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.

Initially, letterform was inspired by the gothic style of Romance decorative letters in transitional art in the Middle Ages. The conservative type in the Gothic era, especially in decorative romance, has led to the Victorian style being embedded in several forms as accents related but not forced to be combined. Rounded serif seems conventional combined with historically relevant letterform to create a harmonious blend. The art nouveau style also inspires this typeface. Approach to architectural ornamentation from 1880 to 1915, adopting the dynamic lines and curves typical of the civilization of the time. Continue time travel; we also present a more modern form influenced by the digitalization of art nouveau derivatives, familiarly called the psychedelic style. Paying homage to predecessors, we presented The Onamura font in a Japanese Ukiyo-e style that influenced the fine arts movement that broke old conservative art in Europe. We designed this font carefully with the information about the Middle Ages, Ukiyo-E, & Art Nouveau that greatly influenced art worldwide. In this font family, there are collaboration vibes. Both are the basis of the phenomenal blend of idealism between western and Japanese artists. Consisting of 10 fonts in 10 weights, it features an extended charset of over 850 glyphs, covering multilingual support, including Western European, Central European, and Southeastern European. Complete with advanced open type features like stylistic alternates, discretionary ligatures, ordinals, small caps, fractions, and case-sensitive forms. The elegant and refined details seen in this font provide a new aesthetic input, satisfy contemporary style, and give a range of choices for luxury typographic projects. This font is perfectly suited for high-impact headlines. Advance open-type features are stunning on logos, branding, magazines, website, etc. Supports languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Asu, Basque, Bemba, Bena, Bosnian, Catalan, Cebuano, Chiga, Colognian, Cornish, Corsican, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Galician, Ganda, German, Gusii, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ido, Inari Sami, Indonesian, Interlingua, Irish, Italian, Javanese, Jju, Jola-Fonyi, Kabuverdianu, Kalaallisut, Kalenjin, Kinyarwanda, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lojban, Low German, Lower Sorbian, Luo, Luxembourgish, Luyia, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malagasy, Malay, Maltese, Manx, Maori, Morisyen, North Ndebele, Northern Sami, Northern Sotho, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Nyanja, Nyankole, Occitan, Oromo, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Romansh, Rombo, Rundi, Rwa, Samburu, Sango, Sangu, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Sena, Shambala, Shona, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, South Ndebele, Southern Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swati, Swedish, Swiss German, Taita, Taroko, Teso, Tsonga, Tswana, Turkish, Turkmen, Upper Sorbian, Vunjo, Walloon, Welsh, Western Frisian, Wolof, Xhosa, Zulu

Cities often have their own voice, a voice that can be read... in each location and each business, voice portraying a cultural fabric with an array of manifestations. Balneario Script is a small tribute to a coastal port and tourist city. Through the Sign Painters, in its golden age, a clear, friendly, practical, and functional way of making itself heard evolved. Far from wanting to be perfect, a typeface seeks to be close, warm, and casual. Inspired by the gestures of the brush, Balneario Script reverts to the use of “Casual Letters” so used by Sign Painters. In this adaptation, we sought to adjust its morphology to optimize its performance in small formats and extend the system to include lower case letters as part of the set. The set of fonts has two script weights in addition to an all caps version. The design emphasizes creating a harmonious morphological criterion. Friendly, rhythmic, and with a firm stroke Balneario Script is unique, ideal for headlines and short texts that need to be gestural but simple and highly functional. This typeface was designed to be used in promotional posters or for relaxed and fun Packagings. Balneario Script goes beyond constructive or functional aspects. It seeks to capture the smell of the sea, the warm summer breeze and the nostalgic feeling of a city that from its daily life, knew how to forge a unique personality. This atmosphere allows it to host millions of tourists year after year, and with them reinforce their spirit each summer.

