Years ago the company that developed Fontographer marketed a program called Font-o-Matic, a program that distorted fonts in various ways. 99% of what it produced was garbage, but every once in a while it would yield something interesting. Since I had designed a lot of typefaces by that time, I had lots of material to feed it and it was fun to see what it produced. YahoschWormy is one of rare results that was interesting enough to save and clean up. The source font was Yahosch.

I like playing around with brushes and Chinese ink. I always have some kind of idea of what the final design should look like, but once it’s done, it never ever looks like what I had in mind. Apex Brush is one of those designs: it started off as a few brush strokes, but before I knew it, I had a really nice set of matching brush fonts! Use it for any design that needs a bit of rough, a splash of ink and a pinch of rebel.

Years ago the company that developed Fontographer marketed a program called Font-o-Matic, a program that distorted fonts in various ways. 99% of what it produced was garbage, but every once in a while it would yield something interesting. Since I had designed a lot of typefaces by that time, I had lots of material to feed it and it was fun to see what it produced. KolkFizzy is one of rare results that was interesting enough to save and clean up. The source font is Kolkman.

By the late 1920s, lettering and design had already begun to feel the influences of what would become the Art Deco Movement. The sheet music for the 1927 song "Without You Sweetheart" had its title hand lettered in a block style letter with rounded corners – with the exception of the 'S' and 'R' in "Sweetheart"; reflecting design elements of both styles. For consistency, those letters were changed to fit the rest of the design, and the result is the digital font College Nouveau JNL, available in both regular and oblique versions.

Years ago the company that developed Fontographer marketed a program called Font-o-Matic, a program that distorted fonts in various ways. 99% of what it produced was garbage, but every once in a while it would yield something interesting. Since I had designed a lot of typefaces by that time, I had lots of material to feed it and it was fun to see what it produced. BaumSquiggle is one of rare results that was interesting enough to save and clean up. The source font is Baumfuss.

When I was painting this font, I suddenly had the movie Cool Runnings (1993, directed by Jon Turteltaub) in my head. I had to name the font, so I came up with Smooth Brushings. Of course, this font has nothing to do with the movie. Smooth Brushings is an all caps brush font, which was made with a stiff brush and some China Ink. Upper and lower case glyphs can be mixed. It is a very legible and clear font, ideally suited for posters, product packaging and book covers.

It is known as the Hafs Quraan2 Font for its extensive use in the copying and transmission of books because it helps the writer to write more quickly than any other font since the Islamic times and then Alnaskh Quraan font wrote the "Quran"And the advantages of Alnaskh Quraan font are clarifying the letters and show their beauty and splendor. Naskh Font for writing the Holy Qur’an by Raweya Hafs, for the first time, the possibility of coloring all its letters to learn Tajweed - The possibility of coloring letters, various forms of one letter

KampIngriana was originally constructed in 1995-6. It was not constructed to meet any specific purpose but out of curiosity, to see what the result would be if two quite different faces were blended. KampIngriana is the offspring of Ingriana, a friendly, soft face, and KampFriendship, which mimics a serifed face drawn by hand. The original blending had many oddities that I did not clean up until 2020. It originally had five styles: regular, italic, bold, bolditalic, and extrabold. Medium, mediumitalic, semibold, semibolditalic, and extraboldItalic were added in 2022.

The Techno sound of the 1990s, a personal computer, a font creation software and some inspiration had been the sources to the F2F (Face2Face) font series. Alessio Leonardi and his friends had the demand to create new unusual faces that should be used in the leading german techno magazine "Frontpage". Even typeset in 6 point to nearly unreadability it was a pleasure for the kids to read and decrypt the messages. About Al Retto: "Al" means "Alessio Leonardi" and Retto "straight", but if you read it as an italian world means "in the a**".

Can you imagine the delight that the printers of the Incunabula era would have had if they had such a tool as this font with a hundred and fifty glyphs of decorative capitals. The printers of that era were lucky to have more than a handful such delights. These Decorated initials and drop caps are all based on early period exemplars, dating to prior to 1525, from a wide range of printers such as Thomas de Blavis to Günther Zainer. Every Proportional Lime Font comes equipped with a complete character map.

