To Rafaella, a menina dos cachos. We, designers, have grown accustomed to seeing that lowercase letters—not only in calligraphy but also in typography (1)—may be very playful and decorative. Almost every part of them can become a potential swash, ligature or decorative accolade (2) if the designer has some expertise regarding this matter. However, since we are living in an era that elevates the status of handcrafts, lettering has gained a lot of ground in different kinds of mediums, and with it there’s a sort of overuse of capitals. This may be due to the reason that lettering pieces need a high impact to convey their messages and many times why big capitals are the only solution. With this in mind, I started Rafaella: A font consisting entirely of capitals which go from unadorned to very decorative. Rafaella has ductus and forms vaguely based on the 1970s Bookman-like styled fonts. The presence and behaviour of serifs and ball terminals in this style were the perfect excuse to make really attractive aternates which the user can choose from the glyphs panel. The result is a font full of life. Able to be both very playful and formal due to its roman style which can be combined with (and between) a wide range of other styles of expressive scripts or geometric fonts with nice results (3). Also try Rafaella Shade Solo combined with Rafaella or Rafaella Bold for a layer effect to emphasize any given word or phrase. NOTES (1) See my fonts Erotica from 2013 or Dream from 2014. (2) Accolades is a wonderful word that refers to the ornaments made around the words in the spencerian style of calligraphy (3) Combinations often seen in different pieces of lettering were usually a contrast of style is wanted.

‘Krul’ is a typographic interpretation of the lettering style created by Dutch letter painter Jan Willem Joseph Visser at the end of the 1940s, which decorated the traditional brown bars of Amsterdam. In the beginning, these letters were strongly associated with the pubs connected to the Amstel brewery, given that Visser was the company’s official painter. As the years passed, the style became increasingly popular, and various business owners in Amsterdam and other Dutch and Belgian cities also commissioned its use. In the 1970s and 1980s, Leo Beukeboom, another talented letter painter, continued and expanded this lettering tradition while employed under the Heineken brand. Much of his work can still be found in the Jordaan and De Pijp neighborhoods in Amsterdam. The Amsterdamse Krulletter, or Amsterdam’s curly letter, is strongly inspired by the calligraphic works of the 17th century Dutch writing masters, of which Jan van den Velde was a central figure. However, distinct characteristics of this style, for example, its unusual and beautiful ‘g’, originate from a model that was published by Johannes Heuvelman in 1659, which J. W. J. Visser referenced. Typographic circles have somehow overlooked the Amsterdamse Krulletter and its heritage. The Dutch calligraphic hands preceded and influenced the formal English penmanship which has inspired numerous typefaces in the Copperplate style. In contrast, the models from van den Velde, Heuvelman, and Jean de la Chambre, among others, are a missing chapter in Dutch typographic history, and had never been turned into typefaces until now. Conscious of the cultural and identity issues that arise in reviving a unique style, and concerned about the speed with which the lettering style was disappearing, Ramiro Espinoza focused the project of designing ‘Krul’ on digitally recreating the calligraphic complexity of these beautiful letters. Created through several years of research, ‘Krul’ is not a direct digitization of the Amsterdamse Krulletter, but instead, an interpretation that incorporates numerous alternative characters absent in the original model, and improves upon details where necessary, resulting in an optimal performance on the printed page. The typeface is presented in Open Type format, with an abundance of intricate ligatures, fleurons, and swashes, which permit the creation of numerous calligraphic effects. The very high contrast and rhythm of the strokes in this typeface make it especially suited for media applications conveying a sense of elegance and sophistication. Designers of feminine magazines, advertisements, and corporate identities within the fragrance and fashion industries will find in this typeface to be an extremely useful and appropriate resource.The great Amsterdamse Krulletter is finally back, and we are proud to make it available to you.

Maclean's is a weekly Canadian newsmagazine with a broad editorial mission. A typical issue covers everything from violence on the other side of the globe to the largest pumpkin grown in a local county. In 2001, Maclean's invited Rod McDonald to become part of the design team to renovate" the 96-year-old publication. The magazine wanted to offer its readers a typographic voice that was professional, clean, and easy to read. Above all, the typeface had to be able to speak about the hundreds of unrelated subjects addressed in each issue while remaining believable and uncontrived. A tall order, perhaps? Now add in that this would be the first text typeface ever commissioned by a Canadian magazine. McDonald, who some have called Canada's unofficial "typographer laureate," took on the challenge. McDonald used two historic models as the basis for Laurentian's design: the work of French type designer Claude Garamond, and that of the English printer and type founder, William Caslon. From Garamond Laurentian acquired its humanist axis, crisp serifs and terminals that mimic pen strokes. Caslon's letters are less humanistic, with a more marked contrast in stroke weight and serifs that appear constructed rather than drawn. These traits also made their mark on Laurentian. Using these two designs as a foundation, McDonald drew Laurentian with the narrow text columns and small type sizes of magazine composition in mind. He gave his letters strong vertical strokes and sturdy serifs, a robust x-height and a slightly compressed character width A tall order, per McDonald's genius is evident in the face's legibility, quiet liveliness and in the openness of the letters. The result is a typeface that not only met Maclean's demanding design brief, but also provides exceptional service in a wide variety of other applications. Laurentian is available in three weights of Regular, Semi Bold and Bold, with complementary italics for the Regular and Semi Bold, and a suite of titling caps."

🏆 Selected for Tipos Latinos 9. 🏆 Selected for the 13th Biennial of Brazilian Graphic Design. 🏆 Hiii Typography 2018 Merit Award. Kiperman is a text typeface designed in honor of Henrique Leão Kiperman, founder of the publishing house Artmed, now Grupo A. Its forms are simple and straightforward, with no unnecessary embellishments that could disturb the reading. The fonts are slightly narrower than normal, which yields higher efficiency without compromising reading comfort. Besides that, its italics are not just a slanted version of the romans, but rather a separate drawing. With a slope of 8°, its calligraphic structure provides the right amount of emphasis when necessary. The Kiperman typeface works best when setting books, magazines, ebooks and websites. It will also work very well in branding and packaging projects where a sober typeface is needed. The inspiration for the design came from the personality of the honoree. Just as Henrique always wanted to stay away from spotlights, the Kiperman typeface was designed so that it would not call attention to itself or impose any obstacles in the understanding of the text. In this way, the fonts revere Henrique’s legacy by respecting and honoring the published content. Henrique Leão Kiperman began his career in 1958, selling medical books in travels through the interior of the Brazilian states of Paraná and Santa Catarina. In 1973, he opened a bookstore in downtown Porto Alegre, the Artes Médicas Sul, and a few years later edited his first book. Since then, his company has grown to become one of the most important publishers in Brazil in the area of scientific, technical and professional books, with more than 2400 active titles distributed among the McGraw Hill, Bookman, Artmed, Penso and Artes Médicas imprints. Henrique passed away in 2017 at the age of 79. The Kiperman type family has been commissioned by Grupo A and is available for licensing. This was the way found for the fonts to be read by more people, spreading some of his spirit around the world.

