Type designers have been integrating the design of sans serifs with serifed forms since the 1920s. Early examples are Edward Johnston's design for the London Underground, and Eric Gill's Gill Sans. These were followed by Jan van Krimpen's Romulus Sans, Frederic Goudy's ITC Goudy Sans, Hermann Zapf's Optima, Hans Meier's Syntax and Adrian Frutiger's Frutiger. Now, ITC Stone Humanist joins this tradition. It is a careful blend of traditional sans serif shapes and classical serifed letterforms. ITC Stone Humanist grew out an experiment with the medium weight of ITC Stone Sans, a design that already showed a relationship to these sans serif-serif hybrids. ITC Stone Sans has proportions based on those of ITC Stone Serif, and its thick-and-thin stroke contrast suggests the bloodline of humanistic sans serif typefaces. But other aspects of ITC Stone Sans are more closely aligned to the gothics and grotesques, a tradition that accounts for the largest portion of sans serif designs. Enter ITC Stone Humanist. During his experiments with the earlier design, Sumner Stone recalls, I was actually quite surprised at how seemingly subtle changes transformed the face," moving the design firmly into the humanist tradition. "The form of the 'g,' 'l,' 'M,' 'W,' and more subtly the 'a' and 'e' are part of the restructuring of the family," he explains. The top endings of vertical lower case strokes have been cropped on an angle, as have the ascender and descender stroke endings. ITC Stone Humanist is a full-fledged member of the ITC Stone family. It has been produced with the same complement of weights, and the x-heights, proportions, and underlying character shapes are completely compatible with the three original designs. The original ITC Stone Sans is a popular typeface, in part because of its notable versatility. ITC Stone Humanist shares this virtue, and can be used successfully at very small sizes, in long passages of text copy, and even as billboard-sized display type."

Padraig Nua is a font conceptualized and designed by Tony Fahy. It is a European Celtic font, contemporary to many languages, not just of Europe but of the world. It’s origin is influenced by events in Ireland in the 1960s when it was decided that the uncial letterform should not be used further in Irish schools for the Irish language—Gaelic—and that it should be replaced by the Roman letterform—the Cló Romhanach as it was called afterwards. This happened overnight without any apparent discussion. It probably had a lot to do with Ireland joining the EEC, as the EU was called then. It had a massive effect on the Irish language and culture, in that the distinguishing factor that gave the language it’s identity—the half uncial/uncial fonts that were in use in all school, government and society documentation and merchandise—were lost overnight. No one said how or why. It was just done. To this day, all documentation is bi-lingual in government and Gaelic is taught in schools and universities—and decreed so by the European Union—but the presentation for both languages is the Roman letterform. Throughout the world, there are millions of Irish Americans and Irish Canadians, Irish Europeans, Australian Irish, African Irish and many living in the Middle East and Asia—and this new font—Padraig Nua, will appeal to many of them, visually recalling their roots. No one had thought, in those days, of commissioning a design that might update the Gaelic language to a more contemporary appearance that would keep the cultural nature of it intact with a revised and updated font—at one with Europe, the US and the world. Tony Fahy designed Padraig Nua (New Patrick) to address the problem. It keeps an appearance that lends towards the Gaelic language but steers it in the direction of Roman fonts. Some characters reflect letterforms from the Irish/Gaelic manuscripts and uncial fonts.

Prepare to be enchanted by the artistry of "Crispo," a font meticulously crafted through the delicate strokes of pointed pen calligraphy. In the world of typography, each character becomes a masterpiece, resonating with the eloquence of a brushstroke. Experience the Dynamic Elegance of Pointed Pen Mastery: Elegance with "Crispo" transcends mere quality; it embodies the essence of pointed pen calligraphy as a true masterpiece. The flowing lines and timeless grace of every character reflect the precision and artistry embedded in this refined craft. In the realm of fonts, "Crispo" emerges as a distinctive personality, each character meticulously handcrafted with a pointed pen. These letters aren't mere symbols; they roar with the passion and personality of a master calligrapher's ink, leaving an indelible mark on your creative endeavors. "Crispo" is more than a font; it's a genuine work of art inspired by the rich traditions of calligraphy. It serves as the embodiment of the pointed pen's craftsmanship, where each curve and ligature is shaped with meticulous care, inviting you to delve into the world of true artistic expression. The elegance within "Crispo" extends beyond appearances; it resides in the essence of each stroke. Every character, ligature, and swash is a testament to the beauty of pointed pen calligraphy, culminating in a font that stands unparalleled in its grace and sophistication. Whether you're crafting wedding invitations, establishing brand identities, or embarking on any project that craves distinction, "Crispo" unlocks the door to limitless creative expression. Courtesy of pointed pen calligraphy's mastery, this font becomes your brush, painting a story of elegance and distinction. "Crispo" is not just a font; it's a journey through the soul of pointed pen calligraphy. It encapsulates the brushstroke of a skilled hand, the dance of ink on paper, and the unwavering passion behind every character. Step into the enchanting world of "Crispo" and infuse your designs with the dynamic elegance and strong personality of pointed pen calligraphy.

A creative context 2003. Fontsmith was sharing a small, cold, whitewashed studio space in Northburgh Street, Clerkenwell. But things were on the up following prestigious custom type commissions for The Post Office and E4. “Slab serifs were on the brink of another revival, we could feel it,” says Jason Smith. “All we wanted to do was have a play with these slabs, go as far as we could within what was acceptable and readable.” “It wasn’t initially clear what was happening,” recalls Phil Garnham. “We were becoming very influenced by our surroundings, outside the studio space. We absorbed the essence and the designer grime of where we were.” Process Jason began by drawing stems on-screen. “The key aspect of the font is the upward bend of the leading shoulder serif, the way it kind of ramps up and then plummets back down the stem. “The regular and light characters are quite narrow – great for text but the bold is quite wide and chunky – better for headlines. I think ‘y’ is quite different for a slab design. We call it the Fontsmith ‘y’.” Promotion Fontsmith were determined to get FS Clerkenwell noticed. To launch the font, Ian Whalley, a designer friend of Fontsmith, captured words heard on the streets of Clerkenwell, set them in the new font and crafted a small book of typographic conversations. It was a first for Fontsmith. “I think that’s part of why this font has been so successful,” says Phil. “It really does embody the spirit of the area, as a special place for design, arts and crafts. And designers love that.” Contemporary twist FS Clerkenwell, based on influences in and around this part of London with a rich tradition of printing and design, mixes tradition with creation. Old-fashioned values meet new-school trends. Its quirky, contemporary character lends an edge to headlines, logotypes and any large-size text.

