A. Bihari

American creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Aase (1977, art deco), Round Black (1977), DoublePipe (1975), and Corvina Black (1973). Aase exists in digital form at Image Club Graphics (1992). Corvina Black was revived and modified by Patrick Griffin in 2005 as Gaslon (Canada Type). Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

A. Mailay

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as the rounded sans typeface Arpad (1971). Arpad was modernized and extended by Jonathan Hill in 2010 as Brion. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Aaron Burns

Aaron Burns, designer/typographer, was President of Lubalin, Burns & Co., Inc., New York City. In 1970, Aaron Burns, Herb Lubalin and Edward Rondthaler (from Photo-Lettering Inc.) founded the International Typeface Corporation (ITC), and Aaron Burns became its President. In 1959 he founded the International Center for the Typographic Arts (ICTA), and was a founding member of the International Center for the Communication Arts and Sciences (ICCAS). He is the author of "Typography," published in 1961 by Reinhold Publishers, Inc. From 1955 to 1960 he taught Advanced and Experimental Typographic Design at Pratt Institute, New York.

He set up a type division at Rapid Typographers. There he helped promote the Typositor, or Photo Typositor (invented in Miami by Murray Friedel in 1959), which improved over the first photo type machine, the Rutherford. Rapid Typographers organized the Visual Graphics Corporation (or VGC) to make the best use of this new technology. Peter Bain writes: The owners of Rapid Typographers were impressed enough by Friedels invention to organize the new Visual Graphics Corporation. Initially the endeavor split its headquarters between the existing typographers address in midtown Manhattan and sunny South Florida. The Photo Typositor allowed an operator to see composition letter-by-letter as it was exposed, unlike the Rutherford. It also offered many of Photo-Letterings capabilities at a reduced price. The Typositor, as it became known, ingeniously used the same 2-inch film font format as the Filmotype. It speeded fashionably tight letter and word spacing, achievable in metal only with a razor blade after proofing, and had none of the size limitations of foundry type. VGC and its backers proceeded to convert metal typefaces to film, and pursued licensing with typefounders. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

ABC Types (was: Absolutetype)
[Tony Mayers]

ABC Types is Tony Mayers' foundry. Identifont link. Tony produced film titles in London's West End. He learned the craft of phototypesetting. In 1979, he moved to Manchester, where he founded The Quick Brown Fox Company. He created Concept Crisis (grunge face), Concept Sans, De-Generation, Generation Gothic, Generation Graffiti, Generation Headline, Generation Lost, Generation Open, Generation Pixel, Generation Uncial, Monolith Roman (2004), Monolith Sans, Poster Gothic, Ranger, Society, and Text Gothic. Before ABC Types, he ran Absolutetype, where he sold the typefaces mentioned above. The typefaces are now digitally available from Cedars, PA-based International Type Founders (ITF), which was created by Steve Jackaman. The latest address for ABC Types was in Cedars, PA. It is identical to that of ITF. Tony Mayers has died.

Ascender also sells its collection. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

A.D. Werner

Dutch type designer from the phototype era. His paperclip typeface from 1974 inspired Afrojet to create the FontStruction Paperclip (2010), and Wilson Thomas followed that up with Werner Paperclip (2010).

In 1972, he published the inline art deco typeface Dubbeldik at Mecanorma as a transfer sheet typeface. Dubbeldik was digitally revived in 2020 by Claudio Rocha (Now Type) as Werner. See also Dubbeldik (Mecanorma). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Adrian Frutiger

Famous type designer born in 1928 in Unterseen, Switzerland, who died in September 2015. He closely cooperated with Linotype-Hell AG, after having been artistic director at Deberny-Peignot in Paris since 1952. He established his own studio in 1962 with André Gürtler and Bruno Pfaftli. Art director for Editions Hermann, Paris 1957 to 1967. Frutiger lived near Bern, Switzerland, and was very interested in woodcuts. In 2009, Heidrun Osterer and Philipp Stamm coedited Adrian Frutiger Typefaces The Complete Works (Birkhäuser Verlag), a 460-page opus based on conversations with Frutiger himself and on extensive research in France, England, Germany, and Switzerland. Quote: Helvetica is the jeans, and Univers the dinner jacket. Helvetica is here to stay. He designed over 100 fonts. Here is a partial list:

• Président (Deberny&Peignot, 1954). Digitized by Linotype in 2003.
• Delta.
• Phoebus (Deberny&Peignot, 1953).
• Element-Grotesk.
• Federduktus.
• Ondine (Deberny&Peignot, 1953-1954). The Bitstream version of this font is Formal Script 421. Adobe, Linotype and URW++ each have digital versions called Ondine. Bitstream's Calligraphic 421 is slightly different.
• Méridien (Deberny&Peignot, 1955-1957). Digitized by Adobe/Linotype in 1989.
• Caractères Lumitype.
• Univers (Deberny&Peignot, 1957). About the name, Frutiger wrote I liked the name Monde because of the simplicity of the sequence of letters. The name Europe was also discussed; but Charles Peignot had international sales plans for the typeface and had to consider the effect of the name in other languages. Monde was unsuitable for German, in which der Mond means "the moon". I suggested "Universal", whereupon Peignot decided, in all modesty, that "Univers" was the most all-embracing name!. Univers IBM Composer followed. In 2010, Linotype published Univers Next, which includes 59 Linotype Univers weights and 4 monospaced Linotype Univers Typewriter weights, and can be rented for a mere 2675 Euros. In 2018, Linotype added Univers Next Typewriter. In 2020, Linotype's Akira Kobayashi dusted off Univers Next Cyrillic and Univers Next Paneuropean.
• Egyptienne F (1955, Fonderie Deberny&Peignot; 1960, for the Photon/Lumitype machine).
• Opéra (1959-1961, Sofratype).
• Alphabet Orly (1959, Aéroport d'Orly).
• Apollo (1962-1964, Monotype): the first type designed for the new Monotype photosetting equipment.
• Alphabet Entreprise Francis Bouygues.
• Concorde (1959, Sofratype, with André Gürtler).
• Serifen-Grotesk/Gespannte Grotesk.
• Alphabet Algol.
• Astra Frutiger. A typeface variant of Frutiger licensed under Linotype. It is the font used on the highways in Switzerland.
• Serifa (1967-1968, Bauersche Giesserei). URW++ lists the serif family in its 2008 on-line catalog. Other names include OPTI Silver (Castcraft), Ares Serif 94, and Sierra. Bitstream published the digital typeface Serifa BT. But it is also sold by Adobe, Tilde, Linotype, URW++, Scangraphic, and Elsner & Flake. The slab serif is robust and is based on the letterforms of Univers.
• OCR-B (1966-1968, European Computer Manufacturers Association).
• Alphabet EDF-GDF (1959, Électricité de France, Gaz de France).
• Katalog.
• Devanagari (1967) and Tamil (1970), both done for Monotype Corporation.
• Alpha BP (1965, British Petroleum&Co.).
• Dokumenta (1969, Journal National Zeitung Suisse).
• Alphabet Facom (1971).
• Alphabet Roissy (1970, Aéroport de Roissy Charles de Gaulle).
• Alphabet Brancher (1972, Brancher).
• Iridium (1972, Stempel). A didone with slight flaring.
• Alphabet Métro (1973, RATP): for the subway in Paris.
• Alphabet Centre Georges Pompidou. The CGP typeface (first called Beaubourg) used in the Centre Georges Pompidou from 1976-1994 is by Hans-Jörg Hunziker and Adrian Frutiger, and was developed as part of the visual identity program of Jean Widmer. It is said that André Baldinger digitized it in 1997.
• Frutiger (1975-1976, Stempel, with Hans-Jörg Hunziker). In 1999, Frutiger Next was published by Linotype. In 2009, that was followed by Neue Frutiger (a cooperation between Frutiger and Linotype's Akira Kobayashi). In fact, Frutiger, the typeface was made for the Charles De Gaulle Airport in 1968 for signage---it was originally called Roissy, and had to be similar to Univers. It was released publically as Frutiger in 1976. The modern Bitstream version is called Humanist 777. Frutiger Next Greek (with Eva Masoura) won an award at TDC 2006. Other digital implementations of Frutiger: M690 (SoftMaker), Quebec Serial (SoftMaker), Frutus (URW), Provencale (Autologic), Frontiere (Compugraphic), Freeborn (Scangraphic), Siegfried (Varityper). In 2018, under the aegis of Akira Kobayashi, the Monotype Design studio published the 150-language superfamily Neue Frutiger World (including coverage for Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Georgian, Armenian, Hebrew, Arabic, Thai and Vietnamese).
• Glypha (1979, Stempel). See Gentleman in the Scangraphic collection).
• Icône (1980-1982, Stempel, Linotype). Digitized by Linotype in 2003.
• Breughel (1982, Stempel; 1988, Linotype).
• Dolmen.
• Tiemann.
• Versailles (1983, Stempel).
• Linotype Centennial (1986). Based on Morris Fuller Benton's Clarendon typeface Century, Linotype Centennial was designed for Linotype's 100th birthday.
• Avenir (1988, Linotype). In 2004, Linotype Avenir Next was published, under the supervision of Akira Kobayashi, and with the help of a few others. In 2021, the Monotype team released Avenir Next Paneuropean (56 styles, by Akira Kobayashi). Avenir Next World, released by Linotype in 2021, is an expansive family of fonts that offers support for more than 150 languages and scripts. The subfamilies include Avenir Next Hebrew, Avenir Next Thai, Avenir Next Cyrillic, Avenir Next Arabic and Avenir Next Georgian. Avenir Next World contains 10 weights, from UltraLight to Heavy.

  Contributors besides Adrian Frutiger and Akira Kobayashi: Anuthin Wongsunkakon (Thai), Yanek Iontef (Hebrew), Akaki Razmadze (Georgian), Nadine Chahine (Arabic), Toshi Omagari (Arabic) and Elena Papassissa (Greek, Armenian). Lovely poster by Ines Vital (2011).

• Westside.
• Vectora (1991, Linotype).
• Linotype Didot (1991). See also Linotype Didot eText Pro (2013), which was optimized by Linotype for use on screens and small devices.
• Herculanum (1989, Linotype): a stone age font.
• Shiseido (1992).
• Frutiger Capitalis (2006, Linotype): a further exploration in the style of Herculanum, Pompeijana and Rusticana. Linotype trademarked that name even though at least five fonts by the name Capitalis already exist.
• Pompeijana (1993, Linotype).
• Rusticana (1993, Linotype).
• Frutiger Stones (1998, Linotype) and Frutiger Symbols.
• Frutiger Neonscript.
• Courier New, based on Howard Kettler's Courier, was one of Frutiger's projects he was involved in ca. 2000.
• AstraFrutiger (2002): a new signage typeface for the Swiss roads. Erich Alb comments: With a Frutiger condensed Type and illuminated signs during night it is mutch better readable.
• Nami (2008) is a chiseled-stone sans family, made with the help of Linotype's Akira Kobayashi.
• Neue Frutiger (2009, with Akira Kobayashi) has twice as many weights as the original Frutiger family.
• In 2019, the Linotype team released variable fonts for Frutiger's main typeface families, Avenir Next Variable, Neue Frutiger Variable, and Univers Next Variable.

Frutiger's books include Type Sign Symbol and Signs and Symbols. Their Design and Meaning (1989, with Andrew Bluhm, published by Studio Editions, London; Amazon link).

Linotype link. FontShop link. Adrian Frutiger, sa carrière française (2008) is Adèle Houssin's graduation thesis at Estienne.

Klingspor link. Wikipedia link. View Adrian Frutiger's typefaces.

View some digital versions of Avenir. Vimeo movie on Frutiger by Christine Kopp and Christoph Frutiger entitled "Der Mann von Schwarz und weiss: Adrian Frutiger". More Vimeo movies. [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]  ⦿

Airkraft

An outlined airplane lettering typeface made by Face Photosetting in the phototype era. [Google] [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]  ⦿

Akihiko Seki

Designer of Aki Lines (1970, ITC), a delicate multiline Latin display face. It was used for Microsoft's logo in 1975. Digital versions include Linea and Akka. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Al Eliott

Canadian type designer from Toronto 1922-1978, active in the phototype era between 1950 and 1985, who made these typefaces:

• The formal script typeface Balladeer (Headliners, 1975). This typeface was revived by Fontshop as Ballantines Script, by Profonts as Balladeer (2009), by SoftMaker as Ballantines Serial (2010), by Elsner and Flake as Ballantines Script (1974---this date puzzles me...), by Ralph M. Unger as Carla Pro (2013), by Castcraft as OPTI Dianna Script Agency, and by Dan X. Solo as Dianna.
• The psychedelic Charade. Charade was digitized by URW++ as Charade (2009). Some phototype catalogs show it as Gaston.
• The proprietary Post Office Cartier (late 1970s). Based on Carl Dair's Cartier.

The Baskerville Canada word mark in Canada's logo was lettered by Al Eliott. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alain Simon

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Karolys (Roman, Italique). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alan Jay Prescott
[AJPT]

[More]  ⦿

Alan Withers

Designer of the handcrafted typeface Shamrock in 1978 at Letraset, available from Linotype. It was revived by SoftMaker in 2016 as Somerset Pro.

Linotype link. Klingspor link. FontShop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Albert Boton
[BVS Boton]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Albert Hollenstein
[Studio Hollenstein]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Albert Nolan

Type designer for PhotoLettering Inc in the photo type era. His type designs include Akimbo 2, Akimbo 3, Brush Bold, Brush Animated Condensed, Brush Expanded 7, Brush Upright 9, Brush Upright Condensed 8, Brush Upright X Condensed 8, Brush Upright X Condensed 10, Caslon Schoolbook, Caslon Schoolbook 7, Caslon Schoolbook Italic 4, Cartoon Medium, Classic Script, Flamingo 2, Flamingo 5, Flight, Frolic Bodoni, Frolic Medium, Knockout, Marionette, Nolan Roman, Rodeo, Rodeo Script, Rumba 7. Vagabond Condensed. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Aldo Novarese

Italian designer, 1920-1995, who designed most of his typefaces at Nebiolo in Turin. Until 1975, he made about 30 families at Nebiolo, and after 1975, he produced about 70 further families of fonts. With weights included, he created about 300 fonts. Biography by Sergio Polano. He was very influential, and wrote two important books, Alfa Beta: Lo Studio e il Disegno del Carattere, a study on font design and history (1964), and Il Segno Alfabetico (1971). Essay by Sergio Polano on Novarese. The list of fonts done at Nebiolo:

• Landi Linear (1942). This was revived in digital form in 2011 by Toto as K22 Landi Linear.
• Etruria (1940-42)
• Express (1940-43)
• Normandia (1946-49, with Butti, and 1952)
• Athenaeum Initials (with A. Butti, 1945-1947)
• Fluidum (+Bold) (1951, script). Revived by Ralph Unger as Butti (2011).
• Fontanesi (1951-54, an all caps rococo font). Digital revivals include Fontanesi RMU (2018, Ralph M. Unger) and Fontanesi (2003, a free font by Frogii).
• Microgramma (1952, with A. Butti; available at URW++). This was done as an alternative to Bank Gothic, and is identical to Eurostile Bold Extended.
• Nova Augustea (1951, ITC Augustea Open)
• Egizio (1953-57), a slab serif [see E710 Roman on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002, or Egizio URW (2009, quite complete family with 5 styles) or Egizio EF (2001), or Thierry Gouttenègre's Aldogizio (2013)]. For a specimen, see here.
• Cigno (1954). This script typeface was revived an extended as P22 Cigno (2008, Colin Kahn, P22).
• Swan (1954), aka Cigogna (with A. Butti).
• Juliet (1954-55). For a superb revival and extension of this copperplate script, see Canada Type's Ambassador Script (2007).
• Ritmo (1955)
• Rhythm (1955)
• Garaldus (1956-ff). A garalde digitally revived in 2012 as Garaldus by Flanker.
• Slogan (1957). Digital revival by Terry Wudenbachs in 2010 called P22 Slogan.
• Recta (1958-1961). This is a large sans family. Canada Type published an 18-font revival in 2011, also called Recta.
• Estro (1961). A western font now found in the Mecanorma collection.
• Fancy (1961)
• Exempla (1961). Published by VGC in 1966. Third Prize in the 1966 VGC National Type Face Design Competition.
• The Eurostile family (1952: caps, with Alessandro Butti; 1962: lower case). This is carried by many foundries such as Adobe, Linotype, and URW++. Eurostile lookalikes include Aldostile (Autologic), ES (Itek), Eurasia (SoftMaker), Eurogothic, Eurostar (MGI Software), Eurostile, Eurostile Next (Akira Kobayashi), Gamma, Jura (Daniel Johnson), Microgramma, MicroSquare (SoftMaker), Microstyle (Compugraphic), NuevoSolStile (Cayo Navarro), SD Eurostile Elite (Justin Rotkowitz), Square 721 (Bitstream), Waltham. Noteworthy is Eurostile Round (2014), a rounded version of Eurostile by URW++.
• Patrizia
• Magister (1966)
• Forma (1966). Alessandro Colizzi explains: From 1965, following a marketing-oriented approach focused on the user, the management set a research group of graphic designers to work on a new typeface design. Headed by Novarese, who provided the basic alphabet, the team included Franco Grignani, Giancarlo Iliprandi, Till Neuburg, Ilio Negri, Pino Tovaglia, Luigi Oriani, and Bruno Munari. The collective design process was based on an analysis of contemporary sanserif typefaces and legibility tests, to develop a more mature, humane interpretation of the Swiss sanserif trend. The process was quite laborious with monthly meetings spanning across over two years. In 1968, Forma was eventually released as lead type. As its name implies, Forma aimed at representing the ideal letterform of its time, equally appealing to designers, printers and the general public. The typeface was favourably received by the design community (it won a special mention at Compasso d'oro in 1970), but although initial sales were encouraging, it could not really compete in a market already saturated by Univers, Helvetica and the like. . A grand revival of Forma, described by Indra Kupferschmdt, was organized by Roger Black for Hong Kong Tatler (as fashion mag). The revival was executed by Font Bureau's David Jonathan Ross in 2013. See David Jonathan Ross's site.
• Oscar (1966)
• Lambert (Compacta lookalike)
• Metropol (1967). This gaspipe typeface was digitized by Patrick Griffin at Canada Type in 2007 as Press Gothic. Originally, it was meant as an alternative to Geoffrey Lee's Impact at Stephenson Blake.
• Elite (1968, a boring linear script, digitized in 2005 by Canada Type as Fontella)
• Fenice
• Stop (1971; available at Mecanorma, Linotype, URW++, Elsner&Flake)
• Dattilo (1974, an Egyptian face) (1974): his last creature for Nebiolo, a typewriter type. It was considered as a slab serif companion of Forma. This typeface was revived as a variable font in 2020 by David Jonathan Ross.

• Primate (1972), for AG Berthold. For a digital revival of this wedge serif, see Luca Terzo's Noctis (2020).
• Sintex 1 (VGC, 1973). A revival and expansion of this funky nightclub typeface was done in 2008 by Patrick Griffin at Canada Type as Stretto (2008).
• Sprint (1974). A script typeface. Digital versons: Sprint (Linotype), Sprint (2019, SoftMaker).
• Bloc (1974, VGC)
• Mixage (1977 Haas, a lineal font, now ITC Mixage) 1985?
• Novarese Book (1978, now ITC Novarese Book)
• Lapidar (1977)
• Andromeda (1978, VGC)
• Global (1978, VGC)
• Fenice (1977-80; now ITC Fenice)
• Expert or Expert Haas (1982-1983). At Haas'sche Typefoundry.
• Floreal Haas (1983). A decorative and slightly wavy serif published by Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei.
• Colossal (1984); see Colossalis at Berthold, a slab serif sports lettering family)
• Stadio (1974). A reverse contrast sans that was published only as a rub-on transfer typeface. Revived in 2020 by the Zetafonts team as Stadio Now.
• Symbol (1982-1984, now ITC Symbol)
• Arbiter (1989, Berthold)

View Aldo Novarese's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Alex Steinweiss

Born in 1917 in Brooklyn, NY, Steinweiss became famous for his music album covers and the lettering used on them. Designer in 1939 of the curly hand-printed Steinweiss Scrawl, which was purchased by Photolettering Inc in the 1950s. It was revived in 1993 by Christian Schwartz as Hairspray (in Blonde, Redhead and brunette weights). Nick Curtis's 2005 font, Whirled Peas NF, revives Whitestone Crawl by Steinweiss. Michael Doret, with the help of Patrick Griffin, made a 2200-glyph curly script typeface called Steinweiss Script (2010), which captures a lot of the spirit of Steinweiss's album covers.

Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Alfie

A Victorian typeface from before 1964. Bauer (Stuttgart) and Berthod (Berlin) show an outline version of this typeface in their catalogs called Alexandra. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alfred Harrison

Designer of Step Up (Photolettering). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alfred Riedel

Type designer in Freiburg (b. Waldkirch, 1906; d. Freiburg, 1969) who was a pupil of Rudolf Koch, and studied at the Badischen Landeskunstschule in Karlsruhe. He designed books for Verlag Herder from 1935 onwards. His typefaces include the fat face Domino (Ludwig&Mayer, 1954). A digital revival was created by Nick Curtis in 2007, called Idle Fancy NF.

His typefaces Adamas and Adamas Unziale (1963, for Herder Verlag) were made into a phototype by Monotype.

Sample of blackletter calligraphy. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Alfted Guerra

Designer of the film font Times Square. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Algol Revived
[Michael Sharpe]

AlgolRevived is a free revival in 2017 by Michael Sharpe of the (photo)font Algol by Adrian Frutiger whose sole use was for printing ALGOL code in a manual: It is not meant to be a general purpose text font---the spacing is not optimized for that, being designed instead for printing computer code, where each letter should be distinct and text ligatures are banished. It seems to work well with the listings package, designed for exactly that purpose. Unusually for such a font, it is not monospaced, though perhaps this is no longer the issue it was in the days of FORTRAN. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alice Savoie
[Alice Savoie, Frenchtype]

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Alice Savoie, Frenchtype
[Alice Savoie]

Alice Savoie is an independent typeface designer and researcher, b. 1984, based in Lyon. She studied graphic design and typography in Paris at Ecole Duperré and Ecole Estienne, and in 2006 graduated from the MA in typeface design from the University of Reading (UK). In 2014 she was awarded a PhD from the University of Reading for the research she carried out in collaboration with the Musée de l'imprimerie in Lyon (France). Her research focuses on the design of typeface in France, the UK and the USA in the postwar period, and for phototypesetting technologies in particular: International cross-currents in typeface design: France, Britain, and the US in the phototypesetting era, 1949-1975. She collaborates with international type foundries such as Monotype, Process Type Foundry, and Tiro Typeworks, and specializes in the design and development of typefaces for editorial and identity purposes. She also designs multi-script type families, including Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Hebrew. She intends to sell her typefaces via 205 Corp.

Between 2008 and 2010 Alice joined Monotype as an in-house type designer, working mainly on custom type designs for international clients (The Times, Turner Broadcasting, Ogilvy, etc.). She has also contributed to the design of new typefaces for the Monotype library, such as the Ysobel type family (in collaboration with Robin Nicholas), and Rotis II Sans. Her type family Capucine is distributed by Process Type Foundry. In 2012 she collaborated with John Hudson/Tiro Typeworks over the development of the Brill typeface family for the Dutch publisher Brill. Since September 2013 she teaches typeface design at the Atelier National de Recherche Typographique in Nancy, and at ESAD Amiens (France). Her type foundry is called French Type.

She holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Reading (UK). She collaborates with design studios and type foundries on the design of multi-script typeface families. In 2018 she released the typeface family Faune, commissioned by the Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP) in partnership with the Groupe Imprimerie Nationale. Alice teaches and supervises research projects at ANRT Nancy and ENSBA Lyon (FR). She is the principal Post-doctoral Researcher on the Leverhulme-funded project Women in Type under the supervision of Fiona Ross at the University of Reading. Her typefaces:

• Her graduation typeface at Reading, Capucine Greek (2007) has been awarded as the best text typeface of the Greek alphabet exhibition, taking place during the 3rd international conference on typography and visual communication in Thessaloniki, Greece, 2007. Capucine is a very informal, almost hand-printed family covering both Latin and Greek in many styles. In 2010, finally, she published Capucine at Process Type Foundry (Grand Valley, MN), where she was briefly part of Eric Olson's team.
• The constructivist typeface Pozor (2005).
• The connected handwriting typeface Jeanine, done in 2006 at the École Estienne in Paris, where she studied from 2004 until 2006.
• In 2009, she co-designed Ysobel (Monotype; winner of an award at TDC2 2010) with type designers Robin Nicholas, head of type design at Monotype, and Delve Withrington. The sales pitch: According to Nicholas, the idea for the Ysobel typefaces started when he was asked to create a custom, updated version of the classic Century Schoolbook typeface, which was designed to be an extremely readable typeface - one that made its appearance in school textbooks beginning in the early 1900s. Buy it from Monotype.
• Brill (2012), co-designed with John Hudson for Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands, won an award at TDC 2013.
• The Royal Docks typeface was developed in 2012 for the London-based design studio APFEL (A practice for everyday life) as part of a wider architectural project by the London Development Agency, which proposed a new vision for the Royal Docks in East London. The strong-willed sans display typeface draws inspiration from the kind of industrial lettering frequently found around the Docklands, such as on cranes and containers. The typeface was used for a number of publications in relation to the redevelopment of the Royal Docks, and remains to this day exclusive to APFEL.
• The Fred Fredburger family was conceived by Monotype as a custom design for the identity of a children's TV channel. Conceived to be fun, friendly and adventurous, Fred Fredburger is a distinctive family of five styles: The Headline versions are conceived to be visually striking and appealing to children, while the Roman, Bold and Condensed weights are a touch quieter in order to be comfortable to read at text sizes. All five weights are also designed to work harmoniously across five different scripts: Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew (designed by Alice Savoie) and Arabic (designed by Patrick Giasson).
• Egra Tiflex was designed in collaboration with London-based Fraser Muggeridge Studio. The starting point for the design came from an unidentified set of old stamping capital letters produced by Tiflex, a French company specialised in industrial signage. A set of lowercase letters was later designed to accompany the caps, which was inspired from Grotesk wood types from the beginning of the twentieth century.
• In 2014, she worked on the typeface family Bogartes, which is a contemporary tribute to French typographic history, from Garamond, Fournier, and Didot to the idiosyncratic shapes of the 19th century. As a result of its mixed genetic make-up, the typeface family is rather playful. The project was started with the support of the Centre National des Arts Plastiques.
• Romain Vingt (2016) is a modern reinterpretation of a foundry face originally released by the Fonderie Alainguillaume at the beginning of the twentieth century. Alice writes: An elegant and voluptuous design with a resolutely French touch, this digital interpretation departs in places from its original model, just enough to withstand modern taste.
• In 2016, she designed Faune for Centre National Des Arts Plastiques. It is freely available from Fontsquirrel and at the Microsite. Faune won an award at the Type Directors Club's Type Design Competition 2019.
• Lucette (2021, Future Fonts). Alice writes: Lucette revisits the heavy top idea, a concept dear to French type designers throughout the last century. The typeface toys with the theory that emphasizing the top part of letterforms increases legibility, taking the concept to an extreme in Lucette Black. Lucette is loosely inspired by a variety of designs such as Gill Sans Double Elefans, Antique Olive, and the unreleased Nordica by Ladislas Mandel. Its name was chosen as a tribute to Lucette Girard, a talented letter-drawer who assisted some renowned designers throughout the second part of the twentieth century, including Adrian Frutiger, Roger Excoffon and Raymond Loewy.

Typecache link. Klingspor link. At ATypI 2014 in Barcelona she spoke about phototypesetting. Speaker at ATypI 2016 in Warsaw on Typefaces for telephone directories, a talk in which she and Dorine Sauzet describe Ladislas Mandel's oeuvre. Speaker at ATypI 2018 in Antwerp. Behance link. Estienne link. Reading link. Another link for the University of Reading. Fontsquirel link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Alphabet Innovations International -- TypeSpectra (Was: MM2000)
[Phil Martin]

Born in Dallas in 1923, and retired in Florida, Phil Martin had an exciting life, which started as a bombardier in WWII, and went on as a piano bar singer, publisher, cartoonist, comedian and typographer. He died in October 2005.

Phil established Alphabet Innovations International in 1969 and TypeSpectra in 1974, and designed most of his 400 typefaces (read: film fonts for use in the VGC Photo Typositor) there: Agenda (1976), Americana (1972), Arthur (1970, by Roc Mitchell), Aurora Snug (1969), Avalon (1972), Baskerville (1969), Beacon (1987), Bluejack (1974), Borealis (1970, by Roc Mitchell), Britannic (1973), Bulletin (1971), Celebration (1969, by Roc Mitchell), Century S (1975), Cheltenham (1971), Clearface (1973), Cloister (1975), Corporate (1971, by Roc Mitchell), Corporate Image (1971, by Roc Mitchell), Courier B EF (2004, originally done at Scangraphic), Didoni (1969, a knock-off of Pistilli Roman with swashes added), Dimensia and Dimensia Light (1971, by Roc Mitchell), Dominance (1971), Egyptian (1970), Eightball (1971, some report this incorrectly as a VGC face, which has a different typeface also called Eightball: it was digitized by FontBank as Egbert. Alphabet Innovations' Eightball had other versions called Cueball and Highball, and all three were designed by George Thomas who licensed them to AI), Fat Chance (Rolling Stone) (1971), Fotura Biform (1969), Franklin (1981), Garamond (1975), Globe (1975), Goudy (1969), Harem (1969, aka Margit; digitized and revived in 2006 by Patrick Griffin and Rebecca Alaccari as Johnny), Helserif (1976---I thought this was created by Ed Kelton; anyway, this typeface is just Helvetica with slabs), Helvetica (1969), Introspect (1971, revived in 2012 by SoftMaker as Looking Glass, and by Castcraft as OPTI Looking Glass), Jolly Roger (1970, digitized in 2003 by Steve Jackaman at Red Rooster; Martin says that Jolly Roger and Introspect are his two most original designs), Journal (1987), Kabell (1971), Kabello (1970), King Arthur [+Light, Outline] with Guinevere Alternates (1971, by Roc Mitchell), Legothic (1973), Martinique (1970), Mountie (1970), News (1975), Palateno (1969), Pandora (1969), Pazazzma (1980), Perpetua (1969), Plantin (1973), Polonaise (1977; digital version by Claude Pelletier in 2010, called Chopin Script), Primus Malleable (1972), Quaff (1977), Quixotic (1970), Report (1971), Romana (1972), Scenario (1974), Sledge Hammer (1971), Son of Windsor (1970), Stanza (1971, by Roc Mitchell; this angular typeface was later published by URW), Stark (1970), Supercooper (1970), Swath (1979), Threadgil (1972), Thrust (1971), Timbre (1970), Times (1970), Times Text (1973), Trump (1973), Tuck Roman (1981), Viant (1977), Vixen (1970), Weiss (1973), Wordsworth (1973).

