I just visited my good friend Jakob Fischer from Pizzadude.dk in Denmark. As always we talked fonts, drank coffee and walked endlessly through Copenhagen, the city where he lives. We thought it would be a fun idea to each create a font from a handmade sign we saw in the city. We only had like 7 glyphs to work with, so the rest was up to our imagination. We also thought it would be nice to give the fonts a similar name. Mundbind means mask in Danish. When you Google translate it, it will give you the wrong translation (it will say 'mouth piece'), so trust me on this one! My font is called Mundbind NL - where the NL stands for Netherlands. Jakob will hopefully call his finished font Mundbind DK - where the DK stands for Denmark. Mundbind NL comes with a monster load of diacritics (including Vietnamese) and two alternate glyphs for the lower case letters that will cycle as you type.

Engraved display typeface.

Engraved display typeface.

Engraved display typeface.

Engraved display typeface.

Engraved display typeface.

Engraved display typeface.

Engraved blackletter typeface.

Engraved display typeface.

Engraved display typeface.

Engraved display typeface.

Engraved display typeface.

Fashion Compressed and Engraved are the works of British designer Alan Meeks. Fashion Compressed is an elegant modern roman typeface suitable for a variety of advertising styles. The capitals can be used as initials or combined with the lower case letters. Fashion Engraved was produced when Meeks reworked Fashion Compressed, resulting in a beautiful, engraved typeface.

Sweet Upright Script is the first release for Sweet Fonts Collection, published by MVB Fonts. It is an interpreted revival of a vintage, social engraving lettering style that was popular during the 20th Century. It is probably the first digital version of the design. With the advent of the engraving machine (a pantograph device) around 1900, commercial engraving moved from the use of hand-cut plates to the use of masterplates (lettering patterns). Lettering was traced from the masterplate using the engraving machine, letter by letter, onto a coated steel plate, that would then be etched in a chemical bath. The resulting plate was used to print engraved stationery with the raised print distinctive to the process. Many of these lettering styles were used for decades for commercial and social applications (letterheads, wedding invitations, etc.), but as they were merely traced alphabets, were not "fonts". Many remain unavailable in digital form. Over time, a number of the most popular styles were adapted to phototype, which sped up the process of plating for engraving, avoiding the need to trace each letter by hand with the engraving machine. Later, when type went digital, these phototype fonts were revived as digital fonts. As a result, the styles offered by engravers narrowed over time, as has the range of engraving styles revived in digital form.

Most folks might picture wood type lettering as the fancy styles of the 1880s which so perfectly evoked images of the Old West. Occasionally there is an exception to that rule, as an online image of some vintage wood letters with an Art Deco influence inspired a revival as a digital type face. Wood Lined JNL features a bold alphabet with an engraved line throughout the characters, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Blackletter engraved display typeface.

Engraved shaded display typeface.

Blackletter engraved display typeface.

The English roundhand has always occupied the central position in the group of faces appropriate to the social printing handled by engravers, and their contemporary imitators, thermographers. At the end of the nineteenth century when engraving was mechanised by the pantographic engraving machine, the traditional roundhands found their way onto pantographic pattern plates. Embassy is a traditional roundhand of vigorous contrast with straightforward capitals with ball terminals; it was transferred from such an engravers’ pattern plate to the Fotosetter at Intertype about 1955. Alphatype’s Yorktown is similar, but appears to have less contrast.

Based on script handwriting and engraving used in formal announcements and invitations, Riviera Script lends itself to typesetting in which an elegant mood is desired. The Riviera Script font is an upright script with an engraved appearance and decorative capitals.

A bold engraver type style with a Wall Street look.

Sweet Titling No. 11 is a 2009 addition to the Sweet Collection of engraved lettering styles from the 20th Century. This obscure, art deco design would have been used for engraved letterhead, business cards, etc., and likely first appeared in the 1920s or ’30s.

A script font of broad nib style, both plain and engraved.

The Stuyvesant fonts include delicate incline alphabets with an engraved look.