With designs drawn specifically for comfortable reading in everything from on-screen digital content to print in periodicals and books, Mundo Serif is ready to take on just about any project. Carl Crossgrove drew the suite of typefaces to complement his Mundo Sans family’s classic humanistic design traits – and added a subtle modern influence. Restrained stroke modulation, generous counters, commanding x-height and tall ascenders ensure that content set in Mundo Serif is both legible and easy on the eyes. While primarily designed for text copy in print and on screen, Mundo Serif becomes a powerful display type tool in the lightest and boldest weights. Headlines, navigational links and banners are naturals for this versatile collection of typefaces. Mundo Serif is a large family. Nine weights, each with an italic companion, enable precise typographic tuning. Captions, subheads, pull quotes and long-form copy can be melded to create a welcoming page of modulated text. For best results in digital environments, skipping a weight – or even two – ensures hierarchical clarity. Crossgrove did extensive testing of Mundo Serif to ensure the best possible on-screen readability. To further guarantee optimal digital imaging of the family, he gave the design generous inter-character spacing and slightly expanded intricate characters like the lowercase a and g. If the goal is diversified or multi-platform branding, look no further than Mundo Sans. The two designs harmonize with each other perfectly in weight, typographic color and proportion. Both designs benefit from large international character set that includes support for most Central European and many Eastern European languages. For a stronger contrast, pair Mundo Serif with virtually any sans serif grotesque design. Crossgrove has designed a variety of typefaces ranging from the futuristic and organic Biome™ to the warm, clean lines of the Mundo Sans. His work for Monotype also often takes Crossgrove into the realm of custom fronts for branding and non-Latin scripts.

Buffet Script is based on fantastic calligraphy by Alf Becker, arguably the greatest American sign lettering artist of all time. The Alf Becker series of nameless alphabets published by Sign of the Times magazine in 1941 has attracted letter digitizers for a few years now, so it’s really a wonder that a few of those alphabets are still in the non-digital realm. It is understandable, though, that the basis for Buffet Script was not digitally attempted until now. The page presenting this alphabet shows a jungle of letters running into each others and swashes intertwining. The massive amount of work involved in digitizing such lettering, where scanning is nowhere near being an option, is quite obvious at a mere glance. If anyone was going to commit this particular alphabet to a digital form, it would have to be redrawn stroke by stroke and curve by curve on the computer. And don't we love a challenge! But seriously, the challenge was not the main attraction. In a way, the Becker approach to lettering is so far from digital that the imagination is almost forced to work out possibilities and letter combinations to solve problems presented by the scant showings in that magazine. After a few imaginative visualizations, the digital potential becomes clear in the mind, and the eye and hand follow. The result with Whomp (another Alf Becker-inspired work) was an enormous font with a lot of alternates and ligatures. With Buffet Script the imaginative process was no different, but the result particularly shines here, because this is some of the most fascinating flowing calligraphy ever seen. Calligraphy is where the accountability of all the little extra touches, such as alternates and swashes and ligatures, is raised to a higher level than in most other type categories. Buffet Script’s OpenType programming contains discretionary ligatures, stylistic and contextual alternates, interacting with each other to allow the composition of just the right word or sentence. This font is best used where lush elegance is one of the design’s requirements.

Introducing La storia - a fine tip signature font. Beautiful monoline signature, looking so classy and natural. There are 2 version, - Regular - Bold La storia is perfect for branding, photography, invitations, quotes, watermarks, advertisements, product designs, labels, and more that needs a natural sign feel. Includes number-punctuations and multilingual support. I created 89 ligatures to keep this font looks natural. at ct dt et ft gt ht it jt kt lt mt nt ot qt rt st tt ut vt wt xt zt an in un en on ar ir ur er or aa ant int unt ent ont att itt utt ett ott ii ee oo uu ff rr ss xx zz ll adl idl udl edl odl ald ild uld eld old art irt urt ert ort fl fh fb jl Fr Gr Hr Ir Kr Mr Nr Or Pr Tr Ur Vr Wr Dr space-r Titling and Ending Swash - Quick Access Add underscore 2x before or after a lowercase (you can see this on the presentation posters). For example a_ _ or _ _a Swash Lines make this font complete. Add underscore 2x before numbers from 1 to 9, you'll get 9 variations of swash line (as shown in the posters). For example _ _1 Thank You so Much!

Bruney is a Classy and Unique font for brand and logo design. Based on our experience as a graphic designer who works for a lot of companies, we often are requested to design a logo in a unique style but with an elegant shape. So, we try to brainstorming and create this font to make the idea is going out. This is perfect for BRANDING and LOGO DESIGN. You will get classy, elegant, and certainly unique logos with this font. To make it look more classy and unique, here we prepared some ligatures: KA KI KU KE KO LA LI LU LE LO RA RI RU RE RO EB EH EP ER EK HB HP HK HR TB TD TE TF TP TR TT UB UD UF UK UM UN UP UR VA WA AB AD AR AV AW CK OO OC CA CY EA EB ED ES GB GH GK GB GR HB HP HR HK KB KD KS EY FY LS ME MU MB MD MF MH MK MP MR NN SO RS SB SD SE SF SP SY SR ST SS LL UN CS Bruney is also included full set of: uppercase letters multilingual symbols numerals punctuation Wish you enjoy our font. :)

Heller Sans JNL is based on the main letterforms of an experimental alphabet designed by Steven Heller; noted author of over 170 books on design and visual culture. Some modifications were made in turning his design into a digital font. In his own words, here is the background to this typeface: “I recently recovered this from the junk heap. It is a yellowing photostat of my first and only typeface design (1969-70). Total folly! At the time I was smitten by Art Moderne lettering. I called it “Klaus Boobala Bold” because I liked the K and B. I’ve lost the letters S through Z, which were made. The letters were drawn with compass, Techno pen (that frequently clogged). as well as a triangle and T-square. The inline and outline made no real logical sense. I based the design, in part, on Kabel, Avant Garde and it was a product of whatever I could accomplish with those tools. The caps-only alphabet was photographed and produced as a film negative that was cut in foot-long strips and spliced to fit on a Typositor reel. Sadly, the negatives made for the font were too brittle and the splice snapped apart in the Typositor. I worked on it for well over a month and used the face only once. I realized with this attempt, like so many other times I attempted different challenges, that type design — indeed mechanical drawing — was not my strong suit.” Heller Sans JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Night Light is a specially created collection of seven neon inspired fonts giving designers the power to replicate traditionally hand-made lettering from the comfort of their own computer. Choose from the selection of script, sans serif and outline fonts to set your text. Then apply our custom graphic styles for a life giving jolt of electricity! The appeal of neon lettering lives in its power to display a message in a functional, eye-catching and timelessly cool way. How many times have you stopped in the street to admire a bar sign or shop front blazing with neon colors? It's aesthetic works equally well for a Hot Dog stand or high-end fashion brand, providing a tried and tested technique for grabbing customer attention. I've designed these fonts to make the power of neon accessible to all, investing time to research real neon signs and how they are made, paying attention to their human imperfections and inherent limitations (all of which makes them). This research has been distilled into these essential styles; Script, Outline, Inline, Square and Compressed. These seven core fonts give designers a new opportunity to take advantage of realistic neon lettering in their print and online projects, perfect for music promotion, film titles, YouTube tutorials and gig posters. Ready to be moulded to any requirement, the power of neon is in your hands. Neon Graphic Style Presets Available Here The link above provides access to the graphic styles seen in the visuals with support for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects. Simply download and follow the instructions provided.