In 1974, he set up TypeSpectra, and created these type families: Adroit (1981), Albert (1974), Analog (1976), Bagatelle (1979), Cartel (1975), Caslon (1979), Criterion (1982), DeVille (1974), Embargo (1975), Heldustry (1978, designed for the video news at the fledgling ABC-Westinghouse 24-hour cable news network in 1978; incorrectly attributed by many to Martin's ex-employee Ed Kelton: download here), Innsbruck (1975: revived in 2018 by Olexa Volochay as Tyrol), Limelight (1977), Oliver (1981), Opulent [Light and Bold] (1975, by George Brian, an amployee at Alphabet Innovations), Quint (1984), Sequel (1979), Spectral (1974), Welby (1982).

His fonts can be bought at MyFonts.com and at Precisiontype. He warns visitors not to mess with his intellectual property rights, but I wonder how he can have escaped the ire of Linotype by using the name Helvetica. In any case, the fonts were originally made for use on photo display devices and phototypesetters. Some are now available in digital format.

Near the end of his life, Phil's web presence was called MM2000 (dead link).

Check his comments on his own typefaces. URW sells these typefaces: URW Adroit, URW Agenda, URW Avernus (after Martin's design from 1972), URW Baskerville AI, URW Beacon, URW Bluejack, URW Cartel, URW Cloister, URW Corporate, URW Criterion, URW Didoni, URW Fat Face, URW Globe, URW Goudy AI, URW Heldustry, URW Helserif, URW Introspect, URW Legothic, URW Martin Gothic, URW Martinique, URW Pandora, URW Polonaise, URW Quint, URW Scenario, URW Souvenir Gothic, Souvenir Gothic Antique (the Souvenit Gothic family was designed by George Brian, an employee of Alphabet Innovations at the time: it was AI's first text family), URW Stanza, URW Stark, URW Timbre, URW Viant, URW Wordsworth.

Interview. Bye Bye Blackbird performed by Phil Martin in Largo, Florida.

The final message on his last web page, posted posthumously read: MARTIN, PHIL, 82, of Largo, died Tuesday (Oct. 4, 2005) at Largo Medical Center. He was born in Dallas and came here after retiring as a writer, singer-songwriter, commercial artist, and comedian. As a high school student, he worked as an assistant artist on the nationally syndicated Ella Cinders, and at 18 wrote and drew Swing Sisson, the Battling Band Leader, for Feature Comics. He was an Army Air Forces veteran of World War II, where he served as a bombardier in Lintz, Austria. On his 28th mission shelling the yards in Lintz, his B-24 was hit and he was listed as missing in action until the war in Europe ended. He was a comedian on The Early Birds Show on WFAA in Dallas. As a commercial artist, he founded two multinational corporations to market typeface designs and is credited for designing 4 percent of all typefaces now used. He also wrote columns and articles for typographic publications. Locally, he sang original lyrics to old pop standards in area piano bars, and in 1999 produced 59 issues of the Web book Millennium Memorandum, changing the title to MM2000 when he issued the first edition of the new Millennium on Jan. 3, 2000. Survivors include his wife, Ann Jones Martin; and a cousin, Lorrie Hankins, Casper, Wyo. National Cremation Society, Largo.

Phil Martin's digital typefaces.

FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Amelia's Adventure

Stanley Davis is the designer of the well-known font Amelia (1964), a winner at an international type competition run by Visual Graphics Corporation (VGC). In this article, we investigate why Stan is mad at Linotype and Bitstream (in his words: [...] Bitstream and Linotype have stolen my Amelia font [...] their renditions of it are pathetic). A comparison is made between these fonts: A770Deco (SoftMaker Software GmbH) [true to the original, a feature of most of the SoftMaker collection], BarbarellaSF (Brendel Informatik&SoftMaker Software GmbH, 1990-1993), PerkleDisplaySSi (Southern Software, Inc, 1992), AmeliaBT-Regular (Bitstream, 1990-1992), LinotypeAmelia (Linotype Hell AG, 1997), and Amy (Corel, 1991). Stan is in favor of strengthened copyright protection to avoid this sort of thing.

Additional revivals: Yellow submarine (1995, unknown designer), Amelia (Tilde), Amber (2019, Softmaker). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Andrea Cretton

Designer of Adonis (1971) for photocomposition for the Type foundry Amsterdam. This typeface was acquired by Stephenson Blake and cast in type. [Google] [More]  ⦿

André Chante

French designer of Club (1972), Go (1972) and Or (1970), all at Hollenstein Phototypo. [Google] [More]  ⦿

André Gürtler
[Team 77]

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André Pless

Designer of the transfer sheet typeface Lucky (Mecanorma, 1972-1973). This Western bullet hole and semi-psychedelic style typeface was designed in 1972 by André Pless for the Mecanorma type contest, and later released by Mecanorma in their Letter-Press transfer sheets.

Lucky was digitally revived in 2019 by Andrea Bianchi as the free font Lucky. Lunatique and Lunatique Rounded (2021) are revivals and extensions by The Flying Type (Erica Jung and Ricardo Marcin). [Google] [More]  ⦿

André-Michel Lubac

French type designer, b. 1955, who drew the calligraphic Le Griffe in 1973 (Letraset).

Fontshop link. Klingspor link. Linotype link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Andy Song

Creator (1936-1995) of the following phototype fonts at Studio Hollenstein: Arc en ciel (multilined), Indigo (1972; ornamental, art deco), Or (1967: prismatic). Or was digitally extended in 2016-2020 by Arve Båtevik as Store Norske Tyggis. Indigo was revived as a colour remix in 2021 by Arve Båtevik as Store Norske Stilig. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Anthony Liliefeldt

Designer of the film font Padua. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Anthony Violino

Designer of these typeface of these sixties-style comic book typefaces at Photolettering: Allegretto, Sonic. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Antonio (Tony) DiSpigna
[Thinstroke]

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Arthur Baker
[Arthur Baker Designs (or: Glyph Systems)]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Arthur Baker Designs (or: Glyph Systems)
[Arthur Baker]

American calligrapher in Andover, MA, who worked for many foundries, and ran several studios. He ran Glyph Systems in Andover, MA, and before that, Alpha Omega and Maverick Designs. Baker grew up in Berkeley, CA, and attended school on the West Coast and New York City. After serving in the U.S. Army, he studied under calligrapher Oscar Ogg and had private lessons with George Salter and Tommy Thompson. Some of Baker's earliest designs were made available through Photo-Lettering Inc., and his first widely-available commercial typeface was published in 1965. Baker's first book was published in 1973. Arthur Baker died in 2016 at the age of 86. Tribute by Allan Haley. His typefaces were all calligraphic:

• Amigo (Adobe), Amigo (Linotype). Designed by Arthur Baker in 1989 for Agfa Compugraphic, Amigo is based on spontaneous pen lettering and an exaggerated calligraphic look.
• Arrows (Arthur Baker). Made in 1995.
• Baker Signet (Monotype), Baker Signet (Bitstream), Baker Signet (Adobe), Baker Signet (Linotype). Originally designed as a photo type in 1965 for VGC, it was Baker's first commercial design. Baker Signet features in the word Coke on the Coca Cola bottles. Halley writes: Tall ascenders and angled weight transfer show a subtle foundation in late 15th century typefaces. Baker Signet can also be found at VGC as Baker Argentina No 1 (1976) and Baker Danmark One (1976). Baker Signet, in its display text weights, was at the basis of Sigvar (Softmaker).
• Calligraphica (Arthur Baker), Calligraphica (IHOF). Created in 1995.
• Cold Mountain (Arthur Baker). Designed in 1995.
• Collier Script (Arthur Baker). Designed in 1995.
• Daybreak (Arthur Baker). Designed in 1995.
• Duckweed (Arthur Baker), Duckweed Sans (Arthur Baker). Designed in 1995.
• Feathers (Arthur Baker), Fishface (Arthur Baker), Florettes (Arthur Baker), Flowery (Arthur Baker), Hands (Arthur Baker). Designed in 1995.
• Hiroshige Sans (Arthur Baker), Hiroshige (Adobe). Hiroshige was designed in 1986 by Cynthia Hollandsworth of AlphaOmega Typography, Inc. The typeface was originally commissioned for a book of woodblock prints by nineteenth-century Japanese artist Ando Hiroshige, whose work influenced many impressionist artists. Hiroshige Sans (Arthur Baker) followed in 1995.
• ITC Tiepolo (ITC), ITC Tiepolo (Adobe). Tiepolo was designed at AlphaOmega Typography for the International Typeface Corporation in 1987.
• Kigali (Arthur Baker), Kigali (Adobe). Designed by Arthur Baker in 1994 for URW, Kigali is a wide-bodied display type with bold, uneven pen-drawn strokes that taper dramatically downward. There also is a textured version called Kigali ZigZag.
• Marigold (Monotype), Marigold (Adobe). Marigold was first released by Agfa Compugraphic in 1989.
• Mercator (Arthur Baker), Mercator (IHOF). Designed in 1995. Based on the lettering of Flemish map maker Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594).
• The Maverick Designs Collection (1994): New Amigo (Arthur Baker), New Marigold (Arthur Baker), New Oxford (Arthur Baker), New Pelican (Arthur Baker), New Visigoth (Arthur Baker).
• Oakgraphic (Arthur Baker). Designed in 1995.
• Oxford (Adobe). Designed for Agfa Compugraphic in 1989. It is a robust and lively non-connecting script with several bi-form characters.
• P22 Matador (IHOF). P22 Matador (2007) is a contemporary Roman font based on the manuscript tradition (digitized by Michael Clark).
• Pelican (Linotype), Pelican (Adobe). Released by Agfa Compugraphic in 1989.
• Plumes (Arthur Baker). Designed in 1995.
• Sassafras (Arthur Baker), Sassafras (Adobe). Designed for URW in 1995, Sassafras is based on the natural inline effect created when writing with a split-metal nibbed pen.
• Swirls (1994), Swooshes (1994). Ornaments.
• Visigoth (Adobe), Visigoth (Linotype). Visigoth was created in 1988 by Arthur Baker for AlphaOmega Typography. He designed it specifically for setting the text of A Dante Bestiary published in 1989 for Ombondi Editions in New York.

Some explanations by Freddy Nader: The Baker Argentina and Danmark typefaces were variations on his Signet. Baker originally made Signet for Headliners International in the 1960s, where he worked full time. In 1972 he was approached by VGC and told that they would pay him royalties as well if he made the same typeface for them. Royalties were a relatively new thing back then - Tommy Thompson was the very first person to ever earn royalties in type (in 1944 for his Thompson Quill script for Photo Lettering Inc), and he wasn't a type designer per se, he was a calligrapher. Lured by the idea of royalties coming his way from two different directions for the same face, Baker did a Signet for VGC. When Bob Evans, owner of Headliners, found out, he threatened to sue VGC for trademark infringement (copyright for typefaces was unheard of at the time - every major photo type house had "similar" fonts, and whenever someone got exclusives made by outside designers under a royalty program, it was only a matter of weeks before they were knocked off and changed slightly by other type houses, big and small). So in order to avoid a trademark infringement lawsuit, VGC called their typeface Baker Signet, instead of just Signet, and went further by asking Arthur Baker to make a lighter version and a condensed version. The lighter version was called Baker Argentina, the condensed version was called Baker Danmark. The "Number One" prefix was added to both so that when the inevitable knockoffs happened, type buyers would know which type was made first. About Baker Sans, Freddy writes: The Baker Sans was a knockoff of Helvetica. It was a massive family of a lot of fonts, rendered very ugly by camera stretching and slanting. Eddie Bauer used it as their corporate typeface for a long time in order to avoid the expensive fees of licensing Helvetica. Tim Ryan ended up digitizing it for Arthur Baker in the mid 1990s for a lot of money. That digital version is now being sold by ITF under one of its many companies (either Arthur Baker Design, or Arthur Baker Designs, or maybe Maverick Designs).

MyFonts link. Klingspor link. View Arthur Baker's typefaces. Linotype link. MyFonts page. Another MyFonts page. And still another MyFonts page. FontShop link. View Arthur Baker's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Arthur L. Rawn

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Précis Slim (1972). [Google] [More]  ⦿

B. Th. P. Verkaart

Designer of the phototype headline sans font Annonce fett (+licht) at Berthold (1967) and Lettergieterij Amsterdam. [Google] [More]  ⦿

BA Graphics
[Robert Alonso]

Bob Alonso (b. Bronx, NY, 1946, d.2007), the founder of BA Graphics in 1994, was a prolific American type designer. With 33 years of experience at NewYork's Photo Lettering, he specialized in calligraphic script typefaces, but not exclusively so. BA Graphics was located in Chester, NY, and later in Toms River, NJ, and now sells its fonts through MyFonts. Many of its fonts published after Alonso's death in 2007 were completed by John Bomparte.

John Bomparte wrote this obituary: Throughout his career at the legendary Photo-Lettering, Inc. (one that spanned four decades), Bob created original typefaces and tailored type by modifying, revising and filling out families, fashioning pieces of type for hand-lettered jobs, as well as being involved with the updating of a number of well-known logotypes. Bob was blessed with natural teaching abilities; and those in social and professional circles who had the good fortune to know him considered him not just a type designer but a mentor and a friend. As one such person close to him put it, he was a graphic technician [...] back when computers were not even in site for graphic arts, he would take on any intricate&complex graphic project that others would shy away from and come up with a solution that achieved a masterpiece. I'll always remember someone saying "this can't be done" and Bob saying let me see it and a short time later, there it was---done&perfect. I would like to think that attitude rubbed off on me. Along with this gift for teaching and explaining the complex, Bob exhibited a level of professionalism that was unsurpassed. A number of years ago when the need came to make the transition from the traditional to digital way of creating fonts, he rose to the challenge admirably. Towards the last few years of Photo-Lettering, Bob played a vital role in the conversion to digital, of many of the typefaces within the collection, notably those fonts that carry the prefix PL. More recently, Bob Alonso released several fonts through ITC, Adobe and his independent foundry, BA Graphics. Bob was on the cutting edge of his best work, and in the circumstance of his untimely passing, left a measure of unfinished designs. However, the spirit of his typographic talents and his fine sense of humor lives on through the many much-loved, and popular fonts he has left us: fonts such as Cookie Dough, Equate, Elephant Bells and Pink Mouse, to name a few.

Alonso created these typefaces:

• Alex (1996). A child's hand script.
• Alexandra Script (1996). A beautiful formal wedding / calligraphic script.
• Allure.
• Alons Antique.
• Alons Classic.
• Alonso Flair (2008). A flared pants typeface fnished after his death by john Bomparte.
• Angular.
• Animated Gothic.
• Bad Boy.
• Barnboard.
• Beaches and Cream (1996). A sans turned into a connected scrip).
• Bedrock.
• Black Rising (2006). A black military style face.
• Blog (2007). A 1890's style display egyptian).
• Bodoni Roma (1993).
• Brawn.
• CEO Roman (2007).
• Cabernet Sauvignon (2007). Atake on Didot---I can't believe BA Graphics trademarked this name!
• Cafe Aroma. A formal script.
• Calafragalistic (1992).
• California Sans.
• Caslon Manuscript (1992).
• Cedar Key.
• Champ Ultra (1995). A Western billboard font.
• Chardonnay.
• Chicken Feet (2007).
• Chicken Soup (1993).
• Chunky Monkey.
• Clearmont.
• Coffee Black.
• Cookie Dough.
• Crackers.
• Crescent.
• Damage Control (1993). Grunge.
• Deco Inline.
• Deep Rising (2006). Constructivist.
• Dime Store.
• Down Under.
• Elegante.
• Elephant Bells.
• Ellington Manor.
• Equate (1993).
• Extreme (1996). A chalk writing font.
• Fashion Didot (1994).
• Felicity Script.
• Flix.
• Fools Gold. An inline typeface.
• Footloose (2015). A dynamic script typeface that was unfinished when Alonso died. John Bomparte finished it.
• Fraggle.
• Freaky Friday Extreme.
• French Vanilla.
• Galactic.
• Geo (2000).
• Grandeur.
• Granny Smith.
• Gusto Black (2003).
• Happy Trails.
• Hatari.
• Headline Gothic.
• Hey Dude (2016). Hand-crafted.
• High Intensity.
• ITC Aftershock (1996). A linocut font.
• ITC Outback (1997).
• ITC Serengetti (1996).
• ITC Ziggy (1997).
• Island Sans.
• Italian Didot.
• Jr High (1994). Sports lettering.
• Ka Boink.
• Ker Pow.
• Key West.
• Klingon.
• Kresson Black.
• Linear Gothic.
• Lorraine Script (2000). Originally named Gonzales Jeanette and designed by Francisco Gonzales for Photo-Lettering in the early 70s. Jeanette was based on Brandywine. Similar fonts are Italian Script (Bitstream), Gaston, Candice, Julia Script and Benguiat Charisma.
• Malibu Heights.
• Manchester.
• Mango Gothic (1991).
• Mardi Gras.
• Mega (1993). A fat mini-spurred didone.
• Metro Gothic.
• Milano (2004). A didone typeface.
• Mission Hills.
• National Gothic.
• Nightmare.
• Nine One One BA (2007). Grunge.
• Oh Sweet Pea.
• PC Gothic (2005).
• Paladium Gothic (2007). A sans typeface.
• Pecos.
• Pimento (1998).
• Pink Mouse (1992). Psychedelic.
• Queen Of Hearts (1991). a script typeface.
• Radiance Brush (1997). A casual brush script.
• Rancho Grande (1995).
• Range Gothic.
• Ravenwood.
• Red Dawg.
• Relaxed Fit.
• Richmond Hill.
• Road Gothic (1996).
• Robertson.
• Rust Bucket (1994).
• S+L Gothic.
• Sahara Bodoni (1996). One of his most popular typefaces.
• Senegal.
• Serendipity (2006).
• Shadow Gothic.
• Shangrala.
• Shazam.
• Shooby (1992).
• Shore Bodoni.
• Sign Gothic Bold Condensed.
• Slam Dunk.
• Sleepy Hollow.
• Sleezy.
• Snaggle.
• Snip Tuck (1994). A headline typeface.
• South Beach.
• Spice.
• Squat (2011). A stunted black wood style face.
• Steel Magnolias (1995). Blackletter.
• Steeplechase (1992). A Wild West saloon font..
• Sugar Shack (1995). A curly script.
• Summer Nights (1993).
• Swank Gothic.
• Tequila (1992). A bouncy play on Didot.
• Thats Amore.
• Title Gothic Light.
• Torino Modern.
• Triple Condensed Gothic.
• Triumph Gothic.
• Vinchenso Regular (2003).
• Wackado.
• Waimea (1992). A poster font..
• Wall Street Gothic.
• Wonka (1996). Named after Willy Wonka..
• Yakety Yak (1994).
• Zany.
• Zipty Do.

FontShop link. Klingspor link.

View Bob Alonso's typefaces. View the BA Graphics typeface collection. An alphabetic listing of Alonso's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Barclay Open

An open all-caps typeface made by Photo-Lettering Inc. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Barry Deutsch

Born in Brooklyn in 1940, he graduated from New York City Community College. Barry worked for Sandgren & Murtha, New York as a graphic designer.

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Deutsch Black (1966). This unicase piano key typeface was revived in digital format by Nick Curtis as Blackbarry NF (2011). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bernard Allum

Type designer, b. 1946, based in Twickenham, United Kingdom. He made a career in the broadcast business and has for for Channel One Television, Swan Media and The Graphics Department. In the 1970s, he designed these art deco typeface designs for Panache Photosetting / Face Ronchetti: Allumette, Ruthie, Danny Boy. He also designed the Neon Condensed weight for the Pink Floyd album Koda, but Neon was conceived by someone else.

Linkedin link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bernard Jacquet

American type designer who created the retro deco phototype Jackson (1971, Mecanorma), which can be bought from Linotype and URW. For a revival, see Jackson Regular (2019, Nick Öhlo).

Still at Mecanorma, he created the (phototype) flower power font Spring, which was revived at Canada Type as Jojo (2005, Rebecca Alaccari).

Klingspor link. Fontshop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Bernie Abel

Designer of Abel Cursive (Compugraphic, 1974). For a digital revival, see Alan Jay Prescott's APT New Abel Cursive (1996). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bill Garth
[Compugraphic Corp.]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Bill Garth
[Photon Inc]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Bob Newman

British graphic and type designer, most famous for his Data Seventy (1970, Esselte/Letraset), a display typeface that emulates the shapes of the early computer types [see Data EF at Elsner and Flake, and for a free knock-off, Westminster]. A cyrillization of Data70 was done in 1976 by Victor Kharyk.

Other designs by Newman include Penny Farthing (1974, Letraset), Odin (1972), Frankfurter (1970, Letraset, with Alan Meeks and Nick Belshaw), Linotype Horatio, and Pump (EF and Linotype versions).

On Frankfurter: a lowercase was done by Alan Meeks in 1978. FrankfurterHighlight (by Nick Belshaw) followed in 1978. An inline was added in 1981. Among the revivals, we mention Rafael Nascimento's Choripan (2020), Yorlmar Campos's RNS Baruta Black (2004), Scangraphic's Frankfurter, Linotype's Frankfurter, Infinitype's Farnham, SodftMaker's F821 Deco, and Castcraft's OPTI Frankfurter. See also the film type Frankfurter by Robert Trogman at Fotostar.

Zach Whalen analyzes Data Seventy in his 2008 thesis and states that Data Seventy is the first full alphabet based on the MICR font E-13B, since it includes both upper and lower case letters. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Bobst Graphic

Swiss photo-typesetting company. Among their typefaces, we find the 1977-1978 effort leading to Signa (by André Gürtler, Christian Mengelt, Erich Gschwind), and Trinité (1981, Bram de Does, part Bobst Graphic, part Autologic). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bomparte's Fonts
[John Bomparte]

Bomparte's Fonts is John Bomparte's (b. Port of Spain, Trinidad, 1959) foundry in Wake Forest, NC. A graphic and type designer, John Bomparte was the assistant to, and a protege of renowned type designer Ed Benguiat, at the legendary Photo-Lettering Inc. It was there that John was surrounded by other great type designers such as Tony Stan, Vic Caruso, Vincent Pacella and Bob Alonso.

John designed the art deco sans typeface Hamptons BF, and another art deco headline face, Take Two BF.

In 2006, he published the 12-style family Blackletter Sans and the exquisite poster semi-Greek simulation art deco typeface Abstrak BF (modeled after a 1931 ATF font by Robert Foster called Abstract).

In 2007, he surprises with the 1920s poster font Michelle BF, the hand-printed Brandy BF, its follow-up Johnny Script BF (2008), the quirky Freaky Frog BF, the dot matrix halftone effect font Subliminal BF, the frizzy Glow Gothic BF (2007), and the gorgeous swashy 3-style blackletter family Black Swan BF (2007).

His 2008 typefaces: Jacky Sue BF (based on the hand of Jackie Geerlings), SoHo Nights BF, Hamburger Font BF (a rounded fat face), and the art deco sans serif typefaces Sidewalk Cafe BF (2008) and Hamptons BF (2 weights).

Emerge BF (2009) is a flare serif inspired by Admiral, c.1900, from the Keystone Type Foundry. Freedom Writer BF (2009) is a connected handwriting script face.

Danielle BF (2010) is hand-printed, based on the hand of Danielle Paradis. Factor BF (2010) is an electronic / futuristic / techno face. FingerSpeller BF (1994) is an American sign language typeface. Retroscript BF (2010) and Capistrano BF (2010) are beautiful connected scripts.

In 2011, he added the fat felt tip pen typeface Sherbet BF and the funky rounded display typeface Dragonfly BF. In that same year, he published the stunted black wood type typeface Squat (BA Graphics, based on earlier work of or with Bob Alonso).

Typefaces from 2012: Rockport BF (a gaspipe font inspired by 19th century wood types), Wilmington Script BF (an upright loopy connected script).

In 2014, Seagrass BF, a connected script, and My Write Hand BF were published.

Footloose (2015, BA Graphics) is a dynamic script typeface that was unfinished when Bob Alonso died. John Bomparte finished it.

Typefaces from 2016: Shandy BF (a playful connected script).

Typefaces from 2018: Petals BF. A flourished curvaceous ornamental didone.

Typefaces from 2021: Between The Lines BF (a display typeface with some Super Veloz vibe).

Klingspor link. Catalog of some of his commercial fonts. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Bonder & Carnase, Inc.

A font studio opened by Ronne Bonder and Tom Carnase in the 60s. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Bronislaw Zelek

Polish type and graphic designer, b. 1935. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw under Henryk Tomaszewski in 1961. In 1967, he received Tadeusz Trepkowski's WAG Award and from the 1970s on he worked as Hernyk Tomaszewski's assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts. Best known for his film posters, he lived in Vienna, and then moved to Lower Austria, where is is a painter. At Mecanorma in the early 1970s, he made Zelek Black, Zelek Shadline, Zelek Bold, and Zelek Boldline. Zelek Black looks twisted and almost geometrically impossible.

Dan X. Solo in his Dover book "Moderne Alphabets" shows an identical face, renamed Zelda. In 2009, Zelek pops up again in a slightly reworked version by Simon Griffin for Wired UK. Typophile discussion.

Dick Pape made a series of Zelek revivals including Zelel Shadline, Zelek Black, Zelek Bold, Zelek Bold Reflection, and Zelek Bold Line.

The Russians have their own versions, starting with a 1987 semi-clone by G. Klikushin, which in turn inspired the 1993 face---far removed from Zelek's Zelek---, New Zelek about which its publisher Paratype writes: The typeface was developed at TypeMarket in 1993 by Alexey Kustov on the base of artworks of Viktor Kharyk and Lidia Kolesnichenko (1979), that were developed as a Cyrillic adaptation of the typeface of Bronislav Zelek, Mecanorma.

The multicolor layered typeface Bron was published in 2014 by Swiss type designer Jeremia Adatte.

In consultation with Zelek, Three Dots Type (Marian Misiak) in Poland did a revival called New Zelek Pro.

Klingspor link. Biography at Culture.pl. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Bruno Domenick

Designer at Photolettering Inc of Clarendon Condensed. [Google] [More]  ⦿

BVS Boton
[Albert Boton]

Albert Boton is a Parisian type designer and teacher, born in 1932 in Paris. Boton died in 2023. In 1957 he started work at Deberny&Peignot under Adrian Frutiger. From 1958 to 1966 he helped create several typefaces for the Hollenstein phototype catalog. In 1968 he became the art director for Robert Delpire publishers, but continued designing typefaces for the Hollenstein collection and later for Mecanorma and Typogabor. From 1968 to 1997 he was a teacher of type design and calligraphy at the École nationale des arts décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris. From 1988 to 1998 he taught type design at the Atelier National de Recherche Typographiques. In 1981 he became art director and head of type department at the design agency Carré Noir. Interview in the ENSAD Journal B. His company is called BVS Boton.

He is the designer of Berthold's Boton family (1986), FF Bastille Display package (2002, consists of FF Aircraft, FF Aircraft TF, FF District Bold, FF District Bold TF, FF Studio, FF Studio TF, FF Zan), FF Elegie (2002, art nouveau, a take on Auriol), Agora (1990, Berthold: a lapidary typeface), Chadking (1958), Roc (1959), Brasilia (1960), Primavera (1963), Rialto (1964), Black Boton (1970), PL Brazilia (PhotoLettering, a sans family), Zan (1970), Pharaon (1971, a great fat slab, eventually digitized by Monotype), Pampam (1974), Hillman (1972, an Egyptian family at Mecanorma), Tzigane (1973, a condensed family at Mecanorma), Chinon (1973, Mecanorma), Hudson (1973), Boton and Navy Cut (1986, for Mecanorma), the Scherzo family (at the Agfa Creative Alliance), Carré Noir (1996, also at Agfa), Bellini, Praxitel, Albotoni Book (made in 1974 originally), Kit, FF Page (2003, in PageSans and PageSerif families). Since 1998, he distributes his own fonts through BVS Albert Boton:

• Agora BQ (Berthold).
• Boton BE (Berthold), Boton BQ (Berthold), and Boton Pro (Berthold). Created in 1986. See also B790 Slab in the Softmaker collection.
• Carre Noir (Monotype).
• Chinon (Mecanorma Collection).
• FF Aircraft (FontFont).
• FF Cellini Pro (FontFont), FF Cellini Titling Pro (FontFont) and FF Cellini (2003, FontFont). Boton's take on Bodoni.
• FF District (2004, FontFont). A squarish sans family.
• FF Elegie (FontFont).
• FF Page Sans (FontFont) and FF Page Serif (FontFont).
• FF Studio (FontFont).
• FF Tibere (2004, FontFont). A classic roman family.
• FF Zan (FontFont).
• Hillman (Mecanorma Collection).
• ITC Elan (1985, ITC). A lapidary typeface.
• ITC Eras (1961-1976, ITC, Adobe). ITC Eras, a weird high x-height and open-bowled-a fashion victim of the 1970s, was copied by many---see, e.g., E820 Sans in the Softmaker collection.
• Linex Sans (Monotype) and Linex Sweet (Monotype). These fonts were first published by Agfa in 2003.
• Memo (Monotype).
• Pompei (1993, Monotype).
• Scherzo (Monotype).
• Tzigane (Mecanorma Collection).

