Art Nouveau types

Peter Zelchenko, a master trade typographer in Chicago in the 1980s and 1990s, gave me permission to tell his story about the origins of Hobo---both the name and the typeface. He contradicts Mac McGrew, but his explanation is more likely than all others that have been proposed. So here we go (all text below by Peter).

(Thanks to Boston’s Bill Ricker and Dick Miller for coaxing me to cough this story up finally. I originally mentioned it in comp.fonts about 20 years ago, but the “O” situation, recently discovered, offers incontrovertible proof of the theory.)

As a master trade typographer in Chicago in the 1980’s and 1990’s, I was the last of the breed here before desktop publishing finally made our race extinct. I imagine there were only two or three of us in that generation. Among the very few others in Chicago were Adam Kallish and Jason Pickleman, who both were working for the irascible Harvey Hunt, a Berthold guy, when he closed down his Typographic Resource and moved to Mac. (Harvey and his wife inherited ownership of the Berthold font collection. For decades Berthold was a top-quality typesetting platform.) I was working upstairs from them during the storied heyday of InfoComm, a pioneering PostScript service bureau, at 213 W. Institute Pl., site of the early Schwinn bicycle factory. You can still see thousands of bicycle screws embedded in the wood floors of that building.

We were young and, with proficiency in computers, were able to bridge old and new technologies easily. We were also font whores. Most kids in those days used to save their money up for model airplanes or blow it all on Twinkies. When we were children, my brother Greg and I used to haunt Chicago art stores, scraping up money for Zipatone dry-transfer, or “rub-down,” lettering. Our favorites were things like Calypso, Mistral, and others by Roger Excoffon, Herb Lubalin, Ed Benguiat, Rosmarie Tissi, and the many other designers of that prolific period. I also did a lot of calligraphy. I still do work with flat and pointed pen as well as flat and pointed brush (a devotee of Father Catich to the end). In later life I was briefly president of the Chicago Calligraphy Collective.

East Coast: Ephram “Ed” Benguiat had me out for a tongue-lashing. The famous Jewish cigar-chomping dean of New York letters walked me around the labyrinth of Photo-Lettering, Inc., his huge Manhattan shop. Stopping at various stations to introduce me to his team, he would pointedly ask each guy how long they’d been working for him. “I’ve been on this very Staromat in this very darkroom for 25 years,” I remember one of them saying. (I was a VGC Typositor guy myself, thanks in part to the support of my beloved mentor, Al Blitz of Photofont.)

Then he introduced me to the sub-basement, where I met Marco, an art student almost ten years younger than I. “You still wanna to work here?” Ed challenged me. “Marco’s my new right-hand.” And he stubbed out his cigar in one of the shop’s numerous overflowing ashtrays.

Apparently this trip was just for him to show me that if I wanted to move to Manhattan to be his apprentice, I’d have to work in the basement for years, getting behind even young Marco, who after three years was still making $6 an hour touching up the edges of Ed’s drawings.

West Coast: David Lemon of Adobe flew me out for a lavish two-day interview session with the type staff. I remember getting to know Linnea Lindquist, Bob Slimbach, Carol Twombly, and this really nice guy who had worked for the inimitable Dan X. Solo. I knew he and I would be best friends when I moved out there, but I never got the call. I think I was too crude for them, not an artist like most of them, just some schmuck without much flair, trained in the many nameless shops.

Back home: The market was getting too tight. Dean of Chicago of lettering Charlie Hughes (designer of Indy and, coincidentally, of the Benton variant Century Nova) chose calligrapher Eliza Schulte over me as his apprentice. Holly Dickens, for her part, though I know she loves me dearly, was never the type to take on help. George Lee before he died told me that I already had too much experience to be anyone’s apprentice, but I knew I was also far too unsophisticated and too inept at business to forge out without first getting a leg up.

It didn’t help that I was stranded in the Windy City (a bygone typographic center, former home of much that we can be proud of), circumstantially unable to move to one of the coasts, where the action really was. The best we had here by then was Castcraft, widely felt by respectable industry to be the worst font plagiarists in history. Anyone who is friendly with the Kreiter family would still never consider their shady world a place for a skilled young designer to hang one’s hat for a career. It would have been even more pathetic for me to take Boomie Kreiter up on his frequent offers than to wait for young Marco to free up his naugahyde seat in Benguiat’s dusty office. I would never get a job at Adobe or Font Bureau with that on my resume.

Despite heading toward that dead end, I did become the guy in Chicago who knew fonts. I probably can’t tell Helvetica from Helios these days; it’s been 30 years since I’ve had to compare them. But wherever I worked, my reputation followed me. Every few days, at one or another type shop, someone would yell out: “Pete. Someone just called, wants you to identify a font.” Soon I’d see coming in on the fax machine a request from some designer, or from another mope at another harried River North type shop, asking me to identify some obscure font sample. For about 10 years, everyone in town apparently knew that if anyone could figure out which foundry and font they were trying to match, I could. There were times when I would do no more than glance at the sample, and then call them back:

“Just send me a check with lots of Stempel Garamond zeroes. Better yet, buy me a drink at the Redhead Friday night. We’ve got a massive annual report to finish, but we may get off before midnight.”

Other times I’d pore over a stack of thick books from VGC, Photo-Lettering Inc., and Castcraft before I finally found the match. But I could not easily be stumped. I could quickly tell a Benguiat brush script from knock-offs, and I knew when I’d have to pull out VGC’s or Castcraft’s massive tomes and start flipping pages for 15 or 20 minutes. And then there was the ponderous TypEncyclopedia, whose sheer weight could kill a grown man.

This was the heyday of the proliferation of advertising design and numerous competing typographic platforms, each with a knock-off and variants of a popular font. This was the high-water mark in American typographic activity. There were dozens of foundries and tens of thousands of fonts. And it all came crashing down as quickly, and today I have no memory, and everything is all washed away, and I wonder how I could have wasted so much of my life on so profitless a pursuit. Nobody remembers me, and no one cares. Even in Chicago I was just a fax number to most famous designers, just someone somewhere who could help them make a quicker profit a few minutes sooner. And I always did it gratis. But in that day font substitution was done only as a last resort, so I had to do it.

In those days, to pass the time lovers of letters would walk up and down the streets of their cities and simply name fonts they saw in windows, sometimes self-righteously adding the designer’s name and perhaps the approximate year of the design. “You’re wrong, that’s not Helvetica Bold, it’s Vladimir Andrich’s Claro Bold.” In those days as ever, Hobo was everywhere. It is one of the two or three best-known and most-used display fonts in history, and it has long enjoyed a kind of cult following. But while one of the easiest of fonts to identify, no typophile will dispute that the mystery of its name is easily one of the most rampantly speculated typographic questions over the last century. A few years ago, my pal Kibo and I came up with the answer to this century-old mystery, as well as an insight into the design of this odd Art Deco font.

Morris Fuller Benton was the contented son of Linn Boyd Benton, the latter one of the most influential figures of all time in the graphic arts, arguably ranking somewhere near the pantheon among Gutenberg and Bi Sheng. Through the 19th century, the Wyeths did painting, the Brontës did writing---and the Bentons did type. Every industry in every age has its salon powerhouses, those titans whose magic could rub off on you if you could only get near enough. But of course unless you actually were family, often nothing was bound to happen. Grandpa Benton, as it happens, owned the Milwaukee Daily News and also became a congressmen, and his father in turn was a prominent East Coast physician. In fact, Grandpa was under consideration as a presidential candidate but lost out to Stephen Douglas. Patricia Cost wrote a wonderful history about the Benton family that tells even more. But, nepotism aside, Morris Fuller became quite a prolific and celebrated type designer in his own right, surpassed by only a few others in the number of iconic font designs to his name.

The two main stories behind the naming of Hobo are both probably apocryphal. The first is that the bow-legged shape of the letters suggested the legs of a hobo. The second is more creative, but it too lacks much support. According to one writer, Emil Klumpp of ATF gave a talk at the APA Wayzgoose conference in 1977 and mentioned the origin of the name. In his 1993 book American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century, historian Mac McGrew apparently summarizes Klumpp’s report:

“One story is that it was drawn in the early 1900s [when Art Nouveau was still in fashion] and sent to the foundry without a name…but further work on it was continually pushed aside, until it became known as ‘that old hobo’ because it hung around so long without results.”

McGrew died a few years ago, as did Emil Klumpp, but I wish they were still alive so that we could debate these facts. Both were born long after the font. There is absolutely no evidence that the font’s design was begun earlier than 1910; that speculation may well owe itself only to its convenience to the story itself. Something just doesn’t seem to add up. We have, however, harder facts.

The quintessential nerd, James “Kibo” Parry worked on the Atari 2600 design team. He became a household name on the early Internet by haunting Usenet newsgroups and contriving numerous online larks to amuse the digital populace, which at the time did not yet number 50,000 or so worldwide. Kibo once had a two-page feature all to himself in Wired magazine. He had a religion called Kibology named after himself, with a bizarrely popular online discussion group of thousands of subscribers.

Kibo was even immortalized in the Geek Code, an early Internet fad that one would put in the signature of one’s e-mails and online posts to indicate level of geekiness and hence high-tech social status. There were several indicators, such as how well you knew the C language, or whether you were Unix (good) or MS-DOS (bad). The number of pluses after a letter code indicates the level of accomplishment. C is, predictably, C, and the Unix/Windows letter codes are U and w.

There is even a flag for how close one is to Kibo. At the top end, it included: “K++++ I’ve met Kibo,” “K+++++ I’ve had sex with Kibo,” and “K++++++ I am Kibo.” At the bottom are several negative indicators, such as “K–” I dislike Kibo. I have the dubious distinction of being somewhere close to the K+++++ category, because technically I’ve, uh, slept with Kibo---well, at least I’ve shared his bedroom. Here is Kibo’s own e-mail signature which, although over 1,000 lines long, does not include a Geek Code. But it does give you an idea of the strange humor that is Kibo.

Apart from all of this, Kibo is also a lover of type, and very knowledgeable about it. He and I were wandering around downtown Boston sometime around 1992, the morning after a rather snooty ATypI wine-tasting event hosted by David Berlow’s Font Bureau, celebrating Matthew Carter. Seeing the well-dressed and well-paid scions chatting and sipping red wine, it was impossible to picture us really fitting in there. And, of course, nobody paid the least attention to us.

Another time, in 1994 in San Francisco, ATypI met, and the pushy, competitive nature of the nascent PostScript font industry took a more direct form. The Dutch youth, Erik van Blokland, Luc de Groot, and brothers Just and Guido van Rossum, had crossed the pond. There was a kind of technical mosh pit established as a playground for us 15 or so “youngsters” in which to create the show daily.

This playground was billed as a social collaborative activity. But I recall the four Dutchmen muscling over this and other activities with equal, shall we say, zeal. A couple of less pushy participants raised a stink to the elders and yet the rebellion was discreetly put down. As is the case in such societies, most of us budding young craftsmen were hoping for some attention, but we were not nearly as forward about it as these tough Europeans. To be sure, they had talent. But we, at least, were aware that our eyes and minds and skills were as ready as theirs. I recall Luc de Groot simply drawing the nameplate for the publication, without any discussion from anyone else. An arguably enviable post that he had simply arrogated to himself. My recollection is that his skills were not much up to the task that day and I was pretty certain that I could have done better. Again, that year, nobody paid any attention to us.

[The shot of Kibo used for the Wired article – he’s not quite as exciting as all this, no red aura in real life.]

Kibo and I were bored out of our skulls that morning after the Font Bureau affair in Boston, and probably a bit hung over and cynical. Presumably, we were already heading toward failure in the type world. Kibo lived right across from the Commons, in a cockroach-infested flat dotted with empty carry-out containers. I had slept on the floor. Walking somberly through the streets of old Boston, Kibo showed me how to pick locks with the metal bristle from a street-cleaning truck’s brushes, which bristles, to my amazement, can be found near the curb of almost any street in the world. We shared work horror stories. We sneered at the cult of personality that was the typographic design world in those high-flying days. Frankly, we were probably a bit jealous. And of course we showed off by pointing at signs and identifying many fonts. We also stopped in at several bookshops.

At one particularly cozy little shop, I was flipping through a Russian poster art book, surveying a nice Art Nouveau poster for Duchess Tobacco. Kibo, looking over my shoulder, asked me what the poster said. I said it was for the “new and wonderful” Duchess Tobacco, 1/4 pound for 40 kopecks, from tobacconists Kolobova and Bobrova of St. Petersburg.

I think Kibo said something like, “Huh. Why does it say ‘Hobo’ at the top? Those guys don’t look like hobos.” Indeed, the two characters pictured helping themselves to a box of the Eastern-style cigarettes known as papirosi were young Russian gentlemen. But I explained to Kibo that HOBO was the Cyrillic spelling of the word novo (“New!”). It was then that we both noticed that the poster was drawn in something very like the font Hobo. Of course, this was hand-lettered, but it was certainly in that Art Nouveau splayed style. That led to speculation that Benton could have seen this poster or one like it in a Russian neighborhood. Certainly the four-by-five–foot poster in a window of a Russian tobacco shop or grocer would have been amusing to non-Russians seeing the word “HOBO!” at the top, and it could very well have inspired any talented type designer to throw together a font in its honor.

The Russian word “Chudno” (above) means “wondrous.” What’s really wondrous is the unique similarity of Benton’s majuscule O and the one drawn at the poster’s extreme right. The shape of the letters in the word “HOBO!” don’t hurt the argument, and of course the name buttresses it. To me, the striking coincidence of this single “O” letterform crowns the argument and should lay to rest the mystery of Hobo. This evidence shows that Morris Fuller Benton must have seen this poster somewhere. Perhaps he was somehow reluctant to admit that the source of his inspiration came from outside his famously insecure mind?

In fact, the “O” in the word “Чудно!” at the far right side of the poster looks as if it could have been traced by Benton as the model for his Hobo majuscule O. In fact, it is so close that it would arguably be more of a coincidence if this were not the case.

The characters “HOBO” at the top of the poster, their general design formula, and the identical shape of that O, I feel, lay to rest the hundred-year mystery of the source of both the font’s name and design formula. There was also motive, method, and opportunity. This is far better substantiation than what we have from the two chief theories that have circulated all these decades.