The original metal Neue Haas Grotesk™ would, in the late 1950s become Helvetica®. But, over the years, Helvetica would move away from its roots. Some of the features that made Neue Haas Grotesk so good were expunged or altered owing to comprimises dictated by technological changes. Christian Schwartz says Neue Haas Grotesk was originally produced for typesetting by hand in a range of sizes from 5 to 72 points, but digital Helvetica has always been one-size-fits-all, which leads to unfortunate compromises."""" Schwartz's digital revival sets the record straight, so to speak. What was lost in Neue Haas Grotesk's transition to the digital Helvetica of today, has been resurrected in this faithful digital revival. The Regular and Bold weights of Helvetica were redesigned for the Linotype machine; those alterations remained when Helvetica was adapted for phototypesetting. During the 1980s, the family was redrawn and released as Neue Helvetica. Schwartz's revival of the original Helvetica, his new Neue Haas Grotesk, comes complete with a number of Max Miedinger's alternates, including a flat-legged R. Eight display weights, from Thin to Black, plus a further three weights drawn specifically for text make this much more than a revival - it's a versatile, well-drawn grot with all the right ingredients. The Thin weight (originally requested by Bloomberg Businessweek) is very fine, very thin indeed, and reveals the true skeleton of these iconic letterforms. Available as a family of OpenType fonts with a very large Pro character set, Neue Haas Grotesk supports most Central European and many Eastern European languages.

Thrace (/θreɪs/; Greek: Θράκη, Thráki; Bulgarian: Тракия, Trakiya; Turkish: Trakya) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. It comprises southeastern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), northeastern Greece (Western Thrace), and the European part of Turkey (East Thrace). Trakya Sans is a modern sans serif with a geometric touch. Futura, Avant Garde and the like. It has a modern streak which is the result of a harmonization of width and height especially in the lowercase letters to support legibility. Ideally suited for advertising and packaging, editorial and publishing, logos, branding and creative industries, posters and billboards, small text, way-finding and signage as well as web and screen design. Trakya Sans provides advanced typographical support for Latin-based languages. An extended character set, supporting Central, Western and Eastern European languages, rounds up the family. The designation “Trakya Sans 500 Regular” forms the central point. The first figure of the number describes the stroke thickness: 100 Thin to 900 Bold. "Trakya Sans" comes in 5 weights with matching italics plus "Trakya Sans Alt", also 5 weights and italics so a total of 20 styles. The family contains a set of 630+ characters. Case-Sensitive Forms, Classes and Features, Small Caps from Letter Cases, Fractions, Superior, Inferior, Denominator, Numerator, Old Style Figures just with one easy touch in all graphic programs. Trakya Sans is the perfect font for web use. You can enjoy using it.

Haarlemmer is a recreation of a never-produced Jan Van Krimpen typeface that goes one step beyond authentic: it shows how he wanted it to be designed in the first place. The original, drawn in the late 1930s, was created for the Dutch Society for the Art of Printing and Books and was to be used to set a new edition of the Bible, using Monotype typesetting. Hence the problem: fonts for metal typesetting machines like the Linotype and Monotype had to be created within a crude system of predetermined character width values. Every letter had to fit within and have its spacing determined by a grid of only 18 units. Often, the italic characters had to share the same widths as those in the roman design. Van Krimpen believed this severely impaired the design process. The invasion of Holland in World War II halted all work on the Bible project, and the original Haarlemmer never went into production. Flash forward about sixty years. Frank E. Blokland, of The Dutch Type Library, wanted to revive the original Haarlemmer, but this time as Van Krimpen would have intended. Blokland reinterpreted the original drawings and created a typeface that matched, as much as possible, Van Krimpen's initial concept. While Van Krimpen's hand could no longer be on the tiller, a thorough study of his work made up for his absence. The result is an exceptional text family of three weights, with complementary italic designs and a full suite of small caps and old style figures. Van Krimpen would be proud.

