Handwritten with care, and made bold and consistent with an art deco flair. If I owned a classy diner, this is how I'd like my chalkboard menus to look.

Rusticana is a part of the 1990 program Type before Gutenberg, which included the work of twelve contemporary font designers and represented styles from across the ages. Linotype offers a package including all these fonts on its web page, www.fonts.de. Rusticana was designed by Adrian Frutiger and appeared with Linotype in 1993. Its historical roots go back to the Roman Capitalis, the all caps engraved writing of ancient Rome which reached its peak in the first century. From this style evolved other Roman forms, and one, Rustica, proved particularly good for text on bronze, as opposed to in stone. The Rusticana of Frutiger has open, seemingly irregular forms which lend a distinctive rhythm to text.

A Roman Stylized Font of War. Navarone is a display sans typestyle that was inspired by the movie titling sequence from the 1962 movie "The Guns of Navarone". It's an all capitals typeface that has alternate caps in the lowercase slots to convey all of the roman stylized lettering of the original inspiration. See the 5th graphic for a comprehensive character map preview. Navarone comes with features for customisation options: - An all capitals typeface with alternate capitals in the lowercase slots - A Basic Ligatures feature that swaps out FI and FL ligatures. Approx. 386 Character Glyph Set: Navarone comes with a glyphset that includes standard & punctuation, international language support, and basic ligatures.

Guillaume is a small family of text fonts with its roots in the French sixteenth century. The roman is based on the types of Guillaume Le Bé (c.1525–1598), and the italic on those of Claude Garamont (Garamond) (d. 1561). Garamont’s romans have inspired countless modern interpretations, but his italics, despite their merit, have attracted much less attention. Guillaume offers extensive support for European languages, and is best suited for use in applications that support OpenType. Among its OpenType features are ligatures, small caps, several sets of numerals, contextual alternates, intelligent implementation of long ‘s’ and other period features, and fractions. For more detail, please see the pdf available in the Gallery.

The Orbi type system is a low contrast antiqua of elegant design with a well developed set of members. It consists of 10 roman and italic faces of different proportions and weights and 3 decorative calligraphic fonts. It also contains 3 additional fonts with various decorated initials. The roman includes small capitals. Thanks to its variety of styles the font is suitable for a wide range of applications - the basic styles are good for books and periodicals; the narrow styles work well in the columns and tables of business papers; the decorative styles are ideal for ceremonial typography where swashes, calligraphy and initials are usual. The fonts were designed by Natalia Vasilyeva. Released by ParaType in 2010.

This modernized rustic Baroque Roman face paraphrases freely its model from the first half of the 18th century. The shape of the letters has been cleared from all unevenness and softness, but has retained its lively expression. It is deliberately rather cooler than the reverently digitized Baroque Roman type faces, since it was necessary to adjust it with regard to the visual experience of the contemporary reader. In addition, it has bold designs and aligning figures, which also considerably extends the range of its application. It is an entirely reliable text type face for the most demanding extensive works. Thanks to its calm expression and excellent legibility it is widely used when printing series of professional literature.

Waters Titling is the work of lettering artist Julian Waters, a multiple master typeface of classical calligraphic roman capitals. This broad-tipped pen design is related to other historically-based titling alphabets but offers a wider range of weights and widths, making it extremely versatile for movie titles, book jackets, posters, banners, calendars, etc. Waters Titling is based on the timeless Roman monumental inscription forms of almost 2000 years ago, but also has a touch of contemporary vigor and flair. The design displays a strong calligraphic thick/thin stroke weight contrast and flowing, subtly bracketed serifs. In lighter weights, Waters Titling is elegant and delicate, while the bolder weights offer a more substantial sparkle.

Candida roman was designed by Jakob Erbar and appeared after his death with the typeface foundry Ludwig & Mayer in Frankfurt am Main in 1936. Due to the original designer’s death, the italic was designed by Walter Höhnisch shortly thereafter. In 1945 the roman was reworked, the breadth of the figures was reduced and the strokes made heavier. The bold weight followed in 1951. Later the typeface was expanded with further weights, which have for the most part fallen out of use. Three weights can still be found in catalogues, available as early as 1937 for the Linotype machine. Candida is a modest text font which retains its legibility even in smaller point sizes.