Located in the Valencian Community, Spain, Manises is very famous for its pottery. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Manises was the most important production center for Spanish-Moresca ceramics, which was exported throughout Europe. At the beginning of the 16th century, Manises tiles were very commercially successful, especially of the heraldic type. Much appreciated by the Aragonese crown, Manises ceramics was also exported to France, Italy, and especially to Naples. As a big fan of Paterna and Manises ceramics, Naples influenced other Italian courts. Calixto III and Alejandro VI continuously commissioned Valencian pieces and tiles for the halls of the Vatican. The export also extended to Sicily, Venice, Turkey, Cyprus and even Flanders and the Baltic countries. The palaces of all the courts of Europe were enriched with this art. Many painters reproduced it in his paintings. It can be seen in the work of Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, and in the central panel of a triptych by Hugo Van der Goes (Uffizi Gallery, Florence). In this city there are also some frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio in which the Arabic-Valencian earthenware appears. Manises font is inspired by a text written on a 16th century tile, but adapting it to our times and giving it a very modern air. It is characterised by being able to combine uppercase and lowercase letters in a conventional manner, or use only capitals, or only lowercase letters, or, a random combination of both. It comes with an extra of many ligatures, stylistic alternates, and a set of very useful catchwords, to give more modernity to your text. This OpenType features may only be accessible via OpenType-aware applications, or the Character Map to view and copy any of the extra characters to paste into your favourite text editor/app. Manises looks lovely on wedding invitations, greeting cards, logos, posters, labels, t-shirt design, logos, children's material, in ink or water-colour based designs, fashion, magazines, food packaging and menus, book covers and whatever your imagination holds!

Wardshus Calligraphy is a unique blend of medieval gothic style and modern script, creating a distinctive and eye-catching blackletter font. The heavy, hand-drawn design brings an air of the Middle Ages to your projects, making it perfect for logos, posters, rock or hip-hop music album covers, and other display purposes that require a cool and striking touch. The beautiful cursive elements add a touch of elegance to the font, while the bold strokes and intricate details give it a strong presence. Wardshus Calligraphy is a testament to the rich artistic history of the past, reimagined for contemporary design projects. Use # after any letter to make a crown. Example: Que#en Use underscore _ anywhere to make a swash. Example: Kingdom_Heroes Use multiple underscores to make underlines of different lengths. Example: Knig___hters The Wardshus Calligraphy font family includes nine high-quality styles to suit various design needs: Regular: A well-balanced, classic blackletter script style. Regular Upright: Adds a more controlled, vertical look to the regular style. Regular Italic: Combines the balance of regular with a touch of expressiveness. Bold: A stronger, more assertive version of the script for impactful designs. Bold Upright: Merges the boldness of the bold style with the structure of upright. Bold Italic: A dynamic fusion of the bold style and the energy of italic. Black: The heaviest, most powerful iteration of the blackletter script. Black Upright: Combines the weight of the black style with the upright structure. Black Italic: Adds expressiveness and flair to the intense black style. Built with advanced OpenType functionality, Wardshus Calligraphy ensures top-notch quality and provides you with full control and customizability. It includes stylistic and contextual alternates, ligatures, and other features to make your designs truly unique. It has extensive lingual support, covering all Latin-based languages, from Northern Europe to South Africa, from America to South-East Asia. It contains all characters and symbols you'll ever need, including all punctuation and numbers.

You wrote on your school notebooks, didn't you. Of course, just about everyone did. And those that didn't are probably in therapy trying to overcome the repression and guilt. Balloon letters are fun, easy to draw and have a light-hearted presence. With little autonomy, what young person can resist the opportunity to make a public, personal statement on their notebook. Guess what! Adults do it too - with our cars, our houses, our toys, our accessories and so on. And how "grown-up" are we really? Anyway, my niece, Cori, made this nice, colorful, hand-drawn birthday card. It was so vibrant and fun - in warm circus colors - that I could not resist making it into a font. Use it for positive, fun stuff, stuff with a light touch - an invitation for an informal party perhaps, but probably not a formal dinner at the White House. This font is not comfortable in a bowtie. But don't be fooled. Casual as Cori is, you can set at least twelve major European languages with it, in addition to English: Albanian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. Cori Valentine adds a decorative Valentine border to the upper case of Cori. By leaving out the bow in the upper center of the border we were able to fit the border around the accented caps. Similarly, we omitted the butterfly for the Ccedilla glyph. Blank versions of the regular border & the bowless border are provided at positions 135 & 137 in case you want to put a border around your signature or something like that. Just for reference, the letterforms for Cori Valentine are 75% the size as the regular Cori font. We would like to assure you that it is permissible to use Cori Valentine to create a romantic card, flyer or note during any month with less the 32 days.

One of my dreams as a type-designer was making a good looking chancery cursive. Full of life, like some of the best calligraphers around the world do on their artworks. With Julian Waters, John Stevens and Denis Brown (just to name a few of them) (1) chancery, or italic script, was transformed into a new, exciting and very fresh style of calligraphy mainly at the end of 20th Century. Dream Script may be that dream named above made true. I have been practicing chancery in the way I learnt from those calligraphers for many years now. Making a font out of my ink-sketches was a tough work, since they were closer of -being art- than of -being type-. However, this font rescues many aspects of handmade calligraphy: You have to look at it really close to notice it is actually a font, and that was one of my goals. The secret of a good looking chancery is on its subtle details: pen angle is constantly changing, even on the strokes which seem straight. Capitals and swashes have to be done a little faster than lowercase letters. The rhythm has to be even, in spite of its playful look. The fact that makes Dream look alive is that it has many alternates per glyph. This makes each word look unique like it happens in calligraphy: you will find alternates for the beginning/ending of a word/phrase, some for the middle of it, some interchangeable. Also, to accompany the script, you will find Dream Caps, which was inspired in the eternally beautiful trajan capitals. Place them like I did on the posters and you will have great results for sure. The font works great in small, middle and big sizes and can be a great selection for magazines, wedding invitations, perfumes, and posters. Close your eyes, and Dream with me... TECHNICAL Dream Script Pro is the most complete style, it contains all the alternates and ligatures (OT programmed, better if you use Adobe applications) If you plan to use the font for text, be sure to activate the less decorative capitals, which are placed in the “salt” group of alternates. Dream Script Standard has less glyphs than the Pro one, it contains just some ligatures for a better legibility. (OT programmed, better if you use Adobe applications) NOTES (1) Not only are they great artists, but also good people, who are always willing to share with their students all what they know. I would also like to thank Ricardo Rousselot, whose work inspired me this time to make “The Dream Script” exlibris; and to Alisara Tareekes, a very talented friend which international calligraphy conferences gave me: She kindly helped me with some tips to make this font better.

