digitization of an incunabel times typeface, an historic work of revival

FINALLY! We’re telling you for The Last Time! This is not a Threat! This is not a Negotiation! Refusal to cooperate with the terms of this font will be considered an Act of War! There can be no Dispute! The Crisp, Sharp hooks and corners of this typeface are Not To Be Reasoned With! Gosh Darn it, we have grown tired of asking and this is merely a formality precedent to the outbreak of hostilities. It’s a little corporate, it’s a little bureaucratic, but our lawyers insisted that we propose a settlement of compromise. Ipso Facto.

‘Skiart Serif Mini’ is now available online. Originally inspired by the san serif font ‘Skia’ by Mathew Carter for Apple. ‘Skiart’ was designed to feel more like a serifed font, but without any serifs. It took a step between sans serif and serif fonts. Next on the path towards a serif font comes Skiart Serif Mini, with tiny serifs added. This is a true serif font, all be it on the small side. It remains fully readable and feels as clean and normal as any of the best body copy serifs, and yet still has the strong solid bones of all the other Skiart font familys. If compared to one of the more commonly used serifs like ‘Times New Roman’, the ‘Skiart Serif Mini’ lowercase is more open with a taller x-height, increasing its readability and friendliness. The serifs are smaller and less distracting. They are not pretending to be ligatures. Where ‘Times’ makes its p q b d forms out of a barely touching oval and stem, the ‘Serif Mini’ forms are much more firmly attached, appearing clearly as single letters. The standard setting for the g’s are round single storied, (the italic a’s are also), feeling warmer and more inviting in the ‘Serif Mini’ font. Much more friendly than the stuffy double storied versions in fonts such as ‘Times’ etc.

In 1458, Charles VII sent the Frenchman Nicolas Jenson to learn the craft of movable type in Mainz, the city where Gutenberg was working. Jenson was supposed to return to France with his newly learned skills, but instead he traveled to Italy, as did other itinerant printers of the time. From 1468 on, he was in Venice, where he flourished as a punchcutter, printer and publisher. He was probably the first non-German printer of movable type, and he produced about 150 editions. Though his punches have vanished, his books have not, and those produced from about 1470 until his death in 1480 have served as a source of inspiration for type designers over centuries. His Roman type is often called the first true Roman." Notable in almost all Jensonian Romans is the angled crossbar on the lowercase e, which is known as the "Venetian Oldstyle e." Jenson Old Style™ was designed by Freda Sack and Colin Brignall for Letraset in 1982. Because of its darkness, this version is best used for display designs that call for a sense of old-world elegance and solidity."

A clean and balanced humanist grotesque. Like many an alchemical process, this font had to be designed and redesigned from the ground up many times. Each time it blew up in the designer's face until finally the conditions and process were in perfect alignment and this new font was born.

Pi fonts which had been used for the time tables of the Deutsche Bahn

AMARETTO, inspired by classic structure of italics, as an original variation of vertical style. Ludovico Arrighi has given us the legacy of classical calligraphic structures that times later lays the foundations of Cancelleresca style and then, the italics as extension of a classic roman serif used in the Renaissance, as main typographic way of expression in Italian printed books. The name Amaretto reminds one of the most representative and delicious liqueur as strong distinctive Italian taste. AMARETTO can be used mainly in titles, long and display texts. Supports East Europe languages. Includes standard and discretionary ligatures, complete small caps, old style numbers, fractions, numerators and denominators and several OpenType features included.

Digitized handwriting fonts are a perfect way to give documents the “very special touch”. Invitations look simply better when handwritten than when printed in bland Arial or Times New Roman. Short handwritten notes look authentic and appealing. There are numerous occasions where handwritten text makes a better impression. Clay Handwriting Pro is a beautiful typeface that mimics true handwriting closely. Use Clay Handwriting Pro to create stunningly beautiful designs easily. This typeface comes with alternative characters for sophisticated typography – all easily accessible as OpenType features. A “random” feature even allows for automated random switching between variations of the same character, resulting in type that looks authentically handwritten.

Lost Souls is intended to represent something old, retro and innovative at the same time.

