Think smart. Think regal. Think SteamCourt, a new font designed specifically for the card game SteamCourt. A bit of background if you will: In early 2014, some friends from my college days banded together to form their own game company. Their first launch? A current Kickstarter they named SteamCourt. I love Kickstarter. It’s a fantastic platform, a great way for individuals to introduce the public to their visions. I've started a couple of them myself--both including fonts designed specifically for the projects. The first is Chatype, a font created exclusively for the city of Chattanooga. The second: Cabrito, a font developed as part of the children’s typeface book, The Clothes Letters Wear. It’s wonderful to work with so many others who come alongside to help you vision become reality. Naturally, hearing of my friends' project, I contacted them about adding a new face to their venture as well. I gave them carte blanche. They wanted steampunk. It was a great challenge, the result of which is now SteamCourt, an unforgettable display typeface that draws from the mix of Victorian regals, metallic and brass engineering, cogs, clocks and blackletter typography. It evokes a time of skillfully forged metalwork and an era of intrigue and excitement, filled with audacious feats of engineering and innovation and the perilous journeys of the airship. While influenced by the era of blackletter, SteamCourt is an unmistakable departure from the style of two centuries past, yet it still shines in its given display roles with a distinct regal twist. The serifs are asymmetrical, yet the characters are all specially and delicately balanced. It’s an eye-catching alternative to blackletter with modern steampunk touches. The game’s signature typeface has sizeable language support on top of 90 alternate characters as well. In addition to a generous number contextual alternates, SteamCourt features stylistic alternates that allow for buyers to customize its visual appearance for their preferences, helping to make it a superior option for packaging, branding and enormous typesetting logotypes as well as shorter textual content. Check out the game, but grab the font, too, to be a part of that crib created as a companion for the new game in court. It'll be the ace up your sleeve for many rounds of design ahead.

Aire is what Sproviero would call a < big display family >. We recommend seeing its user’s guide. After his success with Reina, Sproviero comes out with this big family of 7 members: Each of them loaded with lots of sophisticated ligatures, alternates and the entire cyrillic alphabet. The overall impression that the font gives is lightness and delicateness; that’s the reason the designer chose to call it Aire, or Air, in English. "Aire was somehow having a rest from my fat face Reina [...] It started as a really thin style of Reina, but it rapidly migrated from it and grew up alone. And how it grew..." The inspiration came from his own past creations: “The heavy strokes of Reina were shouting for a more delicate thing. Something more feminine. More fragile. Something which had a lot of elegance and fresh air inside”. Aire responds to this: Sproviero found that many of the typefaces of nowadays which are used for headlines (best known as display fonts) have almost always just one, maybe two weight styles. This was his opportunity to try something new. Aire makes it easier for the user to generate different levels/layers of communication thanks to its variety of styles. With this font you can solve entire decorative pieces of design with just one font, and that was the aim of it. Aire was designed to be playful yet formal: While none of its alternates are activated it can be useful for short to medium length texts; and when the user chooses to make use of its open-type decorative glyphs, it can be useful for headlines with dazzling results. On March of 2012, Aire was chosen to be part of the most important exhibition of typography in Latinoamerica: Tipos Latinos 2012. TECHNICAL Aire is a family with many members. In total, the user can choose between almost 6,000 (!) glyphs (1,000 per style). Each member has variants inside, which are open-type programmed: The user decides which glyph to alternate, equalizing the amount of decoration wanted. Every decorative glyph has its weight adjusted to the style it belongs to. Exclusively for decoration, Aire Fleurons Pro is an open-type programmed set of ornaments. And last but not least, remember Aire is delicate. What’s my point? It is not recommended to activate all the alternates at the same time. It is typo-scientifically proved: A maximum of 3 or 4 alternates per word would be more than enough.