I originally wanted to call this font Instant Pudding. When I was a kid, we sometimes had instant pudding (the ‘add cold milk and rest in the fridge’ kind) for dessert. My brother and I loved the stuff, especially when some of the pudding powder had not dissolved and had turned into brightly coloured speckles! But this font, alas, did not ‘feel’ like instant pudding, so I hunted the internet for other, more obscure, puddings. I found Spoonbread. Apparently it is a pudding-like Southern American dish, made from cornmeal. I have never tasted it, nor do I particularly like corn (most of it is GMO anyway), but the font and the name became friends. And who am I to tear this beautiful relationship asunder? Spoonbread - use it for your packaging, your books, your posters and your games. And when you make Spoonbread, use organic cornmeal!

FranklinGothicHandLight is part of a series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked. When I was in advertising – before computers – a very time consuming part of my daily work was sketching headlines. I used to be able to sketch headlines in Franklin Gothic, Times, Futura, Helvetica and several scripts. We had a kind of huge inverted camera – which we called Lucy. We projected the alphabet onto a sheet of transparent paper, outlined the letters with a fineliner and then filled them in. It was very tedious work, but the resulting headline had its own charm and we had a permanent race going on who was best and fastest. I won most of the time! They used to call me the fastest "Magic Marker" this side of the Atlantic. Great days, just like today! Your sentimental type designer from the past Gert Wiescher

FranklinGothicHandDemi is part of a series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked. When I was in advertising – before computers – a very time consuming part of my daily work was sketching headlines. I used to be able to sketch headlines in Franklin Gothic, Times, Futura, Helvetica and several scripts. We had a kind of huge inverted camera – which we called Lucy. We projected the alphabet onto a sheet of transparent paper, outlined the letters with a fineliner and then filled them in. It was very tedious work, but the resulting headline had its own charm and we had a permanent race going on who was best and fastest. I won most of the time! They used to call me the fastest "Magic Marker" this side of the Atlantic. Great days, just like today! Your sentimental type designer from the past Gert Wiescher

Annlie™ Extra Bold and Annlie Extra Bold Italic are two display faces designed by Fred Lambert in 1966 for the Annlie type family. These two samples from the Annlie family are both fat faces. Fat faces were offshoots of the modern, or Didone, typefaces that were de rigueur during the early 1800s. These fat faces were among the first typefaces to be used solely for advertising purposes. Naturally, they were always used in larger point sizes, in display functions. Annlie could be called an optimization of these old advertising typefaces. With high x-heights, ultra contrast between thick and thin strokes, and perfectly engineered drawing techniques, Annlie is a highly crafted typeface. Give it a spin in your next advertising campaign! Annlie’s fine thin strokes are very graceful in their appearance, and lend a strong, yet soft, feminine feeling to anything they touch.

