Schism is a modulated sans-serif, originally developed from our Alias Didot typeface, as a serif-less version of the same design. It was expanded to three sub-families, with the thin stroke getting progressively heavier from Schism One to Schism Three. The different versions explore how this change in contrast between thick and thin strokes changes the character of the letterforms. The shape is maintained, but the emphasis shifts from rounded to angular, elegant to incised. Schism One has high contrast, and the same weight of thin stroke from Light to Black. Letter endings are at horizontal or vertical, giving a pinched, constricted shape for characters such as a, c, e and s. The h, m, n and u have a sharp connection between curve and vertical, and are high shouldered, giving a slightly square shape. The r and y have a thick stress at their horizontal endings, which makes them impactful and striking at bolder weights. Though derived from an elegant, classic form, Schism feels austere rather than flowery. It doesn’t have the flourishes of other modulated sans typefaces, its aesthetic more a kind of graphic-tinged utility. While in Schism Two and Three the thin stroke gets progressively heavier, the connections between vertical and curves — in a, b, n etc — remain cut to an incised point throughout. The effect is that Schism looks chiselled and textural across all weights. Forms maintain a clear, defined shape even in Bold and Black, and don’t have the bloated, wide and heavy appearance heavy weights can have. The change in the thickness of the thin stroke in different versions of the same weight of a typeface is called grading. This is often used when the types are to used in problematic print surfaces such as newsprint, or at small sizes — where thin strokes might bleed, and counters fill in and lose clarity, or detail might be lost or be too thin to register. The different gradings are incremental and can be quite subtle. In Schism it is extreme, and used as a design device, giving three connected but separate styles, from Sans-Didot to almost-Grotesk. The name Schism suggests the differences in shape and style in Schism One, Two and Three. Three styles with distinct differences, from the same start point.

Sortie Super is a take on one of the kings of display lettering - Caslon's high-contrast, reversed stress 'Italian' style. It looks great at big sizes and in short flurries... and shouldn't be used in confined spaces.  When compared with the original face, the weight and contrast of Sortie Super has been exaggerated. To add gravity to the letters I've increased their width overall and reduced the spacing to a hair-line fracture for added visual impact. Characters like 'S', 'E','O' and 'Z' are relatively close to their historical precedents - however the terminals on the 'C-G-S-З-Є', which have been drawn so to be more consistent. Other aspects, such as the leg of the 'R' and 'Я', the apex of the 'A' and the spur of the 'G' are revised and simplified, to help spacing and optical weight across the alphabet. Also, to reduce visual noise terminals in characters like 'C', 'J' and 'R'' are horizontally aligned. Meanwhile, the central horizontal strokes in the 'B', 'P' and 'R' etc are reduced to a hairline, so as to create a more simplified system of thick-to-thin.  The temptation when drawing this kind of esoteric display alphabet is to start to rely on modular components. Which, while copy-paste-repeat is a sure-fire way to make the face more visually consistent, it's a lazy method that risks allowing the font become soulless and mechanical. An early experiment I made was making a monospaced version, which was useful in headlines, but it lost that loving feeling. So, by maintaining a handful of flourishes – the tail of the '?', the inky drop of the '!', the bulbous gloop of arms of the 'Ж' and 'К', the swirling legs in the 'R', 'Я' and 'Л', the big-bowling weight of the 'J' and 'U' – plus a few in-built inconsistencies and a bit of its own silliness, Sortie Super retains some of the organic warmth of its ancestor. Conversely, the counters, apertures and negative space are largely rigidly geometric, which helps give the revival font a bit of a modern touch. Sortie Super is an uppercase-only display font that comes with Western, Central and East European Latin, extended Cyrillic, Pinyin, as well as a set of hairline graphic features and symbols.

Schism is a modulated sans-serif, originally developed from our Alias Didot typeface, as a serif-less version of the same design. It was expanded to three sub-families, with the thin stroke getting progressively heavier from Schism One to Schism Three. The different versions explore how this change in contrast between thick and thin strokes changes the character of the letterforms. The shape is maintained, but the emphasis shifts from rounded to angular, elegant to incised. Schism One has high contrast, and the same weight of thin stroke from Light to Black. Letter endings are at horizontal or vertical, giving a pinched, constricted shape for characters such as a, c, e and s. The h, m, n and u have a sharp connection between curve and vertical, and are high shouldered, giving a slightly square shape. The r and y have a thick stress at their horizontal endings, which makes them impactful and striking at bolder weights. Though derived from an elegant, classic form, Schism feels austere rather than flowery. It doesn’t have the flourishes of other modulated sans typefaces, its aesthetic more a kind of graphic-tinged utility. While in Schism Two and Three the thin stroke gets progressively heavier, the connections between vertical and curves — in a, b, n etc — remain cut to an incised point throughout. The effect is that Schism looks chiselled and textural across all weights. Forms maintain a clear, defined shape even in Bold and Black, and don’t have the bloated, wide and heavy appearance heavy weights can have. The change in the thickness of the thin stroke in different versions of the same weight of a typeface is called grading. This is often used when the types are to used in problematic print surfaces such as newsprint, or at small sizes — where thin strokes might bleed, and counters fill in and lose clarity, or detail might be lost or be too thin to register. The different gradings are incremental and can be quite subtle. In Schism it is extreme, and used as a design device, giving three connected but separate styles, from Sans-Didot to almost-Grotesk. The name Schism suggests the differences in shape and style in Schism One, Two and Three. Three styles with distinct differences, from the same start point.