ATTENTION CUSTOMERS :) There's a new Selfie available, have a look here; Selfie Neue is better done and more complete in every aspect. However, you can stay here if you still prefer the classic version. -But first, let me take a Selfie!- said that girl of the song and almost all of you at least once this year. While some terms and actions get trendy, some font styles do it too. It wouldn't be crazy to combine these worlds, in fact it happens often. Selfie is a connected sans serif based in vintage signage scripts seen in Galerías of Buenos Aires. These places are, in general, very small shopping centres which pedestrians sometimes use as shortcuts to get to other parts of the city. Their dark corridors take you back in time, and all of a sudden you are surrounded by cassettes, piercings, and old fashioned cloth. For some reason, all these shops use monolined geometric scripts. Surely, neon strings are easier to manipulate when letterforms have simple shapes. My very first aim with Selfie was to make a font that would serve as a company to those self-shot pictures that have become so popular nowadays. However, the font turned into something more interesting: I realised it had enough potential to stand-alone. Selfie proves that geometry itself can be really attractive. In this font, elegance is not achieved with the already-known contrast between thicks and thins of calligraphy, but with the purity of form. Its curves were based in perfectly shaped circles which made the font easy to be used at different angles (some posters show it at a 24.7º angle) without having problems/deformities. In addition to its nice performance when used over photographs, the font can be a good option for packaging and wedding invitations. TIPS Adding some lights/shadows between letters will for sure catch the eye of the viewer: Words will look as if they were made with tape/strings; so trendy nowadays. Try using Selfie at a 24.7º angle so that the slanted strokes become perfectly vertical. Having the decorative ligatures feature (dlig) activated is a good option to see letters dance. TECHNICAL It is absolutely recommended to use this font with the standard ligatures feature (liga) activated. It makes letters ligate perfectly and also improves the space between words.

The word ‘Ghibli’ per se refers to a Saharan hot and dry wind commonly known as the Sirocco. In Arabic language, ‘Ghibli’ is known as ‘Qibli or Kibli’, meaning ‘Southern’ for those Arabic nations who live in the North of Africa. The ‘Ghibli’ wind is most common during spring and autumn, and can blow at almost 60mph; it is this wind which is responsible for the dry, dusty conditions on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa. ‘Ghibli’ can last for days making life miserable and is therefore feared by the desert dwellers in that region. It can also have profound effect on the landscape by moving vast quantities of sand and dunes. Inspired by the Studio Ghibli’s unique and magical characters, the ‘Ghibli’ typeface is designed as a Latin free and literary serif typeface. It strongly expresses transition, imagination, sharpness, characterization, and modernization. It is a literary type that can capture the eyesight of readers and other observers with its acute and stylistic letterforms, dots, and numerals. It has transitional serifs and it is generally based upon the Latin printing style of the 18th and 19th centuries, with a pronounced vertical contrast in stroke emphasis (i.e., vertical strokes being heavier than the horizontal strokes). It has more regular forms in which serifs are bracketed and more symmetrical. The main characteristic of ‘Ghibli’ typeface is in its new designed serif letters. Special letters that can be described as having modern designs include small ‘g’, ‘p’ (with their open ends), ‘x’, and capital ‘B’, ‘P’, ‘Q’, and ‘R’ (with their open ends). ‘Ghibli’ typeface has also both of lining and old-style numerals which makes it more suitable for any literary and printing purposes. This gratuitous font comes in only two weights (i.e., Ghibli Regular and Ghibli Bold). It is absolutely preferable to be used in the wide fields related to literature and publication industry. This includes typing titles of diverse literary and academic books, readable texts of novels, novellas, short stories, prose, poetry, textbooks, newspapers, and magazines. It is also notable if chosen for designs that include movies’ titles, logos of academic institutions such as colleges and universities, organizations and associations’ names, medical packages such as those dedicated for tablets and syrups, and also other different educational and social materials. ‘Ghibli’ is simply a free literary typeface dedicated for all who want to write and read using a modern and stylish serif font. Enjoy it.