An authentic script from the tip of the ball point pen. This hasn’t been seen yet: A typeface which truly looks as if it were handwritten. Calligraphy is, actually, the art of fine writing. And actually, written scripts as typeface for the computer are 100% nonsense. And yet, an obvious thought: Create a typeface which truly derives from everyday handwriting. And since we, if we write at all, utilize practically only a ball point pen anymore, then a modern cursive writing form must look like just that. As a counterpart to the artistic ”handwritings“ which have long been available as typeface, the thought of digitalizing a truly ”ugly“ handwriting is appealing. After all, time and again there is the need for a text to look ”handwritten“. Biró Script is written freehand with a ball point pen. Finally a truly individual script! Biró Script includes more than 300 authentic ligatures in addition to the customary alphabet. By the way, the most convincing effect is obtained with a font size of about 18 to 22 points, at which the thickness of the stroke is now about the same as that of a real ball point pen. There's a difference between the anglo-american forms of some characters (esp. the numerals 1 and 7, but also capitals I and F) and how it's written in the rest of the world. For those of us who aren’t used to the world-wide usual forms, Biró Script includes a US version with the appropriate characters.

Introducing the September Spirit Font Duo! A hyper-realistic handwritten font duo, which utilises a large range of ligatures (uniquely designed letter combinations), and alternate characters—all taken from real handwritten words—to achieve an incredibly natural handwritten style. As well as the fast-flowing handwriting font, September Spirit also include an all-caps version, great for combining with the regular font for adding emphasis to words, or even as it's own standalone font. Not only that, a bonus font of extra circles, underlines & arrows is included to add even more emphasis and an additional hand-crafted aesthetic. The September Spirit family includes; September Spirit • A fast-flowing handwritten font containing upper & lowercase characters, numerals, and a large range of punctuation. September Spirit Alt • This is a second version of September Spirit, with a completely new set of both upper and lowercase characters. If you wanted to avoid letters looking the same each time to recreate a custom-made style, or try a different word shape, simply switch to this font for an additional layout option. September Spirit All Caps • An uppercase-only font, perfect for pairing with the regular September Spirit fonts to add emphasis to words or phrases. September Spirit Extras • A bonus font containing 19 hand-drawn arrows, cirlces and underlines. Ideal for adding to your September Spirit text for extra emphasis. Language Support • September Spirit supports the following languages; English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Indonesian, Malay, Hungarian, Polish, Croatian, Turkish, Romanian, Czech, Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovak, Slovenian

A playful caricature of a midcentury grotesque, Guzzo is a fresh addition to the Monotype Library. Somewhat eccentric and full of surprises, its unmistakable quirk can be found on closer inspection, stemming from details proudly borrowed from brush lettering and calligraphy. The wide range of weights and style can take you through any design space, from the condensed weights squeezing in larger headlines or dense blocks of text with the condensed range, to experimenting with small point sizes, labels or packaging with the extended cut. However, Guzzo’s real charm is probably best expressed through its wonderfully playful shapes, its unusual 'laid-back italics' feature cursive forms and a backslant. The different stylistic sets allow you to decide what you make of Guzzo, with several sets of alternate glyphs steering it in any direction you want. Guzzo is a happy-go-lucky character, and has a warm, humble and painterly quality that - at a glance - may be unrecognizable as a typeface. It can almost pass for hand-lettering. Guzzo pairs exceptionally well with scripts and slab typefaces, and feels most at home in situ with toys, packaging, menus, broadcasting, cartoons and merchandising! Guzzo encourages you to turn up the silliness and is for designers who want to emulate hand-painted and casual motifs. Taking its name from American artist Jeremy Pinc, aka the painter Guzzo Pinc, the typeface channels the quirky, funny and poignant qualities of his paintings - with wacky characters, loosely painted geometric forms and bright colors. For this mid century, authentic, nostalgic typeface - the story is really what you make of it.

Although Andi AW. Masry designed his Coomeec typeface with one eye on comic books, this is more than just another cartoon font. Even in our short profile of the font below, we're sure you'll find enough to be surprised by the calligraphic aesthetic and the wide range of potential uses of Coomeec. Typography had been one of Andy AW. Masry's hobbies before he turned professional in 2008 and formed his own agency in Jakarta in Indonesia. The former construction engineer had already spent many hours of his leisure time in following his pastimes of designing, photography and Latin typography. Fascinated by the close interaction between text and image in comic books, one of his first projects was the development of his font Coomeec™. The condensed letters of Coomeec seem to have more in common with a calligraphic brush typeface than a more conventional cartoon font. With the characteristic line forms of a brush font, the not unextensive variations in line thickness and numerous small embellishments to the glyphs, Coomeec can be used to enhance your projects with animated effects. You can achieve this not just in the larger font sizes; the font is also very legible in small sizes thanks to its large x-height. There are certain unusual letter forms, such as that of lowercase 'g', 's' and uppercase 'Y', that provide Coomeec with a touch of the exotic. As Coomeec has numerous character alternatives, you can use it not only to create diverse designs but also to ring the changes with the character of the text itself. There are variants for most lowercase letters, some of which exhibit only minor differences, such as the lack of a curlicue on the 'b', a modified downstroke on the 'h' and an elongated base for the 'k'. In the case of other letters, such as the 'q' and the 'r', there are significant disparities between variants. The uppercase characters are also available in a lively swash style with significantly extended terminals. Among the range of characters of Coomeec are oldstyle and lining figures designed for proportional and tabular setting. All alternatives are available in the form of the corresponding OpenType versions. Coomeec comes in two weights; Regular and Bold, each with its Italic version. The form of the slightly inclined Italic characters is identical to that of their upright counterparts with the exception of the lowercase 'f', which has an ascender in its Italic version. As an OpenType Pro font, the glyphs available for Coomeec ensure that it can be used to set not only western European but also central European texts. Coomeec is not just at home when used to set headlines. The excellent legibility of this individual and vibrant typeface means that it's also ideal for setting shorter texts. The various alternative letters provide the designer with the opportunity to vary the textual appearance, and to choose between creating a more formal or more light-hearted effect. Coomeec is not only available in an OpenType version but is also obtainable as a web font, so that you can employ its exotic features to good effect when creating internet pages.