Introducing Fragilità, a captivating serif font that embodies the delicate balance of classic elegance and modern innovation. With its exquisitely crafted characters, high contrast, and subtle ligatures, Fragilità seamlessly blends the charm of yesterday with the spirit of today. Fragilità's unique design harmoniously blends elements of both retro and modern aesthetics. Its condensed letterforms evoke a touch of nostalgia, reminiscent of classic serif fonts from the past. Yet, the font's modern sensibilities shine through in its circular O, Q, and C characters, which retain their full circularity, adding a touch of contemporary sophistication. Fragilità's high contrast between the thick and thin strokes of its characters ensures exceptional readability across various mediums. Whether gracing the pages of a book, adorning a website, or captivating viewers on a digital screen, Fragilità remains effortlessly legible. Fragilità's extensive library of ligatures adds a touch of refinement and sophistication to your text. These intricate pairings of letters flow seamlessly together, creating a sense of continuity and elegance that elevates your written expression. Fragilità's comprehensive support for over 92 languages makes it an invaluable tool for anyone seeking a versatile font that can transcend cultural boundaries. With its adaptability to a wide range of languages, Fragilità ensures that your message resonates with audiences worldwide. We understand that quality fonts shouldn't be a luxury reserved for a select few. That's why Fragilità is available for an incredibly affordable price of just $24, making it accessible to designers and creative professionals of all levels. With its exquisite design, exceptional readability, and ligature-rich character, Fragilità is a font that will elevate your creative projects to new heights. Whether you're crafting elegant body text, designing eye-catching headlines, or creating captivating marketing materials, Fragilità will add a touch of timeless elegance and modern sophistication to your work. Embrace the delicate balance of classic charm and modern innovation with Fragilità, your new go-to serif font for all your creative endeavors. Would you like to get 5 completely free fonts worth over $75? No tricks, no hidden words, terms or anything. Just subscribe to my newsletter, make sure to check your email to approve the subscription, add me to your contacts so that the emails don't end up in spam folder and you will get 5 fonts for free. The fonts are packed with alternates, ligatures and some even come with extra goodies. https://view.flodesk.com/pages/63594052b967a943dd6cc528 Happy creating everyone!

Schism is a modulated sans-serif, originally developed from our Alias Didot typeface, as a serif-less version of the same design. It was expanded to three sub-families, with the thin stroke getting progressively heavier from Schism One to Schism Three. The different versions explore how this change in contrast between thick and thin strokes changes the character of the letterforms. The shape is maintained, but the emphasis shifts from rounded to angular, elegant to incised. Schism One has high contrast, and the same weight of thin stroke from Light to Black. Letter endings are at horizontal or vertical, giving a pinched, constricted shape for characters such as a, c, e and s. The h, m, n and u have a sharp connection between curve and vertical, and are high shouldered, giving a slightly square shape. The r and y have a thick stress at their horizontal endings, which makes them impactful and striking at bolder weights. Though derived from an elegant, classic form, Schism feels austere rather than flowery. It doesn’t have the flourishes of other modulated sans typefaces, its aesthetic more a kind of graphic-tinged utility. While in Schism Two and Three the thin stroke gets progressively heavier, the connections between vertical and curves — in a, b, n etc — remain cut to an incised point throughout. The effect is that Schism looks chiselled and textural across all weights. Forms maintain a clear, defined shape even in Bold and Black, and don’t have the bloated, wide and heavy appearance heavy weights can have. The change in the thickness of the thin stroke in different versions of the same weight of a typeface is called grading. This is often used when the types are to used in problematic print surfaces such as newsprint, or at small sizes — where thin strokes might bleed, and counters fill in and lose clarity, or detail might be lost or be too thin to register. The different gradings are incremental and can be quite subtle. In Schism it is extreme, and used as a design device, giving three connected but separate styles, from Sans-Didot to almost-Grotesk. The name Schism suggests the differences in shape and style in Schism One, Two and Three. Three styles with distinct differences, from the same start point.

TT Octosquares useful links: Specimen | Graphic presentation | Customization options TT Octosquares is a fresh, revised, expanded, and significantly improved version of our first commercial typeface TT Squares and its narrow version TT Squares Condensed. With all our love for the original font family, it felt there was a lack of functionality, character composition, features, and design freshness, which prompted us to the idea of a complete restart. Now TT Octosquares can be safely called a superfamily consisting of 4 widths (Compressed, Condensed, Standard, Expanded), 72 faces (18 in each width), and 1 incredible variable font in which variability works jointly on three axes. In addition to working on the contours themselves and their design, we completely revised the composition of the typeface. First, we added two completely new widths: Compressed and Expanded. Secondly, we increased the number of weights in each of the subfamilies—while in the old versions there were 5 weights, now in each of the subfamilies there are 9 weights. At the stage of working with the contours of characters, we revised the roundings, changed the forms of shoulder and stem crossings, added noticeable shelves at the letters, removed the sharpness from the triangular characters and cut off all sharp endings. From the very beginning of work on TT Octosquares, we planned to make a variable 3-axis version of it sewn into 1 font file. This means that by installing just one variable font file, you get access to three axial adjustment of the font: by thickness, width and inclination. Thanks to this flexibility in settings, you can always choose a custom combination of thickness, width or inclination that best suits your tasks. Due to the increased language support and the appearance of a bunch of useful OpenType features, the number of glyphs in the typeface has increased from 480 to 825 in each style. Now you can use stylistic alternates, standard and discretionary ligatures, or use old-style figures, numbers in circles and even slashed zeros in your design. Full list of features: aalt, mark, mkmk, ccmp, subs, sinf, sups, numr, dnom, frac, ordn, lnum, pnum, tnum, onum, case, zero, dlig, liga, salt, ss01, ss02, ss03, ss04, ss05, ss06, ss07, ss08, ss09, ss10, ss11, ss12, calt, locl. To use the variable font with three variable axes on Mac you will need MacOS 10.14 or higher. For other software and browsers, you can check the support status here: v-fonts.com/support/.

Selected as one of “Our Favorite Typefaces of 2013” by Typographica.org, Dark Angel is the first completely new take in decades on the traditional “blackletter” font style. It began its journey towards the light years ago when this style was born as a sketch for a new logo for the California Angels baseball team (renamed shortly thereafter the Anaheim Angels). The Angels logo never happened, but that sketch has risen from the dead and become the basis for this brand new font design—and was also the source for the name. It’s kind of blackletter in feel, but as a display font it’s so much more. It is far more legible than most “Old English” or “Gothic Script” styles, and incorporates many features never before seen in them, such as swashes, tails and a plethora of ligatures. Dark Angel can be purchased in its regular solid form, or as Dark Angel Underlight—a handtooled font. If these two fonts are purchased together, the Family package will contain a third font—Dark Angel Highlight. With this font layered over the basic font, you can achieve two–color typesetting when the highlight and the base font are assigned two different colors. Dark Angel has enough language support to make the builders of Babel envious—its 1,163 glyphs can be used to set copy in 59 different languages. From A to Z: Afrikaans, Albanian, Basque, Bemba, Bosnian, Catalan, Cornish, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Ganda, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Kalaallisut, Kamba, Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Lithuanian, Luo, Malagasy, Malay, Maltese, Manx, Morisyen, North Ndebele, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Nyankole, Oromo, Polish, Portuguese, Romansh, Sango, Shona, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Swiss German, Turkish, Welsh, and last (but not least) Zulu. PLEASE NOTE: Dark Angel is a cross-platform font which depends to some extent on certain advanced OpenType features, therefore it can be used to its full potential only with programs that support those features. ADDITIONALLY: When setting Dark Angel one should ALWAYS select the “Standard Ligatures" and “Contextual Alternates” buttons in your OpenType palette. Please see the “Read–Me–First!” file in the Gallery section.

