ITC Gramophone is a work of Canadian designer Serge Pichii. The distinguishing feature is the large spiral which is part of the form of almost every capital letter as well as many other characters. The capitals can also be used as drop capitals. The forms of ITC Gramophone are perfect for displays and will surely catch the eye of any reader.

ITC Wisteria was designed by Michael Stacey, a Florida-based artist and graphic designer. An ardent collector and recycler of vintage graphic design and typography, Stacey is especially intrigued by the lettering styles of sign painters and show-card lettering artists from the days when most display typography was hand-rendered. ITC Wisteria is one such style, taken from the 1930s, which he has updated for digital imaging. His goal was to retain the loose, casual feel of handlettering, while imparting what he calls “the crisp finish of current precision typography.” Like the plant it was named after, ITC Wisteria is both rugged and beautiful. The design is a constructed brush script that successfully melds the strength and dynamism of strong character shapes with the grace of script letterforms. The split-brush strokes, although obviously constructed, also impart a sense of immediacy to the design.

ITC Bette is a particularly elegant calligraphic design from the hand of Patty King. Refined and friendly, this vertical script appears to be drawn with a brush held delicately at a right angle to the page. The unconnected letters and flared ascenders create a feeling of spontaneity, while the design's vertical stress produces a calming counterpoint. Many capital letters drop comfortably below the baseline, and terminals echo a flick of the wrist.

ITC Santangeli is based on an eighteenth century manuscript by Italian writing master Benedetto Santangeli. Giuseppe Errico's design exudes the elegance and patina of a baroque sculpture. The capitals have verve, and the richly flowing ascenders and descenders enhance the vintage panache of the design. Errico has even included alternate characters and ink splotches to enable a realistic reproduction of antique lettering. Whether for large display copy or short blocks of text, Santangeli speaks with resonance and grace.

ITC Cancione is the inspired work of California calligrapher and illustrator Brenda Walton. She gave a rough texture to her tall, thin all caps alphabet and its ornaments, making them look as though they were drawn with a brush on stone and then left to withstand years of weather and wear. The graceful letters are complemented by a variety of ornaments and flourishes as well as alternates and even stylized words making ITC Cancione perfect for greeting cards and stationery.

ITC Cushing has a long history. The typeface was originally designed by J. Stearns Cushing, a Boston-based book printer, and famous American type designer Frederic Goudy expanded it to include an italic weight. Under a special license from the American Type Founders, Vincent Pacella modified the design for ITC and added some additional weights. ITC Cushing is slightly condensed with large, bracketed serifs. Pacella changed the capital letters to better complement the lower case and replaced the sloping serifs of the italics to linear type serifs to produce ITC Cushing.

This simplified blackletter typeface shares some geometric characteristics with a line of typefaces popular that were especially popular in Germany during the 1920s and 30s. Their forms may have originally come about after a desire to mix the classical Fraktur" forms found in typefaces like Linotype Luthersche Fraktur or Fette Fraktur with more modern sans serif typefaces, like Basic Commercial or Futura. ITC Honda's letters are rather narrow and angular. The type can be used for a number of headlines or logo purposes, and is best legible when set large. A similar typeface in our library is Linotype Gotharda."

ITC Hornpype is the work of California freelance designer Mott Jordan, a cheerful display face inspired in part by the cartoons of the 1920s and 30s. According to Jordan, the typeface's name and three-dimensional quality can be traced to an early cartoon in which a cat blows on a horn with such force that the instrument bulges out. For the three-dimensional look, Jordan added highlights to the thicker strokes to create letters that look as though they were, in his words, squeezed from a toothpaste tube". Jordan suggests his eye-catching font for shorter words in larger point sizes. ITC Hornpype is a lively font perfect for anything needing a "fun, goofy" look."

ITC Ellipse is the work of designer Jean-Renaud Cuaz, who specializes in visual identity programs combining graphic and typographic design. Cuaz contends that the ellipse has become prevalent in current design as a result of software which makes it possible to manipulat circular forms. ITC Ellipse is an excellent display typeface whose classical structure and proportions make it flexible enough for a variety of applications.

Australian designer and art director Wayne Thompson has loved typography “ever since I received a battered second-hand Letraset catalog at the age of 10.” He based ITC Django on the handwriting of an acquaintance -- “a fellow I know who writes and illustrates children's books and is also a commercial artist” -- who called himself Django, after the jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. “I felt that that name Django suited the funky, lively feel of the face,” says Thompson. But he adds, “Django has a split personality: it appears loose and easy at first, but after looking at it for some time I felt an edginess come through that was slightly psychotic.” The looseness of the lowercase contrasts with the spikiness of the capitals. The “edginess” is especially apparent in words in all caps.

