Kompakt is one of the early typefaces of type designer Hermann Zapf, whose Palatino has long been a standard in almost every area of application. Kompakt consists of a single weight and was designed in 1952, two years after Palatino. It was produced by the foundry D. Stempel AG in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where Zapf was at the time in the artistic department. The figures of this extremely strong and heavy typeface are decidedly those of a broad tipped pen. When enlarged, the sharp outlines of the characters can be clearly seen. The unique dynamic of the alphabet is a result of its strong serifs, which on the lower case letters almost connect the letters in a line. Together with the slight slant to the right, this gives Kompakt the character of handwriting, making it look like it is always striving to go forward. Kompakt is an excellent choice for advertisements, especially for posters which should display a hint of nostalgia, and should be used only in headlines.

In spite of its angular appearance, Origami is composed almost exclusively of curves. Designer Carl Crossgrove derived the typeface from experiments in designing a low resolution type. The resulting face is reminiscent of Eastern European expressionist designers such as Oldrich Menhart and Vojtech Preissig. It is paired with an equally angular chancery italic. Origami works effectively for short blocks of text or at display sizes, while the capitals are especially suitable for titles.

Cronos is the work of Robert Slimbach, a sans serif typeface family that embodies the warmth and readability of Oldstyle Roman typefaces. It derives much of its appearance from the calligraphically inspired type of the Italian Renaissance. Its almost handwritten appearance sets it apart from most other sans serif designs and makes it an effective choice for text composition. The Italic design was inspired by early Chancery style Italics and is both elegant and distinguished.

Inspired by a former Hermann Zapf design, Hanse Textura was completely redrawn and redesigned as an English-style blackletter font with a calligraphic touch. It comes also with the historical long s which can be reached either by typing [alt] + b or by using the OT feature historical forms. I strongly recommend to activate both OT features, standard and discretionary, to access all ligatures built in the font. The keys pi and product are occupied with beautiful border elements.

An original design by Richard Isbell for ATF; in exaggerating the tapered stroke introduced eleven years earlier in Hermann Zapf’s Optima, Isbell created the first flareserif to achieve popularity in the United States.

The Carlin Script family, inspired by the Carolingian minuscule alphabet (ca 800 A.D.), is one of the great new families available through Linotype's Library's Take Type 5 collection. Take a closer look at these beautiful characters; with them, one can create a different, more personal feeling than commonly comes from more available script and chancery fonts. Like a monk with his writing table, German designer Hans-Jürgen Ellenberger created this new design, which includes 10 different weights, bringing scribal excellence directly to your keyboard. The Carlin Script family includes an additional Initial set-allowing the creation of medieval-flavored drop or initial caps in snap. And the critics are raving: Carlin Script was a winner in the New York-based Type Directors Club's 2003 Type Design Contest!"

Alfina is a chancery typeface that shows a modern temperament, but is inspired by the eponymous town of Torre Alfina, one of the most beautiful medieval villages of Italy, situated on the edge of the plateau Alfina, a few miles from of Orvieto. The place where is the castle is steeped in history. Its roots date back to the Lombard kingdom (seventh century); later it was under the rule of Monaldeschi (1200-1700) and more recently (1880) the property of the rich French banker Count Edoardo Cahen of Antwerp, who was responsible for the present aspect of the Castle. Alfina has soft lines, very slender upper cases and thin overlapping strokes; The stylistic alternates are particularly important, and the type is enriched by many, different OpenType features.

ITC Cerigo is the result of a challenge which designer Jean-Renaud Cuaz set for himself: to create a typeface with the grace of Renaissance calligraphy but different from the numerous Chancery scripts. He calls Cerigo a 'vertical italic' and based it on 15th century calligraphic forms. The weights are carefully designed to complement each other and are made more flexible by a number of italic swash capitals. The flexible ITC Cerigo is suitable for both text and display.

Alinea is a typeface in 3 styles (Sans, Incise, and Serif) conceived for being mixed in the same document. Alinea incise is a flare serif (incise in French). It finds its origin in the roman letters carved in stone. The great advantage of such a style is that it can be associated to any other style of typeface. The most famous flare serifs are: Optima of Hermann Zapf, Pascal of José Mendoza, Amerigo of Gerard Unger and Alinea Incise of course!

Inspired by some handwritten letter forms originally made by Hermann Zapf for his 1949 book "Pen and Graver", the drawings and designs finally became an entire font. It is an ideal companion to create diplomas, certificates and any other vintage projects. Take advantage of the long s which can be reached when you change the round s by the historical OpenType feature or when you simply type the integral sign [ ∫]. This font contains also swash forms of d, g, and v.