All handmade – the versatile Sofa Serif Family. Sofa Serif’s handcrafted character is friendly and eye-catching. Stylish features and alternates add personality and let you create unique logos and stunning headlines. The family boasts 5 weights from Monoline to Fat, each containing more than 1000 glyphs, plenty of OpenType features and full ISO latin 1 & 2 language support. In addition, extra shadow-, 3D-, inline- and hatched-styles round out the package. 7 font-styles are especially created to be used as layers/layered styles. Sofa Serif has a sister: view Sofa Sans here. · High contrast is one of Sofa Serif’s key features. To maintain a wide range of use, choose from two optical sizes: Standard and Display with a maximum of contrast especially in the heavier weights. This makes it a flexible solution for any display and editorial need. · Sofa Serif includes a variety of OpenType alternates which add uniqueness to your work. OpenType features include Swashes- and Titling-Alternates, Beginnings and Endings and a number of alternates within various Stylistic-Sets for even more variation. OpenType Swashes- and Titling-Alternates are smart features which automatically adjust all swashy letters to the available white space. Switch one on and let Sofa Serif do the rest. · Please download the Sofa Serif Font Guide for all details. · Sofa Serif is an organic, rough and decorative hand-drawn/handmade all-caps display-family for packaging, posters, book-covers, wedding-, kids-, food- and logo-design and will best stand out in huge grades. Its handmade origin is subtle yet visible. · Have fun! · View other fonts from Georg Herold-Wildfellner: Sofa Serif | Sofa Sans | Mila Script Pro | Pinto | Supernett | Mr Moustache | Aeronaut | Ivory | Weingut · Language Report for Sofa Serif / 203 languages supported: Abenaki, Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Amis, Anuta, Aragonese, Aranese, Aromanian, Arrernte, Arvanitic, Asturian, Atayal, Aymara, Bashkir, Basque, Bemba, Bikol, Bislama, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Chickasaw, Cimbrian, Cofan, Corsican, Creek, Crimean Tatar, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Delaware, Dholuo, Drehu, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, Folkspraak, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz, Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Gooniyandi, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean, Gwichin, Haitian Creole, Han, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hopi, Hotcak, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ido, Ilocano, Indonesian, Interglossa, Interlingua, Irish, Istroromanian, Italian, Jamaican, Javanese, Jerriais, Kala Lagaw Ya, Kapampangan, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak, Karelian, Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kiribati, Kirundi, Klingon, Ladin, Latin, Latino Sine, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lojban, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Manx, Maori, Marquesan, Meglenoromanian, Meriam Mir, Mohawk, Moldovan, Montagnais, Montenegrin, Murrinhpatha, Nagamese Creole, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Ngiyambaa, Niuean, Noongar, Norwegian, Novial, Occidental, Occitan, Oshiwambo, Ossetian, Palauan, Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Potawatomi, Qeqchi, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Rotokas, Sami Inari, Sami Lule, Sami Nothern, Sami Southern, Samoan, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Seri, Seychellois, Shawnee, Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Slovio, Somali, Sorbian Lower, Sorbian Upper, Sotho Northern, Sotho Southern, Spanish, Sranan, Sundanese, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tok Pisin, Tokelauan, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen, Tuvaluan, Tzotzil, Uzbek, Venetian, Vepsian, Volapuk, Voro, Wallisian, Walloon, Waraywaray, Warlpiri, Wayuu, Welsh, Wikmungkan, Wiradjuri, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Yindjibarndi, Zapotec, Zulu, Zuni

Out of a lifelong inner struggle, Philip Bouwsma unleashes a masterpiece that reconciles classic calligraphy with type in a way never before attempted. Maestro takes its cue from the Italian chancery cursive of the early sixteenth century. By this time type ruled the publishing world, but official court documents were still presented in calligraphy, in a new formal style of the high Renaissance that was integrated with Roman letters and matched the refined order of type. The copybooks of Arrighi and others, printed from engraved wood blocks, spread the Italian cancellaresca across Europe, but the medium was too clumsy and the size too small to show what was really happening in the stroke. Arrighi and others also made metal fonts that pushed type in the direction of calligraphy, but again the medium did not support the superb artistry of these masters or sustain the vitality in their work. As the elegant sensitive moving stroke of the broad pen was reduced to a static outline, the human quality, the variety and the excitement of a living act were lost. Because the high level of skill could not be reproduced, the broad pen was largely replaced by the pointed tool. The modern italic handwriting revival is based on a simplified model and does not approach the level of this formal calligraphy with its relationship to the Roman forms. Maestro is the font that Arrighi and his colleagues would have made if they had had digital technology. Like the calligraphic system of the papal chancery on which it is modelled, it was not drawn as a single finished alphabet, but evolved from a confluence of script and Roman; the script is formalized by the Roman to stand proudly in a world of type. Maestro came together on screen over the course of several years, through many versions ranging widely in style, formality, width, slant, weight and other parameters. On one end of the spectrum, looking back to tradition it embodies the formal harmony of the Roman capitals and the minuscule which became the lower case. On the other it is a flowing script letter drawing on the spirit of later pointed pen and engravers scripts. As its original designers intended, it works with simple Roman capitals and serifs or swash capitals and baroque flourishes. The broad pen supplies weight and substance to the stroke which carries energy through tension in balanced s-curves. Above all it is meant to convey the life and motion of formal calligraphy as a worthy counterbalance to the stolid gravity of metal type. The Maestro family consists of forty fonts distributed over two weights. The OpenType version compresses the family considerably down to two fonts, regular and bold, each containing the entire character set of twenty fonts, for a total of more than 3350 characters per font. These include a wide variety of stylistic alternates, ligatures, beginning and ending letters, flourishes, borders, rules, and other extras. The Pro version also includes extended linguistic support for Latin-based scripts (Western, Central and Eastern European, Baltic, Turkish, Welsh/Celtic, Maltese) as well as Greek. For more thoughts on Maestro, its background and character sets, please read the PDF accompanying the family.

Iza W and Intellecta Design are proud to announce Invitation Script, a modern and clean revival of the classic work of the Portuguese master penman Manuel de Andrade de Figueiredo, whose work can be seen in “Nova Escola para aprender a ler, escrever, e contar (...)'' (1722). Invitation Script is the third script superfamily published by Intellecta Design, after Penabico and Van den Velde Script. Invitation Script has original letters designed by Iza W. Creative direction and core programming were provided by Paulo W. Chyrllene K assisted with some work on unusual and archaic styles, resulting in a special font - Invitation Script Archaic (soon available). Invitation started out from Andrade’s script style and evolved into a voluptuous script font family. The result is a typeface ideal for beautiful headings, signatures, art work typography, titles and short pieces of hand-lettered text. Invitation family includes two multi-table Opentype fonts, three supplementary fonts for ornaments and fleurons, and the Archaic font with some of the Andrade’s original characters. Embedded in the regular fonts are additional sets of letters. Over 40 variations are available for certain letters via the Special Sets Opentype table. The two regular versions of Invitation Script contains the following: (i) An extensive set of ligatures providing letterform variations that make eye-popping designs or simulate real handwriting. These are accessible via contextual alternates and other open-type features. (ii) Many stylistic alternates for each letter (upper and lowercase, accessed via the glyph palette, encoded in the ranges of the Special Set Opentype feature). Since there are over 1100 glyphs in each font, we suggest using the glyph palette. (iii) A set of ornaments and fleurons accessed with the glyph palette or using the Ornaments feature. Additional ornaments can be found in the two Invitation Script Ornaments fonts. (iv) Initial and final letters with artistic variations accessible using the initial and final form open-type features. (v) Major kerning work: over 6000 kerning pairs, hand-set to avoid collisions and to create intricate combinations of letters, using swashes and other resources. These powerful features are all accessible in InDesign, Illustrator, QuarkXpress and similar software. We recommend exploring the magic of this font using the glyph palette. Our sample illustrations and PDF brochures showcase the power and pizzazz of this calligraphic script. Let your imagination go wild and use Invitation Script in ways that Andrade could not have foreseen. In non-OpenType-savvy applications, Invitation Script is still an exceptionally beautiful calligraphic typeface that stands up to the competition. The regular fonts contains the complete Latin alphabet, including Central European, Vietnamese, Baltic and Turkish, with a full set of diacritics and punctuation marks. --- 1 FIGUEIREDO, Manuel de Andrade de, 1670-1735 Nova Escola para aprender a ler, escrever, e contar. Offerecida á Augusta Magestade do Senhor Dom Joaõ V. Rey de Portugal. Primeira parte / por Manoel de Andrade de Figueiredo, Mestre desta Arte nas cidades de Lisboa Occidental, e Oriental. - Lisboa Occidental: na Officina de Bernardo da Costa de Carvalho, Impressor do Serenissimo Senhor Infante, 1722. - [18], 156 p., 44 f. grav. a buril : il., ; 2º (31 cm)Engraved royal coat of arms supported by angels over the city of Lisbon, engraved portrait of the author (both of the foregoing by Bernard Picart), (12)ff., 156pp., engraved calligraphic section title, 44 engraved plates. Wood-engraved culs-de-lampe and lettrines. Sm. folio. “Andrade de Figueiredo was born in Espirito Santo, where his father was Governor of the ‘Capitania.’ The fine portrait is dated 1721 and is showing Figueiredo at the age of 48. He was an eminent calligrapher and a creator of the Portuguese handwriting until the reign of Don José I (ca. 1755). His work follows the style of the great Italian masters in its use of clubbed ascenders and descenders, and of Diaz Morante, the famous Spanish writing master, in its very elaborate show of command of hand. By his contemporaries, he was known as the ‘Morante portugues’” (Ekström). “Ce livre est un manuel, composé de quatre parties, destiné à apprendre à lire, à écrire, à conter ainsi que l’orthographe. Les planches comportent des examples d’écritures, d’alphabets et de textes ornés de remarquables traits de plume exécutés d’une main sûre et enjouée” (Jammes).