I was working at Bozell Worldwide, an advertising agency, on their yearly promotional pitch. An art director was looking for a condensed informal headline treatment to be used on one of the new ad campaigns. I took several different font designs and started to condense and scale the proportions in the hopes of finding several good solutions. They finally settled on a version of Times Roman, scaled horizontally to about 50 percent proportions. I liked the look so much that I later went back to the drawing board and refined the concept by adding slanted serifs and a varying alignment on all the letter forms giving the typeface a very casual and informal appearance. At about that time, I was reading a book by Jack Kerouac, and was so inspired by his writings on the ‘beat generation’ that I decided to name the font ‘Beatnik’. Afterwards, I added a set of true small capitals and old style figures. I'm currently working on additional weights and variations to expand this ‘hip’ new font series. Groovin' baby.

The award-winning Conrad was created by Japanese type designer Akira Kobayashi. Its design was based on the fifteenth-century type by Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz, two German printers active in Rome at that time. They produced a unique, slightly unbalanced yet attractive type. Kobayashi says of his typeface, “I have designed a couple of typefaces inspired from the past, but this time the original print acted merely as a reference. The distinctive lowercase ‘a’ and some other letters were inspired by Sweynheym and Pannartz’s second roman type, but I revived the type in a more informal way. Here I used the historical type as a springboard. The resulting type looks different, taking on a rather temporary and lively look. I assume that the Conrad is the first revival of the Sweynheym and Pannartz type, though it does not closely resemble the original.” Conrad won first prize for the text typeface category in Linotype’s Third International Typeface Design Contest (2000) as well as the Certificate of Excellence in Type Design from the Type Directors Club (2001).

In 1066, William, duke of Normandy, was invading England. He was demanding the crown for himself, against King Harold the Saxon. He killed Harold and reached the crown at Hastings, the well-known battlefield. A few years later, in Bayeux (Normandy, French)was displayed a large tapestry (almost 70 m long) who was telling the story of the conquest. Along the tapestry was written a comment in Latin, using Roman capitals influenced a little by English or Scandinavian style (as it is visible in the Eth character). We have created the font, inspired from this design, adapted for contemporary users, making difference between U and V, I and J, which has not any relevance for ancient Latin scribes, and naturally with Thorn, Oslash, Lslash... and usual accented characters did not exist at the time. We also have reconstructed the K, German double s and Z, always using patterns of the time. We have scrupulously respected the poetic irregular and distressed original forms with two or three alternate for each characters, including reconstructed numerals.

“Due Giorni”, two days in italian language, express a measurement of time, it can be little or a lot, depending on who or what it is used for. “Due Giorni” is a script font very expressive, fresh, agile and dynamic, hand-drawn with connected forms on slanted angle of 23º This font contain 542 glyphs with plenty OpenType features: Standard and discretionary ligatures, stylistic alternates, swashes, Old style figures, small caps, case sensitives and ornaments. It come also, with three kind of capitals: Roman Capitals, Small Caps (different proportions) and Swashes. Roman Capitals are inspired on the beautiful inscription found in the Augustorium’s house in Ercolano, Naples.those letters have been carefully drawn and sculpted. Swashed Cursive Capitals are similar to 18th century penmanship. “Due Giorni” is a versatile font that may give you the chance to create original logos and headlines, specially by many stylistic sets, ligatures and alternates that can be combined with them.

Lichtspielhaus Slab is an ultra condensed handwritten typeface based on Lichtspielhaus. It still transports you back to a time where neon lights and marquee letters decorated cinema facades. This time with Slab. There are 8 styles: Hairline, Thin, Light, Regular, Medium, Bold, Black and Heavy. “Lichtspielhaus Slab” is the third part of a Type Noir Quadrilogy.

Spirrevip is for that moment when you need something legible, organic and obviously handmade at the same time. The letters are straightforward, yet variable in thickness of strokes, height and width. Spirrevip is definitely playful and serious at the same time. I have added 5 slightly different versions of each letter, and they automatically changes as you type!

‘Skiart Serif Leaf’ has been on a long growing path getting to where it is now. Originally inspired by the san serif font ‘Skia’ by Mathew Carter for Apple. ‘Skiart’ was designed to feel more like a serifed font, but without any serifs. It took a step between sans serif and serif fonts. Next on the path towards a serif font came Skiart Serif Mini, with tiny serifs added. This was a true serif font, although they were subtle. This font ‘Skiart Serif Leaf’ is the next in the series. After many reiterations, ‘Skiart Serif Leaf’ was built and rebuilt many times until finally, this version deserved to be presented to the world. Style and flow had been added to this font. It remained fully readable and feels as clean and normal as any of the best body copy serifs, and yet has an original modern flair to it. The font feels strong and solid while having a subtle organic flow in its form. If compared to one of the more commonly used serifs like ‘Times New Roman’, the ‘Skiart Serif Leaf’ lowercase is more open with a taller x-height, increasing its readability and friendliness. The serifs are smaller and less distracting. They are not pretending to be ligatures. This font may be organic but is not in anyway script like. Where ‘Times’ makes its p q b d forms out of a barely touching oval and stem, the ‘Serif Leaf’ forms are much more firmly attached, appearing clearly as single letters. The standard setting for the a’s and g’s are round single story, feeling warmer and more inviting in the ‘Serif Leaf’ font. Much more friendly than the stuffy double storied versions in fonts like ‘Times’ etc. ‘Skiart Serif Font’ comes with a somewhat organic italic.