Moreover, what this suggests is that the original inspiration for Hobo probably was not Benton’s own mind, but the pen of an unknown graphic artist at the world-renowned Wefers lithographic press in St. Petersburg. It is not some great scandal that Benton failed to mention this, but it is true that Benton was famously insecure. Admitting that the source of the design of this font was something so pedestrian was not, and is still not, a common part of the ethical standard of the creative industry. It’s one thing for Carol Twombly (who once admitted to me that she didn’t know one end of a flat brush from the other) to acknowledge, even revere, the origins of Trajan. This is another thing entirely. In this case, you would think with such a cute origin, Benton would have been sharing the anecdotal pun with his pals at ATF. Perhaps he did and that history has been lost. Finally, if we believe the connection of the Hobo font to this Russian poster, then Benton’s naming of the font was very deliberately tied to Benton’s use of the poster as his exemplar.

I bought the book and gave it to my uncle Boris and aunt Tanya in Boston, and they probably still have it. The poster included details on the date, but I recall it was around 1903 or 1905, and that agrees with the design style.

As David Berlow has remarked, Morris Benton and his father often lived together and over the years would commute between home and the various locations of the ATF foundry in New York, later in Jersey City, and still later in Elizabeth. In fact, the northeastern New Jersey area where the Bentons lived, worked, and presumably played at the time had over 300,000 Russian Jews. We also know that at that time corner stores literally were at almost every street corner.

I don’t know for certain whether the Bentons’ travels went through any of the Russian neighborhoods. It seems that for the period in question they were probably living in Plainfield and commuting more than 20 miles, probably by car, to Jersey City. They may well have seen this poster at some point. Possibly they saw it in another place. Or perhaps Morris Fuller might have taken a trip to Russia around that time. That part is speculation. Perhaps Benton historian Patricia Cost could illuminate a bit.

In any event, while the type snobs were sipping fine wine, slapping one another on the back, and tooling around Boston in their nice cars, all paid by typography, a couple of bums momentarily came from out of nowhere, and went nowhere in particular. While there, they quietly and unceremoniously found a plausible solution to a celebrated typographic mystery, that of the origin of the Hobo font.

I know it’s speculated that Morris Fuller Benton was controlled by his father. No one can actually say if he was truly contented or not, and it seems he may have been one poor sap. But clearly his family had a good deal to do with his success. My own father would have been 100 today, March 21, 2014. I recently turned half that. It would have been nice to have gotten a leg up. My father could do nothing for me; in general, he could do little for himself. Actually, he and I worked together in a small print shop once, one of the many odd jobs he had. He was rather skilled on the offset press. But he couldn’t even manage to get me through high school. My brother and I had to take care of both of our parents in our father’s last few years, and that put a big dent in our own midlife plans; we fought so bitterly over how to do it that we spent over a year in court on it.

I am past my prime and am doing other things, having no further time for typography. I don’t even care that much about letterforms anymore. That work is chiefly for the quality children of quality people; over the years I have long been elbowed aside by such creatures. Whether employing ambition, birthright, or actual talent, the competition has been fiercer than one would expect for what was once a very humble craft. I will note that David Berlow’s son Sam, who really had nothing to do with type in his youth, is now in the stable at Font Bureau. Just sayin’.

I suppose I may be one of Fred Warde’s typographically shipwrecked mariners. I have to hustle in the meantime on other business. Right now, I’m working 60 hours a week designing a 3D printer for mass production, for two young and impetuous entrepreneurs of some wealth. I really didn’t have time for this story. I do not know if I got much of it right, but in any event each of us should hope to make little contributions to our little worlds, and this is one of mine.



Art Nouveau typefaces [Les Souverains by Auguste Roubille (1872-1955), humorist, engraver and illustrator of the Belle Époque]