Introducing our new font called Rocket Clouds inspired by Sythwave Style, 80's Music, and Neon Light Sign. This font offer the aesthetic style and retro mood for your design needed. The Rocket Clouds style has a universal and timeless design. This font uses style of classic sign typography. Rocket Clouds immediately engages you no matter what you use it for. It’s beautiful for product labels, houseware and text overlay to any background picture.

Sweet Gothic is a 2009 addition to the Sweet Collection of engraved lettering styles from the 20th Century.  Sweet Gothic Light is closely based on lettering from an engravers pattern from the early 1900s that was used for tracing letterforms with the engraving machine (pantograph) to make steel engraving plates. The design is related to many similar engravers gothics developed in the early 1900s, but as each engraving house created by hand their own patterns for popular styles of the time, there is variation among the models. Sweet Gothic offers contrast in stroke weight and its unique personality. The bolder weights are new designs, based on the characteristics of the Light. A serif variant (Sweet Gothic Serif) has also been developed to expand the usefulness of the family, offering an alternative to Copperplate Gothic. As such, most of the fonts are new designs, yet may seem familiar and ubiquitous given their model. The fonts offer two sizes of figures and monetary symbols: one set is intended for use with upper- and lowercase settings; the second set is the same height as the small caps.

Sweet Gothic Serif is a 2009 addition to the Sweet Collection of engraved lettering styles from the 20th Century. It is a serif variant of Sweet Gothic. Sweet Gothic Light (without serifs) is closely based on lettering from an engravers pattern from the early 1900s that was used for tracing letterforms with the engraving machine (pantograph) to make steel engraving plates. The design is related to many similar engravers gothics developed in the early 1900s, but as each engraving house created by hand their own patterns for popular styles of the time, there is variation among the models. Sweet Gothic offers contrast in stroke weight and its unique personality. The bolder weights are new designs, based on the characteristics of the Light. Sweet Gothic Serif has been developed to expand the usefulness of the Sweet Gothics, offering an alternative to Copperplate Gothic. As such, most of the fonts are new designs, yet may seem familiar and ubiquitous given their model. The fonts offer two sizes of figures and monetary symbols: one set is intended for use with upper- and lowercase settings; the second set is the same height as the small caps.

Sweet Titling No. 22 is part of the Sweet Collection of engraved lettering styles from the 20th Century, published by MVB Fonts. This obscure, art deco design would have been used for engraved letterhead, business cards, etc., and likely first appeared in the 1920s or ’30s.

This font is mainly inspired from the engraved characters of the small book known as “Operina”, or “The method and rules for writing cursive letters or chancery script” from the famous calligrapher Ludovico Vicentino Arrighi, published in Roma in 1522 and signed with simplicity “Ludovico Vicentino”. The font contains a large set of standard ligatures and alternative characters: two lower cases, four sets of standard capitals, long s and variants, titlings, each feature easy to use with OTF managing software. It is a pro font, containing Baltic, Eastern, Central, Western European and Turkish diacritics.

Gutenberg Gotisch is a redesign of an inhouse font released by Bauer in 1885, and it is a predecessor of Princess Engraved. So both fonts make a perfect match. The long s can be reached by typing the integral sign or turning the round s into the long s by using the historical OT feature. In this font, you have the possibility to turn I, V, X, L, C, D, and M into Roman numerals by activating the salt feature. Finally I recommend to use both ligature features.

Eingraviert is based on old books capitals, with a wood type engraving style

This family was inspired by an engraved plate from Diderot & Dalembert's Encyclopedia (publication beginning in 1751), illustrating the chapter devoted to letter engraving techniques. The plate bears two engravers names : "Aubin" (may be one of the four St Aubin brothers ?)and "Benard" ( which name is present below all plates of the Encyclopedia printed in Geneva ). It seems to be a transitional type, but different from Fournier or Grandjean. Small caps are included in fonts for TTF and OTF version, separate files are included in the family sets of the Mac TT version.