La tipografía “Tipo Metro CDMX” fue desarrollada por Lance Wyman como parte del proyecto “Metro” desde los años setenta, y es uno de los elementos clave de la cultura visual del transporte del Sistema de Transporte Colectivo Metro (STC Metro). Este estilo se ha convertido en el icónico fundamental del trasporte público para los residentes de la Ciudad de México. En esta edición, los tipos minúsculas son una adaptación “no oficial” para el Tipo Metro CDMX, enriqueciendo la tipografía a un estilo visual de altas y bajas, por lo que se prescinde del diseño base como trabajo propio para enfatizar los tipos minúsculas exclusivamente, además de que se han añadido algunos caracteres de acentuación extendiendo su uso a otros lenguajes. Los tipos son una nueva propuesta por Ixipcalli en el presente año 2023. The “Tipo Metro CDMX” typeface was developed by Lance Wyman as part of the “Metro” project since the 1970s, and is one of the key elements of the visual culture of transportation of the Metro Collective Transportation System (STC Metro). This style has become the iconic fundamental of public transportation for the residents of Mexico City. In this edition, the lowercase types are an “unofficial” adaptation for the Tipo Metro CDMX, enriching the typography with a visual style of highs and lows, so the base design is dispensed with as my own work to emphasize the lowercase types exclusively, In addition, some accentuation characters have been added, extending their use to other languages. The types are a new proposal by Ixipcalli in the current year 2023.

“Hey, look at me!” cried the new advertising typefaces. With the nineteenth century and the industrial revolution came an esthetic revolution in type design. Brash, loud, fat display faces elbowed their way into the crowd of book faces, demanding attention. Those who admired traditional book types harumphed and complained. Robert Thorne had fired the opening round with his Fatface. With the cutting of Figgins Antique, the battle was well and truly joined. Job printing came into its own and it seemed like everything changed. The world of printing had been turned upside down and the gentile book-type aficionados recoiled in horror much as the rural landed gentry recoiled at the upstart middle class shopkeepers and manufacturers. William Savage, approvingly quoted by Daniel Berkeley Updike over a hundred years later, described the new display faces as “a barbarous extreme.” These were exciting times. According to Geoffrey Dowding in his An Introduction To The History Of Printing Types, “The types which we know by the name of Egyptian were first shown by Vincent Figgins in his specimen book of 1815, under the name Antique.” Of course, dating the design is not quite as simple as that. Nicolete Gray points out that Figgins used the same “1815” title page on his specimen books from 1815 to 1821, adding pages as needed without regard to archival issues. As a result, there are different versions of the 1815 specimen book. In those copies that include the new Antique, that specific specimen is printed on paper with an 1817 watermark. The design is dated by the 1817 watermark rather than the 1815 title page. Figgins Antique ML is an all-cap font. This typeface is for bold statements. Don't waste it on wimpy whispers of hesitant whimsies. And please don't use it for extended text -- it will only give someone a headache. Think boldly. Use it boldly. Set it tight. Go ahead and run the serifs together. Solid and stolid, this face is very, very English. FIGGINS ANTIQIE ML represents a major extension of the original release, with the following changes: 1. Added glyphs for the 1250 Central Europe, the 1252 Turkish and the 1257 Baltic Code Pages. Added glyphs to complete standard 1252 Western Europe Code Page. Special glyphs relocated and assigned Unicode codepoints, some in Private Use area. Total of 331 glyphs. 2. Added OpenType GSUB layout features: liga and pnum. 3. Added 86 kerning pairs. 4. Revised vertical metrics for improved cross-platform line spacing. 5. Redesigned mathamatical operators. 6. Included of both tabular (standard) & proportional numbers (optional). 7. Refined various glyph outlines.