1871 Project [Alex Joganic]	Alex Joganic (1871 Project) is the Birmingham, AL-based designer of Matches (2016, an octagonal typeface), Ciclista (2016, a casual monoline typeface), Superior (2016, a handcrafted sans), The Victor (2016, handcrafted), Zara Elyse (2016: script), Fernweh (2016, a handcrafted typeface with a vintage wood type look) and Xander (2016, in Sans and Serif: 19th century all caps typeface family with a wood type look). Typefaces from 2017: Garment District (a free monoline script designed together with Jeremy Vessey), Crafter (a free vintage metal sign emulation font), Grandfather (brush script). Typefaces from 2018: Forward, America (a free brush script), Tradesmith (free), Grit & Caliber (vintage set), Nature Spirit, Messenger (a free vintage font). Typefaces from 2019: Kinder (a heavy fashion mag titling typeface), Moral Varnish (a vintage stencil typeface), Noble Company (a monoline script), Rowan Royal (+Brush: a free blackletter). Typefaces from 2020: Understock (vintage). Typefaces from 2021: Doric (a display typeface by Alex and Emma Joganic), Darker, Clever (a sharp-edged display typeface with negative angle and the coathanger lower case f that is de rigueur in 2021), Sonder (a decorative serif with diagonal stress). Typefaces from 2022: Roslyn Leigh (combining art nouveau with hipsterism). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿
2D Typo [Lukyan Turetskyy]	Lviv-based Ukrainian designer (b. 1979) of the octagonal stencil typeface Depot Trapharet (2006, brutalist), and of the free car rallye dingbat typeface Rallye Symbols (2008). Dafont link. In 2010, he went commercial as 2D Typo. The first typeface at 2D typo was the modular pixelish Pressure Drop 2D (2010). This was followed by Ornamental Deco 2D (2010, art deco ornaments), Rally Symbols 2D (2010), Mascaron2D (2010, by Iryna Korchuk), Depot Trapharet 2d (2010, a stencil based on the tram lettering in Lviv), Ascetic 2D (2005-2010), Hutsulyandiya (2010, extraordinary ornaments by Iryna Korchuk), Simeon (2010, calligraphic), Cranked Pipe 2D (2011), Tripyllia 2D (2011, ornaments of the neolithic Trypillya culture), and Ukrainian Barokko (2010, a calligraphic typeface by Genadij Zarechnjuk), Historism Border (2011, border ornaments), Moreske 2D (2012, ornaments), Geomanticus (2012, modular squarish sans). Typefaces from 2013: Bandelwerk (borders), Digital Stitch, Modern Wave (ornaments based on Alphonse Mucha), Hopferian (Roman caps after engravings by Daniel Hopfer (1470-1536)---typeface completed with help of Mariya Sokil), Simple Ribbon (art nouveau dingbats). In 2014, he created Angusto (an elegant narrow shaded display typeface family), Vindemiam (ornamental borders), Squamish (ornamental borders), UA Map (maps of Ukraine dingbats) and Bohemian Border. In 2014, Dmitry Rastvortsev, Lukyan Turetsky, and Henadij Zarechnjuk cooperated on the design of the free Latin / Cyrillic handwriting typeface Kobzar KS, which is based on the handwriting of Taras Shnvchenko, a famous Ukrainian poet, artist and philosopher. Typefaces from 2015: Finetitle (ornaments for headers), Gothic Herbarium (a floriated ornamental font based on the Gothic Revival ornaments developed by Augustus Pugin (1812-1852)), Old Depot (rough stencil), Francesca (decorative caps). Typefaces from 2016: Geometric Harmony (geometric ornaments), Dubster (which he describes as a technocratic modular font). Typefaces from 2017: Military Symbols. Typefaces from 2018: Strapwork (four ornamental typefaces with friezes, borders and motifs modeled after Balthasar Bos (1554) and 16th century mannerism). Typefaces from 2020: Lo Fi Copy (grungy and pixelish). Typefaces from 2021: Kolm Keltek (classical ornaments), Microdot (a dot matrix font). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿
A. R. van der Burg	Dutch type historian who collected many art nouveau type specimen, including some rare alphabets drawn by the Rotterdamse Schilderschool. Nadeem Muzaffar's Bibelot (2010, a custom typeface) is based on one of these alphabets. [Google] [More] ⦿
ACME Fonts (or: CHK Design) [Christian Küsters]	Started in 1996, by Christian Küsters and Andy Long (from South London), ACME Fonts is a London-based foundry, offering fonts by Küsters and these designers: Anthony Burrill, Gérard Paris-Clavel&Johannes Bergerhausen, Jean-Lou Désiré, Paul Farrington, Robert Green, Paul Kehra, Henrik Kubel, Simon Piehl, Alex Rich, Carsten Schwesig, Sandy Suffield, Dirk Wachowiak, Anne Wehebrink and Paul Wilson. Christian Küsters is an ex-student of Matthew Carter at Yale. Born in Germany, he now lives in Oberhausen. Buy the fonts at MyFonts. The company evolved, I guess, into CHK Design. MyFonts link. Interview. Klingspor link. The ACME font list: By Christian Küsters: AF Angel (1998, based on an old woodblock typeface), AF Satellite, AFWendingen, Cashier 1 AF (1998, dot matrix), AF Champ Fleury (1996, a Codex-like face), AF Hybrid (1996), AF Hadrian Roman (1998, art nouveau), AF Interface One and Two (1998, grotesque sans), AF Retrospecta (1998, exaggerated wedge serif family), AF Track AF One and Two (1998, white on black dot matrix printing), Unzialis (1994), Zip Code AF 30, 40, 50 and 60 (2001, hairline squarish sans family). Christian had a nice connection at Plazm, where he published Hadrian (1996), Retrospecta (1994), Unzialis (1994), Hybrid (1996) and Interface One (1996). By Robert Green: AF PAN (1997, octagonal). By Henrik Kubel: 4590, AF-Battersea (1999, a grotesque family), AF-CENTERA, AF-Copenhagen, AF-Klampenborg (2000, grotesque sans), CPH-ArabicNumbers, CPH-Medium, Grot-25. By Sandy Suffield: CarPlatesCarPlates, AF Carplates (1998, squarish, including Carplates AF Bold Stencil). By Paul Wilson: AF Screen (1999). By Pete McCracken: INKy-black (1994). By Carsten Schwesig: Nicoteen 13 AF (1998, grunge), AF Syrup (1998, slab serif). By Paul Farrington: Camberwell AF One (1998, grotesque sans), AF Tasience (1998), Amateur 69 AF (1998, grunge). By Dirk Wachowiak: AF Diwa (2002, large squarish sans), AF Generation (2002, huge squarish sans families called A, A2, A2A, Z, and ZaZ). By Jean-Lou Désiré: Kub AF (2002, experimental). By Johannes Bergerhausen and Gerard Paris-Clavel: LeBuro AF (2003, grunge in weights called Breau, Crade, Louche, Extra Crade, Demi Beau). By Sylvia and Daniel Janssen: AF Nitro (2004, techno family in subfamilies called Intro, Riton, Trion). By Anne Wehebrink: Oneline AF (1998, squarish sans). By Paul Kehra: PostSoviet AF (2001, geometric sans family; with Cyrillic and Latin letters; weights called Culture, Free Latvian, Free Revolution, Ideology, Revolution). By Simon Piehl: Spin AF (1998, squarish sans). By Anthony Burrill: Video Wall AF (1998). By Christian Küsters, based on lettering of H.T. Wijdeveld: AF Wendingen (1998, LED simulation). Other: AFConstants (1998), Allen, Indy 500, Interface, AFLogotype (1998). View ACME's typefaces. Acme's typeface library. Typefaces made by Christian Küsters. MyFonts selection for ACME. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Acmé-Paris [Élodie Mandray]	Acmé-Paris is a design studio in Paris run by Élodie Mandray and Caroline Aufort. Creators of New Gothic Textura (2009), Canevas (2010-2012, stitching font), Acme (2013), Tropique (2011, experimental), Minuscule (2012), Tribute (2012, children's hand), Juicy (2010), Eclipse, Thésard, the music-inspired Swing (2010), the heavy monoline sans typeface Acmé (2013), the titling sans typeface Le Creux (2013), and the stitching font Canevas (2013). Typefaces from 2015 include the multiline neon font Neo Neon. In 2016, Acmé Paris designed the copperplate style poster typeface Aylak, the titling sans Truck, the art nouveau typeface Bertand, the art deco typeface Beaumont, and the avant-garde typeface Cattolica. In 2017, they designed the artsy rounded sans typeface Kasha. Typefaces from 2022: Madrid (inspired by vintage posters from the Spanish Civil War). [Google] [More] ⦿
A.D. Farmer [Farmer, Little&Co.]	[MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Adam Fathony [AF Studio]	[MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Adicto	Adicto Multichannel Agency is a studio located in Sankt Gallen, Switzerland. For the new restaurant Werk 1 in a renovated industrial building built in 1900 Adicto created the new typeface Werk1 (2014). For this typeface, they used the art nouveau font Quaint as a model. The font was developed by Nicolas Duran, Pierre Lippuner and Christian Woelk. Behance link. [Google] [More] ⦿
Adolf Böhm	Artist of the Viennese Secession, 1861-1927. [Google] [More] ⦿
Adolphe Paul Giraldon	French type designer (1855-1933) who made Giraldon (Fonderie Deberny, 1900), an ornamental serif typeface undoubtedly influenced by Grasset and Auriol. [Google] [More] ⦿
Adorae Types [Emilia Adorno]	Argentinian designer of Artifex Regina (2022: a tall hand-crafted font family with sketched textures), Neon Summer (2021: a condensed handcrafted monolinear font family), Cookie Time (2021: script), Arkhania (2020: a vampire script for Halloween), Aeonian (2020: a 12-style retro futuristic sans), Nature Boy (2018, a display type that is almost art nouveau). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Aeolien [J. Fürst Gardiner]	Creator at FontStruct of Aeolien (2011, alphadings), Gazebo Line Aeo (2012), Chateau d'Air (2013, castles), Like Fabergé (2013, oval), Fold Line (2013, a sewing font), Toothache (2013), Linoleum (2013), Sandor Basic Stripes (2013), Compass Norden (2013, a dot matrix font), Sambuccus (2013), Abneuroniques (2013, neurotic typeface), Zebra (2013, horizontally striped), Amazed (2013, maze font), Card Reading (2013), 3paths (2013), Raidho (2013), Floraeolien (2013, flower dings), the Art of Square series (2013), and Ostara Egg Box (2013, ornamental caps for Easter). Typefaces from 2014: Ceques (op-art), Indentional, The Tunnels of Tralyoxx, ClickPop Beads, Blue Moon, Nurdal's Walk (LED font), Dumultix (techno, in De Stijl fashion, based on Mondrian), Wever Ding, My Unintended, Haltero, Linuta, Murexa, Abfahrt, Arrivee Mercredi, Mabon (vintage slab serif, art nouveau), Treat or Trick, Aerix Stencil Serify, Noba M, Plaque Emaille (white-on-black), Gleiteri, Strega nona, Kubetus (artsy), Kubetuffo, Pixiel, Werner, Free Masonry, Airy Brickwork, Aerix Stencil Sans, Sim Card, Kerbe, Fool's Beans, Gift Tag (alphadings), Tag Letters, Varsity Outline UC. Typefaces from 2015: 3Fino, S-chablo Sans (stencil), August, Shifted (op-art), Arroed, Apprentice Quill, Spitze, Melusine. Aka Jutta Gi. FontStruct link. [Google] [More] ⦿
AF Studio [Adam Fathony]	Adam Fathony (or Adam Fathoni Haris; AF Studio, Bandung, Indonesia) created the vintage typeface Grandesa (2014), the signage typeface Magnifika (2014) and the Victorian typeface Marema (2014). In 2015, he published the connected swashy script typeface Octavia Script, the brush scripts Carbonera and Shallom, the hand-lettered Vanilla Daisy Script and Mightype, the watercolor script Hollycakes, and the connected Brayden Script (and Sans). Typefaces from 2016: Drustic Daily, Karlberg Script, Ecosmith Script, Halosense Script (calligraphic), Lunar Cone (connected layered script), Clarkson Script, Salvador Script, Salvador Serif, Salvador Condensed, La Venice Script (retro signage lettering). Typefaces from 2017: Clarkson Script (brush lettering), Bignord Vintage (with Fauzan Rafhy), Douglas Collection (12 fonts: Aaronade Script, Ancaster Script, Burlington, Calgury, Montreal Rounded, Morphic 60s, Norwood Old, Ogdensburgh, Palmeira, Rutland Extended, Wolves Sans, Wolves Serif), Almost Lover, Rhythmic Dances (rough script), Sevastian (layered font set), Rustling Trees (dry brush), Little Karla Script. Typefaces from 2018: Figuera Variable (a late Victorian, early art nouveau typeface family; variable font format), Brignola (a calligraphic penmanship script), Eastside Brush (a brush signage script done with Angga Kristiandri), Marshfield (a retro cursive typeface by Adam Fathoni Haris and Renov Olivian), C'est La Vie (font duo), Chivels (a vintage typeface done with Angga Kristiandri at Abbassy Studio), Sevastian (a layered font family), Drustic Dialy (weathered; with Angga Kristiandri), Elli Bellie (calligraphic). Typefaces from 2019: Scottsdale Serif (at Typeverything), Scottsdale Desert (an opentype feature-laden display serif), Norfolk (Narrow, serif), Tiverton (Sans, Serif, Script: by Adam Fathony Haris and Angga Kristiandri), Havard (a layerable athletic lettering set of 12 fonts), Gorga Grotesque. Typefaces from 2020: Auvelle (a hairline sans), Windsore (a font trio), Howli (layerable, rounded; sans, serif and script), Genty (a creamy retro signage script typeface by Ilham Herry and Adam Fathoni Haris), Burnest (a vintage typeface by Adam Fathoni Haris and Renov Olivian), Glaw (a psychedelic font by Ilham Herry and Adam Fathoni Haris), Oliviar Sans (28 styles and a variable font), Budge (a layerable retro signage script by Ilham Herry and Adam Fathoni Haris), Stanlow, Muray House (a bold swashy bathroom towel typeface by Ilham Herry and Adam Fathoni Haris), Esteric (a playful tapered font by Ilham Herry and Adam Fathony). Typefaces from 2021: Alstera (an oblique serif), Monvar (a layerable Cooper Black style typeface by Ilham Herry and Adam Fathoni Haris), Rische (a 6-style display serif with huge counters and an enormous x-height; by Ilham Herry and Adam Fathoni Haris), Ottenthic (script and serif), Mionic (a reverse contrast slab serif by Adam Fathoni Haris and Angga Kristiandri), Matchbox Font Collections (a set of vintage fonts based on lettering on matchboxes; it includes substyles called Linea, Lettre, Deco, Scriptura, Ornato, and Graso). Typefaces from 2022: Balide (a 70s style display typeface), Norsy (a 21-style and variable flared font family). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Affolter und Gschwind AG [Werner Affolter]	Werner Affolter ran a phototype and printing company in Basel, Switzerland, called Affolter und Gschwind AG, Fotosatz&Reprotechnik. In 1981, Affolter published an extensive catalog entitled Letterama that showed over one thousand alphabets. Few of those were original, so I suspect he acted as a vendor of sorts, but at least a couple seemed original, or were claimed to be original or exclusive: Guigoz, Moby Dick. Moby Dick was revived in 2014 by Nick Curtis as Call Me Ishmael NF. Some examples of the types shown, in alphabetical order: Antique Wood MP363 (art nouveau), Antique Wood MP 364 (oriental simulation face) [the Antique Wood series is quite extensive, and is just numbered], B+T Classic (roman), Bernhard Fett, Beton Fine Line (typewriter), Burko (avant garde family), fonts starting with G, Gaston Fett (a squarish gothic typeface also called Gipsy), Gaston Halbfett (also called Grassy), Gemini Computer, Germanic Sans (more avant garde and Lubalin-style glyphs), Hollandse Mediaeval, Hollywood (a 3d decorative family), typefaces starting with K, Lineamarca (slabby), Linear (avant garde, geometric monoline), Melen (experimental, geometric), Meola Bookman swash (decorative), Metro (art nouveau, after the Metroploitaine font), Moraine (squarish), the Old Foundry sub-collection [another mysterious numbered collection; examples include some uncials, and some more art nouveau typefaces, some Victorian ornamental typefaces (F260 through F262), more art nouveau (MP418 through MP420) and blackletter typefaces (MP421)], Pierrot (psychedelic, groovy), Phydian (one of many Western style ornamental typefaces), Ronda, Roulette, Roulette Schattiert (=Rajah) (more Western fare), Ruby (shaded caps), Runic Small (condensed), Rustic (wood log look), typefaces starting with S, Spengler Gothik, St. Clair (ornamental), Zither (calligraphic script). [Google] [More] ⦿
Agnieszka Ewa Olszewska	Warsaw, Poland-based designer of the decorative caps typeface Sweets (2015, Studio Filigran) and of the outlined all caps typeface Typek (2018, Studio Filigran). In 2020, she designed Cnabel, which is based on a Slovenian book illustration from the art nouveau period. In 2021, she released Binia (a hyper-decorative typeface) and Zania (a fat display typeface) at Studio Filigran. Type Department link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Ahmad Ramzi Fahruddin [Arterfak Project]	[MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Ahsya	Banda Aceh, Indonesia-based designer of Rollason (2017: script), Pilattez (2017: handwriting script), Rolly Wave Script (2016), Verbalio (2016, an art nouveau typeface), Verbalio Sans (2016), Sweetlove Script (2016), Aheads Brush Script (2016), Mahakam Script (2016), the free handcrafted psychedelic typeface Verona (2016) and the free script typeface Markona Script (2016). Typefaces from 2017: Hideline (a futuristic brush). Creative Market link. [Google] [More] ⦿
Aileena Manja	German designer of all caps typefaces in 2019 that have art deco and art nouveau influences. [Google] [More] ⦿
Aiyari [Ricky Rinaldi]	Bandung, Indonesia-based designer (b. 1988) of the modular display typeface Kurawal (2013) that is based on compositions of curly brackets. In 2015, he designed the angry brush typeface Violence, the connected creamy script Nurture (2015), the handcrafted sans typeface Imperiosa (2015), the connected Fabulous, and the watercolor brush script Sweetiest. Typefaces from 2016: Holiday (17-script family), Dreadful (a layered Halloween typeface family, with dingbats), Casual Brush, Lucidity (signage script), Euphoria (Victorian), The Painter, Minority (very condensed hand-lettered typeface), Thunderstorm. Typefaces from 2017: Tjikapoendoeng Script (formal calligraphic script by Ricky Rinaldi and Juru Aksara), Lovadelic (psychedelic), Neptunian (dry brush), The Moonlight (comic book script), Savath (a horror font), MacLaurent (tattoo font). Typefaces from 2018: Lucidity (an expansion of his 2016 version, including Psych, Expand, Extras: psychedelic / art nouveau trio), Winter Is Coming (a beatnik font), The Beardy, Dreadful (a layered horror movie font), Saturday Night (a great retro disco poster typeface family with a particularly striking interlocking style). Typefaces from 2019: Spooktacular (a Halloween font), Spooky Sans. Typefaces from 2020: Tropika Island (a great tiki font), Swettiest, Laguna Vintage. Typefaces from 2021: Ayr Blufy (a puffy supermarket signage script). Typefaces from 2022: Ayr Thrope (a weightlifter's font). Dafont link. Behance link. Graphicriver link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿
