The famous roman type cut in Venice by Nicolas Jenson, and used in 1470 for his printing of the tract, De Evangelica Praeparatione, Eusebius, has usually been declared the seminal and definitive representative of a class of types known as Venetian Old Style. The Jenson type is thought to have been the primary model for types that immediately followed. Subsequent 15th-century Venetian Old Style types, cut by other punchcutters in Venice and elsewhere in Italy, are also worthy of study, but have been largely neglected by 20th-century type designers. There were many versions of Venetian Old Style types produced in the final quarter of the quattrocento. The exact number is unknown, but numerous printed examples survive, though the actual types, matrices, and punches are long gone. All these types are not, however, conspicuously Jensonian in character. Each shows a liberal amount of individuality, inconsistency, and eccentricity. My fascination with these historical types began in the 1970s and eventually led to the production of my first text typeface, Iowan Old Style (Bitstream, 1991). Sometime in the early 1990s, I started doodling letters for another Venetian typeface. The letters were pieced together from sections of circles and squares. The n, a standard lowercase control character in a text typeface, came first. Its most unusual feature was its head serif, a bisected quadrant of a circle. My aim was to see if its sharp beak would work with blunt, rectangular, foot serifs. Next, I wanted to see if I could construct a set of capital letters by following a similar design system. Rectangular serifs, or what we today call "slab serifs," were common in early roman printing types, particularly text types cut in Italy before 1500. Slab serifs are evident on both lowercase and uppercase characters in roman types of the Incunabula period, but they are seen mainly at the feet of the lowercase letters. The head serifs on lowercase letters of early roman types were usually angled. They were not arched, like mine. Oddly, there seems to be no actual historical precedent for my approach. Another characteristic of my arched serif is that the side opposite the arch is flat, not concave. Arched, concave serifs were used extensively in early italic types, a genre which first appeared more than a quarter century after roman types. Their forms followed humanistic cursive writing, common in Italy since before movable type was used there. Initially, italic characters were all lowercase, set with upright capitals (a practice I much admire and would like to see revived). Sloped italic capitals were not introduced until the middle of the sixteenth century, and they have very little to do with the evolution of humanist scripts. In contrast to the cursive writing on which italic types were based, formal book hands used by humanist scholars to transcribe classical texts served as a source of inspiration for the lowercase letters of the first roman types cut in Italy. While book hands were not as informal as cursive scripts, they still had features which could be said to be more calligraphic than geometric in detail. Over time, though, the copied vestiges of calligraphy virtually disappeared from roman fonts, and type became more rational. This profound change in the way type developed was also due in part to popular interest in the classical inscriptions of Roman antiquity. Imperial Roman letters, or majuscules, became models for the capital letters in nearly all early roman printing types. So it was, that the first letters in my typeface arose from pondering how shapes of lowercase letters and capital letters relate to one another in terms of classical ideals and geometric proportions, two pinnacles in a range of artistic notions which emerged during the Italian Renaissance. Indeed, such ideas are interesting to explore, but in the field of type design they often lead to dead ends. It is generally acknowledged, for instance, that pure geometry, as a strict approach to type design, has limitations. No roman alphabet, based solely on the circle and square, has ever been ideal for continuous reading. This much, I knew from the start. In the course of developing my typeface for text, innumerable compromises were made. Even though the finished letterforms retain a measure of geometric structure, they were modified again and again to improve their performance en masse. Each modification caused further deviation from my original scheme, and gave every font a slightly different direction. In the lower case letters especially, I made countless variations, and diverged significantly from my original plan. For example, not all the arcs remained radial, and they were designed to vary from font to font. Such variety added to the individuality of each style. The counters of many letters are described by intersecting arcs or angled facets, and the bowls are not round. In the capitals, angular bracketing was used practically everywhere stems and serifs meet, accentuating the terseness of the characters. As a result of all my tinkering, the entire family took on a kind of rich, familiar, coarseness - akin to roman types of the late 1400s. In his book, Printing Types D. B. Updike wrote: "Almost all Italian roman fonts in the last half of the fifteenth century had an air of "security" and generous ease extremely agreeable to the eye. Indeed, there is nothing better than fine Italian roman type in the whole history of typography." It does seem a shame that only in the 20th century have revivals of these beautiful types found acceptance in the English language. For four centuries (circa 1500 - circa 1900) Venetian Old Style faces were definitely not in favor in any living language. Recently, though, reinterpretations of early Italian printing types have been returning with a vengeance. The name Vendetta, which as an Italian sound I like, struck me as being a word that could be taken to signifiy a comeback of types designed in the Venetian style. In closing, I should add that a large measure of Vendetta's overall character comes from a synthesis of ideas, old and new. Hallmarks of roman type design from the Incunabula period are blended with contemporary concerns for the optimal display of letterforms on computer screens. Vendetta is thus not a historical revival. It is instead an indirect but personal digital homage to the roman types of punchcutters whose work was influenced by the example Jenson set in 1470. John Downer.