ITC Tremor is the work of British designer Alan Dempsey. You might think that it looks like the letters are in a seismically lively geological zone, but Dempsey had other kinds of motion in mind. Most of the faces I design come from trace 'work-outs' for advertising products. In the case of Tremor, it was to reflect a lively teenager," says Dempsey. The result is ITC Tremor, a cartoony slab serif typeface with irregular angles, straight-edged curves, and lines surrounding each character, making them look like they are jittery.

ITC Gema is the work of Brazilian graphic designer Claudio Rocha. It was first written in a small size to keep the surface irregularity of a non-coated paper when enlarged for use as a display font," says Rocha. Many strokes do not quite join, giving Gema the visual effect of a stencil typeface, the distinguishing characteristic of the font. "Some characters have my own handwriting gestures," says Rocha, like elongated endings and angular shapes. Gema comes complete with an unusual variety of ligatures and alternate characters."

ITC Clover is the work of California designer Jill Bell. ITC Clover's design is even, rounded, and friendly. It has the look of the loopy cursive writing taught in grade school, although its shapes are much more controlled. Capitals are decorated with generous loops and curlicues, which combine with a lowercase alphabet that is only reserved in relation to the capitals. The letters almost dance across the page even when they are static, and they bring their own dynamism to any animation.

ITC Hedera's roots can be traced to a suite of initials intended for book design. Olivera Stojadinovic, the face's designer, made the first sketches for the initials with a handmade tool consisting of two flexible metal strips tied to a wooden handle. This makeshift pen created the distinctive uneven double strokes of the letterforms. Stojadinovic says that she tried to keep the original flavor of the sketches in the finished font. Stroke roughness has been preserved in final execution, though the characters had some cleaning and polishing," she notes. Based on Renaissance letterforms, ITC Hedera has a classical quality that complements its calligraphic exuberance. The name Hedera? According to Stojadinovic, "It's the name of a common ivy. I chose it because of the organic image of the character strokes, which, to me, resemble shapes from nature's leaves or stems of plants." Rough-hewn yet elegant, ITC Hedera is an exceptional display design."

The ITC Blair™ typeface is a revival and reimaging of an early 20th century metal typeface of the same name. Even though only available as single weights of extended and condensed proportions, metal fonts of the face were sold well into the 1950s. In 1997, Jim Spiece resurrected the original extended design for digital imaging and, in the process, added two new weights. Almost 20 years later, he collaborated with Monotype type designers to extend the basic family again. The result was a new suite of three condensed designs and italic complements for all the roman weights. The family also benefits from a large set of alternative glyphs and many OpenType® features.

ITC Chivalry is a calligraphic hybrid that honors the tradition of combining Roman capitals with italic lowercase letters. Drawn by Missouri lettering artist Rob Leuschke, who used a flat-nib pen on textured watercolor stock and then converted the drawings into a digital font, the design combines an old world" feel with "new world" legibility. A companion set of black letter caps completes the suite of characters. "I've loved drawing letters for as long as I can remember," says Leuschke. "Even in kindergarten, I tried to draw letters like my teacher." After graduating from college, Leuschke worked for a short time at a sign company in St. Louis, and in the early 1980s began working at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City. His talent as a calligrapher and lettering artist eventually brought him back to St. Louis to begin a freelance career. Since then Leuschke has created over 250 fonts, primarily for the greeting card industry, that are now being used on work for his clients all over the world. Leuschke first conceived of the face as just the black letter caps; he later added the Roman letters to give the design more versatility. The Roman caps of ITC Chivalry combined with the lowercase are well suited to blocks of copy, while the more decorative black letter caps are ideal for showcasing short text of just a few words. Both sets of capitals also make great initial letters."

ITC Zinzinnati is based on a font called Ohio, released in 1924 by Die Schriftguss A.G. Typical of the Plakatstil letterforms of the time, the original font had a rough outline, as if drawn with a brush. Nick Curtis has smoothed the rough edges, which enhances the design's playful curves and engaging charm. As for the name: it's the punchline to an old vaudeville routine that starts with the question, Name a city in Ohio that begins with a 'Z.'" Pie in the face, comin' atcha!"

ITC Freddo is the work of New York designer James Montalbano and was inspired by a sign lettering manual from the 1930s. Montalbano liked the character shapes illustrated in this manual but found many of the proportions odd. So he reinterpreted them to produce capitals and lower case letters which, according to today's standards, better complement one another.