Coming Together contains over 400 glyphs and is supplied as a single, cross-platform OpenType font. All glyphs are accessible using OpenType-savvy applications, Unicode-savvy utilities, the Character Map utility on Windows, and FontBook on Mac OS X. Nearly 400 designers contributed to “Coming Together”: Adam Humphries, Aditi Dilip, Adrien Midzic, Afraa Gutub, Al Insan Lashley, Alan Lima Coutinho, Alaric Garnier, Alejandro Cabrera Avila, Alejandro Lo Celso, Alejandro Paul, Alessandro Segalini, Alex Cameron, Alex Coblentz, Alexander Trubin, Alexandre Freitas, Alexey Murashko, Alicia Jabin, Aline Horta, Allison Dominguez, Amanda Postle, Amy Brown, Amy Papaelias, Anderson Maschio, Andrea Emery, Andres Perez, Andrew Boardman, Andrew Jesernig, Andrey Furlan, Andrij Shevchenko, Ann Tripepi, Antonio Gutierrez, Antony Kitson, Anushree Kapoor, Anya Cam, AP303 Estudio Design, Becky Krohe, Beejay, Ben Mitchell, Benjamin K. Shown, Benjamin Varin, Brad McNally, Brad Nelson, Bradley Trinnaman, Brady Baltezore, Brandon Horne, Breck Campbell, Brian J. Bonislawsky, Brian Jaramillo, Brian Jongseong Park, Brian Mueller, Brock French, Bruce Rodgers, Bruno Pugens, Bryan Angelo Lim, Buro Reng, Caitlin Martin-Frost, Calou, Carlos Fabián Camargo Guerrero, Carlos Vidal, Cayo Navarro, Cesar Puertas, Chank Diesel, Charles Williams, Chris Lozos, Chris Trude, Christophe Badani, Christy Lai, Claes Källarsson, Claire Coullon, Claudio Piccinini, Colby Cook, Craig Eliason, Cristina Pegnataro, Curve Doctor, Dan DiSorbo, Dan Liggins, Dan Rubin, Daniel Justi, Daniele Capo, Dav(id Hubner), Dave Bailey, Dave Cohen, David Jonathan Ross, David Sudweeks, David Thometz, Dawn Mercurio, Delve Withrington, Diana van de Blaak, Didier Mazellier, Diederik Corvers, Dino Santos, Dmytro Pobiedash, Donald Beekman, Dries Wiewauters, Duncan Bancroft, Ed Hoskin, Eddy Ymeri, Edineide Oliveira, Eduardo Manso, Eduardo Rodríguez Tunni, Eero Antturi, Eli Castellanos, Elias Bitencourt, Elias Stenalt Werner, Elman Padilla, Emery Miller, Emily Leong, Emily Maher, Enrico Limcaco, Eric Frisino, Eric Stine, Erik Brandt, Espen, Evan Moss, Evangeline Rupert, Fabiane Lima, Fabio Foncati, Fabrizio Schiavi, Farbod Kokabi, Felipe Lekich, Francisco Martin, Frank Riccio, Frans van Bellen, Gary Holmes, Gautam Rao, Gayle Hendricks, Gene Buban, Georg Herold-Wildfellner, George Aytoun, Gerd Wiescher, Giles Edwards, Gist Studio, Glen Barry, Glenn Parsons, Goro Mihok, Grace Engels, Grant Alexander, Grant Hutchinson, Greg Smith, Gunnar Swanson, Gustavo Machado, Hans Nieuwstraten, Harold Lohner, Hilary Salmon, Hillary Fayle, Hrant H Papazian, Hugo Gallipoli, Ian Drolet, Ian Lynam, Ilona Kincses, Isac Corrêa Rodrigues, Ivette Chacon, Ivo Federspiel, Jacques Le Bailly, Jae-hyoung Choi, Jaime Vasquez, James Edmondson, James Grieshaber, James L. Stirling, James Lukens-Gable, James Martin, James Ockelford, James Puckett, Jarbas Gomes, Jarett Knuth, Jason Adam, Jason Robinson, Javier Suzuki, Jay Chu, Jayson Zaleski, Jean Francois Porchez, Jeff Fisher, Jeff Jarvis, Jeffrey Vanlerberghe, Jelmar Geertsma, Jennifer Clarke, Jennifer Rutherford, Jens Kutilek, Jerry Allen Rose, Jess Latham, Jesse Ragan, Jessica Page, Jesvin Yeo Puay Hwa, Jim Ford, Jim Lyles, Jim Rimmer, Jin Ping, Jo De Baerdemaeker, Joachim Muller-Lance, Joanna Abbott Moss, Joe Francis, Joe VanDerBos, Joel Vilas Boas (J85), John Downer, John Flanagan, John Foley, John Langdon, John Lopez, John Lyttle, John Skelton, Johnny Dib, Jonathan Hughes, Jonathan Pierini, Jos Buivenga, Jose Luis Coyotl Mixcoatl, Juan Acosta, Judd Crush, Judith Lee, Julie Johnson, Julie Oakley, Julie Thomas, Juliet Shen, Jumin Lee, Jurgen Weltin, Justin Callahan, Justin Chodzko, Karel Piska, Karen MacKay, Karin Eberhardt, Karin van Soest, Karla Perez, Katie Parry, Katie Snape, Katri Haycock, Katy Brooks, Kelley Garrard, Kelly Redling, Kent Lew, Kevin D’Souza, Kevin J. Boynton, Kevin McDermott, Kim Arispe, Kokin, Kristen Caston, Kristen Hartman, Kristian Möller, Kristians Šics, Kyle Jones, L Bollinger, Lan Huang, Larry Van Dyke, Laura Ricker, Laura Worthington, Laurel Wilson, LeAndrea James, Lijklema Design, Linda McNeil, Lise Barreto, Louie Crumbley, Louis Duchesne, Luke Dorny, Luke Stouffer, Madison Cramer, Måns Björkman, Marc Salinas Claret, Marcus Leis Allion, Marcus Parker, Marcus Sterz, Marie-Anne Verougstraete, Mark Simonson, Martin Majoor, Matheus Barbosa, Mathias Forslund, Matt Desmond, Matt McInerney, Matt Millette, Matthew Jerauld, Max Kisman, Michael Browers, Michael Bundscherer, Michael Cina, Michael Doret, Michael G. Adkins, Michael Hernan, Michael Paul Young, Michael Wallner, Miguel Catopodis, Mikael Engblom, Mike Jarboe, Mike Petschek, Miriam Martincic, Moira Sheehan, Monica Pedrique, Nacho Gallego, Naomi Atkinson, Natanael Gama, Nathanael Ng, Neil Fox, Neil Patel, Neil Summerour, Neil Woodyatt, Ngoc Ngo, Nguyen Pham, Nicholas Curtis, Nicole Hudson, Nicole Sowinski, Nicolien van der Keur, Nina Stössinger, Noah Scalin, Ojasvi Mohanty, Oleg Macujev, Olivia Choi, Ong Fang Zheng, Pata Macedo, Patrick Gallagher, Patrycja Zywert, Paul Hunt, Paul Langman, Pedro Moura, Pedro Paz, Per Ohlsson, PJ Onori, Premm Design Ltd, Rae Kaiser, Rafael Carozzi, Rafael Cordeiro, Rafael Neder, Randy Jones, Ray Larabie, Raymond Forbes, Ressa McCray, Ricardo Esteves, Ricardo Martins, Riccardo Sartori, Richard Kegler, Richard Miller, Rob Keller, Roballo, Rose Coplon, Roy Rub, Rudo van der Velden, Russell McGorman, Ryan Rushing, Ryan Thorpe, Sander Neijnens, Sara Cross, Scott Boms, Scott Fisk, Sergio Jimenez, Shi-Min Chin, Sílvio Gabriel Spannenberg, Soohyen Park, Sorin Bechira, Stanley Friesesk, Stefan Hattenbach, Stefan Kjartansson, Stephen Lay, Steve Harrison, Steve Marsh, Steve Matteson, Steve Mehallo, Steve Zelle, Steven Bonner, Steven Wulf, Stuart Brown, Stuart Ford, Stuart Sandler, Sue Zafarana, Sulekha Rajkumar, Susan Surface, Tanya T Stroh, Taylor Loman, Ted Ullrich, Teja Ideja, Tena Letica, Terrance Weinzierl, Theo França, Thiago Martins, Tiffany Wardle, Tim Whalen, Titus Nemeth, Tom Plate, Tom Rickner, Tomato Košir, Tomi Haaparanta, Travis Kochel, Troy Leinster, Tyler Heron, Type Mafia, Vanessa Robertson, Veronika Burian, Victor Esteves, Victor Zuniga, Viktor Nübel, Viviana G, Wellinton Reis, Wilson Thomas, Wolfgang Homola, Xavier Dupre, Xerxes Irani, Zvika Rosenberg These designers represented the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Croatia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, England, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Siberia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Ukraine, United States, Venezuela, Vietnam