Apollo is oddly one of the lesser known typefaces of Frutiger, perhaps due to the extreme fame of some of his other works, like the typefaces Frutiger® and Univers®. Stylistically, the very legible and harmonic Apollo is an old face. Frutiger designed it especially for the photosetting used at the time. The Apollo typeface family consists of the weights roman and semibold and their respective italics as well as expert sets. Frutiger optimized the relation between the two weights so that the roman is robust enough to present a legible text on soft paper but light enough to contrast with the semibold. The clear, elegant Apollo is perfect for headlines as well as long texts.

The font is based on an alphabet from a mid1920s art deco book. The original seemed to have tapering strokes but it was too small to be sure; I made all strokes parallel & orthogonal and slightly modified the original in a number of other ways to bring it into the 21st Century. The designers of the original were Paul Carlyle and Guy Oring. Nocturne has all the elegance of the Deco fonts of the 1930s. It recalls the romantic, sophisticated Zeitgeist of the early 20th century, that nostalgic time "between the wars". Nocturne comes in two styles: Nocturne Regular, which uses the Art Deco convention of small x height, and long ascenders. This style is perfect for headers, posters, labels etc. Nocturne Book, which, with its higher x height and slightly wider characters, is extremely legible and suitable for small size text.

Bratislava is a rounded and elongated art deco typeface, based on several posters from the 1920's. Bratislava is slender and elegant and would look good on packaging and posters.

A little bit of thick-and-thin Art Deco hand lettering is offered up in Wonderful JNL, based on some promotional text found on an old piece of sheet music.

Alleyway JNL is an original typeface by Jeff Levine drawing heavily on Art Deco influences. It's elegant, condensed design is perfect for anything from invitations to letterheads to ad copy.

A 1940s-era package of "Herald Square" carbon paper sold by the F.W. Woolworth 5 & 10 cent stores offered up the hand lettered Art Deco design of Stationery Department JNL.

Quiet Night is my scribbled art deco font. Despite it's slightly jumpy and rough apperance, the font is super legible - even at smaller sizes. Comes with ligatures for double letters.

The channel letters in the neon sign for the iconic Clevelander Hotel located in the Art Deco district of Miami Beach was the inspiration and basis for Cleveland Neon JNL.

The hand lettering of a piece of 1930s sheet music's title has once more yielded an interesting take on the popular "thick and thin" lettering of the Art Deco period.

While watching the 1947 holiday classic “Miracle on 34th Street”, one scene in particular presented a chance to develop a retro type design. ‘Kris Kringle’ suggests to a mother visiting with her child in the Macy’s toy department to try Gimbel’s for a toy she couldn’t find at the store. The news of this behavior reaches Mr. Macy himself, who embraces the practice as a brilliant marketing strategy. A number of departments are then presented with reference books containing competitor ads, and the visual of the cover stating “R.H. Macy & Co. Shopping Guide for the Convenience of Our Customers” shows on screen. The thin, Art Deco sans serif monoline with a few serif-like hooks added onto some characters became the basis for Shopping Guide JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

This family, in normal and bold weights, is based on Advertisers Gothic, designed by Robert Wiebking for Barnhart Brothers & Spindler in 1917. The original might be considered a transitional design between Art Nouveau and Art Deco; this version accentuates the Deco traits, adding a thick-and-thin treatment not found in the original. The large x-height and short descenders allow for compact, commanding headlines with a carefree charm, a.k.a. bell'agio. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

The hand lettered title on the cover for the (ca. 1917) sheet music for “After the War is Over” provided the design inspiration for National Nouveau JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. A precursor to the Art Deco movement which would arrive within the next decade, this bold thick-and-thin design embraces the elements of both Art Nouveau and Art Deco in one type design and gets its name from the patriotic spirit of America during “The Great War”.

