It's a wood type! It's a stencil font! It's BOTH! Clarenwood Stencil JNL was originally designed as a solid alphabet (Clarenwood JNL) modeled from vintage wood type. The stencil treatment was applied to add a fresh look to a classic lettering design.

Another variant to the ever-popular Art Deco sans lettering with solid centers (no counters) was found in the hand-lettered title on the cover of the 1933 song "There's A Ring around the Moon". This became the basis for the digital typeface Moonlit Walk JNL, available in both regular and oblique versions.

Social Gathering JNL is modeled from the Art Deco hand-lettered title of a vintage piece of sheet music entitled "Three of Us".

Paper Stencil JNL is another addition to Jeff Levine's ever-growing collection of stencil fonts based on vintage source material.

The 1937 sheet music for the tune "Sweet Stranger" has the title hand lettered in a round cornered Art Deco sans with an inline featuring square corners. Now available as Curtain Up JNL, it is available in regular, oblique, solid and solid oblique versions (for those who prefer a version without the inline).

The hand lettered title on the cover of the 1914 tune “I Want you to Meet My Mother” served as the inspiration for Nouveau Date JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Balcony Seats JNL is a different take on Jeff Levine's Aisle Seats JNL. The original font was modeled from Redikut die-cut cardboard letters - used in the 1940's and 1950's for display and show card work). Although the basic letter shapes are similar, the horizontal stroke weights have been narrowed, providing a type variation with a classic Art Deco "thick and thin" look.

The movie poster for the 1934 comedy/crime drama “Jimmy the Gent” (starring James Cagney) featured the title hand lettered in an ultra-bold Art Deco sans serif style. This type design has been turned into Social Club JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

In the opening scenes of the 1938 Three Stooges comedy “Tassels in the Air” the Stooges are working as maintenance men inside an office building. Their immediate job requirement is to paint the tenants’ business names on the corresponding office doors with pre-cut stencils. Of course, they get it all wrong. Nonetheless, the stencils appear to be a hand cut sans serif design in a squared or ‘block’ style with rounded corners, and some of the applied lettering made for an interesting challenge to recreate as a typeface. The end result is Maintenance Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Deco Edition JNL gets its inspiration from the hand lettered title of a 1943 anthology of musical compositions for schools entitled "Junior Laurel Songs - Teacher's Edition", and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Mystery Show JNL was modeled after the hand lettered titles found on various early episodes of the 1950s TV suspense program "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". The design emulates characteristics found in Frederic W. Goudy's Copperplate Gothic [a sans serif of equal stroke weights with tiny spurs added], but is considered a serif font by the addition of the spurs. Mystery Show JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Eckhardt Slabserif JNL is a bold, condensed slab serif font that's perfect for attention-getting headlines, signs, banners, price cards or any printed project where a strong type face is needed. Its name (as others in a series of sign shop-oriented fonts) is Jeff Levine's way of honoring his friend Al Eckhardt, who ran Allied Signs in Miami until his passing.

The title and credits from the 1965 film “Strange Bedfellows” were hand lettered in a style typical of the early-to-mid 1960s – casual and playful. This brought to mind similar type designs used by many radio stations when advertising their disc jockeys as cool, hip and fashionable in the slang term of the day “boss” jocks. Boss Jock JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A piece of sheet music from Hungary (circa1921) entitled “Praerie Trott” offered up some playfully rounded hand lettering in a cartoon-like style. This was the visual model for Hungarian Nouveau JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Eckhardt Headline JNL is a bold, condensed sans serif font. This is part of a series of typefaces popular with the sign trade. Named in honor of the late Albert Eckhardt, Jr. - a talented sign writer and a good friend of type designer Jeff Levine - it is available in both regular and "slant" for extra emphasis.

Inspired by the images on some EBay auctions, Jeff Levine sketched out and revived this early 1900s serif design used on some French sign letters. Named for a friend in the graphics industry, this font captures the charm of the Art Nouveau period.

A famous 1971 photo shows boxing champ Muhammad Ali making faces through a window at Joe Frazier at the challenger’s training facility. A small sign sits in the window that says “Joe Frazier Training Headquarters” and is lettered in a simple sans serif condensed typeface. This is now available as Facility Signage JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Shadowland was a magazine dedicated to the arts, and was published from 1919 through 1923. The lettering for its masthead was hand lettered in a then-contemporary Art Nouveau style. Although the photoplay (movies) was just an incremental part of the magazine’s overview of the arts, the digital version of the type design has been named Cinema Nouveau JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

For decades - until the advent of affordable computer-generated signage - die-cut display letters were used for many applications. Stores, theaters, schools, charities and religious organizations would have their local sign shop design attractive posters and show cards utilizing these sturdy cardboard letters and numbers, giving a three-dimensional effect to the message. Sign Department JNL recreates one of the many styles of letters available at the time.

Ghost Sign JNL is a spurred serif type design based on the faded lettering of an antique brick wall sign for Homer Hardware [located in Homer, NY] and is available in both regular and oblique versions. From Wikipedia: “A ghost sign is an old hand-painted advertising sign that has been preserved on a building for an extended period of time. The sign may be kept for its nostalgic appeal, or simply indifference by the owner. Ghost signs are found across the world with the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Canada having many surviving examples. Ghost signs are also called fading ads or brickads. In many cases these are advertisements painted on brick that remained over time. Old painted advertisements are occasionally discovered upon demolition of later-built adjoining structures. Throughout rural areas, old barn advertisements continue to promote defunct brands and quaint roadside attractions. Many ghost signs from the 1890s to 1960s are still visible. Such signs were most commonly used in the decades before the Great Depression. Ghost signs were originally painted with oil-based house paints. The paint that has survived the test of time most likely contains lead, which keeps it strongly adhered to the masonry surface. Ghost signs were often preserved through repainting the entire sign since the colors often fade over time. When ownership changed, a new sign would be painted over the old one.”

