Handlettering in an ad from the 1920s for a Chicago engraving company provided the inspiration for this fine, fat, flowing face, full of fun and antique charm. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode 1252 Latin and Unicode 1250 Central European character sets.

The classic blues album "I'm Jimmy Reed" released on the legendary Vee-Jay label out of Chicago featured title lettering in a bouncy, fun, casual take on the classic Latin Wide style of alphabet. Bluesman JNL offers a full digital typeface based on that album titling.

The simple, square-shaped font that is Boat Decals JNL was loosely based on water-applied decals made by the Duro Decal Company (now Duro Art Industries) of Chicago, Illinois.

Stampede was created from a small sample of letters found on an old document dating back to 1902 from the Chicago, Indiana & Eastern Railway Co.

A comprehensive set of initials (usually referred to as Uncials, Lombardic Initials, or Lombards) of the French variety, adapted from Bergling, J.M. (1918), Art Alphabets and Lettering (Second Edition), Chicago: Blakely-Oswald Printing Company. The font contains over one hundred glyphs, including character outlines for two-color layering. Suitable to accompany most Gothic (especially Textura and Rotunda) and many Roman typefaces, or to be displayed as drop caps or in full titles and headings. Specimen, detailed character map, OpenType features, and font samples available at Alter Littera’s The Initials “Bergling A” Font Page.

Sign Decal JNL is an outline version of Sheldrake JNL - lettering based on original water-applied decal transfers once made by the Duro Decal Company (now Duro Art Industries) of Chicago.

AdvertiserÆs Gothic Light, from a volume of headline fonts, was designed by Robert Wiebking in 1917. Wiebking was a skilled type engraver from Chicago who created his own pantographic machine, used to cut punches drawn by other successful type designers, including Frederic Goudy.

The hand lettered thin, variable width slab serif text appearing on the cover of a souvenir photo book for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair Exposition is the basis for Thinly Disguised JNL.

One of the original nineteenth century designs, cut at Barnhart Brothers & Spindler in Chicago about 1880, passed on to us through ATF. Unlike most Circus types, the serifs of P.T. Barnum are bracketed.

The hand-lettered name of the "Junior Showcard Printer" (a 1930s-era rubber stamp printing set manufactured by the Superior Marking Equipment Company of Chicago) served as the prototype for Junior Printer JNL.

Stencil Octoid JNL was inspired by a set of twelve inch tall stencil letters and numbers made by Duro Art Industries in Chicago. The bold type style with angled rather than rounded corners gives the font a strong feel of industry or military usage.

This interesting type was introduced by the Chicago firm of Marder, Luse & Company in 1890, about the time designers were beginning to lose some of the excessive ruffles and flourishes that characterized the Victorian age. Originally a caps-only font, we have added a lowercase to match.

An antique, hand-cut metal stencil for the Chicago-Burlington rail route stating “CB&Q RR – Private Property” inspired the sans serif stencil design Midwest Railway JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Frank H. Atkinson was a popular Art Nouveau sign painter in Chicago, Illinois. He designed signs for the Cadillac Motor Car Co., Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the department store Marshall Field. Oddly enough, he even designed signs for other sign painters. In 1908 he published a book, Sign Painting, which sold well. French Plug, a bold, rounded, all-cap design in an American Art Nouveau style from that book. It has a relaxed, easy-going informality that is useful for ads and flyers. It also would have fit very nicely with many French posters of the period.

A neat face with pronounced spur serifs which several foundries have already digitized. We like ours better though, because we have drawn a lowercase which was lacking in the original. Barnhart Bros. & Spindler of Chicago introduced this type in 1888.

Our notes say this was originated at the Barnhart Bros. & Spindler foundry in Chicago, and named Cable. Perhaps so, but we didn't find it in any of our BB&S catalogs. We made a few changes to improve the color.

Adhesive Letters JNL was drawn from sample letters and numbers once manufactured by the Tablet and Ticket Company of Chicago. Originally sold under the brand name of Willson's, these gummed letters were available in a number of styles and sizes.

