From nice ladies to evil clowns.

A beautiful and stylish pen lettered alphabet appears within the pages of the 1921 publication “How to Write Show Cards” and its Art Nouveau stylings made it a perfect candidate for a digital revival. Pleasant Show Card JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Alf Becker graced the pages of "Signs of the Times" magazine month after month for decades, presenting attractive and unusual hand lettered alphabets as inspiration for other sign painters and show card writers. From straightforward text faces to novelty ideas, Becker's talent as a master sign crafter was constant in his work. Show Card Casual JNL is one example of what is referred to as a "one stroke" alphabet (utilizing a single brush stroke in each direction to form the letter or number). Its casual look and playful charm allow for a message to be presented in an informal format that is pleasing to the eye. The type design is available in both regular and oblique versions. Special thanks to Tod Swormstedt of ST Publications for providing the reference material.

The title and credits for the 1951 Dick Powell and Rhonda Fleming film “Cry Danger” were hand lettered in a freehand brush lettering often seen on store signs and show cards. Serving as the model for Show Card Freehand JNL, this pleasant and casual typeface is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Art Nouveau serif capitals and numerals in the 1917 instructional book “A Roman Alphabet and How to Use It” were the inspiration for Show Card Roman JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

Show Card Sans JNL (available in both regular and oblique versions) is based on a chart showing the basic construction of sans serif lettering in the 1922 instruction book “Modern Show Card Writing”.

If you take the South Shore Line from Chicago to South Bend, your train will pass though the small community of Beverly Shores, Indiana. The beautifully restored and highly colorful “Beverly Shores” train station sign not far from the Lake Michigan beach is the source of inspiration for this connecting script typeface. The sign’s existing ten letters have now been extended to include the entire alphabet. This old-fashioned depot letterstyle is much in the spirit of such faces as Fulton Sign and Inserat Cursive. Ascenders and descenders have been lengthened and capitals are now much larger. Alternate lowercase swashes, capitals, and small figures have been included for your convenience. And custom uphill words such as “The,” “for,” and “to” have been added for more novelty and spark in headline settings. Beverly Shores Script with Alternates is also available in the OpenType Std format. Some new characters including old style figures have been added to this OpenType version. Advanced features currently work in Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress 7. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades. All aboard for Beverly Shores!

The 1920 edition of “How to Paint Signs and Sho’ Cards” by E. C. Matthews offered a number of examples of then-modern lettering styles for sign painters and show card writers. A bold display alphabet made with a round lettering nib is now available as Show Card Pen JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

A playful, casual take on round nib pen lettering was spotted amongst some online scans from an old lettering book. The free-form and stylized shapes of the letters and numbers are reminiscent of old-time show cards, movie titles and signage in vogue around the early 1900s through the 1920s. Fancy Show Card JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Driver's License photos from the zoo.

Show Card Deco JNL is a hybrid of examples from hand lettered titles found on various song folios from the Carl Fischer Music Library circa the 1930s and is available in both regular and oblique versions. This particular typeface lends itself perfectly to show cards, posters, headlines and display titling which captures the modern, streamlined design of the Art Deco era.

For decades, the National Show Card Writer Company of Minneapolis, MN produced sign making kits used by shopkeepers, schools, churches and many other types of organizations. The standard sets were comprised of two part stencils that when overlaid, produced finished lettering, or a buyer could choose the same type style designs with a standard stencil letter. From one of these templates comes Show Card Stencil JNL, in both regular and oblique versions. Take note that the U, V and W have the heavier vertical strokes reversed. As this was the way the original stencil design was manufactured, it has been retained for this digital type as well.

One example in the 1919 instructional book “One Hundred Alphabets for the Show Card Writer” was for an elegant sans serif with a subtle Art Nouveau style to the letter forms. This is now available digitally as Show Card Elite JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

The very first Speedball-Lettering Book was published in 1915, and within its pages was a rough-hewn example of lettering with the name "Rapid Sho-Card Style". The design is now available as Antique Show Card JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

A movie poster for the 1952 Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis comedy “Sailor Beware” had the text rendered in a casual style of brush lettering similar to that found on store show cards. This inspired Show Card Brush JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A whimsical array of pointers designed with semi-traditional Greek fret pattern (up/down/left/right) - great for adding directions or pointers to documents, maps, posters, greetings, or simply used as decorative elements. See also 4Point Deco and 4Point Florals.

Prince and Princess Charming are very extravagant and extroverted about their feelings. Prince Charming puts a heart on everything. If you're convinced that you love you've got to go with Prince Charming. Compared to the Prince, Princess Charming puts more hearts on every letter. Convince that you have to be loved: follow Princess Charming. As you would expect from Aristocrats the family members are fluent in many languages and have a surprising extensive character set that even covers Cyrillic. Prince and Princess Charming are a part of the Light Hearted Font Collection that is inspired by a recording of Jean Baudrillard with the title, "Die Macht der Verführung" (The Power of Seduction) from 2006. Further inspiration came from the article, "The shape of the heart: I'm all yours". The heart represents sacred and secular love: a bloodless sacrifice. by British writer Louisa Young printed in EYE magazine (#43) London, 2002.

Point of Sale JNL is a specialty font for producing retro-style price cards, tags, stickers, labels and similar items. Within this design are a large set of numerals and two smaller sets of numerals. Both of the smaller sets are centered against the larger ones with one set also having underscores. In addition, there are a number of price card designs provided for those who want a truly nostalgic feel to their price marks. The layout of Point of Sale JNL breaks down as follows: A through J = 1 through zero in large numbers K = a decimal point L = dollar sign M = cents sign N through Z = various price cards a through j = small centered numbers k through t = small numbers with underscores

This family was created inspired from two French (one so common and a very rare large one) "toy print" boxes, named Le petit imprimeur, with rubber stamp characters from the 1920's. The big difference from our 1920 My Toy print is that this font is complete, with upper and lower cases, accented, complete punctuation and some symbols. The doubly of each usual character in each style (A-Z/a-z and numerals) allow to give a rich and variously uneven appearance, looking like the results of the real use of those old rubber stamps, with bad kernings and alignement. The font is containing West (including Celtic), Central, East European, Turkish and Cyrillic characters. The bold style may be used as a reinforcement, mixed with normal style without disadvantage, allowing finally four choices for each usual letter... The original size is 6mm (about 17 pts).

A hand drawn, quirky brush marker font. Contains Western and Central European accents.