Pirouette is based on a logo that Japanese designer Ryuichi Tateno created for a packaging design project in 1999 (a shampoo container!). Tateno's logo experimented with complex, overlapped swash letterforms. He continued to develop these outside of the initial packaging project, until they took on a life of their own. Eventually, Tateno designed a full typeface out of the logo, Pirouette, which was the first place display face in Linotype's 2003 International Type Design Contest. The Pirouette typeface contains six different fonts. The basic font is Pirouette Regular. This is an engraver's italic lowercase paired with elaborate swash capitals. The swash capitals have two visual elements in their forms: thick strokes and thin strokes. Pirouette Text includes the same lowercase as Pirouette Regular, but the uppercase letters are much shorter and simpler. This "text" font can be used to set longer amounts of copy. Pirouette Alternate contains different lowercase glyphs and additional ligatures, which can be used as substitutes for the lowercase forms in the Pirouette Regular and Pirouette Text fonts. Pirouette Ornaments contains swashes and other knick-knacks that can either be added onto the end of a letter, or used as separate decorative elements or swooshes (accolades) on a page. Pirouette Separate 1 and Pirouette Separate 2 are two fonts that can be layered over top of one another in software applications that support layering (e.g., most Adobe and Macromedia applications, as well as QuarkXPress). Pirouette Separate 1 contains the thick stroke elements from Pirouette Regular's uppercase letters, as well as the same lowercase glyphs that can be found in Pirouette Regular and Pirouette Text. Pirouette Separate 2 contains only the thin stroke elements from Pirouette Regular's uppercase letters. By layering Pirouette Separate 1 and Pirouette Separate 2 over one another, you can give the uppercase letter's thick and thin stroke elements different colors and create unique, more calligraphic designs. The Pirouette family, Tanteno's first commercial typeface, was greatly influenced by the calligraphic and typographic work of the master German designer, Prof. Hermann Zapf, especially his Zapfino typeface.

Layered font set 3D Bulb lamp Bulblamp is a 12 component font system that can be layered in different ways to create endless classic titling effects used commonly in signage by skilled sign painters and sign makers and any who interested in simple and flexible ways to make graphic design. Examples of how to use this you can see on the images. Moreover, You can start fast in Figma, Illustrator and Photoshop with predefined downloadable package. ! Download free predesigned Figma, Illustrator and Photoshop sets for this fonts here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=17ogdSIjPuLA5-CUaAO1TlqJGbRPWy5iA&authuser=popov_av%40koriphey.ru&usp=drive_fs Each file is named according to its purpose. The number indicates the recommended order of the layers. 1 below, 5 on top. 1 means you should place it first. Of course, you do not have to use all the fonts, and vice versa - you can repeatedly use the same font style with different styles. What is Layered font? In fact, these are common fonts located in a stack strictly one above the other. This allows quickly create unique text effects using ordinary fonts. Where can you use this? These fonts can be used in any program that allows you to stack fonts as objects strictly one above the other, however it is recommended to work in professional programs such as Illustrator, Photoshop, Figma and so on ... How to use this font set quickly? For quick use, I recommend using ready designs for Figma, Photoshop or Illustrator. Download fonts and Install all fonts. Go to the link https://drive.google.com/open?id=17ogdSIjPuLA5-CUaAO1TlqJGbRPWy5iA&authuser=popov_av%40koriphey.ru&usp=drive_fs which has contained pre-made solutions for this font applicable in Figma, Photoshop or Illustrator and download presets. Follow the recommendations on the pages. Basically, you will need to replace the words in the template with your own, then edit colors and transfer the result to your design. In that’s all, it's easy.

The Englishman William Caslon punchcut many roman, italic, and non-Latin typefaces from 1720 until his death in 1766. At that time most types were being imported to England from Dutch sources, so Caslon was influenced by the characteristics of Dutch types. He did, however, achieve a level of craft that enabled his recognition as the first great English punchcutter. Caslon's roman became so popular that it was known as the script of kings, although on the other side of the political spectrum (and the ocean), the Americans used it for their Declaration of Independence in 1776. The original Caslon specimen sheets and punches have long provided a fertile source for the range of types bearing his name. Identifying characteristics of most Caslons include a cap A with a scooped-out apex; a cap C with two full serifs; and in the italic, a swashed lowercase v and w. Caslon's types have achieved legendary status among printers and typographers, and are considered safe, solid, and dependable. Caslon Antique was designed by Berne Nadall and brought out by the American type foundry Barnhart Bros & Spindler in 1896 to 1898. It doesn't bear any resemblance to Caslon, but has the quaint crudeness of what people imagine type looked like in the eighteenth century. Use Caslon Antique for that old-timey" effect in graphic designs. It looks best in large sizes for titles or initials. Caslon Black was designed by David Farey in the 1990s, and consists of one relatively narrow and very black weight. It is intended exclusively for titles or headlines. Caslon Black has a hint of the original Caslon lurking in the shadows of its shapes, but has taken on its own robust expression. Caslon Graphique was designed by Leslie Usherwood in the 1980s. The basic forms are close to the original Caslon, but this version has wide heavy forms with very high contrast between the hairline thin strokes and the fat main strokes. This precisely drawn and stylized Caslon has verve; it's ideal for headlines or initials in large sizes."

