Pen Nouveau JNL is a perfect example of the fluid, free-form pen lettering popularized during the Art Nouveau era of the early 1900s. The type face was modeled from the lettering on the cover of a piece of sheet music from 1911 entitled "If You Talk in Your Sleep, Don't Mention My Name".

Inside the book “New Zanerian Alphabets” (1900) by C.P. Zaner is a set of thin monoline letters and numbers along with many chamfered characters offered as alternates to the main design. This simple, but effective type style has been redrawn digitally and is now available as Apprentice Signwriter JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

The 1960 revised edition of Sam Welo’s “Studio Handbook – Letter and Design for Artists and Advertisers” showcases the many interesting lettering designs Welo hand lettered for his book. One such example is an extra-bold serif typeface which is now available as Law Office JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. --------------

A 1940s ad flier for the Los Angeles restaurant “Lucca Paris Inn” had its name hand lettered at the top of the page in a condensed Art Deco slab serif with some stylized characters. Given a more uniform look, the end result became Dining Out JNL and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The basic type design for National Spirit JNL is known by many names, and has gained popularity since its use on the NRA posters of the Roosevelt era. This all-purpose font gets an extra boost of patriotism by the addition of stars. Its clean look typifies the Art Deco feel of 1930s America.

Another example of 1930s French Art Deco lettering from the 1934 publication L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre (which roughly translates to “The Rational Path Art of the Letter”) resulted in the digital typeface French Slab Serif JNL. This bold and slightly eccentric slab serif design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

ITC Snap is the work of American designer David Sagorski and represents both the creativity and humor of the native Kansan. It clealy displays the influence of cartoon graphics of the 1960s and 70s, but does not need to be limited to period or animated graphics. ITC Snap is ideal for headlines which demand attention.

Lettering on a package of Gibson guitar strings from the 1950s provided the inspiration for this font-on-the-go. If you want to set headlines on a bias, you can rotate the text 20° for best effect. Both versions of the font contain the complete Unicode Latin 1252 and Central European 1250 character sets.

The titles and credits from the 1960 French film “Le Passage Du Rhin” (English release title: “Tomorrow is My Turn”)” are hand made in a free form bold alphabet resembling both cut paper and quickly sketched lettering. This avant garde style inspired the digital type revival, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Sometimes a font idea can come from the most unlikely place. While watching a DVD of the 1950's TV Sitcom "My Little Margie", Jeff Levine spotted some unusual deco-styled numbers on the floor indicator of the apartment house elevator. Expanding this into a full character set, Desk Clerk JNL is the result.

I designed a Morse-Code font in the mid 1990s, but when I decided to update it, I found enough problems with it to completely redo it. I hope I got all the mistakes out. There are two fonts in the package. One of them shows the letter key with the Morse Code equivalent.

This elegant monoline script is based on a typeface called "Médicis" from a Deberny and Peignot catalog, circa 1920. Graceful but robust, it is equally suited for invitations, announcements and headlines. Both versions of this font contain the Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

Rosalinde is an original font based on rough hand-lettering reminiscent of 1960s era protest poster lettering. It's the kind of lettering you'd expect to see used for a snippet of anti-war poetry set against a red-white-and-blue striped background, or perhaps accompanied by a fat dove with an olive-branch.

CompassOne was a design I began in 1990 or so, but did not bother to finish until five years later. Its name comes from the fact that all the letters could have been drawn with a compass (which draws circles) and a straight edge. The typeface Demotte was a further development of this design idea.

Pageantry is very suitable for Packaging, greeting cards, magazines, posters, and Advertising Ads. Designed in four weights from light to heavy including italics, covering a large range of editorial and advertising applications. Inspired by 'Souvenir' a popular font in the 1900s. I designed 'Pageantry' with a more rounded appearance, giving it a more softer appearance.

From the title on the sheet music for the 1935 composition "Along Tobacco Road" comes Deco Triline JNL in both regular and oblique versions. Reminiscent of Broadway if done as a neon sign, this typeface virtually shouts about the Manhattan nightlife of the 1930s. For maximum readability, space the letters a bit wider than normal.

