TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Fri Dec 13 00:44:19 EST 2024

FONT RECOGNITION VIA FONT MOOSE

LUC DEVROYE

ABOUT

Storm Type Foundry [Frantisek Storm]

Storm Type is a major Czech foundry that offers the inspiring work of Frantisek Storm (b. 1966, Prague). Most typefaces are made by Storm himself. The typefaces:

• Aaahoj: a ransom note font.
• Abald (2005): Abald adds to the number of "bad-taste" alphabets as seen on faded commercial inscriptions painted on neglected old houses.
• Academica: Josef Týfa first published Academia in 1967-68. It was the winning design in a competition for scientific typefaces, announced by Grafotechna. It was cut and cast in metal in 1968 in 8 and 10 point sizes in plain, italic and semi-bold designs. In 2003 Josef Týfa and Frantisek Storm began to work on its digital version. The new name Academica distinguishes the digital execution (and modifications) from the original Academia. In 2021, Frantisek Storm added Academica Sans.
• Aichel: originally designed for use in architecture (in this particular case for a UNESCO memorial plaque for a church built by Jan Santini-Aichel on Zelenà Hora). It has a stone-chiseled look.
• Alcoholica
• Alebrije (2015). A 42-cut exaggerated cocaine-driven typeface family with instantly recognizable v and w that have slabs on their baselines.
• Amor Sans and Amor Serif (2005).
• Amphibia (2016). A lapidary typeface family.
• Andulka (2004): 24 weights for use in books, mags and newspapers. Extended in 2011 to Andulka Sans.
• Antique Ancienne, Moderne&Regent (2000): Baroque typefaces.
• Anselm Sans and Serif (2007): 20 styles about which Storm writes The ancestry of Anselm goes back to Jannon, a slightly modified Old Style Roman. I drew Serapion back in 1997, so its spirit is youthful, a bit frisky, and it is charmed by romantic, playful details. Anselm succeeds it after ten years of evolution, it is a sober, reliable laborer, immune to all eccentricities. It won an award for superfamily at TDC2 2008. It covers Greek as well.
• Areplos (2005): Based on Jan Solpera's 1982 typeface with serifs on top and serifless at the bottom.
• Bahnhof: poster typeface from the 1930s.
• Baskerville Original Pro (2010) comprising Baskerville 10 Pro, Baskerville 10 Cyr, JBaskerville, and JBaskerville Text. This is an important and thoroughly studied execution starting from photographs of prints from Baskerville's printing office, ca. 1760.
• Beletrio and Beletria (2018). Beletria (26 styles) is intended as a modern book type. Beletrio is a peaceful accompanying sans.
• Bhang (2011) is a flat brush signage family of exceptional balance.
• Biblon (2000; note: ITC Biblon is a watered down version of Biblon, so please go for the original, not the ITC version). Biblon Pro (2006) is even better; 6 weights.
• Briefmarken (2008): letters that look dented like postage stamps.
• The 64-style Carot type system (2020), which consists of Carot Sans, Carot Display, Carot Slab and Carot Text.
• Clara Sans and Clara Serif (2014). Based on sketches by Rotislav Vanek, and published at Signature Type Foundry.
• Clichee
• Cobra (2001)
• Comenia Script (Radana Lencov&acaute;), an upright script with a handwritten look for teaching writing.
• Comenia Text (2006): a serif family for school books. Also called Comenia Pro Serif.
• Compur (2000).
• Coroner (2018). A blackletter first sketched in 1988.
• Defender (2008): a heavy slab family.
• Digita (2004)
• Dracula (2017). A great blackletter family.
• Dynamo Grotesk (1995): Storm's 60-weight sans family going back to the early sans traditions. In 2009, this was updated to Dyna Grotesk Pro.
• Enamelplate (2011).
• Etelka (2005, 42 styles): a corporate identity sans family, which became commercial in 2006. Four Etelka Monospace styles were added in 2008. Etelka Sans and Etelka Slab were released in 2019.
• Evil
• Excelsior Script (1995-1996), perhaps renamed Excelsor Script around 2000.
• Farao (a great Egyptienne font in 3 weights)
• Friedhof (2011). A family based on tombstone lettering from ca. 1900. It contains handtooled and shaded (Geist + Deko) variations.
• Gallus Konzept (2007, in many weights):
• Carolingian-Roman-Gaelic-Uncial script, or an exploration into how the Latin alphabet could look were the evolution of the Carolingian Minuscule to stop in the 8th century AD in Sankt Gallen.
• Genre: a modern face.
• Fenix 21 through 23 (2010): An elliptical sans family that includes a hairline (21).
• Header (2009): a magazine headline family.
• Hercules (2001). A didone family originally influenced by Monotype's fat face Falstaff (1935).
• Hexenrunen (2006, + Reverb): a runic simulation face.
• Ideal Gothic
• Inicia (2018). A sans originally drawn in the 1980s.
• Jannon (this is a formidable Garalde family). Jannon Pro appeared on MyFonts in 2010.
• Jannon Sans (2011).
• Jannon Text Moderne (2001): thicker hairlines and smaller x-height than Jannon Text, thus more generally useful
• Jasan (2017). A 36-strong sans family with lots of wide styles.
• JohnBaskerville (2000)
• JohnSans (2001, a 72-weight sans version of Baskerville)
• Josef Sans (2013, with Jan Solpera). A humanist sans family related to Josef Tyfa's Tyfa Roman (Tyfa Antikva).
• Juvenis (2003)
• Kompressor: techno typeface
• Lexicon Gothic: newspaper and magazine type family, created in 2000. Renamed Lexon Gothic.
• Libcziowes: based on the oldest lettering found in Bohemia, on a gravestone in Libceves dating from 1591
• LidoSTF (2001, free): a redrawn Times with lots of individuality, yet still a newspaper typeface
• Lokal Script (2009): a large hand-printed letter family.
• ITC Malstock (1996-1997), a condensed film poster face.
• Mediaeval