Thalweg serif typeface is a project focused on the digitalization and development of the Thalweg font. The font was originally designed in 1993 by the Bulgarian artist Ivan Kyosev. In 2018 Ani Dimitrova began the revival of the Thalweg font and converted the drawings into a digital form. The existing set of characters required some necessary expansions such as the development of capital letters, alternative symbols and many other functions. Furthermore, some additional weights were developed which aimed to make the font more complete. Thalweg was completed in 2020 with 16 weights ranging from Thin to Black with extra drawn italics and small caps versions, each style containing more than 1100 glyphs. The font comes with an extended coverage of the Latin, Cyrillic and Greek Scripts. All of the weights are specifically equipped for complex, professional typography with Open Type Features. These features include: Small Caps, Ligatures, Discretionary Ligatures, Superscript, Subscript, Tabular Figures, Old-Style Figures, Circled Figures, Arrows, Matching currency symbols and fraction. The Thalweg serif typeface is a perfect choice for body text, branding design, web design, editorial design and more. Ivan Kyosev (1933-1994) was one of Bulgaria’s most famous artists whose work influenced several generations of bulgarian designers. He was born on February 5, 1933, in the city of Burgas. In 1957 he graduated in illustration at the National Academy of Art in Sofia led by Prof. Iliya Beshkov. Mr. Kyosev was a member in the management of the “Graphics and Illustration” section in the Union of Bulgarian Artists, member of the UBA board, artist in the publishing houses “September” and “World”. Together with Boris Angelushev, he worked on the layout design of the “Literary Front” newspaper. Furthermore, in 1963 - 1964 he was the main artist in the publishing house “Prosveta”. Ivan Kyosev excelled in the field of illustration, book design and library layouts in various genres (classics, children's literature, poetry, journalism, memoirs, etc.). He is also the author of many fonts.

Lyra is an Italian Renaissance script that might have developed if metal type had not broken the evolution of broad pen calligraphy. It lies in the area between the humanist bookhand and the chancery cursive, combining the fullness and articulation of the Roman letters with a moderate italic slant and condensation. A steep pen-angle allows use of a broader pen relative to the x-height, giving the letters more contrast with light verticals and heavy curves. Lyra embodies the Renaissance spirit of refining technical advances of the late middle ages with reintroduction of ancient classical principles. Based on the moving penstroke with constantly changing pen-angle, it brings the vitality of handwriting to the ordered legibility of type. Lyra is a formal italic, too slow for copying books. By eliminating the element of speed, digital technology opens up a new level of calligraphy, bringing it into the sphere of typography as would naturally have happened if metalworkers had not controlled the process. If classical Western traditions are respected, digital calligraphy has the potential to recapture the work of the past and restart its stalled evolution. There is of course no substitute for the charm of actual writing, with each letter made for its space; but the tradeoff is for the formal harmony of classical calligraphy as every curve resonates in tune with every other. This three-weight font family marks Philip Bouwsma's much-requested return from a three year hiatus. It also reminds us of his solid vision in regards to how calligraphy, typography and technology can interact to produce digital beauty and vesatility. Each of the three Lyra fonts contains almost three character sets in a single file. Aside from the usual wealth of alternates normally built into Bouwsma's work, Lyra offers two unique features for the user who appreciates the availability of handy solutions to subtle design space issues: At least three (and as many as six) length variations on ascending and descending forms, and 65 snap-on swashes which can be attached to either end of the majuscules or minuscules. The series also offers 24 dividers and ornaments built into each weight, and a stand-alone font containing 90 stars/snowflakes/flowers, symmetric contstructs for building frames or separators, masking, watermarking, or just good old psychedelia.

Some words from the designer, Frantisek Storm... Designed by Josef Tyfa in 1959, digitalized by F. Storm in 1996. This Roman and Italic are well-known perhaps to all Czech graphic artists and typographers ever since their release. Although this type face in some details is under the sway of the period of its rise, its importance is timeless, in contradistinction to other famous types dating from the turn of the sixties which were found, after some time, to be trite. The italics live their own life, only their upper-case letters have the same expression as the basic design. Thin and fragile, they work excellently, emphasizing certain parts in the text by their perfect contrast of expression. When seen from a distance they are a little bit darker than the Roman face. Tyfa Roman was released in 1960 by Grafotechna in Prague for hot setting. Later on, Berthold produced letter matrices - "rulers" for Staromat devices, used for manual photosetting of display alphabets. In the eighties it was available on dry transfers of Transotype and today it is offered also by ITC. The meticulously executed designs of the individual letters in the 288 point size are arranged into a set of signs on a cardboard of about B2 in size. The yellowed paper reveals retouches by white paint on the ink. Blue lines mark the baseline, the capital line, the ascender and descender lines and the central verticals of the letters. With regard to the format of the flat scanner, the designs had to be reduced, with the use of a camera, to the format A4, i.e. to the upper-case letter height of about 30 mm. These were then scanned in 600 dpi resolution and read as a bitmap template to the FontStudio programme. The newly created bold type faces derive from Tyfa's designs of the letters "a", "n", "p", the darkness of which was increased further, approximately by 3%, to enhance their emphasizing function. The text designs have hairstrokes thickened by one third; the contrast between thin and thick strokes has been modified, in order to improve legibility, in sizes under 12 points. We have used electronic interpolation to produce the semi-bold designs. Josef Tyfa himself recommends to choose a somewhat darker design than the basic one for printing of books.

Who haven't heard the phrase that ‘any past time was better’?. Although I sometimes find this phrase a little too pessimistic (because I try to think that the best is yet to come), it may be true regarding my passion, typography. I'm too young (29) unfortunately, and this means I did not have the pleasure of being contemporary with maybe the man who has influenced my work the most (1). The man that showed that letters are more than just letters to be read. Herb Lubalin (1918-1981), also called sometimes as ‘the rule basher’ (2), smashed the taboos and sacred rules of type design and gave it personality. He rejected the functionalist philosophy of europeans in favor of an eclectic and exuberant style. To him, letters were not merely vessels of form, they were objects of meaning. (3). Nowadays, when looking at his portfolio, who dares to deny that the term ‘typography’ and ‘beauty’ may go hand-in-hand without any problem? Ed Benguiat, one of Herb’s partners, still likes making jokes with the phrase “screw legibility, type should be beautiful” and what I understand of this is not to forget the rules, but to know and break them carefully. In an era of pure eclecticism, we, the lovers of flourishes and swashes, can't do nothing but admire all the legacy that Lubalin, this wonderful type-guru, left. My font Lubaline read as “the line of Lubalin” is my humble tribute to him. Those who know his work, may see the influences easily like in his ‘Beards’ (1976) and ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965) posters; the art-deco forms in many of his amazing logos and practically in all his creations where letters seem to be alive just like you and me. I really hope that the future finds me still learning more and more about type-design and letterforms, and like him, always willing to make innovations in my field: Because letters are not just letters to be read. NOTES (1) These are some of my fonts in which some of Lubalin’s influences can be seen (in order of creation): Reina, Aire, Erotica, String, Beatle, Heroe, Selfie, Model, Seventies, and many others that are still in progress. (2) (3) Steven Heller. Herb Lubalin: Rule Basher. U&lc (1998) http://www.printmag.com/imprint/my-favorite-lubalin/

