Before ink jet and laser printers; before copy machines, the main way to make multiples of anything not provided by printing press was by a mimeograph machine or spirit duplicator. The mimeograph utilized a porous drum which inked the backside of a waxed stencil sheet. Unlike traditional stencils which have cut out areas that are directly inked or painted, a mimeo stencil has the area to be printed scratched away by removing the wax coating with a stylus. The resulting image allows the ink from the drum to seep through the sheet and transfer to the blank paper. Based on a plastic lettering guide once manufactured by the A.B. Dick Company of Chicago, Mimeograph Template JNL is available in regular and oblique versions. Albert Blake Dick, the company’s founder, coined the term ‘mimeography’. The font’s character shapes follow the routed letters of the template, complete with rounded terminals. An earlier font release [designed with flat terminals and some alternate characters] is available as Interoffice Memo JNL.

The hand lettered, condensed stencil title on a movie poster for the 1950 film “Customs Agent” inspired both the digital typeface and the font’s name. Customs Agent JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

An old set of brass stencils spotted for sale on eBay were the inspiration for this font from Jeff Levine. Redrawn completely from scratch, Jeff retained the narrow "M" and angled corners found in the original.

Talbot Type Kitami is a minimal, geometric, stencil display font, inspired by Herbert Bayer’s Universal Typeface, created at the Bauhaus in the 1920s. Each character is created from a single continuous stroke, or combination of strokes.

A futurist inspired geometric stencil in clean and rough versions. This design approach was distilled into a more regular typeface in Futura Black; State takes its inspiration from the more eccentric designs that predated that font.

On the 1966 movie poster for “Seconds”, Saul Bass designed a hand lettered title utilizing a ‘futuristic’ stencil style. This inspired the digital typeface Time Count JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Plantain Stencil is based on Plantain which in turn is my interpretation of Plantin Adweight, which was one of my first commissioned projects (by Smarter Image, long before they went bankrupt). Plantin Adweight is one of the most beautiful designs of the Plantin family, which is a modern revival typeface, cut under the direction of F. H. Pierpont in 1913, who based the design on that of a famous 16th century printer, Christophe Plantin, for whom Pierpont’s font was named. The stencil cut of Plantain adds a bit of sparkle to the design. Supports most European languages that use the Latin alphabet.

As the basis for this new font artist and designer Lena Schmidt used an old font design by her mother Jutta. At a young age, her mother drew and illustrated a lot with pen and ink. She made beautiful illustrations and many font designs. Schmidt chose one of these drafts - delicately drawn Donovan lyrics - as the basis for this digital handwritten stencil font. What emerged from it is a stencil text and display typeface that relates to Auriol's art nouveau typefaces and the era of impressionism. More weights will be published in soon. Published by Spirit & Bones www.spiritandbonesdesign.com Designed by Lena Schmidt www.lenaschmidt.com

This is Avris, an exceptional and feminine stencil font. The base was designed in 2015. The word ‘avris’ derives from the latin rara avis, which means “rare bird”. Stencil fonts were initially designed for mass production and transportation companies. Unlike this one, Avris’ curvy and minimalistic design feels and looks like the wings of birds, flying above the quiet ocean. It also has a roman, calligraphic and cryptographic touch to it. It can be used for editorial (fashion) magazines and poster designs. Looks great in headlines! Also the numerals are a must see when you put it in use.

The original design came from Berthold Herold typeface, designed by Hermann Hoffmann during 1913 (Art Nouveau style) in Germany. This project started from flyer printed during 1947 with movable type, the specimen was scanned as a source to development some of the uppercase letterforms. However the most unusual and tricky element from this sample is the leg from the uppercase (R) which is different from the original Herold design, until now I didn’t found where this version originally came from. This expanded version only contain the bold weight, however there are also stencil (Nouveau LX Stencil) and condensed version (Nouveau LX) available.

Created in 1983 by British artist Alan Birch, this dramatic design conveys all the immediacy, impact, and effect of a stencil or rubber-stamp on paper. With a corroded, rough-around-the-edges feeling, Rubber Stamp gives an impression similar to the old, beat-up looking typewriter fonts that were popular among designers during the 1990s. Rubber Stamp is an all caps font, and is primarily suited for many headline and display applications that use larger point sizes. Try out Rubber Stamp in magazines, newsletters, and any other work that would be enhanced by a stencil, branding, or rubber stamp effect.