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."

Mencap When most of us go about everyday tasks, we take for granted the reading that’s involved, on instructions, labels and so on. For people with learning disabilities, reading is made much harder by certain fonts. FS Me is designed specifically to improve legibility for people with learning disabilities. The font was researched and developed with – and endorsed by – Mencap, the UK’s leading charity and voice for those with learning disabilities. Mencap receive a donation for each font license purchased. Every letter of FS Me was tested for its appeal and readability with a range of learning disability groups across the UK. Inclusive Fontsmith were determined to design a font that was accessible to those with learning disabilities without standing out as such – one that was inclusive of all readers. It should comply with accessibility guidelines and work best at 12pt, but still have a character of its own that was warm and approachable. “So much accessible design is done separately to the main body of brand work,” says Jason Smith. “We wanted to make a typeface that covered both brand tone and neutrality, and that could be used legitimately as a brand font as well as in accessible design.” Me, you, everyone FS Me is about design that doesn’t patronise. People with learning disabilities are often treated as inferior by childlike design. FS Me is designed for adults, not children – a beautifully-designed font for everyone. Its features include very subtle distinguishing elements of each letter to aid the reading and comprehension of texts, and tails, ascenders and descenders that have been extended for extra clarity. What the people said... Here is a sample of comments from the extensive research groups that helped to shape the letterforms of FS Me: “I want something round, clear and friendly.” “We like movement in the letters but don’t want anything childish.” “The ‘b’ and ‘d’ need to be different as they can be confused.” “I prefer the handwriting-style ‘a’.” “It’s important to have an accessible ‘a’ and ‘g’. Teachers sometimes complain that learners cannot read or understand the inaccessible ‘a’ and ‘g’.”

Mencap When most of us go about everyday tasks, we take for granted the reading that’s involved, on instructions, labels and so on. For people with learning disabilities, reading is made much harder by certain fonts. FS Me is designed specifically to improve legibility for people with learning disabilities. The font was researched and developed with – and endorsed by – Mencap, the UK’s leading charity and voice for those with learning disabilities. Mencap receive a donation for each font license purchased. Every letter of FS Me was tested for its appeal and readability with a range of learning disability groups across the UK. Inclusive Fontsmith were determined to design a font that was accessible to those with learning disabilities without standing out as such – one that was inclusive of all readers. It should comply with accessibility guidelines and work best at 12pt, but still have a character of its own that was warm and approachable. “So much accessible design is done separately to the main body of brand work,” says Jason Smith. “We wanted to make a typeface that covered both brand tone and neutrality, and that could be used legitimately as a brand font as well as in accessible design.” Me, you, everyone FS Me is about design that doesn’t patronise. People with learning disabilities are often treated as inferior by childlike design. FS Me is designed for adults, not children – a beautifully-designed font for everyone. Its features include very subtle distinguishing elements of each letter to aid the reading and comprehension of texts, and tails, ascenders and descenders that have been extended for extra clarity. What the people said... Here is a sample of comments from the extensive research groups that helped to shape the letterforms of FS Me: “I want something round, clear and friendly.” “We like movement in the letters but don’t want anything childish.” “The ‘b’ and ‘d’ need to be different as they can be confused.” “I prefer the handwriting-style ‘a’.” “It’s important to have an accessible ‘a’ and ‘g’. Teachers sometimes complain that learners cannot read or understand the inaccessible ‘a’ and ‘g’.”

Oita might be a carefully crafted typeface family, created by a meat-bag human. Or, it might have been made by a supremely clever sentient robot. Found in the dark recesses of a top secret spy agency’s quantum computer, this font came with this somewhat unusual description, which is presented without comment. "To conquer, we cannot simply overcome. Success is found in supremacy--in the dominance of Oita. While looking for the right tool for this success, our research has led us to the finely executed forms found of military domination throughout history. In our labs, we've used our specialized machines to harness these forms' power and refined their impact through elements of contemporary and computer design. The structure proves to be robotic and squared on its edges. However, the chutzpah of this technical face still allows it to pass as if created by human hands. Our resulting payload, Oita, is modern and sturdy. While based on a practical, octagonal structure, make no mistake; this new instrument will drive forward the energy you want to push through your projects. Oita has 42 cuts certain to encompass your designs on world domination. Each font contains the glyphs to support over 52 languages. The font also includes tabular and lining figures, numerous ligatures, and selected advanced Opentype options, including stencil and experimental options to bring out the dynamic characteristics that have already been crafted into Oita. Early tests have found that the new instrument is easily scalable to smaller dimensions without reducing its impact. The font remains highly readable across a variety of applications. We speculate from our findings that it will be successful for sporting and technical applications. So for you who venture to use Oita, use it boldly. Don't just overcome. Dominate. Go and conquer mightily with Oita. We'll be watching." We may never know whether Oita hails from mind or mechanism. What we do know is that, should you choose to take on Oita, you'll be acquiring a dynamic poster and packaging face, a minigun-toting bad robot of a font that exudes pace and power.

When Dupla was designed, its DNA shown the best of the typographic heritage from the XIX century types, the oldest san serif known, also named as “Grotesk”, a soft synonym for bizarre, unnatural weird. XIX century Germans' eyes were surprised, astonished by the formal strangeness that provoked the mutilation of the well known serifed types. But the skeleton and DNA are barely perceptible, an invisible part of the nature of objects. We are interested in the epidermis, the outer, the visible, which directly speak to the eyes, and Dupla tells us with overwhelming presence, that is a formal, traditional type, covered with a childlike sweetness, with slight curves, epidermic, sweetening even ink’s traps up. Frutiger said that Latin alphabet letter’s minimum skeleton is like a lock where you should fit all the letters you see, but that skeleton allows many skins. We use a different skin for every specific use. And Dupla’s skin points to how generous, how friendly it is; the sweetness of the big and good-natured. They do not feel very comfortable in low-cost airplanes company’s seats, but in the proper location with enough room, they'll fill the atmosphere with kindness. Do not ask for narrow columns, or terse captions in squalid sizes; do not ask for ridiculous “small print” in dark contracts where «The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part …» That’s not for Dupla. Large headlines, generous width columns to cover, rude pullquotes half-breaking columns, loud exclamations, great sizes, with black weights. It’s in the insultingly generous, almost obscene use where Dupla is felt. And if you consider this a obscene, gargantuan, typographical feast, Dupla brings you everything to demonstrate that quantity does not mean less quality. Multi-language support, Latin plus full coverage, complete sets of small caps, fractions, old numerals, modern, tabular, bonds and all the “gourmet” paraphernalia that Patau has accustomed us, after many years of work. If you want to be obscene and pass the censorship, use Dupla. Hedonism is just a venial sin.