Riley is an elegant brush Script with its roots in the 1950s American sign painting. Riley has Stylistic Alternates for every lowercase standard character and it’s equipped with Contextual Alternates and Ligatures that keep the flow and connections smooth. Riley is great for headlines and posters or as a logotype with an elegant touch.

The Nickson pro 1 font invokes the spirit of the cigar labels & circus poster from the early 1900's. A typeface designed for headlines, posters, advertising and corporate identity. There are Alternate character of uppercase. Check the alternate keys file for more info or if you're using the OT version simply select Stylistic Set.

Printed Letters JNL is from stamped impressions made by a children's sign making set by the Superior Marking Equipment Company of Chicago - circa the 1940's. The set consisted of individually mounted rubber stamps - easy enough for happy kiddies to print signs, name plates or (unfortunately for their parents) on the walls... Limited character set.

WL Dot Matrix is another typographic flashback to computing of the mid 1980s, when 9-pin dot-matrix printers were the state of the art. Compatible with the cleaner WL Rasteroids family, WL Dot Matrix explores some of the common failure modes of old printers: smudging ribbons, slipped tractor feeds, and gummed up print heads.

This font has a lovely roundish shape and gives us cute and relax impression. But because it is upright, it has a well-ordered atmosphere. Holiday Type Project offers retro hand drawing scripts. Inspired by retro script on shopfront lettering, wall paint advertisements in Italy around 1950s. Check out the script fonts from Holiday Type!

Break out the love beads and fire up the lava lamp! Here’s a fresh take on the Artone alphabet, designed by Seymour Chwast in the 1960s. Beefy, bodacious and bottom-heavy, this typeface keeps on truckin' along. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode Latin 1252 and Central European 1250 character sets.

ITC Juice is the work of American designer David Sagorski and shows a clear influence of cartoon graphics of the 1960s and 70s. The typeface has a number of unique letter forms as well as an extensive set of alternate characters. The creative, humorous ITC Juice hides a subtle sophistication beneath its funky exterior.

Will Ransom designed the uppercase letters in this typeface for Barnhart Brothers & Spindler in the 1920s, under the name Clearcut Shaded Caps. The lowercase letters come from another BB&S typeface named Clearcut Italic. An elegant headline face, best used sparingly, the font includes decorative flourishes in the brace, bracket and en dash positions.

Emerge BF was inspired by Admiral, c.1900, from the Keystone Type Foundry. Its relatively condensed proportions allow for a close fit in a distinctive, yet highly legible form. It's a great choice for headlines and text settings (where it shows a beautifully crisp, typographic color) on book covers, magazine advertisements, posters and so forth.

A 1930s WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster advertising an exhibit of New Jersey area posters had its main lettering rendered in a very condensed hand lettered interpretation of the ever-popular Futura Black Art Deco style. This has now been re-drawn and digitized as Art Event JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Sniplash is a lively font inspired by cartoons and comics of the 1960s and '70s. Casual and organic, this font features curly lines and irregular weights in Regular, Light and Bold styles. This design defies serious analysis and offers a fun attitude for lighthearted design. Excellent for parties, retro packaging or any number of uses.

Glamure was inspired by the Myriad font which has been frequently used by technology companies and governments since the 1990s. Glamure is a clean, sleek and versatile font, by applying geomattric shapes to create a fantastic, modern and humanistic font. Glamure can function as a title, logo, body copy, subtitle, headline and so on.

The type design which inspired Stencil Maker JNL comes from a 1920s-era machine used in movie theaters of the day. It rendered tiny punched out letters (some characters solid and some in stencil form), enabling the user to make projection slides of important messages or general notices for the theater audience to read.

Hermann Zapf made his first scetches for Orion in 1963. Zapf's aim was to create a neutral textface which can be ideally used as a newspaper face. Its strokethickness and open letterforms also fits well for book and magazine production. The final two weights of Orion were released in 1974 for the Linofilm photocomposing machine.

