Goldenbook is based on the logotype of a literary magazine from the late 1920s called The Golden Book Magazine. It is meant to be used large and includes fonts with both old style and lining numerals in each weight.

More…

Jeanne Moderno is a revisionary type family.

More…

Inspired by a piece of cigarette pack lettering by the great A. M. Cassandre, Nick designed the rest of the characters as an experiment. Geetype evokes the 1920s & 30s and is an unusual, eye-catching display face.

More…

Grafika is a completely original design, done in an “Art Deco” spirit reminiscent of the 1920s and ‘30s. I designed Grafika many years ago to be typeset for title cards, and both opening and end credits for the Merchant/Ivory feature film “Savages”. After the film, the design languished in my archives until I rediscovered it. I have digitally redrawn Grafika, completing it with all the alternates, ligatures, math, foreign accented characters and punctuation that weren’t required of the original design for film. Grafika is strongest when set in upper and lowercase—its unique caps extending below the baseline—although all caps settings are encouraged as well.

More…

The Julius Klinger alphabets are extrapolated from lettering in a 1925 fabric advertisement drawn by Austrian poster designer Julius Klinger.

More…

Broadveau is retro typeface that embodies the feel of both Broadway and Art Nouveau. The upper case characters are standardized, while the lower case letters contains playful curvy alternates that give the font its character. While most fonts maintain a common baseline, and vary in height, some of Broadveau’s alternates vary on the baseline, making for an interesting, yet surprisingly readable, textual landscape.

More…

This extremely heavy informal script was created in the early 1920s by Lucian Bernhard. Like so many of his designs, this typeface has its roots in his earlier poster work. Bernhard Brushscript invokes a rather warm, pleasant feeling despite a number of quirky characters. Originally created for the Bauer Foundry of Frankfurt, Germany, the face looks as though it’s been drawn with a brush and contains looping ascenders and descenders. Perfect for situations where a quaint and casual lettering effect is desired.

More…

Based on the Albert Augspurg design, circa 1921-27.

More…

Based on the original design, circa 1951.

More…

An elegant face with dashing swash caps, based on an old American Type Founders typeface called Canterbury.

More…

Originally designed by Morris F. Benton for ATF in 1920, it was not completed for production until 1926.

More…

Bifur was originally designed by poster artist A.M. Cassandre in 1929 as a single font and also as a two-part, two-color font.

More…

Influenced by the 1960’s typeface, Design Fineline.

More…

In 1928, the application of pure geometric form to sanserifs and slabserifs was in full swing. Morris Fuller Benton applied geometry to the Modern letterform to arrive at Parisian and Broadway for ATF.

More…

A sign in a London storefront, ca. 1930, pitching—surprise!—Smart Frocks provided the visual cues for designing this typeface. Singularly stylish, hip and haughty and decidedly Deco, this is the smart font to use!

More…

The letterforms of this refined Roman typeface are simply and gracefully structured. The lowercase with its small x-height and long slender ascenders project a look of stately elegance. Excellent for a variety of headline applications where a polished, feminine appearance is desired. Created by English type designer Paul Hickson.

More…

Concurso Italian was inspired by travel posters of the 1920s. Use it for travel posters, passports, luggage stickers or an elegant vintage look.

More…

Inspired by retro lettering on advertising and propaganda posters from the 30s to 50s.

More…

Cooper Black, commissioned by Barnhart Brothers & Spindler, is the best known of Oswald Cooper’s typefaces. Bitstream has expanded the 1921 original into a complete series of round-edged text faces.

More…

Designed by Douglas C. McMurtrie. Digitally engineered by Steve Jackaman. Based on the original Ludlow drawings, circa 1928.

More…

Frederic Goudy joined Lanston as art advisor in 1920. One of his first initiatives was to design a new version of Garamond based on original Garamond designs of 1540. Goudy intended his free-hand drawings to be cut exactly as he had drawn them and fought with the workmen at Lanston to keep them from “correcting” his work. This new type was called Garamont (an acceptable alternate spelling) to distinguish it from other Garamonds on the market. (The other Garamonds on the market at that time were later confirmed to be the work of Jean Jannon.)