Quintet is a narrow, stylized sans serif font made up of thin, looping lines. This font tries to walk the line between retro and modern and to incorporate some hand drawn imperfections without being too obvious about it. I kicked off designing without any particular inspiration in mind but, as time went on, started associating it in my head with an old-timey, swingy jazz aesthetic. So hopefully it captures the spirit of the Jeeves and Wooster throwback theme song and opening credits, the music of Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt (who the name is a nod to), and countless album covers from that era.

a free digitization of ancient types of Ottaviano Scotus, from incunabula times, printed in Germany by Anton Koberger

DB Fright Night is a collection of fun sketches and doodles just in time for Halloween. Happy Haunting!

Mortised Caps join the victoria font Renouveau in a classic mortised frame from golden times of american foundryes.

Patented in 1867, this face adds peaks and shadows to the Egyptian form so popular at the time.

DoodleBat Christmas Fun Doodles highlights the fun times of this Holiday season, the presents, snowmen, and gingerbread cookies.

This font is a clean, modern sans serif bold. Named after “De Rotterdam”* this huge and super cool building (read the story below). Great for headlines, Posters, Flyers but also well legible at small size in large texts. Contains All European language accents and characters. --- The Story --- *This complex is located in the Kop Van Zuid district of Rotterdam, on Wilhelminapier. I was lucky to see this building from the beginning (2009) growing up (2013) That time when I was working and living here. I was always amazed by the design and how huge it is every time I took a look at it while driving or walking on the Erasmus Bridge. When I was going to work or just hiking around the city. It has a special meaning and message for me: I started creating fonts in my free time in 2010 when I came to this city to work. I was factory worker, dishwasher etc. I grew together with this amazing construction from brick to brick, step by step. By the time its construction finished, I was able to quit my day job and become a full time freelance designer.

Neo Neo is the work of British designer Timothy Donaldson, a type style straight out of a 1950s time capsule. It can be set in all caps or a mixture of capitals and lowercase. The casual, slightly condensed forms with their smooth, soft lines are reminiscent of highway diners and motel ads of the time and convey a bright, inviting mood.

Like Marker Felt or Comic Sans, Art Club has that informal/playful feel. Only this time its made to look and feel like it was written using a paint brush at your local after-school art club. Next time you want to add that cheerful spice to your Art Club Syllabus, or ANY syllabus, look no further than Art Club (the font).

This font took a long time to create, because we spent a lot of time thinking about how to produce an original and real-looking signature font. As a result, we created Masculin! This real signature font is a clean script and has unique character! It's perfect for logos, name cards, magazine layouts, invitations, headers, or even large-scale artwork.

Divina is a Latinized digitization of one of German calligraphy master Rudolph Koch's typefaces. The original typeface, Kurrent, was designed in 1927 and cut in 1935. Its shapes are a variant of the German script to be used as a model for writing in schools at the time. This is the first time Koch's rendition of this particular blackletter calligraphy was ever digitized.

FranklinGothicHandLight is part of a series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked. When I was in advertising – before computers – a very time consuming part of my daily work was sketching headlines. I used to be able to sketch headlines in Franklin Gothic, Times, Futura, Helvetica and several scripts. We had a kind of huge inverted camera – which we called Lucy. We projected the alphabet onto a sheet of transparent paper, outlined the letters with a fineliner and then filled them in. It was very tedious work, but the resulting headline had its own charm and we had a permanent race going on who was best and fastest. I won most of the time! They used to call me the fastest "Magic Marker" this side of the Atlantic. Great days, just like today! Your sentimental type designer from the past Gert Wiescher