MARIAMNE is an original design by Alex Kaczun. It is an elegant, modern and traditional interpretation based on and modeled after his successful "Contax Pro" and "New Age Gothic" typeface series. As such, it has generous proportions with clean, crisp lines—ideally suited for easy reading and long lines of copy. Alex felt that the skeleton for "Contax" was perfectly suited to transform the design into a modern version of 'old-style', somewhat reminiscent of German Black Letter. Numerous modifications where made to the body proportions, stems and shapes. True 'old-style' serifs and unusual 'cross-strokes' where added for a touch of distinction. The 'cross-strokes' where added at exactly visual mid-point on the overall heights. This gives the typeface a romantic, female-like quality to the overall design. Strong, yet delicate. Visually stimulating in appearance and function. The result is a truly unique transitional and modern design. Unlike other typefaces, MARIAMNE incorporates uniform stems throughout the capitals, lower case and figures. This gives the design a uniform appearance in overall color and strength. There is a perfect visual balance between inter-letter spacing, stem weights and proportions. The accents are equally large, bold and command attention. This font includes a large 'Pro' character set, which supports most Central European and many Eastern European languages. As a result, the design is ideally suited for display copy as well as text composition. In the near future, Alex plans to expand the typeface series to include a light and heavy weight, along with true italics.

A page from an old manual for sign painters yielded the hand-lettered alphabet that served as a model for Claim Check JNL.

The Vtg Stencil series of fonts from astype are based on real world stencils. Have a look at the Vtg Stencil Ornaments A .

Swedish designer Karl-Erik Forsberg created the original Berling typeface in 1951. Owned by Verbum in Sweden, Berling was completely redesigned and released in 2004, under the name Berling Nova. Forsberg (1914–1995) is considered one of Sweden’s most masterful graphic designers, and his original Berling has come to be seen as possibly the most definitive Swedish typeface. But a redesign was necessary in order to secure that the spirit of Berling would survive in the digital age. Linotype, the distributor of the original Berling™ , provided its collection of source materials to the designers working on Berling Nova. Additionally, Akira Kobayashi — Linotype’s Type Director — lent them his advice as their project advanced. Berling Nova is available in two optical sizes: Text and Display. The original Berling was a classic Renaissance roman face, with fine terminals and sharp, beak-like serifs. If one looks at Berling’s old lead type proofs in the smaller type sizes, it is clear that these had a fuller and more readable form than in later digital versions. So, in order to help return the new Berling Nova to its original splendor, both the base forms and the serifs were softened and inflated. In the text version, the x-height has been increased a bit (by 4%), the diagonal axis is less apparent, and special glyph ranges, such as those for small caps and old style figures, have been included in the font’s character sets. The display version still has the unmistakable “Berling” character that displays Forsberg’s mastery. Berling Nova is well suited for longer text passages in books, publications, and magazines. This typeface fulfils all the demands that one can make on a legible newspaper typeface. Access to both text and display versions are important to the demanding typographer. This is the first time since the typeface was digitalized that it is possible to use it in order to create truly beautiful and functional typography in all type sizes.