More…

A quirky font based on Cubist Bold, designed by John Zimmerman for Barnhard Brothers and Spindler, circa 1929. The freeware (TrueType) version has a limited character set. The Pro Set (Postscript) version has a complete character set (Adobe Standard for PC; Macintosh Standard for Mac), and extensive kerning.

More…

Based on the original Stephenson Blake drawings.

More…

A typical Art Deco font. I have redesigned the uppercase “S” to mach the lowercase, tweaked a little here and there - and completely redesigned all the diacritics (which didn't really match the letter designs).

More…

The Fleurons of Paris were inspired by an iron gate, an iron railing, a Metro tile, a Metro stop, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, a rainy afternoon, a glass of wine, an outdoor cafe and the list goes on and on.

More…

This distinctive, semi-casual Egyptian style incorporates a shadow effect for extra impact in display word settings. The timeless, unique characteristics of Forest Shaded make it versatile and suitable for many headline applications in all capital or upper and lower-case settings. For maximum visual impact, tight letter and word spacing, even overlapping certain letter combinations, is suggested. Created by noted British designer Martin Wait.

More…

LaBodoni is my newly designed Bodoni.

More…

In 2007, insigne released Aviano. It’s beautifully drawn extended letterforms were a hit with designers and Aviano quickly became insigne’s most popular offering of early 2007.

More…

Designed by Paul Renner in 1927, Futura is the classic example of a geometric sans serif type. Its original concept was based on the Bauhaus design philosophy that “form follows function.” Futura uses basic geometric proportions with no weight stresses, serifs, or frills, with long ascenders and descenders that give it more elegance than most sans serif typefaces.

More…

Mostra Nuova is based on a style of lettering often seen on Italian Art Deco posters and advertising of the 1930s.

More…

Houschka has the humanist qualities reminiscent of Gill and Johnston but is quite unique. It is more monolinear with rounded corners giving it a softer appearance, and has a few interesting character quirks like the capitals A, G, Q, W and lower case u and w.

More…

Released by Berthold in September, 2000, Futura Serie BQ is a new version of the well-known geometric sans serif typeface design by Paul Renner and the Bauer type foundry. Futura Serie BQ is a totally new digital interpretation of Futura by noted Berthold type designer, Dieter Hofrichter of Münich, Germany. His interpretation emphasizes the consistency of Renner’s original design yet satisfies the current needs of design professionals.

More…

Futura is the fully developed prototype of the twentieth century Geometric Sanserif.

More…

Le Havre is a geometric sans serif inspired by the golden era of the passenger ship, when getting to your destination was a delight in and of itself.

More…

MVB Solano Gothic Bold was originally designed as a display face for the City of Albany, California, located on the San Francisco Bay facing the Golden Gate Bridge and bordering the the Berkeley hills. Named for the City’s main street, the typeface needed to work on signage in proximity to older buildings, in contemporary settings, and for general print and web use. Rather than creating a neutered design to cover all bases, Mark van Bronkhorst chose to develop a simple, strong, condensed face that would offer flexibility of style by providing both retro and neutral forms.

More…

Hiruko is a full family of 16 different styles. Inspired by the early Swiss movements, Hiruko offers creativity and clarity within many media. Influenced by Japanese culture, Hiruko is based on the idea that less is more, however this applies in other directions when referring to the amount of work gone into producing the type family.

More…

Futura does give a restful, almost bland impression, which accords with Renner’s objectives. Futura seems classical, not only due to the form of its capitals, but also to the open, wide forms of the geometrical small letters. The typeface relies on notions of classical, yet contemporary form — harmony and evenness of texture.

More…

One can never be too tall or too thin, the old adage goes. Sympathique is quite fashionably both.

More…

Dutch Mediaeval is a text family based on Hollandse Mediaeval, the 1912 Sjoerd Hendrik deRoos classic, arguably the most popular Dutch text face of the 20th century. Over the years, many typographers and pressmen have gushed loving words about this typeface in metal, and now it comes to digital life in wonderful and expert style.

More…

Based on the Keystone Type Foundry design, circa 1919. The l/c ‘g’ appears as an alternate character in our font.