This popular type was manufactured by the Crescent Type Foundry of Chicago and sold on their behalf by a half dozen other foundries. Introduced in the early 1890s, just as tastes were swinging away from the excesses of the Victorian period.

Soft Rock is a bold condensed sans serif with rounded contours that contrives to be gentle and dynamic at the same time: rather like the soft rock bands (Chicago, Air Supply, Fleetwood Mac etc) after which it is named. It's a warm, friendly font ideal for branding everything from soup to soft furnishings.

Paint Store JNL is the third in Jeff Levine's series of display fonts modeled from actual water-applied decals that were manufactured by the Duro Decal Company of Chicago (now Duro Art Industries). Duro Decals were sold in paint, hardware, variety and art supply stores, and even [in some cases] print shops.

Sheldrake JNL is the second in a series of display fonts modeled from actual water-applied decals that were manufactured by the Duro Decal Company of Chicago (now Duro Art Industries). The font's name derives from the actual phone exchange for Duro, back in the days when a telephone listing had a name-number assignment for recognition. In this case, their number began as "SH(eldrake)-3".

Beauvoir is based on a sample of Art Nouveau period hand-drawn poster lettering designed by Chicago designer Frank Atkinson. The original sample was limited, so we extrapolated from it and added new characters and character variations to make the final result more interesting.

Indy is the work of Chicago-based lettering designer Charles Hughes. The lowercase letters link together to evoke the look of true handwriting and complement a generous and graceful capital alphabet. Indy is a refined handwriting script ideal for anything needing a touch of elegance.

Folsom JNL is one of the many stencil fonts Jeff Levine has recreated from original sources. This particular design was modeled from a kit made by the Meyercord Company of Chicago. In the original, some of the letters were solid rather than stencil forms, but Jeff gave all of the letters the traditional treatment for continuity.

Sign Project JNL is based on vintage water-applied decals once made by the Meyercord Decal Company of Chicago (and later Carol Stream), Illinois. These decals were popular during the 1950s and 1960s for window signage, boat identification, mailbox names and numbers and hundreds of other projects.

A set of cling vinyl letters and numbers for titling home movies or slides is the basis for Home Movies JNL. The set was made by the Clingtite Letters Company of Chicago and retailed for $2.95. It was advertised in many photographic publications of the 1950s.

Designed by Ernst Lauschke in 1888 and issued by Barnhart Bros. & Spindler foundry in Chicago under the name Dormer. It was revived in 1923 by the foundry with a new name, Pekin. We have "regularized" the face for modern use, but have included the changed characters as alternates.

Signboard JNL is based on die-cut cardboard display lettering once made by the Duro Decal Company (now Duro Art Industries) of Chicago, Illinois. Available in various sizes, these letters and numbers could be affixed to a number of different surfaces to make affordable signs, displays and show cards.

Will Ransom designed the exemplar for this series for Barnhart Brothers & Spindler in the early 1900s. The typeface was originally named "Parsons", after the advertising director of a Chicago department store (evidently a very BIG customer of BB&S). Both versions of this font contain the Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

Signs of Yesterday JNL brings another twenty-six vintage signs inspired by a series of decals once made by the Duro Decal Company (now Duro Art Industries) of Chicago. This font complements the original twenty-six designs found in Too Much Information JNL. There are two blank sign panels on the parenthesis keys for use in creating custom retro signage.

The CaliCholo font is inspired by the wide array of Chicano styles seen on the bay area and southern California streets. This simple representation is natural & rough in emulation of hand written letters using spray paint. Two alphabets, numbers, symbols.

Described as “An extended script type that lends itself well to fine fashion, ready-to-wear and all quality merchandise” in a marketing blurb pitching Beaufont by the Morgan Sign Machine Company of Chicago for their Line-O-Scribe sign printing system. This advertising script font was originally manufactured exclusively for Morgan Sign under license by the Hamilton Wood Type Manufacturing Company. The source patterns and original artwork for this typeface exist in the archives of the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum, and were used for this fresh digitization of this font. This digital take includes alternate letters as originally designed in the mid-century wood type version, and now includes a full extended latin character set with over 350 characters.