The Vtg Stencil fonts from astype are based on real world stencils from several countries. In the case of French stencils the challenge was special, because of the varieties of different widths and weights between the stencil sets – so I made France No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5. The most unique and eye-catching elements of typical French stencils are the figures 1, 2, 3, 7 and a specially 5. The figure 5 changes in style on smaller stencil sizes, its bobble getting replaced by something like a “breve”. The letters J and Q can differ in style too. While the local stencil lettering styles are gradually disappearing in other countries, there are regions in France, such as Normandy and Brittany, where these stencils are still in use today. They are used for technical lettering, which is what stencils were originally intended for, but also for ads and information signs in a more artistic or patriotic context. Over the time, these stencil letters became a globally recognized landmark of French design and French taste. All styles offering an extended Latin character set. » pdf specimen «

In March 2010, Émile Fradin, a modest peasant farmer from central France, died at the age of 103. To his grave he took the secret behind one of the most controversial archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. A discovery which put into question the very origins of the written word and the paternity of European culture. It was the uncovering of peculiar artefacts would come to be known as the Glozel runes. The discovery of the Glozel runes On the first day of March 1924, a not yet 18-year-old Fradin was ploughing his family’s field in the hamlet of Glozel, when his cow stumbled into a hole. When he and his grandfather, Claude, looked closer, they discovered a mass of broken stone, under which lay an underground chamber. Within, they discovered pottery fragments, carved bones, and a peculiar clay tablet covered in bizarre characters that neither of the two could decipher. The family requested a subsidy for excavation works to be carried out, but were refused by the regional authority. With that disappointment, it seemed as though the discovery would fade into obscurity. However, the following year, news of Fradin’s unusual clay tablet reached the ears of the physician and amateur archeologist, Antonin Morlet. By the end of May 1925, Morlet began the first of his excavations.4 Within the first two years alone, he had amassed some 3,000 finds.

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 «

The inspiration for Fence Post JNL comes out of an early 1900s manual for sign writing. A number of changes were made to make the design more aesthetically pleasing, but it retains its novelty effect of evoking the look of wooden fence posts or Western-themed typography.

Café de Paris is, clearly, inspired by all things French, especially the quirky typefaces that adorn French shopfronts from cafes to charcuteries and bistros to boulangeries. My intention was a fresh, crisp, modern take on a classic theme, with just a soupcon of Art Nouveau, which is characteristic of so much of French typography (See also Studio K’s Paris Metro font) C'est chic - n'est-ce pas?

The reason for Nicolien van der Keur to design the Rougon font was the translation of twenty novels written by Emile Zola, a French writer, and translated by Martine Delfos. It follows the lives of the members of the two titular branches of a fictional family living during the Second French Empire (1852–1870) and is one of the most prominent works of the French naturalism literary movement. This series deserved a font with French roots and corresponded to the period in which Zola’s books were written and published, the period between 1870 and 1893, the end of the nineteenth century. Extensive research into French historical typefaces has led to a type specimen from the French type foundry Deberny et Cie in Paris around 1907. It turned out to be good and helpful source as it contained a sample of a typeface that reflected the content and style of the novels, but also represented the period in which the books were written in France. A large part of the novels are about the generations of Rougon, so it seemed a natural choice to give the font that name. It is available in one weight and contains stylized portraits of Emile Zola and the French Marianne. This font also contains various ornaments.

This family was inspired mainly (Normal and Italic style ) by a Didot pattern font used in Rennes (France, Britanny) by Cousin-Danelle, printers, for Antiquités historiques et monumentales ‡ visiter de Montfort ‡ Corseul, par Dinan... Saint Malo... etc. an historic guidebook for a journey through a part of (French) Brittany in 1820, and many other books. The present version contains 1820 Modern Normal and Italic, 1820 Modern Large Normal and 1820 Modern Narrow Normal, each style with small caps. This font may be used together with 1906 French News and/or 1906 Titrage.

Named after the famous French fairy tale, Bluebeard is a surprisingly legible, slightly worn-out mix of majestic blackletter majuscules and roman minuscules. Perfect for designs of old settings, like books of fairy tales, old war books, or anything historical.

In the collection of vintage and historic images available online from the Library of Congress is one of the exterior of the Town Talk Diner in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Regrettably, on May 28, 2020, the Town Talk Diner was damaged by vandalism, and subsequently destroyed by a fire that engulfed the building early on the morning of May 29th due to civil unrest following the death of George Floyd. The restaurant first opened in 1946, closed in 2011 and subsequently re-opened under new ownership in 2014 with French cuisine, then from 2016 until its demise as an American bistro. While this was not known at the time of selecting the image for a typographic model, subsequent research on the diner turned up these facts. The large vintage sign above the entrance was in big, bold Art Deco letters with rows and rows of bulbs for illuminating the name at night. Coffee and Danish JNL, modeled from the image of that sign, is available in both regular and oblique versions. Perhaps, in a way, the type design will serve as a bit of historic recognition for a popular eating spot.

Côte is a display monospace handwriting font. The typeface is a distinct hand drawn font using a felt marker. The Côte name is derived from the French word meaning "coast" and is also used to describe winemaking vineyards and regions throughout France. One of the most popular regions in the south of France is the French Riviera also known as the Côte d'Azur. Côte is great for display work, invitations, writing, architecture, posters, wine labels and headings.

This font, was created -- inspired from the original manuscript of the French revolutionary song “La Marseillaise”, becoming later the French national anthem, composed in one night (1792 April 25th) by the 32 year old French captain, Rouget de Lisle. It is a “Pro” font containing Western (including Celtic) and Northern European, Icelandic, Baltic, Eastern, Central European and Turkish diacritics. The numerous alternates and ligatures make the font look as close as possible to the real historic hand. Using an OTF software, the features allow variations of each character without anything to do but to select contextual alternates and standard ligatures and/or stylistic alternates options.

