In the 1949 Paramount comedy "My Friend Irma" (a film based on the popular radio series that introduced America to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis), an opening gag set-up involving excavation work utilizes street barricades which inspired Work Crew Stencil JNL. Placed along the site, different advisories are stenciled upon barricades warning of the work in progress. The scatterbrained Irma (Marie Wilson) walks straight through the construction, oblivious as to what's going on around her and steps right into the open hole dug into the sidewalk (a scene she reprises in 1950's "My Friend Irma Goes West").

An ad appearing in the January 5, 1952 edition of Billboard Magazine promoted the then-new releases from Capitol Records. The headline copy was set in a bold, condensed sans serif stencil typeface. This inspired Music Ad Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A new take on the classic font Bodoni, revealing the structural elements of the font, and adding a little sparkle with a pseudo-stencil treatment. The font is named in honor of its original designer and also the undisputed king of the two-chord song. Both versions of the font include the 1252 Latin and 1250 CE character sets (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

The typography on a 1964 children’s activity book published by Whitman entitled “Build with Stencils” was in a bold, condensed design. The only problem was that the ‘rails’ [the parts that divide a letter into stencil pieces] were too narrow and would disappear at smaller point sizes. Widening the ‘rails’ just a bit greatly improved the appearance of the stencil characters. Play Day Stencil JNL is now available in both regular and oblique versions. In its day, the Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin published dozens of activity books for children, including a number of them with stencils. The company was a division of Western Publishers from the early 1900s through the 1970s, but went through a number of sales and name changes. Currently [as Whitman once again] it is owned by Anderson Press, and is known for its line of coin folders and books on coin collecting.

The opening title from the 1943 Abbott and Costello comedy ”It Ain't Hay” shows a park bench with the words “Universal Presents” stenciled on it in a chamfered sans serif style. This served as the design model for Grounds Crew Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Danish type designer Ole Søndergaard created this display FontFont in 2011. The family contains 3 weights: Book, Bold, and Black and is ideally suited for advertising and packaging, film and tv as well as music and nightlife. FF Signa Serif Stencil provides advanced typographical support with features such as ligatures, alternate characters, case-sensitive forms, fractions, super- and subscript characters, and stylistic alternates. It comes with a complete range of figure set options – oldstyle and lining figures, each in tabular and proportional widths. This FontFont is a member of the FF Signa super family, which also includes FF Signa, FF Signa Correspondence, FF Signa Serif, and FF Signa Stencil.

Searching the internet for interesting type ideas leads one to many unusual items for sale online. An antique, hand-cut metal stencil from France with the word “Bagagens” [luggage] provided a condensed Art Deco design in a semi-stencil format (some solid letters, others with traditional ‘breaks’ within the characters). The digital version of the type style has a more traditional stencil character set. Garment Bag Stencil JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

An image of a vintage British lettering stencil set [probably circa 1960s] spotted in an online auction inspired North End Stencil JNL. The original lettering was a hybrid of both stencil and solid letter forms, but for the digital version all of the characters were given the stencil treatment. North End Stencil JNL is named after a district in London, and the type face is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Vintage Stencil Borders JNL collects twenty-six decorative vintage and antique stencil border motifs for embellishing word copy set in stencil type or for any other decorative purpose. Please note: Commercial reproduction of these designs as stencils, stickers, decals, transfers, ink stamps or other decorative stand-alone products for resale requires a separate license. Contact Jeff Levine through the email address located in the PDF file provided with the font or from the online EULA text.

Based on some 1930s-era ‘block chamfer’ gummed paper lettering, Chamfer Stencil Sans JNL is a stenciled treatment of the original design; available in both regular and oblique versions.

A vintage metal stencil from a saw mill with the term "reusable skid" was the model for Saw Mill Stencil JNL. Although the original was what would be termed a semi-stencil (some letters did not have 'breaks' in them), the font was designed with a more traditional look.