AJPT [Alan Jay Prescott]	Pottstown (Philadelphia)-based designer and PostScript font hacker who ran Prescott Design and now Alan Jay Prescott Typography, but was also involved in other ventures such as the Black Walnut Winery. Originally from Greenfield, MA, he graduated from Saddleback College, and worked for some time as a typesetter in New York. He advertizes himself as a leader in PostScript Open Type Font development specializing in the revival of print-only letterforms into digital typographic materials. He operates as APT and more recently as AJPT. In 2019, he announced that he would stop making typefaces altogether. His work can be partitioned into time periods. For this reason, Prescott's oeuvre is split over several pages: His late period (2017-2019). In these three years, he showcased his work on Facebook, and was mainly involved in reving 19th century typefaces, about half of which were from the Victorian era. The annotations in the list below are quoted from Prescott's pages. Absolution Cursive (2017). When I was a typesetter in New York City, I had one of the largest collections of typefaces from CompuGraphic's library available for setting. One of the faces I never used in two decades of work was a rather ungainly decorative font called Abel Cursive. Apparently it was designed by Bernie Abel (perhaps one of CompuGraphic's employees) and I'm not sure it got much use, since I don't recall seeing it anywhere except my type catalog. Before I sold my equipment and closed my business for good, I made a scan of every typeface at 72-point size that I owned for future development, if there ever came a time to work on something crazy like that. Most of those 2,000 scans were lost when I changed computers a long time ago, but Abel Cursive survived and I made a down-and-dirty mow-and-blow font back then. I have recently worked on it extensively to make it usable as a multilingual slightly redesigned font in OTF format. I would classify it is as neo-Victorian medium-contrast decorative italic. It is definitely an oddball and may never see use. Algol (2017). Based on a scan from Dan X. Solo, Algol is a vastly expanded character set for Algernon, a typeface that clearly presages Machine and other "octics." I don't have any source material for the original design, but it may have been a Dan Solo original. Aloysius and Aloysius Ornamented (2017). This is a digital revival of the original Algonquin, cut by J.F. Cumming in the late 1880s for the Dickinson Type Foundry in Boston. While this was not my most challenging project, it was a doozy. Alpenhorn Roman (2017). Another oddball typeface is revived here, renamed from the design called Alpine by Henry Schuenemann for the Cleveland Type Foundry in the 1880s. Buried in the "gingerbread" of this weird face is technically a Latin serif, but otherwise it is an entirely unique letterform for which I had a heart soft enough to revive here in digital form. Androgen Roman (2017). I know next to nothing about this ultra-geometric blackletter called Anderson that I found displayed in a Dan X. Solo catalog, but it is another oddball that is attractive and very simple to revive in digital format. It is one of those projects I would recommend to a beginning revivalist who wanted to cut his or her teeth on a moderate challenge after mastering some basic tools in font development software. Angolan Text (2017). I found Angular Text in a Solo catalog and revived it as a digital font with diacritics and other characters for expanded typesetting possibilities. It was designed by Herman Ihlenburg in 1884 for MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan, which information I found in a link from Tom Cruz for a fellow named Toto who revived the font as well; he has several glyphs I do not have and I like his showing better. Interesting to see what others have done with the exact same typeface and scan and some research for tantalizing missing glyphs...kudos. Antiochia Series (2017). This collection of typefaces represents a revival of several bold slab-serif wood types with the name Antique that are related. Their individual histories will follow at another time, but note that several here are useful derivatives that add to the variety of this letterform's impact. Azurine Roman (2017). Azurine is a digital revival of a typeface known as Aztec, drawn by an unknown designer for the Union Type Foundry before 1889. Beltane Roman (2017). The very complicated story behind the work on this revival is too long for this space (and perhaps too boring to most), but suffice it to say that this letterform started out in 1886 as drawn by the great Herman Ihlenburg as Artistic and assigned to MacKellar Smiths & Jordan. Dan Solo called this face Belmont but only showed caps and was suspect anyway. I was able to find specimens elsewhere and a motherlode of other interesting things in the Inland Printer. I developed my first full-featured OTF using this typeface and designed Greek and Cyrillic glyphs as well. I also fitted it out with a set of small caps to make a font that now has 4,000 glyphs for nearly every non-Asian language. To top it off, Robert Donona revived the decorative caps for this typeface, an excruciating task that I once considered for myself but was lucky enough to have this other crazy person take up. The number of hours dedicated between Robert and myself in reviving this complete series digitally is probably unprecedented. Bernhard Swirl (2019). This is a digital revival of the letterform of the same name. It is equipped only with the upper case, an ampersand, a spacer dingbat and the numerals. The numerals are quirky, not only in design, but the fact that they seem to have been intended as old-style figures with the exception for the 4 and 7. Lucian Bernhard is either the designer of this limited-use typeface or inspired a reworking of his "wobbly" poster typefaces for which he is known as an innovator. I have reworked the scanned samples I had used as templates and drew them with a little more consistency than the originals to improve color on the page. Bireme Roman (2017). Below is a digital revival of a typeface called Bijou. As I have come to understand, several people have revived this face already. It is similar to Flirt in many respects. I will update information as I come across it, but I wanted to post my version here for your appreciation. Blackguard (2018). This is a digital revival of a typeface known as Black Cap. William E. Loy writes that Black Cap was designed and cut by Charles H. Beeler Jr. for MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan. The earliest-known commercial specimen was advertised in the January 1891 edition of The Inland Printer, so he probably created it in 1890. Blackminster (2017). One of the more interesting treatments of blackletter forms in the 19th century is this beauty called Black No. 544 designed by Henry Brehmer in 1889, who assigned the rights to Bruce Type Foundry. Originally I was unable to locate certain key glyphs in this font, but they were graciously supplied by others in our crazy network of type geeks. More information on the people behind these projects will follow in other articles. Bleak (2017). Bleak is a series based closely on a typeface called Stark. As with nearly all typeface names, there are several unrelated fonts developed in recent years that bear no resemblance to this gorgeous sans serif. Brotherly Roman (2017). Among many "antiqued" letterforms developed in the late 19th century, Ben Franklin was offered by Keystone Type Foundry in Philadelphia. Several glyphs were missing from my best showing of the font, but I was luckily able to find them, as well as logotypes, two ornaments, several alternate characters and some punctuation. There had already been a digital revival of this typeface kicking around as shareware in the 1990s, but it was very poorly drawn and incomplete. I believe it has been rendered nicely and consistently here for posterity. Busker Contour (2017). Burlesque was the name given by Solo to a typeface originating through Caslon or Figgins around 1843 and shown in German specimens a couple of years later. Cane Gothic (2018). Cane Gothic was designed and cut by Edwin C. Ruthven c.1886; he patented it in March–April 1886 and assigned the rights to David Wolfe Bruce (son of George Bruce, holder of the first design patent in US history). The Bruce catalog number is unknown. The tradename Cane Gothic, an apt description of the caning patterned background, may have been assigned by Dan X. Solo, who had revived the face for his photo-lettering service, but it has previously been considered impossible for digitizing. Although the average character in this font contains something like 3,000 Bézier control points, it turned out to be doable once I figured out the original mathematics that Ruthven must have used to guide his design objectively. It is digitized for posterity and I thank Anna Allen once again for the patent specimen (No. 16,643) indicating, if extremely faintly, five missing glyphs from my otherwise excellent scan. Thus I've generated the border glyphs and a pound Sterling symbol to augment this letterform. As far as I can determine, this character set is complete, and I have generated three fonts in order to accommodate chromatic typesetting with very little effort. Cantini Casual (2019). This is a digital revival of the typeface of the same name (or at least that is the name Solo gave it in the type specimen book from which it was scanned). It is a great example of the exuberant fancy characters that came to ascendance during the 1960s and 1970s. It is a medium-weight Latin italic with unusual decorative details in addition to crazy swash choices. I do not have any information on the history of this trippy face, but it is likely it was revived at some time in the recent past. It includes a large number of alternate glyphs as well. Capulet (2017). This is a revival of a typeface called Caprice that was patented in 1888 by Arthur M. Barnhart and assigned to Barnhart Bros. & Spindler of Chicago. This letterform is a prime example of the explosion in design ideas occurring before the turn of the century, hundreds of which remain to be translated into digital format. Carmenite Roman (2017). This beautiful digital revival covers a letterform drawn by the Bauer Type Foundry of Stuttgart, Germany sometime before 1896. It was originally called Carmen and has been referred to as Carmencita in the Solo books. Centrum Text (2017). This is my digital revival of one of the more complex decorated blackletters, among my favorite and most difficult projects to work on and just finished today. It is identified as Celebration Text on p. 18 of Solo's "Gothic and Old English Alphabets." The lowercase for this letterform is also presented for two other typefaces, Testimonial Text and Innsbruck in his larger catalog, presenting some confusion. But I believe all three were drawn by the same designer, although I have no idea how old they are. The lowercase may simply have been used for all three decorated capitals, since they are a very good match. Intentional, who knows? It is a real beauty and I'm going to perhaps revive the other two in this triplet of great examples of decorated capitals. Chapterhouse Roman (2017). This is an interesting typeface known as Ecclesiastic from Caslon around 1870. It was also known as Albion and Chapel Text No. 30. Most of those names were applied to completely unrelated designs, adding to the confusion that permeates typographic development and history to this day (and only gets worse over time). There are probably more alternate characters out there, but this is the best showing I could make with the resources I have and it is now available from me as a digital font. Chapterhouse Roman (2017). This is an interesting typeface known as Ecclesiastic from Caslon around 1870. It was also known as Albion and Chapel Text No. 30. Most of those names were applied to completely unrelated designs, adding to the confusion that permeates typographic development and history to this day (and only gets worse over time). There are probably more alternate characters out there, but this is the best showing I could make with the resources I have and it is now available from me as a digital font. Clarence Roman and Dotted (2017). Clarence Roman is a revival of Clown Alley and Clarence Dotted that of Cooktent (also called No. 515). Wood typeface Cooktent comes from W.H. Page before 1890 and the other looks to be a back-formation from it. Commissioner Script (2017). The typeface known as Commercial Script was designed by Morris Fuller Benton in the early twentieth century and enjoyed widespread use for decades. There have been many variations from other foundries, varying mostly in contrast; but as far as I know there was ever only one rather bold weight produced. I have redesigned the letterforms for consistency on the way to producing the ten weights shown here. It is interesting to see the font in lighter weights that accentuate the beauty lurking in this standard, and the heavier weights to see that the design still holds up under even heavier lifting. Courtesan Roman (2017). Among the dozens of wood types I have revived digitally is Courier, here called Courtesan. Many of these letterforms have been revived by others, all slightly different in their interpretations. More information on wood types will follow in articles I plan to write in the future on various areas of interest in the field of revival in particular and typography in general. Cranston Ornamented (2017). This is one of the most difficult digital revivals I have worked on. It started as Crayon, another masterful design from the prolific Ihlenburg, available at MSJ in 1885. There are sister fonts in an Open and a Solid that differ slightly in design and will be available from me at some point in the future. Creekside Playful and Calligrapic (2018). These are two digital casual scripts of my own creation based loosely on hand-drawn types from the 1950's. One is a calligraphic interpretation and the other is a more mono weight design that is a bit more slanted, both available for multi-language setting. Criticism (2017). This is a digital revival of Critic, a typeface designed by William F. Capitain in the mid-1880s with rights assigned to Marder, Luse & Co. Several logotypes had been designed for this letterform and many alternate glyphs. I added a few of my own, as well as diacritic marks, for balance to this surprisingly modern face that can be rendered multilingually as well. Crosby Roman (2017). This is a digital revival of the typeface known as University Text, designed in 1862 and shown by MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan in 1869 as Crosier. It was also known much later as Morningside. It is a stylized Latin with great charm. Crossan Roman (2017). This is digital multilingual OTF revival of a typeface called Cross Gothic, another one of those unique, nearly unusable letterforms I adore. I got a million of 'em. Cullane Roman (2017). Cullane is a digital revival of Herman Ihlenburg's Culdee, patented in 1885 and offered through MSJ. Others helped me scour the literature for missing glyphs and no one is sure we've got them all, but this is a wonderful showing of what we think is available until something randomly shows up in the future. Currier (2018). J.B. Lieberman, Ph.D. identifies it as Deberny & Peignot Lettres Ombrés Ornés (ornamented shaded letters) and adds that it was originally cut by Gillé in 1820, thus making it one of the oldest typefaces I have revived digitally. It is an exuberantly decorated engraved shadowed heavy-weight Egyptian. Danuvius (2017). Danube is the original name for this letterform, again found in a Solo catalog, and its links with medieval letterforms is obvious despite the trends toward modernization at the time it was first produced. I otherwise have no information on this face. Devonian Roman (2017). This is a digital revival of a wood typeface known as DeVinne. More information updated later. Dorothy Series (2017). The original Doric Chromatic was designed as a wood typeface and made its appearance in the United States in the 1850s, though it probably got its start in France in the 1840s according to Rob Roy Kelly. Doughboy Roman (2017). This series of decorative caps is shown as Dodge City in Solo. I am not sure it is very old; it may very well have been a photographically slanted version of an older wood typeface in the Thunderbird category with flourishes added on at the same time. This has been revived before because of its simplicity, but I made my own version a little more consistent and they make attractive drop caps. Enclave Roman and Expanded (2017). These two related digital revivals represent Enchorial in two versions. The roman came out of the Caslon Type Foundry in 1884 and was extremely popular (sometimes known as London). Petzendorfer showed the expanded Enchorial around 1903. Esteban (2017). Esteban is an original design I developed around 2010, named after the recently deceased Esteban Arriaga, a leading seascape painter in the area of Málaga in Spain. It is a medium-contrast sans serif produced in nine weights plus italics. Currently it is available only for the Macintosh OS, but an OTF cross-platform font is anticipated. Euclid, Euclid Initials,Euclastic, Elberon, Astral, and Auroral (2018). Elberon existed by November 1886 from Cleveland Type Foundry in The Inland Printer. Euclid (a lighter version of Elberon with a few different glyphs) is an obvious derivative from Illinois Type Founding Co. in Chicago in August 1890. Euclid appears with several Euclid Initials, a full sample of which appears as "Grant Iniitials" from Minnesota Typographic Co. Auroral (basically a shaded form of Elberon) appears in January 1887 from Central type