Inspired by a retro Art Deco poster as well as many of the true classic Art Deco type designs of the 1930s and 1940s, Deco Revisited JNL is a bold, black, stencil-influenced design with no counters. Although being a contemporary design, its use in any retro project will truly evoke a feeling for the “streamline” era. Deco Revisited JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Cast Shadow JNL uses the same wood type as found in Trade Printer JNL and adds to it a cast shadow in right or left versions for a bold and unique look. Both fonts have limited character sets and should be used in point sizes larger than normally chosen to compensate for the visual discrepancy due to the cast shadow's effects.

Printers Dingbats JNL gathers another assortment of classic cartoons, borders, embellishments, sales helpers and whatnots into one digital file; all re-drawn from vintage source material.

The cover of "Intermediate Steps to the Band" (an instructional book for marching band originally published by Mills Music in 1947) featured the title in a hand lettered multi-line sans serif with Art Deco influence. Re-drawn as a digital typeface named Marching Band JNL, it is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Stovepipe Stencil JNL was not directly designed from a vintage source, but it does draw its influences from classic sans serif lettering of the past. Even its name borrows (somewhat gratuitously) from the "stovepipe" lettering so popular with sign painters. True stovepipe letters tend to be squarer with rounded corners, but the name has also been loosely associated with some tall, condensed type styles. The typeface is available in both regular and oblique versions.

On page 45 of Samuel Welo’s 1930 instructional book “Lettering Practical and Foreign” is a multi-line alphabet of Art Deco elegance that perfectly captures the spirit of the Streamline era. The digital version is available as Showcard Multiline JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

The Nov. 13, 1915 and Nov. 27, 1915 issues of Moving Picture World carried ads for Jesse L. Lasky Productions in which the titles of the upcoming films were hand lettered in an elegant Art Nouveau spurred serif style. This stylish alphabet is now available digitally as Movie Producer JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Hand lettering of the song title on the 1914 sheet music for “Dear Old Girl” was the working model for Old Songs JNL. A condensed Roman typeface available in both regular and oblique versions, this titling font exhibits a casual, nonconformist design that isn’t quite traditional, nor is it part of the Art Nouveau movement popular at the time.

One of the classic designs of the wood type era is Hamilton Gothic Bold [from the Hamilton Wood Type Foundry circa 1889]. Clean and timeless, it even had found a resurgence during the rock and roll posters of the 1960s, where vintage wood types and Art Nouveau influences merged with the “Hippie Counterculture”. Wood Gothic JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The hand lettered words "favorite songs" in the masthead of the 1940s British music collection "Albert's Favourite Song Album No. 4" inspired Song Vendor JNL, which is available in regular and oblique versions.

Adhesive Letters JNL was drawn from sample letters and numbers once manufactured by the Tablet and Ticket Company of Chicago. Originally sold under the brand name of Willson's, these gummed letters were available in a number of styles and sizes.

Brazil Nut JNL comes from hand lettering on some 1920s sheet music from Florenz Ziegfeld's musical comedy "Rio Rita".

Based on a few examples of an Art Nouveau-inspired wood type, Nouveau Sans JNL has an interesting mix of angles, curves and general letter shapes that are reminiscent of the period preceding the Art Deco streamline movement.

In older American slang, a "bum steer" is a bad tip, some bad advice or being sent in the wrong direction (to name a few examples). Bum Steer JNL was modeled from some playful hand lettering found on a piece of early 20th Century sheet music entitled "When Uncle Joe Plays a Rag on His Old Banjo". It's very possible that "Hobo" (a popular type design of the time) was a strong influence on the sheet music's style of title lettering. It seems that songwriters in those bygone days were prone to cramming as many words from a line of their song into the title itself. Another such example of a wordy song title which coincidently is in keeping with the theme of a "bum steer" (pun intended) is a novelty number from 1915: "Cows May Come and Cows May Go but the Bull Goes on Forever" (words by Vincent Bryan, music by Harry Von Tilzer). [It's kind of self-descriptive, don't you think?]

Brass Rail JNL is a novelty font, with its name derived from two key components of the source material. It was modeled from examples of vintage small letters stamped out of brass with "rails" above and below each character to fit within a slot. The most likely use of these letters would have been for either decorative initials or small merchandising signs (similar examples of both have been seen in the past). From these few examples comes a typeface with numerals, punctuation and an extended character set.

Sheet Music JNL was based on lettering found on an old piece of 1930s-era sheet music being sold at a local rummage sale.

Twenty-Six various styles of document seals comprise Embossing Seals JNL. With a little imagination any plain document can take on an "official" look by adding text and a few special effects to the finished image.

Another filter effect version of Adhesive Serif Letters JNL (of which the original design was modeled after some vintage gummed letters used for signage) and is called Shattered Dreams JNL. This variant has jagged edges all around and is kind of reminiscent of shapes you could make with a small magnet and iron filings. Shattered Dreams JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Metal Stencil JNL is a digital reconstruction of the brass stencil set used as a model for French Stencil JNL. Each character sits on its own individual 'card'. There is a limited character set consisting of letters, numbers, punctuation and a few extra glyphs including foreign currency symbols.

Saddle Hitch JNL is a Western font inspired by a few words set in a decorative typeface from an 1887 publication.