Useful links: Using the variable font TT Alientz in InDesign About TT Alientz: TT Alientz is a variable* typeface that allows the user to make a visual journey from a laconic extraterrestrial grotesque to a very prickly display serif. As part of this project, we decided to investigate the influence of a foreign substance and the consequent transformation of the original forms, which ultimately leads to extreme visual changes. The TT Alientz family consists of 3 fonts: grotesque, serif and variable* font. Each font contains more than 470 glyphs. In addition to broad language support (including Cyrillic), the typeface has stylish ligatures, contextual alternates, and old-style figures. Variability in the typeface affects the changes in the overall style of the font—moving the slider to adjust the variable axis, you can go from a laconic grotesque to an extreme serif. TT Alientz Grotesque is a fairly neat hipster grotesque, but with its own small features. In the design of some letters of the grotesque you can find small sharp elements that add uniqueness and character to the font when used in large inscriptions and headings. At the same time, when you use the font in a small size of the size and in text blocks, sharp elements do not greatly affect its readability. The design of some letters of the grotesque is quite peculiar and is intended to emphasize the initial concept of slight 'alienness'. TT Alientz Serif is an 'infected' TT Alientz Grotesque and the result of changes to it. Unlike the grotesque, the serif is dynamic, viscous, ductile and very prickly. Serif has a lot of smooth lines and not quite standard strokes contrast. It can be noted that most serifs in the antiqua are pointed inward, not outward. Despite its extremeness, the serif will look good both in large and in small body sizes. *An important clarification regarding variable fonts. At the moment, not all graphic editors, programs and browsers support variable fonts. You can check the status of support for the variability of your software here: v-fonts.com/support/ FOLLOW US: Instagram | Facebook | Website TT Alientz supports more than 160+ languages, such as: Acehnese, Afar, Albanian, Alsatian, Aragonese, Arumanian, Asu, Aymara, Banjar, Basque, Belarusian (cyr), Bemba, Bena, Betawi, Bislama, Boholano, Bosnian (cyr), Bosnian (lat), Breton, Bulgarian (cyr), Cebuano, Chamorro, Chiga, Colognian, Cornish, Corsican, Cree, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Embu, English, Erzya, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Gaelic, Gagauz (lat), Galician, German, Gusii, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiri Motu, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Innu-aimun, Interlingua, Irish, Italian, Javanese, Judaeo-Spanish, Judaeo-Spanish, Kabuverdianu, Kalenjin, Karachay-Balkar (lat), Karaim (lat), Karakalpak (lat), Kashubian, Khasi, Khvarshi, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kongo, Kumyk, Kurdish (lat), Ladin, Latvian, Laz, Leonese, Lithuanian, Luganda, Luo, Luxembourgish, Luyia, Macedonian, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malagasy, Malay, Manx, Maori, Marshallese, Mauritian Creole, Minangkabau, Moldavian (lat), Montenegrin (cyr), Montenegrin (lat), Mordvin-moksha, Morisyen, Nahuatl, Nauruan, Ndebele, Nias, Nogai, Norwegian, Nyankole, Occitan, Oromo, Palauan, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rheto-Romance, Rohingya, Romanian, Romansh, Rombo, Rundi, Russian, Rusyn, Rwa, Salar, Samburu, Samoan, Sango, Sangu, Scots, Sena, Serbian (cyr), Serbian (lat), Seychellois Creole, Shambala, Shona, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Sundanese, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Swiss German, Swiss German, Tagalog, Tahitian, Taita, Tatar, Tetum, Tok Pisin, Tongan, Tsonga, Tswana, Turkish, Turkmen (lat), Ukrainian, Uyghur, Vepsian, Volapük, Võro, Vunjo, Walloon, Xhosa, Zaza, Zulu.

Quite Animated JNL is based on hand-lettered Art Deco titling for a 1930 advertisement promoting a group of Columbia Pictures cartoons featuring George Herriman's "Krazy Kat". Available in regular and oblique versions.

Named in honor of the great bossa nova artist, Benjor is a fat display meant for headlines, attention-grabbing displays and even Brazilian record covers! Striking and eye pleasing, it's simply que bom!

Whacker is made using a fat, inky marker. Comes with ligatures for double letters and alternate versions of the lowercase letters. You will need to use OpenType supporting applications to use the ligatures.

The days of hot metal may be behind us, but Anvil looks as if it has been forged in a smithy’s fire: a handsome, heavyweight display face that is both impressive and impactful.

Think of a slender Black Letter screeching to a halt on the page and you have the essential idea of Stridere. Want ornate formality and fast movement all in one? Here it is!

Carla Pro is a lively, legible, and partly joining broad-nib script font. I named it after a favourite colleague, in my hot-metal time, who set on the Linotype next to mine.

A Geometrical font. This idea flashed to me in one of the boring classes we had in college. Since its my special masterpiece we come really cheap at its price of just $8.

Günter Jäntsch designed Pierrot in 1973. Its irregular flowing letterforms express the design from this time, where many personal irregular designs had been made. Pierrot is suitable for invitation cards, posters and signage.