Citroen's logo font at Delpire.

Klingspor link. Bio at FontFont. Pictures of an exposition in 2003. Linotype link. FontShop link. MyFonts link.

Aude Degrassat wrote a thesis on Boton in 2008 at Estienne.

Picture.

View Albert Boton's typefaces. Announcement of his death. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Calvin Valensi

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as the multilined paperclip typeface family Elektrik (1977). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Cargo

A URW++ cargo stencil typeface based on a PhotoLettering Inc. Design from the 1960s. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Carl Dair

Renowned Canadian type and graphic designer (b. Welland, Ontario, 1912, d. 1967 from a heart attack on a flight between New York and Toronto). He ran the Eveleigh-Dair Studio from 1947-1951 in Montreal with partner Henry Eveleigh. He worked mainly as a freelance designer, was department store art director and even typographic director for the National Film Board of Canada (1945). Dair lectured on typography at the Ontario College of Art between 1959 and 1962, and taught for a couple of years at the Jamaica School of Arts and Crafts. In 1956 and 1957 he received an RSC fellowship to study type design and manufacture in the Netherlands. During this period he had the opportunity to study metal type and hand-punching at Enschedé Foundry in Haarlem, where he created a silent film called Gravers and Files documenting one of the last great punchcutters, P. H. Rädisch. There is a beautiful modern version of the movie with voiceover by Matthew Carter.

He created Canada's first roman typeface, Cartier (1967, MonoLino Typesetting Company Limited) for Canada's centennial. Cartier was unfinished when he died. Rod McDonald finished it, to become a working and much larger typeface family called Cartier Book in 2000. Cartier has a sequel: Raleigh (Ingrama, 1977), co-designed by Robert Norton, David Anderson and Adrian Williams is sold by Bitstream, Adobe, Linotype, Paratype, and URW++. It is characterized by a bloated belly N. Raleigh was produced in 1977 by Robert Norton, and was based on Carl Dair's Cartier typeface. It was renamed Raleigh after Dair's death. Adrian Williams added three weights for a display series, and Robert Norton designed the text version. Several typefaces were influenced by Cartier. These include Ludwig Ubele's award-winning FF Tundra (2011). For a full revival, including both a facsimile and an interpretation, see Nick Shinn's Dair (2017).

Author of Design with Type (1952, revised and expanded in 1967 and republished by the University of Toronto Press (First Edition) in 2000). He also wrote several wonderful short treatises on various topics in type design. John Berry discusses Dair's seven different kinds of contrast, size, weight, form, structure, texture, color and direction.

FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Carla Bombere Nees

Type designer in the 1970s who won a Letraset type competition in 1973 with her wire frame design, Bombere. Harold Lohner revived the font under the name Wireframe (2000). See also here. Postscriptum: Carla was born Carla Bombere, then was Carla Ward for some time, and is now Carla Bombere Nees. Klingspor link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

C.B. Smith

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Sol (1975, with Marty Goldstein) and the neotech font family Harry (1966-1970, with Marty Goldstein). Harry was revived digitally by Steve Jackaman and Ashley Muir as Harry Pro (2009, Red Rooster). Sol was extended and revived by Patrick Griffin and Kevin Allan King in 2010 at Canada Type as Sol Pro (20 styles). [Google] [More]  ⦿

C.E. Coryn

Type designer (1893-1983) of the photo type era who worked for Photolettering Inc. His typefaces there include: Beauchamps Expanded Italic, Belgique Bold, Belgique Bold Italic, Berkshire, Bodoni Bold Italic, Cameroon, Centidot Condensed 2, Centidot Semi Condensed 2, Century Thin, Century, Chateau 2, Classique, Classique Italic, Classique Wide, Continental Condensed, Didot Light, Didot Light Italic, Didot Medium Italic, Didot Bold, Didot Bold ItalicDidot Demi Bold Expanded, Didot Extra Condensed, Distingue Thin, Elite Didot, Elzevir 3, Elzevir 3 Italic, Elzevir 4, Escorial Extra Condensed, Ester, Etroit Didot Condensed 2, Etroit Didot Condensed Obl., Etroit Didot Condensed 3, Expanda, Galaxy Didot, Marquis, Noblesse, Onyx Condensed Italic, Overture Script Light, Palladium, Rheinlander Bodoni Light, Rheinlander Bodoni 4, Soverign 3, Soverign 3 Italic, Venice, Venice Wide.

Several of these typefaces were digitized by the reincarnated PhotoLettering by House Industries. The latter include Coryn Galaxy Didot (2013, Tania Raposo).

There was a discussion on Typedrawerrs in 2021 regarding Photo-Lettering's Centidot Contempora. Florian Hardwig wrote there: Photo-Lettering's Centidots combine Century-like shapes with Didot hairlines. Centidot Contempora is shown in the Alphabet Thesaurus, Vol. 2 (1965) in five numbered weights, without designer credits. It was preceded by Coryn Centidot, drawn by C.E. Coryn (1893-1983). The fact that Centidot Contempora's name isn't preceded by the designer's family name suggests it was produced by the staff of Photo-Lettering, Inc. And as it was derived from an existing idea, no individual designer got credit. As far as I know, there is no digitization available. Stylistically related typefaces [include] Mort Modern, Eames Century Modern, Trivia Serif, Zahrah. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Charles Armand Peignot

French typographer, born and died in Paris, 1897-1983. Founder of ATypI, son of Georges Peignot, and lifetime director of Deberny&Peignot. Designer of Peignot (with Adolphe Mouron Cassandre). Founder of ATypI. Starting in the late fifties, the company prepared the fonts for Lumitype, European Photon. In the sixties, Charles Peignot invested heavily in Lumitype, which used up some of the money to buy control of Deberny&Peignot, and let Charles go. Deberny&Peignot closed in 1979, at which time the designs passed to the Haas'sche type foundry in Basel/Münchenstein. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Charles E. Hughes

Graphic artist, b. 1930, Chicago, IL, d. 2017, Edina, MN. Hughes moved to Minnesota in 2002, but he spent most of his career as a lettering artist in Chicago and Milwaukee. He worked briefly for ATF in 1948. Hughes designed ads for the yellow pages in Milwaukee and worked for ten years as a letter designer at the Milwaukee Journal. At age 30 he became a freelancer, drawing letters for international ad agencies and design studios such as J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett. Hughes gained a reputation for his versatility as a lettering artist. He designed fonts for several food products, including Raisin Bran, DiGiorno Pizza and Quaker Oat Bran, and developed an entire alphabet for Marlboro. He once was given the job of designing the catchphrase for Tony the Tiger, the cartoon mascot for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.

His retail typefaces include Indy Italic (1990, Letraset), an informal script, and Century Nova (American Typefounders, 1966, one of the last metal typefaces), the latter as a variation on Century Expanded.

FontShop link. Obituary. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Charles Hasler

British author of A Show of Hands (Typographica, 1953, pp. 4-11). The journal Typographica was edited by Herbert Spencer and published sporadically between 1949 and 1967. This article has many images of printer's fists and pointing hands.

Plinc Hasler Circus (2011, House Industries) is a digitizztion of a photo era font, Circus, done by Hasler for Photo-Lettering, Inc. in the 1950s. This circus font was digitized by Erik van Blokland in 2011 at House Industries, with a helping hand from Ken Barber.

Other typefaces designed by him at Photo Lettering include Regency Inline (caps only), French Antique Inline and Pearl Shaded (decorative caps). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Charles J. Freericks

Type designer in the phototype era. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Checkmate

A film type perhaps first shown by Dan X, Solo (although that is a wild conjecture) that was revived multiple times:

• Gamer (2004-2006, Canada Type).
• OPTI Cornered (Castcraft).
• APT New Checkmate (Alan Jay Prescott).
• DXS Checkmate (Dick Pape). This font is free.
• Checkmate (Dan X. Solo).

Christian Mengelt

Christian Mengelt (b. 1938, St. Gallen, Switzerland) is a graphic designer, type designer, and teacher. He studied graphic design under Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder at the School of Design, Basel. In 1964, he set up his own graphic design studio together with different partners, and has cooperated with various design and advertising agencies, such as GGK (Gerstner, Gredinger und Kutter) Basel, Switzerland, and Mendell&Oberer Munich, Germany. With Karl Gerstner and Günter Gerhard Lange, he was briefly involved in the Gerstner program at H. Berthold AG. Early type designs include Univers Compugraphic (1972, Compugraphic) and Cyrillic Gothic (1974, Compugraphic), both realized in cooperation with André Gürtler. From 1972 until 2001, he taught graphic and type design at the Basel School of Design, which he headed from 1986-2001. With André Gürtler and Erich Gschwind, he formed Team 77 in Basel and became deeply involved in most aspects of letterform design and application, which led to these type designs:

• 1976: Media (Bobst Graphic, Autologic).
• 1977: Avant Garde Gothic Oblique (ITC).
• 1978: Signa (Bobst Graphic, Autologic).
• 1974-1980: Haas Unica (Haas Type foundry, Linotype, Autologic). In 2012-2014, Christian revived this digitally as Unica 77 at Lineto, one year before Toshi Omagari published Neue Haas Unica at Linotype.
• After a long hiatus, with the help of the Linotype staff, he created Sinova in 2011, a versatile humanist sans type family in ten styles, which has broad language support.
• Mengelt Basel Antiqua (2014, Linotype). A relaxing Venetian text typeface family based on the Basel book typefaces from the 16th century. Linotype, its publisher, writes: The first edition of the anatomy atlas De humani corporis fabrica came out nearly 500 hundred years ago. It was published in 1543 in Basel by Andreas Vesalius. The work was published in multiple volumes and is extraordinary not only for its content and design, but also its typography. It excites philologists and typographers to this day. De humani corporis fabrica was printed in the workshop of Johannes Oporinus, who was considered one of the major printers and publishers in Basel in his time. He used one of the Venetian Antiqua-inspired fonts for the typesetting. This is a genre of fonts which was much loved by the Basel printers. The printer Johann Amerbach brought it to Switzerland from Italy a few centuries earlier. [Note: Is this a misprint?] The American philologist Daniel H. Garrison provided the initiative for Mengelt to explore the Basel Antiqua fonts from the 16th century. He is working on a re-edition of the De humani corporis fabrica and is looking for a fitting print font which has historical references, but the technical characteristics of a modern font. Mengelt takes on the challenge and designs his Mengelt Basel Antiqua font on the basis of the original Basel prints.
• He received an Honorable Mention in the Latin category for Newline in 2016 at the Morisawa Type Design Competition 2016.

Typedia link. MyFonts link. Linotype link. Behance link. Interview by Linotype. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Christof Gassner

Born in Zürich in 1941, Gassner is professor at the University of Kassel. He designed Vexier (1973), Leopard (1976), Knirsch (1976). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Christopher Mathews

Designer at Linotype of the multiline art deco or marquee typeface Piccadilly (1973). It can also be viewed as a paperclip face. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Churchward Type
[Joseph Churchward]

Joseph Churchward (b. Apia, Samoa, 1933) grew up in Samoa, and moved to New Zealand, where he founded a design studio in Wellington. He lived in Hataitai. He died in 2013 [Obituary by Jack Yan].

His early type designs were released as photolettering through Berthold. In 2000, in partnership with Chank, his fonts are finally being converted to the standard electronic formats. In 1984, he won a Silver Prize at the Morisawa Awards competition. In 2009, he was made a life member of The New Zealand Designers Institute DINZ.

MyFonts writes: Churchward Type started in 1962 as Joseph Churchward's freelance lettering service. Within six months he had generated enough work to move from his job as Senior Artist into setting up Churchward International Typefaces, which became one of the largest typesetting companies in New Zealand. In 1969 Joseph was asked to submit alphabet designs to Berthold Fototypes and saw immediate success. He later went on to sign distribution agreements with D.Stempel AG, Dr Böger Photosatz GmbH/Linotype, Mecanorma-Polyvroom B.V and Zipatone. He self-published a handful of original fonts in 1978 becoming the first and only company in New Zealand to publish original photo-lettering. Churchward International Typefaces was forced to close in June 1988 but Churchward Type lives on with a fresh set of independent releases. David Buck has taken on the role of digitisation. Joseph continues to draw alphabets and now has a stockpile of over 300 unique alphabets to his name.

Catalog of Joseph Churchward's typefaces:

• Chank sells ChurchwardHeading, ChurchwardSamoa, Churchward Maori, ChurchwardDesign5Line, ChurchwardBrush. See also Churchward Roundsquare (2002), which reminds me of Apostrophe's Toolego.
• At Berthold, he published Churchward 69 (1969, a fat face), Blackbeauty (1972; this psychedelic type inspired Nick Curtis's 2009 font, Strollin NF), and Churchward 70 (1970, a Bauhaus-style sans family).
• MyFonts sells Churchward Alien (2012), Churchward Maori (2004, frilly), Churchward Marianna (1969, an obese bubblegum typeface; Nick Curtis's Proud Mary NF (2010) is derived from it), Churchward Ta Tiki (2003), Churchward Asia (2003), Churchward Samoa (2003, 6-weight sans family), Churchward Maricia (a Western-style face), Churchward Brush (2006; copied by SoftMaker as Josephs Brush Pro), Conserif CW (2006, BluHead Studio), Churchward Heading (2007), Churchward Supascript (2007), Design CW (2006, BluHead Studio), Freedom CW (2006, BluHead Studio), Ta Tiki CW (2006, BluHead Studio), Churchward Newstype (2008, 8 styles, BluHead Studio), Churchward Chinatype (2008, 5 styles of oriental simulation glyphs), Churchward Heading (2011), Churchward Brush (2009, BluHead Studio), and Churchward Design Lines (1970, a prismatic multiline face), Churchward Montezuma (2012, an Aztec-inspired design digitized by BluHeadStudio), Churchward Legible.
• Churchward Tua (2014). A Western typeface published posthumously. Similarly, BluHeade published Churchward's 1996 geometric sans typeface Churchward Lorina in 2014.
• Churchward Isabella (2015). A geometric sans.
• Churchward 69 (2015, BluHead Studio). Churchward 69 is a ten-weight typeface family originally designed during the late 1960's, but published in 2015 by BluHead Studio.
• Churchward Typestyle (2022). By Bluhead Studio.

Klingspor link.

View Joseph Churchward's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Claes Nordenstam

Swedish painter, designer, illustrator, jazz musician and inventor, b. 1944, who studied under lettering artist Erik Lindegren. In 1976, Nordenstam drew a typeface originally called Quickstep. Letters from Sweden, who turned this into a font called Sväng in 2019, writes: Sväng was his initial foray into type design. We feel Sväng is one of the most original display faces from the 1970s. Exploring concepts similar to Aldo Novarese's Stop and Othmar Motter's Motter Tektura, it is more versatile and can be used for a broader range of applications. By removing parts of the letters, Nordenstam created surprising stencil letterforms. The dynamic geometric shapes display a strong 1970s vibe that is impossible to ignore. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Claude Mayet

Designer of the phototype era typeface Smile. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Claude Pauwels

Designer of the phototypes Pak and Zazi at Studio Hollenstein. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Collis Clements

Designer of the art deco typefaces Beale Varigated, Beale Charming and Roco (1974, Letraset). For digital versions of Beale, we refer to SoftMaker who made Beale Varigated and Beale Charming (and also B691 Deco and RSVP SF) in 1993, and published Beale Charming in 2019. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Compugraphic Corp.

Names of Compugraphic fonts. Ulrich Stiehl's compilation of type equivalences, as taken from Compugraphic's 1988 "The TypeBook". [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Compugraphic Corp.
[Bill Garth]

This company existed as Compugraphic and Agfa Compugraphic from 1960-1995. The timeline:

• Founded in 1960 in Brookline, MA, by Bill Garth and Ellis Hanson (Chief Engineer of Photon, Inc). The intention was to apply computer technology to typesetting. The company would go on to influence the world of photocomposing with its low cost typesetters.
• In 1963, the company relocates to Reading, MA, and introduces its Linasec I and II, the first general typesetting computers.
• In 1967, the company relocates to Wilmingon, MA, forms a Type Group and an engineering department, and releases its first typeface, Bodoni.
• In 1968, Compugraphic introduces the phototypesetters CG 2961 and CG 4961. In 1969, the 7200 Headliner machine (the first keyboard-operated machine to set headlines and display type) was added, followed, in 1970, by the Area Composition Machine (ACM) 9000, in 1971 by the CompuWriter machines, in 1973 by the VideoSetter I and II, in 1974 by Unified Compuser and ExecuWriter, in 1975 by UniScan and UniSetter, and in 1977 by the EditWriter 7500, the Mini-Disk Terminal, and the Mini-Disk Reader..
• The first typeface exclusively developed by Compugraphic, is released, Holland Seminar. It was created by Hollis Holland in 1973.
• 1974: The purchase of T. J. Lyons Press, gives Compugraphic the rights to nearly 2,500 old and antique typefaces.
• In 1981 Agfa bought 51% of Compugraphic, increased that to 80% in 1983 and finally they merged outright in 1989. The new company name is Agfa Corporation.
• In the late eighties, they proposed the scalable format FAIS as an alternative for type 1 and truetype. This format did not survive long.
• In 1992 Miles, Inc (Pittsburgh, PA) bought Agfa/CG. In 1995 Miles changed name to Bayer Corporation. Agfa is the imaging division of this comnpany.
• Finally, in 1999 Agfa (after acquiring Monotype in '97) became independent of Bayer. They now own the ITC catalog (and, by virtue of that, the former Esselte/Letraset font catalog too) as well as the others they picked up through the years.

MyFonts sells Garth Graphic (Compugraphic, and now Agfa/Monotype, by Constance Blanchard and Renee le Winter, based on earlier sketches of John Matt, 1979) and Phenix American (Agfa-Monotype), and named in honor of Bill Garth. Noteworthy is the 1988 catalog "The TypeBook".

Images of some typefaces: CG Garamond (now Monotype; see also Garamond Antiqua and Garamond Kursiv), CG Times (now Monotype).

Timeline at the Monotype Imaging site.

Compugraphic collection of fonts (with CG in the name). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Con Aslanis

Designer of Yarra (1974, Letraset). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Craig Mierop

Designer in the 1960s of the art deco typeface Ginger Snap (PhotLettering Inc). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Cruz Fonts
[Ray Cruz]

Cruz Fonts was established in Oakland, NJ, in 2004 by Ray Cruz, who has been a designer of custom lettering and custom typefaces to major ad agencies, publishers and corporate clients in the New York City area for almost 30 years. He has created many display typefaces for Agfa/Monotype, Bitstream, Phil's Fonts and Garage Fonts. Presently Ray Cruz is working as Type Director at Y&R NY, and is an adjunct professor at FIT and Kean University teaching type design. Bio at Garagefonts.

His oeuvre:

• Garagefonts: Cruz Grafica (1999), Cruz Grafica Inline, Troubadour.
• Agfa/Monotype: Bandolera, Bandolero, Cruz Handy (2001) and Cruz Swinger. Swinger, in fact, was produced in film type for the John Schaedler Studio in New York in the 1970s. Also, Elegante, Romantica (didone).
• Bitstream: CruzCanteraBT (2003, a stylish informal sans family), Homeland BT (2004, a text typeface with a large x-height), Vera Cruz (2003, a playful display serif), and Fat Albert (2004).
• Cruz Fonts: Satchmo (2016), Cruz Handy (2004), Troubadour (2004), Cruz Stencil (2012), Cantina, Bandolero, Cruz Swinger (fat semi-psychedelic signage face), Bandolera, Romantica Pro (2013, a condensed didone), Dot Script (2013, dot matrix face), Cruz Script Pro (2013: original from 2005), Bouncing Checks Layers (2014, octagonal and layered; includes 40 dingbats by Seymour Chwast).
• P22: P22 Cruz Ballpoint, P22 Cruz Calligraphic, P22 Cruz Brush.
• BarracudaPlain.
• Custom typefaces for Camel Cigarettes, Estee Lauder (1994), New York Life Insurance, The NFL Detroit Lions, Pella Windows, USPS, and Xerox.

Bio at Garagefonts. P22 link. FontShop link. PDF catalog.

View Ray Cruz's typefaces. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Daisy Alcock

Phototype designer for Photo Lettering Inc in New York. Her typefaces there include the uncial / medieval style family Alcock, which includes Alcock Roman, (+Inline), Alcock Light Italic and Alcock Versal. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dan X. Solo
[Solotype]

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Daniel Gelberg

At Photo Lettering Inc in New York, Daniel Gelberg designed these mostly handcrafted or script typefaces: Chipper, Falcon Bold, Flurry, Grotesque, Informal, Sequin, Swifty Light, Swifty Bold, Swifty Upright. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Daniel Hunyady

As a young artist and film font manufacturer in New York City, Daniel Hunyady (b. 1941) designed the piano key typeface Hunyday Gothic for John N. Schaedler Inc. in 1974. Schaedler suggested the name Hunyady Parquet. That great typeface was digitized in 2017, with Hunyady's permission, by Tobias Herz. Presently, Hunyady runs Hunyady Graphics in West Kill, NY. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Daniel Robichaud
[DR Fonts]

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Dave West

Type designer of the photolettering era (1960s) whose work is slowly but surely being digitally revived by Nick Curtis, and by Photo-Lettering, the House Industries subsidiary that bought the PhotoLettering Inc type collection. FontShop link. His typefaces:

• The slightly psychedelic typeface West Banjo. Nick Curtis's Fiddle Sticks (2007) is based on this typeface. For another digital revival, see Plinc Banjo (2017, Mitja Miklavcic at House Industries.
• Elephant Gothic, a fat deco face. Remade by Nick Curtis as Elephunky NF (2011).
• Nick Curtis believes that Stymie Black Flair may also be due to him, and he based his Tutti Paffuti NF (2007) on the latter face.
• African Queen was revived by Curtis as Djibouti NF (2007), a minimalist tribal African alphabet.
• Nickelodeon. Revived by Curtis as Lily Hilo NF (2008).
• Barnum Block (Western face), done in 1960 at PhotoLettering Inc. This became Cg BarnumBlock at Compugraphics. The Compugraphics collection is now sold by Monotype. See also PL Barnum Block.
• Behemoth (1960, PhotoLettering): a slab serif. This too became a Compugraphics face, Cg Behemoth Semi Condensed. See also PL Behemoth Semi Condensed.
• Bubble Gum (late 1960s). This bubblegum / cartoon font was finally digitized in 2011 by Jess Collins for House Industries, and is now called Plinc Bubblegum (2021).
• Futura Casual inspired Nick Curtis to draw Occidental Tourist NF (2010).
• Walnetto Casual (Photolettering) is another psychedelic face. For a digitization, see Nick Curtis's Jackalope NF (2010). West Barnum Ultra, designed by Dave West and digitized by Ben Kiel&Adam Cruz at House Industries in 2011, was film no. 5494 in the original Photo-Lettering archive.
• West Thud.
• West Kerpow, a comic book typeface, late 1960s. This was digitized in 2011 by Allen Mercer at House Industries as Plinc Kerpow.
• West Italiano, or simply Italiano. A Bodoni-style italic. In 2015, Steve Ross and Ken Barber at House Industries digitally revived this typeface as Plinc Italiano.
• West Emperor Script. A connected didone script.
• West Nouveau Compact (Pyschedelitype 5619 in the PLINC collection of 1968). See, e.g., Pyschedelitypes (Alphabet Directions No. 8), Photo-Lettering, Inc., 1968. In the Curvy Block Lettering style of Viennese secessionist Alfred Roller. The same face appears in Castcraft's Encyclopedia of Phototype Styles (1978) as Cetus Black.
• West Fifth Dimension (1971), an Alfred Roller-inspired psychedelic typeface that was shown in PLINC's Alphabet Thesaurus Vol. 3 (1971).

David Moore
[Typehouse]

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David Nelson

Designer of the cloud emulation typeface family Cumulus (Photolettering). [Google] [More]  ⦿

David Trooper
[DTrooper Foundry]

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Daylight Fonts
[Shinya Okabe]

Japanese foundry with excellent web pages on early 20-th century type design. Shin Oka, or Shinya Okabe (b. 1976, based in Himeji) created various revival fonts in or just before 2009, many connected in some way to Tom Carnase and the phototype era. He specializes in 1970s and 1980s typefaces, often with open counters and high contrast. His fonts:

• Bentley (2010). This is the same as Avant Garde Gothic.
• Bernhard Neo DF (2010).
• Caslon223 DF (after ITC/LSC Caslon 223 by Tom Carnase). Other Caslons include Caslon Headlione DF (2010) and Caslon Swash DF (2010).
• Didot DF (2008).
• Garamond DF (2010).
• Grouch DF (after ITC Grouch by Tom Carnase and Ronne Bonder)
• Lubalin Graph DF (after ITC Luabalin graph by Herb Lubalin, Ed Benguiat, Joe Sundwall, and Tony DiSpigna)
• Busorama DF (after ITC Busorama by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase)
• L&C Hairline DF (after L&C Hairline by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase)

• Baby Teeth (2009): after the art deco typeface of Milton Glaser, 1968, PhotoLettering.
• CBS Didot (2009): after the original by Freeman Craw, 1970s.
• Indigo (2009): after a font by Albert Hollenstein, 1970s.
• Pacella Collegiate (2009): after Vincent Pacella's typeface at PhotoLettering.
• Penny Bee (2009): a Peignot lookalike.
• Tiffany Heavy With Swash (2011). A swashy Didot display face. This type was used by Quentin Tarantino's movie Jackie Brown in 1997. Tiffany Heavy (Ed Benguiat, Photolettering) is basically identical to Benguiat Caslon Swash (1960s) and to Foxy Brown (1974). Similar typefaces include LSC Book with Swash by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase (ca. 1970).
• Wexford (2009): after the typeface of Richard A. Schlatter, VGC, 1972.

In 2020, Shin Oka released the caslon-sinspired Ivy Ivy, the piano key version of a fat Bodoni, the fashionable Gara Gara, the 1970s font Bern Bern, Super Bodo Bodo, the art deco / Bauhaus typeface Sophi Sophi, the art deco typeface Fifty Four, the fashion mag typeface Rache Rache, the Peignotian sans typeface Mid Mid Sun Sun, and the display didone Fau Fau. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Dick Dooijes

Dutch typeface designer, b. Amsterdam, 1909, d. Baarn, 1998. Trained and worked at the Lettergieterij in Amsterdam under S.H. de Roos, starting in 1926. He worked with de Roos on the design of the typefaces Nobel and Egmont. Dooijes studied at the Amsterdam College of Arts and Crafts and at the Academy of Art. In 1940, Dooijes succeeded de Roos as artistic director of Lettergieterij Amsterdam. He was director of the Gerrit Rietveld Acedemie from 1968 until 1975. Author of Mijn leven met letters, and Wegbereiders van de moderne boektypografie in Nederland (Amsterdam, De Buitenkant, 1988). His typefaces:

• The art deco triplet, Bristol, Carlton (1929, an engraved version) and Savoy (1936, a deluxe version). These beauties were published by Plantin. Images: 1932 1932. A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M. In 2010, Nick Curtis turned the three typefaces into digital fonts: Dooijes Deco NF, Dooijes Deco Engraved NF, Dooijes Deco Deluxe NF. Curtis muses that Dooijes made these fonts as a reaction to the huge success of Broadway (Morris Fuller Benton) in the United States a few years earlier.
• Rondo (with Stephan Schlesinger, 1948). Well, "with" Schlesinger is a bit of an overstatement. Hans van Maanen made a digital face, Minuet (2007, Canada Type), that revives Rondo. He writes: Minuet, an informal script with crossover deco elements giving it an unmistakable 1940s flavor, is a revival and expansion of the Rondo family, the last typeface drawn by Stefan Schlesinger before his death. This family was initially supposed to be a typeface based on the strong, flowing script Schlesinger liked to use in the ads he designed, particularly the ones he did for Van Houten's cocoa products. But for technical reasons the Lettergieterij Amsterdam mandated the typeface to be made from unattached letters, rather than the original connected script. Schlesinger and Dooijes finished the lowercase and the first drawings of the uppercase just before Schlesinger was sent to a prison camp in 1942. Dooijes completed the design on his own, and drew the bold according to Schlesigner's instructions. The typeface family was finished in February of 1944, and Schlesinger was killed in October of that same year. Though he did see and approve the final proofs, he never actually saw his letters in use. It took almost four more years for the Lettergieterij Amsterdam to produce the fonts. The typeface was officially announced in November of 1948, and immediately became a bestseller. By 1966, according to a memo from the foundry, the typeface had become almost too popular. This digital version of Schlesigner's and Dooijes's work greatly expands on the metal fonts.
• Mercator (1958): a sans family at Lettergieterij Amsterdam. It was considered at the time as a Dutch version of Helvetica, and referred to as the Dutch Helvetica. See here. Laurenz Brunner did an interpretation of Mercator for the wayfinding at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Ken Meier's interpretation is Mercator Vet (2006). Daniella Spinat's is Mercator Roman (2007). Charles Mazé's is just Mercator (2009). Atlas Grotesk (2012, by Kai Bernau, Susan Carvalho and Christian Schwartz, Commercial Type) is a revival of Mercator, which Henk Gianotten chacterizes as being too American, influenced by the American gothics. In 2018, Philip Cronerud released his digitization and expansion, Dooijes Sans at Truly Type. In 2015, Bauke van der Laan and Theo van Beurden set out to make another revival of Mercator in their Mercator project [it will possibly be published by Monotype].
• Contura (1965-1966): an outline font in garalde style.
• Flambard (1954, Lettergieterij). A bold version of Adolf Overbeek's Studio from 1946. The 1963 Tetterode specimen book points to Overbeek as Flambard's designer, and mentions in addition the date 1953. Flambard is called Studio Bold. Canada Type's revival in 2008 by Hans van Maanen is Adams. Mecanorma also has a version. Finally, there is a pirated version from 1998, called Studio Bold. See also OPTI Bold (by Castcraft).
• Lectura (1962-1966, Lettergieterij; 1969, Intertype; acquired by Stephenson Blake): Lectura is a very legible garalde family, ideal for books. It was Dooijes's final typeface. Digitized by DTP Types Limited as Leiden DT (1992).