Chimphand is an organic, natural and contemporary handwritten typeface with their tall x-height. Weights of light, regular and bold for both normal width and condensed allow you to play with the typeface more. In addition, you will have an access to their style sets ( Gap ) to add stencil-ish character to every weights. This gap style is much more subtle than normal stencils, but unique and nicely fit to the typeface. Gaps are more visible on larger fonts and bolder weights. Chimphand is good for any purpose, but works more on shorter text. Thanks and enjoy!

Pila, designed by Alex Jacque in 2014, is a modular, sans-serif stencil typeface that comes in regular and condensed formats. Crafted to be a bold, punchy, no-nonsense stencil typeface, Pila owes its unique look — as well as its name — to its adherence to the rigid modular system it is built upon. Pila is meant to be used at larger point sizes where visual impact is desired. Pila has a broad glyph set with the necessary characters to support a wide number of languages. Through the use of OpenType Pila can automatically create fractions as well as create superscript and subscript numerals.

Originally ZionTrain was built as a (probably first in Cyrillic!) navigation typeface for the Kharkiv identity project and Kharkiv subway and airport navigation systems. We wanted comprehensible, distinctive letterforms, that can help everybody on the way from Babylon to Zion. The project was used in Kharkiv promotion at homeland and abroad, but was rejected by the new government. As a corporate typeface it was used for a few cultural projects. Now it is equipped with Slavic Cyrillic and Monotonic Greek and has special Stencil faces especially for low-budget navigations (don't forget to get your own Stencil Medium for free!).

Introducing Menthox Typeface The Menthox font is designed with a script font concept that has a decorative stencil style. Strong characters with stencil styles make Menthox fonts look different and unique from other script fonts. A script typeface like "Menthox" is very easy to apply to any design, especially those with dynamic, relaxed, and retro fashion concepts, besides that this font is very easy to use in both design and non-design programs because all glyps in the Menthox font are supported by Unicode. (PUA). The "Menthox"contains 700 glyphs with many unique and interesting alternative options.

OTC Eugen is a geometric grotesque with industrial socialist aspect. It is a somewhat brute interpretation of the graphic environment and old era typography found around cities or in the country side in Romania. It works best as a display typeface used in big titles, in branding projects for clear wordmarks, or around the house where you can just go wild and make your own mark with the stencil version. Two styles: Display & Stencil. Various stylistic and contextual alternates, and a considerable amount of ligatures, arrows and more. Language support for: Basic Latin, Western, Central & Eastern European languages.

Tripper is a rock-hard display font family. The six styles – from Light to Black – of this robust stencil typeface will assure your text grabs all the attention it can get. Instead of settings large amount of texts, just use this font for a small amount of words. Or even better: just one word. But most importantly: make it really, really, really big. The lightest weight is pretty condensed, and slowly expands when the weight increases. The bridges – essential to a stencil font – have the same width across all styles, so you can safely apply all styles in the same size without the risk of stencils falling apart. Due to the absence of curves throughout the whole family, Tripper is suitable for more limited, industrial applications too. Tripper comes in several flavours. Next to the basic flavour, there is a stencil family which automatically creates borders around every letter, word or line. Then there is Tripper Rough, a textured version with that intelligent random, grungy look. Together with the previously released multi-colour font Tripper Tricolor, the complete family consists of 24 styles. Tripper is equipped with a bunch of OpenType features, like different figure styles, fractions, superiors, etc. But if all the OpenType ding-dong is not enough for you, just try the ornaments. The separate ornament font comes with icons, indicators, manicules, banderoles and patterns.

Maya Tiles was designed as a set of 62 seamless, endless patterns accompanied by font map(s) and “Idea Book” to get you started on designing your own wallpapers, textiles, stained/etched/privacy glass window films, or even wooden fancy trellises - the choice is yours :) The font features simple, fancy, intricate patterns in three variants (Fill, Outlines and Stencil). - Outlines were designed with an idea of serving as an unobtrusive pattern on its own, or as a playful addition to the Fill pattern. - Fill pattern was designed to give more statement to Outlines, which in some cases may be too subtle for the job you have to be done. - Stencil has the most robust shapes. I have thrown this one in just in case you might want to do some DIY stencils. You may also use this file as a starting point for some CNC cut fancy trellis, however please do match pattern to the cutting method (ie. CNC, bolt cutter etc) and the material you intend to cut. -By overlaying Outlines & Fill (or Stencil & Fill) and manipulating those two layers you may get “more flat” or “more 3D” look. Have fun! Note: Please be aware that you may need to prepare those patterns in order to work with them in CAD-CAM or if you intend them for bolt cutter etc.