Many typefaces are distinctive or attractive at the expense of legibility and versatility. Not so the Optima® family. Simultaneously standing out and fitting in, there are few projects or imaging environments outside of its range. Although Optima is almost always grouped with sans serif typefaces, it should be considered a serifless roman. True to its Roman heritage, Optima has wide, full-bodied characters – especially in the capitals. Only the E, F and L deviate with narrow forms. Consistent with other Zapf designs, the cap S in Optima appears slightly top-heavy with a slight tilt to the right. The M is splayed, and the N, like a serif design, has light vertical strokes. The lowercase a and g in Optima are high-legibility two-storied designs. Optima can be set within a wide choice of line spacing values – from very tight to very open. In fact, there are few limits to the amount of white space that can be added between lines of text. Optima also benefits from a wide range of letter spacing capability. It can be set quite tight, or even slightly open – especially the capitals. If there are any guidelines, Optima should be set more open than tight. It’s not that readability is affected that much when Optima is set on the snug side; it’s just that the unhurried elegance and light gray typographic color created by the face are disrupted when letters are set too tight. Optima is also about as gregarious as a typeface can be. It mixes well with virtually any serif design and a surprisingly large number of sans serif faces. The Optima family is available in six weights, from roman to extra black, each with an italic counterpart. In addition, the family is available as a suite of OpenType® Pro fonts, providing for the automatic insertion of small caps, ligatures and alternate characters, in addition to offering an extended character set supporting most Central European and many Eastern European languages. When you’re ready to find its perfect pairing, browse these fantastic matches: Monotype Century Old Style™, Dante®, Frutiger® Serif, Joanna® Nova, Malabar™, and Soho®.

When Hal Taylor saw the 1930 logo for the Stetson Shoe Company of Weymouth, Massachusetts, he didn't run out and buy a pair of loafers. Instead, he seized on this striking example of an Art Deco logotype as the basis for a new typeface design. “I was impressed with the delicate and sophisticated letter forms,” Taylor recalls, “particularly the enlarged cap S -- in any other case it would have seemed unbalanced, but in the context of this logo, it worked perfectly.” All the letters in the original all-caps Stetson Shoe logo were rendered with condensed proportions except the O, which was a perfect circle. While the prominent O added visual interest to the logo, Taylor knew that such a character would limit his typeface to display applications. For versatility's sake, he drew his O for ITC Stepp with the same proportions as the rest of the alphabet. Taylor also gave the logotype's inverted S a more traditional design, but kept the original as an alternate character in the OpenType font. Taylor's toughest challenge during the design process was creating a lowercase. “A good type design tells you what it wants to be,” he says, “and after a little while the Stepp caps began to tell me what the lowercase should look like.” Taylor's lowercase is slightly more conventional than the caps. The jaunty g" and almost upside-down "s" add subtle charm, while the capital letters provide the broader gestures of Stepp's personality. Together, they create a versatile and distinctive typeface design. One of Hal Taylor's first jobs was as a photo-lettering typographer in Philadelphia, setting headlines and creating custom lettering. This was followed by a stint doing finished lettering for John Langdon, whose ambigrams appear in Dan Brown's best-selling novel, Angels & Demons. Today, Taylor works as a graphic designer in the publishing industry, but he still finds time to create an occasional hand-lettered book jacket, and draw handsome typeface designs. ITC Stepp is available in four weights, ranging from Light to Ultra Bold. All four weights have companion italics, and the lightest three weights also offer a suite of small caps."

Introducing the third reincarnation of TT Chocolates! The popular typeface was updated to stay up-to-date with the latest requirements and trends in design! TT Chocolates is an elegant Humanist sans serif with a dense typesetting and well-balanced proportions similar to the classical tradition. This font's nice and friendly nature makes it seem like something close and familiar. It has earned a reputation among designers as the perfect font for confectionery, but the application range of the TypeType's "sweetest" typeface goes well beyond that! In 2023, we decided to do a full-scale font update referring to extensive sans-serif market research. We figured out where the trends are headed and what users want—this information helped us enhance TT Chocolates. Specifically, we introduced a new Condensed font version, a narrow font style with the authentic proportions of the standard version. At the same time, TT Chocolates Condensed boasts a more expressive personality than the base subfamily, which allows designers to solve even more creative tasks using only one typeface. The third version of TT Chocolates has become even more modern and advanced. A large number of characters, various OpenType features, and stylistic sets make the font suitable for multiple purposes and tasks. TT Chocolates is a perfect match for both branding and layouts. The font's dynamic shapes make it easy to read in small point sizes, allowing the eye to move effortlessly across the line. This typeface can also be used in web design due to the TrueType manual hinting option. TT Chocolates 3.000 includes: 29 font styles: 14 roman, 14 italic, and one variable font; Condensed version consisting of 14 new font styles; Carefully crafted contours; Optimized font rhythm and completely new kerning; Enhanced italics in basic subfamily; Variable font with three axes of variation: width, weight, and slant; 32 OpenType features, counting in 13 new ones; 901 characters in each font style—the character set has grown compared to the previous version, which had 629 characters in each font style; 230+ languages support, including the new ones: 35 Cyrillic-based and 16 Latin-based. Elevate your design's appeal with TT Chocolates!

Many typefaces are distinctive or attractive at the expense of legibility and versatility. Not so the Optima® family. Simultaneously standing out and fitting in, there are few projects or imaging environments outside of its range. Although Optima is almost always grouped with sans serif typefaces, it should be considered a serifless roman. True to its Roman heritage, Optima has wide, full-bodied characters – especially in the capitals. Only the E, F and L deviate with narrow forms. Consistent with other Zapf designs, the cap S in Optima appears slightly top-heavy with a slight tilt to the right. The M is splayed, and the N, like a serif design, has light vertical strokes. The lowercase a and g in Optima are high-legibility two-storied designs. Optima can be set within a wide choice of line spacing values – from very tight to very open. In fact, there are few limits to the amount of white space that can be added between lines of text. Optima also benefits from a wide range of letter spacing capability. It can be set quite tight, or even slightly open – especially the capitals. If there are any guidelines, Optima should be set more open than tight. It’s not that readability is affected that much when Optima is set on the snug side; it’s just that the unhurried elegance and light gray typographic color created by the face are disrupted when letters are set too tight. Optima is also about as gregarious as a typeface can be. It mixes well with virtually any serif design and a surprisingly large number of sans serif faces. The Optima family is available in six weights, from roman to extra black, each with an italic counterpart. In addition, the family is available as a suite of OpenType® Pro fonts, providing for the automatic insertion of small caps, ligatures and alternate characters, in addition to offering an extended character set supporting most Central European and many Eastern European languages. When you’re ready to find its perfect pairing, browse these fantastic matches: Monotype Century Old Style™, Dante®, Frutiger® Serif, Joanna® Nova, Malabar™ and Soho®.

In comparison to the powerful and commanding original, Sancoale Gothic is a more sober version of Sancoale. The medium contrast between thick and thin strokes makes for a typeface that stands out with striking clarity in longer texts, yet is very readable. This new addition to the Sancoale family is a perfect alternative if you want to use a different style than the original family. Using the utmost care and restraint, the designer strove to avoid overbearing futurism in favor of a typeface with clean lines and clear forms. Show your customers the world with Sancoale Gothic, a versatile sans with a wide range of styles, from delicate thins to bold, hefty weights that dominate the page and screen with confidence and futuristic flair. A fresh, friendly voice for all kinds of uses, from corporate statements to fashion, Sancoale Gothic is a versatile sans with a wide range of styles, from delicate thins to bold, hefty weights that dominate the page and screen with confidence and futuristic flair. Sancoale Gothic has a distinct personality, which allows you to create a wide range of projects, including posters and websites. The Sancoale Gothic fonts come in many varieties, so you can go with a light or thick weight, depending on what fits your project best. With their sweeping curves, the heavy fonts are meant for huge headings on posters and websites. The Sancoale Gothic family is made up of 48 distinct styles, with 660 glyphs and supports 70 languages, allowing you to communicate with your customers all over the world. Small Capitals and other OpenType features abound! The design is sleek with no stems or spurs in the default character set, but OpenType alternates have alternates with stems. OpenType capable applications such as Quark or the Adobe suite can take full advantage of the automatically replacing ligatures and alternates. The superfamily offers an array of optical sizes, contrasting weights, and contrasting optical sizes to discover the right balance, contrast, and optical size for your design. Prepare to be blown away by Sancoale Gothic’s smooth curves and captivating allure. Sancoale Gothic is perfect for both a contemporary and forward looking style. Sancoale Gothic is both practical and unique, in a standalone capacity or with the companion Sancoale fonts. Use it to make an impact today.