Dick Pape
[Dick Pape: Via Face Don]

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Dick Pape: Via Face Don
[Dick Pape]

Hans Donner was the designer in the photolettering era of Via Face Don at Mecanorma. A digital version of this alphading family, also called Via Face Don (2012), is due to Dick Pape and can be downloaded here. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dieter Zembsch

Born in 1943, Zembsch began his career in graphic arts as a typesetter. He subsequently studied graphic design at Mannheim (in 1968) and Stuttgart. While working as a packaging designer for the pharmaceutical firm of Mann&Schröder, in his spare time he designed the winning entry in Letraset's International Typeface Competition for 1972/73, a typeface named Beans. Another font, Jumping Jack, was first released as dry-transfer sheets by Mecanorma in 1975. He later worked as advertising manager for a German publishing house and, in 1977, he became an independent graphic designer, operating as Zembsch' werkstatt in Munich, specializing in book design. In addition to illustrating book jackets for other authors, he has written and illustrated several of his own works. Zembsch and partner Sophie Weiss currently run a design firm in Munich.

In 2009, Nick Curtis designed a digital extension and modification of Beans called Free Holeys NF. Alan Jay Prescott's revival is called APT New Beans.

The digital re-issue of Beans was done by Charles Grant and Lineto, and released by Lineto in 2008 as LL Beans and in 2020 as Jumping Jack. First designed in 2011, LL Jumping Jack remained unpublished for several years. In 2019, it was overhauled and its character set was completed by Sascha Bente at Lineto, with approval by Dieter Zembsch and Charles Grant. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Donald Carboni

Designer of the film font Carboni. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Donald L. Vernon

Sign painter and artist, b. 1930, Springfield, MO, d. 2017, Kansas City, MO, who was in the US Air Force in WWII and has a BA from the Kansas City Art Institute. Designer of the film font Chrome. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. From his obituary in the Kansas City Star: During the school years he worked at several sign shops and for Hallmark Cards. He then free-lanced while looking for a career job. In 1957 he was "discovered" by Hal Sandy, who had a small but creative sales promotion agency. Thirty-six years later, Don retired from Sandy, Inc. after having advanced to Vice-President and becoming part owner of the company. [...] In 1993, Ann "Smiley" Havlicek (his second wife) and Don formed their own free-lance company, Vernon & Assoc., and worked out of their home. . [Google] [More]  ⦿

Donald Stevens

Designed the calligraphic font Aristocrat (1978, Letraset).

FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Douglas F. Jones

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Skin & Bones (1972, a multiline face). Mark Simonson says that he looks like Sonny Bono. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Doyald Young
[Doyald Young: Logotypes and Letterforms]

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Doyald Young: Logotypes and Letterforms
[Doyald Young]

Graphic designer, typographer, type designer, author, teacher and lecturer, born in 1926 in Holliday, TX. He died on February 28, 2011 due to complications following a heart operation. He attended Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles Trade Technical Jr. College, and Art Center College of Design where he has taught for 27 years and holds the honorary title Inaugural Master of the School. Doyald drew characters, often of a calligraphic or handlettered nature. He was deeply influenced by his mentor, Hermann Zapf.

Steve Heller writes: When digital programs like Fontographer made it easy for anyone with a computer to create typefaces, many of them purposefully inelegant, he advocated a high level of craftsmanship that he believed had been lost. In so doing, Mr. Young challenged a new generation to reject so-called grunge design in favor of precision. When the American Institute of Graphic Arts awarded Young its 2009 Medal for Lifetime Achievement, Marian Bantjes wrote Taste. Practicality. Formality. Understated prestige. The combination of those qualities forms as perfect a descriptor of Young's work as any you are likely to find, both in the process and the result. Although he is widely known for his elegant curves and scripts, he has never been a showy designer---there is not a trace of ego in his work. The range of letterforms able to flow at any time from his hand is great, and there is no way to particularly define Young's mark unless you have seen the hand-drawn comp. That is where his work is unmistakable: perfect letterforms drawn in pencil at a surprisingly small size without so much as a mark of hesitation or awkwardness. The style varies but the fluidity and perfection do not.

Links and media: Scott Erickson's movie on Doyald Young. FontShop link. Klingspor link. Short obituary and video. Longer video about his life. Steven Heller's obituary in the New York Times. Obituary by Marian Bantjes for AIGA.

He was adored and respected for his craft and gentleness. Portrait. Another portrait (credit: Louise Sandhaus). Author of several influential texts:

• Logotypes and Letterforms (1993, Delphi Press). Review. It includes the corporate typefaces and original and revised logotypes he created for General Electric, Sony, Hilton International, John Deere and other businesses. Steve Heller: It was well received by designers for its defiance of fashionable trends.
• Fonts&Logos (1999, Delphi Press, and 2000, Sherman Oaks). A book of examples, it includes many logos designed by him for the cosmetic, fashion and entertainment industries. Review. Bette Midler logo (2002). Grammy Awards logo (1988). Prince, The Hits Collecton, cover (2000). Sinatra, The Man and his Music TV Special (1981). Logo for Apex Engraving (1974).
• The Art of the Letter (2003, Smart Papers, Hamilton, Ontario).
• Dangerous Curves Mastering Logotype Design (2008, Delphi Press). Delphi Press was his own company.

His typefaces include the extra bold condensed sports scripts fonts Home Run Sanscript (1999) and Home Run Script (1999, a connected bold retro signage script), Young Gallant (2010, a formal calligraphic script based on the alphabets his teacher, Leach, trained him on), ITC Eclat (1985, 1992, fat script face, which was used for titles by Comedy Central and the Queen Latifah movie Beauty Shop), Young Finesse (2003, an Optima-inspired thin headline typeface used in his book, Fonts&Logos), Young Finesse Italic (2006), Guts (1976, VGC), and Young Baroque (1984, 1992, Letraset; calligraphic Spencerian copperplate script; this is copied by Castcraft as OPTI Yen Script). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Dr. Boger Photosatz G.m.b.H.

Defunct foundry. [Google] [More]  ⦿

DR Fonts
[Daniel Robichaud]

Originally from Montreal, Daniel moved to Los Angeles to create visual effects and contributed to the movies Apollo 13, The Fifth Element and Titanic. He developed an interest in animation, created the short film Tightrope, and directed the feature-length cartoon Pinocchio 3000. Daniel Robichaud worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Digital Domain and FOX.

At Letraset, he published the semi-stencil typeface Epitaphe.

In 2021, he set up DR Fonts and released the 20-style techno sans font family Absentia Sans (2021) and the 20-style Absentia Slab. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

DTrooper Foundry
[David Trooper]

Dave Trooper (New Jersey) was associated with the photo type foundry VGC. Almost 40 years later, he set up his own digital type foundry, DTrooper Foundry, which publishes digital versions of his typefaces. Creator of these typefaces:

• Trooper Roman (1974, VGC), a didone display face. [Klingspor puts the date at 1976] TypeShop made TS Toledo based on this idea, especially Toledo TS-XBold. Another digital clone is Talon (BuyFonts). Infinitype / Softmaker have a set called Toledo. And Nikita Vsesvetsky extended it cyrillically to Troover (SoftUnion, 1994). Dave's own digital font Trooper Roman Bold Display was finished in 2013. The typeface is characterized by the left-leaning "o". In 2020, Jordan Davies published Trooper Roman Black.
• Trooper Grotesque (2010). This too is based on his own VGC font from the 1970s.
• Trooper Jazzerini (2011). An elegant geometric avant-garde typeface with weights from hairline to bold.

Ed Kelton

Designer of Helserif (1976-1978, Alphabet Innovations). This is Helvetica with square serifs attached onto it. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Edston J. Detrich

Designer of the film font Detrich Sans. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Edward Benguiat

Born in New York in 1927, Ed grew up in Brooklyn. He died in 2020. Ed was once a very prominent jazz percussionist playing in several big bands with Stan Kenton and Woody Herman, among others. He has created a large number of typefaces between 1970 and 1995. About his career, he once said: I'm really a musician, a jazz percussionist. One day I went to the musician's union to pay dues and I saw all these old people who were playing bar mitzvahs and Greek weddings. It occurred to me that one day that's going to be me, so I decided to become an illustrator. He designed more than 400 typefaces for PhotoLettering. He played a critical role in establishing The International Typeface Corporation (or ITC) in the late '60s and early '70s. Founded in 1971 by designers Herb Lubalin, Aaron Burns, and Ed Ronthaler, ITC was formed to market type to the industry. Lubalin and Burns contacted Benguiat, whose first ITC project was working on Souvenir. Ed became a partner with Lubalin in the development of U&lc, ITC's famous magazine, and the creation of new typefaces such as Tiffany, Benguiat, Benguiat Gothic, Korinna, Panache, Modern No. 216, Bookman, Caslon No. 225, Barcelona, Avant Garde Condensed, and many more. With Herb Lubalin, Ed eventually became vice-president of ITC until its sale to Esselte Ltd.

Ed Benguiat taught at SVA in New York for more than fifty years.

Ed is a popular keynote speaker at major type meetings, including, e.g., at TypeCon 2011, where he entertained the crowd with quotes such as I do not think of type as something that should be readable. It should be beautiful. Screw readable. His typefaces---those from PhotoLettering excepted:

• ITC Avant Garde Gothic (1971-1977, with Andre Gurtler, Tom Carnase, Christian Mengelt, and Erich Gschwind).
• ITC Modern No. 216 (1982: a didone text family). The Softmaker versions are called M791 Modern and Montpellier. Ed writes: It's a revival of the classic British Modern design. I tried to capture the dignity and grace of the original designs, but not make it look stuffy. Moderns were often numbered to distinguish different versions. 216 East 45th street was where I worked when I drew the ITC Modern No. 216 font.
• Modern No. 20, after the Stephenson Blake original from 1905. [Image by Kristen Cleghorn]
• ITC Barcelona (1981). Ed writes: I was one of the design consultants for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. What could be more appropriate then to design a typeface for the event? The design of the ITC Barcelona font family, with its soft triangular serifs set the mood for the soft-spoken Catalan people.
• ITC Bauhaus (1974-1975). ITC Bauhaus was co-designed with Victor Caruso. The Softmaker versions are called R790 Sans and Dessau. The Infinitype version is Dessau. The Bitstream version is Geometric 752.
• ITC Benguiat (1977) and ITC Benguiat Gothic (1977-1979). This eponymous comic book (or art nouveau style) typeface family appeared in the 1980s on the covers of Stephen King novels and Choose Your Own Adventure books, in the copyright notice at the beginning of all Paramount Pictures' VHS tapes and in title sequences for Quentin Tarantino's films, the Next Generation series of Star Trek films in the mid-to-late '90s, and the recent Netflix series Stranger Things. It was revived as Benjamin and Benjamin Gothic on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD (2002). Softmaker also has fonts called B693 Roman and B691 Sans that are identical. Benguiat Pro ITC was published in 2008.
• Benguiat Roman (1960s).
• PL Bernhardt (Photo-Lettering, 1970), modeled after a 1930-1931 design by Lucian Bernhard.
• ITC Bookman (1975). See B791 Roman on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD (2002).
• Calendar (1960s).
• ITC Caslon 224 (1983). In 1960, he added Benguiat Caslon Swash, and in 1970, Caslon 223 followed. See C790 Roman on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD (2002), and Caslon CP (2012, Claude Pelletier). Christian Schwartz and Bas Smidt at House Industries digitized Benguiat Caslon.
• ITC Century Handtooled (1993).
• ITC Cheltenham Handtooled (1993).
• ITC Edwardian Script (1994).
• ITC Garamond Handtooled.
• ITC Korinna (1974): after a 1904 typeface called Korinna by Berthold. Michael Brady thinks it is very close to the Berthold original.
• Laurent (1960s).
• Lubalin Graph (1974, ITC). By Herb Lubalin, Ed Benguiat, Joe Sundwall, and Tony DiSpigna.
• ITC Panache (1987-1988). Ed writes: I put my heart, soul, sweat and tears into the design of the ITC Panache font family. I was striving to create an easy to read, legible typeface. I know in my heart that I accomplished what I set out to do. Not only is it easy to read, it's also sophisticated.
• Scorpio (1960s).
• ITC Souvenir. Kent Lew: Benguiat revived Benton's Souvenir for ITC in the '70s and that was well-received for a while. On the other hand, look what happened after that. Souvenir in the ATF 1923 catalog looks really nice, IMO. Souvenir in the '70s seems cliché now. Souvenir these days would be downright dorky. Souvenir was done by Benguiat in 1967 at PhotoLettering. Morris Fuller Benton's original model was from 1914. It was described by Simon Loxley as follows: Souvenir is a typeface that is intractably rooted in style to a particular era, although one a half-century after its creation. It is a quintessential late 1960s and 1970s typeface, informal, with full rounded character shapes and rounded serifs, a laid-back Cheltenham. The Bitstream version of ITC Souvenir was called Sovran.
• ITC Tiffany (1974), a fashion mag typeface family. Adobe says that it is a blend of Ronaldson, released in 1884 by the MacKellar Smiths&Jordan foundry, and Caxton, released in 1904 by American Type Founders.
• PL Torino (1960, Photo-Lettering), a blackboard bold didone-inspired typeface.
• In 2004, House Industries released five typefaces based on the lettering of Ed Benguiat: Ed Interlock (1400 ligatures---based on Ed's Interlock, Photolettering, 1960s), Ed Roman (animated bounce), Ed Script, Ed Gothic and Bengbats.
• He did logotypes for many companies, including Esquire, New York Times, Playboy, Reader's Digesn, Sports Illustrated, Look, Estée Lauder, AT&T, A&E, Planet of the Apes, Super Fly.
• Lesser known Photolettering typefaces include Benguiat Bounce, Benguiat Boutique, Benguiat Bravado, Benguiat Brush, Benguiat Buffalo (+Ornaments: a western wood type font), Benguiat Century, Benguiat Cinema, Benguiat Congressional, Benguiat Cooper Black, Benguiat Cracle, Benguiat Crisp, Benguiat Debbie, (Benguiat) Montage (a fat face didone revived in 2018 at House Industries by Jess Collins and Mitja Miklavic), Benguiat Roman. Scorpio, Laurent and Charisma, all done in the 1960s, are psychedelic types. In 2021, Donald Roos digitized Plinc Buffalo for House Industries.

Links: Linotype, CV by Elisa Halperin. Daylight Fonts link (in Japanese). Catalog by Daylight, part I, part II.

Pics harvested from the web: Portrait With Ilene Strivzer at ATypI 1999. One more with Strivzer. With Jill Bell at ATypI 1999. In action. At TypeCon 2011 with Matthew Carter and Alejandro Paul. At the same meeting with Carole Wahler and with Roger Black.

FontShop link. Klingspor link.

View Ed Benguiat's typefaces. Ed Benguiat's fonts. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Edward Rondthaler

New Yorker, b. Bethlehem, PA, 1905. In 1928, Rondthaler and Harold Horman cofounded Photo-Lettering Inc in New York City---it started for real in 1936. An excellent typographer, he cofounded ITC in 1970 with with Herb Lubalin and Aaron Burns.

Editor/author of Life with Letters--As They Turned Photogenic, and Alphabet thesaurus; a treasury of letter designs (1960, Reinhold, NY). Volume 3 was published in 1971.

In 1975 he was awarded the TDC Medal, the main prize of the Type Directors Club. In 2007, House Industries made this funny clip. Sadly, Ed died in August 2009. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Edward Rondthaler
[Photo-Lettering Inc.]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Edwin Sisty

American designer who created the upright curly semiscript Belcanto (1970s, Photolettering). This typeface was revived in 2007 by Nick Curtis as Glissando NF. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Edwin W. Shaar

American type designer, designer, writer, b. 1906 or 1915. For some time he was assistant art director at Monotype and art director at Intertype. He made several phototype typefaces. His typefaces include:

• 1939: Czarin (lowercase only by him), done at Baltimore Type.
• 1939: Flash and Flash Bold (Lanston Monotype), a signage or supermarket script typeface of limited beauty. Linotype has a similar fat brush typeface called Okay. I assume it has the same genetic roots. See Slager (2012) and Falcon by SoftMaker, LTC Flash by Colin Kahn for LTC/P22, Flash SB by Scangraphic, and Flash EF by Elsner and Flake for a digital version of Flash, Brush Hand (by WSI), Brush Hand New (a free font by Keith Bates) and 0670 Script (also by SoftMaker) for a digital version of Flash and/or Okay. Mac McGrew: Flash is an informal brush-drawn script letter, cut by Monotype in 1939. It was the first typeface designed by Edwin W. Shaar, who designed Flash Bold the following year. The lighter weight is somewhat similar to Dom Diagonal, cut later by ATF. Also compare Balloon.
• 1940: Valiant (Lanston Monotype), a display face. Mac McGrew: Valiant is a vigorous thick-and-thin letter with the appearance of having been lettered quickly but well with a broad pen. It was designed by Edwin W. Shaar for Monotype in 1940, and is similar to Lydian Bold Condensed, though a little heavier. It is suggestive of Samson, but condensed.
• 1952: Futura Extra Bold (Intertype), followed by Futura Extra Bold Italic in 1955 at Intertype as well. For a digital version, see Function Script by SoftMaker.
• 1952: Nuptial Script (Intertype).
• 1954: Futura Script (Scangraphic). See Future Script EF by Elsner & Flake, and Function Script in the Softmaker collection.
• 1954: Imperial (+Bold, +Italic), done at Intertype, and called Gazette by Linotype in 1977. The New York Times uses Imperial for its text since 1967, but it is based on in-house scans of the old metal Imperial (an Intertype design from 1954), not on the digital versions from Intertype or Linotype. The typophiles discuss Imperial: Kent Lew states The New York Times text is Imperial. Has been for at least the last several years. Koppa points out that the NY Times Imperial designed by Intertype looks like an ATF Century Old Style rip-off. [...] I will stick with my opinion that the original, the metal Century Old Style, credited to M Benton, is better than the copy-cat Intertype Imperial and most definitely better than the copy-cat digital Imperial I saw on myfonts.com last night. Bitstream made a digital version of Imperial. Mac McGrew: Imperial was designed by Edwin W. Shaar in 1954 as a newspaper text face. Like most other news typefaces it has a large x-height with short descenders. but unlike most news typefaces of the time, it blends certain oldstyle and contemporary characteristics, and is a little narrower and more closely fitted. This gives a feeling of friendliness and warmth, but retains a high degree of legibility.
• 1960: Royal (+Italic, +Bold): a sans family that is easy to read in small point sizes.
• 1960: Windsor (+Bold) (Intertype, New York), a newspaper face.
• Vogue Extra Condensed (Intertype).
• 1974: Satellite (+Italic, +Bold), done at Intertype. Mac McGrew: Satellite is a newspaper typeface designed by Edwin W. Shaar for Intertype in 1974. With large x-height and sturdy hairlines, especially in the bold version, it is designed for legibility under the rigors of high-speed newspaper production, but without sacrificing a stylish appearance.
• Shaar Diane, a Photo-Lettering calligraphic face.

Linotype link. FontShop link. P22 link.

View Edwin Shaar's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Emeric Dorr

Designer from the phototype era, active At Studio Hollenstein. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Emil J. Klumpp

Lettering artist from New York. ATF sales manager and director of typeface design. He created the often-copied calligraphic Murray Hill (now available as Murray Hill EF) in 1956. Versions of Murray Hill are in different places, including most shareware archives. Commercial versions at SoftMaker (Melville Pro), ICG and Bitstream, for example.

Mac MGrew: Murray Hill and Murray Hill Bold were designed by Emil Klumpp for ATF about 1956. They are smart, free flowing, modern scripts, nearly vertical, and letters are not connected. Their refreshing informality has made them popular for advertising as well as for stationery and announcements, while their nearly complete lack of kerns has made them durable, practical, and easy to set. The name, incidentally, is said to have come from a New York telephone exchange, before the days of all-numeric dialing, serving an area of the same name in which many large advertising agencies were located.

He also made the informal script font Catalina (1955) as well as many photolettering typefaces. Catalina was digitized as Enamel Brush by Ray Larabie in 2009. His life and work are discussed in the link.

MyFonts link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Ernst Völker

German designer of the titling typeface Vineta (1972 or 1973, VGC), an inline shaded Clarendon. A digital version of this was made by Bitstream called Vineta BT. Other photo-era typefaces by Völker: Voel Beat (a 3d-face, Berthold, 1978), Voel Bianca (a psychedelic typeface related to Motter Ombra; Berthold, 1978) and Voel Kars (a multiline electronic circuit board simulation face; Berthold, 1978).

Fontshop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Erwin Poell

Swiss type designer. As Canada Type puts it, Tuba started with a reconceptualization of a somewhat flawed '72 alphabet idea by Swiss graphic designer Erwin Poell. During the back-and-forth of the custom project, other ideas seeped into the design, mostly from other Canada Type fonts, like Fab, Jonah, Jojo and Teaspoon. The end result was what the client called a "sugar circuit trigger alphabet". This now is the retail version of that project. Tuba has art nouveau influences. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Erwin Rohner

Phototype designerat Photolettering, where he created Rohner Expanded (stencil) and the elliptical typefaces Rohner Downtown and Rohner Uptown. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Face Photosetting

Photo era foundry set up in the 1960s by John McConnell and Chris Dubber in London. I could only find Pluto Outline, the art nouveau typeface Desdemona (a digital version was created in 1992 by David Berlow at Font Bureau and in 1994 by Richard Beatty; Letraset showed Desdemona in its 1981 and 1986 catalogs; the original is from the late 19th century by Karl Brendler&Soehne, Vienna), Stack, and Oxford (a multiline face) on-line. Steve Jackaman worked in the studio in Newman Street and Hanway Place, and recalled El Paso (a Western/Mexican simulation face) when he created El Paso Pro (2011, Red Rooster). In 2017, Steve Jacakaman (Red Rooster) designed Lodestone Pro, which is based on Marvin (1969, by Michael Chave).

According to Wes Wilson's web site, Face Photosetting led the way by launching a number of Art Nouveau revivals which were taken from Ludwig Petzendorfer's "A Treasury of Authentic Art Nouveau Alphabets". A selection of these, which included Arnold Böcklin, Edel Gotisch and Eckmann Schrift, were made more widely available when Letraset produced them for their dry transfer product. They published a number of books and catalogs, ca. 1976-1977: Face headline catalogue [1981/82] (1977), Specimens of Delittle's wood type, Face book of typefaces, Type catalogue (1976). Some of the typefaces were Cyrillicized, such as Bullion Shadow (1970; Cyrillic version by Victor Kharyk, 1978). Bully Pulpit Plain NF (2014, Nick Curtis) is a revival of Bullion Shadow. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Face Ronchetti
[Michael Chave]

Or Mick Chave. Michael Chave was director of Face Ronchetti in London. Phototypefaces by him include Aetna 1968, Alten Book 1969, Amigo 1972, Antique schmal 1975, Antique Tuscan 1975, Antique Tuscan Extended 1975, Arnold fett 1968, Bevelled 142 1975, Childs 1969, Cupid 1970, Curly Hairline 1969, Joanna 1969, Marvin 1969 (also at Face Photosetting), Matra 1971, National 1973, Pipeline 1970, Secession 1976. Digital revivals of the avant garde typeface Marvin:

• Lodestone Pro (2017, Steve Jackaman, Red Rooster).
• Marvin Visions (2017, Mathieu Triay).
• Marbolo (Page Technology Marketing Inc). A free typeface. Unknown date.
• Marbold (1992-1993, Thomas E. Harvey). Stephen Coles writes: In the early 1990s, Thomas E. Harvey did a rather poor digitization named Marbold. See this thread on Typophile. On the other hand, Marbold is free.

Facsimile Fonts
[Robert Trogman]

Foundry which offers fonts by Robert Trogman, a graphic designer now living in Palm Springs, CA, where he runs Trogman Signs. His fonts include

• Buxom (3d face). For a digital version, see Buxom SB (Scangraphic).
• Roberta (1962, FotoStar: an art nouveau face).
• Yagi Double (the CNN Logo). This was digitized in 1996 by Alan Jay Prescott as New Yagi Bold, 2008 as Miyagi (with a few twists) by Thinkdust, and as Yagitype and Axitype by John Wu (Archetype) in 2010.
• Binner (art deco).
• Blippo (display)
• Handel Gothic (sans).

He writes for Recognition Review as Dr. Type and gives seminars on typographic design. A type consultant, he was at one point lecturer on typographic layout and design for California State University at Los Angeles. As Trogman explains to Harold Lohner about Roberta: I originally hand cut this font in 1962. It is based on a Belgian restaurant sign. I named it after my daughter Roberta. Many Mexican food companies used this font, but they didn't know it was from Europe. Dan Solo was going to digitize it for me, but he retired from the font business last year. Just give me credit for the design and it is all yours to do what you want. Trogman's picture. Roberta D was remade by Ralph M. Unger in 2003 for URW. Trogman, however, is upset with URW: URW++ has been warned by me to stop selling typefaces I originally licensed to Berthold Fototype, Stempel, Bitstream, Mecanorma and Letraset. They have never responded to my accusation of piracy. He is a graduate from the University of California at Santa Barbara. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Filmotype Sales Company

Filmotype Sales Company was located at 4 West 40th Street in New York City. In 1955, they published a catalog entitled Lettering Styles Display Types, from which some samples are shown in the link. The catalog has no full alphabet specimen and is thus of limited value for type historians and type revival experts. Frank J. Romano writes here: In 1952, Al and Beatrice Friedman [the founders of Filmotype] introduced the Filmotype, a simple manual phototypesetter that was not much bigger than a shoebox and used 2-inch filmstrips with all glyphs in linear order, with marks below them so that the operator could position the letter and expose it to the photo paper. The process was blind in that you could not see the letters as they were exposed. The Friedmans would go on to introduce the Alphatype phototypesetter. The Sybold Report mentions: Filmotype has a 35-year history as a supplier of filmstrip headline setters. Its founders later moved on to start Alphatype Corporation, keeping Filmotype as a subsidiary. In 1987, Harry and Seta Brodjian, who were Alphatype employees, acquired Filmotype with the intention of rejuvenating the company. In 1989, the firm began development of a digital headliner. A year later, it began digitizing its fonts. The company was renamed Filmotype Corporation. The fonts were at one point sold in packages such as a 30 dollar TrueType Font Package of 100 designer typefaces and an EZ Effects Windows program. Typefaces were renamed: Clarendon becomes Clarion, and so forth. At that point, Filmotype had offices in Glenview, IL, and was run by Gary Bunsell. About the renaming practices, the typophiles mention that Filmotype fonts were given letters&numbers by VGC when they pirated a substantial number of them. Their original names were attached by someone going through a dictionary and just picking arbitrary words for Filmotype fonts that were initially just letters and numbers also.

In 2006, the Filmotype collection was bought by Font Diner. In 2007, Font Diner started publishing digitizations of the collection: Glenlake (condensed Bank Gothic, by Mark Simonson), MacBeth (script), Alice (casual script), Zanzibar (calligraphic), La Salle (brush writing originally by Ray Baker in the 1950s, named after Chicago's LaSalle Street), Quiet, Ginger (Mark Simonson; masculine headline typeface genetically linked to Futura), Austin (paintbrush), Brooklyn (hand-printed), Honey (handlettered script), Jessy (handwriting), Modern (i), Vanity.

In 2010, Stuart Sandler published a book entitled Filmotype by the Letter, in which he details the company's history. He also set up Filmotype as a foundry in Eau Claire, WI. Additions to the Filmotype collection in that year include the signage typefaces Filmotype Kentucky, Filmotype Kingston, Filmotype Harmony and Filmotype Hamlet, and the geometric sans Filmotype Fashion (orig. 1953). The signage typefaces were originally made by Ray Baker for Filmotype in the 1950s, and were digitized by Patrick Griffin and Rebecca Alaccari.

Activity in 2011. Patrick Griffin and Rebecca Alaccari revived the condensed sans typeface Filmotype Giant (2011) and its italic counterpart, Filmotype Escort (2011), as well as Filmotype Prima (a sho-card face from 1955). Neil Summerour contributed Filmotype Horizon after an original signage typeface from 1954. Mark Simonson created Filmotype Gay, a tall monoline sans originally from 1953. Filmotype Ford (2011) and Filmotype Jamboree (2012, an informal script based on a 1965 original) are due to Stuart Sandler. Filmotype Quartz is an inline face.

Activity in 2012. Alejandro Paul contributed two scripts, Filmotype Yukon (based on Palmer style penmanship) and Filmotype Zephyr (formal italic roman). Later in 2012-2014, the production took off, with many contributions by Patrick Griffin and Charles Gibbons (who created Filmotype Zeal in 2013 for example).

