Lyra is an Italian Renaissance script that might have developed if metal type had not broken the evolution of broad pen calligraphy. It lies in the area between the humanist bookhand and the chancery cursive, combining the fullness and articulation of the Roman letters with a moderate italic slant and condensation. A steep pen-angle allows use of a broader pen relative to the x-height, giving the letters more contrast with light verticals and heavy curves. Lyra embodies the Renaissance spirit of refining technical advances of the late middle ages with reintroduction of ancient classical principles. Based on the moving penstroke with constantly changing pen-angle, it brings the vitality of handwriting to the ordered legibility of type. Lyra is a formal italic, too slow for copying books. By eliminating the element of speed, digital technology opens up a new level of calligraphy, bringing it into the sphere of typography as would naturally have happened if metalworkers had not controlled the process. If classical Western traditions are respected, digital calligraphy has the potential to recapture the work of the past and restart its stalled evolution. There is of course no substitute for the charm of actual writing, with each letter made for its space; but the tradeoff is for the formal harmony of classical calligraphy as every curve resonates in tune with every other. This three-weight font family marks Philip Bouwsma's much-requested return from a three year hiatus. It also reminds us of his solid vision in regards to how calligraphy, typography and technology can interact to produce digital beauty and vesatility. Each of the three Lyra fonts contains almost three character sets in a single file. Aside from the usual wealth of alternates normally built into Bouwsma's work, Lyra offers two unique features for the user who appreciates the availability of handy solutions to subtle design space issues: At least three (and as many as six) length variations on ascending and descending forms, and 65 snap-on swashes which can be attached to either end of the majuscules or minuscules. The series also offers 24 dividers and ornaments built into each weight, and a stand-alone font containing 90 stars/snowflakes/flowers, symmetric contstructs for building frames or separators, masking, watermarking, or just good old psychedelia.

With the publication of the “Today Sans Now” Elsner+Flake extends its offering of the “Today Sans Serif” type family, developed in 1988 by Volker Küster for Scangraphic, by another cut so that the gradation of the stroke width can now be more finely calibrated. The type complement is available for 72 Latin-based languages as well as Cyrillic. Where available, small caps were integrated, and mathematical symbols as well as fractions were included. In order to make the symbols for text applications in regard to headlines more flexible, the insertions which were formerly added, for technical reasons in order to sharpen the corners, were eliminated, and the optical size adjustments of the vertical and diagonal stem endings (I, v, H, V) to the horizontal bars (z, Z) were scaled back. Already since the end of 1984, Volker Küster experimented with broad sticks of chalk and a broad felt pen in order to develop a new sans serif typeface which, in the interest of easy legibility, would be built on the basic structures and proportions of the Renaissance-Antiqua. Using a normal angle of writing, his experiments lead to the form structure of the characters: a small contrast between bold and light weights, serif-like beginning and end strokes in some of the lower-case characters, and the typical, left-leaning slant of all round lower-case letters and the typical left-leaning axis of all round letter forms. In this way, a rhythmization of a line of type was achieved which created a lively image without being “noisy”. With this concept, Volker Küster has enlarged the Sans Serif by a distinctive, trend-setting form variation.