Since their first appearance as Italians on the pages of the 1821 William Caslon type specimens, reverse contrast typefaces have been typography's best loved quirky outcasts. Subverting the traditional relationship between thick verticals and thin horizontals made them perfect for eye-catching advertisements. The unexpected contrasts and the thick slabs produced by reverse-contrast serifs became ubiquitous in period posters, and synonymous with wild west and circus iconography. In designing Stinger, the Zetafonts design team composed by Maria Chiara Fantini, Andrea Tartarelli and Francesco Canovaro and orchestrated by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini decided to marry this subversive tradition with the workhorse approach of modernist sans serif typefaces like Univers, developing a super-family with four widths, each in five different weights, from thin to heavy. This gives the designer a full range of options for type setting, with the Normal and Fit widths providing two different text-sized alternatives, the wide width adding display and titling options and the Slim ready to deal with the space-saving necessities of extremely long texts. True italics have been added developed for all weights and variants, bringing the Stinger family to a total of 40 fonts, with a latin extended + Russian Cyrillic character set covering over 200 languages, and open type features including positional numbers, stylistic sets and alternate forms. In the crowded panorama of contemporary grotesque typefaces, all aiming to stark geometric perfection, Stinger stands out with its bold choices and strong personality. From the calligraphy-inspired terminals in the thin weights to the logo-ready sculptural approach in the heavy weights, each variant manages to look striking without forgetting the readability and flexibility lessons of modern reverse-contrast classics like those designed by Excoffon or Novarese. A variable version is included with the full family, allowing maximum flexibility and control for the designer over the wide range of expression capabilities of the Stinger super family.

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

Wittenbach is based on lettering by Rudolf Koch which really embodies the essence of classic gothic-style poster lettering of the 1920s. It brings together the traditional style of gothic lettering and a strong, more modern sensibility characteristic of Koch's work and his era. It is very vertical and stylized, but also extraordinarily attractive without the harshness of many of the designs of that period.

Equa is a font based on strict grid rules. The name "Equa" comes from the equal widths of the vertical strokes, inner spaces and counters and spaces between glyphs. Its geometric construction gives it a technical look with an art deco sensibility. A system of three "weight-widths" based various sized grids gives flexibility in uses, from large condensed headlines to small blocks of text.

Disclosure is suggestive of low-grade digital output, screen displays, fax machines, or high-speed data transfer. It is missing vertical sections, perhaps due to a faulty print head or signal degradation. It is intentionally monospaced — each letter has the same width, like a typewriter — and unkerned. Suitable for uses where an unfussy urgency and drama is required. Developed from the 112 Hours numbers-only font, Throughput.

Ergo is a relatively new font oriented on the form philosophy of Univers and Frutiger, namely, that a font which the eye should see as correct cannot be constructed. The eye tends to enlarge horizontals and to perceive verticals as weaker, and the stroke differences of Ergo are therefore designed to accommodate this tendency. Ergo makes a dynamic and modern impression and is extremely legible.

Madita started with the idea of an upright sans script. Unlike other script typefaces, some of the characters look fairly constructed. The endings are either vertical or horizontal. On the other hand there are the swashes of a flowing script woven into the sans stroke that create an interesting tension. Madita is surprisingly legible, even in smaller sizes. The upper case letters even work in all caps.

ITC Braganza is the work of British designer Phill Grimshaw, an elegant typeface steeped in historical inspiration. Reminiscent of the handwritten manuscript styles of the 16th century, the name Braganza refers to Catherine, Duchess of Braganza, who was a prominent figure in Portugal at the time. The vertical script style displays the elegance and refinement which distinguished the Royal Courts of the 16th century.