• Metron (2004, a digital version by F. Storm and Marek Pistora after a huge sans design from 1973 by Jiri Rathousky, which was commissioned by the Transport Company of the Capital City of Prague in 1970 to be used in the information system of the Prague Metro. In 1986, the metro started using Helvetica): this typeface is eminently readable!
• Modell: techno
• Monarchia [The Monarchia family, consisting of three designs, is a transcription of "Frühling" of the German type designer Rudolf Koch, enriched by a bold and text design]
• Moyenage (2008): a 25-style blackletter family for Latin and Cyrillic, almost an experiment in blackletter design and flexibility. Winning entry at Paratype K2009.
• Mramor (1988-2013). A roman caps typeface with lower case added. Storm: The text designs are discontinued since they were replaced by the related Amor Serif family (along with its -sans version). Even so, ten display styles are left.
• Negro
• Ohrada: condensed upper case
• Ornaments 1+2
• Ozdoby 1+2 (great dingbats): The set includes heraldic figures, leaves, decorative endings, various skull forms, weather signs, borders and many more.
• Patzcuaro
• Pentagramme
• Pentagraf: a slab serif
• Pepone and Pepone Stencil. Designed for setting belles-lettres, this serifed family defies classification.
• Pivo (2006), a connected diner script inspired by Bohemian beer labels.
• Plagwitz (2000, blackletter). Plagwitz poster by Lissa Simon (2012).
• Politic (2004): a clunky fat octagonal family made for billboards, flyers, posters, teabags, and matches for the green Party in the 2004 Czech elections. Caps only.
• Preissig Antikva + Ornaments: a 1998 digitization and interpretation of Preisig's polygonal type from 1925. The Pro version is from 2012.
• Preissig 1918: a typeface by Vojtech Preissig cut in linoleum
• Preissig Ozdoby
• Regent Pro (2015): a rustic Baroque typeface that oozes energy out of its semi-transitional semi-didone orifices.
• Quercus Whiteline, Quercus 10, Quercus Serif, and Quercus Sans (2015). Four large families, created for informational and magazine design, corporate identity and branding. The sans has a Gill flavor.
• Regula Text and Regula Old Face. Regula is named after the secular monastic order Regula Pragensis. Initially, the digitized font (regular old Face, which is now free) had jagged edges and a rather narrow range of applications until the summer of 2009, when Storm added text cuts. Regula was a baroque alphabet faithfully taken over from a historical model including its inaccuracies and uneven letter edges.
• Rondka (2001)
• Sebastian (2003, a sans with a funky italic), about which he writes: Sans-serif typefaces compensate for their basic handicap---an absence of serifs---with a softening modulation typical of roman typefaces. Grotesques often inherit a hypertrophy of the x-height, which is very efficient, but not very beautiful. They are like dogs with fat bodies and short legs. More# Why do we love old Garamonds? Beside beautifully modeled details, they possess aspect-ratios of parts within characters that timelessly and beauteously parallel the anatomy of the human body. Proportions of thighs, arms or legs have their universal rules, but cannot be measured by pixels and millimeters. These sometimes produce almost unnoticeable inner tensions, perceptible only very slowly, after a period of living with the type. Serifed typefaces are open to many possibilities in this regard; when a character is mounted on its edges with serifs, what is happening in between is more freely up to the designer. In the case of grotesques, everything is visible; the shape of the letter must exist in absolute nakedness and total simplicity, and must somehow also be spirited and original.
• Serapion (a Renaissance-Baroque Roman typeface with more contrast than Jannon)
• SerapionII (2002-2003): early Baroque
• Solpera (digitization of a type of Jan Solpera, 2000)
• SplendidOrnamenty (1998, a formal script font)
• Splendid Quartett: an Antiqua, a sans, a bold and a script. Stor writes: The script was freely transcribed from the pattern-book of the New York Type Foundry from 1882, paying regard to numerous other sources of that period.
• St Croce (2014). Based on worn-out lettering on tombstones in the St. Croce Basilica in Florence, this is a flared lightly stenciled typeface family.
• Technomat (2006): this typeface takes inspiration from matrix or thermal dot printers.
• Tenebra: a combination of the Baroque inscriptional majuscule with decorative calligraphic elements and alchemistic symbols
• Teuton (2001): a severe sans family inspired by an inscription on one German tomb in the Sudetenland
• Traktoretka
• Trivia Sans (2012), Trivia Serif (2012, a didone), Trivia Serif 10 (2012), Trivia Grotesk (2012, 48 cuts), Trivia Gothic (2013), Trivia Slab (2012), and Trivia Humanist (2013, a strong wedge serif family: I wanted a clear and majestic typeface for book jackets, LP cover designs, posters, exhibition catalogues and shorter texts).
• Tusar (2004): a digitization of a type family by Slavoboj Tusar from 1926
• Tyfa ITC + Tyfa Text: Designed by Josef Týfa in 1959, digitized by F. Storm in 1996.
• Vida Pro (2005), a big sans family designed for TV screens. Vida Stencil Demo is free.
• Walbaum Text (2002). Walbaum 10 Pro (2010) and Walbaum 120 Pro (2010) are extensive (and gorgeous!) didone families, the latter obtained from the former by optical thinning. Storm quips: I only hope that mister Justus Erich won't pull me by the ear when we'll meet on the other side. Advertised as a poster sans family, he offers Walbaum Grotesk Pro (2011).
• Wittingau (2016). A wonderful decorative blackletter typeface family, with a great set of Wittingau Symbols.
• Zeppelin (2000): a display grotesk