Rahere Esoteric is a gothic-flavoured, quasi-Roman display font with an eccentric persona and more quirks than a Tim Burton film. A member of the extended Rahere typeface family, it’s the enigmatic cousin of Rahere Roman Display & Rahere Sans. This is a niche display font that doesn’t try to please everyone. Rahere Esoteric revels in its mystical aura, using a bewildering array of ligatures to magically transmute itself as characters loop, curl, jerk and strut, randomly connecting and disconnecting into words like a retro-futuristic steam train clattering along a disused railway track, challenging and delighting the reader at the same time. To add more sparkle, there are alternatives, inferior and superior caps plus a [Wicca] basketful of symbols, ornaments, weird faces and even a snake-infused ampersand. Whilst Rahere Esoteric has been designed primarily as an all-caps font, the lowercase slots contain small caps with corresponding numerals. However, because this is an arcane, unpredictable font, order and regularity are frowned upon, which means there are no tabular numerals – so company reports or accounts are a solid no! Unless they’re for the Golden Circle of Alchemists PLC or Gothic Blackstar Corporation. It is ideal for all things pagan, esoteric, alchemy, other-worldly or magic-related projects and particularly useful for music genres across the Gothic / Darkwave / Ethereal spectrum. What about legibility? Hey, look into my eyes: Esoteric is all about the mystique. If a secondary font is needed for the important stuff, I recommend its cousin, Rahere Sans, which pairs beautifully with this display font and is perfect for long passages or small text. The initial idea for Rahere Esoteric came about during a visit to Whitby, a small coastal town in Yorkshire, UK and famous for its inclusion in Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula. A Steampunk festival was in full swing and the narrow streets of the town centre were teeming with people adorned in a glorious fusion of clothing and accessories influenced by a love of 19th-century life, science fiction, horror, fashion and art. I was fascinated by the juxtapositions of colour, patterns, material and style – archaic mechanical Sci-fi, gothic, the American Wild West and romantic Victorian. But what intrigued me the most, somehow, all the disparate elements worked as a whole. Thus, like Frankenstein, this font jolted into existence. Supported languages include Western Europe, Vietnamese, Central/Eastern Europe, Baltic, Turkish and Romanian.

Keep Calm is a family of fonts developed from the now famous World War 2 poster that was designed in 1939 but never issued, then rediscovered in 2000. As well as the original Keep Calm font, the medium weight of the poster, new weights are now available – Keep Calm Book (regular weight), Heavy and Light – and each weight comes with a complimentary italic. Version 2.0 (2017) is a comprehensive update which consists of numerous refinements and improvements across all weights. The family now contains a full complement of Latin Extended-A characters, Welsh diacritics and Irish dotted consonants. The four italics have been optically corrected with revised, ‘true italic’ forms of a and f. The crown motif from the top of the Keep Calm poster is located at the plus minus ± and section § keystrokes (Alt 0177 and Alt 0167 on Windows). The lowercase g follows the Gill/Johnston eyeglass model, but also included is an alternative, single-story g at the Alt G keystroke (Alt 0169 on a Windows keyboard), the normal location of the copyright symbol which has been relocated elsewhere in the fonts. An alternative lowercase t, without the curved wedge cutaway, is provided at the Alt T (dagger) keystroke (Alt 0134 on Windows). When I first saw the Keep Calm and Carry On poster, I wrongly assumed the letters to be Gill Sans. Recent research at the National Archive by Dr. Bex Lewis of Manchester Metropolitan University has revealed that the original poster was hand drawn by the illustrator and painter, Ernest Wallcousins. The Gill Sans influence is apparent, in the R particularly, the M’s perfectly pointed vertex is redolent of Johnston’s Underground, and the most anomalous character, the C, resembles the ‘basic lettering’ of engineers that provided the vernacular sources for the Gotham typeface. Developing the Keep Calm typeface has been an exercise in extrapolation; an intriguing challenge to build a whole, high quality font family based on the twelve available capitals of the Keep Calm poster, and on similar lettering from the other two posters in the original series. This has required the creation of new lowercase letters that are believably 1939; that maintain the influence of Gill and Johnston while also hinting at the functional imperative of a wartime drawing office. Wallcousins’s lettering balanced intuitive human qualities and the pure pleasure of drawing elegant contemporary characters, against an underlying geometry of ruled lines, perfect circles, 45° terminals, and a requirement for no-nonsense clarity.

The ITC Stone Sans II typeface family is new from the drawing board up. Sumner Stone, who designed the original faces in 1988, recently collaborated with Delve Withrington and Jim Wasco of Monotype Imaging to update the family of faces that bears his name. Sumner was the lead designer and project director for the full-blown reworking – and his own greatest critic. The collaborative design effort began as a relatively simple upgrade to the ITC Stone Sans family. As so often happens, however, the upgrade proved to be not so simple, and grew into a major design undertaking. “My initial intent,” recalls Sumner, “was to provide ITC Stone Sans with even greater versatility. I planned to add an additional weight, maybe two, and to give the family some condensed designs.” As Sumner began to look more closely at his twenty-year-old typeface, he decided that it would benefit from more extensive design improvements. “I found myself making numerous refinements to character shapes and proportions,” says Sumner. “The project scope expanded dramatically, and I’m pleased with the final result. The redesign has improved both the legibility and the overall appearance of the face.” The original ITC Stone Sans is part of the ITC Stone super family, along with ITC Stone Serif and ITC Stone Informal. In 2005 ITC Stone Humanist joined the family. All of these designs have always offered the same three weights: Medium, Semibold, and Bold – each with an italic counterpart. Over time, Stone Sans has emerged as the godfather of the family, a powerful design used for everything from fine books, annual reports and corporate identity programs, to restaurant menus, movie credits and advertising campaigns. ITC Stone Sans, however, lacked one attribute of many sans serif families: a large range of widths and weights. “These fonts had enjoyed great popularity for many years – during which graphic designers repeatedly asked for more weights and condensed designs in the family,” says Sumner. “Their comments were the impetus.” ITC Stone Sans II includes six weights ranging from an elegant Light to a commanding Extra Bold. An italic counterpart and suite of condensed designs complements every weight. In all, the new family encompasses 24 typefaces. The ITC Stone Sans II family is also available as a suite of OpenType Pro fonts, allowing graphic communicators to pair its versatile design with the capabilities of OpenType. These fonts offer automatic insertion of ligatures, small caps and use-sensitive figure designs; their extended character set also supports most Central European and many Eastern European languages. ITC Stone® Sans II font field guide including best practices, font pairings and alternatives.