Typefaces from 2021: Filmotype Kinzie (by Lily Feinberg), Filmotype Andrew (by Patrick Griffin; a bold and wide extension of the retro casual script font Filmotype Athens). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Fiorello

Fiorello (Photo-Lettering) is a squarish sans face. Digital revivals include CG Fiorello (Compugraphic), PL Fiorello (Photo-Lettering Inc), and F731 Deco (SoftMaker). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Florian Julino

Creator of Paperclip (Photolettering). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font Diner (or: Stu's Font Diner)
[Stuart Sandler]

Stuart Sandler (Minneapolis) runs six foundries: Font Diner (est. 1996), Sideshow, Breaking The Norm, the Tart Workshop, Font Bros (est. 2006), and Filmotype (est. 2006). He runs a handful of other companies and web shops as well, including Mister Retro (est. 2004). He is passionate about retro type. DaFont link for their free fonts. Fontspace link. Interview.

Catalog of the best selling Font Diner fonts. Images of Stuart Sandler's best-selling fonts.

Free fonts: Rickles (2007, script), AirConditioner (2002, fifties style upright script), BahamaSlim (2004), BlackNight (2002, blackletter), BlackWidow, BubbleMan, ChannelTuning, Corrupter, CreakyFrank, DecayingKuntry, FeaturedItem, FontOnAGrain, FontOnAStick, Fontdinerdotcom (one of the earlist beatnik style digital typefaces), FontdinerdotcomHuggable, FontdinerdotcomLoungy, FontdinerdotcomSparkly, Fontdinerdotcom Jazz Dark, Fontdinerdotcom Jazz Light, Hothead, KeeponTruckinFW, Leftovers (2002), MaverickBE (stencil face), Musicals, PickAx, Rickles (2009; upright script), RocketScript (2002, retro script), Schnookums, SinsofRhonda, Spacearella (2002), StencilGothicBE, ThatsSuper, Turnpike (2009), Witless, XerkerFW.

Commercial fonts: Continental Railway (1998, retro connected script), Anastasia, Chatty Cocktails (1998, art deco), El Nino, Guest Check, Hamburger Sandwitch (1998), Jumping Bean (1998, comic book style), Lionel Classic (1998, an art deco all caps face), Milwaukee, Motor Oil, and the greatest of them all, Coffee Shop (1998, exaggerated ascenders), a must! Other typefaces: Permanent Waves (1998, + Expanded: retro connected script), Yarn Sale (curlies), Fat Sam (not bad!), Etiquette, Taylors (1998, another great display font; co-designed with Dan Taylor), Kentucky Fried (1998, comic book / signage style), Beer Wip, Seuss, Jack Bisio and FinerDiner, Shivering, Dry Cleaners (2002), Singlesville Script (2002), Dripping Blood, Bowlorama, Action Is, Automatic, Chicken King (2002), CocktailShaker (2002, at Chank), Concurso Italian and Concurso Moderne (2003), DoggieBagScript, Johnny Lunchpail (2000, comic book style), Kitchenette (connected retro script), Lil Tipsy (2003), Milwaukee Neon (1998), Milwaukee Neon Shadow (1998), Motorcar Atlas (2000), Regulator, Stovetop (2002), Swinger (2002), WARNING (2002, rough stencil), BEBlob, BECROSS, DecayingAlternate, Decaying, EvilBrew, TheBlob, Insane Asylum, Creepy Crawly, Crossover, Fire Baaaad!, Rotten Teeth, Candy Good, EvilOfFrankenstein, HMan, HManPt2, PlasmaRain, Chicken Basket (2004), Chowderhead (2004), Cocktail Script (2004, upright), Country Store (2004, Western style), Dairyland (2004), Emblem Chief (2004, fifties diner script), Motel King (2004), Queen Rosie (2004), Sweet Rosie (2004, blackboard bold), Secret Recipe (2004), Square Meal (+Hearty) (2004), Bahama Slim (2004), Space Immortalizer, Matchbook and BE Streetwalker. Many font have a cool retro/fifties look. The InFlight Meal font set (2001) includes Al's Motor Inn, American Highway, Kiddie Cocktails, Lionel Text, Mosquito Fiesta, New York to Las Vegas, Pink Flamingo, Refreshment Stand, Starlight Hotel, Volcano King. The LasVegas font set: El Ranchero (2002), Hamburger Menu, Hamburger Menu Marquee, Holiday Ranch, International Palms, Lamplighter Marquee, Lamplighter Script, Las Vegas to Rome (stone chisel face), Leisure Script, Leisure Script Marquee, Mirage Bazaar (2002), Mirage Zanzibar (Arabic theme face), Mister Television, StarburstLanes, Starburst Lanes Twinkle, Vegas Caravan. At ITC, he published ITC Kiddie Cocktail (2003), ITC Mosquito Fiesta (2003), ITC Volcano King (2003).

In 2006, Font Diner acquired the Filmotype collection and its trademark, Filmotype. Sandler writes: Filmotype initially manufactured a simple manual phototype machine utilizing display typeface designs on 2-inch filmstrips. Additional films were sold to start-up typesetting companies in order to increase their product selection. Font Diner will create new digital versions of the Filmotype collection, recreating it to meet todays graphic design standards. [...] We intend to release the Filmotype library in OpenType format so the original designs can be fully realized with a dynamic feature set including alternate glyph forms and automatic substitutive ligatures.

In 2007, Font Diner started publishing digitizations of the collection: Glenlake (condensed Bank Gothic, by Mark Simonson), MacBeth (script), Alice (casual script), Zanzibar (calligraphic), La Salle (brush writing originally by Ray Baker in the 1950s, named after Chicago's LaSalle Street), Ginger (Mark Simonson; masculine headline typeface genetically linked to Futura), Austin (paintbrush), Brooklyn (hand-printed), Honey (handlettered script), Jessy (handwriting), Modern, Vanity, Filmotype Ford.

In 2010, Stuart Sandler published a book entitled Filmotype by the Letter, in which he details the company's history.

Free fonts on the Google Directory, dated 2010: Fontdiner, Swanky, Cherry Cream Soda, Permanent Marker, Homemade Apple, Schoolbell.

In 2012, David Cohen and Stuart Sandler published these typefaces at Neapolitan: Irish Grover Pro (2010, a bouncy face), Satisfy Pro (2011, a connected retro script face), and Slackey Pro (2010, a paper cut out style face). At the same place, he also published Crafty Girls Pro (2010, co-designed with Crystal Kluge). With Crystal Kluge, he also co-designed the flowing connected script typeface Aya Script (2012).

At Sideshow, he published the pen-drawn connected script Mister Brown (2013) and the retro signage script typeface Cocktail Sauce (2014).

View Stuart Sandler's typefaces.

Jolly Lodger (2012, Google Web Fonts) is an informal retro script.

Typefaces from 2018: Cherry Soda, Deviliette, Fat Sam, Doggie Bag Script, Cherry Soda, Deviliette, Fat Sam, Doggie Bag Script, Black Night (an eerie blackletter), American Cheese (retro display style).

Typefaces from 2019: Madelinette Grande (by Stuart Sandler and Crystal Kluge: created by hand with traditional pointed pen, it includes calligraphic penmanship and rustic styles).

Typefaces from 2021: Bon Marche (a curly vernaculat script by Stuart Sandler and Crystal Kluge), Los Angelino (a script by Stuart Sandler and Crystal Kluge), La Bohemienne deLuxe (a calligraphic script by Stuart Sandler and Crystal Kluge), Epicursive Pro (a script by Stuart Sandler and Crystal Kluge). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Fontage.de

Jan Jessen's German language pages on the history of type, from its start in 1440, via Linotype (1886), Photocomposition (1949), bitmaps (1965) to vector formats (1975). [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontBank
[Jerry Saperstein]

FontBank was Jerry Saperstein's outfit in Evanston, IL. A sub-project was called Alphabets&Images Inc. At first sight, this company seems to have created a collection by extrapolation and adjustment around 1992-1994, but that appears not to be the case (read on). The collection was posted on abf in January 2001, and used to be be downloadable from the Font Bank Lounge. It seems to have survived as part of Xara. List of FontBank fonts.

Jerry Saperstein's reply to my original description: Your conclusion with regard to the original 325 fonts published by FontBank is incorrect. The fonts were not "created a collection by extrapolation and adjustment." For better or worse, all those fonts were hand-rendered in a totally legal manner from photographic enlargements of analog type specimens. In fact, after the Adobe ruling, FontBank received settlements from other "publishers" who had appropriated our code. (Confidentiality agreements prohibit me from naming those parties.) Obviously, if FontBank were unable to establish the original nature of its code, no one would have settled infringement claims with us. (...) The genesis of Alphabets&Images, Inc. also bears some explanation. It was not an "alias" for FontBank, Inc. Rather, it was the name of a joint venture between FontBank, Inc. and Photo-Lettering, Inc. Photo-Lettering, as may you may know, was the king of display film fonts, hosting such luminaries as Ed Benguiat. FontBank was their chosen vendor for digitizing their film fonts. The venture failed when Photo-Lettering went bankrupt. I believe UTC licensed the Photo-Lettering, Inc. collection thereafter. You would, in fact, be quite surprised to learn who FontBank did rendering for, but alas, confidentiality agreements prevent me from disclosing that information as well. Big, big companies seem to insist on clauses like that. Voilà.

Homework for my readers: can you recognize Bastion, Borealis, Brandish, Colbert, Coolsville, and Dayton? [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fotosetter Type Faces

A book by Intertype Corporation with one-line specimens, dated 1954. It is a catalog of their typefaces for the Intertype Fotosetter composing machine. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FotoStar
[Robert Trogman]

Los Angeles-based company that distributed a 5000+ library of two-inch film fonts for display typefaces, some of which were original, such as Yagi Double (the CNN logo font) and Yagi Link Double. It ceased operations in 1985. Trogman maintains a design studio in Palm Springs, California.

The FotoStar collection includes Blippo (1970), Handel Gothic (by Robert Trogman), Buxom (a beveled 3-d athletic lettering typeface sold, e.g., by Elsner&Flake as Buxom SB, Scangraphic) and Embrionic (an ink-trapped typeface family revived by Claude Pelletier).

Yagi Link Double was revived by Alex Haigh as Miyagi (2008, Thinkdust). Yagi Bold and Yagi Double were revived in 2010 by Gus Thessalos as Retro Mono Wide and Retro Stereo Wide, respectively. Gus Thessalos revived Yagi Link Double as Retro Stereo Thin.

Nick Curtis revived Horse Tank as Feedbag NF (2015), Welling Black as Well Said Black NF (2014) and Angelica as Vauxhall NF (2014).

Claude Pelletier too revived Angelica: see his free font Angelica CP (2011).

In 2015, Harold Lohner revived Roberta, which Trogman cut based on an art nouveau sign in a Belgian restaurant in 1962.

FontShop link.

FotoStar is a small web page made by yours truly that showcases some typefaces in the FotoStar collection taken from their catalog, Film Font Digest FotoStar Graphic Supply.

Images of some of his fonts. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Fotostar International

Defunct foundry. [Google] [More]  ⦿

François Boltana

French type designer based in Toulouse, b. 1950, d. 1999. He was an early graduate of Scriptorium de Toulouse (1972). In his lifetime, Boltana achieved a great deal of success, including the Morisawa Prize in 1990. From 1975 until 1997 he was also a freelance graphic designer. Brief CV. Read his article in Cahiers GUTenberg, Ligatures&calligraphie assistée par ordinateur (1995). Fontshop link. Frank Adebiaye wrote François Boltana et la naissance de la typographie numérique together with Suzanne Cardinal in 2012.

His fonts:

• Aurore (1993): a calligraphic copperplate script typeface. For a free revival, see Claude Pelletier's Maratre (2013).
• The typewriter font Capitole (1974).
• Champion (1989): a wonderful copperplate calligraphic font inspired by the models of Joseph Champion (1754-1759).
• Frédéric.
• Geneviève (1969, Hollenstein Phototypo).
• Girus.
• Lineameca (1970, Hollenstein Phototypo).
• Messager (1991); in two styles, Romain and Tradition.
• Oscar.
• Prosper.
• Rabelais (1997): for this effort, he obtained the Meilleur Ouvrier de France en 1997 award.
• Toscan.
• Toulouse.
• Stilla (1973): a modern psychedelic high-contrast ornamental didone display typeface with many ball terminals. In 1990, Elsner&Flake published Stilla EF. It is also in the Scangraphic collection as Stilla SH. Linotype too has a version of Stilla. Softmaker's version is called Salmon Pro. Stilla is often incorrectly credited to Middleton.

François Dussenty

French designer at Mecanorma of Spiral. [Google] [More]  ⦿

François Robert

Swiss type designer (b. 1948, La Chaux de Fonds) who graduated in 1968 from the Kunstschule in Lausanne. He created the dot matrix/marquee typeface Mecanorma Chicago (1969, Huerlimann Medien AG), which was published as Chicago MN by Mecanorma and can be bought from URW.

He won a Letraset type competition in 1973 for the starred dot matrix/marquee typeface Astra in 1969, co-designed with Natacha Falda. Some have his name as François Robert Falda [I think he was married to Natacha Falda]. He also designed the bold headline sans typeface Trebor (1970).

Swiss type design link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Francisco Gonzalez

Designer at Photo Lettering Inc, whose creation Gonzales Jeanette (ca. 1971) was later digitized and extended to Cyrillic by Elvira Slysh at Paratype, as Astron (1991). Bob Alonso revived it as Lorraine Script (2000). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Frank Bartuska

American lettering artist, 1902-1975. Designer of Trophy Oblique (Agfa, 1950), Caslon No. 641, News Gothic Condensed Bold and other News Gothic weights (1958-1966) and many other photolettering typefaces such as Satanic and the playful didone, Century Bartuska. For digital revivals, see PL Trophy Oblique by Monotype, and Baryton (2020, of Century Bartuska) by Coppers and Brasses. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Frank J. Romano

Author of Typencyclopedia: A User’s Guide to Better Typography. A type guru, he is Professor emeritus of Rochester Institute of Technology and founder of Electronic Publishing Magazine in 1976. He occasionally writes on early printing technology, such as here. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Frank Monaco

Creator of the textured typeface Modernique at Photolettering. Not to be confused with Dan Solo's art deco typeface Modernique. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Franklin Photolettering

Photolettering foundry in the 1970s, located at 211 43rd Street, New York City 10017. One of my correspondents explains: Franklin Photolettering was the smaller film type joints catering to the major publishing and advertising industries in New York City in the 60s and 70s. They started out with a few originals to get into the game, but within a year or so they started putting out copies or slight modifications of existing stuff from Photolettering and VGC (you can see how that happens---someone comes in for some ad copy in Barker Flare, for example, and he asks if they have something like Eightball, so they say "sure, we can do that"). Even though they did have a bit of original stuff, they didn't have not enough to stand out like PL, Mecanorma, VGC or Letraset---also the sheer number of film fonts available on the market by the mid-70s meant that unless you dumped a lot of money on marketing, big-time design would ignore you----so not much room was left for smaller film type houses.

Their catalog is published in binder form in Film Alphabet Compendium Franklin Photolettering. In 1974, Paul E. Kennedy published Modern Display Alphabets: 100 Complete Fonts Selected and Arranged from the Franklin Photolettering Catalogue (Dover).

Typefaces by them included

• Barker Flare, one of their early 1970s retro typefaces. Digitally revived as Plywood (2007, Patrick Griffin, Canada Type).
• Pinto Flare. Digitized as Jazz Gothic (2005) by Patrick Griffin at Canada Type.
• Urban (early 1970s), a Curvy Blocked Lettering typeface in the Alfred Roller / Wes Wilson style popular in the hippie era. Digital revivals include Rebecca Alaccari's Jonah (2005) at Canada Type.
• Viola Flare. Digitized as Omaha Bazoo NF in 2007 by Nick Curtis and in 2005 by Canada Type as Tomato.

Franz Heigemeir

Painter, sculptor and type designer, b. ca. 1930. Graduate of the Kunstschule Augsburg, Germany. Since 1976, he is an active member of the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum. Based in Rifton, NY, his paintings can be seen in many places, such as Fine Art in Ulster County, New York.

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Heigemeir Bold and Bold Open, Modula (1972) and the art deco typeface Organda (1972). Organda became a Mecanorma face.

Digital revivals of Organda include Organ Grinder (2019, SoftMaker). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Fred George

At Photo Lettering Inc in New York, Fred George designed Blowoulded. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Frederick W. Lambert

British type and graphic designer who taught at the London College of Printing and headed Letraset. His typefaces:

• LetterForm No. 2 (1953). See Letter Forms: 110 Complete Alphabets (by Fred Lambert, Dover, 1972; edited by Theodore Menten; 19 editions of that book were published between 1964 and 1990).
• Sans Stencil (1959).
• Compacta (1963, Letraset) is a super-condensed heavy industrial sans-serif family that can be used in phone directories, ads for airplanes, and masculine newspapers. It is in the gaspipe genre that descended from Schmalfette Grotesk, led to Haettenschweiler and Impact, and to Matthew Carter's masthead type for Private Eye. Compacta ended up in the digital as ITC Compacta and found its way to the Linotype collection, and by osmosis, to the Bitstream collection since 1990 (where the font took on a life as Swiss 930 and as Compacta Bold BT), and at Scangraphic in 2004 (as Compacta SH). Compacta's style was popular in the early 1960s: Rolling Stones albums such as Aftermath and 12x5 and The Who's I Can See For Miles either use Compacta or are in a similar style. It was in use on the cover of The Sexual Fetish (1965). It was also used as the titles and credits font for shows such as Emergency and The Six Million Dollar Man, as well as on-screen by NBC Sports from 1991 to 1995, and in the TV series Baywatch. It has been used by the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team since 1993. Compacta appeared as the logo typeface for World Wrestling Federation's television program SmackDown from 1999 to 2001.
• Annlie (1966, Letraset). A strong black didone typeface with beautiful numerals that later became an ITC font, ITC Annlie.
• Linear (1969, Letraset).

Linotype link. FontShop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Friedrich Peter

Aka Fred Peter. We find the name Friedrich Peter at Monotype and most other foundries. Designer, visual artist and calligrapher (b. 1933, Dresden, Germany) who moved to West Berlin in 1950, where he studied lettering design, painting, graphics, typography and calligraphy at the Academy of Visual Arts. He emigrated to Canada in 1957 with his wife, and started teaching in 1958 at the Vancouver School of Art, which later became the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, and this until 1998. He has many designs for postage stamps, coins and medals in Canada between 1980 and 1998. He is an all-round artist who is also famous for his contributions to calligraphy. His typefaces:

• The formal script typeface Vivaldi (1966, VGC). This was later published by Letraset (1970). The following digital versions are available:
  • Vivaldi (URW++),
  • Vivaldi (Linotype),
  • Vivaldi (Letraset),
  • Vivaldi (ITC),
  • Vivaldi (Mecanorma Collection),
  • Vivaldi EF (Elsner+Flake)
  • A "free" Cyrillic version is VivaldiD CL (1994), by a certain "Paul".

  Vivaldi's designer is often incorrectly stated as Fritz Peters (such as by Phil's Fonts, Bowfin, Fontshop Austria, URW or Paratype).

• The ornamental Magnificat typeface (which was partially cut by Philip Kelly). Magnificat was digitized by Flanker (2011) and Studio Di Lena.
• Twelve other unpublished typefaces.

FontShop link. Klingspor link. Linotype link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

G. Diamond

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Ivy League (1975, +Open), an athletic lettering typeface. [Google] [More]  ⦿

G. Homann

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Burmese (1973) in styles called Black, Outline and Drop Shadow. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Garnett Megee

Type designer at Photo Lettering Inc in New York. His (phototype) typefaces there include Biscayne Vertical, Floridian, Greenwich and Miami. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Gene Eidy

Photo era type designer in Colorado who created the oriental simulation typeface Sukiyaki in 1968, while he was a graduate student at Cal State Long Beach. Sukiyaki was published by Lettergraphics International. Gene was a professor at Metropolitan State College (now University) in Denver, Colorado, where he taught advertising design and illustration, including lettering.

There is a plethora of digital copies and revivals of Sukiyaki---sadly, none of these give proper credit. Examples include the ubiquitous free font Hirosh (by Aarrgghh, or Jonathan Smith, who does not mention Sukiyaki, even though the glyphs are identical) and Itto (by Chris MacGregor).

In 2020, Steve Harrison did a proper digital revival giving full credit to Eidy---his typeface is also called Sukiyaki. The images below show Gene's original artwork (courtesy of Sara Tack) and, for comparison, Jonathan Smith's Hirosh, and Steve Harrison's Sukiyaki. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Gene Gable
[That 70's Type]

[More]  ⦿

Georg Salden
[TypeManufactur (was: GST Georg Salden Typedesign)]

[More]  ⦿

George Abbate

Type designer who published these fonts at Photo Lettering: Aqua Bold (signage font), Black Gothic Condensed, Gothic Bold, Nixon (a soft poster face), Stencil Condensed. [Google] [More]  ⦿

George Brian

American designer who made type for a while for Phil Martin at Alphabet Innovations/TypeSpectra. His creations there include the Souvenir Gothic family (1977), and possibly Opulent Light and Opulent Bold. George Thomas, another ex-AI employee, wrote this about him: George Brian did the art on many of the later works and probably had an influence on many of Phil's ideas. See also here.

Digital revivals of Souvenir Gothic include URW Souvenir Gothic and Softmaker's Sunset Gothic. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

George Leavitt

Creator of Hubcap A through D at Phoolettering. [Google] [More]  ⦿

George Ostrochulski

Letter designer at Mergenthaler from the mid-1930s and head of the letter design department from the mid-1950s until his death in 1971. He worked on and produced Caslon Old Face in the 1950s (Klingspor mentions 1964 though), a faithful revival of William Caslon I's classic face. The lowercase is Moxon's 1669 Great Canon. A digital version exists at Bitstream. Klingspor also credits him with Times Semibold in 1970 at Mergenthaler / Linotype. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

George Piscitelle

Type designer at Photo-Lettering in the 1960s. He made the hypocritical typeface Thomac. This was revived in 2010 by Nick Curtis as Kallilu NF.

Other typefaces at Photolettering include Blitz, Blurb, Boldoni, Brush casoni, Connecticut, Glendale, Holly, Lindan, Manhattan, Santa Fe, Stratford, Stymac, Wayne and Wilshire. [Google] [More]  ⦿

George Thomas
[Majus Corporation]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Gerard Huerta
[Gerard Huerta Design]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Gerard Huerta Design
[Gerard Huerta]

Lettering artist, b. 1952, head of Gerard Huerta Design in Southport, CT. Lettering and logos of Huerta were used by Swiss Army Brands, MSG Network, CBS Records Masterworks, Waldenbooks, Spelling Entertainment, Nabisco, Calvin Klein's Eternity, Type Directors Club, the mastheads of Time, Money, People, The Atlantic Monthly, PC Magazine, Adweek, Us, Condé Nast's Traveler, Working Mother, WordPerfect, Scientific American Explorations and Architectural Digest, as well as corporate alphabets for Waldenbooks, Time-Life and Conde Nast. Designer and vice-president of New York's Type Directors Club. Based in Southport, CT.

He made many famous logos and created several logo-fonts. Huerta worked for some time at CBS Records. His type designs include a custom Franklin Gothic in the late 1970s as part of Walter Bernard's redesign of Time Magazine. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Gilbert Powderly Farrar
[Intertype]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Giorgio Giaiotto

Born in 1938 in Udine, Italy, Giorgio Giaiotto studied architectural design with Carlo Magnani, and then worked in newspaper typography and finally moved to cartoon design. Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Giorgio (1966, wood type style). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Guido Rosa

Born in 1890, lettering artist Guido Rosa and his brother Lawrence (1894-1929) co-designed an antiqua typeface with a Kursiv for ATF. It was never published. He also created Modern Outline Roman Capitals.

At Photolettering, we find several phototypes that refer to Rosa, such as Rosa Calligraphic, Rosa Italic, and Rosa Roman. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Gustav Jaeger

Designer (b. 1925) who studied at Werkkunstschule Offenbach and worked at Bauersche Giesserei. All his fonts were published at Berthold with the exceptions explicitly mentioned:

• Aja (1981): a calligraphic font
• Becket LL (1980, Linotype).
• Bellevue (1986): a ball terminal script
• Catull (1982, Berthold): a modern typeface. Google logo was made by Ruth Kedar based on a slight modification of Catull.
• Chasseur (1988).
• Cornet (1989).
• Cosmos (1982).
• Jaeger Daily News (1976), or just Daily News BQ. Some sources mention the date 1982. The font has been used in Italy Daily, a supplement of the International Herald Tribune. See D650 Roman on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002). A small design flaw: the capital O hovers above the baseline instead of dipping below it.
• Delta (1983).
• Donatus (1986).
• Epikur (1986).
• Jaeger-Antiqua (1984).
• Jersey (1985).
• Jumbo (1973). Not a Berthold font, I think.
• Komet (1976, Berthold AG).
• Mark Twain (1973): an art nouveau / psychedelic typeface created in reaction to VGC Eightball, and digitized in 2006 as Huckleberry by Canada Type. Not a Berthold font.
• Osiris (1984: see O830 Roman on Softmaker's XXL CD (2002).
• Pinocchio (1973, Berthold). A psychedelic typeface in the style of Alfred Roller and Wes Wilson. Revivals: P732 Deco (SoftMaker), Pinocchio (2012, SoftMaker), Pinocchio (Dieter Steffmann), OPTI Pulaski (Castcraft), Pinwheel (FontBank, 1990-1993) and Pinocchio (TypeShop, 1994).
• Prado (1990) and Prado Swash (1990).
• Sacher (1973, Berthold).
• Semin Antiqua (1976, Berthold).
• Seneca (1977). See S691 Roman on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002.

Günter Jäntsch

Designer of the clownesque semi-psychedelic font Pierrot (1973). It was published in digital form by Linotype. [Google] [More]  ⦿

H. Sackman

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Frozen Alaska (1977). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hal Fiedler

Designer of PL Fiedler Gothic (a squared sans), published by Photolettering. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hans Donner

Designer in the photoloettering era of Via Face Don at Mecanorma. A digital version of this alphading family, also called Via Face Don (2012), is due to Dick Pape and can be downloaded here. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hans Schneider

Creator of the phototype didone typeface Ronco at Photolettering. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hans-Jörg Hunziker

Type designer (b. 1938, Switzerland, based in Paris) who studied typesetting in Zürich from 1954-1958. Later he studied with Emil Ruder and Armin Hofmann in Basel (1965-1967). From 1967 until 1971, he was a type designer with Mergenthaler Linotype in Brooklyn, NY, where he worked with Matthew Carter. From 1971 until 1975, he worked with Frutiger in Paris, and became a freelance designer in 1976. From 1990 until 2006, he led some labs at the Atelier de Recherche Typographique, NRT, in Nancy. From 1998 until 2002, he had his own design bureau together with Ursula Held: Atelier H. He has also taught at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Zürich.

He codesigned CGP (used in Centre Georges Pompidou; 1974-94, with Jean Widmer, and Adrian Frutiger), Centre Pompidou Pictograms (1974, for the same project in Paris), Cyrillic (in 1970 with Adrian Frutiger for IBM Composer), Frutiger (in 1976 with Adrian Frutiger at Stempel), Gando Ronde (a formal script, with Matthew Carter in 1970; Linotype; called French 111 at Bitstream), Helvetica (with Matthew Carter in 1970; Linotype), Helvetica Compressed (with Matthew Carter, ca. 1974?), Iera Arabic and Iera Roqa Arabic (1983, Institut d'étude et de recherches pour l'arabisation; Honeywell Bull), Metro (in 1970 with Adrian Frutiger; used in the RATP), Univers and Univers Cyrillic (in 1970 with Adrian Frutiger; Linotype), and the Siemens custom type family (in 2001, a cooperation with URW).

Siemens (2001-2007, URW++), the project he is best known for, won an award at the TDC2 Type Directors Club's Type Design Competition 2002. Siemens Sans, Siemens Slab and Siemens Serif are here. Siemens Sans Global (4000 Euros) covers Turkish, Baltic, Romanian, Cyrillic, Greek, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Arabic, and Hebrew.

Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Hans-Jürgen Wolf

Born in Berlin in 1938, Hans-Jürgen Wolf studied graphic arts and painting with Richard Blank at the Design Institute of Berlin. As a graphic artist, he joined the studio of Schering AG in Berlin. Author of Geschichte der Typographie (Historia, 1999) and Geschichte der graphischen Verfahren (Historia, 1990), a detailed work on the history of typesetting and printing machine companies.

Designer of Wolf Antiqua (1966, VGC). This typeface is available as Justine (NovelFonts) and OPTI Julie (Castcraft). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hans-Rudolf Lutz

Swiss typographer (b. Zürich, 1939, d. 1998). He had his own studio, Lutz Verlag, in Zürich. He published books such as "Typoundso" and "Ausbildung in typografischer Gestaltung". He taught at the schools of design in Zürich and Luzern for over thirty years, and founded the typography department in Luzern in 1968. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Harald Brödel

Type designer associated with VEB Typoart in the phototypesetting era. His creations at Typoart include Fleischmann (a serif based on Fleischmann's historical face. An original cursive by Harald Brödel was added to the Typoart collection), Molli (a comic book face), Nidor (a slab serif), and Hogarth Script (a formal copperplate script).