Roller Poster is named after Alfred Roller. In 1902, Roller created a poster to advertise the 16th exhibit of Austrian Artists and Sculptures Association, representing the Vienna Secession movement. The exhibit was to take place in Vienna during January & February 1903. The location is not mentioned because everyone in Vienna knew it would be held at the exhibit hall in the Secession Building at Friedrichstraþe 12, a few blocks south of the Opernring, near the Naschmarkt. Designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich in 1897, the buiilding has been restored and stands today as one finest of the many fine examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Vienna (see vienna_secession_bldg.jpg). Because of its dome, it is called “the golden cabbage.” The poster itself is unique. The word “secession” is in one type style and takes up two-thirds of the elongated poster. At the bottom of the poster are the details in a different lettering style. It is this second style at the bottom that is the basis for the font Roller Poster. In keeping with our regular naming conventions, we were going to call it Roller Gezeichnete (hand-drawn), but the wonderful play on both words and the shape of the three S’s in secession was too compelling. In November 1965 there was an exhibit of Jugendstil and Expressionist art at the University of California. Alfred Roller’s Secession Poster was part of that exhibit. Wes Wilson was designing promotional material at Contact Printing in San Francisco. Among their clients was a rock promoter named Bill Graham, staging dance-concerts at Fillmore Auditorium. Wilson saw the catalog from the UC exhibit and Roller’s lettering. Wilson adapted Roller’s letter forms to his own fluid style. The result was the poster for the August 12-13, 1966 Jefferson Airplane/Grateful Dead concert at Fillmore put on by Graham (BG23-1). Wilson continued to use Roller’s letter forms on most of the posters he did for Graham through May 1967, when he stopped working for Graham. The posters were extremely successful and the lettering style along with Roller’s letter forms were picked up by other artists, including Bonnie MacLean, Clifford Charles Seeley, James Gardner, and others. The Secession poster and the Fillmore posters have inspired a number of fonts in addition to ours. Among them are JONAH BLACK (& WHITE) by Rececca Alaccari, LOVE SOLID by Leslie Carbarga and MOJO by Jim Parkinson. Each is different and yet each clearly shows its bloodlines. Our font differs in two ways: 1) the general differences in the interpretation of the letter forms and 2) the modification of the basic letter form to incorporate the diacriticals within the implied frame of the letter, after the manner of the original design by Roller. We borrowed Carbarga’s solution to the slashed O and used it, in a modified form, for other characters as well to accomplish the same purpose. We recommend that you buy ours and at least one of the other three. According to Alaccari, a version called URBAN was released by Franklin Lettering in the 70’s (and is shown on page 51 of The Solotype Catalog). For comparison of our font to original design, see image files roller_poster_2s.jpg of original poster and roller_poster_2sx.jpg showing reconstruction using our font for the lower portion (recontructed area indicated by blue bar). Please note the consistency of character width. In the lower case, 23 of the basic 26 letters are 1/2 EM Square wide. The ‘i’ is an eighth narrower, while the ‘m’& ‘w’ are one quarter wider. All the Upper Case letters are 1/8 EM wider than the lower case. This is to make it easier to fill a geometrical shape like a rectangle, allowing you to capture a little of the flavor of Wes Wilson’s Fillmore West poster using only a word processor. We have also included a number of shapes for use as spacers and endcaps. If you have a drawing program that allows you to edit an ‘envelope’ around the letters to distort their shape, you can really get creative. I used Corel Draw for the gallary images, but there are other programs that can accomplish the same thing. The image file “roller_poster_keys.jpg” shows the complete character set with the keystrokes required for each character (see “HiH_Font_readme.txt” for instruction on inserting the non-keyboard characters). The file “roller_poster_widths.jpg” shows the exact width of each character in EM units (based on 1000 units per EM square). You will notice that the font is set wide for readability. However, most programs will allow you to tighten up on the character spacing after the manner of Roller & Wilson. In MS Word, for example, go to the FORMAT menu > FONT > CHARACTER SPACING. Go to the second Drop-Down Menu, labeled ‘Spacing’ and select "condensed' and then set the amount that you want to condense ‘by’ (key on the little arrows); two points (2.0) is a godd place to start. Let your motto be EXPLORE & EXPERIMENT. Art Nouveau has always been one of my favorite movements in art -- I grew up in a home with a couple of Mucha prints hanging on the living room wall. Perhaps because of that and because I lived through the sixties, I have enjoyed researching and designing this font more than any other I have worked on. Let’s face it (pardon the pun), Roller Poster is a FUN font. You owe it to yourself to have fun using it.