Because you demanded it, the Aviano series is back with a variable version of the futuristic sans serif Aviano Future. Aviano Future’s strong letterforms will make you look like a rock star. Aviano Future Variable is a medium-contrast sans serif titling face that has a bold and futuristic look. It has a bowed square shape which gives it an interesting appearance that is both unique and eye-catching. Given that it has a variable axis any weight can be selected with no loss of clarity or legibility. Aviano Future's expanded forms give the letterforms heft and intensity. Aviano Future is a powerful yet adaptable title face that builds on the award-winning traits of Aviano and elevates them. Aviano Future Variable contains a ton of OpenType capabilities and comes in ten different defined weight instances with "fast" italic forms for emphasis. Want to use more traditional rounded forms? Need swash forms? Art Deco alternates? Aviano Future includes 400 alternate characters. Twelve style sets are available, two sets of art deco inspired alternates, small forms, tough swash, constructivist titling and traditional stylistic alternates. Aviano Future also includes 40 discretionary ligatures for artistic typographic compositions. Additionally, there are glyphs in this family to accommodate a variety of languages, and Cyrillic support was added in 2022. An extensive selection of sans serif typographic systems can be found in the Aviano family. The typefaces can be used alone or in combination to suit the needs of any project. The family's fonts have all been meticulously designed to assist ensure maximum impact and usability at any size. Aviano, Aviano Serif, Aviano Sans, Aviano Didone, Aviano Flare, Aviano Copper, and Aviano Slab are presently part of the Aviano collection. A skilled designer who wishes to create a technological, futuristic, or epic design should consider Aviano Future. Aviano Future Variable will make your design stand out from the competition, regardless of whether you are designing a logo, poster, flyer, website header, or banner ad. Why wait? With the exciting and versatile Aviano Future Variable at your disposal, reach new heights and create a brand that stands out from the rest.

ALS Direct is an open and dynamic typeface with clear-cut letterforms that make it instantly readable. It lends text a neutral, yet agreeable and modern feel. Direct has nine font styles convenient for the purposes of navigation signage. Regular-style letterforms are rather wide, because direction signs are likely to appear before readers at an angle, so the type needs to withstand perspective distortions. And as signs and boards may vary in size, Direct was developed to include several width variations. Condensed fonts can be used where horizontal space is limited, allowing you to keep proper height and readability of the characters. A signage typeface must be easily readable from some distance away and have simple letterfoms with clear-cut features to quickly identify characters. Designing a type for a potentially wide range of purposes calls for a universal approach. If not destined to be used for navigation in a particular building, it shouldn’t incorporate any peculiar elements to agree with certain design or architecture. All of the above determined our choice of a sans serif with large apertures and definite features allowing readers to instantly recognize letters. Descenders are made compact not to interfere with the line below. And the low contrast between thick and thin strokes renders all elements equally perceptible. The x-height is significant, close to the cap height, which inhances readability of the lowercase type. There are two reasons why directions must not be set in all caps. Firstly, lowercase letters are more diverse and include ascenders and descenders identifying some of the letters in the line. And secondly, having learned to read, people recognize word shapes rather than individual letters, which makes lowercase text more readable. With Direct being a signage typeface, first to be developed were its width variations, and different weight styles and italics were added later. Another thing to be kept in mind was that signs often use dark background colors, and black type on a white background appears smaller than white type on a black background. Direct is the first Cyrillic typeface created for navigation purposes. Before that, designers could use the Cyrillic version of Frutiger (Freeset) developed by Adrian Frutiger for the Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport, and a number of other, mostly body copy, neutral sans serif types. However, signs and boards were dominated by Arial, which Direct would be glad to replace offering elegance and lucidity of form instead of type bluntess. Direct was designed as a signage typeface, but its neutral style and clear-cut letterforms suggest various other ways of application.

Winslow Title is a high contrast modern type family comes in two styles and a monolinear script family. The traditional proportions of Winslow Title are historical in nature and follow the design and style of Winslow Book as a high contrast variant. The Winslow Title Mod family is a contemporary take on the style, with tapering terminals and less pronounced finials. Each family includes both styles, to be accessed through the opentype panel as a stylistic alternate. If preferable, you can purchase the entire family collection to have easier access to both styles, but it's not necessary. The typeface family comprises of roman and italic styles in six weights from Thin to Black and two widths in the roman style: Regular and Narrow. The accompanying script family has a single weight but offers five tracking widths, from Narrow to Wide. The bundle is an elegant combination of styles perfect for titling and display design. The serif typeface is packed with features that make ideal titling styles. Not only do they include the Stylistic Alternates, but also Titling Alternates, Discretionary Ligatures, Small Capitals, Swashes and Contextual Ligatures. As noted previously, the typeface comes in two styles, Traditional and Modern. Each can be accessed either by the Stylistic Alternates or Stylistic Sets. Titling Alternates are alternates that expand the ball terminals to K, R, V, W, and Y (see Titling Alternates slide). Contextual Ligatures are for capital combinations with A that tighten the gap created by the extended serifs. It connects characters with a pairing serif (the lower right serif of the M with the lower right serif of the A) and bridges them together. This combination works for single and multiple A combinations. It is turned on automatically in the Opentype panel and shouldn’t need to be accessed individually. Alternatively, the Discretionary Ligatures feature combines diagonal or baseline stems with lifted small capitals, creating a unique combination of characters. Swashes is an extensive feature that offers up to five swash options per many of each character. These can be selected via the Glyphs panel or as character alternates in Adobe programs. The Script family has a feature set of it’s own, with initial and final swashes on lowercase letters, middle swashes for select characters, and a titling feature that joins words together by replacing the space with a line. Stylistic alternates create a bouncing baseline on connecting strokes. *Note: there is no great need to purchase both families as all styles can be accessed via Opentype features, but if customers prefer to purchase both styles, it can be done by selecting the Complete Typeface Family collection.