Back Lot Stencil JNL is a hand lettered slab serif stencil design based on the titles and credits from the 1954 film “Human Desire” and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Caps only Font.

The Vtg Stencil fonts from astype are based on real world stencils from several countries. All styles offering an extended Latin character set. » pdf specimen «

A 1902 publication entitled "Lettering for Schools & Colleges" had an example of an ornate, hand drawn stencil alphabet in the Art Nouveau style. This is now available digitally as Nouveau Stencil Ornate JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Titles hand lettered for articles appearing in the November, 1938 issue of Hollywood Magazine were done in a condensed Art Deco stencil style in just lower case. This novelty type design is now available as Deco Display Stencil JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

For decades, the National Show Card Writer Company of Minneapolis, MN produced sign making kits used by shopkeepers, schools, churches and many other types of organizations. The standard sets were comprised of two part stencils that when overlaid, produced finished lettering, or a buyer could choose the same type style designs with a standard stencil letter. From one of these templates comes Show Card Stencil JNL, in both regular and oblique versions. Take note that the U, V and W have the heavier vertical strokes reversed. As this was the way the original stencil design was manufactured, it has been retained for this digital type as well.

This is a new version of our popular DIN Stencil family designed with a wider cut than the original. This overcomes the diminishing effect of the stencil at smaller sizes where the cuts tend to disappear, whereas it makes a bold statement at display sizes. Traditionally, stencils have been used extensively for military equipment, goods packaging, transportation, shop signs, seed sacks and prison uniforms. In the old days, stencilled markings of ownership were printed on personal possessions, while stencilled signatures on shirts were typical of 19th century stencilling. DIN Stencil B manages to preserve several traditional stencil features, but introduces additional modernities which enhance its pleasing characteristics and make it an ideal choice for a large number of contemporary projects. It consists of 7 diverse weights from Extra Thin to Black. This version supports Latin, Cyrillic, Eastern European, Turkish and Baltic. DIN Stencil B includes several additions such the recently unicode encoded character of the German uppercase Eszett (ẞ), the Russian currency symbol for Rouble (₽), Ukrainian Hryvnia (₴), Azeri and Kazakh letterforms.

Vintage Stencil Motifs JNL is a collection of charming and decorative designs re-drawn (as the name indicates) from vintage source material. For decades, home decorators and do-it-yourself hobbyists embellished furniture, chests, walls and other areas with thematic stencils in both borders and topical vignettes. Today's digital designers can use these stencil patterns to embellish text set in other stencil alphabets or by themselves to evoke the feeling of rustic Americana.

An image of a vintage metal stencil for the French wine region Côteaux du Tricastin [now Grignan-Les Adhemar] served as the inspiration for Wine Vat Stencil JNL. This condensed sans serif design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Amusement Ride Stencil JNL is based on a hand-cut paper stencil advising the riders to "Hold Onto Your Hats - Don't Stand Up - Let's Go Again!" Available in both regular and oblique versions.

Comic books based on popular characters have been around pretty much since the advent of comic books themselves. An edition of the "Car 54 Where Are You?" series published by Dell (and based on the hit TV show created by Nat Hiken) displayed "Car 54" in a bold hand lettered stencil design on the cover. These few characters became the inspiration for Patrol Car Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

As the name implies, this font was made with a gritty pencil. Gritty Pencil comes with language support and a set of cool alternates for the lower case letters.

RundigPencil has a semi-informal but very neat and rigidly upright handwritten look. It comes in three weights, each with italics. The calligraphic typeface Rundigsburg is based on similar letter shapes.

I have a lot of pencils, but when I need one, they seem to have grown legs and have disappeared! When I decided I wanted to create a pencil font, it took me a long time to find the right pencil for the job! Wandering Pencil is a nice, handmade font. It is a bit shaky, a bit rough, but it does have class and will look nice on your designs! Comes with diacritics and double letter ligatures for the lower case.