Quida is a display family with three styles; Regular, Italic and script. The personality of the design comes from concave vertical shapes, which are consistent through all styles. This makes them work together seamlessly. Quida Script is packed with opentype goodness such as swash caps, stylistic alternates, ligatures and ending forms for lowercase letters. All styles have an extended language support for most European languages.

Koysan is made for vivid headings, but it can also be used to type small paragraphs and texts. In a text set, it gives sharp, barbed textures, but compensates with half-ovals. The font combines the linear counteraction of thin vertical and horizontal lines with sharp and rigid strokes and smooth geometric ovals. Koysan supports Basic Latin, Extended latin and Cyrillic. Font designed by Victor Pesotsky.

HGB Info is a display typeface for my Linotype Nautilus Monoline. This came about while working on the corporate design for the municipality of Weissach im Tal. Shorter ascenders and descenders and a broader letter shape result in more compact word images. The ups and downs are cut vertically. This works particularly well in large degrees. This is the area of ​​application on signage and information systems.

A group of unique metal plates with stencil initials cut into them was spotted while browsing through online auctions for source material. What made these items even more interesting was how some of the stencil letters had been sectionally divided - not vertically or horizontally as in most stencils, but lines cut at angles. This is the basis for Steel Stencil JNL and Steel Stencil Oblique JNL.

Anglaise was designed for display and it likes to be big and present, filling the width of a whole spread. The repetition of vertical black and white space holds the typeface together and the contrasting straight and round shapes add the personality... for even more... use the OpenType features, and Anglaise will start merging and building new characters for you to play around with... Enjoy!

Vantely is a modern sans serif font. Made for any professional project branding. It is perfect for printing, branding and quotes. Every letter has a unique and beautiful touch. Includes: Vantely (OTF) Features: PUA Encoded Multilingual Support Numerals and Punctuation Thank you for downloading premium fonts from Din Studio

I Am Black is a sophisticated, charming sans serif font with a fashionable touch. Specially designed for luxury, elegant, feminine projects, this font is perfectly suitable for creating modern, chic designs. This font is PUA encoded which means you can access all the glyphs and ligatures with ease!

Sheet music from the 1911 stage production of the comic opera “The Enchantress” featured the hand lettered names of both the star and composer in a monoline Art Nouveau style. This sans serif type design is now available as Theater Nouveau JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Freak Mailers is a rounded combination font duo. Sans serif typeface with crazy Script Typeface . But make this font look unique. Freak Mailers clean classic and mindful , it combine in one font, use this font for anything beauty place for your logo, headline, cover book, magazine and many more.

In the 1904 book “Letters & Lettering” by Frank C. Brown is a page of Roman style upper case letters entitled “Modern American Capitals – after Will Brady”. The slab serif, Art-Nouveau-influenced alphabet inspired a digital version. Roman Nouveau JNL, is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Kinlock is a new elegant stencil serif font featuring a regular & italic version. Its luxurious lines will work perfectly for any sophisticated design project. Perfect for luxury product packaging, labels, branding, advertising & much more. Kinlock includes all standard glyphs plus a few essential ligatures as well as multilingual characters.

Yellow Peas is a geometric sans serif typeface that comes in 5 different weights. Contains Western and Eastern European languages, Vietnamese accented characters, Russian Cyrillic and Thai character set. Yellow Peas is a clean and modern font with stylistic alternates, standard and discretionary ligatures. Also includes Small Caps feature.

Heft is a heavy slab serif that packs a powerful punch. Available in square-cornered and rounded versions, each with italics, plus two distressed variants — an inky version that evokes the urgency of cheap hot-metal printing, and a worn, distressed version that suggests vintage woodtype or photocopied text.

Geometris Semi-Condensed is a modern versatile sans-serif typeface. What differentiates Geometris Semi-Condensed from the other fonts is its exceptionally distinctive design. Brilliantly suited for graphic design and display use and perfect for logotypes, t-shirts, packaging, brand identity, books, magazines, newspapers, posters, billboards, and advertising.