Milton Glaser commented about this type family: “The typeface is called Houdini after the famous American magician. I wanted to produce a letterform that would gradually disappear as one line after another was removed.” The various versions of Houdini presented by P22 include those originally offered as phototypesetting fonts, plus a solid and an outline version—a variation of which was used for Sesame Place children’s park in 1980. These Houdini variations can all be layered on top of each other for a range of chromatic effects. Each of the Houdini fonts contains over 375 characters for full European language coverage. The family is taken to its logical conclusion with the bonus font “P22 Glaser Houdini Vanished.” This font shares the same spacing and kerning as all of the Houdini font but lacks all visible outlines. Over the years there have been many typefaces that borrowed heavily from the Glaser designs, but these are the only official fonts approved by Milton Glaser Studio and the Estate of Milton Glaser.

This design is one of the true gems to come out of the 1930s typeface era. Even though the face was originally designed to counter the invasion of European sans-serifs, it remains faithful to the principles found in its creator's poster work. Lucian Bernhard's lettering creation for American Type Founders is to this day a favorite among font connoisseurs worldwide. It has a unique personality. This deluxe version is packed with extras including the original oldstyle figures, alternates, and ligatures. A number of styles and alternate characters have been added to the family such as heavy italics, extra heavy italics, and capital figures. And an easier-to-identify "flagged" figure one and the new euro symbol are now located in each individual style. Bernhard Gothic is also available in the OpenType Std format. Lining and oldstyle figures, stylistic alternates, and additional discretionary ligatures are now combined in each style. These advanced features currently work in Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress 7. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

With its slightly rough edges, Thumbnail Text works well where lettering is required. Letterforms wiggle a bit here and there but are generally quite uniform. Characters are a bit imprecise - but not showy or bouncy. They appear more adult-looking than childish and are very legible. Put Thumbnail Text to work as drafting notation or on blueprint projects that need to be easily read. It¹s also useful when concept or sketch stage lettering needs to look serious but not highly stylized. You might experiment with it inside cartoon thought balloons or in callouts. This design is based on an old showcard style from the 1940s. It's been dusted off and reissued for modern use. A lowercase has been added for greater functionality. Thumbnail Text Regular is now available in the OpenType Std format. Some additional characters have been added to this OpenType version as stylistic alternates. This advanced feature works in current versions of Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

Cactus majestically blooming in the desert is truly a wondrous event! As the landscape cools, nature blossoms into a beautiful rainbow of colors. These same harmonies and contours, plus a dash of ruggedness and legibility, help to make Cactus Flower Open a superb choice for display work. This cowboy boot style is an old Speedball favorite originated by lettering artist Ross F. George. It’s especially useful for creating distinctive headlines and titles where a Tuscan look is desired. The engraved appearance of the open style adds a delightful touch to this Old West typeface. A solid version is also available. You will find small caps, petite figures, and various alternates included for your convenience. Cactus Flower Open is also available in the OpenType format. Some new characters have been added to this OpenType version including stylistic alternates, discretionary f-ligatures, and initials. These advanced features work in current versions of Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

Pacific Clipper has its roots in an old 1930s showcard lettering style. An extra bold version of this sign painter’s relic is shown in Carl Holmes' wonderful book on lettering. It may be described as what happens when Rudolf Koch's Kabel Heavy meets ATF's Novel Gothic. Also known as Sam’s Tune, Pacific Clipper’s noteworthy features include wedged crossbars in the capital A, E, F, and H. Overcurving is present in the capital B, D, P, and R while vertical strokes in the lowercase b, d, h, k, l, and t are chopped off obliquely. Figures in Pacific Clipper are also refreshingly different, particularly the number 4. This lettering favorite turned retro typeface has been extended to include a variety of weights. Pacific Clipper is now available in the OpenType format. Some new characters have been added to this OpenType version as Stylistic Alternates and Historical Forms. These advanced features work in current versions of Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

