After researching the type styles contemporary graphic designers have been using over the past few years, I noticed a consistent use of Copperplate Gothic, and its derivative designs, for various corporate advertising campaigns. That level of usage gave me the inspiration to design a display font possessing subtle characteristics of Copperplate Gothic, and various Latin Condensed designs. The font I ended up designing was semi-condensed, with more contrast between thicks and thins than in Copperplate. Baltra also has a subtle flair in its otherwise traditional lowercase, while possessing a larger than average lowercase x-height. Copperplate Gothic, on the other hand, has minimal contrast and uses small capitals for its lowercase. After examining extensive type specimens from wood type, metal type, phototype and digital type, I was not able to find a single design possessing a majority of Baltra's characteristics. Consequently, I consider Baltra to be a truly unique design, sharing with Copperplate Gothic only its flairs on stems, and having only subtle characteristics in common with traditional Latin designs.

Amherst is a family of blackletter-inspired typefaces. This family, created by British designer Richard Yeend in 2002, is unique in that it mains the feel of blackletter/medieval type without relying directly on historical forms. Amherst is split into two different sub-families, Amherst and Amherst Gothic. Amherst is very geometric interpretation of Fraktur. Fraktur was a style of German type very popular in central Europe from 1517 until the early 20th Century. Its letters appear "broken" at certain angles and joints. Still, we recommend using it primarily for display purposes. Amherst is available in three weights: Regular, Bold, and Heavy. Amherst Gothic is very loosely inspired by late medieval letterforms, often called Texturas or Gothics. However, the letterforms of Amherst Gothic seem just as inspired by the Art Deco movements of the 1920s and by contemporary sans serif type design as anything else. Nevertheless, certain letters in this typeface do appear more "gothic" than others, especially A, D, M, Y, d, r, and x. Amherst Gothic is made up of three fonts, Amherst Gothic Split, Amherst Gothic Split Alternate, and Amherst Gothic Italic. Amherst Gothic Split has in-lined characters, and appears very ornamented. The alternate characters in Amherst Gothic Split Alternate are quite medieval in their appearance. Amherst Gothic Italic is the least medieval-looking of the set; its characters are very round, and more geometric. All six styles of the Amherst Family are OpenType format fonts, and include old style figures.

If you like a rough-hewn, rugged and vintage typeface, then Shadowlawn JNL will certainly please you. Re-drawn from vintage examples of a hand-cut wood type, the rustic charm of this typeface brings a reminiscence of Old West themes.

HK Nova is a geometric sans inspired by the Century Gothic and Futura. It formalizes Century Gothic and softens Futura.

The design of the Newspoint typeface is based on the tradition of the American sans serif faces of the last century. This form expression was greatly influenced by the News Gothic type which was created by Morris Fuller Benton in 1908, and has, once again, become very popular. When the development of sans serif types such as Futura and Kabel by Renner and Koch began in 1925, the design of American sans serif types receded somewhat into the background. In the 1950’s, however, they experienced a renaissance which continues to this day. Thanks to its clean design and the relatively large x-height, the Newspoint is well suited for informative texts in newspapers, magazines, and brochures. In packaging design, as well, the Newspoint can display its strength in small print. Newspoint was developed as a customer-specific variation of the News Gothic. In contrast to the News Gothic, however, the face appears to be softer and more appealing thanks to the changed interpunctions. If so desired, the alternative characters give the typeface expanded individuality and a richness of design options.

TWO LAYERED FONT: Be sure to get both the FRONT and the BACK! Maintaining simultaneous shades of whimsy and versatility is no simple feat, but the meticulously constructed Stately Gothic accomplishes just that, elegantly. Stately Gothic is a redrawn version of Grit Gothic. The strong vertical character of this stacking/layered typeface make it an ideal solution for use where legibility matters most: posters, logos, book and album covers, and so on. It is part of Grit History Series B along with Heirloom Artcraft, Worn Gothic, Grit Sans, and Grit Gothic.

ZarHand began as my "speedball" showcard lettering font, used when the boss brought in a pile of urgent work at the end of the day. We would get out our "4 o'clock brushes" hoping to finish at a reasonable hour.

BluHead Studio LLC is pleased to announce the release of Churchward Brush by New Zealand typeface designer Joseph Churchward. This showcard brush hand-lettered design looks great for flashy headlines and signage! The Italic is especially fun to work with!

Kilburn is a no-nonsense, condensed Gothic sans-serif. For over a century the condensed sans-serif has been the 'go to' font for gravitas and authority. Kilburn continues in the fine tradition of fonts such as Franklin Gothic, News Gothic and Trade Gothic offering a contemporary interpretation of the condensed sans-serif — functionality with personality. Equally at home as both a text and display font, Kilburn is available in five weights from Thin through to Black.

This roly-poly, rollicking display font is based on a design from the 1946 book Blue print text book of sign and show card lettering by Charles Louis Henry Wagner, who seems to have had an aversion to combination words (like blueprint, textbook and showcard).

The inspiration source for Tryst Monogram is a showcard script (capitals only) from the 1912 A Show at Showcards book by Atkinson & Atkinson. What began as 26 referenced script letters became an over 800 character font in order to create its unique cameo effect! Tryst Monogram can create one, two, or three letter monograms as well as a unique two letter cameo monogram style - made by simply typing two lowercase letters in a row (using OpenType Ligatures). Add framing to a cameo monogram by adding a number 0-9 before the two letters. It's that easy! Download and view the Tryst Monogram Guidebook if you would like to learn a little more.

a gothic family

Dan X. Solo's book of Showcard Alphabets featured the pattern for this devil-may-care face under the name "Conway". Not too pretty, not too proud, but a whole lotta fun. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

Roman Condensed is a condensed, classic roman typeface. It has a medium contrast in stroke weight, slightly rounded serifs, and is easy to read. This version is based on a typeface from Showcard Machine Company, which was made specifically to be used with their proof presses.

Diorite is modern face built on classical letterforms -- but left with a bit of residual roughness. Some might call Diorite forthright, others brutal. (It reminded the designer of the dark, hard igneous rock of the same name, treasured by the ancient Egyptians for statuary.) The typeface has a relatively chunky, four-style family; the italics are true cancellaresca corsiva, also writ heavy. "The cancellaresca is of course a Gothic design," notes the designer. "Just use a broader pen, and you'll see!" Has four styles: regular, bold, cursive, and cursive bold.