The ITC Franklin™ typeface design marks the next phase in the evolution of one of the most important American gothic typefaces. Morris Fuller Benton drew the original design in 1902 for American Type Founders (ATF); it was the first significant modernization of a nineteenth-century grotesque. Named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, the design not only became a best seller, it also served as a model for several other sans serif typefaces that followed it. Originally issued in just one weight, the ATF Franklin Gothic family was expanded over several years to include an italic, a condensed, a condensed shaded, an extra condensed and, finally, a wide. No light or intermediate weights were ever created for the metal type family. In 1980, under license from American Type Founders, ITC commissioned Victor Caruso to create four new weights in roman and italic - book, medium, demi and heavy - while preserving the characteristics of the original ATF design. This series was followed in 1991 by a suite of twelve condensed and compressed designs drawn by David Berlow. ITC Franklin Gothic was originally released as two designs: one for display type and one for text. However, in early digital interpretations, a combined text and display solution meant the same fonts were used to set type in any size, from tiny six-point text to billboard-size letters. The problem was that the typeface design was almost always compromised and this hampered its performance at any size. David Berlow, president of Font Bureau, approached ITC with a proposal to solve this problem that would be mutually beneficial. Font Bureau would rework the ITC Franklin Gothic family, enlarge and separate it into distinct text and display designs, then offer it as part of its library as well. ITC saw the obvious value in the collaboration, and work began in early 2004. The project was supposed to end with the release of new text and display designs the following year. But, like so many design projects, the ITC Franklin venture became more extensive, more complicated and more time consuming than originally intended. The 22-font ITC Franklin Gothic family has now grown to 48 designs and is called simply ITC Franklin. The new designs range from the very willowy Thin to the robust Ultra -- with Light, Medium, Bold and Black weights in between. Each weight is also available in Narrow, Condensed and Compressed variants, and each design has a complementary Italic. In addition to a suite of new biform characters (lowercase characters drawn with the height and weight of capitals), the new ITC Franklin Pro fonts also offer an extended character set that supports most Central European and many Eastern European languages. ITC Franklin Text is currently under development.

Gundrada ML was inspired by the lettering on the tomb of Gundrada de Warenne. She was buried at Southover Church at Lewes, Sussex, in the south of England in 1085. The Latin inscription on her tomb, STIRPS GUNDRADA DUCUM, meaning “Gundrada, descendant of the Duke” may have led to the speculation that she was the daughter of William, Duke of Normandy and bastard son of Robert the Devil of Normandy and Arletta, daughter of a tanner in Falaise. In 1066 William defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings and was crowned William I of England. More commonly known as William the Conquerer, he commissioned a string of forts around the kingdom and charged trusted Norman Barons to control the contentious Anglo-Saxon population. William de Warenne, husband of Gundrada, was one of these Barons. There has also been the suggestion that Gundrada may have been the daughter of William’s wife, Matilda of Flanders, by a previous marriage. According to the Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, Oxford, England 1921-22), both of these contentions are in dispute. Searching the past of a thousand years ago is like wandering in a heavy fog: facts are only dimly in view. Regardless, I know that I found these letterforms immediately engaging in their simplicity. Unadorned and unsophisticated, they have a direct honesty that rests well in the company of humanistic sans serifs like Franklin Gothic or Gill Sans, appealing to a contemporary sensibility. The lettering on the tomb is in upper case only. Although Gundrada does not sound Norman French to me, her husband certainly and her father probably were Norman French. Nonetheless, the man that carved her tombstone was probably Anglo-Saxon, like most of the people. For that reason, we are quite comfortable with a fairly generic lower case from an Anglo-Saxon document of the time. The time was a time of transition, of contending language influences. This font reflects some of that tension. Features 1. Multi-Lingual Font with 389 glyphs and 698 Kerning Pairs. 2. OpenType GSUB layout features: onum, dlig, liga, salt & hist. 3. Tabular Figures and Alternate Old-Style Figures. 4. Alternate Ruled Caps (line above and below, matching to brackets). 5. Central Europe, Western Europe, Turkish and Baltic Code Pages. 6. Additional accents for Cornish and Old Gaelic. 7. Stylistic alternates A, E, y and #. 8. Ligatures ST, Th, fi and fl. 9. Historic alternate longs. The zip package includes two versions of the font at no extra charge. There is an OTF version which is in Open PS (Post Script Type 1) format and a TTF version which is in Open TT (True Type)format. Use whichever works best for your applications.

Pinto, designed by Vienna based typographer Georg Herold-Wildfellner, lets you transform type into an exciting and beautiful piece of work. The irregular, hand-lettered look adds a real human touch to things and comes along with a lot of loving details. Combine all font-styles the way you want, add some ornamental swashes or banners and even a single word becomes magnificent. · Four subfamilies plus hundreds of ornaments in 1 font combo! Pinto shows a great flexibility and variety. It works similar to a toolbox: four subfamilies including shadow-, outline-, display- and layer-variations. On top of that is NO_05, a set of more than 800 different ornaments to dress up any typographic project. Browse through tons of swashes, flourishes, dividers, corners, ribbons, banners, frames, arrows, hearts and stars. The extensive character set includes uppercase letters in two automatically alternating versions (activate OpenType “Contextual Alternates”). All ornaments are abundant with details and often available in different stroke thicknesses. Scale them up to meet your personal needs! · The Pinto Family at a glance • NO_1: Narrow Sans Serif (additional option: NO_01 Shadow) • NO_2: Slab Serif (plus a playful variant with serifs drawn as outline) • NO_3: Serif (plus 3 versions: Shadow, Engraved & Engraved Display) • NO_4: Western style – this one is for free! (extra: two layer-option) • NO_5: 800+ typographic ornaments in 3 fonts, separated into stylistic sets · The Pinto family in total includes 14 hand-drawn styles and is tailored for food-, magazine-, book- and packaging-design. · Enjoy! Georg Herold-Wildfellner | FaceType · View other fonts from Georg Herold-Wildfellner: Sofa Serif | Sofa Sans | Mila Script Pro | Pinto | Supernett | Mr Moustache | Aeronaut | Ivory | Weingut · Language Report for Pinto / 195 languages supported: Abenaki, Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Amis, Anuta, Aragonese, Aranese, Aromanian, Arrernte, Arvanitic, Asturian, Aymara, Bashkir, Basque, Bikol, Bislama, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chickasaw, Cimbrian, Cofan, Corsican, Creek, Crimean Tatar, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Delaware, Dholuo, Drehu, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, Folkspraak, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz, Galician, Genoese, German, Gooniyandi, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean, Gwichin, Haitian Creole, Han, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hopi, Hotcak, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ido, Ilocano, Indonesian, Interglossa, Interlingua, Irish, Istroromanian, Italian, Jamaican, Javanese, Jerriais, Kala Lagaw Ya, Kapampangan, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak, Karelian, Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kiribati, Kirundi, Klingon, Ladin, Latin, Latino Sine, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lojban, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Manx, Maori, Marquesan, Meglenoromanian, Meriam Mir, Mohawk, Moldovan, Montagnais, Montenegrin, Murrinhpatha, Nagamese Creole, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Ngiyambaa, Niuean, Noongar, Norwegian, Novial, Occidental, Occitan, Oshiwambo, Ossetian, Palauan, Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Potawatomi, Qeqchi, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Rotokas, Sami Lule, Sami Southern, Samoan, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Seri, Seychellois, Shawnee, Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Slovio, Somali, Sorbian Lower, Sorbian Upper, Sotho Northern, Sotho Southern, Spanish, Sranan, Sundanese, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tok Pisin, Tokelauan, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen, Tuvaluan, Tzotzil, Uzbek, Venetian, Vepsian, Volapuk, Voro, Wallisian, Walloon, Waraywaray, Warlpiri, Wayuu, Welsh, Wikmungkan, Wiradjuri, Xhosa, Yapese, Yindjibarndi, Zapotec, Zulu, Zuni