The Raleigh Hotel at 18th Street and Collins Avenue on Miami Beach is an Art Deco landmark and part of the city's popular tourist district. A vintage matchbook from the hotel had its name hand lettered in what is now Beachfront Hotel JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions. The lower case letters have been made more traditional, eliminating the Deco-influenced "overhangs" present on the capital letters, and an alternate "E" from the original matchbook design is available on the bar and broken bar keys.

Twentieth Century was designed for the cover of 20th Century French Poetry and was drawn with pure geometric shapes. It is the distillation of a broad variety of styles loosely known as Art Deco but, also categorized under such terms as Moderne, Streamline, Machine Age, Futurist, 70s Art Deco, Memphis among others. If there were a source in particular that I would cite as my inspiration, however, it would definitely be the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. I mean, look at the "W" for cryin' out loud!

To see the “auto-mix” effect, go to the Webfont page. This typeface has been designed to demonstrate a hypothesis: consistency in letter form and style is not essential to fluent reading. The Neology fonts also include both plain constituents, Neology Deco (1920s-style minimalist geometric) and Neology Grotesque (similar to Helvetica etc., but with a small x-height). All fonts have both three-quarter and full cap-height lining figures. The plain fonts have stylistic alternates (“a” for Deco and “g” and “l” for Grotesque).

SK Mutka is a geometric sans serif made in the style of Art Deco. Its graceful forms are emphasized by the arched structure typical for the style and spirit of Art Deco. The typeface is suitable both for decorative work and for typing because it includes uppercase and lowercase. Moreover, it supports a wide language range. SK Mutka typeface supports extended Cyrillic, Latin, as well as an extensive character set. SK Mutka is perfect for bold and classic designs, for print and web works.

The origins of Bembo go back to one of the most famous printers of the Italian Renaissance, Aldus Manutius. In 1496, he used a new roman typeface to print the book de Aetna, a travelogue by the popular writer Pietro Bembo. This type was designed by Francesco Griffo, a prolific punchcutter who was one of the first to depart from the heavier pen-drawn look of humanist calligraphy to develop the more stylized look we associate with roman types today. In 1929, Stanley Morison and the design staff at the Monotype Corporation used Griffo's roman as the model for a revival type design named Bembo. They made a number of changes to the fifteenth-century letters to make the font more adaptable to machine composition. The italic is based on letters cut by the Renaissance scribe Giovanni Tagliente. Because of their quiet presence and graceful stability, the lighter weights of Bembo are popular for book typography. The heavier weights impart a look of conservative dependability to advertising and packaging projects. With 31 weights, including small caps, Old style figures, expert characters, and an alternate cap R, Bembo makes an excellent all-purpose font family.

The origins of Bembo go back to one of the most famous printers of the Italian Renaissance, Aldus Manutius. In 1496, he used a new roman typeface to print the book de Aetna, a travelogue by the popular writer Pietro Bembo. This type was designed by Francesco Griffo, a prolific punchcutter who was one of the first to depart from the heavier pen-drawn look of humanist calligraphy to develop the more stylized look we associate with roman types today. In 1929, Stanley Morison and the design staff at the Monotype Corporation used Griffo's roman as the model for a revival type design named Bembo. They made a number of changes to the fifteenth-century letters to make the font more adaptable to machine composition. The italic is based on letters cut by the Renaissance scribe Giovanni Tagliente. Because of their quiet presence and graceful stability, the lighter weights of Bembo are popular for book typography. The heavier weights impart a look of conservative dependability to advertising and packaging projects. With 31 weights, including small caps, Old style figures, expert characters, and an alternate cap R, Bembo makes an excellent all-purpose font family.