The ideal typeface for cartography The Swiss designer/typographer Felix Arnold designed Cisalpin during the late 1990s, after he had challenged himself to create a contemporary typeface that could be used for cartographic uses. Arnold came to the subject of cartographic typefaces after analyzing many maps and atlases, and discovering that there was no standard typeface for these types of documents. Like any good cartographic type, Cisalpin is very legible at small sizes. While he was drawing this typeface on his computer, Arnold used a reduction glass to refine his design, making it work in these situations. Cisalpin is a linear sans serif face, with slight resemblance to renaissance serif types. The various weights are all clearly differentiated from one another. And because space is often a premium on maps, Cisalpin runs narrow. Words close in around themselves to help them become more identifiable. The letterforms in Cisalpin are durable, and can maintain their readability when placed over complex backgrounds. They have open interior forms, flattened curves, tall x-heights, and a capital height that almost reaches the tops of the ascenders. Cisalpin also has pronounced Italics, with a very clear angle of inclination. Each letterform in the family has been optimized so that they cannot be easily mistaken for another. This again helps minimize the misunderstandings that often occur because of illegibility. Although Cisalpin was developed for use in cartography, it may be used for countless other purposes; any font that can work well in small sizes on a map could be used almost anywhere else!

An authentic script from the tip of the ball point pen. This hasn’t been seen yet: A typeface which truly looks as if it were handwritten. Calligraphy is, actually, the art of fine writing. And actually, written scripts as typeface for the computer are 100% nonsense. And yet, an obvious thought: Create a typeface which truly derives from everyday handwriting. And since we, if we write at all, utilize practically only a ball point pen anymore, then a modern cursive writing form must look like just that. As a counterpart to the artistic ”handwritings“ which have long been available as typeface, the thought of digitalizing a truly ”ugly“ handwriting is appealing. After all, time and again there is the need for a text to look ”handwritten“. Biró Script is written freehand with a ball point pen. Finally a truly individual script! Biró Script includes more than 300 authentic ligatures in addition to the customary alphabet. By the way, the most convincing effect is obtained with a font size of about 18 to 22 points, at which the thickness of the stroke is now about the same as that of a real ball point pen. There's a difference between the anglo-american forms of some characters (esp. the numerals 1 and 7, but also capitals I and F) and how it's written in the rest of the world. For those of us who aren’t used to the world-wide usual forms, Biró Script includes a US version with the appropriate characters.

Pietro Aretino (1492 – 1556) Was an Italian author, playwright, poet, satirist and blackmailer, who wielded influence on contemporary art and politics. The most vigorous and versatile vernacular writer of the 16th century He was a very versatile writer, famous for his Lascivious Sonnets – which caused great scandal at the time – but also for his satirical verses, addressed to all the powerful people in Italy, without forgetting the many plays that he wrote for the theatre. Part of the charm of his letters is that through them you may know the whole of Venetian society from the top to the bottom. The little-known church of San Luca in Venice (in St Mark's district) has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries for people who are decidedly not devout: journalists, writers, free thinkers. In 1556 Pietro Aretino, a unique character of the Italian and Venetian Renaissance period was buried there. Such strong of personality, has contributed to generate the powerful wind of change that emerged from the italian renaissance. We have inspired on that talent searching for a new sight the famous Venetian typefaces. Probably looking for more vigour and contemporary digital style. This typeface is slightly condensed, lighter and has more contrast between the thick and thin letter-strokes, it has concave bracketed serif. Their ascender and descenders strokes are very shorts. Aretino family is completed by four weigh: Regular, SemiBold, Bold and ExtraBold, while Italics has three weighs. These fonts came with a full OpenType features and CE languages.

“Break on through to the other side” of design with Densmore, the typeface inspired by The Doors. Created with geometric shapes and a hand-drawn touch, this font pays homage to the band’s iconic logo. Featuring three styles, including the regular, blue, and pink, Densmore is perfect for any creative project. Take your design to the next level and experiment with layer effects by offsetting and changing colors. And with ligatures that automatically replace double lowercase “o” combinations with a mirrored “oo” combo, you can add a touch of cool to any project. “Light my fire” and download Densmore today! Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