foundry. Astral, also from Central type foundry, (the almost exact shading concept) whose base form is a condensed, heavier form than Euclid) appears in December 1886. Euclastic is my name for a complete set of weights, from a Hairline at the extreme end of lightness, through Black at the other extreme, using redesigned examples of Euclid and Elberon. Farmerboy and Farmergirl (2017). Although these two typefaces have both been called Fargo in the past, they are distinctly not the same letterform despite sharing some characteristics. They are both probably late 1850s, early 1860s and some sources say they are German. In any case, two interesting oddballs with no usage in the last century-and-a-half are revived digitally by AJPT. Fastidious Series (2017). The typeface known as Fashion started out in 1876 and was patented by Andrew Little for A.D. Farmer & Son. There are a total of five related typefaces in the same design: the prototype, condensed, ornamented, antique and extra-condensed. It turned out that the samples I had available when I originally revived these two were rather suspect and I have to consider going back to these and try to figure out what the "real" glyphs are. I believe that the Solo ornamental showing was rather a hatchet job on the base font, so I consider these two on hold pending further research, but they are interesting to view how they are so far. Flare Serif Striped (2018). This is a digital revival of a face called Ornamented 1,079. This over-the-top candy-cane-with-curls design was created by Henry Brehmer, who patented it in December 1884–January 1885. The application was submitted and approved on the same days as Ornamented No. 1,077 (Hermann Ihlenburg), and the rights to both were assigned to David W. Bruce of the Bruce TF (New York) [USPTO D15748]. It was advertised in The Inland Printer of October 1885. Thanks again to Anna Allen Conroy for the background on Ornamented 1,079 and for the patent samples giving a good idea of the design of glyphs missing from the catalogs. I have produced AE and OE ligatures as well as a decent set of diacritical marks for setting in a few important languages, but it is not at OTF font at the moment and exists only as PostScript for Mac only. Flippant Roman (2017). This fun font is a revival of a typeface known as Flirt. Although it has that 1960s feel, like many fonts popular then, I believe it has a much older pedigree. I will supply more information as I come across it. (There is currently an unrelated script font called Flirt on the market now, designed in 2009.) Fusion (2017). i developed three weights (including small caps) for the popular typeface Futura, all of them lighter than the Futura Light that is widely available. You can never be too thin. Gallantry Roman (2017). The earliest known specimen of the original Gazelle is found in the 1893 catalog of ATF in Cleveland and designed by Henry Schuenemann. This digital revival has multilingual capabilities and is quite unusual, demonstrating again the almost limitless possibilities of type design over the centuries. Gamut (2017). The Gamut series of very condensed sans serifs is based on a wide range of typefaces that all began with the letter "G": Galaxy, Gable, Garfield, Giant, Gamma, etc. (Their italics began with the letter "E", perhaps to come at a later time). I produced these typefaces under the same name to keep them all in one place, all ten weights that are floating around somewhere undigitized until now. They are currently available from me as Mac-only fonts, but OTF may be developed over time. They are members of the large "family" of typefaces whose members can be difficult to separate, such as the Helveticas, Trade Gothics, Standard Gothics, etc. I believe this was a well-designed condensed face that has nice nuances. Gironde and Gironde Extended (2017). Giraffe is the original name for this digital revival. It has been difficult to find a complete character set for this typeface, as I'm sure whatever existed in the roman also existed for the extended version. I revived what I could find, but it is a rather simple design and other characters can be imagined that are congruent with what is seen here. I'm not sure how much use these two oddball typefaces got in their time, but they were designed by Charles Beeler, Jr. in 1891for MacKellar , Smiths & Jordan. Gothic Decorated (2018). This is my temporary name for the digital revival of a typeface once called Ornamented 1,078. In the past couple of weeks, I have revived the "ornamenteds" on either side of this number. I have no information on this other than that it appears in the Inland Printer of October 1885 from George Bruce's Son & Co. TF in New York City. Goudy Flare Extra Bold (2019). This is a digital revival of another typeface in the Goudy superfamily, titled originally as simply Goudy Flare. I don't know the provenance of this particular letterform, but it was found in a Solo publication and could very well be one of his own creations, since I have never seen it used in print. It turns out that this is a modification of Goudy Old Style Extra Bold, and so I was able to find a suitable digitized version that matched the base forms very closely and modified the existing characters to accommodate these rather simple swashes. A reader added: "Goudy Flair was created by Mr. Phil Martin of Alphabet Innovations, that is he took Goudy Extra Bold and added swashes to this." Goudy Long Fancy (2019). This is a digital revival of the typeface of the same name, again another addition to the large Goudy family. There is a tremendous selection of swashes and alternate characters in this font, especially the upper case. It is an extra bold italic Goudy whose slant is less steep than normal for this family. There are no figures or punctuation provided for this letterform; those provided in the scan from which I worked were incorrect, and possibly back-formations from a different Goudy, so they were not produced for this version. Goudy Swash Heavy Italic (2019). This is a digital revival of the typeface of the same name. There are literally hundreds of revivals of letterforms in the Goudy "family" of typefaces. Nearly every foundry has produced its own version of this popular form, with many nuances between them. There are many weights, italics, various alternate characters and swashes galore, but I haven't seen a revival of this particular set of gorgeous swashes and alternates. Thus, I worked on very good printed samples, perhaps from a photolettering catalog half a century ago. Goudytype Antique (2019). This is digital revival of a typeface designated as Goudytype in a Solo catalog, with a slight twist. There is no punctuation for this font, but several nice swash alternates, a dollar sign and an ampersand. I decided to draw this as an "antique," because the ink spread in the original lent itself to this sort of treatment. Although a bit tedious, it can be used in the same way as other faces, such as Packard, Benjamin Franklin, Caslon Antique, Papyrus (heaven forbid) and others. Although one would assume this is in the Goudy superfamily, there are some characteristics that set it apart. The stresses and some other features are rather reminiscent of Palatino. And the slant is so slight as to make it unlike both typefaces' italics. Gracile (2019). Gracile is based closely on Greyhound Script, but has been expanded and standardized to include weights on either side of the two available in Solo. It is a semi script, since not all characters can be joined, and thus has a more casual feel. It is a strictly monoweight letterform in all six stroke thicknesses, with several alternate glyphs. There are digital versions in two medium strokes available from others, but those I was able to locate are rather poorly realized despite having diacritical marks for foreign languages. They can readily be designed and added to my interpretations, but I have chosen to do this later if anyone requires them. Griego Wood Series (2017). Several typefaces classified as Grecian were produced in wood for large sizes. Here I show Full Faced (William Page, 1859); Condensed and X Condensed (Wells & Webb/L. Johnson, 1846); X Condensed Bold (probably handmade, Nebraska, before 1885), and XX Condensed (John Cooley, 1859). I had revived some of these digitally years ago, but I revisited them recently and gave them a real facelift. They have undoubtedly been revived before because of their relative simplicity. Grosgrain (2017). This is a revival of a typeface called Grotesque No. 120. The lineage of the most famous typeface in the world, Helvetica (and, sort of, Arial) is evident in the early "grotesques." Although there are distinct differences in many of the characters of this very light typeface designed for mostly display use with alternate flourished glyphs, its resemblance to the later sans serifs of the twentieth century is striking. Marder, Luse & Co. of Chicago shows this face in 1885. Another similar typeface from around the same time called Circular Gothic is even closer to the Helveticas and derivatives of today. The alternate characters are revived from the sister font called Grotesque Fancy. Grounded Series (2017). I have revived Abramesque again, this time in congruence with the series from which it originated, thus it is called Grounded Ornamented. The original types started with Gothic Rounded. There was a Roman, an Outline, an Open and an Ornamented. The story behind these beauties is (as usual) too long, but briefly, information from Anna Allen: Old Bowery and Abramesque were originally called Rounded Open and Rounded Ornamented and have led interesting lives. Nicolette Gray identifies them with Caslon c1844. As a teenager, Rounded Open visited the Bruce TF (c1854), where she was called Ornamented No. 1007. After a suspected Bruce facelift as Gothic Round Shaded (≤1869), she was reintroduced by ATF as Old Bowery in 1933. McGrew writes, “Old Bowery is an ATF revival, in 1933 and again in 1949, of Round Shade No. 2, originated by Bruce , one of its predecessor companies, about 1854, as Ornamented No. 1007.“ Only an ornamented version, different from Abramesque and not illustrated by Gray, is shown in Bruce 1856. At a recent Oak Knoll event, Nick Sherman shot a photo of the page in Caslon's 1844 catalog showing Rounded, the solid prototype of these faces (not documented by Gray) and shared it at flickr.com. Albert-Jan Pool (designer of DIN and keen historian of sans-serif faces) observed that the footer is dated “September 1836,” so it was reprinted (probably as a stereotyped page) from an earlier Caslon publication. Until then, the earliest specimen examined by THP is shown in Caslon 1841. All agree that, so far, it is the earliest-known rounded sans-serif face in history—and this pleasingly plump family of three is as appealing today as ever! Of a very similar wood-type face tradenamed Gothic Round, Kelly reports: “First shown by George Nesbitt in his 1838 specimens. … The Nesbitt design was an Outlined or Rimmed Gothic Round. The Caslon Foundry issued several Gothic Round designs, of which an ornamented one (Abramesque), in particular, came into general usage in America around mid-century.” George Nesbittt, a New York printer, distributed wood types produced by Edwin Allen (Windham, CT ). Sherman adds that “Miguel Sousa at Adobe is in the process of making a digital revival of this face (Gothic Round\|Old Bowery) for the Hamilton Wood Type Foundry.” Heraldry Roman (2017). This is a digital revival of a typeface called Heraldic, patented by John K. Rogers in 1880, an agent of the Boston Type Foundry. Hinterland (2017). Attached is a revival of an exuberant, heavy sans serif called Hibernian in Solo's catalogs. I've included alternate glyphs that I know of, but there may be some floating out there somewhere. The origin of this typeface is obscure, but there is some evidence it may have been from Genzsch & Heyse around 1893 according to one knowledgeable source. Hopscotch Roman (2017). Hopscotch is a revival of a wood typeface known as Hopkins. Jackdaw (+Open) (2017). This is a revival of a wood typeface known as Jackpot in Solo's catalogs, but was originally named Tuscan Shade No. 1. I have also produced a derivative called Jackdaw Open. Otherwise, I have little information on this bizarre beauty. Jeffers Contour (2017). Another decorative cap discovered as Jeffrey in a Solo catalog has been digitally revived here. Jeremiad (2018). A digital revival of Jenson Old Style, a typeface cut by Hamilton with the permission of American Type Founders in 1906. It has undoubtedly been revived before, as many wood types already have, but this is my interpretation and has been given a measure of consistency without losing its charm. I post this now, but it was produced a couple of years ago and I overlooked posting Joshua Contour (2017). I found a rather odd display typeface called Joseph in a Solo catalog, and it seems not to have a history longer than that, so who knows? Juvenilia Roman (2018). Juvenilia is a revival of a semiserif medium-weight typeface called Jumbo. Anna Allen's description follows: This slick stylized sans serif was designed and patented by Ernst Lauschke in 1887; he assigned the rights to Arthur M. and Alson E.Barnhart. This letterform is very unusual in having the tops of the characters generally devoid of the expected serif. Overall the design has medium contrast, which would be expected of a serif face. Several characters reflect missal-style influences (e.g. T, M), which was common for the time, but they are sprinkled in with standard types. The ampersand is influenced by wood types of the era. It is a distinctly odd species, another Lauschke innovation and unique. Katy Beth (2017). I discovered in the Inland Printer typefaces called Katherine and Elizabeth that were identical to each other and I was able to piece together a complete set of glyphs between the two to make a full digital revival. Kodiak (2017). Kodiak is a revival of Komet, an exuberant calligraphic sans serif produced by Roos & Junge Type Foundry around 1902 Latchkey Roman (2018). This is a digital revival of Lattice, a face designed by Carl/Charles E.Heyer (1841 Berlin–1897 Chicago). He patented it in October–December 1883 and assigned the rights to Arthur M. and Alson E. Barnhart by name (the firm was not yet incorporated). Among other things, his unique hooked C was probably inspired by the hint of a hook in Copley (a sign-painter face dated before or in 1877 and cut by J.F. Cumming in 1881-1884). As Heyer's talent flourished at BBS (Chicago, 1868–1929), he led his new employer from one loathed by traditional TFs for bartering stolen designs for newspaper advertising space to one at the forefront of truly innovative display types. In the history of this TF historically regarded as great, he conceived at least 50% of their designs. Thanks to Anna Allen for the background on Lattice. Thanks to Dan X. Solo for the complete specimen, which although inconsistent and ink-heavy for some characters, was complete as far as I know. I have substantially reworked this typeface to bring a consistency for modern-day typesetting, but it is entirely faithful to the original cutting. Several of the characters are adventurous for their time (the C and ampersand, for example). Latin Fancy (2018). The Latin Fancy Engraved Shade version of these three fonts (the two others are derivatives) started life as Ornamented No. 1,077. Thanks again to Anna for the research that follows and for a patent specimen that gave a very rough idea of glyphs that did not appear in the catalog showings. It has ben digitally revived for posterity and is available for now as Mac-only. It appeared in October 1885 in the Inland Printer. Herman Ihlenburg, usually associated with MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan (Philadelphia), designed and cut this sizzling all-caps Latin face for the Bruce TF (New York). The patent application, submitted and approved on the same days as the one for Ornamented No. 1,079 (Brehmer), was likewise assigned to David W. Bruce (New York) [USPTO D15752]. A caveat for purists out there: The "A" has been drawn to compensate for a cutting or design error that appears in all examined versions of the typeface. No alternate has been provided for the misdrawn A. Lipo Caps Series (2017). Lipo Caps is a typeface series whose members are related in the sense that they have never existed as digital fonts (as far as I know), they are hand-lettered (probably by the same person), they were unlikely ever to have been developed as typefaces at the time they were drawn, and they were found in the same publication of bizarre letterforms. I have given them consistency without sacrificing the hand-drawn qualities and produced two versions of each one that I found, five fonts altogether (with "undecorated" versions as the lower-case keystrokes in each case). It is interesting to see great drawing technique that nevertheless never resulted into typography until now. Livornese Roman (2018). This is a digital revival of Livonia, an art nouveau-inspired typeface for which I have no information. There is a full set of alphanumerics, but no punctuation. It is a monoweight bold condensed sans serif with minimal descenders and an x-height that is at the maximum allowed visual percentage of cap height. This is another example of a face I revived in the 1990s but has been tightened up considerably for consistency and professional typesetting. Lubricious (2018). This strictly monoweight rounded sans serif typeface was referred to as Lute Medium in a Dan X. Solo publication, but I otherwise have no information on this letterform. It is influenced by the Art Nouveau movement and I have drawn a plausible Light and Bold as well; it seems that either one or both must have existed if it was referred to as a medium and I have made a rough guess as to the stroke weight. I think this face is quite pretty and has several innovations that are not over the top. Luring Series (2017). Luring is a faithful rendition of MacKellar , Smiths & Jordan's Luray and patented by Charles H. Beeler around the mid-1880s. Because