Borrowdale is a valley and civil parish in the English Lake District. In the 16th century a major deposit of graphite was discovered near Seathwaite, which kickstarted the pencil industry. Borrowdale font was made with one of my son's coloring pencils (which probably does not contain a single molecule of graphite). It is a very legible and easy-on-the-eye font, ideal for children's books, texts and product packaging. Comes with a mother lode of diacritics.

This font was made while listening to The Cure, and taking a trip down memory lane. However, the particular song I had in mind naming the font after, was already taken. But perhaps you can figure out which song I had in mind?

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.

As Word War I raged on during 1917, a large number of songs were written as morale builders for both the soldiers leaving for overseas service as well as their friends, family and loved ones. One such song, "Send Me Away with A Smile" has its title hand lettered in a simple, yet somewhat stylized sans serif design that was so much a part of the Art Nouveau style of that era. Simply Nouveau JNL captures and preserves that design within a digital typeface; available in both regular and oblique versions.

Based on the sheet music title lettering for Al Jolson's 1920 song "Grieving for You", the casual style of Nouveau Work JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

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

The song "Selfish Jean" by Travis inspired me to name this font, and a runny pen made me draw the letters. Actually, I started making the font while listening to that particular song - and the whole atmosphere about that situation, suited me perfect to make this handmade font! :)

Originally conceived from the basic sign writers brush stroke pattern and heavily influenced by the songs of David Bowie this style has developed into an organic Futurist face, kind of post modern retro, catch my drift?

A piece of 1940s sheet music for the song "Blue Orchids" was the inspiration for both the type design (based on the hand lettered title) as well as the font's name.

This fun font will get you singing that old favorite song ... It's fun.

Sheet music for the title song from the 1933 Jean Harlow-Clark Gable film "Hold Your Man" has the movie title hand lettered in a dual line sans serif with Art Deco influences. This is now available as Dual Line Deco, and is available in both regular and oblique versions. The song itself was written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, whose vast catalog of musical compositions was tapped for the 1952 musical classic "Singing in the Rain".

Narrow Nouveau JNL come from the hand lettered title on a 1907 song folio for George M. Cohan's "The Talk of New York", and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The hand lettered sans serif title on the1931 sheet music for “(Potatoes are Cheaper-Tomatoes are Cheaper) Now’s the Time to Fall in Love” presented another opportunity to create a typeface from the wealth of unusual alphabets found on the covers of vintage and antique song sheets. However, it seems that even as late as the 1930s, song writers had the urge to pen long-worded titles for their musical compositions. This thirteen word verbal excursion became the model for Casual Deco JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Art Nouveau lettering on the cover of sheet music for the 1911 song "The Skeleton Rag" (by Edward Madden and Percy Wenrich) is both the lettering inspiration and namesake for Skeleton Rag JNL.

Malaguena Stencil JNL was derived from hand lettering found on an Art Deco-era piece of vintage sheet music for this familiar tune. According to Wikipedia: “Malagueña is the feminine form of the Spanish language adjective malagueño/ malagueña, ‘pertaining to Málaga’, a Spanish port city.” Additionally: "Malagueña", is a song by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona; written in 1928 it was originally the sixth movement of Lecuona's Suite Andalucia, to which he added lyrics in Spanish. The song has since become a popular, jazz, marching band, and drum corps standard and has been provided with lyrics in several languages.

The second volume of the Robbins Music Corporation's "Hollywood Song Folio" features the word "Hollywood" lettered in a condensed block style with inline, strongly reminiscent of sports or college-themed typography. This was the inspiration for Winning Team JNL.

The cover of the 1943 sheet music for the song "Jeannie" offered up a hand lettered monoline Deco sans with varying width letterforms. From this design comes the aptly-named Thin Line Deco JNL.

"Heart on a string" is from a song by Paul McCartney, and is one of his romantic ones. I tried to do the same by creating a font that has the same romantic feeling.

Casting Call JNL is a simple condensed sans modeled from the hand-lettered title of a piece of vintage sheet music entitled "Somebody Else is Taking My Place"; a 1940s song co-authored and made famous by bandleader Russ Morgan.

a fanciful version of an old font by George Bruce and Sons Typefoundry, a historical USA deceased foundry from the victorian era...

This font is named after a Jeff Buckley song. Use with care, best for love letters!

Songs of the early 1900s were anything but the status quo in topic or style. Excessively long titles, novelty tunes and "foreign themes" permeated the piles of sheet music in the local music shops. 1916's "Oh How She Could Yacki Hacki Wicki Wacki Woo (That's Love in Honolu)" covered a number of these quirks within one publication. This Hawaiian-tinged song evoked the mysterious ways of the South Seas islands, despite the abridging of Honolulu to "Honolu". Nonetheless, the hand lettered title of this particular piece of sheet music featured an Art Nouveau-influenced bold block letter with rounded corners. It's now available digitally as Smooth Sailing JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

MY WAY belongs to a genre of fonts which contain the “aesthetic of ugly”. This is a font with a good balance of rhythm and contrast. Its aim is casual, wild and anarchic. Because of the spontaneity this font contains, there are plenty of Standard and Discretionary Ligatures to avoid frequent repetition of letters. If you find single repeating glyphs, you can change that by toggling between Stylistic Alternates. There are ligatures created for Cyrillic too. MY WAY is the perfect choice for all dirty, natural and wild, yet authentically beautiful things such as Blues, Jazz, Punk...