Type designers are crazy people. Not crazy in the sense that they think we are Napoleon, but in the sense that the sky can be falling, wars tearing the world apart, disasters splitting the very ground we walk on, plagues circling continents to pick victims randomly, yet we will still perform our ever optimistic task of making some little spot of the world more appealing to the human eye. We ought to be proud of ourselves, I believe. Optimism is hard to come by these days. Regardless of our own personal reasons for doing what we do, the very thing we do is in itself an act of optimism and belief in the inherent beauty that exists within humanity. As recently as ten years ago, I wouldn't have been able to choose the amazing obscure profession I now have, wouldn't have been able to be humbled by the history that falls into my hands and slides in front of my eyes every day, wouldn't have been able to live and work across previously impenetrable cultural lines as I do now, and wouldn't have been able to raise my glass of Malbeck wine to toast every type designer who was before me, is with me, and will be after me. As recently as ten years ago, I wouldn't have been able to mean these words as I wrote them: It’s a small world. Yes, it is a small world, and a wonderfully complex one too. With so much information drowning our senses by the minute, it has become difficult to find clear meaning in almost anything. Something throughout the day is bound to make us feel even smaller in this small world. Most of us find comfort in a routine. Some of us find extended families. But in the end we are all Eleanor Rigbys, lonely on the inside and waiting for a miracle to come. If a miracle can make the world small, another one can perhaps give us meaning. And sometimes a miracle happens for a split second, then gets buried until a crazy type designer finds it. I was on my honeymoon in New York City when I first stumbled upon the letters that eventually started this Affair. A simple, content tourist walking down the streets formerly unknown to me except through pop music and film references. Browsing the shops of the city that made Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, and a thousand other artists. Trying to chase away the tourist mentality, wondering what it would be like to actually live in the city of a billion tiny lights. Tourists don't go to libraries in foreign cities. So I walked into one. Two hours later I wasn't in New York anymore. I wasn't anywhere substantial. I was the crazy type designer at the apex of insanity. La La Land, alphabet heaven, curves and twirls and loops and swashes, ribbons and bows and naked letters. I'm probably not the very first person on this planet to be seduced into starting an Affair while on his honeymoon, but it is something to tease my better half about once in a while. To this day I can't decide if I actually found the worn book, or if the book itself called for me. Its spine was nothing special, sitting on a shelf, tightly flanked by similar spines on either side. Yet it was the only one I picked off that shelf. And I looked at only one page in it before walking to the photocopier and cheating it with an Argentine coin, since I didn't have the American quarter it wanted. That was the beginning. I am now writing this after the Affair is over. And it was an Affair to remember, to pull a phrase. Right now, long after I have drawn and digitized and tested this alphabet, and long after I saw what some of this generation’s type designers saw in it, I have the luxury to speculate on what Affair really is, what made me begin and finish it, what cultural expressions it has, and so on. But in all honesty it wasn't like that. Much like in my Ministry Script experience, I was a driven man, a lover walking the ledge, an infatuated student following the instructions of his teacher while seeing her as a perfect angel. I am not exaggerating when I say that the letters themselves told me how to extend them. I was exploited by an alphabet, and it felt great. Unlike my experience with Ministry Script, where the objective was to push the technology to its limits, this Affair felt like the most natural and casual sequence of processions in the world – my hand following the grid, the grid following what my hand had already done – a circle of creation contained in one square computer cell, then doing it all over again. By contrast, it was the lousiest feeling in the world when I finally reached the conclusion that the Affair was done. What would I do now? Would any commitment I make from now on constitute a betrayal of these past precious months? I'm largely over all that now, of course. I like to think I'm a better man now because of the experience. Affair is an enormous, intricately calligraphic OpenType font based on a 9x9 photocopy of a page from a 1950s lettering book. In any calligraphic font, the global parameters for developing the characters are usually quite volatile and hard to pin down, but in this case it was particularly difficult because the photocopy was too gray and the letters were of different sizes, very intertwined and scan-impossible. So finishing the first few characters in order to establish the global rhythm was quite a long process, after which the work became a unique soothing, numbing routine by which I will always remember this Affair. The result of all the work, at least to the eyes of this crazy designer, is 1950s American lettering with a very Argentine wrapper. My Affair is infused with the spirit of filete, dulce de leche, yerba mate, and Carlos Gardel. Upon finishing the font I was fortunate enough that a few of my colleagues, great type designers and probably much saner than I am, agreed to show me how they envision my Affair in action. The beauty they showed me makes me feel small and yearn for the world to be even smaller now – at least small enough so that my international colleagues and I can meet and exchange stories over a good parrilla. These people, whose kindness is very deserving of my gratitude, and whose beautiful art is very deserving of your appreciation, are in no particular order: Corey Holms, Mariano Lopez Hiriart, Xavier Dupré, Alejandro Ros, Rebecca Alaccari, Laura Meseguer, Neil Summerour, Eduardo Manso, and the Doma group. You can see how they envisioned using Affair in the section of this booklet entitled A Foreign Affair. The rest of this booklet contains all the obligatory technical details that should come with a font this massive. I hope this Affair can bring you as much peace and satisfaction as it brought me, and I hope it can help your imagination soar like mine did when I was doing my duty for beauty.

A slab serif Mr Palker and grotesque Mr Palkerson build one superfamily together.  These are blank types. In a way even the display ones. Typefaces for newspapers, announcements, cheap advertising and police posters.  Mr Palker and Mr Palkerson will turn every language into a fence. And due to six types of faces one can choose what material should the fence be made from — from Thin steel rods to   the Black stone blocks. In their simplest appearance Mrs P&P are  intended for the solid blank composition in victorian or industrial style. They are quite decent, a bit old-fashioned slab serif and grotesque with closed aperture. All my types have layers. Walker and Palkerson also do. Besides the standard set of symbols, they have 4 add-ons. 1. Alternate glyphs, including unicase ones. 2. Ligatures with A letter. 3. Extra tall small caps. 4. Two-storey ligatures. All this options are intended for the complex composition. The additional letters are rather eccentric as their main function here is to imitate the victorian oddities. Imitate, parody, just not repeat. There are lower-case As and Es in the set in height of small caps and uppercases. They can turn every writing into the unicase.    The lower-case A (as well as uppercase and small caps version of it) has deliberately by my taste grown a ludicrous tail. To compensate it I’ve built all the possible ligatures - ад, ал, ая. There are 35 of this ligatures all together. Take a closer look at the Russian letters D, L, K, Ya from the main set as well as their alternates. The additional glyphs are one more comic than the other — on purpose to imitate (not to repeat!) the victorian set. This sets have lowercase numbers. And small caps numbers as well. What a modern typeface without them. They also have an У-letter with a generously curvy tail. As if before the WWI. The Latin of course has alternates as well. It has letters to make the perfect French sound more like the russian provincial version of it. The tails of Js and Ts can be made a little bit more open — or a little bit closed. My favorite feature here, an invention of a kind - extra tall small caps. It allows to compose logos with the small caped uppercases directly from the keyboard. The small caps of this typefaces are usually much taller than the customary ones. This is the kind of small caps that Palker and Palkerson have. More to that, the strokes’ weight and the letters width are corresponded to the uppercases. Just a ready set for making a logo a la 1913 style. With a unicase, one has to mind! One more trick with the tall small caps is a possibility to make them work like lower uppercases. Their height is just in between of lower- and uppercases. Isn’t it great to have an additional set of uppercase working ponies in stock for the case of emergency. And finally — the trademark of Palkers family, two-storey ligatures. They are made in the height of uppercases and turn every writing into an ornament or a puzzle of a kind, while at the same time making them much shorter. Each face has 90 of them. Mainly those are twins: CC, BB, DD and so on. ll this things are for the unhasty compositing, even for lettering. Which means that for the things which are not there you always should have Command+Option+O and some patience. Also — among the two storey ligatures one also can find some belvedere villas. All my types are glasses from the one kaleidoscope. The P&Ps family was preliminary part of the victorian set, which already has 1 Cents and Clarendorf - optionally one can add Costro, Gordoni, Handy, Guardy, Surplus, Red Ring, Red Square, Babaev to the list. And also Sklad, Odessa, Dreamland, Romb, Platinum - here, at Letterhead’s, every second one is victorian. All together our typefaces can allow one to set advertisement of any kind, even the trickiest one, and compose everything, from the coffee place’s menu to the antiquarian magazine.