Evocative of paint on weathered wood, Nelson’s engraved capital letters are as rustic and confident as the Old West. Combine the engraved face with bold and rough versions to create handsome wordmarks, or use Nelson to captivate customers of food packaging, restaurant menus, and roadside attractions. See what’s included! Engraved • Ornaments • Rugged • Bold *NOTE* Basic versions DO NOT include swashes, alternates or ornaments These fonts have been specially coded for access of all the swashes, alternates and ornaments without the need for professional design software! Info and instructions here: http://lauraworthingtontype.com/faqs/

Around the turn of the twentieth-century, Steel and copper plate engraving was the most sophisticated and expensive method for producing business cards, stationery, and formal announcements. In engraved printing, the image is incised, or engraved into a hard, flat plate. Ink is applied to the plate, and then wiped off; leaving only the ink that is trapped below the surface in the incised areas. When the paper is pressed against the flat plate, the ink is drawn out of these areas and transferred to the paper. The results are twofold: printing which sits above the surface of the paper, and the reproduction very delicate lines and shapes. For business and formal printing, engraved printing was, and is, considered the best. The problem is that not everybody can afford the best. Type foundries, in the early 1900s, figured that if they could produce a typeface for traditional printing, which had appearance of engraving, they would be able to satisfy the needs of those forced to live with modest printing budgets. Engravers faces were born. Fredric Goudy’s Copperplate Gothic was one of the most popular. Plate Gothic is a version of this style updated for digital technology. It has all the charm and charisma as the metal type and yet is perfect for today's needs.

Greene and Hollins of Wolverhampton were a rather smart gentleman’s outfitter, much frequented by my late grandfather and altogether redolent (in memory and actuality) of a bygone age of retail service and respect. I believe they’re out of business now, but we’re rather pleased to offer them this very small if rather random memorial. Greene and Hollins is a set of seven display typefaces, with uniform metrics, which can be overlaid to create multi-coloured ‘engraved’ effects. Also ideal to recreate traditional sign-writing, garment labels, signage and anything else where a period flare is required.

French Script font is based on script handwriting and engraving used in formal announcements and invitations in general, and specifically on a 1905 ATF face named Typo Upright," by Morris Fuller Benton. French Script lends itself to typesetting in which an elegant mood is desired. French Script is an upright script font with an engraved appearance and decorative capitals. "

Timernis is humanist multilingual contrast sans serif available in eight weights from thin to black. All caps have this super elegant, classic proportions old school look and is based on 1940 stone engraving commemorative plaque. The engraving itself boasted sophisticated clean look and was a joy to look at. All caps: Would suit display usage such as: signage, titles, headers, engravings, high end packaging. Do try putting space between the letters in your selected word for suave and chic feel. Expanded round shapes are prevalent in lowercase, which is legible in small sizes and pleasant to the eye.

Harri –“stone” in Basque language– is a display font based on the peculiar letter forms used in signs and fascias all over the Basque Country. This idiosyncratic lettering style, very often used as an identity signifier, evolved from ancient inscriptions carved on gravestones which can still be found in the French part of the Basque Country (Behe Nafarroa, Lapurdi and Zuberoa).Harri takes some of its more significant features from those engraved letter forms, but also from the current overemphasized shapes derived from them, while keeping in sight their antecessors: the Romanesque inscriptions and ultimately the Roman Capitals. Gerard Unger once said “the black version of a font is a caricature of the regular”. This may explain how the odd heavy shapes in use in the Basque Country today might have evolved from their engraved roots, which are already an interpretation of Romanesque and Roman letter forms. This evolution is echoed in Harri through its weights, from the clean formal Roman-inspired light to the extreme expressive Basque-style extra bold.

Classical nineteenth century french engravers typeface, traditional with corners sharpened, a flick of the burin and a touch of Art Deco.

This highly stylish, engraved blackletter font was cut by Rudolf Koch between 1919 and 1921 for Klingspor in Offenbach on Main. It was then sold under the name Deutsche Zierschrift. I completely redraw and extended this font and called it Zierfraktur. To take full advantage of this fine headline blackletter font, please use it from, at least, 18 points upward. This font contains a bunch of useful ligatures, and it is recommended to activate both Standard and Discretionary Ligatures. The round s can be reached by typing the # key, and you get the numero sign by typing the combination N-o-period and activating the OT feature Ordinals.