Towards the end of the 1400s, in Lyon (France), was living Barthélémy Buyer, descendant of a rich family of merchants. In the end of 1472, he engaged a typographist from Liège (Belgium): Guillaume Le Roy. The first book stemming from their print shop was the Compendium breve ( by Pope Innocent III.) using Blackletter “textura”. Many books followed, most often illustrated with wood carving. In 1483, to print a French translated “Eneide”, they used a venetian “Rotunda” blackletter. Our font was inspired by this “Rotunda” set, with historical forms and ligatures enriched with accented letters and other characters not existing in the original.

Garamold and Garamold Italic are inspired by specimens of classic French type. At smaller sizes, the rough edges give it a very organic feel. The font contains classic ligatures and the long s for authentic vintage typography. Automatic long s substitution is accessible through the historical or titling alternates OpenType features.

Make a bold statement with this modern, angular design - go wild and use it together with it's partner font, PolkaDot Wrench. This typeface features over 90 extended characters for setting European languages such as Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish & Welsh.

The font is devoted to the historical past of the peoples of Europe, which today is hidden, but which can not be lost forever, because it lives in the genetic memory and hearts of people. Beautiful font in the historical traditions of 17-19 centuries. Elegant, luxurious, sweet. Some forms and combinations of forms are not always ordinary, but always interesting and exciting. - Letters for all Latin alphabets - Letters for all Slavic alphabets - Ligatures. All standard (ff, fi, fj, etc.) as well as fb, fk, tt, ft - Stylistic alternates a, y, g - Ordinals - Fractions - Historical forms of letters s, я - Historical ligatures ss, si, st - Historical Slavic letters - Lowercase alternates for ж, к, я, ect. - National ligatures: German ss, Icelandic and French ae, oe, Dutch ij - Uppercase German SS (Eszett Große) - Currencies: dollar, ruble, euro, pound, cent, yen and more...

This is based on a mid-Victorian Connor's foundry font originally known as Manhattan. One of several old faces known in America as "French Clarendons", in Europe as "Italians", and, wait for it, in France as "American".

Transistor is a decorative and electronic serif typeface. One of the historical connection was the Didot, development in French. Transistor typeface was designed from the concept and experimentation with electronic circuits. The main typographic proportion are connected with the modern typeface, like Didot where the letterforms are inspired from the point nib pen design approach but also with electronic type style letterforms.

Bistro and Hot Sauce have been prepared quickly. In Bistro you will find 10 fine traces from coffee cups, and in HotSauce 10 pleasant-for-eyes stains from sauce. Both fonts are created in the 1998. OpenType revision, with extended Latin characters, made in 2009.

This font is a late 19th Century French script overview inspired by numerous French letters, from around years 1850-1860, during the second French empire, under Napoleon the third. Most of them were written with very tiny characters on light sheets of paper, as postage prices were calculated from the letter's weight. The TTF and OTF versions are enriched with more than 50 ligatures and/or alternate characters. We also offer a choice of two sorts of Capitals. Why "1859 Solferino"? It was the last battle of the Italian independence war, opposing the victorious Franco-Italian army to Austria in June 24, 1859. The Red Cross was inspired directly from the carnage remaining on the battle field.

In 1921 the Klingspor foundry released Walter Tiemann’s Narziss™. This beautiful and elegant font was completely redrawn and redesigned and extended to cover major European languages East and West. The font contains also a 'long s‘ and related useful ligatures which can be reached by using the OpenType features historical letters and historical ligatures.

In 1938 the Frankfurt-based foundry Ludwig & Mayer released Eugen Weiss’ beautiful fraktur ‚Hoelderlin‘. Carefully redrawn and redesigned, this digitized version is intended to add another gem to the enthusiasts’ treasure drove of blackletter types. The font contains the historical long s which can be reached by the OpenType feature historical forms or by typing the integral sign [ ∫ ].

Introducing Sociato: a typographic trendsetter. It's a quirky font that perfectly blends modernity and antiquity. The French Revolution was a period of uncompromising innovation in art and fashion, with celebrity artists, notably Jacques Louis David, creating propaganda for the new regime. This regime failed, but we have rare historical artifacts related to this historical upheaval. The typeface was inspired by a declaration published during the French Revolution that extolled the development of a new religion, the cult of the Supreme Being. It's a stunning piece of work, with a wild, baroque layout and hand drawn typography. Words leap off the page in a cascade of sounds and shapes, and quirky letterforms give it a lively, almost mischievous character. It's a veritable goldmine of typographic ideas. This typeface is based on the hand lettering in the original manuscript, but it has been enhanced by adding a full variety of characters. The typeface comes with a comprehensive range of diacritics, including old-style figures. The typeface is suitable for a wide range of uses, including titles and headers, and it should look beautiful in any typographic setting. Use Sociato to create a revolutionary identity, as bold and audacious as the French Revolution!

Named after the strong cold winds on Southern France, the Mistral font family is another original creation displaying the panache of the French graphic artist Roger Excoffon. Mistral is an informal script in which all letters link up in vigorous strokes. First issued in 1953, its brush-like stems look spontaneous and fresh. The descenders are fairly long and the whole alphabet has a distinctive and unforgettable effect on the page. Mistral is a good complement to sans serif typefaces. Mistral is a trademark of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, which may be registered in certain jurisdictions, exclusively licensed through Linotype Library GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.