A grotesque Mr Palkerson and slab serif Mr Palker build one superfamily together. These are blank types. In a way even the display ones. Typefaces for newspapers, announcements, cheap advertising and police posters.  Mr Palker and Mr Palkerson will turn every language into a fence. And due to six types of faces one can choose what material should the fence be made from — from Thin steel rods to   the Black stone blocks. In their simplest appearance Mrs P&P are intended for the solid blank composition in victorian or industrial style. They are quite decent, a bit old-fashioned slab serif and grotesque with closed aperture. All my types have layers. Walker and Palkerson also do. Besides the standard set of symbols, they have 4 add-ons. 1. Alternate glyphs, including unicase ones. 2. Ligatures with A letter. 3. Extra tall small caps. 4. Two-storey ligatures. All this options are intended for the complex composition. The additional letters are rather eccentric as their main function here is to imitate the victorian oddities. Imitate, parody, just not repeat. There are lower-case As and Es in the set in height of small caps and uppercases. They can turn every writing into the unicase.    The lower-case A (as well as uppercase and small caps version of it) has deliberately by my taste grown a ludicrous tail. To compensate it I’ve built all the possible ligatures - ад, ал, ая. There are 35 of this ligatures all together. Take a closer look at the Russian letters D, L, K, Ya from the main set as well as their alternates. The additional glyphs are one more comic than the other — on purpose to imitate (not to repeat!) the victorian set. This sets have lowercase numbers. And small caps numbers as well. What a modern typeface without them. They also have an У-letter with a generously curvy tail. As if before the WWI. The Latin of course has alternates as well. It has letters to make the perfect French sound more like the russian provincial version of it. The tails of Js and Ts can be made a little bit more open — or a little bit closed. My favorite feature here, an invention of a kind - extra tall small caps. It allows to compose logos with the small caped uppercases directly from the keyboard. The small caps of this typefaces are usually much taller than the customary ones. This is the kind of small caps that Palker and Palkerson have. More to that, the strokes’ weight and the letters width are corresponded to the uppercases. Just a ready set for making a logo a la 1913 style. With a unicase, one has to mind! One more trick with the tall small caps is a possibility to make them work like lower uppercases. Their height is just in between of lower- and uppercases. Isn’t it great to have an additional set of uppercase working ponies in stock for the case of emergency. And finally — the trademark of Palkerson family, two-storey ligatures. They are made in the height of uppercases and turn every writing into an ornament or a puzzle of a kind, while at the same time making them much shorter. Each face has 90 of them. Mainly those are twins: CC, BB, DD and so on. ll this things are for the unhasty compositing, even for lettering. Which means that for the things which are not there you always should have Command+Option+O and some patience. Also — among the two storey ligatures one also can find some belvedere villas. All my types are glasses from the one kaleidoscope. The P&Ps family was preliminary part of the victorian set, which already has 21 Cents and Clarendorf - optionally one can add Costro, Gordoni, Handy, Guardy, Surplus, Red Ring, Red Square, Babaev to the list. And also Sklad, Odessa, Dreamland, Romb, Platinum - here, at Letterhead’s, every second one is victorian. All together our typefaces can allow one to set advertisement of any kind, even the trickiest one, and compose everything, from the coffee place’s menu to the antiquarian magazine.

Rian Hughes’ 15th collection of fonts, “112 Hours”, is entirely dedicated to numbers. Culled from a myriad of sources – clock faces, tickets, watches house numbers – it is an eclectic and wide-ranging set. Each font contains only numerals and related punctuation – no letters. A new book has been designed by Hughes to show the collection, and includes sample settings, complete character sets, source material and an introduction. This is available print-to-order on Blurb in paperback and hardback: http://www.blurb.com/b/5539073-112-hours-hardback http://www.blurb.com/b/5539045-112-hours-paperback From the introduction: The idea for this, the fifteenth Device Fonts collection, began when I came across an online auction site dedicated to antique clocks. I was mesmerized by the inventive and bizarre numerals on their faces. Shorn of the need to extend the internal logic of a typeface through the entire alphabet, the designers of these treasures were free to explore interesting forms and shapes that would otherwise be denied them. Given this horological starting point, I decided to produce 12 fonts, each featuring just the numbers from 1 to 12 and, where appropriate, a small set of supporting characters — in most cases, the international currency symbols, a colon, full stop, hyphen, slash and the number sign. 10, 11 and 12 I opted to place in the capital A, B and C slots. Each font is shown in its entirety here. I soon passed 12, so the next logical finish line was 24. Like a typographic Jack Bauer, I soon passed that too -— the more I researched, the more I came across interesting and unique examples that insisted on digitization, or that inspired me to explore some new design direction. The sources broadened to include tickets, numbering machines, ecclesiastical brass plates and more. Though not derived from clock faces, I opted to keep the 1-12 conceit for consistency, which allowed me to design what are effectively numerical ligatures. I finally concluded one hundred fonts over my original estimate at 112. Even though it’s not strictly divisible by 12, the number has a certain symmetry, I reasoned, and was as good a place as any to round off the project. An overview reveals a broad range that nonetheless fall into several loose categories. There are fairly faithful revivals, only diverging from their source material to even out inconsistencies and regularize weighting or shape to make them more functional in a modern context; designs taken directly from the source material, preserving all the inky grit and character of the original; designs that are loosely based on a couple of numbers from the source material but diverge dramatically for reasons of improved aesthetics or mere whim; and entirely new designs with no historical precedent. As projects like this evolve (and, to be frank, get out of hand), they can take you in directions and to places you didn’t envisage when you first set out. Along the way, I corresponded with experts in railway livery, and now know about the history of cab side and smokebox plates; I travelled to the Musée de l’imprimerie in Nantes, France, to examine their numbering machines; I photographed house numbers in Paris, Florence, Venice, Amsterdam and here in the UK; I delved into my collection of tickets, passes and printed ephemera; I visited the Science Museum in London, the Royal Signals Museum in Dorset, and the Museum of London to source early adding machines, war-time telegraphs and post-war ration books. I photographed watches at Worthing Museum, weighing scales large enough to stand on in a Brick Lane pub, and digital station clocks at Baker Street tube station. I went to the London Under-ground archive at Acton Depot, where you can see all manner of vintage enamel signs and woodblock type; I photographed grocer’s stalls in East End street markets; I dug out old clocks I recalled from childhood at my parents’ place, examined old manual typewriters and cash tills, and crouched down with a torch to look at my electricity meter. I found out that Jane Fonda kicked a policeman, and unusually for someone with a lifelong aversion to sport, picked up some horse-racing jargon. I share some of that research here. In many cases I have not been slavish about staying close to the source material if I didn’t think it warranted it, so a close comparison will reveal differences. These changes could be made for aesthetic reasons, functional reasons (the originals didn’t need to be set in any combination, for example), or just reasons of personal taste. Where reference for the additional characters were not available — which was always the case with fonts derived from clock faces — I have endeavored to design them in a sympathetic style. I may even extend some of these to the full alphabet in the future. If I do, these number-only fonts could be considered as experimental design exercises: forays into form to probe interesting new graphic possibilities.