Ivy Tiles was designed as a set of 62 seamless, endless patterns accompanied by font map(s). They well might be a base for designing your own wallpapers, textiles, glass wall opaque foil privacy screens or even wooden fancy trellises - the choice is yours :) The font features simple, fancy, intricate patterns in three variants (Fill, Outlines and Stencil). - Outlines were designed with an idea of serving as an unobtrusive pattern on its own, or as a playful addition to the Fill pattern. - Fill pattern was designed to give more statement to Outlines, which in some cases may be too subtle for the job you have to be done. - Stencil has the most robust shapes. I have thrown this one in just in case you might want to do some DIY stencils. You may also use this file as a starting point for some CNC cut fancy trellis, however please do match pattern to the cutting method (ie. CNC, bolt cutter etc.) to the pattern and the material you intend to cut. -By overlaying Outlines & Fill (or Stencil & Fill) and manipulating those two layers you may get “more flat” or “more 3D” look. Have fun! Note: Please be aware that you may need to prepare those patterns in order to work with them in CAD-CAM or if you intend them for bolt cutter etc.

Parka is a unique and fashionable stencil font with tons of alternatives and ligatures. Softly curved alternates match the solid and masculine looks for the balance of shape. Perfect for any titles, branding, logo, and many more.

Tronica Mono™ is a new stencil modular monospaced font designed with pixel taste and solid font style by Radinal Riki. Come in single weight, uppercase and lowercase with a character set that covers over 100 languages.

The movie poster for the 1952 bank heist drama “Kansas City Confidential” had its title hand lettered in a condensed serif stencil design. This inspired Secret Operation JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A typeface that shows its root in stencil lettering. Dario Muhafara created a modern sans serif type family which is ideally suited for cool, technical themes. A small caps font offer a widely usage in book production.

This stencil font, inspired by a fleeting glimpse of a Bronx plumber’s van seen through the rain-spattered window of a New York taxi, is evocative of urban grit, knock-down warehouse bargains and military supplies labeling.

Contentor is a display type originated in the habour and made for long journeys. Inspired by the industrial lettering on containers, hardcases and boxes, Contentor and Contentor Stencil are a condensed and bold typeface fit for any voyage.

Silly, as the name suggest, is a somewhat silly font with uppercase letters and it is based on the characteristic expression of the stencil shape. FP Silly is available in two versions, with either rounded or angular shapes.

Jeff Levine Fonts offers its interpretation of Tea Chest, an Art Deco serif stencil font originally designed in 1939 by Robert Harling for the Stephenson-Blake type foundry. Pekoe JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Signage JNL shows the heavy influence of the perennial favorite Futura Black with a couple of minor changes here and there. The design was inspired by a set of British brass stencils for sale in an online auction.

Rustic Setting JNL is the solidified version of Rustic Stencil JNL. Originally modeled from lettering on the cover a children's book, the solid version of this Western-inspired typeface is reminiscent of the classic wood types of the era.

Miscellany JNL collects numerous images of various genres into one dingbat font. There are vintage stencil patterns, old-time ad cuts and decorations, line spacers [number keys 1 through 7], conversation balloons, parking lot symbols and other assorted goodies.

Valuxe — modern and minimalist sans serif. This font pairs well with a basic font like Arial and any script with an elegant style.

Compass St – a new addition to the existing Compass TRF Stencil fonts, originally released in 2010. Package consists of two fonts with rather different, both decorative, styles. Typeface is released in OpenType format with extended support for most Latin languages.

Meche Pro it is a geometric typeface family with a semi-formal touch, it contains 12 variants, from the Thin to Black and Stencil Thin to Black versions, plus Cyrillic alphabet with alternatives and different ligatures was added, especially for titles

The extra bold sans serif stencil lettering on movie posters and lobby cards for “Reform School Girl” (a 1957 film by American International Pictures) was the basis of Reform School JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Introducing Blocking is a Handmade Display Font with a stylish touch inspired by the famous minimalist logo and Blocking has 2 Regular and Stencil styles is perfect for the purposes of designing templates, brochures, videos, advertising branding, logos and more.