the lining work in each was different depending on the point size of the metal type used (in order to achieve the same visual "grayness" when printed), I have developed each of these in such a way that when the same size is selected for each font, the optimal relative size is actually produced. The same technique was used for the equally challenging typeface called Tinted. Luscious (2017). This is a revival of a typeface called Lulubelle found in Solo's catalogs. It has been rendered in 7 weights, several of which correspond to known weights of this interesting sans serif condensed Art Deco-influenced letterform. Maggie Tried (2018). This is my digital revival (there have been others) of a typeface called Margit. According to sources I believe to be reliable, it was designed in 1969 by Phil Martin. An inquiry from a follower of this page generated a look back at a face I had once revived in the 1990s, but it was not as well-rendered as it could have been. I started from scratch and brought it back to life in a way more congruent with my current skills. It is a lovely example of letterforms developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Maltic (2018). In the six original sizes advertised and an additional three sizes to fill the gaps: This is a revival of the typeface by the same name, since it may not have been patented or trademarked by anyone until further notice. This typeface may never have been used and certainly is rather odd, but it can be seen that it must be one of the oldest forerunners of typefaces that were built from discrete "pieces" into a dot pattern, presaging the use of pixelation on monitors a hundred years later, as well as many other examples of typefaces built from pixels, dots, rectangles, stars and numerous other doodads and dingbats. In this case, the strict grid is violated for diagonals and many other interesting work-arounds; there are actually three different shapes used to build this geometric sans serif letterform. Information by Anna Allen: "Maltic is an interesting sans-serif face built from geometric motifs, was shown by the Illinois Type Foundry in The Inland Printer edition of December 1886. The specimen is marked patented, but extensive THP research finds no verification of this claim. This typeface is a complete mystery to me, as is the Illinois TF [Chicago, 1872–1892]… Annenberg (who bewails the lack of history details) reports that it was originally a distributor for the BruceTF (New York) and no record exists of any types that were originated by the Illinois Type Foundry. A showing of ornamental borders in the August 1890 edition of The Inland Printer advertises that they were Western Agents for Conner (New York) types as well." Margarethe (2017). It is hard to believe, but the original typeface was shown by Eduard Haenel (Berlin) in 1847 and was later adopted by American type houses. Eventually it was called Marble Heart, but most samples show only the upper case. Eventually I was ably to put together a large character set for multilingual setting after a rare, complete lower case specimen was discovered. This digital revival also covers typefaces variously known as Ornamented No. 11, 13 and 33. It is an early forerunner of faces known as grotesques (sans serifs that resemble Helvetica, Standard Gothic, etc.) This is another very difficult drawing exercise, but made all the more enjoyable after valuable sleuthing for missing glyphs by Anna at Type Heritage Project. Minster (2018). Minster was yet another style ground-breaker by Herman Ihlenburg, who patented the design in May–June, 1878 with assignment to MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan. This rimmed dual-case ornamented Latin beauty was consistently shown by MSJ and by ATF as late as 1897. It was also distributed by the Franklin TF (Cincinnati) [aka Allison & Smith]. Charles H. Smith, foreman, was the son of Lawrence Johnson's former partner (Johnson & Smith, 1833–1843). It has been digitally revived for posterity and took about two weeks to produce the full set of glyphs. Thanks to J. Choi and Anna Allen for very good specimens of printed materials. Molto (Fiorito, Ombreggiato and Nero) (2018). Molto Fiorito is a digital revival of MoléFoliate, whose history below has been researched by Anna Allen. Ombreggiato is a derivative with just the shadow, and Nero is the central characters adapted for separate setting, Bodoni or Didone letterform with high contrast and thin slab serifs. It has been produced in multiple sub-fonts for a wide variety of pin-register multicolor setting. Researching the topic on Fonderie Générale (Paris, 1834–1912) raised some perplexing questions about the history of this famous ornamented Didone. Twentieth-century historians attribute the design to Joseph Moléin c1819. Indeed, the conservative styling is compatible with fonts intended for title pages of scholarly and literary books, mainstay of the publishing industry during this period. The 1835 catalog issued by Tarbé (Molés successor) states that text, titling and display faces are offered therein. Even so, none resembling MoléFoliate is shown by any Molésuccessor in five digital specimen books dated 1835–1896. On the contrary, surface ornamentation is limited almost exclusively to Tuscans and Egyptians. Jaspert et al. (2001) note the then-current letterpress font source as Stephenson Blake & Co. Ltd. (Sheffield). Millington explains that the face was "redrawn by S.L. Hartz from a design by the Parisian typefounder Molé". Sem L. Hartz was associated with the Enschedé TF (Haarlem). SB introduced it in 1958 as "An Exotic Display Type". Did Molétransfer rights to this design before Tarbé's acquisition in 1835? If so: to SB? Enschedé? Another TF in existence at the time? Did Moléhimself design the leafy ornamentation attributed to him today? Or… Did Hartz superimpose his own concept on the surface of a MoléDidone roman? An anonymous developer digitized free revivals of this font and a matching plain one in 1997. They are difficult to find now [and are poorly executed]. Montrose Roman (2017). Montrose is a display typeface with many interesting features, an example of numerous "banner style" letterforms produced at the time, such as Stephen Ornate and Arboret. It was called Motto (a design claimed by John P. Rogers for the Boston Type Foundry in 1879) and I understand there is still a typesetter who has the original metal matrices. Mine was produced from rather poor scans, so some interpretation was necessary. It came out quite nicely, but not quite exacting enough for some standards. It is definitely of historical interest. Moocher Roman and Moocher Open (2018). These digital revivals are based on Moorish and Moorish Open as described below: Moorish was designed, cut and patented by German immigrants Julius Schmohl and Ernst Lauschke, who assigned the rights to Barnhart Brothers & Spindler in April–May 1891. Commercial specimens consistently showed Moorish Open on the same page or in a spread. As advertised, this handsome stylized Latin was meant for multi-color effects. Morton Roman (2017). It is plausible for reasons too long to explain here that Ludwig S. Ipsen of Boston designed the typeface known as Mother Hubbard sometime before 1886 when it was offered by Dickinson Type Foundry. There were numerous swashes and alternate characters for this typeface, and I'm certain some will never be discovered. (The unadorned caps of this font bear a close resemblance to Monopol from Petzendorfer in 1903 and I have heard a rumor that a lower case alphabet was designed in modern times. As with many typefaces, the stories behind the letters are sometimes fascinating to those who are interested to know more.) Muralla Text (2017). This is a digital revival of Music Hall text. I have no information about it except that it appears in one of Dan X. Solo's publications, but it is quite pretty. Robert Donona added: "This was called Teuton Text, shown in MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan type specimen books, it is also shown in the 1898 book entitled Shriftatlas by Ludwig Pfetzendorfer of German and also shown in some German Printing periodicals entitled Archiv für Buchdruckerkunst by Alexander Waldow, this publication ran from 1864 to the early 20th century." Mystica (2019). Mystica was found in a Dan Solo publication on swash alphabets. It consists of the upper and lower case only, but is a very pretty example of a slightly quirky calligraphic letterform that appears to have been hand-drawn. There are several features that I retained when digitizing, and there are others I standardized without sacrificing the overall feel. I'm not sure whether this was ever really a typeface; until now it probably would have been classified as ephemera. National Pride (2018). This is a digital revival of a typeface known as National or National Gothic that is surprisingly old, and more surprisingly, not digitized until now despite being a rather obvious project. It was completed a few weeks ago, but it required a little massaging to get a few parameters more in line with afterthoughts I had. Thanks to Anna again for research and some good specimens to go with mine. In his correspondence with William E. Lo , German immigrant Julius Herriet Sr. (then in his 80s, with a life-long career in type design/cutting) recalled producing this face during the few years he worked in Philadelphia. As was customary at the time, his boss, the "hyper-active" Lawrence Johnson, patented it in 1856 [USPTO D760]. Johnson's patent affidavit explains that the design was geared to chromatic separations for printing with blue and red inks with white paper as the third color. What a great idea 150+ years later! Incidentally… It is said that Mr. Johnson [1801-1860] "worked himself to death." In the process, he promoted three of his employees to partners and groomed them to succeed him: Thomas MacKellar, John F. Smith and Richard Smith (sons of his first partner, Johnson & Smith). Together with Peter A. Jordan (the CFO of his time), these men built on Johnson's foundation to become the "largest and most celebrated type foundry in the world." New Orange (2017). New Orange is a revival of a typeface called New Orleans but originally called Romantiques No. 3 in catalogs from the 19th century. The Decorated is the original design and the roman is one I created for special interest. Like many of these decorative typefaces from the 19th century, they can be produced as dual fonts for chromatic separations on special request. Nile (2017). Nile is an original work based loosely on typefaces called Egyptians, particularly that of VGC. I've greatly expanded the possibilities of this letterform by generating 8 weights with accompanying italics and small caps, suitable for a wide range of languages as well as English, both text and display. Nova Sandra Script (2017). Novelty Script has been revived as Nova Sandra. I've produced the typeface as an Extra Light, Light, Roman, Medium, Bold, Extra Bold and Black. (The Bold is a revival of the Novelty Script available from specimens.) The six other weights were added as an extra-special challenge. It is a beautiful connected script that has many unusual quirks unique to this design. There are several alternate characters and I have supplied a full set of “beginning forms” as well. I have also created a reasonable set of punctuation that did not exist in the original. It is a connected script, and therefore, one of the most difficult projects to undertake. Octic Latin Drop Shade (2018). This is my digital revival of a typeface that started out life around 1884 at Illinois Type-Founding as Octagon Shaded. Several typefaces over the years have had "Octagon" somewhere in their name, but this is really an octic Latin with distinctive features such as a certain curviness where one would expect linearity, so not a true octagon type, and it in any case has a Latin serif, which was itself applied differently in later Latin designs. It has a wonderful drop shade that gives it great depth. There is no known lowercase for this font and the showing in Inland Printer was nearly complete. Octuple (2017). This is a digital revival of a very old wood typeface called Octagon, which seems to have been first shown by George Nesbitt in specimens from 1838, believed to have its origins in France. Partisan Ornamented (2017). One of the most challenging projects I've undertaken in the digital preservation of antique letterforms is this remarkable typeface that started off as a reference to "French 1838" and what Figgins showed as Parisian in 1843. Johnson & Smith showed it as Ornamented in 1841, but it was also known elsewhere as Dandy and Ornate No. 6. The principal trouble (beyond the sheer work involved in reviving this monster) lies in assembling anything like a complete character set. Showings in catalogs for nearly all typefaces have been several letters and perhaps a figure or two, but it is often impossible to get enough glyphs from even a dozen showings; Q, X, Z, J are commonly not shown. I revived the letter N to see whether it was even feasible to start the project and estimated it would take two months to complete, even if the missing letters could be found. Beyond my wildest dreams, several people were able to track down every missing letter and even the numerals and the AE and OE ligatures, in varying degrees of resolution from ancient catalogs. I was able to generate this type over many enjoyable, hellish hours. Pattycake Condensed (2017). Attached is a digital revival of a lovely monoweight casual serif font called Pastel Condensed. I have seen revivals of this typeface, but I believe mine is a more complete and consistent version, and includes diacritical characters for setting in a wide variety of languages. Paymaster Roman (2017). This wood typeface was called Painter's Roman and cut by both Page and Wells, being made available in the 1870s. It was revived a while ago by a major font developer with many glyphs added, but my cut retains some of the quirkiness of the sample I had available from Rob Roy Kelly's masterpiece, American Wood Type 1828–1900. Its numerous specimens are the source of many of my wood type digitizations. Pencilings (2018). Pencilings has been digitally revived in three versions known to exist. Pencilings One was originally shown as Paragon Pencilings. Pencilings Two was originally shown as Paragon Pencilings No. 2 and uses the same caps as Pencilings with the lower case characters at 75% the size of No. 1 and with different cuts; both showings have several ligatures and alternates. Pencilings Three is a rendition of Solo's version, which was much heavier and was shown in "Grunge Alphabets" on page 65. The alphabet I scanned for One and Two is shown by Marder, Luse & Co., January 1885 in The Inland Printer. This is a lovely if somewhat inconsistent example of early explorations of typefaces that mimicked handwriting, particularly printing as opposed to calligraphy or penmanship. As such, these irregular examples are sometimes called casuals, a large group that includes brushes and bounces. Pisa Semiscript (2017). A seldom-used font available from Bitstream, Piranesi Italic is nevertheless a lovely letterform whose designer I do not know. I have discovered that there was also a bolder version at some time in the past, but have never seen it except in type catalogs existing before digital typography, so quite rare. Despite its being called an italic, there never was a "Piranesi Roman." I have produced nine weights, both lighter and heavier than the original, completely redrawn for consistency and available in OpenType PostScript multilingual cross-platform fonts. Precocious (2017). Preciosa was the original name for this little gem and it dates from around 1898 from Bauer & Co. in Stuttgart. It has been fonted before as freeware from Klaus Johansen of Svendborg, Denmark, but did not include lowercase. I'm not quite sure the lowercase I came across is the one designed for that face, as it comes from a Solo catalog, and occasionally he used lowercase alphabets from other faces to accompany his perhaps all-caps blackletter fonts, so who knows? More on that subject later as I revive a couple other drop-cap Gothic beauties whose lowercase characters are the same. Protagonist (2018). This series is a digital revival of a face known as Program. Thanks to Anna Allen for the following research as well as a few critical scans from materials I didn't have in my possession: According to William E. Loy, this typewriter-like Egyptian was designed and cut by William F. Capitain [1851–1915]. Carl Müler, an executive of Marder, Luse & Co. (Capitain's employer since November 1874), patented the design in November 1881–April 1882 and assigned the rights to [USPTO D13862]. Contrary to USPTO regulations effective in 1874, he got away with identifying the intended commercial tradename. It was advertised in The Inland Printer of April 1885. In February–May 1885, Capitain himself patented Inclined Program, a dual-case back-slant derivative [USPTO D161054]. Like Program, it was shown in the Marder, Luse catalogs issued in 1889 and 1890. Unlike Müler, he retained the rights. Rochelle (2017). This series is intended as an extension of Herb Lubalin's 1970 creation, Ronda. It has always been available in several weights, but I extended the utility of this face to some lighter forms as well as the inclusion of small caps (except in the bold). Rose Madder (2017). This is another example of reviving a letterform that may never have been a typeface. It was found unnamed in Carol Belanger Grafton's "Bizarre & Ornamental Alphabets" on pp. 96–97. Rosemary Series (2017). Rosemary is a revival of various Roman woods found in "100 Wood Type Alphabets," by Rob Roy Kelly. Ornamented (p. 230) first shown by George F. Nesbitt in 1838 specimens (Shadow and Expanded are derivatives); X Condensed (p. 234) same Nesbitt; Condensed (p. 233) same; Extended (p. 231) same; Roman (p. 232) first shown by Darius Wells 1828. Ruinous Titling (2018). This is a digital revival of a face called Parable that appears in one of Dan X. Solo's publications. It