanted to replicate the look as a font of type." Thompson designed ITC Don't Panic, then stood back and looked at it and decided it cried out for a more agitated companion. ITC Don't Panic gave birth to the positively psychotic offspring, ITC Panic. Both are all-cap designs with alternate characters in the unshift position. Creating an authentically disturbed appearance proved to be a challenge for Thompson. "I tried to design agitated characters, but they looked staged. So I tried multiple photocopies, but that didn't work. Eventually, I laser-printed the basic characters, wadded up the lasers, then flattened them out and stomped on them with heavy boots. The end result was scanned and used as the basis for the rest of the design." Thompson's work on web sites and multimedia has influenced his interest in type and typography that transcends the cool, unemotional nature of the computer."

I have seen my share of badly stuffed animals. Most of them via pictures, but also on vacations here and there. They all had this really bad handcraft vibe, but at the same time some really ordinary and kind of cute looks. I did my best to capture this look and feeling in my Badly Stuffed Animal font: clumsy letters made with a blobbly pen, with naive and irregular lines - and the conclusion is something super useful for a project that needs an organic handmade look!

Douglass Pen was inspired by the handwriting of Frederick Douglass, who was born an American slave but died a distinguished 19th century statesman, orator, and abolitionist leader. He also had fine penmanship. Douglass Pen is modeled chiefly after Douglass's handwritten account of John Brown's famous 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. It simulates his somewhat condensed cursive, dashed off in a swift, bold style. The OpenType release has more than 800 glyphs, including scores of ligatures, alternative upper cases, inkblots, crossouts, and Eastern European characters.

Following rules, perhaps too closely. The first full font created by Ray Mullin who strongly believes a font need not be pretty to be valid. Each capital shares similar angles, as does each lowercase, making for a typeface only a mother could love. The rounded style was the true inspiration for the original, but logically it had to come second. Based entirely around Bong God but losing the harsh edges to become a usable futuristic type. Legible, but not readable, recommended in small doses.

Around the turn of the 20th Century, the Inland Type Foundry produced a display face named Studley. It was a variation on a design by another foundry called Florentine. A condensed face with a bold, clean look, the design resembled the warmth and feel of a classic wood type. Best applied to headlines and titles, the font reads amazingly well at even 18 point renderings. Jeff Levine had added his own personal touch to his digital version of this old favorite and renamed it Bayview JNL.

Gayle Sato, longtime friend of MVB Fonts, has amazing handwriting. It’s a natural, simple hand, with perfect rhythm. Devoid of flourishes, it doesn’t try to be beautiful. It’s just genuine, quick, and clean — the handwriting we all wish we had. The digitization by Mark van Bronkhorst captures these qualities. Retaining the roughness of a felt pen, MVB Calliope is a handwriting typeface that feels much more authentic than most, highly legible but still raw. The Regular was released in 2005, with the other weights shortly thereafter.

ITC Musclehead is the work of type designer Timothy Donaldson, a robust, densely packed handwriting typeface. It almost looks like brushwork but was in fact made with a ruling pen which Donaldson had bought from a company in Salem, Massachusetts. He says, The world's gone ruling-pen mad at the moment [late 1990s] and I was beginning to tire of all the skinny splashiness of the letters that most people were making with them. I wanted to do something heavy and robust with the tool, so that's what I did.""

Here's a font with a special backstory. Prickly Pear is a handwritten font, created in a moving car, on the way to the Simpson Desert. At the mercy of every bump, hump and hole in the road, this font is as rough and realistic as its conception. A unique and messy handwriting font reminiscent of the rugged landscape; it'll be perfect for that design project where you need a little raw authenticity. Prickly Pear has a comprehensive character set of over 160 custom ligature combinations and 56 multi-lingual characters.

Bike Decals JNL captures the fun and nostalgia of the 1950s and 1960s when kids all around the country ran to their local five and dime or hobby store to purchase water applied decals. The "cool" thing would be to customize your bike, little red wagon or anything that would be fair game with various racing symbols, weird space creatures or other unusual images. In this font, Jeff Levine has put his own spin on some of the classic designs of yesteryear, drawing from scratch some of the most popular of their day.

My goal for Harfang was to create a serif typeface that would be easy to read at text sizes, while having a strong personality at larger sizes. The initial design had a purely rounded style, but with each development pass I introduced some angularity. The final result is a typeface that is easy to read in long texts, advertising copy, annual reports and the like; but one that also provides a crisp and stylish appeal in more prominent display settings. I choose the name Harfang (Harfang des neiges — Snowy Owl or Great White Owl) because after my first typeface, Migration, I wanted something with a thematic relation. On a more personal level, Harfang is the official bird of Québec, a province with a long winter and a wonderful, white landscape, and the place I call home. —André Simard

This font I had, had only to wake up, sit down and draw it.