More…

Sweet Gothic is a 2009 addition to the Sweet Collection of engraved lettering styles from the 20th Century. 

More…

The Le Havre series is a series of geometric sans serifs inspired by the dignified era of the passenger ship, when getting to your destination was a delight in and of itself.

More…

Inspired by an example of French handwriting ca. 1935.

More…

Distinctively Art Nouveau with a touch of Arts & Crafts, Quaint Gothic is a typographic gem from the late nineteenth century. Also known as Desdemona, this undulating and organic typeface is a versatile and refreshing alternative to many of the font designs on the market today. Quaint Gothic comes complete with an alternate set of caps and a new set of lowercase characters. And for your convenience, a nifty set of small caps and small figures are included in this version. You may also want to access the word-on-a-wave logotypes like “to” and “and” located in the special character slots. They’re great for constructing provocative headlines and titles.

More…

Inspired by the Froben capitals believed to have been cut by Peter Schoeffer the Younger, son of Gutenberg’s apprentice, this design is neither strictly a Venetian nor an Aldine. The archaic approach and lack of the Aldine model lead us to place the face in the Venetian group. The design owes more to Goudy than to Schoeffer.

More…

Released by the Monotype Corporation in 1931, Script Bold is based on German script-lettering styles of the early twentieth century.

More…

This beautiful new sansserif is named after the well-known New York resorts synonymous with style and elegance.

More…

Based on the Morris F. Benton for ATF in 1920, it was not completed for production until 1926. The serif version we released a few years ago was so popular, that we decided to design a complementary sans serif version in three weights, along with three corresponding Swash fonts.

More…

Based on character shapes with origins rooted in the work of 19th Century American wood type makers, DST Mechanic Gothic draws influence from the poster types found in the impactful advertising during the Industrial revolution.

More…

Based on the Robert Wiebking design for either Western or BB&S, circa 1918.

More…

Pauline is a sans serif with a strong influence from retro scripts. Pauline is a geometric face formed with slow and deliberate rounded brush strokes. The tall ascenders give it a useful touch of naïveté. It’s a face suitable for some interesting titling and short bits of copy.

More…

Palace Script is an English copperplate script created for the Stephenson Blake foundry in 1923.

More…

The inspiration for Jeeves came from Leslie Carbarga’s wonderful book LETTERHEADS, One Hundred Years of Great Design, 1850-1950. It was based on a secondary type usage for the letterhead for Sutherland in New York. The rest of the letterhead had features that were more typical of the Art Deco period, but this script added a touch of timeless elegance. And since at the time I was reading every scrap of P.G. Wodehouse I could get my hands on, the name Jeeves seemed like a perfect fit.

More…

Futura was designed for Bauer company in 1927 by Paul Renner.

More…

Based on Hispalis from the Spanish foundry, Nacional.

More…

Introducing... SPEEDING BULLET -- featuring SPEED TRAILS for increasing the, ah, speed of your bullets!

More…

Blandford Press strikes again, with a delightful, delicious, de-lovely offering from their 1946 tome, Lettering for the Commercial Artist. The editor, A. H. Hunter, called this one simply “The Elegant Alphabet” and cautioned that it, “being neither quick nor easy, needs to be used with discrimination.”

More…

The Fred family is based on the casual hand lettering of Fred G. Cooper: cover artist, cartoonist, and letterer for Life magazine in the 1920s and '30s.

More…

Based on the ATF typeface by Morris F. Benton, circa 1934. Steve created two additional new weights.

More…

The Timeless Letterforms of Rennie Mackintosh.

More…

Backtalk Sans is a geometric font family that takes a clean, simple, and straightforward approach to legibility.

More…

The original designs were drawn by C.W. Pischiner for the Stempel foundry in 1928; this book version was added by the Linotype Corporation in 1959. Neuzeit S is a geometric-grotesque hybrid design, unusual in that round shapes are wide and circular, while other characters appear slightly condensed. Also note the unusual J: this particular letter’s design is versal in origin. The name translates from German as “new times.” Neuzeit S is useful for short texts, while its heavier weight supplies enough contrast for display work and headings.

More…