Ritz Slab Serif JNL is a bold display face which shares a lot of similar design traits to Stymie and other similar metal type of the 1930s and 1940s, but in actuality was modeled from only four letters. On the sheet music for the 1937 song "Sweet Varsity Sue" [from the 20th Century Fox Film "Life Begins in College"], there is a picture of the Ritz Brothers - a popular comedy team from 1925 through the late 1960s. The hand lettered name "Ritz" became the basis for Ritz Slab Serif JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Willow is an Adobe Originals typeface designed in 1990 by Joy Redick for the Adobe Wood Type series. Willow is a condensed typeface modeled on nineteenth-century wood types known as Clarendons (wood type Clarendons do not resemble the English metal types of that name). Clarendon condensed faces were originally so well-designed that words or a line of display type have an even color that is remarkable for wood types. Taken from proofs of type in the Rob Roy Kelly Collection housed at the University of Texas at Austin, Willow can be used for display work such packaging, advertising, and posters.

The hand lettered word ‘puzzles’ from the box cover of a 1940s set of metal “connected” puzzle pieces manufactured by the A.C. Gilbert Company was the initial typographic model, but some additions and changes were made. Instead of the right side of the ‘P’ being a semi-circle, it was changed to a more conservative ‘’squared’ look. After drawing out all of the necessary glyphs, the overall height of the characters was extended to make the letters and numbers appear taller and narrower. The end result is Narrow Deco JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Meet the Letterpress! Jakob Erbar’s Phosphor was released by the Ludwig & Mayer Foundry before 1923. The origins of Aurora date back to 1912 (Johannes Wagner Foundry). Permanent Headline was designed by Karlgeorg Hoefer, also known simply as Headline. It was fun making a mix out of the three classics – with Letterpress Bastard you will quickly get astounding results. To complete the family we added a font containing random symbols we also found in the metal type boxes. Please note that we provided loads of ligatures for double-letters to make your design look as authentic as possible.

Syntax was designed by Swiss typographer Hans Eduard Meier, and issued in 1968 by the D. Stempel AG type foundry as their last hot metal type family. Meier used an unusual rationale in the design of this sans serif typeface; it has the shapes of humanist letters or oldstyle types (such as Sabon), but with a modified monoline treatment. The original drawings were done in 1954; first by writing the letters with a brush, then redrawing their essential linear forms, and finally adding balanced amounts of weight to the skeletons to produce optically monoline letterforms. Meier wanted to subtly express the rhythmical dynamism of written letters and at the same time produce a legible sans serif typeface. This theme was supported by using a very slight slope in the roman, tall ascenders, terminals at right angles to stroke direction, caps with classical proportions, and the humanist style a and g. The original foundry metal type was digitized in 1989 to make this family of four romans and one italic. Meier completely reworked Syntax in 2000, completing an expanded and improved font family that is available exclusively from Linotype GmbH as Linotype Syntax. In 2009 the typeface family was renamed into a more logical naming of "Syntax Next" to fit better in the Platinum Collection naming." Syntax® Next font field guide including best practices, font pairings and alternatives.

Designed over three years after the second World War, and published in 1949 by the Nebiolo foundry, Normandia was Alessandro Butti’s take on the fat face. As it usually was with Butti’s designs, this face effectively injected a catchy yet expertly calculated calligraphic spin into its source of inspiration — which was the essentially geometric/deco, thicker model of Bodoni’s very popular aesthetic. The metal Normandia saw some widespread use for a handful of years after its publication, not least because of the multitude of sizes in which it was available. It stepped out of the limelight by the mid-1950s, due to a combination of the popularity of cold type and Nebiolo’s refusal to retool its faces for new technologies. It was copied by a few small film typesetting outfits on both sides of the Atlantic, but never really found its way back to the mainstream. By the time computer type became the norm, Normandia was pretty much relegated to a type historian’s collection of anecdotes. This digital update of the classic series revives and refines the three original metal designs (Tonda/Regular, Corsiva/Italic, and Contornata/Outline) and expands the character set to more than 600 glyphs per font, including small caps, six types of figures, fractions and nut fractions, a full set of f-ligatures, some stylistic alternates, and other fine typography niceties.

An industrial, mechanical font, strongly influenced by the British steel industry and heavy machinery. StealWerks was forged to give a solid impact. We recommend its usage on skateboards, BMXs, mountain bikes, snowboards or any object that is subject to harsh treatment.