A travel poster from the 1940s for Mexican tourism provided the inspiration for this voluptuous font with a strong architectural feel. A few unexpected idiosynracies in the letterforms add to its charm. Both versions of this font contain the Unicode 1252 Latin and Unicode 1250 Central European character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

A 1930s travel poster from American Airlines had the airline’s name in a classic thick-and-thin Art Deco design of hand lettering. With the addition of angular spurs, some of the characters become semi-serif in nature. This type style is now available as Travel Plans JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

The name of this font brings back memories of an old fried chicken restaurant in Willow Springs Illinois circa 1960’s and 1970’s, my family would all get in the car and take a long drive down to an old country road Illionis Rt 171 through a forest preserve where we’d come upon the old Willowbrook motel with a bar and restaurant next door. The restaurant was called Kegal’s, when you entered the building you had to walk through the smoky bar first to get to the restaurant, I can still see the hard wood floors with all the finish worn off from decades of foot traffic. Up until the mid 1960’s Kegal’s used to raise their own chickens behind the restaurant, back then fried chicken in the Midwest was either coated in flour or bread crumbs, Kegal’s was covered in a beautiful layer of golden bread crumbs. Before your meal arrived they’d bring a basket of dinner rolls along with crackers, bread sticks and country butter, on the side they’d serve coleslaw with a vinegar sauce, which is very common in the Midwest, the first time you try it your face puckers up like you just sucked on a lemon but you get used it over time. After waiting for what seemed like forever to a child the waitress comes out of the kitchen with a huge tray of that golden deliciousness and your mouth begins to water, in her other hand was another tray filled to overflowing with crinkle cut french fries all made by hand, I’d eat a hole handful of those french fries first then take a bite of that tender juicy farm raised chicken. Today a fine Italian restaurant occupies the old Kegal’s building and the motel is long gone, only my fond memories remain. Fast forward to 2020 and FontMesa has just made some Fried Chicken as an eight weight type font family with alternates. With the Fried Chicken slab serif font family we’ve broken some rules by removing a few of the slabs on certain letters for a unique homemade look. Fried Chicken is perfect for your next product label, t-shirt design, logo, headline or cookbook cover. Treat yourself to some good ol’ Fried Chicken today.

Dick Jensen (USA) designed Serpentine, is a contemporary-looking display font, for the Visual Graphics Corporation in 1972. With the rise of digital typesetting and desktop publishing, this typeface quickly became both popular and ubiquitous. This dynamic, wide, boxy design is identifiable via tiny triangular swellings at the stroke endings - what might be called semi-serifs. Serpentine is available in six different font styles: Light, Light Oblique, Medium, Medium Oblique, Bold, and Bold Oblique. Serpentine" is a greenish rock that sometimes resembles a serpent's skin, and is often used as a decorative stone in architecture. Though this font doesn't seem at all snaky or sinuous, it does have an architectural, stone-like solidity. The subtle, almost non-existent curves and semi-serifs keep it from being too stern or cold. Although the underlying strokes of each weight are similar, the six members of the Serpentine font family all present their own individual personalities. Serpentine Light lends itself well to text for onscreen displays, for instance, while the numbers from typeface's heavier weights are seen around the world on soccer jerseys! Additionally, the oblique styles convey a streamlined sense of speed, furthermore lending Serpentine well to sport and athletic applications (especially the faster, high-speed varieties). Because of its 1970s pedigree, Serpentine has come to be known as a genuine "retro" face. This makes the typeface even more appropriate for display usage, in applications such as logo design, magazine headlines, and party flyers. If you like Serpentine, check out the following similar fonts in the Linotype portfolio: Copperplate Gothic (similar serifs) Eurostile (similar width) Princetown (another "athletic" font) Insignia (similar "techno" feeling)"