would be strange if no one has revived this face, and I do so solely as a demonstration of how it is that people get into doing the sort of work I do, even as an occasional hobby and nothing more. With the right software and a little determination to learn something new, the average person can produce a typeface in a few hours, albeit one this simple and lacking anything more than the capital letters. It whets a lot of folks' appetites for something more challenging, but rarely ending up where I am at a level of astonishing self-inflicted pain! The typeface was less than two hours from turning on the scanner, through drawing and spacing to a usable font. Rye Roman (2017). This is a digital revival of a typeface identified as Ryan Jackson on p. 85 of Solo's "Victorian Display Alphabets," but I have found no other reference so far as to its origins before that publication. Technically, it is a moderately decorated low-contrast Latin. Saluzzo font (2017)> Giambattista Bodoni, one of the first rockstars of typography and printing, flourished in the latter half of the eighteenth century in Parma, Italy. His fans included Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon and Pope Pius VII. The typeface we know as Bodoni has been developed by numerous foundries, particularly in the late twentieth century, no two of which are identical. It has generally been drawn as a high-contrast serif and was itself based on some of the transitional forms originating in Baskerville's studios at the time Bodoni ran his printing business. I have developed a unique Bodoni myself, slightly lower in contrast to render it more readable at smaller sizes. I have produced the letterform in Open Type PostScript format for cross-platform use in eleven different weights, italics and small caps (in the roman only), for a total of 33 multilingual fonts. Saluzzo is named for Bodoni's birthplace in Italy. Santa Claus (2018). This is a self-named digital revival of Santa Claus and Santa Claus Initials, both No. 1 and No. 2. This irresistible pair of fun faces was introduced by Central TF in the December 1885 edition of The Inland Printer. A patent pending notice was displayed in at least one commercial specimen; no such patent exists and none was claimed in the post-ATF catalog issued by the Central /Boston TFs in 1892. According to policies of the US Patent and Trademark Office in effect at the time, Santa Claus was positively new, novel and non-obvious and absolutely worthy of a design patent. No approved applications for design patents were filed by Central executives nor assigned by others after 1886. Apparently this notice was of the "beware of the (non-existent) dog" variety. The designer is unknown. William E. Loy does not account for Santa Claus in his biographies of Gustave F. Schroeder or Nicholas J. Werner, Central's staff type designers/punch-cutters until 1889, when they partnered an independent business. In 1891, Schroeder moved to California; he and Werner continued to contract design commissions from Central and other clients. Saprophyte Roman (2018). Saprophyte is a digital revival of a typeface that started out as Ornamented No. 1060. Thanks to Anna Allen for the commentary on its provenance. This Latin gingerbread face was designed and patented by Julius Herriet, Sr. in 1878–1879. He assigned the rights to David Wolfe Bruce , the last family member involved with the Bruce TF. After the USPTO established the trademark division in 1870–1874, the Bruce TF switched from naming its new faces to numbering them. Presumably, this expedient circumvented payment of additional attorney and registration fees. The name Safari may have been dubbed by Dan X. Solo. Those comparing my version with Solo's and the patent specimen will find there to be discrepancies with Solo. The patent specimen was poor but indicated significant changes that occurred by the time Solo had samples. I went as best I could by indications from the patent application of 1878 in regards to overall form and design and had to rely on Solo for only several details. It is my creation based on the information I have available and is nevertheless stunning and unique. Shifty Wide (2017). Shifty is a revival of a typeface identified as Shimmer Wide in Solo's "Victorian Display Alphabets," p. 88. I don't otherwise know the origin of this letterform, but because of its regularity I don't believe this was a wood type, or at least the version I'm seeing comes from a metal face that may have been based on a wood design. There is a resemblance to Antique Tuscan No. 1, a wood face from the 1850s. Snitch Script (2017). Based squarely on one of the most familiar scripts, Snell Roundhand, my version has several major design changes. Charles Snell developed this letterform many decades ago and it was translated by Matthew Carter into phototype in the mid-1960s with a total of three weights made available. I have developed a total of 12 weights of this very difficult connected script, all the way from a Hairline to an Extra Black, beyond the ranges previously available—keeping in mind that this form has some very different glyphs in place of the originals, and quite a bit of standardizing in ways the original designer would perhaps find offensive. But I love it, so there. Solomonic, Cliffhanger and Deerfield (2017). I revived Solar, Climax and Dearborn Initials consecutively, since they had been shown in many catalogs adjacent to one another and were offered by Barnhart Brothers & Spindler in the late 1880s. They are decidedly modern-looking display faces, and as I always say, all of our best ideas were stolen by designers of the past! Spiral Swash (2019). This is a digital revival of the typeface of the same name, found in one of Solo's publications. Technically it is a higher-contrast extra-bold, wide, extreme flare-serif with ball swashes. It is reminiscent of the Euclids I revived last year and would work well as drop caps with the entire range of undecorated forms from that revival. It is equipped with a very nice range of alternate characters, but there is no punctuation supplied. I don't know the designer of this face or the time period, but it looks to be something that would have appeared in a photolettering catalog in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Springfield Roman (2017). This is a revival of a previously undigitized typeface called Spangle in some catalogs but has been also named Uncle Sam, Carnet de Bal, Ornate No. 3, Ornamented No. 851 and Romantiques No. 1; which demonstrates with one font the tremendous problem in type identification. In any case, it's hard to believe this was designed in the 1830s by Laurent & de Berny of Paris, calling it Ornamented No. 1071. Sprinkle Roman (2017). Based on the original typeface called Spring, this is a display letterform that I digitized a few years ago from one of Dan X. Solo's catalogs. It is notable for containing a huge number of alternate characters that make it a lot of fun to work with for a distinctly retro feel. Also called Bonaparte by Photo-Lettering, and Radiant Flair by OptiFont. Stakeholder Roman (2017). This wood typeface was called Staccato by Solo, but was originally released as Tuscan Extended by W.H. Page before 1872. I suspect this is another letterform that has been revived by others. Stengel Roman (2018). This is a digital revival of Sterling. There have been other unrelated typefaces with the same name, but the history of Sterling follows. Again, thanks to Anna Allen for the sleuthing: A far cry from ATF Sterling (Morris F. Benton, 1917), this suave stylized Latin has just the right slinky curves! The designer, Charles E. Heyer, reprises his trend-setting hooked C and extends the style to the G with a new interpretation for this stunning all-caps alphabet [with two alternates, an E and an L]. His patent application was promptly approved in September–October 1890; rights were assigned to Barnhart Brothers & Spindler, his employer since 1878. It was shown by BBS until at least 1909. A few of my own comments on this letterform follow. For its time, it is certainly a departure from standard interpretations of alphabets. To begin with, we are finding terminals in some of the characters that are unexpected, swashes where we would expect traditional terminals. The A is square with a swash crossbar, echoed in the H, and the H itself is like the M and H in being bandy-legged. The W is practically an inverted M. The J and the U are very wide. All characters are quite a bit wider than usual, in line with Clipper, which it resembles in some respects; but the question mark is super-condensed. The A, B, E, F, H, P and R have compressed upper stories, giving the face a top-heavy look, which became very popular in the Art Nouveau craze. The curves are much thicker than expected, perhaps a bit outside acceptable for good color, so a high contrast in places where you would not expect. The serif is minimal and difficult to discern in my specimens, so I interpolated somewhat. Its modern sort-of-equivalent look is like Newtext, Americana or the modern Copperplates. I worked mostly from the patent specimen, because it was quite different from all the printed materials I examined. Stigmata (2018). Only rock-solid project management, determination and a tolerance for tedium will get a typographic revivalist though the gantlet in bringing back to life one of the most complex typefaces ever designed, Stipple. The history of this unique letterform is provided by Anna Allen as follows: The brilliant Herman Ihlenburg completed design of this masterpiece in 1889; in January–February 1890, he patented it and assigned the rights to MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan [USPTO D19660]. Concurrently, he patented a set of related ornaments for line finials and a semi-rectangular frame [USPTO D19659]. The earliest commercial specimen examined was shown in the June 1890 edition of The Inland Printer by Shniedewend & Lee Co., then MSJ's Chicago agent. Widely considered unvectorizable, it was thus a challenge I undertook because the number of good specimens was high enough to consider the challenge. The rest of the story of this revival is too long and technical to relate, so I will describe this is as a maximally decorated modified bold Latin banner typeface. Just one of these characters contains around 2,000 data points, close to the maximum possible to create a font that will not crash. Thanks to all and sundry for a few rare specimens and particularly the US Patent Office for its poor but complete specimen of the 48-point characters; and several others for the serendipitous discovery of a couple important 36-point characters. The bang, question, period, comma and colon were designed by me to make the font more usable. Stipple is now available for the first time in 130 years. Sundog (2019). This 9-weight series is a revival of a typeface shown as Sunningdale (in three weights from Dan X. Solo). It is a slab face Egyptian italic with very nice swashes, but there is no punctuation for this letterform. It contains a large range of alternate characters. Although I don't know the origin of this typeface, it is almost certainly the same designer as Whitley Sans, revived most recently by me. The lighter weights in this series are almost strictly monoweight, but there is an increase in contrast from Light through Heavy, as in the original forms. Sunnybrook Script (2019). This is a very light monoweight upright semiscript of my own design with a lot of features found in traditional scripts of 150 years ago. The exuberant swash capitals are very loosely based on Flemish Script but have been modified a great deal and standardized across several glyphs. It can be set in a wide variety of languages. Superior (2018). This is a digital revival of Superior, whose first showing I have as April 1886 from Great Western Type Foundry in Chicago. It is a slightly decorated extra-light condensed Latin existing only in caps as far as I can tell. There is a full set of numerals and minor punctuation. Superior is a rather simple revival in relative terms and requires only a few hours because of that simplicity and paucity of other glyphs. It has perhaps been revived by other developers, but I am not sure. Tanglewood (2017). This revival ranks in the top five of the most difficult projects I've undertaken, not only because of the sheer amount of work involved in drawing the characters but in addition because of the number of glyphs that happened to be available. The name of this face was originally offered as Conner Ornamented No. 43, patented by James M. Conner in 1881. My undying thanks must go to Robert Donona, who supplied an incredibly good specimen from Graphic Compositions, Inc.'s phototype specimen book wherein the typeface is called Tangier. Diacritical marks, superior and inferior characters and basically enough glyphs to complete a large OTF file were evident in the specimen. Specimens of such completeness are rare in the world of typography, but having them available for viewing makes the revival process a time-consuming, if satisfying, venture. It required an absolutely stupid amount of time to finish. Several people have said this is my magnum opus...so far at least! Tasty Gothic (2018). This is a digital revival of typefaces variously known as Tasso, Gotham and No. 205). 1890 (Tasso, Gotham), Barnhart Bros. & Spindler; 1895 (No. 205) George Bruce's Son. Some hunting around was necessary to find missing glyphs, but my version appears to contain everything that was originally designed for this very pleasant monoweight gothic. Tender Regard (2018). This is a digital revival of a graceful letterform originally known as Tendril. The design for Tendril was patented by Herman Ihlenburg [1843–1905] in 1878. Along with Camelot (Goudy-Phinney/ATF Boston 1900), his application was one of the fastest-approved in 19th-century history. Rights were awarded in less than three weeks during November and assigned to MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan [MSJ ] of Philadelphia. Thursday Roman (2017). Attached is my digital revival of Thurston, a letterform appearing in one of Dan Solo's numerous type specimen books. I don't have any information on the source of this form, but like other postings here, this will be updated at some point in the future for the curious. This face is strongly reminiscent of the Peignot types, sans serifs with relatively strong contrast, but in this case with quirky ornamentation. Tiberius (2017). Tiberius is a revival of a typeface called Tirolean. This is another strange letterform that has distinct Art Nouveau influences, but I'm not at all sure of the history of this face except that it was found in a Solo catalog. Tinting Series (2017). Tinting is a faithful rendition of MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan's Tinted and patented by Charles H. Beeler around 1885. Because the lining work in each was different depending on the point size of the metal type used (in order to achieve the same visual "grayness" when printed), I have developed each of these in such a way that when the same size is selected for each font, the optimal relative size is actually produced. The same technique was used for the equally challenging typeface called Luray. Trinitro (2018). This super-sophisticated stylized Latin (known originally as Trinal) was patented by British immigrant William F. Capitain [b1850] of Chicago in September–October 1888. The Marder Luse Type Foundry (a.k.a. Chicago Type Foundry ), his employer since 1874, advertised it in The Inland Printer edition of November 1888. It was shown by ATF until c1900. Trinal has been digitized, containing many of the variously decorated characters that make up a large font. I am not at all sure I found everything, and it took the sleuthing of several other fanatics to find anything like a final set of everything that may have been produced. Tunbridge Shadow Ornamented (2017). This is a revival of Tungsten, another oddball ornamented style probably originating in the late 19th century. Unitary Roman (2017). Unitary is a revival of a wood type published as Unique. I have no other information as to the provenance of this typeface except that it was taken from a Dan X. Solo publication. Valor Shade and Rimmed Shade (2017). These digital revivals started out in 1847 at V & J Figgins and there were several other variants in wood type at the time. Van Horn, Zebra and Tuscan Condensed Shade were other names used over the years, but the latter best describes the letterform. This is a moderately challenging revival that can be made available for chromatic separations, as many of these complicated characters were intended originally. Venetian Tulip Wood (2018). The story of this revival is unfolding, but to make it short, this was digitized from a very large point-size specimen of what purports to be wood type from Kelly's collection. But upon further investigation, it is unclear whether this sample was a drawing made from an impression (or printed specimens) or whether it is an actual impression of wood type itself. I suspect the former, but it is indeed a legitimate typeface (and an important early 19th-century face) that existed in several different decorated forms. It is unclear which came first, the metal or the wood letterform. Technically this is an exuberantly decorated drop-shadow concave Tuscan. Vicarage Initials (2017). This challenging revival took many hours to complete for digital font use, but well worth it. Vatican Initials was found in a Solo publication and much has been done here to achieve consistency of color and design without sacrificing the nuances of this rare beauty. Warpath (2017). Warpath is a revival of a wood typeface called Wampum in Dan Solo's publication; otherwise, I don't know the provenance of this letterform. Whitestone Sans (2019). This is a digital revival of a very unusual face called Whitely Sans, found in a Solo publication. It is a medium-weight sans serif italic with very nice swashes and an interesting treatment of shading. There is a wide variety of alternate glyphs, including rare "ending