This quasi-Chancery classic is a revival of Walter MacKay’s Heritage typeface, made for ATF in 1952. Walter is clean and legible free-flowing calligraphy with a subdued, conservative and traditional letterform base that can be used in large sizes for posters, covers and packaging, as well as in relatively small sizes for personalized letters, poetry and quotables. Walter comes with 430 glyphs and support the majority of Latin-based languages. Plenty of alternates and ligatures are sprinkled throughout the font.

Jam jars; Warhol’s “Tomato Soup”; chalk lettering and baseball. Those were the triggers to make this soft chancery cursive turned into a script font. Brand is thought mainly for packaging but can be used in magazines and invitations also. It can be easily converted into a logo when using it and its features. Pro styles are loaded with the most complete sets of alternates, ligatures and ornaments; while Std styles are smaller versions of the font, with no decorative alternates.

Sweet crispy and crunchy lines, clear and obvious handmade letters! What's not to like?! If you need an organic and dynamic input to your product, Crispy Magenta could be the game changer

Basile is the conclusion of a process that began with the learning of italic handwriting in a roballos-Naab studio course. In this workshop I developed a variation of chancery handwriting which had a more pronounced wider than its historical model. While making the digitalization, the forms were modified to obtain a similar spirit to the one in the handwriting, but thinking about the text in small sizes. Also incorporating three sets of forms enlarged the family: italic, swash and extra swash. And the addition of initials and terminals sets.

This font is mainly inspired from the engraved characters of the small book known as “Operina”, or “The method and rules for writing cursive letters or chancery script” from the famous calligrapher Ludovico Vicentino Arrighi, published in Roma in 1522 and signed with simplicity “Ludovico Vicentino”. The font contains a large set of standard ligatures and alternative characters: two lower cases, four sets of standard capitals, long s and variants, titlings, each feature easy to use with OTF managing software. It is a pro font, containing Baltic, Eastern, Central, Western European and Turkish diacritics.

Acerola is a contemporary script font based on calligraphy with the pointed brush. The letterforms have a touch of chancery with a fresh look, full of details and offering great readability. It contains a various OpenType features and supports most Latin-based languages. Over 1200 glyphs make up this display font that can be used for all manner of applications. Acerola includes alternate characters, swashed capitals, terminal forms, ligatures, stylistic sets and small caps. Acerola stands out in any typographic composition and certainly will make your design looks like unique and handmade.

Donna Lena is a chancery cursive, feminine in character. Elegant and timeless, this font marks the return of the classical canons of the Renaissance thanks to its open forms and the clear-cut ends, while recalls the graceful ways and the intense gaze of the ladies that populate the Florentine paintings in the sixteenth century. Donna Lena is soft and slightly inclined, with a fast ductus and marked contrasts in thickness to highlight the gesture. Different stylistic variations and ligatures are considered to make the most of the many OpenType features.

The wind howled, the night grew long, and British type designer and lettering artist Tim Donaldson created the typeface Banshee. This dramatic display face is modeled after one of Donaldson�s handwritten lettering styles. Banshee began as letters rapidly written by Donaldson with one of his homemade ruling" pens. The letterforms are firmly rooted in the tradition of classical chancery italics. With its ragged lines and counters, Banshee realistically captures the irregularity of pen and ink on paper, lending an immediacy to packaging, advertisements, posters, and invitations that few digital typefaces can match."

Calcite Pro is a contemporary sans serif italic typeface designed by Japanese type designer Akira Kobayashi. Although it derives its basic character from the italic scripts of the Italian Renaissance, Kobayashi has utilized a highly stylized and rational approach to create an inspired modern Adobe Originals adaptation. Calcite Pro's geometric form and almost crystalline texture evoke images of its mineral namesake. The dynamic appearance of this retro chancery script adds a strong graphic presence to modern typesetting, whether it is used on its own or in conjunction with more traditional typefaces.

Alfina Notte is a chancery typeface that shows a modern temperament, but is inspired by the eponymous town of Torre Alfina, one of the most beautiful medieval villages of Italy, situated on the edge of the plateau Alfina, a few miles from of Orvieto. The place where is the castle is steeped in history. Its roots date back to the Lombard kingdom (seventh century); later it was under the rule of Monaldeschi (1200-1700) and more recently (1880) the property of the rich French banker Count Edoardo Cahen of Antwerp, who was responsible for the present aspect of the Castle. Alfina Notte is the bold version of Alfina, a type with soft lines, very slender upper cases and thin overlapping strokes; The stylistic alternates are particularly important, and the type is enriched by many, different OpenType features.