Tweed is a journey into the 1930s world of hand-lettering. The design looks very much like the personal scribblings of an old-fashioned cartoon animator. It’s the sort of sketch-style you might find describing a goofy caterpillar or laughing willyworm. Tweed is fun and light-hearted with open and rounded letters of a somewhat musical quality. Derived from old letterforms popularized by Carl Holmes in his wonderful book on the subject, Tweed is basically friendly in nature. This typeface is great for personal greeting cards and stationery - any kind of casual correspondence. It works well in display situations, too. And yes, there is an alternate to the funny-looking “w” character. Just press option l (el) on Mac. Or Alt 0172 on Windows. Tweed is now available in the OpenType Std format. Some new stylistic alternates have been added to this OpenType version. Advanced features work in current versions of Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

Here is a wonderfully charming typeface similar in style to the folklore lettering created by Walter Crane, the prolific children’s book illustrator. This English artist created many beautiful, flower-decorated works during the Arts and Crafts movement that flourished between 1860 and 1910. English Garden SG Regular contains many of Crane’s original whimsical and quirky characters. Note the inclusion of a spurred capital G, a squat lowercase g, a bending floral lowercase d, and the quaint old style figures. All of which are a delight to use when casting a medieval storybook tone to your project. You might also take advantage of the enchanting small capitals when setting logos, headlines, and decks. English Garden SG Regular is now available in the OpenType format. Some new characters have been added to this OpenType version including stylistic alternates, discretionary ligatures, historical forms, and petite figures. Advanced features currently work in Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress 8. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

This typeface appears to be straight out of a science fiction movie thriller. Mingo is a slightly condensed, somewhat vain gothic with thick vertical strokes proudly tapering downward. Capitals which are normally completely round are now square inside with curving outside corners. Lowercase letters carry the same design traits. And, in the capital A and H, crossbars extend on both sides helping give the face a pronounced retro look. Mingo Gothic is a close cousin to Raleigh Gothic and is an excellent choice for book covers and large display settings. Small caps, fractions, and alternate characters have also been developed for greater layout versatility. Mingo Gothic Bold is now available in the OpenType format. Some new characters have been added to this OpenType version as stylistic alternates, historical forms, small caps, oldstyle figures, ornaments, and f-ligatures. These advanced features work in current versions of Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

Based on the 1922 Klingspor model by German designer Rudolf Koch, this hand-drawn quill roman has an informal and curiously delicate appearance. The typeface was known in Germany as Koch Antiqua and in the rest of Europe as Locarno. Eve, as it was called in the United States, continues to enjoy great popularity in advertising and book publishing circles. This deluxe version includes display light, display heavy, and display black as well as the hard-to-find display light and heavy (Koch Kursiv) italics. Eva-Paramount, which is based on Morris Benton's 1928 ATF Paramount, has also been included. It contains a set of alternates characters that are in keeping with the light and heavy display letter styles. Eva-Antiqua is also available in the OpenType Std format. Alternates are now merged together into each style as stylistic alternates or as swashes. These advanced features currently work in Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress 7. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

Lil Rhino is the more reserved but still slightly offbeat sister to the quirky comic Fat Rhino typeface. You can see the resemblance, they work well together, but they also each hold their own.

Flatpen is a font that was written with a pen we used to call "Redis-Pen". It had a flat, round tip that enabled you to write letters, with the same width of stroke.

Hit the open road with RV Park! This font was inspired by the typography seen on the signage for quirky roadside attractions. Use it anywhere you’re looking to inject a little fun and whimsy.

Gently rounded in shape, Kassena is reminiscent of the round thatched huts of the Zulu people. The triangular motif is inspired by the designs used in the decorative crafts of the Nguni African tribes.

Schoolblock is the typeface German schoolchildren learn to imitate when they are taught the printed letters. I just had to do this one for use in a German schoolbook. Your education-designer, Gert Wiescher

Ruly is my newest font creation. My roommate in college always had the coolest writing. I thought that it deserved to be a font. The font is a great choice for newsletters, cards, etc.