Genevieve Cerasoli created the font in 1997. ITC Arnova is a calligraphy typeface with pronounced stroke contrast and rough contours. The characters have pointed strokes and sit on the baseline leaning diagonally sometimes toward and sometimes away from one another and both characteristics give ITC Arnova a lively, dynamic feel. This font remains legible in point sizes as small as 8 and is well-suited to headlines and short to middle length texts.

Eric Stevens's latest typeface, ITC Lintball, combines two unusual features: its letterforms are based on the serifless lettering inscribed in stone by the ancient Greeks, yet the wobbly edges of the strokes, and especially the slightly wider “lintballs” on the ends, suggest lettering done on paper with a modern felt-tip pen. The ball motif is carried through in the fat dot under the raised capital O, and in the similar dot used in place of a crossbar in the capital A. There's an angularity to many of the strokes, especially in the lowercase, that gives Lintball its distinctive character.

ITC Chino is a type family (Display & Text) designed by Hannes von Döhren and Livius Dietzel. ITC Chino Pro brings legibility and distinction to text copy. It is also a friendly design that will invite readers into content at large or small sizes. It is a melding of soft brush stokes and crisp edges. This is readily apparent in the bolder italic weights where the straight stems provide a counterpoint to the cursive terminals. The Typefamily is highly legible in a wide range of sizes. The text side of the family contains five weights of roman, each with an italic companion. Ranging from Light to Black, ITC Chino Pro provides a rich typographic palette. The OpenType fonts have an extended character set to support Central and Eastern European as well as Western European languages. Each font includes small caps, fractions, old style-, lining-, tabular numbers, scientific superior/inferior figures and a set of arrows.

Willow font was designed by Tony Forster, a fanciful font in the Viennese Secessionist style. The work of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh inspired this condensed sans serif typeface with its rough edges and selection of alternate and ligature characters. Willow font revives the look of the arts and crafts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

ITC Typados is the joint effort of Roselyne and Michel Besnard and is composed of characters in two different senses of the word. First, it is of course made of letters and symbols, clean and legible with generous widths and x-heights. There is a hint of Art Nouveau style in the tapering, brush-like strokes. But the figures of ITC Typados are also made of characters in the theatrical sense: little tear-drop heads on tapering bodies that bend themselves into the shapes of an alphabet while maintaining a life of their own. The typeface is based on a recurring character in Michel's sculpture and painting, Ado. Ado is the first character who sings and repeats itself in all my creations," says Michel. "This adventure brings new forms for my painting and my sculpture: coiffed heads, bodies in the form of a cone, arms in the form of spread wings, etc." "Type" plus a number of "Ados" equals ITC Typados."

ITC Portago was designed by Luis Siquot, who admits to a tendency toward unusual typefaces that can be read in text yet also work well in display settings. ITC Portago is a robust alphabet of caps and slightly smaller caps. It is a stencil face, based on the lettering on crates and luggage. Siquot says that his intention drawing Portago was to obtain a neutral, classical, very condensed grotesque stencil shape that is readable in text sizes, showing at the same time the 'movement' produced by the nicked edges. And of course the more obvious rough effect in headline sizes." At small sizes, Portago is best set with slightly looser letterspacing, as capital combinations usually do. Portago includes numerals in both full and small caps proportions.

ITC Binary was designed by Mauricio Reyes in 1997 as a semiserif font with a pronounced stroke contrast. A distinguishing characteristic of this font is that many of the lower case letters seem to be missing a small piece of their forms, either at the base line or x-height. Setting the letters together makes an impression of waviness which draws the attention of the reader. Binary is a reserved, elegant font which should be used in point sizes of 10 or larger and only in headlines and short to middle length texts.

ITC Braganza is the work of British designer Phill Grimshaw, an elegant typeface steeped in historical inspiration. Reminiscent of the handwritten manuscript styles of the 16th century, the name Braganza refers to Catherine, Duchess of Braganza, who was a prominent figure in Portugal at the time. The vertical script style displays the elegance and refinement which distinguished the Royal Courts of the 16th century.

ITC Tabula is meant to be read. The design grew out of a study to create a font to set film subtitles. According to Julien Janiszewski, the face's Paris-based designer, “I set parameters for the design whereby the letters had to be able to hold up at very small sizes when set on film and yet must be able to be enlarged 2000 times to be read on a theatre screen.” The subtitle font was not completed, but several months later Janiszewski revisited the design and made a discovery. “I realized that the constraints I had established for the subtitling font was not that far from those people could have in creating typographic signage. Many time this calls for a font that can be used easily in very large sizes for headlines on highway billboards and quite small for text copy.” Work proceeded for two more years before Janiszewski was satisfied with the results. The final design is a somewhat squared sans serif family of four weighs with corresponding italics. Janiszewski also wanted to create what he calls a “sensitive sans-one that is not restricted to geometric shapes but has a subtle calligraphic, foundation.” ITC Tabula is not only easy to read, it is also a distinctive and handsome design.