Alternate URL. Myfonts write-up.

At ATypI 2004 in Prague, he spoke about his own Czech typefaces, on his Czech Typeface Project, and on the life of Josef Týfa.

Linotype link. FontShop link. Klingspor link.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Storm Type Foundry
 [Buy fonts]
 [Designer info]
Monotype link
Klingspor Museum page
MyFonts search
Monotype search
Fontspring search
Google search

INTERNAL LINKS
Eastern European fonts ⦿ Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type design in Czechia ⦿ Blackletter fonts ⦿ Type for TV ⦿ Stencil fonts ⦿ Ransom note fonts ⦿ School fonts ⦿ Cyrillic type design ⦿ Monospaced fonts ⦿ Architectural lettering/typefaces ⦿ Rune fonts ⦿ Signage typefaces ⦿ Brush script typefaces ⦿ Modern style [Bodoni, Didot, Walbaum, Thorowgood, Computer Modern, etc.] ⦿ Art deco typefaces ⦿ Brutalist typefaces ⦿ Carolingian typefaces ⦿ Typefaces for alchemy ⦿ Uncial typefaces ⦿ Greek/Coptic ⦿ Lapidary typefaces ⦿ Baskerville ⦿ Dingbats (original) ⦿ Lapidary typefaces ⦿ Polygonal typefaces ⦿ Chiseled fonts ⦿