Monotype Bembo is generally regarded as one of the most handsome revivals of Aldus Manutius' 15th century roman type, but the original had no italic counterpart. The story is told that Stanley Morison commissioned Alfred Fairbank, a renowned calligrapher, to create the first italic for Bembo, which was released as metal fonts in 1929. Alfred Fairbank, however, claimed that he drew the design as an independent project and then sold his drawings to Monotype. According to him, the statement has been made that I was asked to design an italic for the Bembo roman. This is not so. Had the request been made, the italic type produced would have been different." Whichever version you believe, it was obvious that Fairbank's design - while undeniably beautiful - was not harmonious with Bembo roman. A second, more conventional italic was eventually drawn and added to the Bembo family. Fairbank's first design, which was based on the work of sixteenth-century writing master Ludovico degli Arrighi, managed to have a modest life of its own as a standalone font of metal type. It never made the leap into phototype fonts, however, and the face could have been lost, were it not for Robin Nicholas, Monotype Imaging's Head of Typography in the United Kingdom, and Carl Crossgrove, a senior designer for Monotype Imaging in the US. Nicholas and Crossgrove used the original drawings for Fairbank as the starting point for a new digital design, but this was only the beginning. They improved spacing, added subtle kerning and optimized the design for digital imaging. In addition, Nicholas created an alternative set of lowercase letters, fancy and swash capitals and enough alternate characters to personalize virtually any design project. By the time his work was complete, Nicholas and Crossgrove had created a small type family that included Fairbank, a revived version of the earlier metal font, and Fairbank Chancery, a more calligraphic rendition of the design. An additional suite of ornate caps, elegant ligatures, and beginning and ending letters accompanies both fonts, as does a full complement of lowercase swash characters. Now, instead of a failed Bembo italic, Fairbank emerges in its true glory: a sumptuous, elegant design that will lend a note of grace to holiday greetings, invitations, and any application where its Italianate beauty is called for."

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

Introducing Gotti. Where Timeless Precision Meets Seventies Flair We are thrilled to unveil our latest creation, Gotti font family, born and meticulously crafted during an inspiring journey to Goteborg. This typeface seamlessly fuses the Bauhaus essence with the spirited vibes of the seventies, resulting in a font that's not just a visual treat but a design experience. Gotti draws its creative fuel from the geometric elegance of the Bauhaus movement, prioritising functional simplicity and razor-sharp lines. However, its design journey doesn't end there. Imbued with the unmistakable energy of the Seventies, Gotti emerges as a font family that encapsulates both nostalgic charm and contemporary boldness. At its core, Gotti boasts a geometric skeleton that has been intricately designed to redefine precision. Ranging from light to black, the weight variations offer a broad spectrum of expressive possibilities. Gotti is perfect for display use, advertising, and branding, it transforms your creative vision into a visual masterpiece. Stand out with confidence, whether it's a captivating logo, a compelling headline, or an unforgettable advertisement. Elevate your brand identity with Gotti. It brings strategic branding to life, communicating sophistication and modernity. Your advertising materials become memorable works of art, leaving a lasting impression on your audience. Curious about the magic Gotti can bring to your designs? Our showcase reveals real-world applications, demonstrating its adaptability and aesthetic appeal. See for yourself how this font family turns ordinary designs into extraordinary visual experiences. Follow us on social media for updates, inspiration, and a glimpse behind the scenes. Have questions or just want to share your thoughts? We're here for you!

Since the beginning, Palsam was intended to be a super multilingual family, with a real cursive Arabic companion, and a display cut. The typeface was designed to be used for setting text and titles of contemporary Arabic content, specially magazines, and websites. The Arabic and Latin scripts were designed at the same time, to make a true authentic bilingual typeface. Both scripts have affected each other in several ways through the entire design process, which happened within ten years. Palsam has an inviting, approachable, fashionable and humanist look. Thanks to its low contrast, open apertures, detailed calligraphic strokes, and smooth counters, which also make it easy to read at smaller sizes. The main highlight for Palsam was the Cursive companion. For the first time, the calligraphic Ijaza style was used as a model for designing the Arabic cursive. Since the Ijaza is a hyper combination of Naskh and Thuluth, which makes it perfect to be a companion for the upright Naskh. Moreover this script was used in margins, and to highlight specific content inside a paragraph in older manuscripts. With true cursive companions in five weights, and many opentype features, Palsam grants all the tools needed to set complex information and editorial designs applications. More than 1000 characters are included per weight, including small caps, fractions, old style and lining numbers, ligatures, contextual ligatures, and discretionary ligatures. It supports over 40 languages that use the Latin extended, as well as Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu Languages. PalsamArabic only covers the Arabic script. The latin script was designed in collaboration with the Slovenian type designer Alja Herlah.

While sketching for a music project logo, Donald DBXL Beekman looked at several wood type alphabets as a starting poing. One of these was No.120, patented in 1880 by William Hamilton Page. With its distinct diagonally cut serifs and round shapes cut off at top and bottom, it bore just the right feel for the project. DBXL digitized the alphabet, adding all characters needed for a full set. During this process all shapes were widened, tweaked and streamlined to enhance consistency and rhythm along the whole font. VLNL Bonen is an all-caps display font with a very specific western cowboy or circus look. For instance burger or barbecue grill restaurants would do well with this one. We can easily see it shine on a festival flyer or poster as well, and not just country & western festivals. VLNL Bonen is suitable for any ‘big’ use that needs to stand out of the crowd. Bonen is the Dutch word for beans, a world wide source of nutrition and proteins it comes in a multitude of shapes, colours and sizes. Beans are also the most eaten foods in a cowboy’s diet along the trail. Available in abundance and easily preserved and transported, many recipes on the cattle drives in the American Wild West used beans. Think of chili, mashed beans with biscuits and bean soups. “Keep them doggies movin’, cowboy!”