Dick Jensen (USA) designed Serpentine, is a contemporary-looking display font, for the Visual Graphics Corporation in 1972. With the rise of digital typesetting and desktop publishing, this typeface quickly became both popular and ubiquitous. This dynamic, wide, boxy design is identifiable via tiny triangular swellings at the stroke endings - what might be called semi-serifs. Serpentine is available in six different font styles: Light, Light Oblique, Medium, Medium Oblique, Bold, and Bold Oblique. Serpentine" is a greenish rock that sometimes resembles a serpent's skin, and is often used as a decorative stone in architecture. Though this font doesn't seem at all snaky or sinuous, it does have an architectural, stone-like solidity. The subtle, almost non-existent curves and semi-serifs keep it from being too stern or cold. Although the underlying strokes of each weight are similar, the six members of the Serpentine font family all present their own individual personalities. Serpentine Light lends itself well to text for onscreen displays, for instance, while the numbers from typeface's heavier weights are seen around the world on soccer jerseys! Additionally, the oblique styles convey a streamlined sense of speed, furthermore lending Serpentine well to sport and athletic applications (especially the faster, high-speed varieties). Because of its 1970s pedigree, Serpentine has come to be known as a genuine "retro" face. This makes the typeface even more appropriate for display usage, in applications such as logo design, magazine headlines, and party flyers. If you like Serpentine, check out the following similar fonts in the Linotype portfolio: Copperplate Gothic (similar serifs) Eurostile (similar width) Princetown (another "athletic" font) Insignia (similar "techno" feeling)"

The joy of pure geometry, revisited. Geometric typefaces are a staple in every typographer’s toolbox since the 1920s. It was a time when iconic faces such as Futura, Erbar, and Kabel appeared on the scene and turned the world of type upside-down. Inspired by those early giants as well as later epigones with a legacy of their own (such as 1970’s Avant Garde Gothic), Flink is the Identity Letters take on this genre, characterized by a clean and focused appearance. With neat shapes and the look of pure geometry, Flink adapts to a vast range of applications and topics, from the fine print in contract to website body copy to logo design to billboard-size slogans. Its x-height is considerably larger than in classic geometric sans-serif fonts; its proportions are harmonized as opposed to strictly constructed. This makes for a more contemporary look, setting it apart from the classics. To further reduce the rigidity of a purely geometric composition, you can replace some letters with more humanist alternates, such as a, g, j, etc. This font family comes along in 8 weights from Thin to Black. Each weight consists of an Upright and Italic version. There are more than 750 characters per style, including two stylistic sets that offer variations to the look and feel of Flink, making it even more versatile. Plenty of additional Open Type Features like ligatures, case sensitive forms, old-style figures, and symbols make Flink a valuable tool for the discerning typographer. Flink is the reimagination of a classic genre, designed to suit the needs of our time. ––––– Please note: There is an upgraded Version available: Flink Neue

TipTop Pro’s origin goes back to around 1900 when the font was released by the German foundry Julius Klinkhardt in Leipzig. Ralph M. Unger redesigned this beautiful art nouveau typeface, extended its character set and digitally remastered it. TipTop Pro fits perfectly into the series of recently released URW++ art nouveau designs (Edda, Gradl, Impression, Joga, Ornella).

Here’s a typeface with a stance as big as Texas. It’s based on Vincent Pacella’s 1960s oeuvre for Photo-Lettering, Inc. called Pacella Vega Extended 10, and named for a county in Central Texas, home of Possum Kingdom Lake. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode Latin 1252 and Central European 1250 character sets.

Dex Gothic is another sort of stencil type. Instead of the "normal" routine of blocked-out horizontal or vertical areas, Dex Gothic creates its stencil appearance through the unique placement of diagonals. The result is a technical-like appearance, which bears some resemblance to 1980s technology products. Dex Gothic should be used large in headlines or logos.

In the 1930s the WPA (Works Progress Administration) was involved with getting a number of Americans back to work during the Great Depression. One faction of the WPA's efforts was the Federal Art Project. Thin, condensed hand lettering on a poster for an Art Exhibition at the New Bedford Free Public Library is the inspiration for Art Exhibit JNL.