Digital versions of Hogarth Script include Gillray Pro (2015, Ralp M. Unger), OPTI Historic Script (by Castcraft), Hogarth Script EF, Hogarth Script URW, Hobson (Softmaker), Hogarth Script (2005, a Cyrillic extension by Alexandra Gophmann), and Hogarth Script (Linotype). MyFonts link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Harold Horman

Co-founder with Edward Rondthaler of Photo-Lettering Inc in 1936 in New York City. He designed the firm's initial collection of typefaces by photographing existing metal designs. These included Carnival (a Western reverse stress typeface). Carnival was digitally revived at House Industries in 2013 by Dan Reynolds. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Harry Araten

Designer (1936-2001) who studied at the School of Visual arts in New York. At Photolettering Inc, he made the phototype font Alef-Bet (Hebrew). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Harry Brodjian

Harry and Seta Brodjian acquired Filmotype in 1987 and ran the company for a while. Earlier, in 1970, Harry had designed the calligraphic initials typeface VGC Constanze, which was digitized and revived in 2007 by Canada Type as VIP (Rebecca Alaccari). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Harry C. Pears
[Typeface Research Pty Ltd]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Harry L. Villhardt

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Venture (1972). This font was digitally revived in 2007 by rebecca Alaccari at Canada Type as Chopper. Canada Type writes: In 1972, VGC released two typefaces by designer friends Dick Jensen and Harry Villhardt. Jensen's was called Serpentine, and Villhardt's was called Venture. Even though both typefaces had the same elements and a somewhat similar construct, one of them became very popular and chased the other away from the spotlight. Serpentine went on to become the James Bond font, the Pepsi and every other soda pop font, the everything font, all the way through the glories of digital lala-land where it was hacked, imitated and overused by hundreds of designers. But the only advantage it really had over Venture was being a 4-style family, including the bold italic that made it all the rage, as opposed to Ventures lone upright style. One must wonder how differently things would have played if a Venture Italic was around back then. Chopper is Canada Type's revival of Venture, that underdog of 1972. This time around it comes with a roman and an italic to make it a much more attractive and refreshing alternative to Serpentine. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Harry Winters

Creator of photo typefaces. These include:

• At VGC in 1972: Roslyn Gothic (1972). The latter typeface was revived in 2010 by Steve Jackaman and Ashley Muir at Red Rooster as Ryder Gothic Pro.
• At Photo Lettering: Adman, Designer (+Open), Grenadier, Latin Quarter (Shaded, Inline), Moby Dick (+Italic), Royal Roman, Spirito, Sundial, Sunshine.

Headliners International

Defunct film type era foundry started in 1954 in New York City. Its 1959 catalog has 458 typefaces, and its 1984 catalog had blossomed to 1319 photo types. George Abrams started out at Headliners. Headliners is also famous for its release of The Morgan Press collection of wood typefaces. Headliners moved to the suburbs of New York City and set the trend for some years with its Neo series in 1979. ITC and Headliners were then known for their typefaces with large x-height. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Henk Gianotten

Dutch type connoisseur after whom Antonio Pace's Linotype Gianotten (1990) is named. Born in 1940, he worked for 40 years in the production and distribution of graphic arts equipment and fonts, at companies such as Tetterode, BT and Buhrmann. As a student of Willem Ovink, he got very interested in legibility of typefaces. On his own contributions to typography, he writes: Since 1964 I was involved on the production of our typefaces for Morisawa. Later on we produced typefaces for photocomposition for Bobst (Autologic), Berthold, Compugraphic, A.M., Harris Composition, Itek, Scangraphic and others. Tetterode owned the rights for typefaces like Nobel, Lasso, Polka, Orator, Promotor, Lectura and Hollandsche Mediaeval. LinotypeLibrary owns the licenses for these fonts since October 1 2000. Gianotten left Tetterode in 2000. News about LinotypeGianotten. Linotype's press release. PDF samples of LinotypeGianotten. Article on Gianotten by Wim Westerveld in 2006. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Henry Warwick

New Jersey native who lives in San Francisco. He states: "Over the years I've had the good fortune to be very involved with photolettering and type design. In the 1980's I set headlines, letter by letter by letter, on a VGC Typositor at Phil's Photolettering in Washington DC. The desktop computer quickly destroyed that entire industry, and that is how I became involved with computer graphics. In the early 1990s, I designed type for FontBank, and consulted for several other type companies, including Microsoft and Galoob Toys. It's nearly impossible to make a living in type design these days, as the industry was basically done in by a combination of legal precedents and rampant piracy. Having worked on "conventional" / Wester / Roman fonts for so long, I've acquired a preference for unusual or obscure fonts or alphabets. I am always available for type design work or consulting." His designs (not downloadable) include Coptic Chelt, Fruthrak Sans, Ojibway Futurae, Cyrillic-Helv-Flash-8pt, KTR-katakana10, Celestia, Daggers, Enochian Times and Nugsoth. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Herb Lubalin

Born in New York in 1918, Herbert Frederick Lubalin died there in 1981. Founding editor and art director of U&lc from 1973-1981. Co-founder of ITC in 1969, together with Edward Roundthaler and Aaron Burns, as a result of the marriage of Lubalin Burns & Co (est. 1969) and PhotoLettering Inc. Professor at the Cooper Union in New York from 1976-1981. Director of the avant garde magazine Fact between 1965 and 1967.

His fonts: Pistilli Roman (VGC, see here; with John Pistilli), L&C Hairline (ca. 1966, VGC, with Tom Carnase), ITC Avant Garde Gothic (with Tom Carnase, Gschwind, Gürtler and Mengelt, 1970-77; see Avignon on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002), ITC Busorama (1970), Ronda (1970), ITC Lubalin Graph (1974; see Square Serif on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002; poster by Pablo Monachese), ITC Serif Gothic (with Tony DiSpigna, 1974; see Serenade Two on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002). His companies: Herb Lubalin Inc (1964-1969), Lubalin, Smith&Carnase Inc (from 1975 onwards).

In 1985, Gertrude Snyder and Alan Peckolick published Herb Lubalin. Art Director, Graphic Designer and Typographer (New York). Retrospective at ITC.

Revivals: Receding Hairline NF (2014, Nick Curtis) revives L&C Hairline. Pudgy Puss (2007, Nick Curtis) is an ultra-fat modern digital display type based on Fat Face (Herb Lubalin, Tom Carnase).

Linotype link. Klingspor link. FontShop link.

View Herb Lubalin's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Herbert L. Frager

Designer of the film font Frager Punch. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Herbert Post

German type designer, printer, type teacher and type designer (b. Mannheim, 1903, d. Bayersoien, 1978). Ex-student of Rudolf Koch. He taught at the Werkstätten der Stadt Halle and at the Werkkunstschule Offenbach. From 1956 on, he was Director at the Academy for graphic design in Munich. Designer of Post Mediaeval (1944, Berthold, 1951), Altschrift, Post Fraktur (1933-1937, Berthold; + Halbfett, + Post Fraktur Zierversalien, 1933-1937; for a digital version, see DS Post Fraktur by Delbanco, Post Fraktur by Gerhard Helzel, or Post Fraktur and Postillon by Ralph M. Unger (2014)), Post Antiqua (1932-1940, Berthold; also called Post Roman; for digital revivals, see Corel's Prose Antique and Softmaker's P790 Roman), Post-Kursiv (1943, Berthold), Post-Schmuck (1949, Berthold), Dynamik (1952), eight fonts for Photo Lettering in 1954 (among which Frei bewegte Antiqua, Schmalfette Grotesk, Feder-Kursiv, Eckige Kursiv and die Schwung-Kursiv), and Post Marcato (1961-1962, an art deco bold sans, Berthold).

Scans of a logo/poster for the Deutsche Bundespost, a poster for the Deutsche Bundesbahn (1952) and a poster for a theater performance in Halle in 1932. In 1999, Harald Süß wrote a brief biography. Picture, dated 1940.

Klingspor link.

View Herbert Post's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Herman Spinadel

Type designer at PhotoLettering in New York. His typefaces there include Bagatelle, Brush, City Script, Functional and Park. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hildegard Korger

Calligrapher (b. 1935, Reichenberg, d. 2018) and professor of calligraphy and writing at HGB Leipzig (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig) since 1968. Her typefaces:

• Her calligraphic typeface Daphne, aka Typo-Skript, was published by Typoart in 1965. See also here. Ingo Preuss revived Daphne as Daphne (2004). ARTypes revived it as Typoskript AR in 2010. And Ralph M. Unger created his own revival, Typoskript Pro (2010). Ingo Preuss's version is Floridana.
• Kis Antiqua and Kis Kursiv (1984, Typoart). For a digital revival, see Ralph Unger's Kis Antiqua Pro (2018). In 2009, Elsner & Flake published the Kis Antiqua Now TB Pro and families (design by Erhard Kaiser for Elsner & Flake). The Elsner Flake types are based on Hildegard Korger's Kis Antiqua at Typoart. Kis Antiqua is the Typoart name of the original Jansonian Garamond by Miklos Totfalusi Kis from 1686.
• Korger designed some other calligraphic alphabets. A digital version of one of them, originally drawn in 1965, was created by Ingo Preuss, who called it Korger Hand (2004).

Author of Handbook of Type and Lettering (1992, Design Press, or Lund Humphries), a translation of The Sixth Edition of Schrift und Schreiben (Fachbuchverlag GmbH Leipzig, 1971), which has been lauded as the best books ever on type and typography. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Hiroshi Yamashita

Designer of the phototype poster font Alpha Midnight for John N. Schaedler (Liberty house Schaedler Inc, New York City) ca. 1969. It was digitally revived by Alan Jay Prescott as APT New Alpha Midnight (1996). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hollis Holland

Born in Memphis, TN, in 1908, Holland had a studio in New York. From 1926 to 1936 he traveled across the country, designing theatrical posters for various motion picture companies. He was art director for several advertising agencies, notably J. Walter Thompson. He specialized in lettering and typographic design for publishers and taught calligraphy and letter design at Columbia University.

For Photolettering in New York in the 1970s, he created the film typefaces Holland Antiqua, Holland Seminar (a transitional typeface family from 1973, and the first typeface family released by Compugraphic), Holland Title, Beleza (a script) and Squire. Digital descendants of his typefaces include Holland Seminar by Monotype. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Holly Goldsmith
[Small Cap Graphics]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Intertype
[Gilbert Powderly Farrar]

Defunct foundry. One of its typographic directors was Gilbert Powderly Farrar (1886-1957), who designed Bert Black. Intertype's typefaces include Monterey (1958, Rand Holub, its "version" of Murray Hill; available from Bitstream now), Imperial (designed by Ed Schaar; now a Bitstream font), Intertype Vogue (ca. 1930, see Am Sans by Volker Busse for a free digital version), Stuyvesant (1940, now available from Bitstreeam), and Nuptial Script (now an Adobe font).

MyFonts writes: Harris inherited the Harris-Intertype library, made up of the typefaces cut by Intertype to compete with Mergenthaler from the First World War. A small group of original typefaces centers on newspaper typefaces and scripts. In the thirties C.H. Griffith at Mergenthaler believed the linecaster to be unsuitable for the development of scripts, which led Ed Schaar at Intertype to claim this market as their own. Intertype became Harris-Intertype ca. 1960, and Harris ca. 1975.

Cyrillic typefaces in their library, ca. 1930. The firm still exists as Harris Corporations in Melbourne, FL, but is no longer producing fonts.

Leonard Spencer, in his article Linotype / Intertype Linecasting Machines How They Differ writes: Intertype started as International Typesetting Machine Company in 1911. Many of first machines were rebuilt Linotype bases with improvements patented by the new company. When World War I broke out, International Typesetting Machine Company was reorganized as the Intertype Corporation, and by 1917 had three machines for sale: Model A one magazine, Model B two magazine, Model C three magazine. Intertype was first in cold type with its Fotosetter in 1950. This machine continued the circulating matrix principle but had film image instead of the punched character. Stuart Sandler adds this piece of information: The Harris-Intertype Fotosetter was the first photo typesetting machine invented. It marks the beginning of the Cold Type era and is the machine responsible for it . . . Incidentally this is the machine that inspired the creation of the Filmotype by its inventor Allan Friedman when he saw it unveiled to US audiences in 1948. Instead of lead slugs, the Intertype which was a Linotype machine had replaced them with small film negatives and proceeded to set type as you would imagine the bastardization of a lead type and photo type machine only could. There are many reasons Cold Type caught on and it became the standard some time after that period till digital typesetting machines like the Alphatype came into their own. It wasn't until the release of the first MacIntosh in 1984 when Cold Type was eclipsed by desktop publishing.

Mac McGrew: Ideal (originally called Ideal News) was designed by Herman R. Freund for Intertype in 1926, for the New York Times. It has much the appearance of Century Schoolbook, but with shorter ascenders and squattier capitals. The italic is a little closer to Century Expanded Italic, providing more contrast with the roman. Sturdy serifs, substantial hairlines, and open loops make it a practical typeface for the demanding production requirements of high-speed newspaper use. Ideal Bold is heavier than the Century bold typefaces.

View a few digital typefaces with roots in the Intertype collection.

Another famous type is Cairo. Mac McGrew: Cairo is Intertype's adaptation of Memphis, originally designed by Rudolf Weiss for Stempel in Germany about 1929, and first imported into the United States as Girder. Except for Litho Antique, this was the first of the modern square-serif typefaces, which are revivals of older typefaces known as Egyptians. The Intertype typefaces appeared in 1933 to 1940. Lining Cairo features several sizes of caps on 6- and 12-point bodies in the manner of Copperplate Gothic. Compare Memphis, Stymie, Karnak.

Farrar is also the author of The Typography of Advertisements That Pay (1917, D. Appleton and Co., New York). Local download. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Itek

Type foundry and vendor active in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was associated with International Type Founders (ITC). It was based in Nashua, New Hampshire. John Schappler was art director at Itek Composition Systems from 1979 until 1984. [Google] [More]  ⦿

J. Looney

American lettering designer. Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as the art deco typeface Shotgun (1972). Bitstream has the digital versions Shotgun and Shotgun Blanks. The Cyrillic version of Shotgun was done in 1997 by Diai JS in Petroslavsk, called Target. See also SoftMaker's Shotgun (2019). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

J. Stone

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Threshold (1976), Hairpin (1975, a paperclip face), and Hairpin Hairline (1975, outlined version).

A low quality free version of hairpin is here. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jack Jaget

American designer of the rounded sans typeface Jaget Doron and the piano key typeface Jaget Rina (VGC). Rina is his daughter and Doron his son. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jackson Burke

Born in San Francisco in 1908, Burke died in 1975. He studied at the University of California in Berkeley. From 1949 until 1963, he was type director for Mergenthaler-Linotype, succeeding C.H. Griffith. He developed the TeleTypesetting System (TTS) for magazines and designed some fonts for native American languages. He designed Trade Gothic (1948-1960), Majestic (1953-1956) and Aurora (1960).

Aurora is a newspaper type. Bitstream's digital clone is News 706, now simply called Aurora. Mac Mc Grew: Aurora is a newspaper typeface designed by Jackson Burke for Linotype in 1960, and is made only in 81/2-point, combined with its own italic or a choice of standard bold typefaces, as far as we can determine. Of course, its origins go back to the German grotesques, ca. 1928.

Mac McGrew: Majestic is a newspaper typeface produced by Linotype staff designers in 1955. It is similar to Corona, but was made in very few sizes.

Mac McGrew writes about Trade Gothic: Trade Gothic is a Linotype family of gothics designed by Jackson Burke, and is basically very nearly the same as News Gothic. An early typeface on that machine was Gothic No. 18, which in small sizes was like a nineteenth- century face, but in large sizes was essentially the same as News Gothic Condensed. In 1948, with the return to popularity of American gothics after European sans serifs had replaced them for a while, the small sizes were recut, to match the larger ones, and all were paired with Gothic No. 20, an adaptation of Alternate Gothic No.2. The following year more condensed versions of both weights were offered as Gothic No. 17 and 19. The bolder weight was very similar to Alternate Gothic No.1, but the lighter weight retained its round-sided design, unlike News Gothic Extra Condensed. As the popularity of these typefaces continued to grow, Linotype changed the name to Trade Gothic Condensed and Extra Condensed, with their bold typefaces, and in 1955 added Trade Gothic and Trade Gothic Bold in normal widths. The light or regular weight is virtually the same as News Gothic, but the bold weight has flat sides on its round letters, making it a wider version of Alternate Gothic, unlike the News Gothic Bold developed about the same time by Intertype and a little later by other sources. (In a 1977 Linotype specimen book, the names reverted to Gothic Nos. 17 to 20.) Trade Gothic Extended and Bold Extended were announced early in 1959; for this bold weight the flat sides finally gave way to round sides, more like the News Gothics from other sources. Compare Monotone Gothic, which is essentially a wide version of News Gothic. In 1962 the last of this family appeared as Trade Gothic Light and Italic, the upright typeface being similar to Lightline Gothic. Unfortunately, Trade Gothic regular had been called Light (in distinction from its bold mate) in some Linotype literature, leading to some confusion when the actually lighter version appeared later. Altogether it has been a very popular and widely used series. Compare News Gothic, Alternate Gothic, Monotone Gothic, Lightline Gothic, also Record Gothic.

Digital versions of Trade Gothic appeared at Adobe and Linotype. In 2008-2009, Akira Kobayashi and Tom Grace unified and extended Trade Gothic to Trade Gothic Next (17 styles). SoftMaker has Transfer Gothic and URW offered Tradus. Links to implementations: Trade Gothic (Adobe), Trade Gothic (Linotype), Trade Gothic Next (Linotype), Trade Gothic Next Soft Rounded (Linotype), News Gothic (Bitstream), News Gothic (ParaType), News Gothic (Tilde), News Gothic (URW++), News Gothic (Adobe), News Gothic (Linotype), Trade Gothic for Nike 365 (Linotype), Monotype News Gothic (Monotype), News Gothic No. 2 (Linotype), News Gothic SB (Scangraphic Digital Type Collection), News Gothic SH (Scangraphic Digital Type Collection), News Gothic EF (Elsner+Flake), News Gothic No 2 (URW++). In 2017, Lynne Yun (Monotype) made a layerable and colorable extension of Trade Gothic called Trade Gothic Display.

Fontshop link. Klingspor link. Linotype link. FontShop link.

View various versions of Jackson Burke's Trade Gothic. View digital versions of Trade Gothic. Another catalog. And another one. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

James Lambert

Type designer. In 1953, he made a bouncy display typeface that was digitally revived by Stuart Sandler in 2007 as Filmotype MacBeth, and by Mario Arturo as Brook Flair (2012). Also in 1953, he drew a brush typeface for Filmotype. Sandler digitized and expanded it in 2007 as Filmotype Austin. Filmotype Reef (1953) is a fat poster typeface revived by Sandler in 2011. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jan Solpera

Czech designer (b. 1939, Jindrichove Hradci) went to the Art School in Prague (1954-1958) and the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague (or: School of Applied Arts) (1959-1965). From 1973 until 2003, he taught at that academy, and headed the Font Studio at the School of Applied Arts. His best-known student was Frantisek Storm. His typefaces:

• Insignia (1979-1982), a sans typeface family. This was renamed since Neville Brody has a font by that name, even though Brody's font was made only in 1990, eleven years after Solpera's font. The digital version by Frantisek Storm (2000, Storm Type Foundry) is called Solpera. See also here for this sans-serif family. He designed the fonts on the banknotes of the Czech National Bank.
• With Frantisek Storm, he designed Josef Sans in 2013, in the hope of adding a new sans family to Tyfa's Roman (Tyfa Antikva).
• Areplos (Book and Text), published in 2005 by Storm Type Foundry based on a 1982 original by Solpera.
• Circo (1971, H. Berthold AG). This Western style slab serif phototypeface was later carried by Lettergraphics as Cirque. For a digital version, see Harold Lohner's free typeface Flying Circus.
• Comenia Sans (Storm Type Foundry), Comenia Script, Comenia Serif, Comenia Text.

At the ATypI in Prague, Frantisek Storm said about Jan Solpera: Solpera always plays with the alternates. At that meeting, Storm described Solpera as a precise and patient man, who insisted on having many alternates (in his types). Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jay H. Schechter

Jay Schechter (b. 1941, New York) studied art, design, and lettering at Hunter College. He managed photographic reproduction at TypoGraphic Communications in New York from 1966 until its demise in 1984 [TGC was a successor to Rapid Typographers]. He became the Director of Typographic Design at Characters, which also bought up the fonts from Techni Plus, until that company too closed its doors, ca. 1992.

Creator of phototype typefaces at VGC, such as Jay Gothic and Jay Gothic Bold (1965) [these typefaces are available as OPTI Jaffa from Castcraft]. After TGC, he worked for Characters (which also bought up the fonts from Techni Plus) until that closed (approx. 1992). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jay Rutherford
[Typoart GmbH (or: VEB Typoart)]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

J.B. Jones

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Barry (1975). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jean Larcher

French type designer and calligrapher (b. 1947, Rennes, d. 2015) who worked mostly in Cergy-Pontoise. From 1962-1965, he studied typographic art in a school under the Paris Chamber of Commerce. From 1973 until 1985, Jean Larcher, who had studied calligraphy as well, worked as a freelance calligrapher in and around Paris. From 1985, he taught calligraphy both inside and outside France. He wrote several books, including Character Traits (2014). While calligraphy was his passion, Jean was also fascinated by op-art and geometric patterns. His fonts are all phototypes except for the metal font Latina.

His typefaces: Abécédaire à Renayures (1991, for Collector magazine), Beauté (1966, for Magazine Votre Beauté), Castillejo-Bauhaus (1980, Rapitype Madrid), Catich (1998), Digitale (1974, Hollenstein Phototypo), Gautier (1992, Agence J.-P. Gautier&Associés), Guapo (1973-75, Hollenstein Phototypo), Hollywood Script (1989), Honolulu (1974, Hollenstein Phototypo), Incise Volume (1981, for Cergy Magazine), Jamaica Experience (1978, for Rock Hebdo Magazine), Lancöme (1981, Rapitype, for Lancöme), Larcher (1974, Hollenstein Phototypo), Latina (1987, Mécanorma), Liberté Égalité Fraternité (1985, for the Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale), Logement (1980, Rapitype, for Cergy Magazine), Menhir (1973-75, Hollenstein Phototypo), New Crayon (1980, Rapitype, for Cergy Magazine), Optical (1974, Hollenstein Phototypo), Plouf (1970-74, Hollenstein Phototypo), Rasgueo (1979, for U&lc Magazine), Revival (1979, for 20 ans Magazine), Soleil (1973-75, Hollenstein Phototypo), Super Crayon (1976, Titrage CCT), Tornade (1974, Hollenstein Phototypo), Veloz (1987, Mécanorma), Vibrator (1976, Titrage CCT).

3D Alphabet (by Character) is inspired by an alphabet coloring book designed by Jean Larcher, 1978.

Web site. MyFonts link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jean Lochu

French designer (b. 1939), calligrapher by training, who lives in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. He is the designer of Sélune (1998, Creative Alliance, with influences of Grandjean and Didot), Garonne (1972, Hollenstein Phototypo), Loire (1991-1997, Creative Alliance), and Rhône (1987, Mecanorma).

FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jean-Antoine Alessandrini

Type designer, graphic designer and illustrator, born in Marseille in 1942. Allessandrini (sometimes spelled Alessandrini in various publications) used to work at Paris Match, Lui and Elle. His typefaces: Akénaton 1969 (Hollenstein Phototypo) (1975, VGC??), Alias 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Allessandrini 7 1972 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Anarchiste (Mécanorma), Andronique 1984 (Mécanorma), Astronef 1976 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Circus World, (Mécanorma), Cléopatre 1984 (Mécanorma), Combinat 1976 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Éclipso 1982 (Mécanorma), Electric-Type 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Futuriste 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Germain 1969 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Grand Dadais 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Grand Large 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Graphic Man 1973 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Grossium 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Gyptis 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Hypnos 1969 (Hollenstein Phototypo: a psychedelic face), Legitur, Mikado 1977 (Mécanorma: oriental simulation), Mirago 1970 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Priam 1976 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Showbiz 1969 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Sigle (Mécanorma), Technos 1984 (Mécanorma), Trombinoscope 1964, Vampire 1969 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Wotan, (Mécanorma).

Inventor of the classification system Codex 1980 that provoked heated responses from luminaries such as Vox, baudin, Blanchard and Mendoza.

Author of Typomanie / Jean Alessandrini; préface de Massin (Paris: La Noria, DL, 1977).

In 2013, David Rault wrote the monograph Jean Alessandrini Le poète de la lettre.

Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jerry Matejka

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Soul (Light, Medium, Bold, Open) (1972). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jerry Mullen

Jerry Mullen's connected Repro Script from 1953-1954 (ATF)---in my view, a mediocre representative of the fifties scripts---was revived/interpreted by:

• Jason Anthony Walcott: Retro Repro (2002, JAW Arts Fonts).
• Canada Type: Mullen Hand (2008, Rebecca Alaccari).
• Intellecta Design: Reprox Script (2010, free).

Mac McGrew writes: Repro Script was designed for ATF in 1953 by Jerry Mullen. It is a continuous script except for a few letter combinations, nearly monotone in weight, and narrow. It is informal, but not as much so as Brody, which is another of the foundry's attempts to replace its delicate old traditional scripts with contemporary typefaces. Steve Watts says it was designed to work with News Gothic Condensed and other plain sans serifs, but the connection is not apparent. Compare Brody, Brush, Kaufmann Script..

Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jerry Saperstein
[FontBank]

[More]  ⦿

Jim Rimmer

Jim Rimmer (b. Vancouver, 1934, d. 2010) was one of the great contemporary type designers whose creations had a lot of flair, individuality, and charm. Based in New Westminster (near Vancouver, BC), Jim Rimmer was also an illustrator. Obituary in the Globe and Mail, dated April 27, 2010.

He designed Albertan (Albertan No.977, Albertan No.978 Bold) and Cloister (2000; a roman type family originally done by Morris Fuller Benton) in the Lanston collection. He also designed typefaces like Juliana Oldstyle (1984), Nephi Mediaeval (1986), Kaatskill (1988; a 1929 typeface by Goudy, revived and optimized for Lanston in type one format; the Kaatskill Italic was done by Rimmer based on Goudy's Deepdene), RTF Isabelle (Roman and Italic; 2006. A pair of delicate serif typefaces based on typefaces by Elizabeth Friedlander) and Fellowship (1986).

ATypI link. Jim began work as a letterpress compositor in 1950. He entered the field of graphic design in 1963, working as a designer lettering artist and illustrator, and freelanced in this capacity from 1972 to 1999 in the same capacity. In 1960, he began collecting letterpress printing and typefounding equipment, and operated a private press and foundry (Pie Tree Press&Type Foundry). FontShop link.

His metal typefaces at Pie Tree Press include:

• Juliana Oldstyle (1981; McGrew says 1984): It represents my first attempt at cutting a metal type. I drew my letters completely freehand, hoping to capture a punchcut look. My artwork was then reduced and made into a dry transfer sheet, which I rubbed onto type-high typemetal blanks. I then cut the letters and electroformed copper matrices.
• Nephi Mediaeval (1983, for private use; McGrew gives the date 1986): It was inspired by the Subiaco type of the Ashendene Press and by its inspiration, the type of Sweynheym and Pannartz. My design breaks away from those types slightly in form and is softer in general feeling. In time I will cut other sizes.
• Fellowship (1984; McGrew says 1986). Designed and cut by Jim Rimmer, and cast by him for private use: The design is the result of the feeling of joviality and 'fellowship' I experienced at the meeting (American Typecasting Fellowship in Washington, D.C.). The design was not so much drawn as it was written. The letters were written quickly in a calligraphic manner with an edged pencil and then enlarged and inked to make a dry transfer sheet. As in my two previous designs (see Juliana Oldstyle and Nephi Mediaeval), Fellowship was cut not in steel, but in type metal, and then electroplated to make castable matrices.
• Albertan 16pt, 1985
• Garamont [not entirely sure that this was done in metal]
• Cartier Roman 14pt, 2004
• Cree Syllabic 14pt, 2006
• Duensing Titling 12, 14, 18, 24, 36, 48&60pt, 2004-07. Duensing in use.
• Hannibal Oldstyle 18pt, 2003
• Quill 14pt, 2006
• Stern 16pt, 2008. This was his last completed typeface.

In 1970, Jim made his first film type, Totemic. This sturdy text type was revived in 2015 by Canada Type as Totemic, and contains as an extra a et of stackable totems.

Jim has designed and produced a collection of digital types, and over the past 20 years has designed and cut six metal types. He recently completed a Monotype Large Comp type named Hannibal Oldstyle, is currently cutting 14 point matrices for Cartier Roman, and is making drawings for the cutting of a 14 point Western and Eastern Cree. Samples and discussion of his Cree typeface.

Jim in action in 2003. According to Gerald Giampa from Lanston, Jim is the most talented type designer alive in 2003. About his typefaces, I quote McGrew: Fellowship was designed and cut by Jim Rimmer in Vancouver in 1986, and cast by him for private use. He says, "The design is the result of the feeling of joviality and 'fellowship' I experienced at the meeting (American Typecasting Fellowship in Washington, D.C.). The design was not so much drawn as it was written. The letters were written quickly in a calligraphic manner with an edged pencil and then enlarged and inked to make a dry transfer sheet. As in my two previous designs (see Juliana Oldstyle and Nephi Mediaeval), Fellowship was cut not in steel, but in type metal, and then electroplated to make castable matrices." Juliana Oldstyle was designed and cut in 1984, as a private type. He says, "It represents my first attempt at cutting a metal type. I drew my letters completely freehand, hoping to capture a punchcut look. My artwork was then reduced and made into a dry transfer sheet, which I rubbed onto type-high typemetal blanks. I then cut the letters and electroformed copper matrices." Nephi Mediaeval was designed and cut in 1986, for private use. He says it "was inspired by the Subiaco type of the Ashendene Press and by its inspiration, the type of Sweynheym and Pannartz. My design breaks away from those types slightly in form and is softer in general feeling. In time I will cut other sizes."

In 2012, Rimmer Type Foundry was acquired by Canada Type. The press release: Canada Type, a font development studio based in Toronto, has acquired the Rimmer Type Foundry (RTF) from P22 Type Foundry, Inc. The RTF library contains the complete body of work of Canadian design icon Jim Rimmer (1934-2010), who was an enormous influence on Canadian type design and private press printing, and the subject of Richard Kegler's documentary, Making Faces: Metal Type in the 21st Century. The RTF library contains many popular font families, such as Albertan, Amethyst, Credo, Dokument and Stern, as well as quite a few analog designs that were never produced in digital. Now that Rimmer's work has been repatriated, it will be remastered and expanded by Canada Type, then re-released to the public, starting in the fall of 2012. Jim's analog work will also be produced digitally and available to the public alongside his remastered and expanded work. Once Jim's designs are re-released, part of their sales will be donated to fund the Canada Type Scholarship, an award given annually to design students in Canada. This will be done in coordination with the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), the national professional association that awarded Jim Rimmer with the prestigious GDC Fellowship in 2007.