In 1458, Charles VII sent the Frenchman Nicolas Jenson to learn the craft of movable type in Mainz, the city where Gutenberg was working. Jenson was supposed to return to France with his newly learned skills, but instead he traveled to Italy, as did other itinerant printers of the time. From 1468 on, he was in Venice, where he flourished as a punchcutter, printer and publisher. He was probably the first non-German printer of movable type, and he produced about 150 editions. Though his punches have vanished, his books have not, and those produced from about 1470 until his death in 1480 have served as a source of inspiration for type designers over centuries. His Roman type is often called the first true Roman." Notable in almost all Jensonian Romans is the angled crossbar on the lowercase e, which is known as the "Venetian Oldstyle e." Jenson Old Style™ was designed by Freda Sack and Colin Brignall for Letraset in 1982. Because of its darkness, this version is best used for display designs that call for a sense of old-world elegance and solidity."

Milligan is named in honor of the late Spike Milligan, a wonderful comedian who (amongst many other things) wrote and start in the Goon Show. It's a jolly, boisterous display Roman which can bring a sense of liveliness and fun to any project where it's used.

Bonlivet is an all capitals display face, which starts from Roman letter forms and pushes them into wild decorative extravagance. There is a somewhat early 20th century feel to this, but really it’s just a bit of good fun, with a hint of elegance thrown in.

The cover of the 1908 sheet music for "When the Meadow-Larks Are Calling, Annie Laurie" has the title hand lettered in a semi-formal Art Nouveau Roman type design with gentle spurs. This is now available as Meadowlark JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Inspired by 15th century Venetian italic book texts and based on examples from volumes on the history of type. Fourteen64 has a rugged charm and lots of character featuring 'Roman' capitals with italic lowercase. Includes alternate characters, extra ligatures and a small selection of medieval ornaments.

Thud is a family of seven weights with roman and true italics. Weights are done with parabolic formula by Luc(as) de Groot for each weight to be optically in between the next weight. Made for headlines, but kerned well enough for larger amounts of text.

This quirky little gem was patterned after single-stroke handlettering originally crafted by John M. Bergling, whose peregrinations through pulchritudinous penmanship also provided the inspiration for Erehwon Roman NF. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode 1252 Latin and Unicode 1250 Central European character sets.

Ignatius is the work of British type designer Freda Sack, a traditional roman typeface featuring an open, engraved effect. The stately capitals can be used alone or combined with the complementing lowercase and both should be set closely. Ignatius will give any work a classic look.

Zephyr is a sinuous Roman font available in both Regular and Openface (inline) versions. This classically inspired font set conjures up a gentle, relaxing breeze from the West and Southwest. Subtle and not-so-subtle variations offer a refreshingly modern take on these age-old letterforms.

Australis is a hybrid roman font that won first prize in the Morisawa International Type Design Competition in 2002. After 10 years the family is finally complete and its release coincides with the reopening of the competition in 2012, in Japan. Designed by Francisco Gálvez Pizarro.

Elysium is the work of Michael Gills who was in turn influenced by Czechoslovakian designer Oldrich Menhart. The typeface is an old style roman font whose refreshing quality comes from the designer's love of calligraphy. Elysium has a crisp appearance coupled with creative and unique letterforms.

Ridley is a calligraphic-influenced, decorative, medieval font combining Roman and Gothic forms. It is named for Nicholas Ridley and similar in style to Staunton’s Latimer font. Ridley and Latimer were protestants burned together at the stake in 1555 during the reign of Queen “Bloody” Mary.

Mr. Nakata is another one of my favorite Haruki Murakami characters. Nakata typeface is handwritten, sloppy and messy, but comes with intelligent features like alternates and ligatures, to make it look more like handwriting and less like a font. Of course, Nakata speaks most Roman-based languages.

Inspired by a number of Green and forward thinking ventures, Arboretum is designed to be an Eco-friendly typeface. Perfect for use with recycled products, environmental advertising and anything nature themed. However, its clean and modern appearance works beautifully for a large range of projects. The typeface contains lower and uppercases, the latter having two complete sets of alternatives, each with differing levels of flourish! You will also find a selection of leafy glyphs to help personalise and decorate your Arboretum lettering. The glyph set includes all languages covered in Basic Latin, Latin-1 Supplement and Latin Extended-A scripts.