forms," several of which I produced on my own to make it a little more consistent with typefaces supplied with ending forms. Wood Types Numbers 154, 500, 506, 508 & 510 (2017). These are five unrelated wood types that were occasionally used in foundries setting metal type because of their availability in large sizes. No. 154 is a modified Tuscan; Nos. 508 and 510 are flared sans serifs; and Nos. 500 and 506 are Latins. Like most wood types, the character availability was usually quite limited. The free sans typeface families done in 2003: Clemente, Ultima, Passion Sans (a Peignotian family). His 19th century series, all made in 1995 or 1996: APT New Abramesque, APT New Alferata (psychedelic), APT New Armenian, APT New Belmont (Victorian), APT New Brenda, APT New Cabinet, APT New Caprice, APT New Dawson, APT New Euclid, APT New Linden, APT New Madison, APT New Moorish, APT New Mystic, APT New Rollo (Victorian), APT New Slapstick (wooden plank font), APT New Spiral, APT New Stephen Ornate, APT New Teahouse, APT New Viola, APT Novelty Script. The wood type collection of Alan Jay Prescott. APT Antique Wood Double Outline Shaded 1995, APT Antique Wood Extended 1996 APT Caslon Wood w: Alts 1996 APT Clarendon Wood Extended 1996 APT Columbian Wood w: Alts 1996 APT Courier Wood 1997 APT Doric Wood 1995 APT Gothic Wood (+Alts) 1997 APT Grecian FullFaced Wood 1996 APT Jenson Old Style Wood 1996 APT Kurilian Wood w: Decorated Alts 1997 APT Modified Gothic Wood Cond 1997 APT New Venetian Wood 1996 APT New Woodcut Shaded Initials 1995 (Houtsneeletter) APT Roman Wood 1994-1995 APT Tuscan Antique Wood (+Alts) 1995-1996 APT Tuscan Concave Wood 1996-1997 APT Tuscan Contour Wood 1996 APT Tuscan Gothic 1 Wood 1996, APT Tuscan Gothic 2 Wood Cond w: Alts 1996, APT Tuscan Gothic 3 Wood Cond w: Alts 1997, APT Tuscan Gothic Pointed Wood w: Alts 1997 (Ironwood) APT Tuscan Italian Wood 1997 APT Unique Wood 1995 APT Wood 1995-1997 APT Wood No. 501 1996 (orig Wm.H. Page 1887), APT Wood No. 508 1997, APT Wood No. 51 1997, APT Wood No. 510 1997, APT Wood No. 515 1996 Stencil typefaces designed in 1995 and 1996: APT Crystal Ship (1995), APT New Acapulco Light (1995; after the phototype Acapulco Light VGC), APT New Alpha Midnight (1996; after a typeface from 1969 sold by John Schaedler), APT New Beans w/ Alts (1996, after Beans by Dieter Zembsch, 1973), APT New Checkmate (1995---not a stencil type, really, but rather a modular typeface; after the film type Checkmate), APT New Zephyr (1996). Computer fonts designed in 1995 and 1996: APT Bugsy (1995), APT New Quote (1996: bilined). Art nouveau typefaces designed in 1995 and 1996: APT New Abbott (1995; after Joseph W. Phinneys' abbott Old Style, 1901), APT New Ambrosia (1995, after Peter Schnorr's 1898 Jugendstil typeface), APT New Baldur (1996; after Baldur by Schelter (1895) and Julius Klinkhardt (1903)), APT New Jagged w/ Alts (1996), APT New Jason (1996), APT New Livonia (1996), APT New Margit w/ Alts (1996), APT New Nightclub (1995), APT New Quaint (1995), APT New Quaint Open (1995). Decorative typefaces designed between 1995 and 1997: The Bizarre series (decorative caps), Advertisers Gothic PD (2010: a large family based on Robert Wiebking's ugly original from 1917), APT Antique, Crayon PDS (2013, a decorative Victorian family), APT Caslon 76 (1997, based on a Compugraphics original), APT Feinen Inline (1997, after Henry Mikiewicz, 1983), APT Millais (1995, unknown origin), APT New Abel Cursive (1996, a revival of Bernie Abel's Abel Cursive (Compugraphic, 1974)), APT New Artcraft (1996), APT New LSC Book (1996, after a 1970 original by Lubalin Smith Carnese), APT New Classic Rubber Stamp (1996: based on DeVinne by G.F. Schroeder, 1890; F.W. Goudy 1898), APT New Hearst (1995, based on an original from Inland Type Foundry, 1901, which was famously ripped off from Goudy; the Italic was by Carl Schraubstadter, 1904), APT New Ticonderoga (1995-1996), APT New Woolly West (1995), APT Horizon Initials (1995), APT New Gill Floriated (1995), Old Gothic Initials Plain (1995: Lombardic caps), Pfister Bible Gothic APT Cameo (1997, blackletter caps), APT Saint Nick (1995: snow-themed caps), APT Black Dog (1995), APT Blacksmith Heavy (1995), APT New Airedale (1995, after an original tattoo / poster from the 1930s), APT New Blade Display w/ Alts (1996), APT New Cugat (1995; a wedge serif letterpress emulation typeface), APT New Fieldstone (1995), APT New Static (1995), APT New Trump Gravur (1995; after Georg Trump, 1954), APT New Yagi Bold (1996), APT New Courtier Italic (1996, Vanity Fair), APT New Harlequin (1996), APT New June (1996, after Fournier le Jeune). Avant Garde typefaces: APT Avant Garde Alts and Display (1997), APT Lubalin Graph Alts (1997; to be used with BT Lubalin Graph, Ed Benguiat, 1974). Local download of some of his fonts. [Google] [More] ⦿
Aktiengesellschaft für Schriftgiesserei und Maschinenbau (or: AG für Schriftgiesserei)	Foundry in Offenbach, Germany. Their main specimen book is Haupt-Probe über Schriftgiesserei-Erzeugnisse und Messing-Material (1911, Offenbach am Main). House typefaces include the blackletters Angelsächsisch, Archiv-Gotisch (1909), Asta (1902), Freigotisch, and Schöffer-Gotisch (ca. 1900). Heinrich (Heinz) König made the blackletter typeface Germania (1903). Eduard Brox designed Moderne Alt-Fraktur (1907; some give the date 1910). Albert Christian Auspurg created the blackletter typefaces Apart (1911) and Fraktur-Kursiv (1923). Their art nouveau typefaces include Apollo (ca. 1900), Inserat Kursiv, Neptun, Tedesca. For digital revivals, see Appeal DT (2007, Malcolm Wooden, a revival of Apollo) and RMU Neptun (2021, Ralph M. Unger). [Google] [More] ⦿
Al Luce	Lyon, France-based designer of the art nouveau-lettered illustration Metadream (2014). [Google] [More] ⦿
Alan Cairns	Designer of Nouveau (1992), a font based on the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow at the turn of the century. [Google] [More] ⦿
Alan Carr	Partial list of Alan Carr's fonts, made principally between 1992 and 2004: AdLib, AdLibEx, AdLibTh, AdLibWd, Algeria, Animals, Anwik, Arcitectura, BeeBopp, BeeBoppWide, Blast, BlueCard, BusinessIndustrial, BusinessIndustrialDingbats, Busorama, Carolus, CarrAnimalDingbats, CarrArrowsfilled, CarrArrowsoutline, CarrAstroDings, CarrBalloons, CarrDingbats1, CarrDingbats2, CarrDings, CarrElecDingbats, CarrElectronicDingbats, CarrGovernment, CarrKeys, CarrSpace, CarrXmasDingbats, Carrick-Regular, CarrickCaps-Caps:001.001, CaslonAntique, CaslonAntiqueItalic, CaslonAntiqueLefty, CharlemagneBold, Choc, ChocWd, Coco, ComicBook2, Croissant, CroissantEx, CroissantLefty, CroissantWd, Desoto, Electrik-Italic, Electrik, ElectrikCn, ElectrikEx, ElectrikWd, Empire, Enviro, EnviroCapsLefty, ErasContour-Italic, ErasContour, ErasContourEx, ErasContourLeftyWide, ErasContourTh, ErasContourWd, Fletcher-Gothic (art nouveau face, made famous by the TV show Murder She Wrote), Fountainpen, Fragola, Frankfurt, FrankfurtCn, FrankfurtExtended, FrankfurtLefty, GlypicItalic, Graphik, GraphikShadow, Halt, Hobo, HoboLeftified, KabelBook, KabelLeftieBook, Keypunch, KeypunchLeftie, Leigh, Lithos, MathSymbol, MtypeCursive, NewYorker, NewYorkerEngraved, Omnibus, Paintbrush-Italic, Paintbrush, PaintbrushCn, PaintbrushLeftified, PaintbrushWd, PaperClip-Bold, PaperClip-Italic, PaperClip, PaperClipCn-Italic, PaperClipEx-Italic, PaperClipWd, PaperClipsBentToTheLeft, Quadrille, QuickSilver, Revere, Roller, Squire, States, Stop, Tatum, TestFrogRemix, UnitedStates, Uptight-Italic, Uptight, UptightCn, UptightEx, UptightLefti, UptightTh, XmasDings, YankeeEngravedNormal. Dafont link. Fontsy link. Fontspace link. Abstract Fonts link. [Google] [More] ⦿
Alan Jay Prescott [AJPT]	[More] ⦿
Alan Meeks	Prolific type designer, b. London, 1951. Alan started working in 1970 for Graphic Systems as a lettering artist. In 1975, he joined Letraset as the Senior Type Designer and Studio Manager where he was responsible for all the artwork produced by the Letraset studio. During his tenure at Letraset, he designed over 40 popular typefaces, including Bramley, Candice, Bickley Script and Belwe. Most of these typefaces also showed up in the Scangraphic collection. Together with type director Colin Brignall, Alan contributed to the success of Letraset. All the original typographic artwork produced at Letraset was produced by hand cutting the fonts in Rubylith, a highly-skilled technique known as stencil cutting. Alan was responsible for training the entire Letraset studio in this art. Most of the original Letraset artwork has now been archived at St. Brides Printing Library, London. Today, Alan works independently, specializing in all facets of corporate identity including type design, typography, packaging, and development of logos and symbols. His oeuvre (sold via MyFonts) includes: Letraset: Aardvark (with Colin Brignall, 1969). Also see Aargau (Softmaker). Font Factory: Chalfont (2003: similar to Antique Olive), Brigade (classic roman), Fairway (curly sans), Copacabana (italicized roman). Elsner&Flake fonts: Bramley, Cabaret, Candice, Chesterfield, Einhorn (1980, Scangraphic, a revival of a 1931 typeface by Heinrich Maehler called Salut), Frankfurter (1978-1981, with Nick Belshaw and Bob Newman; for digital versions, see Farnham by Infinitype and F821 Deco by SoftMaker), Galadriel (1975; specimen; another specimen), Glastonbury, Knightsbridge, Plaza, Princetown (athletic lettering font done in 1981 based on Princetown by Dick Jones at Letraset), Rialto, Shelley, Tarragon (1981, art nouveau). ITC fonts: Algerian Condensed, Ambrose, Belwe Mono, Bertie, Bickley Script, Burlington (1985), Cabaret, Campaign (stencil), Cancellaresca Script (1982), Champers, Claude Sans, Dynamo Shadow (1977), Fashion Compressed (1986, Letraset: a fashion mag didone typeface), Flamme (1993), Follies (1991), Frankfurter (1978-1981, with Nick Belshaw), Glastonbury (1979), Inscription, Jazz, Lightnin' (1994), Limehouse Script (1986), Locarno (1986), Malibu (1992), Plaza, Ragtime, Regatta Condensed, Savoye, Shelley, Tannhauser (1988), Varga (1991), Waterloo Bold (1987). Letraset fonts: Aachen, Ambrose (1985), Belwe Mono (1989), Bertie (1985, a Mexican simulation face), Bickley Script, Burlington (1985), Campaign, Champers, Claude Sans (1988), Fashion Compressed, Flamme, Follies, Inscription, Jazz (1992, art deco), Lightnin, Limehouse Script, Locarno, Malibu, Ragtime, Regatta Condensed, Savoye (1992), Tannhauser, Varga, Waterloo Bold. Linotype fonts: Aachen, Algerian, Belwe Mono, Bertie, Bickley Script (1986), Bramley, Burlington, Cabaret (1980), Campaign, Cancellaresca Script, Can dice, Champers (1991), Chesterfield, Claude Sans, Dynamo, Einhorn, Fashion, Flamme (script), Follies, Frankfurter, Galadriel, Gill Display Compressed, Glastonbury, Inscription (1994), Jazz (1992), Kestrel (1985, a connected signage script at Letraset based on Commercial Script; Ralph Unger's 2011 typeface Faulkner Pro is based on Kestrel; see also Kestrel Script (2010), Meeks's own digital version, its informal version Falcon Script (2013), and Subflux's Ballpark Weiner), Knightsbridge, Lightnin, Limehouse Script, Locarno, Malibu, Plaza (1975), Plaza, Ragtime (1987), Regatta Condensed, Rialto, Savoye, Shelley, Tannhauser, Tarragon, Varga. Typefaces from 2011: Dublin (a Celtic typeface), Chalky. Typefaces from 2014: Pinot Grigio Modern (a modern rounded multi-style update of Peignot, originally designed in 1937 by A. M. Cassandre), Falcon Script. Typefaces from 2015: Park Lane (a classicitalic roman). Typefaces from 2017: British Empire (a colonial typeface). Typefaces from 2018: Arequipa (a titling font), Independence Script (a cursive script loosely based on the Declaration of Independence; co-designed with calligrapher Satwinder Sehmi), Witchcraft. A classic roman. Typefaces from 2019: Aquitania Script (calligraphic). Typefaces from 2020: Bodoni Elegant. An 8-style family in Bodoni's style with oh so slight curves thrown in. Typefaces from 2021: Pantomime (a heavy monolinear script). URW++ revivals: Glastonbury (2009). Allan Meeks collection (Cedars, PA): Astoria (2006, miniserifed family based on Gill Sans), Astoria Sans (2011), Astoria Classic (2016), Astoria Classic Sans (2017, with a Peignotian feel), Brigade (2003, serif family), Copacabana (2004, based on Goudy Old Style Italic), Vatican (2005, a calligraphic typeface characterized by the sharp edge style of Arthur Baker), Colosseum (2008, a sans based on Trajan roman and influenced by Friz Quadrata), Chalfont (2003, a News Gothic style typeface with thinned strokes near the bottom---strange and somewhat unattractive), Fairway (2003, a quirky sans), Chalfont Roman (2020), Spartacus (2014), Winterfell (2019). Custom type: Benson&Hedges, Lilt, The Woolmark Company, Somerfield, Tarmac, Clearstream. Galadriel, Kornelia and Sparky are floating around freely in cyberspace. FontShop link. Linotype link. View Alan Meeks's typefaces. Yet another page with Alan Meeks's typefaces. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Albert Boton [BVS Boton]	[MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Albert Legault	In the book Divertimento (Editlivre, Paris), Albert Legault (UQAM, Montreal, Canada) published the decorative art nouveau caps alphabet Eugene Grasset (2015). PDF file for the Eugene Grasset alphabet [120MB]. [Google] [More] ⦿
Alberto Pedro Di Santo	Creator of these typefaces at the Spanish type foundry Eurotypo: The rounded hexagonal typeface Klipa (2013). The chancery script typeface Alfina (2014). Its bold version is Alfina Notte (2016). The art nouveau typeface Oblonga. The chancery cursive script Donna Lena (2014). Vicentina (2014). The ductus of the gothic cursive calligraphic Vicentina has been derived from the documents redacted by Master Domenico Dominici from Vicenza, while most of the inspiration comes from books preserved in the archives of Orvieto Cathedral (Archivi dell'Opera del Duomo di Orvieto). Nova Caere (2015), an urban calligraphic typeface. Ottocento (2015, Eurotypo) is a crisp elegant chancery cursive, derived from XIXth century Italian calligraphic sources. Pieve (2015). A great calligraphic typeface. Andovai (2016, Eurotypo). A modern cursive typeface family. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Alberto Villanueva	Alberto Villanueva (b. 1982) lives in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat near Barcelona. He designed the gothic display typefaces Cintia (2013) and Scythe (2013). Typefaces from 2014: Brava, Otrebla, Naula, Aghila, Wex, Malk, Fulgura, Dawner, Hebe, Mulago, Wako, Senzi, Awelita, Serpi, Connexion (circuit typeface), Caramelo, Matcha, Pazuzu, Rustika (art nouveau). Typefaces from 2015: Drabe, Respingo, Keyla, Greenstone, Linu (bilined). Typefaces from 2016: Molona (brush script), Zem (a futuristic typeface), Uglygraphy, Glabori, Campana (vector font), Grobb, Xtravagant, Wouliane, Kuasar. Aka Albertako. Dafont link. Creative Market link. [Google] [More] ⦿
Albion Room	Indonesian designer of the brush script typeface Carbella (2015), the art nouveau typeface Multazam (2015) and the cursive script typeface Callison (2015). In 2016, he designed Everlast. In 2017, he published the vintage monoline script typeface Poptis. [Google] [More] ⦿
Alcode [Sukjana Almunandar]	Banda Aceh, Indonesia-based designer (b. 1993) who specializes and excels in formal calligraphic typefaces. Creator of the thin calligraphic typefaces Yesterday (2017: upright) and Jazzi Script (2017), and the swashy formal calligraphic typefaces Peaches (2017), and Sinday College (2017). Typefaces from 2018: Malikon, The Duality, Karmila Script (a signature font), William Duke (a great formal calligraphic script), Differenlight (Spencerian calligraphic), Stipa Willington (formal calligraphic), Gatlik Saphir (formal calligraphic), Lile Dahliya (formal penmanship calligraphy), Bulgattie (copperplate calligraphy). Typefaces from 2019: Laront Monoline, Claristy, Graceful (a thin Spencerian script), Beduga (a signature script), Desirable Calligraphy (Spencerian), Fantera (a baseball script). Typefaces from 2020: Colfige (a fashion mag typeface), Claristy, Dalgond Script (formal calligraphic), The Duality (a formal calligraphic script), Peaches (a penmanship script), Imagine (calligraphic), Willmaster Calligraphia (a Spencerian penmanship script), Quntas Script (a hairline calligraphic font), Kota Datoma (wild calligraphy). Typefaces from 2021: Betting Soker (a brush script), Tugafy (fashion mag font), Mole Display (a distorted font), Avole (a hipster fashion mag font), Qanthorely Castigra (a wild Tree Frog genre script), Bolgifam (a triptych of stylish typefaces including a formal copperplate calligraphic style), Matilost Wikly (script), Silta The Farming (a brush script), The Kaluge (a feminine display typeface), Silta The Farming (a brush script), Tylaco (an art nouveau typeface), Dofta (a high-contrast decorative typeface), Dofta (a high-contrast decorative typeface), Batick Rodist (a wild script in a font duo), Blosta (a fashion serif and a copperplate calligraphic script), Piguet Script, Migueto (a fashion mag typeface), AvOle Serif (a fashion mag typeface; identical to Migueto). Typefaces from 2022: Roti Brown (an elegant wild script). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Alejandra De La Torre	Morelia, Mexico-based designer and illustrator. Creator of Nouveautype (2015). [Google] [More] ⦿
Alejandro Fauré	Chilean illustrator and designer from the art nouveau era, 1865-1912. Check Alejandro Fauré Obre Gráfica (Mariana Muñoz and Fernanda Villalobos, 2009). [Google] [More] ⦿
Aleksander Moskovskin	Moscow-based designer. During his studes there in 2016, he co-designed the free constructivist / art nouveau / pre-Petrine Latin / Cyrillic typeface Dobrozrachniy with Misha Panfilov (Russian Fonts). Behance link. [Google] [More] ⦿
Alessandro Becagli [Champagne Design]	[MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Alex Joganic [1871 Project]	[MyFonts] [More] ⦿
Alex Sorin Marinescu	Iasi, Romania-based designer of the art nouveau typeface Zos (2018). [Google] [More] ⦿
Alexander Bobrov [Indian Summer Studio]	[MyFonts] [More] ⦿

SWITCH TO INDEX FILE