Jim Rimmer digitized Elizabeth (+Italic). From 2006 until 2012, the Rimmer Type Foundry collection was offered by P22. It included:

• RTF Albertan: A great text family developed between 1982 and 2005. In 2013, it as remastered by Canada Type and reissued as Albertan Pro, calling it a first post-Baskerville-post-Joanna typeface.
• RTF Alexander Quill: An artsy fartsy (in the good sense) and slightly 1920s Czech type family.
• RTF Amethyst: A tall ascender serif family.
• RTF Cadmus: A stone slab or Greek simulation face. P22 writes: Rimmer's re-working of a design done by Robert Foster, a hand lettering artist. Foster's type, named Pericles, is a style that he used for a time in lettering magazines and advertising headings. The design is based closely on early inscriptional Greek, but is less formal than the sans types of Foster's time. Cadmus keeps the proportions of Pericles but is overall less quirky than the Foster design. This was further expanded by Canada Type as Cadmus Pro (2016).
• RTF Cotillion (1999): A tall ascendered Koch inspired sans family. Looks quite like Bernhard Modern.
• RTF Credo: A six-weight sans family.
• RTF Dokument: An extensive sans family: Dokument was my attempt to make a Sans Grotesque in the general weight of News Gothic (for the Dokument regular) but took nothing from News Gothic. I used some of the basic forms of my Credo series, but made many on-screen changes and broke away entirely from Credo on the range of weights. My plan was to make a typeface that will fill the requirements of financial document setting; things like annual reports and other such pieces of design. It is my hope that the large family of weights and variants will suit Dokument to this kind of work. This family was created in 2005 and published in 2006. A reworking by Patrick Griffin at Canada Type eventually led to Dokument Pro (2014).
• RTF Elizabeth: An elegant tall ascender typeface about which Rimmer writes: Elizabeth Roman and its companion Italic were designed as a pair by Elizabeth Friedlander, and cut and cast for decades by the historic Bauer foundry of Germany.
• RTF Fellowship: A standard script.
• RTF Lancelot Titling: A roman titling typeface with Koch-like influences.
• RTF Lapis: A calligraphic serif, inspired by Rudolf Koch.
• RTF Posh Initials: A formal script.
• RTF Poster Paint: A fat irregular poster font inspired by Goudy Stout.
• RTF Zigarre Script: A bouncy brush script with rough outlines.
• RTF Canadian Syllabics (2007): This font was developed as a metal typeface by Jim Rimmer for a special project and is now available in digital form. Containing over 700 glyphs in OpenType format, this font covers most Canadian Aboriginal Languages. RTF Canadian Syllabics is a more calligraphic version of the syllabary developed by Reverend James Evans for the languages of the native tribes of the Canadian provinces in the early 1800s. Jim Rimmer originally designed the characters for the Eastern and Western dialect Cree to be cut as a metal font. The digital version then grew to include all the characters of the Canadian Syllabics Unicode block.
• Nephi Mediaeval (2007), a type heavily reflective of the semi roman of Sweynheim and Pannartz (in Jim's words).
• Stern (2008, RTF) was simultaneously released both digitally and in metal. Named after the late printer Christopher Stern (WA), it is an upright italic intended for poetry. Colin Kahn (P22) has expanded the Pro digital version (originally designed by Jim Rimmer) for a variety of options. The set features Stern Aldine (Small x-height Caps with standard lower case), Regular, Tall Caps (with standard lc)&Small Caps with x-height caps in place of lc). Youtube. David Earls writes: I've heard people say that letterpress gives warmth, but I prefer to think of it as giving humanity. That the types interaction on a page is so dependent on the punch cutter, the caster, the compositor, the printer, the humidity, the papermaker and inkmaker gives it a humanity, not a warmth, and decries the demise of letterpress. In 2013, Canada Type remastered Stern as Stern Pro---this typeface now covers Greek, and is loaded with Opentype features.
• RTF Loxley (2010): The style of Loxley is based on early Roman typefaces, such as the "Subiaco" type of the late 1400s that was also inspirational to Frederick Goudy for his "Franciscan", "Aries" and "Goudy Thirty" type typefaces. Loxley displays some of Jim's particular left handed calligraphy and is in a similar style to his "Fellowship" and "Alexander Quill" typefaces, both of which were made in metal and digital formats. In 2013, Canada Type published a remastered and expanded version simply called Loxley.

FontShop link.

Jim Rimmer passed away early on January 8, 2010. His friend Richard Kegler (P22) wrote this obituary the next day: Jim was a multi-talented type designer, graphic artist, bookbinder, printer, letterer, technician and a most generous teacher. He was never glory-seeking and turned down most speaking engagements offered to him, not out of vanity or indifference, but rather thinking that he was not worthy of being given a spotlight. Jim offered free typecasting instruction to anyone who asked and came to visit him in his studio in New Westminster BC. He took as much time as needed and was generous to a fault. Anyone who took him up on this open invitation can attest to the intense and elegant chaos of his studio and work habits. I was fortunate enough to know Jim but for only a few years. What started as a business arrangement grew into a mutual respect and ongoing correspondence that I can only describe as life changing for me. His kindness and generosity were exceptional and his diplomacy even when given the opportunity to speak ill of anyone else was measured and kind. Jim's dedication to the craft of type design and related arts was beyond most if not all contemporaries. After his "retirement" from his professional life as a graphic artist and illustrator, he tirelessly worked on type designs for book projects where all aspects of his skills were applied. His book "Leaves from the Pie Tree" (I encouraged him to change the title from his original plan to call it "Droppings from the Pie Tree"...a truly self-effacing Jim Rimmerism) is the best single tome that summarizes his life and work. He designed the book�s typeface in Ikarus (as he had with the 200+ other type design he created), cut the matrices and cast the type, wrote the text using an autobiographical introduction and continued to explain the process he used to cut pantographic matrices for his metal typefaces. The multi-colored lino cut illustrations, book design, individual tipped in sheets and attention to press work and binding would be impressive for one specialist to complete on each component. The fact that Jim did all of this himself is awe inspiring. A trade edition of this book has been printed by Gaspereau press but does not hint at the grandeur of the beautiful book that is Pie Tree. Jim's follow up of his edition of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer (set in his Hannibal Oldstyle font designed for and fitted onto on a monotype composition caster) was recently completed and is equally if not more imposing as a fine press book, but with a sympathetic humor and humanity that would knock the stuffing of any other fine press attempt at the same material. Almost two years ago I visited Jim for a week and filmed footage for a documentary on his cutting of the Stern typeface. For various reasons the finishing of the film has been delayed. I truly regret that Jim could not see the finished version. With the film and his Pie Tree book, Jim generously conveys information on making metal type that has otherwise been largely lost and previously limited to a now defunct protective guild system. It was his wish that the information and craft be kept alive. Jim's last email to me was in classic Jim form hinting at his tireless dedication to his work: details of a new type family for a new book. He was one of the great ones. He will be missed.

Sumner Stone: Jim's insights into Goudy's typefaces in particular, and his devotion to doing everything in his own shop made me think he was perhaps Fred's reincarnation, but it took me awhile to realize this due to the self-deprecating personality you so accurately describe. His passing is truly a great loss to our craft.

Rod McDonald: I would like to relate a telephone conversation I had with Jim last month because I believe it shows his incredible spirit, and wonderful sense of humor. My wife and I visited Jim in November and were delighted to hear that his doctors had pronounced him cancer free. He looked good, just a little tired, but that was to be expected after his recent radiation treatment. Of course he was also anxious to get back to work. Less than two weeks later I received an email from him informing me that they had discovered that the cancer had spread to his lungs and, not only was it inoperable, he now only had six months to live. This sudden turn of affairs was devastating for me and I called him, hoping I think, to hear that it wasn't as bad as it sounded. He said it was bad and apparently nothing could be done. However he felt he would outlive the six months and in fact we even talked of getting together in the fall. The conversation then turned to his latest type family and when I gently asked him how long he thought it it would take to complete he simply said "I've got lots of time, after all I'm only going to be dying during the last fifteen minutes". I knew Jim for thirty-five years and will miss him more than his work, and that's saying a great deal.

In 2012, Canada Type, which had purchased Rimmer's designs started publishing some of Jim's lesser known designs. These include Cotillion Pro (2012, a very graceful typeface with high ascenders), Fellowship (2013, calligraphic), Poster Paint (2012, a take on Goudy Stout), Zigarre Script and Zigarre Rough (2012, brush scripts that were actually drawn with a marker), and Alexander Quill (2012, a calligraphic monastic typeface).

In 2013, Canada Type remastered several of Rimmer's typefaces, including in particular Isabelle Pro: Isabelle is the closest thing to a metal type revival Jim Rimmer ever did. The original metal typeface was designed and cut in late 1930s Germany, but its propspects were cut short by the arrival of the war. This was one of Jim's favourite typefaces, most likely because of the refined art deco elements that reminded him of his youthful enthusiasm about everything press-related, and the face's intricately thought balance between calligraphy and typography. Not to mention one of the most beautiful italics ever made. Lancelot Pro (2013) is a calligraphic all caps typeface based on Rimmer's digital original from 1999.

Pictures: Jim Rimmer casts 48pt ATypI keepsake (by John Hudson), Remembering Jim Rimmer (Facebook group), In his studio, a picture taken by the Globe and Mail. Another pic. Making Faces (trailer) (movie by Richard Kegler).

Klingspor link. ContentDM collection. Jim Rimmer at the Fine Press Book Association. Rimmer Type Foundry link.

View all typefaces by Jim Rimmer. An alphabetical listing of Jim Rimmer's typefaces. Catalog of Jim Rimmer's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Joe Sundwall

New York-based advertising designer. Codesigner with Herb Lubalin, Ed Benguiat and Antonio DiSpigna of the rigid slab serif typeface ITC Lubalin Graph (1974). Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Joe Taylor

According to Identifont, Joe Taylor designed Blippo Black in 1969 at FotoStar. Currently he is the curator of the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum in Crosbyton, TX. It was inspired by Herbert Bayer's 1925 experimental "universal typeface". Blippo versions: Scangraphic, URW. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Johannes Pfeil

Designer of the (phototype) LED simulation fonts Touring (1973) and Vienna (1973), which can be seen in the Berthold Headlines E3 book from 1982. [Google] [More]  ⦿

John Albert Cavanagh

Author of Lettering (1946). Designer of fonts such as Cavanagh No. 17 (1939, Ludlow). At Photo Lettering Inc, he designed Appalacia, Beacon Shaded, Billboard, Bingo, Bruce (+Italic), Calliope (Western), Chandelier, Dahlia, Dock Stencil, Eighteen Ninety (Western), Fournier, Hamilton, Hansa (blackletter), Initials 1 and 2, Jason, Kaleidoscope, Lenox Gothic Italic, Ogden, Parliament (blackletter), Pony Express (Western), Royal (roundhand), Shaded, Tiffany, Versailles, Yonalassi (script), and Zinnia. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

John Bomparte
[Bomparte's Fonts]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

John E. Lorish

Designer of the film font Lorish Shadow. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More]  ⦿

John Everett Benson

Lettering artist, stonecutter, calligrapher and sculptor, b. 1939, Newport, RI. Son of John Howard Benson (1902-1956), stonecutter and calligrapher, who was also born in Newport. He has created inscriptions for monuments including the John F. Kennedy memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, the National Gallery of Art, and the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC. Trained in sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design, John was owner and operator of the historic John Stevens stonecarving shop for more than thirty years. He trained his son Nicholas, who now runs the John Stevens Shop (since 1993), and has lately returned to the full-time practice of making sculptures at his studio in Newport.

His typefaces include the understated calligraphic scripts Alexa (1995-2002, Adobe), Balzano (1994, Adobe) and Caliban (1995, Adobe), the titling typeface Aardvark for Font Bureau (1991, with Jill Pichotta), and several phototypefaces for architectural applications.

Sample of his work from 1973 now at the MoMA in New York.

Wikipedia link. Font Bureau link. . Fontshop link. Linotype link.

View the typefaces that were made by Benson. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

John Goodger

John Goodger was involved in a firm called Goodger Valleau and Associates at 2050 Mansfield Street [now Hotel Saint Germain] in Montreal. At a certain point Goodger Valleau and Associates began using the names Artisart for the art studio, Artistat for the stat house, and Art Etc., for design projects.

John designed the Visual Graphics Corporation font Goodger Pointy (a phototype) in the early 1970s. Some peop;le on the Typedia blog say that Goodger Pointy appears to be similar to the Mergenthaler Linotype style Metro, designed by W. A. Dwiggins.

Acknowledgment: Thanks go to Montreal-based graphic designer Gerry L'Orange who used to work under Goodger. [Google] [More]  ⦿

John Pistilli

Born in 1925, died in 2003. He worked for the advertising agency Sudler & Hennessey, where he was head of lettering design. Frances Elfenbein met him first in 1957 at Sudler&Hennessey. She writes: John was the most skilled and creative letterer I had the privilege of knowing. He did the finished lettering for most of the designs Herb Lubalin created [at S&H], always adding refinements to the very rough sketches he received from Herb. In addition he created his own very beautiful roman serif typeface. He was "the Man" for lettering, and each and every art director in the agency sought to have him work on their project...of course Herb came first. When I broke my ankle skiing in 1963, John lettered the word "Love" in script on my cast...he was a sweet guy, and professionally very modest in spite of his formidable talent. Herb started his own design firm in 1964. John did not go with him, preferring to remain at S&H until his retirement. Tony Carnese who had been trained by John inherited his mantle and worked in the same greystone as Herb Lubalin Inc. I worked in the office alongside John in the mid '80's at S&H. He frequently sang as he lettered, always a surprise to people who realized that he stuttered when he spoke. [...] He had an enormous amount of patience. In the late 1950's we still had to use metal (Monotype) for large point sizes. Herb hated the letterspacing and line spacing that resulted from the shoulders and leading on individual characters. He achieved the results he wanted (very tightly kerned letters and tightly leaded lines) by having John cut apart each individual letter from clay-coated proofs only to reassemble the letters and lines. This was a monstrous task when the type was 24pt Century Expanded. John did it and never complained, and to tell the truth he agreed that the text did look much better. Thank you Frances for sending me this touching description.

In 1964, Herb Lubalin made a typeface with him called Pistilli Roman (photocomposition format only, VGC). There are also Bold and Black weights. It is one of the most gorgeous extreme-contrast didone headline typefaces ever made. A picture of the VGC typeface competition poster. Revivals of Pistilli Roman:

• Photo faces: Bodidot (Lettergraphics), Estella (Mecanorma).
• In 1969, Phil Martin made a swashy film font version of Pistilli, called Didoni, which had many new characters.
• Didoni, without the swashes, was digitized in the 1990s by the infamous Font Company (which closed shop in 2001 to go into the porn business).
• Font Company had done that digitization through URW, and so, URW started selling URW Didoni.
• OptiPirogi (Castcraft) is similar to Pistilli Roman.
• Eloquent JF Pro (Jason Walcott, Jukebox) was made in 2010.
• In 2011, at the height of the fat didone craze, Claude Pelletier made a free revival, also called Pistilli Roman.
• There is also Pistiline (2011) by Ink Type Foundry.
• In 2012, Nick Curtis created Spiffily NF, also in the same style.
• Solotype offers Pistilli Roman, Pistilli Roman Bold Slope (an italic), and Pistilli Roman Open No. 1 and No. 2.
• For a parametrized version of Pistilli, see Pistilli Mutatio (2017) by Beta Field (Michael Leighton Beaman and Zaneta Hong).

Klingspor link. Poster by Michaela Kriener. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

John R. Scotford

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Scotford Uncial (1965). [Google] [More]  ⦿

John Russell

American John Russell designed Russell Square (1973, VGC), which was named after a London neighborhood. It is a monoweight straight-line octagonal sans with angled stroke endings. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

John Schaedler

John N. Schaedler was an old school New York type designer, who had his own studio in the city. In the 1970s, Schaedler published Swinger, a film type by Ray Cruz. Around the same time, the psychedelic typeface Loose New Roman was designed. In 2010, Nick Curtis revived the latter typeface as Loo Snoo Roman NF.

Tabasco and Paprika, geometric oddities with Paprika being the bilined variant, were revived in 2010 by SoftMaker as Tabasco and Tabasco Twin, respectively. Download Tabasco Twin here.

Hiroshi Yamashita's Alpha Midnight (ca. 1969) was revived by Alan Jay Prescott as APT New Alpha Midnight. [Google] [More]  ⦿

John Schappler

John Schappler (1921-2017) graduated from the University of Iowa (1959), John had been a student of Father Edward Catich at St. Ambrose College, in Iowa, and had also worked with Ray Da Boll and R. Hunter Middleton. He worked from 1959-1965 at IBM on type design for typewriters in the era of IBM's Selectric typewriters. He was the designer of the typefaces IBM Script, Adjutant, and Delegate.

From 1967 until 1971 he was director of type design at Ludlow Typograph Co. He was manager of typeface design at the Chicago office of Compugraphic (1971-1973) and director of typography at Sun Chemical (1973-1976) and type and art director at Itek Composition Systems (1979-1984). He retired in Nashua, NH. John carved the tombstone of Victor Hammer, who had been his friend and mentor.

He designed these typefaces at Itek: Paul Mark (1977), Rita Script (1978). [Google] [More]  ⦿

John Walter Denzler

Creator (b. 1941) of typefaces at VGC, such as Solitaire (1965). [Google] [More]  ⦿

John Yavroyan

At Photolettering, John Yavroyan designed the LED typeface Evga. [Google] [More]  ⦿

José de Mendoza y Almeida

Influential French type designer, born in Sèvres in 1926, d. 2018. He worked with Maximilien Vox in the early 1950s. From 1954 to 1959 he was the assistant of Roger Excoffon at the Fonderie Olive, Marseille. From 1985 until 1990, he was a professor at the Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, where his students included Thierry Puyfoulhoux, Frank Jalleau, and Poul Søgren. Neufville republished many of his fonts.

Books about his work:

• Thesis on Mendoza by Lucie Jullian for her graduation from Estienne in 2008.
• In 2010, Martin Majoor and Sébastien Morlighem published José de Mendoza y Almeida (Bibliothèque Typographique).

List of his fonts:

• Brennus (1980, Socotep).
• Convention (1990, Imprimerie Nationale).
• Ergo (1971, Hollenstein Phototypo).
• Fidelio ND (1980, Mecanorma and Neufville Digital).
• Full (1954-1955, Graphorel).
• Mendoza (1975, CCT - Typogabor - Letraset), ITC Mendoza (1991, ITC): a legible text family. Links to digital versions: ITC Mendoza Roman (ITC), ITC Mendoza Roman (Adobe), ITC Mendoza Roman (Monotype).
• Narval (1956, Gérard Blanchard - Courrier Graphique).
• Ogan (1954-1955, Graphorel).
• Pascal ND (1959, Fonderie Amsterdam; see also Neufville Digital for a digital version). Ile de France (1960, Enric Crous-Vidal, Fonderie Typographique Française) is similar.
• Père Castor (1975, CCT - Typogabor). It is a cursive almost school script created for Flammarion. A free digital version was created by Thierry Puyfoulhoux.
• Photina (Monotype). This gracious book typeface is perhaps Mendoza's most famous face. Some drawings of Photina. Links to digital versions: Photina (Monotype), Photina MT (Adobe).
• Sèvres (1954-1955, Cenpa).
• Sully Jonquieres ND (Neufville Digital; originally Socotep&Mecanorma, 1980).
• Yerma (1970, Hollenstein Phototypo).

FontShop link. Linotype link. FontShop link. Wikipedia link. Showcase of Mendoza's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Joseph Churchward
[Churchward Type]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jürgen Riebling

Designer and lettering artist in the 1970s. He published Mr. Big (1972, Berthold AG), a decorative font that saw several digital revivals:

• Nick Curtis's Hoodoo U NF (2011).
• M730 Deco (SoftMaker).
• Mister Big (2012, SoftMaker).

His Media Serif (1976, H. Berthold AG) was digitally revived by Elsner and Flake---this is one of the typographic horrors of Western society, with clumsy serifs pointing the wrong way. at some point, Brendel Studio and Linotype were also offering versions of Media Serif. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Karl Pausch

German type designer, d. 1984. He created Kap Antiqua (1970s, VGC). For a remote revival, see Patrick Griffin's P22 Barabajagal (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Karl-Heinz Domning

Creator (b. 1938, Lasdehnen, Germany) of typefaces at VGC, such as Domning Antiqua (1966). In the Berthold Types Collection, he has Quadra 57 BQ (1974, a great slab serif), Viola (1973, didone) and Simone BQ (1974, didone).

Klingspor link.

View Karl-Heinz Domning's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Karl-Heinz Lange

Type designer (b. 1929, Wiesenkirch, d. 2010) at Typoart Dresden (former East Germany).

Karl-Heinz was enrolled in the Humanistic Gymnasium at Elbing from 1939 to 1945 and changed to the Wernigerode High School after his family had to flee to central Germany. From 1949 to 1951, Karl-Heinz Lange studied at the Werkkunstschule Halle, where one of his teachers was Professor Post. After 1951, he continued his studies at the Hochschule for Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig with an emphasis on book design. He received his diploma in 1955 with distinction based on his design of a hot metal typeface. From 1956 to 1961, Karl-Heinz Lange worked as a lecturer for Type and Commercial Graphics at the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst in Magdeburg. From 1961 to 1963, he taught at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, and finally as a freelance commercial designer in Magdeburg. From 1969 to 1976 he was Artistic Director at Henschelverlag, Berlin. From 1976 until 1994 he was Professor of Type and Typography at the Fachschule für Werbung und Gestaltung in Berlin. From 2005 to 2007 he taught at the Fachhochschule Magdeburg/Stendal.

Karl-Heinz Lange was awarded the second prize at the International Type Design Contest 1971 for a headline typeface, and, in 1984, at the XIth Biannual of Graphic Design in Brno, he won a silver medal for Publica. He created the telephone book typeface Minima and redesigned the Typoart Super Grotesk (Arno Drescher, 1930) as well as the newspaper typeface Magna (originally by Herbert Thannhaeuser). His fonts include:

• Publika: a sans typeface developed between 1981 and 1983---this must have been one of the last big East German typefaces.... It obtained a silver medal at the Bienale of Graphic Design Brno 1984.
• Primus (a 1962 workhorse family for the magazines in the DDR), Magna (a DDR magazine text typeface from 1968) and Typoart Super Grotesk. These metal typefaces were adapted for Phototype by Lange.
• Minima (1984): a narrow sans designed for the DDR's telephone directory. Revived by Ralph M. Unger in 2017 as Tablica.
• ViabellaT H Pro (2009-2016). From 2006 until 2009, Veronika Elsner and Günther Flake helped Lange with his new signage script typeface Viabella. Earlier, Elsner and Flake published Lange's Rotola (1985/2007). Viabella and Rotola were adjusted and finished after Lange's death by the type designer Björn Gogalla.
• At the end of his life, Lange had a fruitful cooperation with Primetype. His old typefaces were revived in 2009 with the help of Ole Schäfer as Publicala [PTL Publicala has 60 typefaces], Minimala [PTL Minimala is a family of 96 fonts from Primetype] and Superla [PTL Superla has 64 styles in the geometric/Futura genre]. The first two names refer, of course, to Publika and Minima.
• Rotula TH Pro (2016, Elsner & Flake). When first developed in 1985 at Typoart, Lange called this circle-themed psychedelic font Boutique. It was further developed by him from 2006 until 2009, and finally published by Elsner & Flake after his death in 2016.

Karlo Wagner

Phototype designer. He created the psychedelic / art nouveau phototype typeface Fortunata (1971, Berthold). That typeface was revived by Kevin Allan King and Patrick Griffin as Spadina (2010, Canada Type). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kathy McCord

Creator of Genny (1970), an avant-garde typeface from the photo type era. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kimberly Winder

Creator of a revival of the paper-fold stencil typeface Norton Tape (2012) at Photo-Lettering. This typeface was originally designed by S.E. Norton for Photo-Lettering. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Krzysztof Kochnowicz
[TYPO]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Ladislas Mandel

Born in 1921 in Transylvania, he trained at the Fine Arts Academy of Budapest (Hungary) and then at the Beaux-Arts in Rouen (Normandy, France). Ladislas Mandel was a stonecutter, painter and sculptor. However, he spent his life in France, mostly as a type designer at Deberny&Peignot, where he worked since 1954. In 1955, he headed the type atelier. He was taught by and cooperated with Adrian Frutiger during nine years at Deberny, finally succeeding Frutiger in 1963 as type director. In 1955, he was in charge of the transformation of the Deberny type repertoire from lead to phototype. He created original designs under the label International Photon Corporation, and turned independent designer in 1977. After that, he specialized in typefaces for telephone directories, and made, e.g., Colorado in 1998 with Richard Southall for US West. He cofounded the ANCT in Paris in 1985 and taught there and at Paris VIII. In 1998, he published the book Ecritures, miroir des hommes et des sociétés (éditions Perrousseaux), which was followed in 2004 by Du pouvoir de l'écriture at the same publisher. He died on October 20, 2006.

• His typefaces for the Lumitype-IPC (International Photon Corporation) catalogue include originals as well as many interpretations of famous typefaces: Arabica Arabic (1975), Aster (1960-1970), Aurélia (1967), Baskerville (1960-1970), Bodoni (1960-1970), Bodoni Cyrillic (1960-1970), Cadmos Greek (1974), Cancellaresca, (1965) Candida (1960-1970), Caslon (1960-1970), Century (1960-1970), Clarendon (1960-1970), Edgware (1974), Formal Gothic (1960-1970), Frank Ruehl Hebreu (1960-1970: this is one of the most popular Hebrew typefaces ever), Gill Sans (1960-1970), Gras Vibert (1960-1970), Hadassah (1960-1970), Haverhill (1960-1970), Imprint (1960-1970), Janson (1960-1970), Mir Cyrillic (1968), Modern (1960-1970), Nasra Arabic (1972), Néo Vibert (1960-1970), Néo-Peignot (1960-1970), Newton (1960-1970), Olympic (1960-1970), Plantin (1960-1970), Rashi Hebreu, Sofia (1967), Sophia Cyrillic (1969), Sphinx (1960-1970), Textype (1960-1970), Thai (1960-1970), Thomson (1960-1970), Times Cyrillic (1960-1970), Univad (1974), Weiss (1960-1970).
• Types done or revived at Deberny&Peignot: Antique Presse (1964, Deberny&Peignot), Times (1964). A note here: many type experts believe that Antique Presse is not by Mandel. According to Production Type, it was established that Adrian Frutiger, then art director of Deberny&Peignot, was more likely the mind behind Antique Presse. As further proof, Antique Presse quite blatantly follows Frutiger's Univers pattern on many levels.
• Types for phone directories: Clottes (1986, Sneat - France Telecom), Colorado (1998, U.S. West, created with the help of Richard Southall), Galfra (1975, Seat, Promodia, Us Seat, English Seat: there are versions called Galfra Italia (1975-1981), Galfra Belgium (1981), Galfra UK (1990), and Galfra US (1979-1990)), Lettar (1975, CCETT- Rennes), Letar Minitel (1982-1983), Linéale (1987, ITT-World Directories), Lusitania (1987, ITT-World Directories), Nordica 1985 (ITT-World Directories: Nineuil says that this is done in 1987-1988), Seatypo Italie (1980).
• Other typefaces: Portugal, Messidor (1983-1985, old style numerals font for the Imprimerie Nationale), Solinus (great!!, 1999), Laura (1999).

Lawrence Wallis
[Lawrence Wallis: A Concise Chronology of Typesetting Developments, 1886-1986]

[More]  ⦿

Lawrence Wallis: A Concise Chronology of Typesetting Developments, 1886-1986
[Lawrence Wallis]

In his 1988 slim book, A Concise Chronology of Typesetting Developments (London: The Wynken de Worde Society and Lund Humphries), Lawrence Wallis chronicles the history of photocomposition. The information below is from that source, via Paul Shaw's page on that topic.