Harald Geisler wants to make you as brilliant as Albert Einstein. Or at least let you write like him. Or at least write in his handwriting. — The Wall Street Journal Imagine you could write like Albert Einstein. The Albert Einstein font enables you to do exactly that. In an joined effort, creators Harald Geisler and Elizabeth Waterhouse, spend over 7 years on finalising the project. It was made possible with the help of the Albert Einstein Archive, the Albert Einstein Estate, and funding by a successful Kickstarter Campaign of 2, 334 backers. The outcome was worth the effort: a font unprecedented in aesthetic technique and a benchmark for handwriting fonts. To create a result that is true to the original, Harald Geisler developed a method to analyse the movement of the famous writer. Letter by letter, every glyph was digitally re-written to create a seamlessly working font. It is the only font that holds 5 variations for each lowercase and uppercase-letter, number, and punctuation sign. Each based on meticulous detail to the original samples of Albert Einstein’s handwriting. The OpenType contextual alternates feature dynamically arranges the letters automatically as you type to ensure that no repeated letter forms are placed next to each other. Stylistic variants can also be accessed through stylistic sets. The font has 10 fine-tuned weights ranging from extra-light to fine and extra bold to heavy. The result is a vivid handwritten text true to the original. A PDF documentation, showing step by step how the font was made and comparing numerous original samples, is included with the font and can be downloaded here. The work has been recognised internationally, by press, Einstein fans, and designers. Some quotes used in images: “The font is beautiful“ — Washington Post “If you could write like Einstein, would it help you to think like Einstein?” — The Times (London) “Finally, if your colleagues aren’t taking you seriously, then perhaps you could start sending e-mails in a new font that mimics the handwriting of Albert Einstein.” — Physics World “Geisler and Waterhouse are really asking deeper questions about the diminishing (or evolving) role of our flawed, variable penmanship as a conduit of thought in today’s pixel-perfect landscape.” — QUARTZ “Your writing will look imaginative — which is exactly what Einstein would've wanted." — Huffington Post Arts & Culture "Forget Myriad Pro, Helvetica or Futura. The only font you’ll ever need" — Gizmodo “Capture a piece of Einstein's genius in your own writing." — Mashable

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/

Introducing Warugaki: a typeface that defies convention and eschews predictability. With a bold, untamed energy that is deeply rooted in mid-century Japanese style, Warugaki captures the essence of a bygone era while remaining firmly anchored in the present. But don’t be fooled by its seemingly disorganized appearance—this headline typeface is the result of a meticulous subtractive process that imbues each letterform with a sense of organic authenticity. The edge technique used is reminiscent of a handcrafted silk screen or wax dye resist, resulting in compact letterforms that exude a sense of raw, unbridled energy. But Warugaki is more than just a typeface—it’s an experience. With bespoke letter combinations and alternate letters in the lowercase position, each word you create with Warugaki is a unique expression of your own creative vision. No two designs will ever be the same, and that’s exactly the way it should be. So if you’re looking to break free from the constraints of traditional typography and embrace a more spontaneous, expressive approach to design, look no further than Warugaki. This is a typeface that will take your work to new heights, and leave a lasting impression on anyone who sees it. Most Latin-based European, Vietnamese, Greek, and most Cyrillic-based writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Buryat, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dungan, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Gikuyu, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaingang, Khalkha, Kalmyk, Kanuri, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kazakh, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Komi-Permyak, Kurdish, Kurdish (Latin), Kyrgyz, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Macedonian, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Nahuatl, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Russian, Rusyn, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tajik, Tatar, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Uzbek (Latin), Venda, Venetian, Vepsian, Vietnamese, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xavante, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec, Zarma, Zazaki, Zulu and Zuni.

IMPORTANT – Please consider the superior Carrig Pro before making a purchase decision. Carrig started its life in 1998. I was working for a design agency in Cork, Ireland and was given a new brand identity project for a lakeside hotel in County Kerry. While visiting the hotel I made various sketches of the surroundings and upon returning to the studio, it was clear that my strongest ideas for the identity would be based on these freehand drawings. I wanted a classic, rough, hand-drawn typeface to complement this style but at that time, the studio didn’t have anything suitable, so I decided to draw my own. I found a Trajan-esque typeface that I really liked the look of in an old calligraphy workbook. I set about drawing my own version and then digitised it. Once the client had seen and approved my design, I began working on creating a complete all caps typeface to use for the hotel’s stationery. With ‘carrig’ being the Gaelic word for ‘rock’, my new typeface was all the more appropriate as it had the appearance of letterforms that had been carved into stone and weathered by time. With the project completed and the client happy, Carrig then sat in my unused fonts folder for several years... but there was always a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that I should do something more with it. So, in the autumn of 2014, I finally set about doing just that and created the font family you now find at MyFonts. Carrig’s form and structure was influenced by a hybrid of Classic Roman and Garalde typeface designs. The original calligraphic elements from the 1998 version of Carrig have been retained to add personality—as can be seen in the serifs, strokes, spurs, terminals and open bowls. Perhaps its most distinctive trait is a high x-height combined with relatively short ascenders. I wanted Carrig to immediately resonate with the reader and have designed it to be familiar and friendly. I imagine designers might choose Carrig as an alternative to such typefaces as Trajan, Garamond and Baskerville. I see Carrig as primarily a display typeface for titles/headlines in printed materials. I would also love to see it being used for branding, packaging and promotional material and am keen to hear from designers who use it in their own work.