From pastiche to sophistication‭, ‬Garçon Grotesque improves on a classic for today's designer‭. ‬Designed in a multitude of weights‭, ‬extended latin character set‭, ‬small capitals and a working lowercase‭, ‬Garçon is built for any situation that calls for sophistication‭, ‬elegance and culture‭.‬ Built in five weights‭, ‬Garçon Grotesque allows for great flexibility‭. ‬Use the Bold weight for beefy headlines‭. ‬Use the the medium and regular weights for subheads and decks‭. ‬Use the Light and Thin weights for a softer‭, ‬more delicate tone‭. ‬All weights have the same size spurs‭, ‬so you can mix and match‭! ‬ Right out of the box‭, ‬Garçon Grotesque offers full language support to most eastern european speaking territories‭. ‬Most foundries release these accent characters as a‭ "‬pro‭" ‬release at an additional fee‭. ‬Just because you speak Turkish or Croatian‭, ‬shouldn't mean you have to pay more than a designer who speaks English‭. ‬Please see the Specimen PDF for more information about languages supported‭. ‬ Accessible as an OpenType Feature‭, ‬Garçon Grotesque offers alternate forms of the uppercase‭ "‬J‭", ‬and the lowercase‭ "‬a‭" ‬and‭ "‬g‭". ‬Use Stylistic Set 01‭ ‬for the alternate form capital J‭. ‬Use Stylistic Set 02‭ ‬for the alternate form of the lowercase a‭. ‬Use Stylistic Set 03‭ ‬for the alternate form of the lowercase g‭. ‬ Also accessible as an OpenType Feature‭, ‬Garçon Grotesque offers tabular figures in all five weights‭. ‬Perfect for menus‭, ‬tabular figures allow for number listings to align easily and without shifting if a different font weight is selected for emphasis‭. ‬

FF Signa Rounded is a natural complement to the rest of the FF Signa super family – and can stand on its own in a variety of print and on-screen applications. The design is Ole Søndergaard’s rounded branch in his FF Signa family three. In it, he took the distinctive shapes and proportions of FF Signa Sans and created a warm, inviting design for text and display copy. Like its parent design, FF Signa Round is not a humanistic sans, nor is it based on 19th-century grotesques. Its characters are minimalist interpretations of letterforms – distinctive, yet easy to read. Thanks to FF Signa Round’s large x-height, open counters and simple character shapes, the design does not overpower the message – and draws the reader in. At substantial sizes, especially in the bolder weights, the design communicates with amiable conviction. At text sizes, FF Signa Round remains inviting and legible. It can be used as a companion to the rest of the FF Signa family, providing depth of style and breadth of reach. The collection of designs can also be used on their own for brand, brochure, publication, and way-finding design in digital and hard copy environments. Like the rest of the FF Signa family, OpenType® Pro fonts of FF Signa Round provide for the automatic insertion of ligatures and alternate characters, and also offer an extended character set supporting over 100 languages, including most Central European and many Eastern European – in addition to Cyrillic and Greek.

Thrace (/θreɪs/; Greek: Θράκη, Thráki; Bulgarian: Тракия, Trakiya; Turkish: Trakya) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. It comprises southeastern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), northeastern Greece (Western Thrace), and the European part of Turkey (East Thrace). Trakya Slab is a modern slab serif with a geometric touch. It has a modern streak which is the result of a harmonization of width and height especially in the lowercase letters to support legibility. Ideally suited for advertising and packaging, editorial and publishing, logos, branding and creative industries, posters and billboards, small text, way-finding and signage as well as web and screen design. Trakya Slab provides advanced typographical support for Latin-based languages. An extended character set, supporting Central, Western and Eastern European languages, rounds up the family. The designation “Trakya Slab 500 Regular” forms the central point. The first figure of the number describes the stroke thickness: 100 Thin to 900 Bold. "Trakya Slab" comes with 5 weights and italics; "Trakya Slab Alt" also comes with 5 weights and matching italics, giving a total of 20 styles. The family contains a set of 630+ characters. Case-Sensitive Forms, Classes and Features, Small Caps from Letter Cases, Fractions, Superior, Inferior, Denominator, Numerator, Old Style Figures just with one touch, easy to access in all graphic programs. Trakya Slab is the perfect font for web use. Enjoy using it.