Helvetica’s 50-year anniversary celebrations in 2007 were overwhelming and contagious. We saw the movie. Twice. We bought the shirts and the buttons. We dug out the homage books and re-read the hate articles. We mourned the fading non-color of an old black shirt proudly exclaiming that “HELVETICA IS NOT AN ADOBE FONT”. We took part in long conversations discussing the merits of the Swiss classic, that most sacred of typographic dreamboats, outlasting its builder and tenants to go on alone and saturate the world with the fundamental truth of its perfect logarithm. We swooned again over its subtleties (“Ah, that mermaid of an R!”). We rehashed decades-old debates about “Hakzidenz,” “improvement in mind” and “less is more.” We dutifully cursed every single one of Helvetica’s knockoffs. We breathed deeply and closed our eyes on perfect Shakti Gawain-style visualizations of David Carson hack'n'slashing Arial — using a Swiss Army knife, no less — with all the infernal post-brutality of his creative disturbance and disturbed creativity. We then sailed without hesitation into the absurdities of analyzing Helvetica’s role in globalization and upcoming world blandness (China beware! Helvetica will invade you as silently and transparently as a sheet of rice paper!). And at the end of a perfect celebratory day, we positively affirmed à la Shakti, and solemnly whispered the energy of our affirmation unto the universal mind: “We appreciate Helvetica for getting us this far. We are now ready for release and await the arrival of the next head snatcher.” The great hype of Swisspalooza '07 prompted a look at Max Miedinger, the designer of Neue Haas Grotesk (later renamed to Helvetica). Surprisingly, what little biographical information available about Miedinger indicates that he was a typography consultant and type sales rep for the Haas foundry until 1956, after which time he was a freelance graphic designer — rather than the full-time type designer most Helvetica enthusiasts presume him to have been. It was under that freelance capacity that he was commissioned to design the regular and bold weights of Neue Haas Grotesk typeface. His role in designing Helvetica was never really trumpeted until long after the typeface attained global popularity. And, again surprisingly, Miedinger designed two more typefaces that seem to have been lost to the dust of film type history. One is called Pro Arte (1954), a very condensed Playbill-like slab serif that is similar to many of its genre. The other, made in 1964, is much more interesting. Its original name was Horizontal. Here it is, lest it becomes a Haas-been, presented to you in digital form by Canada Type under the name of its original designer, Miedinger, the Helvetica King. The original film face was a simple set of bold, panoramically wide caps and figures that give off a first impression of being an ultra wide Gothic incarnation of Microgramma. Upon a second look, they are clearly more than that. This face is a quirky, very non-Akzidental take on the vernacular, mostly an exercise in geometric modularity, but also includes some unconventional solutions to typical problems (like thinning the midline strokes across the board to minimize clogging in three-storey forms). This digital version introduces four new weights, ranging from Thin to Medium, alongside the bold original. The Miedinger package comes in all popular font formats, and supports Western, Central and Eastern European languages, as well as Esperanto, Maltese, Turkish and Celtic/Welsh. A few counter-less alternates are included in the fonts.

Five years into the 21st century and the promise of nanotechnology, high-end popular culture design seems to thrive on combining opposites and drawing a fine line between traditionally contradictory ideas. This is seen in modern society's usual cultural frontrunners - like consumer electronics, fashion items, music packaging and publications, where it is evident that traditionally complex marketing statements of fashionability and lifestyle are attempted with simple minimalism. But at the typographic end of this realm, the creative majority still uses old faces that help the modern statement only in passing. Some of the more adventurous creative professionals actively seek new elements to emphasize contemporary impact in their modern design. To those adventurous types (pun intended), Canada Type presents this new face called Go. It is very much a child of the new millennium, inspired by the unmistakable minimalist style of modern 21st century corporate logos, recent design shifts in electronic music and club-marketing collateral, and disc jockeys who have enthusiasm, energy, precision and total control of each and every vibration traveling from mixer to speakers. Go is an original modern techno-lounge face that offers the eyes pleasing collages of friendly minimal forms that give the words an impression of simplicity and depth at once. This is a font that prides itself on its precise grouping of elements and just enough original creativity in combining those elements. The precision builds the sharp edge sought for modern statements, while the creativity keeps the message rejuvenated, clear and interesting. Go's character set consists of a versatile and unexpected, yet mild mix of the uppercase and lowercase forms, with multiple variations on the majority of the letters. The e being a vertical mirror of G is only the first of the pleasant surprises. More than 30 alternates are inside the font. All the accented characters in Go have been meticulously (perhaps obsessively) drawn to be unusual for logos and short statements. Take a look at the character map and be ready for a space-age surprise. To borrow a Star Trek cliché, this font can Go where no font has gone before.

When Hal Taylor saw the 1930 logo for the Stetson Shoe Company of Weymouth, Massachusetts, he didn't run out and buy a pair of loafers. Instead, he seized on this striking example of an Art Deco logotype as the basis for a new typeface design. “I was impressed with the delicate and sophisticated letter forms,” Taylor recalls, “particularly the enlarged cap S -- in any other case it would have seemed unbalanced, but in the context of this logo, it worked perfectly.” All the letters in the original all-caps Stetson Shoe logo were rendered with condensed proportions except the O, which was a perfect circle. While the prominent O added visual interest to the logo, Taylor knew that such a character would limit his typeface to display applications. For versatility's sake, he drew his O for ITC Stepp with the same proportions as the rest of the alphabet. Taylor also gave the logotype's inverted S a more traditional design, but kept the original as an alternate character in the OpenType font. Taylor's toughest challenge during the design process was creating a lowercase. “A good type design tells you what it wants to be,” he says, “and after a little while the Stepp caps began to tell me what the lowercase should look like.” Taylor's lowercase is slightly more conventional than the caps. The jaunty g" and almost upside-down "s" add subtle charm, while the capital letters provide the broader gestures of Stepp's personality. Together, they create a versatile and distinctive typeface design. One of Hal Taylor's first jobs was as a photo-lettering typographer in Philadelphia, setting headlines and creating custom lettering. This was followed by a stint doing finished lettering for John Langdon, whose ambigrams appear in Dan Brown's best-selling novel, Angels & Demons. Today, Taylor works as a graphic designer in the publishing industry, but he still finds time to create an occasional hand-lettered book jacket, and draw handsome typeface designs. ITC Stepp is available in four weights, ranging from Light to Ultra Bold. All four weights have companion italics, and the lightest three weights also offer a suite of small caps."

As I perused the latest offerings in the realm of graphic design, I chanced upon a curious creation that caught my discerning eye. Nerdropol, an offspring of the Neuropol X typeface, is a simulated bitmap typeface that touts a bevy of striking effects. This digital wonder is designed to capture the essence of original pixel fonts, rendering each character with precision and attention to detail. As I delved deeper into Nerdropol’s aesthetic, I couldn’t help but marvel at its distinctly industrial feel. Indeed, this font exudes a hard-edged, high-tech vibe that is sure to turn heads and captivate the senses. Every letter, meticulously crafted to evoke a sense of raw, unadulterated power, is sure to make an impact in any project. Nerdropol takes things to a whole new level by limiting kerning to full pixel increments, further emphasizing its digital origins. This meticulous attention to detail serves to heighten the overall effect of the font, resulting in a truly unique and visually stunning experience. In conclusion, if you seek to infuse your graphic design projects with a touch of cyberpunk flair, look no further than Nerdropol. With its daring aesthetic and unrivaled attention to detail, this font is sure to take your creations to new heights of digital excellence. 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.

In the realm of graphic design, where the power of typography can make or break a design, selecting the right font can be the difference between a masterpiece and mediocrity. And when it comes to grunge aesthetics, the stakes are even higher, as the right font can mean the difference between an edgy, rebellious message or one that falls flat. Enter Oxeran and Oxeran Z, two fonts that epitomize punk with their grungy, raw, and unabashedly filthy appearance. These fonts aren’t for the faint of heart—they demand attention and command respect with their jagged edges and rough textures. But don’t let their rough exterior fool you—these fonts are also highly functional. Their OpenType-savvy design allows for letter pair ligatures, which break up the monotony of repeating characters and add visual interest to your text. The result is a dynamic, energetic, and impatient message that grabs your audience by the collar and demands their attention. Whether you’re designing a punk album cover, a protest poster, or a rebellious t-shirt, Oxeran and Oxeran Z are the fonts that will take your message to the next level. So, embrace the filth, let your typography speak volumes, and let the world know that you’re not to be trifled with. 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.