Remora is an extensive new humanist sans serif which comes in 2 style variations, the effervescent Remora Sans and its corporate business partner Remora Corp . Both styles include 5 individual width sets ranging from the condensed W1 to the extra-wide W5. Furthermore, with an impressive 7 weights (Thin to Ultra) and true matching italics in each pack Remora is an ultra versatile super family comprising 140 individual fonts, perfect for any typographic assignment or design brief. Remora was designed by G-Type founder Nick Cooke. Both the Sans and Corp families share the same proportions, with the exception of certain key characters that change the overall appearance. Remora Sans is an exuberant and characterful typeface while Remora Corp, as its name suggests, is a businesslike typeface more suited to corporate typography. Quite early on in the design process Nick decided to give Remora Corp equal billing instead of incorporating these glyphs as alternates or a stylistic set that may get overlooked. “I created two separate families after learning a valuable lesson with one of my earlier typefaces, Houschka”, says Nick. “Houschka contained distinctive rounded A’s W’s and w’s, with ‘straight’ styles as character alternates. Even though style sets and alternates are easy to activate they are rarely used, so after many requests for customised versions of the fonts with the straight characters as defaults it was decided to create the separate ‘Alt’ family. So I cut straight to the chase with the two Remora variants and created two complementary families.” Both sets contain many shared letterforms, but it is the alternate characters that significantly alter the appearance of each font. Remora has been carefully designed for optimum legibility at large and very small sizes. Although fairly monolinear in appearance, especially in the lighter weights, particular attention has been paid to optical correction like the overshoots of the curved characters. Open counters and painstaking attention to detail (e.g. weight contrast between horizontal and vertical strokes, junctions of shoulders and stems etc) all boost readability and make Remora a great choice across all media. Remora Sans and Corp are ‘humanist’ rather than ‘geometric’ in style, meaning they’re not strictly based on rectangles and circles, resulting in a warm and friendlier feel. The slightly ’super-elliptical’ rounded forms create generously attractive curves. Remora has very distinctive italics in that they are only inclined by 8 degrees, but are not just based on slanted uprights. The italic styles are very alluring when used for display at large sizes and the good news is they come bundled free with their respective uprights. Each family also contains many OpenType features including proportional and tabular numbers, small caps, discretionary ligatures, plus five stylistic sets for ultra versatile typography.

Patches is a multi-faceted, victorian-era serif typeface for when you need something more than plain text. Get that extra attention while adding a genuine, original appearance to your message. Patches was designed from scratch to give a sense quality and depth. Its designer Mans Greback has created a typeface with a complex structure, yet one that will be easy to master. This work will suit every style, taste and skill level. It is a decorative and completely hand-drawn design in vintage lettering, with the perks and flexibility of present-day technology, which is exactly what you'd expect from a modern typeface. Whether you are making a decorative floral headline, drawing a cowboy logo, or creating a unique design based on this ornamental font, the hopes are that Patches can give you a set of tools and inspiration to bring out the best of your artistry. Standing on the shoulders of giants, it was inspired by a wide range of works, and will hopefully be able to continue to teach and inspire future artists. Or at least help you become a better designer when you're designing an elegant and classic headline. Set the coloring of Patches to light gold and cream tones to apply a luxurious look, or in dark tones for a more rugged impression. Bold, bright colors will make it appear In the mid-1800s, decorative design flourished in the Western major cities. Victorian style thrived and encouraged techniques such as enamelling, embroidery and calligraphy. From the 1880s onwards, there were a series of reactions to higher Victorian tastes, with Art Deco reaching the heights of the 20th century. However, the Victorian art persisted popularity, as it changed to more sophisticated designs which made it more attractive to specific professions and groups. The evolution of the Victorian style in the mid-20th century was a key factor in the succession of the movement. Classic shops and salons, sport designs and traditional festivals, and later Rock'n'Roll and Harley Davidson-themed graphics ​inspired the continued development of the art. Aspiring to carry on this tradition, this typeface family consists twelve different high-quality variations. The main ones are Patched and Patched In – an outlined variation – and each one provided in five weights: Thin, Light, Medium, Bold and Black. Additionally, the two rough fonts Hangaround and Prospects, that tries to grasp the rough, earthy atmosphere of a shady motorcycle club. The font is built with advanced OpenType functionality and has a guaranteed top-notch quality, containing stylistic and contextual alternates, ligatures and more features; all to give you full control and customizability. It has extensive lingual support, covering all Latin-based languages, from North Europa to South Africa, from America to South-East Asia. It contains all characters and symbols you'll ever need, including all punctuation and numbers.

Remora is an extensive new humanist sans serif which comes in 2 style variations, the effervescent Remora Sans and its corporate business partner Remora Corp. Both styles include 5 individual width sets ranging from the condensed W1 to the extra-wide W5. Furthermore, with an impressive 7 weights (Thin to Ultra) and true matching italics in each pack Remora is an ultra versatile super family comprising 140 individual fonts, perfect for any typographic assignment or design brief. Remora was designed by G-Type founder Nick Cooke. Both the Sans and Corp families share the same proportions, with the exception of certain key characters that change the overall appearance. Remora Sans is an exuberant and characterful typeface while Remora Corp, as its name suggests, is a businesslike typeface more suited to corporate typography. Quite early on in the design process Nick decided to give Remora Corp equal billing instead of incorporating these glyphs as alternates or a stylistic set that may get overlooked. “I created two separate families after learning a valuable lesson with one of my earlier typefaces, Houschka”, says Nick. “Houschka contained distinctive rounded A’s W’s and w’s, with ‘straight’ styles as character alternates. Even though style sets and alternates are easy to activate they are rarely used, so after many requests for customised versions of the fonts with the straight characters as defaults it was decided to create the separate ‘Alt’ family. So I cut straight to the chase with the two Remora variants and created two complementary families.” Both sets contain many shared letterforms, but it is the alternate characters that significantly alter the appearance of each font. Remora has been carefully designed for optimum legibility at large and very small sizes. Although fairly monolinear in appearance, especially in the lighter weights, particular attention has been paid to optical correction like the overshoots of the curved characters. Open counters and painstaking attention to detail (e.g. weight contrast between horizontal and vertical strokes, junctions of shoulders and stems etc) all boost readability and make Remora a great choice across all media. Remora Sans and Corp are ‘humanist’ rather than ‘geometric’ in style, meaning they’re not strictly based on rectangles and circles, resulting in a warm and friendlier feel. The slightly ’super-elliptical’ rounded forms create generously attractive curves. Remora has very distinctive italics in that they are only inclined by 8 degrees, but are not just based on slanted uprights. The italic styles are very alluring when used for display at large sizes and the good news is they come bundled free with their respective uprights. Each family also contains many OpenType features including proportional and tabular numbers, small caps, discretionary ligatures, plus five stylistic sets for ultra versatile typography.