ITC Musica is a revival of a design in the type library of Master Eagle/Photo-Lettering and released in the ITC library. For this reworking of the typeface, the thin strokes were made thicker and the weights were redrawn, reproportioned and reshaped to create a more balanced design for the ITC Musica.

ITC Vinyl was designed by J. Keith Moore, who was born in Germany but raised in Colorado. The typeface is a hybrid of Art Nouveau, street attitude, and 1950s design and was created with pen, ink, and French curves before being converted into digital fonts with Adobe Illustrator. ITC Vinyl is a family of four display faces in outline and solid designs with corresponding sawtooth" variants for each."

ITC Mithras was designed by Bob Anderton and finds its foundation in the worn yet elegant letters carved into stones of a Mithraic temple in Scotland. The capitals are narrow and complemented by a wide, full bodied lowercase. The proportions of the curves vary slightly between characters and this subtle contrast gives the face a mellow appearance while still attracting attention. ITC Mithras is a very legible typeface and hence applicable to a wide range of display uses.

In ITC Arecibo, Argentinean type designer Luis Siquot has created a typeface of subtle typographic turns. At first glance, ITC Arecibo has a sturdy 19th century wood type flavor, yet the delicate hairline shadow is decidedly Art Deco. Its condensed proportions and character shapes have been carefully modeled to ensure legibility. Siquot added uniqueness and versatility to the face by drawing two sets of small caps: one in which the central horizontal strokes share the same plane (ITC Arecibo) as those in the full-size letters, and another where the horizontal strokes are proportional with the small caps(ITC Arecibo Too). Another intriguing subtlety is what Siquot calls the “soul of the face,” the distinctive highlight/shadow. “This ambiguous line is an effect I have wanted to incorporate into a design for some time,” says Siquot. “Is it a black hairline that surrounds the letters, or a white line incised into the left and bottom of strokes?” ITC Arecibo and ITC Arecibo Too: distinctive, powerful and economical of space. What more could you ask from a headline face?

ITC Flatiron is a revival of an extended all cap headline font from the Photo-Lettering Collection. This hand-drawn sans serif face has uncharacteristic mono-weight letterforms. Deliberately expanded and almost absurdly wide, ITC Flatiron has an unusual style, one that is almost irreverent.""

ITC Kendo is the work of British designer Phill Grimshaw, suggesting the dash and verve of quick, sketchy calligraphy, complete with splatters of ink. Grimshaw says he worked deliberately against his own habits to create the forms, drawing the letters with slow deliberation" and a pointed pen. He overloaded the pen with ink and drew on rough paper, "applying a lot of pressure at the beginning of a stroke and easing off towards the terminals. Accidental splashes occurred frequently owing to the nib catching the 'tooth' of the paper." Those splashes were refined into features which enhance but do not overwhelm the characters and carefully worked so as not to leave an obvious white strip of unsplattered space between lines and letters. The initial capitals can be used alone or combined with the lowercase alphabet, and the font includes a full set of f-ligatures and some extra ligatures as well as decorative elements."

Roswell was designed by Jim Parkinson, who acknowledges the 'spacey' ancestry of its name. Yes, Roswell, New Mexico. There was a big anniversary of 'the incident' in the news while I was designing in Roswell. "The incident" is of course the alleged UFO crash in Roswell. "I thought the name was acceptable as a serious font name, while, on another level, having a strangely humorous edge," says Parkinson. Roswell looks great in large sizes on a poster or in a magazine layout. It started out as "a variation on American gothic forms like Railroad Gothic", says the designer, but Roswell is an original design with eccentricities of its own."

ITC Fontoon was designed by Steve Zafarana of the Galápagos Design Group in 1995. Along with ITC Fontoonies and ITC Gargoonies from the same designers, it is the perfect text font for cartoons and comics. Slight irregularities in stroke contrast and basic forms distinguish ITC Fontoon and make it look like printed handwriting. It has an individual and consciously naive character and its high x-height makes it legible even in smaller point sizes. ITC Fontoon is best used for short texts and headlines.

Some words from the designer... The bold, playful element is everything in ITC Surfboard. West coast designer Teri Kahan was inspired by California's surfing lifestyle, and the letters of this alphabet dance along the writing line. The vitality of ITC Surfboard comes from the tension between its very free shapes and the precise edges and angles that create them. This all-capital font has deliberately tight spacing and works best in large sizes. Also included are fun, abstract surf/sail graphics.