One of my dreams as a type-designer was making a good looking chancery cursive. Full of life, like some of the best calligraphers around the world do on their artworks. With Julian Waters, John Stevens and Denis Brown (just to name a few of them) (1) chancery, or italic script, was transformed into a new, exciting and very fresh style of calligraphy mainly at the end of 20th Century. Dream Script may be that dream named above made true. I have been practicing chancery in the way I learnt from those calligraphers for many years now. Making a font out of my ink-sketches was a tough work, since they were closer of -being art- than of -being type-. However, this font rescues many aspects of handmade calligraphy: You have to look at it really close to notice it is actually a font, and that was one of my goals. The secret of a good looking chancery is on its subtle details: pen angle is constantly changing, even on the strokes which seem straight. Capitals and swashes have to be done a little faster than lowercase letters. The rhythm has to be even, in spite of its playful look. The fact that makes Dream look alive is that it has many alternates per glyph. This makes each word look unique like it happens in calligraphy: you will find alternates for the beginning/ending of a word/phrase, some for the middle of it, some interchangeable. Also, to accompany the script, you will find Dream Caps, which was inspired in the eternally beautiful trajan capitals. Place them like I did on the posters and you will have great results for sure. The font works great in small, middle and big sizes and can be a great selection for magazines, wedding invitations, perfumes, and posters. Close your eyes, and Dream with me... TECHNICAL Dream Script Pro is the most complete style, it contains all the alternates and ligatures (OT programmed, better if you use Adobe applications) If you plan to use the font for text, be sure to activate the less decorative capitals, which are placed in the “salt” group of alternates. Dream Script Standard has less glyphs than the Pro one, it contains just some ligatures for a better legibility. (OT programmed, better if you use Adobe applications) NOTES (1) Not only are they great artists, but also good people, who are always willing to share with their students all what they know. I would also like to thank Ricardo Rousselot, whose work inspired me this time to make “The Dream Script” exlibris; and to Alisara Tareekes, a very talented friend which international calligraphy conferences gave me: She kindly helped me with some tips to make this font better.

Controlled casualness is the watchword in this new handwriting script from the prolific young French designer Éric de Berranger, who also designed the sans serif type family ITC Octone. ITC Berranger Hand has its roots in chancery calligraphy, yet its surface looks like contemporary informal lettering that was written quickly with a felt-tip pen on slightly absorbent paper. The counters of some letters appear to almost fill in from ink spread, yet Berranger Hand is admirably readable at small sizes. The capital letters are restrained, without swashes, so they can be used together in all-caps combinations.

Bank of England is loosely based on the blackletter lettering from Series F English twenty pound banknotes introduced in 2007. The font takes inspiration from German Kanzlei (Chancery) typefaces and the English calligraphers John Ayres and George Bickham. For designers using OpenType-aware applications, Bank of England includes Swash versions of all uppercase letters and ampersand, Alternates for nine lowercase letters and capital Z, and sixteen ornamental flourishes. Western European accented characters are included, and also a simplified St. Edward’s Crown (Elizabeth II’s coronation crown) at the Section (§) and PlusMinus (±) keystrokes (Windows Alt-0167 and Alt-0177).

Lucida Calligraphy is a chancery cursive script typeface family designed by Kris Holmes and Charles Bigelow. It is a very legible and readable typeface, designed for use on screen and in print environments. Lucida Calligraphy was originally released in one weight. It is now available in five weights, from Thin to Black. Lucida Calligraphy is part of the Lucida superfamily of fonts from Bigelow & Holmes. Lucida is highly regarded for legibility and its extensive range of type styles. The Lucida Calligraphy typeface family has a Standard character set with 255 glyphs supporting the basic range of Latin languages.

The design for Aurelia is based on the forms of Jenson, an Old Style typeface developed by Nicolas Jenson in 1470 which still influences type design today. Zapf gave Aurelia a bit of his own personal style and adapted it to the demands of modern technology. The family of typefaces was originally designed for use with the typesetting machines produced by the German company Dr.-Ing Rudolf Hell GmbH which was later merged with Linotype. The name Aurelia is a nod to the Roman emperor Aurelianus (214–275), who built the Via Aurelia in Italy. Aurelia is a robust and classic font, suitable for both text and headlines.

Sandena began as an attempt at a harmonic convergence between the classic lines of Palatino and the curved flair of Optima - both favorites of mine from the great Hermann Zapf. As I’ve always loved the Swash characters of the 50’s and 60’s letterforms, I incorporated these alternatives to offer the more complete package that you see here - a humanist font in the truest calligraphic sense. This OpenType font family comes in four weights and includes condensed and Swash Cap alternates. Sandena offers multiple-character foreign language support and is being offered in a number of packages best-tailored for your unique application.

Designed specifically for AT&T to set telephone directories by Chauncey Griffith at Mergenthaler in 1938, Bell Gothic was the standard American directory typeface for forty years. Limited in performance by linecaster matrix requirements, Bell Gothic was replaced by Bell Centennial. Furlong is a version of Bell Gothic adapted for the racing form.