A very expanded sans serif font in capital letters inspired by the inscription on a bank note Old bank notes tend to have a very typical typography. Usually they carry decorative and elaborately designed markings. For one thing, they must be practically impossible to forge and for another, they should make a respectable and legitimate impression. And in the days of copper and steel engravings, that meant nothing less than creating ornate, shaded or otherwise complicated scripts. Designing the appropriate script was literally in the hands of the engraver. That’s why I noticed this bank note from 1948. It is the first 20 mark bill in the then newly created currency ”Deutsche Mark.“ All other bank notes of the 1948 series show daintier forms of typography with an obvious tendency toward modern face. The 1949 series which followed shortly thereafter reveals the more complicated script as well. For whatever reason, only this 20 mark bill displays this extremely expanded sans serif variation of the otherwise Roman form applied. This peculiarity led me in the year 2010 to create a complete font from the single word ”Banknote.“ Back to those days in the 40’s, the initial edition of DM bank notes was carried out by a special US-American printer who was under pressure of completing on time and whose engravers not only engraved but also designed. So that’s why the bank notes resemble dollars and don’t even look like European currency. That also explains some of the uniquely designed characters when looked at in detail. Especially the almost serif type form on the letters C, G, S and Z, but also L and T owe their look to the ”American touch.“ The ingoFont Banknote 1948 comprises all characters of the Latin typeface according to ISO 8859 for all European languages including Turkish and Baltic languages. In order to maintain the character of the original, the ”creation“ of lower case letters was waived. This factor doesn’t contribute to legibility, but this kind of type is not intended for long texts anyway; rather, it unfolds its entire attraction when used as a display font, for example on posters. Banknote 1948 is also very suitable for distortion and other alien techniques, without too much harm being done to the characteristic forms. With Banknote 1948 ingoFonts discloses a font like scripts which were used in advertising of the 1940’s and 50’s and were popular around the world. But even today the use of this kind of font can be expedient, especially considering how Banknote 1948, for its time of origin, impresses with amazingly modern detail.

Imagine being printer in the early nineteenth century, your stock isn’t the finest, your lead characters are worn out: Voilá Kandidat Rough. But wait, Kandidat isn’t the usual scan-an-old-book,-put-the-glyphs-in-a-font-and-you’re-done-font. Kandidat Rough has a variety of whopping 14 alternates for most characters. Our algorithm changes the letters automatically. All you have to do is turn on Contextual Alternates in your layout app. The algorithm is the best we’ve seen so far, and it’s so good that even same words appear in different forms. And should by coincidence words have the same glyphs, just assign a different Style Set to the first letter, and all other letters in the word will change as well (well, it depends a bit on your software). The mechanism isn’t perfect and maybe we stretched OpenType capabilities a bit over the top, but we yet haven’t seen any better routine for switching letters on the fly. Is it worth to mention that Kandidat Rough not only speaks English, but also German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Croatian, Turkish and most likely some other languages? Maybe. To be sure whether your language is supported, this is the typeset of all letters: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZÀÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈÉÊËÌÍÎÏÑÒÓÔÕÖØÙÚÛÜÝĆČĐĞ݌ފŸŽ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzàáâãäåæçèéêëìíîïñòóôõöøùúûüýÿćčđğıœşšž Apart from that we also included the following punctuation and currency symbols: !"#$%&'()*+,-./:;?@[\]_{|}¡©«®°±¶·»¿×–—‘’‚“”„†•…‹›⁄≠☞ €¢$£¥ This sums up to nearly 3000 glyphs per font, and we have three of them: Regular, Italic and Bold. All neatly kerned. All in all a great repertoire for even the most demanding book or advert jobs with a look of old times. And now imagine you are sick of the rugged print experience Kandidat Rough delivers: go for Kandidat. This is our Scotch-ish ancestor the Rough version was made from. A sturdy, friendly, round, warm friend from the beginning of the nineteenth century. A bit dark, maybe. You will like it. Kandidat has the aforementioned type set plus complete Baltics, Eastern Europe and Cyrillic. Plus a couple of gimmicks like fleurons, stars, circled numbers, arrows, and, and, and… Kandidat Regular additionally has small caps for Latin based scripts (not Cyrillic). The spick and span Kandidat font set also consists of Regular, Italic and Bold cuts. The bold cut is on the very bold side and can nicely be used for headings, whereas Italic is a great companion for Regular. It took us some time and trouble to finish this project, but after all we are very proud of our little feat and hope you will enjoy Kandidat as much as we do. Enjoy!

Antwerp On a visit to Belgium and the Netherlands while still an MA student at Reading University, Eleni Beveratou made some important discoveries. First, there was the letter ‘g’ from the Didot family seen at Plantin Moretus Museum in Antwerp, which seemed “almost like a mistake”. Then there were strange details such as the serifs on the “l”, “h”, “k”, “b” 
and “d” in Egmont Cursive and other typefaces by Sjoerk Hendrik de Roos, found in volumes of poetry she picked up from a chaotic bookshop in Amsterdam. These were characters that stood out from the text but seemed to blend harmoniously with the rest 
of the letters. “And there it was, the spark. 
I decided to design a typeface that would capture the details of the process of writing.” A guiding hand Eleni shared her initial thoughts with Phil Garnham and Jason Smith. They liked what they saw in her tentative first sketches, and gave her the chance to develop her ideas further. Phil, in particular, provided valuable input as FS Olivia took shape. Eleni’s main influence – the handwritten – would give the font its character. “When creating a typeface,” says Eleni, “it’s fair to say that it reflects some of the designer’s personality. And that’s certainly the case with 
FS Olivia. “Although technology is part of my everyday life. I am a great admirer of traditional graphic design where you can touch and feel paper and ink.” Irregular “What I particularly like,” says Eleni, “is that a printed item can develop its own personality sometimes as a result of imperfections in the print. “FS Olivia has some of 
these characteristics as it’s inspired by handwriting, 
and yet it also includes some 
very modern features.” Feminine and fascinating, FS Olivia captures the expressive twists and turns of (the poet’s?) pen on paper, with low junctions, 
deep top serifs and semi-rounded edges. Round outstrokes contrast with 
the rough corners of the instroke, while strong diagonals and inclined serifs create a richly textured pattern. Polytonic It’s only fitting that there should be a version of this poetic font for one of the birthplaces of poetry and song. Eleni, who hails from Athens, developed an extensive range of glyphs that could be used for the Greek language, in both modern and ancient texts. For the latter, there is a version of Olivia for displaying polytonic Greek (a system that utilises a range of accents and “breathings”), which brings the 21st century technology of OpenType to the presentation of poetic texts from Ancient Greece. Just think what Homer could have done with that.