FranklinGothicHandDemi is part of a series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked. When I was in advertising – before computers – a very time consuming part of my daily work was sketching headlines. I used to be able to sketch headlines in Franklin Gothic, Times, Futura, Helvetica and several scripts. We had a kind of huge inverted camera – which we called Lucy. We projected the alphabet onto a sheet of transparent paper, outlined the letters with a fineliner and then filled them in. It was very tedious work, but the resulting headline had its own charm and we had a permanent race going on who was best and fastest. I won most of the time! They used to call me the fastest "Magic Marker" this side of the Atlantic. Great days, just like today! Your sentimental type designer from the past Gert Wiescher

SOUTUMI Features: 6 Ampersand options per weight Extended Latin characters 2 Pi symbols Capital and lowercase 'sharp S' Loathing the time it took me to complete the family for my personal freelance identity, Multipolar (& the first font I ever authored myself), I vowed to take the challenge of working within considerable record time. Soutumi was conceived of this challenge; it's vain purpose as such is more meaningful than the forms or any other semiotics that make up itself. Whereas Multipolar took me 9 months to complete, Soutumi was finished within the span of 3, and also sports three times more ampersand alternatives (as that theme was a running joke in Multipolar).

It’s time for Primal. It’s time to Rock! Primal is a polygonal typeface created with primeval times in mind. All forms have been created using few lines, angles and points. This typeface will enable you to create type that will almost scream off the page. Raaawwhrrr! Very useful for concert posters, techno parties or caveman signs. Whichever you prefer! Primal contains uppercase, smallcaps and underscored lowercase letters. By turning on standard ligatures the underscored letters will automatically connect, resulting in one single underscored line. Primal also contains a number of opentype ordinals and catchwords. The latter can be unlocked by using discretionary ligatures. This typeface is created by illustrative designer Zeptonn.

Set of ornaments based on the decorative motifs used by the first typographic workshop in Buenos Aires: “Imprenta de Niños Expósitos”, between 1780 and 1824. This set is the product of an extensive historical research that aims to identify the type that came from Europe to the City during colonial times, and during the first years of Argentina’s independence. This group has a lot of diversity, which fluctuates between organic baroque forms and geometric neoclassical. Its characters can be used in editorial design along with Roman typefaces, they work individually or grouped to form different figures, guards or frames. It was baptized in honor to the first printer who worked in the workshop: the Spanish Agustín Garrigós.

Digitized handwriting fonts are a perfect way to give documents the “very special touch”. Invitations look simply better when handwritten than when printed in bland Arial or Times New Roman. Short handwritten notes look authentic and appealing. There are numerous occasions where handwritten text makes a better impression. Hilly Handwriting Pro is a beautiful typeface that mimics true handwriting closely. Use Hilly Handwriting Pro to create stunningly beautiful designs easily. This typeface comes with many pre-made ligatures and alternative characters for sophisticated typography – all easily accessible as OpenType features. A “random” feature even allows for automated random switching between variations of the same character, resulting in type that looks authentically handwritten.

This is not an historically accurate font but rather one intended capture the spirit of ancient Roman manual type. It was inspired by various patterns used in documents and books created by Latin scribes between the second and fourth centuries. They used either calamus and ink on papyrus, or a pointed metal stick on wax tablets. We have created the font for contemporary use; distinguishing between U and V, I and J, which had no meaning for ancient Latin scribes, and adding thorn, Oslash, Lslash, W, Y and common accented characters that did not exist at the time. A lot of titlings and contextual alternates complete the set. Available only in TTF and OTF format.

Digitized handwriting fonts are a perfect way to give documents the “very special touch”. Invitations look simply better when handwritten than when printed in bland Arial or Times New Roman. Short handwritten notes look authentic and appealing. There are numerous occasions where handwritten text makes a better impression. Harico Handwriting Pro is a beautiful typeface that mimics true handwriting closely. Use Harico Handwriting Pro to create stunningly beautiful designs easily. This typeface comes with many pre-made ligatures and alternative characters for sophisticated typography – all easily accessible as OpenType features. A “random” feature even allows for automated random switching between variations of the same character, resulting in type that looks authentically handwritten.

Digitized handwriting fonts are a perfect way to give documents the “very special touch”. Invitations look simply better when handwritten than when printed in bland Arial or Times New Roman. Short handwritten notes look authentic and appealing. There are numerous occasions where handwritten text makes a better impression. Sarx Handwriting Pro is a beautiful typeface that mimics true handwriting closely. Use Sarx Handwriting Pro to create stunningly beautiful designs easily. This typeface comes with many pre-made ligatures and alternative characters for sophisticated typography – all easily accessible as OpenType features. A “random” feature even allows for automated random switching between variations of the same character, resulting in type that looks authentically handwritten.