A piece of sheet music from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's 1958 hit "Flower Drum Song" had the play's name lettered in its iconic Anglo-Japanese style. This became the basis for Rice Wine JNL.

Beat Poet JNL is a throwback to the late 50s and early 60s when Beatniks hung out at coffee houses to listen to poetry and folk songs and live the Bohemian lifestyle of the Pre-Hippie generation.

The way I used the write songs on a cassette-tape case, turned into a font for you.

Nouveau To Go JNL is the digital version of the hand lettered title found on the 1915 sheet music for the song "Don't Bite the Hand That's Feeding You", and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Found on the back of some sheet music to promote another song was the hand-lettered title "The Snake Charmer". While not everyone likes snakes, many designers do like the lettering of the Art Deco era, so Charmer JNL is designed from that lettering.

This time the font's name is meaningless. Maduki doesn't mean 'cool' in Swahili, nor does it mean 'cup cake' in Sranantongo. It is just a nice name. Maduki is a playful font, created with one of my 2 year old son's marker pens (the 'no stain, wash-out' variety), a couple of cups of coffee and a whole bunch of 'speculaas' cookies. Now you're wondering what speculaas is, right? I'll tell you later - in a couple of fonts... Anyway, there's not much meaningful to say about Maduki font. It is nice, it is cute and it comes with alternates!

I was listening to the radio and a song caught my attention. It was ‘Demagogue’ by a band called the Urban Dance Squad. That song brought back memories from when I was a student, so I decided to name this font after it. Demagogue was made using a Sharpie pen and a piece of expensive paper. The result is a very legible, very neat and very bold font. Demagogue is ideal for when you want to get your message across, but hopefully not in a demagogue-ish way! ;-)

Ah, so you've noticed a typo! Mayonnaise - the sauce, is written with double 'n'! I know. This font was named after a Smashing Pumpkins song that I like very much. Mayonaise is a bit of an ugly duckling. It is strange, open and messy, and might not be love at first sight. BUT, when you spend some time with Mayonaise and get to know her, you might actually fall in love. Just like that song I mentioned earlier. Go on then, give it a try! At this price, you can't go wrong!

Fortuna has some resemblance with handtexted characters based, loosely, on the classic italic. But, like Ad Hoc, Fortuna is drawn on a monitor in every detail. The name is Latin and means fate, luck. The composer Carl Orff was actual at the time when I worked with Fortuna, because he had been born 100 years earlier. Orff's Carmina Burana were being introduced on the radio when I was wondering what to call my most recent creation. The song cycle begins with a song to Fortuna: a fated choice of name. Fortuna was released in 1995.

Proudly Present Apocalypse 13 - Cyberpunk Type, created by ikiiko With its gritty and edgy design, the explosive cyberpunk brush typeface Apocalypse 13 perfectly portrays the feel of a dystopian future. This typeface was created to transport you to the pitch-black, neon-lit streets of a cybernetic metropolis. It is the ideal fusion of technical grit and artistic expression. Each character in Apocalypse 13 is painstakingly created, using jagged edges and strong brushstrokes to evoke a sense of urgency and defiance. The letters suggest a world that is on the verge of anarchy because they look like they were spray painted on a collapsing concrete wall. This typeface is perfect for an movie title, movie poster, game title, game logo, streamer, magazine layout, fashion stuff, quotes, or simply as a stylish text overlay to any background image. What's Included? 2 Weights : Regular & Oblique Uppercase & Lowercase Numbers & Punctuation Multilingual Support Works on PC & Mac

Techno Retro JNL looks like a design straight out of the 1980s, but it actually appeared as hand lettering on a sheet music cover for the circa-1940s edition of the song "To You Sweetheart, Aloha", proving the old saying that "everything old is new again".

Vintage sheet music for a song from the Broadway Musical “Kiss Me Kate” is the inspiration for Katydid JNL. The play’s name was written in a ball-and-line type of lettering which somewhat resembles either 'Tinker Toys' or celestial mapping.

Shanghai JNL is loosely based on the title lettering from “Charlie Chan in Shanghai”, one of the long-running series of detective films featuring the Asian sleuth and his “number one son”.

The place for a family to be entertained by comedians, dancers, acrobats, animal acts, singers and just about any other acts that fit the bill at the time was the vaudeville theater. Prior to radio becoming the major source of entertainment for the American public, popular songs were introduced on the stages of these entertainment venues. One such song from 1916 with a World War I patriotic sentiment was "A Yankee Doodle Boy Is Good Enough for Me". The sheet music featured the title hand lettered in Art Nouveau style. This became the design source for Vaudevillian JNL, available in both regular and oblique versions.

Ordinary Gothic JNL is a simple, thin "stovepipe" style of hand lettering found on the cover of a piece of sheet music for 1937's "You Can't Stop Me from Dreaming", and is available in both regular and oblique versions. The song was introduced and featured by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians.

For some reason I had Paul Simon’s song ‘You Can Call Me All’ in my head when I was busy working on this font, so I just had to call it Bonedigger. Bonedigger does not dig bones, but it does have ‘heavy bones’, as it is quite big. Bonedigger is seriously eroded and would look great on book covers and product packaging. It comes in a lovely regular and italic style and a seriously twisted inline style (with, of course, its own italic). As the song goes: With a knick-knack paddywhack, give the dog a bone, this old font came rolling home.