Antwerp On a visit to Belgium and the Netherlands while still an MA student at Reading University, Eleni Beveratou made some important discoveries. First, there was the letter ‘g’ from the Didot family seen at Plantin Moretus Museum in Antwerp, which seemed “almost like a mistake”. Then there were strange details such as the serifs on the “l”, “h”, “k”, “b” 
and “d” in Egmont Cursive and other typefaces by Sjoerk Hendrik de Roos, found in volumes of poetry she picked up from a chaotic bookshop in Amsterdam. These were characters that stood out from the text but seemed to blend harmoniously with the rest 
of the letters. “And there it was, the spark. 
I decided to design a typeface that would capture the details of the process of writing.” A guiding hand Eleni shared her initial thoughts with Phil Garnham and Jason Smith. They liked what they saw in her tentative first sketches, and gave her the chance to develop her ideas further. Phil, in particular, provided valuable input as FS Olivia took shape. Eleni’s main influence – the handwritten – would give the font its character. “When creating a typeface,” says Eleni, “it’s fair to say that it reflects some of the designer’s personality. And that’s certainly the case with 
FS Olivia. “Although technology is part of my everyday life. I am a great admirer of traditional graphic design where you can touch and feel paper and ink.” Irregular “What I particularly like,” says Eleni, “is that a printed item can develop its own personality sometimes as a result of imperfections in the print. “FS Olivia has some of 
these characteristics as it’s inspired by handwriting, 
and yet it also includes some 
very modern features.” Feminine and fascinating, FS Olivia captures the expressive twists and turns of (the poet’s?) pen on paper, with low junctions, 
deep top serifs and semi-rounded edges. Round outstrokes contrast with 
the rough corners of the instroke, while strong diagonals and inclined serifs create a richly textured pattern. Polytonic It’s only fitting that there should be a version of this poetic font for one of the birthplaces of poetry and song. Eleni, who hails from Athens, developed an extensive range of glyphs that could be used for the Greek language, in both modern and ancient texts. For the latter, there is a version of Olivia for displaying polytonic Greek (a system that utilises a range of accents and “breathings”), which brings the 21st century technology of OpenType to the presentation of poetic texts from Ancient Greece. Just think what Homer could have done with that.

Solantra is a solidly crafted handwritten script. I’ve long felt that beautiful writing is more pleasing to the eye than the more attention grabbing swashes and flourishes. That being said, both have their role in design and Solantra has a large slice of each. Solantra combines vintage style handwriting with all its quirks and English Roundhand of that same era. The result is a solid setting script filled with charm and personality. With default Adobe Illustrator settings for Ligatures and Contextual Alternates active, the vintage charm is in full display. Want to add more flair? There are loads of more embellished letters inside the full version. Solantro takes into account how scripts are actually written so that connections from letter to letter are more fluid and rhythmic than the average script font. In natural script/handwriting most letters end at the bottom right and move up to connect with the next. Some letters like o, v, and w, however; end at the top right. Rather than force these letters to dip down and go back up they should ideally connect from that upper right point. This is accomplished through a series of alternate letters and ligatures with extensive contextual feature programming. So, for example, you might get one version of a ligature in the middle of a word and a different one at the beginning or end of that word. Solantra also takes into account another often overlooked feature of natural handwriting. When you write you inevitably pick your pen up from the paper at times. This is often just to reposition the hand, but in the days of writing with dip pens this was also needed to attain a fresh supply of ink. Having these occasional breaks in connections makes the writing less static and more rhythmic. While the Basic versions are limited to a standard character set and several ligatures and alternates for better settings of text, the full pro versions contains 1292 glyphs and an abundance of features. Even with numbers there are options like Oldstyle numbers, fractions, and ordinals. Central European language support is included as well as some select ligatures that use accents. To see more on the technical aspects and instructions on using Solantra, please check out the user’s guide in the Gallery section. **Note: The Pro versions of Solantra which do not have the word “Basic” attached to the title, have everything in them. So if you license a Pro version there is no need to get the Basic versions.

Father's Day, or June 17 of this year, is in the middle of Argentinian winter. And like people do on wintery Sunday mornings, I was bundled up in bed with too many covers, pillows and comforters. Feeling good and not thinking about anything in particular, Father's Day was nowhere in the vicinity of my mind. My eleven year old son, Matías, came into the room with a handmade present for me. Up to this point, my Father's Day gift history was nothing unusual. Books, socks, hand-painted wooden spoons, the kind of thing any father would expect from his pre-teen son. So you can understand when I say I was bracing myself to fake excitement at my son's present. But this Father's Day was special. I didn't have to fake excitement. I was in fact excited beyond my own belief. Matí's handmade present was a complete alphabet drawn on an A4 paper. Grungy, childish, and sweeter than a ton of honey. He'd spent days making it, three-dimensioning the letters, wiggle-shadowing them. Incredible. A common annoyance for graphic designers is explaining to people, even those close to them, what they do for a living. You have to somehow make it understandable that you are a visual communicator, not an artist. Part of the problem is the fact that "graphic designer" and "visual communicator" are just not in the dictionary of standard professions out there. If you're a plumber, you can wrap all the duties of your job with 3.5 words: I'm a plumber. If you're a graphic designer, no wrapper, 3.5 or 300 words, will ever cover it. I've spent many hours throughout the years explaining to my own family and friends what I do for a living, but most of them still come back and ask what it is exactly that I do for dough. When you're a type designer, that problem magnifies itself considerably. When someone asks you what you do for a living, you start looking for the nearest exit, but none of the ones you can find is any good. All the one-line descriptions are vague, and every single one of them queues a long, one-sided conversation that usually ends with someone getting too drunk listening, or too tired of talking. Now imagine being a type designer, with a curious eleven year old son. The kid is curious as to why daddy keeps writing huge letters on the computer screen. Let's go play some ball, dad. As soon as I finish working, son. He looks over my shoulder and sees a big twirly H on the screen. To him it looks like a game, like I'm not working. And I have to explain it to him again. This Father's Day, my son gave me the one present that tells me he finally understands what I do for a living. Perhaps he is even comfortable with it, or curious enough about that he wants to try it out himself. Either way, it was the happiest Father's Day I've ever had, and I'm prouder of my son than of everything else I've done in my life. This is Matí's font. I hope you find it useful.