• Birth of phototype
• c.1959 Alphatype founded
• 1960 Compugraphic founded
• c.1960 Addressograph-Multigraph/Varityper founded
• 1960 First Alphatype machine
• 1965 Hell Digiset
• 1967 Varityper Headliner / AM 725
• 1967 Fairchild PU2000 and PU8000
• 1967 Berthold Diatronic
• 1967 IBM 2680
• 1968 Harris [Intertype] Fototronic 1200
• 1968 Compugraphic CG2961, CG4961 and CG7200
• 1968 Compugraphic CG2961 and CG4961 cheap
• 1969 Singer Justotext 70
• 1970 Harris Fototronic TxT
• 1970 Star Parts Co. Compstar 150
• 1970 type division created at Compugraphic
• 1971 Dymo acquires Star Parts
• 1971 Autologic founded
• 1971 CG Compwriter
• 1971 CompWriter allowed direct keyboard entry
• 1971 AM 747
• 1971 Autologic APS 4
• 1971 III [Information International Inc.] took over RCA Videocomp
• 1972 Autologic becomes a subsidiary of Volt Information Sciences, Inc.
• 1972 Fototronic 600
• 1972 MGD MetroSet successfully applied storage of digital fonts in outline form [CRT]
• 1972 MGD Metroset
• 1972 Bobst Eurocat
• 1973 Compugraphic Videosetter
• 1974 A-M Compuset
• 1975 Dymo Graphic Systems created
• 1975 MGD Graphics Systems Group part of Rockwell International
• 1976 new Alphacomp
• 1976 Quadritek 1200
• 1977 DLC-1000 Compositor from Dymo
• 1977 Compugraphic Editwriter
• 1977 Alphatype CRS
• 1977 Bobst begins photocomposition business
• 1978 Linotron 202
• 1978 MGD leaves the business
• 1978 AM Comp/Edit 5810
• 1979 III buys MGD
• 1979 Itek buys Dymo
• 1980 CG8600
• 1980 AKI (an Atex company) sells photocomposition
• 1980 Berthold and Alphatype merge (but see also 1981 below)
• 1980 Mycro-Tek, Inc. founded
• 1980 Foto Star International sells photocomposition
• 1981 Berthold buys Alphatype
• 1981 Autologic buys Bobst
• 1981 Bitstream founded
• 1981 Böger released Scantext 1000
• 1981 Volt buys Bobst
• 1981 Xerox (Xerox Printing Systems Division) licenses fonts from Mergenthaler including Optima, Melior and Palatino; digitized by Mergenthaler
• 1983 Digitek machine
• 1984 Tegra founded
• 1984 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) licenses CG fonts for DEC LN01
• 1984 Qubix licenses Bitstream fonts
• 1984 Harris licenses CG fonts for CT7000 as supplement to own type library
• 1984 Xyvision licenses CG fonts for Xyvision Laser Printer
• 1984 Harris quit the business
• 1985 Compugraphic MCS 8800
• 1985 Apple and Linotype announce alliance
• 1986 Tegra licenses Bitstream fonts
• 1986 Scantext 2000
• 1986 Berthold sells Alphatype
• 1986 URW announces type library, including URW Grotesk and URW Antiqua
• 1986 Bitstream licenses fonts to Hewlett Packard (HP)
• 1986 Esselte buys ITC
• 1986 Adobe downloadable fonts available with Apple LaserWriter; there are 12 packages that include 15 ITC fonts (among them ITC Zapf Dingbats and ITC Zapf Chancery), Palatino and Optima
• 1987 Alphatype acquires Alphabet Innovations type library
• 1987 Linotype sold to Commerzbank
• 1987 Linotype distributes Adobe fonts; Adobe Type Library announced
• 1989 Agfa Compugraphic created
• Death of phototype

Layton Filmset

London-based film type company. They sold and/or used the main typefaces at the time. I do not believe that they ever made original type. Just for history's sake, a few shots from their catalog: Andrich Minerva, Arnholm Medium Sans, Bodoni, Craw Clarendon Condensed, display typefaces (list), Ehrhardt, Jana, Jana, lightline Gothic, Modern No. 20, Pistilli Roman, text typefaces (list). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Leo Maggs

Designer of Westminster (1973, Berthold), related to VGC's Amelia (1967) and based in the look of the magnetic ink bank cheque font MICR E-13B that was developed in the mid 1950s and is used by banks from the 1960s onwards. Klingspor's site says that he is German, but that is wrong---he is British. In an interview, the writer says: There is one space age one called One Up, a ghastly 60s thing, and the guy who designed that, Leo Maggs, talks about how he wished he hadn't designed it. "Way back in the swinging 60s," he says, "when my youthful soul was consumed with enthusiasm, if not naked ambition, I was surprised and delighted to have my first typeface, Westminster, accepted by Robert Norton. I produced several further designs, most of which were properly strangled at birth. One Up unfortunately survived... Looking at it now I feel much as I imagine a mature film star must feel when, 30 years after the event, she comes across photographs of herself as a struggling starlet revealing all for the readers of popular girly magazines, and I wish I hadn't done it." [Google] [More]  ⦿

Leo Weisz

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Lee (1974). Lee Bold is the typeface used in Charlie's Angels (the credits for both the TV show and the movie, as well as in the VHS logo) and in the film "Whose life is it anyway?". There are other weights such as Lee Regular and Lee Italic. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Les Besnardtypo
[Michel Besnard]

The French type designers Michel (b. 1942) and Rosalyne Besnard (b. 1946) live in Rouen. Under the brand Les Besnardtypo, they jointly designed Micmac (Agfa Creative Alliance, 1997), ITC Odyssee (1996), ITC Typados (1997), Rom (Creative Alliance, 1998), Bouchon (Letraset, 2000), Huit (Visual Graphics Corporation, 1972), Sargon (Visual Graphics Corporation, 1974: bilined and futuristic), Migraph (Agfa Monotype, 1999), PistolShot LT Std Normal and Light (Linotype, 2003), Nazca (Monotype Imaging, 2005), Sargon (Monotype Imaging, 2006), First One (Monotype Imaging, 2006: a family for teaching the alphabet to children), Mickros (Monotype Imaging, 2007), Pantin (Monotype Imaging, 2007), De Gama (Monotype Imaging, 2008), Pasta (Monotype Imaging, 2008).

As of 2015, Monotype sells De Gama, Filao, First One, Gamira, Huit, Makina, Mickros, Modern B42, Nazca, Pantin, Pasta, Robotool, Sargon, Season.

Linotype page. FontShop link. Another FontShop link.

View Michel Besnard's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Leslie Usherwood
[Typsettra]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Leslie Usherwood

The most famous Canadian type designer (1932-1983). Usherwood studied at the Beckenham School of Art, and practiced as a lettering artist in the commercial art field for 15 years. Typesettra was created in 1968, and had more than four type designers in the early eighties. In 1977, Typsettra began designing original typefaces for Berthold, Letraset and ITC. Usherwood's typefaces:

• Melure (first typeface, designed in 1965 for Headliners International, New York).
• Caslon Graphique (1980). Digital versions: Caslon Graphique (URW++), Caslon Graphique (ITC), Caslon Graphique EF (Elsner+Flake), Caslon Graphique SH (Scangraphic Digital Type Collection).
• Caxton Light Italic (Letraset, 1981), Caxton Roman Bold (Letraset, 1981), Caxton Roman Book (Letraset, 1981), and Caxton Roman Light (Letraset, 1981).
• Flange, a family created for a government program in 1972; a Typesettra font since 1980; a Berthold font since 1981; see Fleming on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002; it is also in the Scangraphic collection as Flower. Aka Frascati.
• ITC Leawood (1982). ITC Leawood was begun by Les Usherwood and finished in 1984 by his staff at Typsettra in Toronto after his untimely death. See also OPTI Lemery Book by Castcraft.
• Lynton (1980-1981, Berthold).
• Marbrook (1983, Berthold).
• ITC Usherwood (1983).
• Several headline typefaces were conceived by Leslie Usherwood for Berthold in the early 1970s, such as Graphis Extra Fett (1971, a very bold headline face), Statesman (1973, a high contrast large x-height serif face) and Oktavia (1973, a large x-height face). They are also Typesettra typefaces.
• Several of his typefaces were published/revived by Red Rooster Type foundry, such as TCAdminister (by Steve Jackaman), Argus (by Paul Hickson), Beckenham (by Paul Hickson, named after the Beckenham School of Art where Usherwood studied), TCCentury (1996, by Steve Jackaman), Chelsea (1993, by Steve Jackaman).
• At Red Rooster: Alexon (1993: the digital version was done by Steve Jackaman in 1999. This typeface is a relative of the flared-extremity typeface Friz Quadrata), Elston, TCKingsley (digital version by Jackaman, 1999: based on Goudy's Kennerley Old Style, 1911-1924), Lesmore (digital version by Paul Hickson), Claremont (digital version by Paul Hickson), TC Administer (digital version by Jackaman), Sycamore (digital version by Jackaman), Maximo (digital version by Jackaman), Kingsrow (digital version by Jackaman), Goudy 38 (digital version by Jackaman), Extension RR (digital version by Jackaman), Chelsea (digital version by Jackaman), Argus (digital version by Paul Hickson), Beckenham (digital version by Jackaman), Equestrienne (digital version by Paul Hickson), Stanhope (digital version by Paul Hickson; Usherwood's based the design on a turn-of-the-century typeface of the same name from the Soldans&Payvers foundry, circa 1904), Century New Style (digital version by Jackaman), Waverly (digital version by Jackaman).

Linotype link. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

LetterGraphics
[Marc Jones Barry Kimbrough]

Photolettering foundry run by Marc Jones Barry Kimbrough in Culver City, CA. Russell Bean worked for the Los Angeles studio of Lettergraphics International in charge of lettering, logo design and converting type designs to film fonts. It was at this time (1973) that the Washington family (digital version at Type Associates, Russell Bean's present company) was completed. The company ceased operations in the mid-1980s.

The 1968 catalog of Lettergraphics featured typefaces like the psychedelic Mod Poster in Alfred Roller's Viennese secession style. The 1974 catalog of Lettergraphics shown in ULC 1974 includes these typefaces:

• House styles: Virginia, Vantage, Grading, Joe, Heritage, Chaparral, Radius, Nectar, JoJo, Dojo, Harvey, Spatz, Mamoru, Wellington, Sebastian, Belden, Parquet, Della, Nippy, Hess, Totemic, Ruby, Big Fat, Simoes Classic, Serendipity, Kiwi, Angelo, Bethany, Right-On Neon, Klein Lined, McGrath, Fitzner Caps, Skidoo Outline, Plastic.
• By Joseph Churchward: Twenties, Churchward Sans, Churchward Roman, Churchward Lined.
• By Marlene Steen: Steen Sans.
• By Michael Di Canzio: Di Canzio Sans.
• By Donald Carboni: Carboni.
• By Patrick Collins: Arlenette.
• By Edston J. Detrich: Detrich Sans.
• By Martha A. Rowland: Rowland Grotesk.
• By John E. Lorish: Lorish Shadow.
• By Alfted Guerra: Times Square.
• By Reynolds M. Roberts: Roberts Square.
• By Peter Solly: Colescombe.
• By Robert F. Brightman: Streak, Brightman.
• By Robert L. Cooley: La Grange, La Grange Black.
• By Herbert L. Frager: Frager Punch.
• By Anthony Liliefeldt: Padua.
• Ray L. Herness: Herness Script.
• Robert E. Gotsch: Botsch Glob, Botsch Toe.
• Donald L. Vernon: Chrome.

Digital revivals:

• Latitude Sans (2019, Stiggy & Sands). A heavy sans based on Lettergraphics' Free.
• Mushmouth PB (2019, Phil Bracco). A revival of the comic book font Albert.
• Nudity PB (2018, Phil Bracco) revives Ad Shadow as a layerable font.
• Wintermint (2018, Phil Bracco) revives and extends the flared almost psychedelic typeface Lori.
• Boilermaker (2018, Stiggy&Sands) is a revival of the tall condensed sans LetterGraphics typeface Flair G100.
• The psychedelic (art nouveau inspired) typeface called Cantini (1972) was digitally revived and expanded by Patrick Griffin as Salome (2007, Canada Type).
• Intrigue is a Lettergraphics film typeface that was digitized, revived and expanded to a large octagonal / mechanical typeface family, Contraption, by Phil Bracco (Pink Broccoli).
• Scrwby (2013, Phil Bracco) is a revival of Surf.
• Virginia (2008, Russell Bean) is a digitization of an old avant garde typeface by Bean himself from ca. 1970 that won a Lettergraphics typeface competition. It was extended by two weights and redrawn in 2016 as Virginia Neo.
• Rebecca Alaccari (Canada Type) designed Goudy Two Shoes in 2006, an expansion of the film typeface Goudy Fancy by Lettergraphics.
• Good Grief PB (2015, Phil Bracco) started out as a revival of Carmel (or Karmel).
• MardiKrewePB (2015, Phil Bracco) started as a digitization of a (psychedelic) film typeface called MardiGras by Lettergraphics.
• Maile was digitized and extended by Stiggy & Sands as Husk in 2018.
• Gene Eidy's Sukiyaki (1968, Lettergraphics) was eventually digitized (without permission) by Jonathan Smith as Hirosh (1993). In 2020, Steve Harrison did a proper digital revival giving full credit to Eidy---his free typeface is also called Sukiyaki.
• Laurel was revived and extended/modified by Stiggy & Sands in 2019 as Lorette.
• Rackem PB (2019, Phil Bracco) is a beatnik font that started as a digitization of the LetterGraphics film typeface Eightball. There are other Eightball film fonts of a very different look elsewhere, so that name is a bit confusing.
• The bullethole typeface Circue Solid was revived by Phil Bracco as Blackhole PB (2019).
• Wood Grotesk. This font was revived and expanded in 2020 by Stiggy & Sands as Bugleboy. Berkshire Pro (a plump display typeface).
• Caren. A great stencil font revived in 2021 by astigmatic One Eye as Rinzler AOE Pro.

Lettering Inc.

Chicago-based company founded in 1939 by Edwin W. Krauter, which created lettertypes from the 1930s until the 1970s. In 2010, Stuart Sandler (Font Diner) announced that it intends to digitally revive the collection. He writes:

Founded in 1939 by Edwin W. Krauter of Chicago, Lettering, Inc. produced its own patented Photo-Ray process of lettering (US Pat 2165861) in which transparent letters made from original alphabets were assembled by hand and then placed in a line (angled or curved if so desired) and then photographed. This "glass setting" process created flawlessly set headlines and, with multiple character forms to choose from the headline looked authentically lettered.

An early competitor of Photo Lettering, Inc, they employed such notable lettering artists of the time as Oscar Ogg, Ray DaBoll and Ray Baker, among others. At its height in the late 1960s, Lettering, Inc. had as many as 14 franchises operating in the US and Canada and was continually producing new alphabet designs. As the market changed and computer technology evolved, Lettering, Inc. became less of a supplier of type to the ad agencies and became more involved as a supplier of high-end graphics and type to the big Detroit auto makers. Today, from its Southfield, Michigan office, Lettering, Inc. continues to provide various graphics services to a diverse group of customers.

Each Lettering, Inc. alphabet was originally designed with nearly 3-4 alternate glyph forms for every character and ligature pair, many with well over 300 Latin characters alone. Stuart Sandler, President of Font Diner, Inc. intends to release the Lettering, Inc. library in OpenType format so the original designs can be fully realized with a dynamic feature set including every alternate glyph forms and automatic substitutive ligature as it was designed by the original artists. "We're also thrilled to be working from the original ink drawings on board by the original Lettering, Inc. artists that have been in the Lettering, Inc. archives since the 1930s." says Sandler.

"We are very happy to work with Font Diner to once again make these beautiful and unique typefaces available to the public." says Karin Krauter of Lettering, Inc. "So much of this wonderful collection has never been seen before and we're pleased to honor and revive the work of these highly-skilled and talented lettering artists from the heyday of lettering to be appreciated and enjoyed by modern designers again", explains Sandler.

An illustrated history of Lettering, Inc. is currently being researched and written by Sandler with the assistance of many current and former Lettering, Inc. employees. His work will accurately re-tell the evolution of Lettering, Inc., its founder Ed Krauter and the significant contributions of Lettering, Inc. to the typographic industry. A re-release of the original Lettering, Inc. catalogs is also planned.

Sample. Another sample. And another one.

In 2012, production started with Feather Script (Patrick Griffin).

In 2013, the large advertising headline sans family Directors Gothic (Neil Summerour) followed. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

L.Harl Copeland

Phototype era American type designer. Jeremy Mickel created a digital version his (prismatic, beveled, roman caps) Trillium typeface in 2011 at the new digital PhotoLettering / House Industries. Copeland's original Trillium was done at Photo-Lettering, Inc. in 1960. He also designed Copeland Milo (a connected script) at PhotoLettering Inc.

John Moore says that Copeland's style inspired him when he made Scripta Pro in 2014. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Linda Hoffmann

Designer of the Cloe font (Varityper, 1979). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Lou Scolnik

American type designer who was associated with the photocomposition company Visual Graphics Corporation. He created the horizontally striped caps typeface Maximus (1973, VGC). A digital version exists at Bitstream called Maximus BT. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Louis Dorfsman

Or Lou Dorfsman. Celebrated graphic designer, b. 1918, Manhattan, d. 2008, Roslyn, NY. U&LC wrote in 1988: For more than forty years, Lou Dorfsman was responsible for much of the design and advertising done by CBS, Inc. As Vice President and Creative Director of Advertising and Design, his work has set a standard aspired to by corporate communicators around the world. This retrospective exhibition also includes graphic design, exhibition design and advertising done for other clients, including Dansk Designs International. The recipient of many design awards, Lou Dorfsman was elected to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1978, the same year that he was awarded the annual medal of the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

By 1964, he was selected as the director of design for all of CBS and was later promoted to senior vice president and creative director for marketing communications and design in 1968. In this role he maintained creative control over the network's use of the CBS Eye logo to its proprietary CBS Didot typeface created in the 1970s by Freeman Craw. He would go on to win the TDC Medal in 1995. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Louis Minott

American designer (1912-2003) associated with Visual Graphics Corporation. Creator of the Victorian typeface Davida (1965, VGC). Digital versions of Davida include Davida EF by Elsner&Flake, a Bitstream version, Delaware (Softmaker) and Ruminata (at Photo Lettering).

Bio at Linotype. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Lubalin, Smith, Carnase

Foundry prominent in the photolettering period featuring fonts by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase. The typefaces have the acronym LSC in their names, such as LSC Book. The company evolved into Lubalin, Burns and Co, which in turn evolved into ITC, which was set up in 1970 by Herb Lubalin, Aaron Burns and Edward Rondthaler. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ludlow
[Robert Hunter Middleton]

Foundry in Chicago run by Robert Hunter Middleton. Myfonts.com writes that its type library was largely derivative, with some original scripts. After Middleton's death, and Ludlow's demise, most of the typefaces from the Ludlow library were licensed exclusively to International TypeFounders, Inc., (ITF) and are part of the Red Rooster collection. Fonts by Middleton at Ludlow include Bodoni Campanile, Bodoni (see Bodoni D Black by URW, and Bodoni Campanile Pro (2017) by Steve Jackaman), Coronet, Mandate, Lafayette (now sold by Font Bureau), Tempo (see Tempo by Monotype), and Umbra (now sold by Bitstream and Monotype).

Ludlow house typefaces revived by Steve Jackaman include Caslon RR Extra Condensed, Chamfer Gothic (the original being from ca. 1898), and Gothic Medium Condensed.

A renewed Ludlow was established in 2001 and is run from the UK. Current (2002) catalog: Admiral Script (Robert H. Middleton's formal script, 1953: see the digital revival by Ralph Unger in 2005), Adrian VGC (2003), Annonce Grotesque (Wagner&Schmidt, 1914), Delphian Open Title (Robert H. Middleton), Flair (connected writing, 40-50s style), Franklin Gothic ExCnd Title, Founders Garamond (based on the Berner type specimen of 1592), Lotther Text (blackletter based on an alphabet of Melchior Lotther, 1535), Ludlow Ornaments (2001), Ludlow Stygian (art deco, which inspired Nick Curtis' 2009 font Kharon Ultra NF), Maxim (Peter Schneidler, hand-printed font from 1955), Orplid (Hans Bohn), Samson (Robert H. Middleton), Speedball Roman, Ludlow Stencil (1937, Robert H. Middleton; a digital revival includes Jeff Levine's Favorite Stencil JNL (2015)), Tempo MedCond (Robert H. Middleton), Theda Bara (great titling type), Vulcan Shaded (based on the design of the Richard Gans Foundry in Madrid), Karnak Black (Egyptian slab serif originally designed by Robert Hunter Middleton in 1930), Oriana (blackletter font based on a design of the Imprimerie Nationale, Paris), Ludlow Square Gothic (revival/modernization of a 1920s font by Robert Wiebking for Ludlow), The Hardy Arcade (like Umbra), Ogre, Vulcan Bold (a display font inspired by a 1925 design of the Richard Gans Foundry, Madrid), Walbaum. Crestwood (2006, Ascender) is an updated version of an elegant semi-formal script typeface originally released by the Ludlow Type Foundry in 1937.

References: Ludlow Typefaces A Supplement, November 1933, Ludlow Typefaces Typefaces Recently Produced, April 1936, Ludlow Typefaces [Edition D] (between 1940 and 1956).

View a list of digital typefaces derived from the metal typefaces at Ludlow.

Ludlow Foundry: List of some digital fonts. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

M. Mitchell

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as China (1975). That typeface was digitized and extended twice by Mark Simonson, first as Changeling (2003) and then as Changeling Neo (2009). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mac Baumwell

He once said Each letter should have a flirtation with the one next to it. The story told by his son Clyde (Chromatype, Charlotte, NC) in 2010: It was a quote developed during the time of using the typositor for phototypesetting headlines. Herb Lubalin, Aaron Burns and ITC were clients of ours who often required the careful and considered placement of one letter next to the other. We had to take into account the positive and negative space between letters. This was being done in a red light safe darkroom, exposing each letter one at a time and watching it develop under a "glass" which held liquid photo developer. Being a flirtatious man, my father came up with that quote during that period which was around 1985-1986. A couple of years later he became a consultant for a few companies including Adobe in their earliest years. That quote can be found in one of Adobe's first specimen books "Adobe Type Guide, Volume 1". [Google] [More]  ⦿

Majus Corporation
[George Thomas]

George Thomas is a font expert who owns Majus Corp in Dallas, a company he founded after having contributed to many of the major font foundries. Creative Alliance designer: The first font to be released from Majus Corp., and licensed exclusively to the Creative Alliance, is Civilite MJ. The typeface was originally cut by Robert Granjon in 1557. This Civilité dates from 1994 and is based on a model by Louis Ferrand (1922). He also created the film fonts Eightball, Highball, and Cueball, which were licensed to Alphabet Innovations (Phil Martin's company).

MyFonts page. Phil Martin said about him: George Thomas came to work for me. A technical genius in my view. He made my studio the branch office of Merganthaler. When type director Mike Parker quit Merg to found Bitstream and hire away all Merg's type-knowledgable people, Steve Byers had no way to keep Merg in production except for what George and I did for him. His fonts have the MJ suffix. FontShop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Manfred H. Schüller

Designer of photo types. Creator of Schüller Regular, Medium and Bold (1986), available from Berthold. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Marc Jones Barry Kimbrough
[LetterGraphics]

[More]  ⦿

Margaret Yakovenko

Designer of the funky Photo-Lettering Inc font Picnic. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Margott Schilling

Designer of the phototype cursive typeface Batik (1980, Berthold AG). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Marian Jones

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Thor (1973). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Markus J. Low

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Markus Roman and Basilea (1965), which won the 1965 VGC National Type Face Design Competition. Patrick Griffin writes about Messenger (2010, Canada Type): Messenger is a redux of two mid-1970s Markus Low designs: Markus Roman, an upright calligraphic face, and Ingrid, a popular typositor-era script. Through the original film typefaces were a couple of years apart and carried different names, they essentially had the same kind of Roman/Italic relationship two members of the same typeface family would have. The forms of both typefaces were reworked and updated to fit in the Ingrid mold, which is the truer-to-calligraphy one. Almost simultaneously, Jonathan Hill did another revival / extension of Basilea, called MarkusLow (2010). Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Marlene Steen

Designer of the film font Steen Sans. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Martha A. Rowland

Designer of the film font Rowland Grotesk. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Martin Solomon

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Eastern Souvenir (1969, 3 weights). Eastern Souvenir was created for the identity of Eastern Airlines. It is based on the 1967 Photo-Lettering typeface Souvenir by Ed Benguiat. Benguiat's Souvenir in turn was a revival and extension of a metal typeface designed in 1914 by Morris Fuller Benton called Souvenir that appears in the 1923 ATF specimen book. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Martin Wilke

German type designer, b. Berlin, 1903, d. Berlin, 1993. He studied at Unterrichtsanstalt des Staatlichen Kunstgewerbemuseums Berlin in 1921. In 1923, he was hired by Atelier Wilhelm Deffke and later became an independent graphic designer. His typefaces include many scripts:

• Ariston, including Ariston and Ariston Fett styles. The ultra-black Ariston Extra was done in 1936. Originally designed for Germany's top cigarette in 1932. Light appeared in 1933, Bold in 1934 and Medium in 1936, all at Berthold. Copycats of Ariston include Agnes (2002, SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD), Artistic (2010, SoftMaker), Arioso, Aristocrat (WSI), Aristus (URW), Canon, Alison (EFF), Jaclyn (SvG), Arian (Primafont), Fumarea (Greenstreet). See also here.
• Berolina (broad-tipped pen).
• Burgund (Schriftguss). A slightly inclined formal script.
• Caprice (1938-1939, Berthold). A formal script font.
• Diskus halbfett (1939-01940, Stempel).
• Diskus mager (1938, D. Stempel). See Disciple on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002. Hutchings mentions the unlikely date 1955.
• Essentia (sans serif).
• Gladiola (1936, D. Stempel). An upright rather monotonous script.
• Halftone (decorative).
• Konzept (1968, D. Stempel). A felt-tipped pen. Digital versions include Cougar (2006) by Canada Type and FontForum URW Konzept Pro (2005) by Ralph Unger at URW.
• Moira (decorative).
• New Berolina (1965, Monotype),
• Palette (1950, Berthold). This brush typeface was ripped off by Bitstream as Brush 445 BT.
• Piccadilly (1968, Berthold). A script typeface.
• The transitional text typeface family Wilke (1988, Linotype).
• Wilke-Kursiv (1932, W. Woellmer). Now known as Ambassador from Photo Lettering Inc. See also the superb digital extension by Jans van Maanen at Canada Type in 2013 called Wilke Kursiv. On the genesis: in the middle of the 1920s, Wilke had designed a script typeface for the headlines of a series of Cadillac advertisements which had attracted the attention of the Wilhelm Woellmers foundry. That was the basis for Wilke Kursiv a few years later.
• Wilke Versalien (1933, W. Woellmer).

Klingspor file. FontShop link. Linotype link. Catalog of some of his digital descendancy. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Marty Goldstein

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Sol (1973 or 1975, with C.B. Smith) and the neotech font family Harry (1966, with C. B. Smith). Goldstein was born in Chicago in 1939, and co-founded the groundbreaking Creative Black Book. He graduated from the Pratt Institute in 1960. His father was called Harry, hence the name of the font. Harry was revived digitally by Steve Jackaman and Ashley Muir as Harry Pro (2009, Red Rooster). Sol was extended and revived by Patrick Griffin and Kevin Allan King in 2010 at Canada Type as Sol Pro (20 styles). The Quick Brown Fox GmbH copied the original Sol, and that version ended up as Digital Sans in the Elsner & Flake collection in the mid-nineties. In 2015, Elsner & Flake published the 36-style extension Digital Sans Now. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Max Dingksbuhms

Iowan designer who created the phototype fonts Jamon Book and Old Hamcherry (1966). FontsInUse link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Maximilian Kerr

Type designer in the photo type era, who worked for Photo Lettering Inc and was based in New York. His typefaces include Bigtown Bold, Casual, Christmas (blackletter), Crayon Casual, Kerr Lightline, Madison Avenue, Kerr Stencil (+Bold) and Ultra Slim Light. [Google] [More]  ⦿

McGuinnessDesigns.com

Tim McGuinness runs McGuinnessDesigns.com. He published several cheap font CDs such as Expresiv Art Fonts (1995), Expresiv Brush Script Fonts (1995), Expresiv Classic Fonts (1994), Expresiv Ornamental Fonts (1994), and Expresiv PhotoLettering Fonts (1994). Typophile has a discussion in which these collections are called cheap knock-offs. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Menlor

Menlor D and Menlor Casual D (Lettergraphics) are phototype fonts in the style of Old Hamcherry (1966, Max Dingksbuhms). In 1978, Castcraft published a similar typeface, Mabley. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mergenthaler
[Ottmar Mergenthaler]

The Mergenthaler company was formed in 1886 to develop and market Ottmar Mergenthaler's (1854-1899) invention of the linecaster. Under Chauncey Griffith's typographic direction from 1915 to 1949 the company assumed the leading position in the Americas in both book and newspaper production, originating a large and varied library. Under the direction of Allied Corporation, the company lost control of the overseas companies and became the American marketing arm of Allied Linotype, which was based in Frankfurt. Some types, both metal and photo, were developed at the company by William Addison Dwiggins, Chauncey Griffith, Jackson Burke and others. Also called Mergenthaler Linotype. German postage stamp showing Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1954, designed by Hermann Zapf. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Meyer M. (Dave) Davison

American letter designer in the phototype era. He contributed to the Photo-Lettering library with many Spencerian designs. His typefaces include

• Western typefaces: DavisonBaroque (this Western / Tuscan typeface was revived by House Industries in 2012), Davison Variety A through J (pre 1954), Davison Carousel A though H (pre 1954).
• The spurred Egyptian wood type simulation font ATDavison Americana (1965, Monotype). The digital Photolettering revived it as PL Davison Americana.
• The fat brush typeface Davison Zip (1965) or Davison Swash Zip, which was digitally revived as PL Davison Zip.
• Dimensional, a 3d beveled typeface done in the 1970s. We had to wait until 2010 for a proper digital version, when Nick Curtis published Double D NF in Fill and Outline versions. Caps only.
• A Spencerian scripts done in or before 1946: Davison Condensed Spencerian, No. 1 Davison Spencerian, No. 2 Davison Spencerian No. 3 Davison Spencerian. The alphabet made its first appearance in Photo-Lettering's 1946 catalog and remains a benchmark of the ornamental script genre. Digitally revived as Davison Spencerian by House Industries type designers Mitja Miklavcic, Ben Barber and Ken Kiel.
• Other formal scripts done in or before 1954: Davison Victorian Script, Davison Victorian Backhand, Davison Vanity, Davison Vanity Fair.

  Other Photo-Lettering typefaces, all done before 1954: Davison Airfield Medium, Davison Ebony, Davison Steno Antique, Davison Antique Gothic, Davison Harlequin (+Black), Davison Julien Condensed.

Author of the article Notes on Designing for Photo-Lettering (Print Magazine, Volume IX, Number 1, June-July 1954).

A second MyFonts link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Michael Chave
[Face Ronchetti]

[More]  ⦿

Michael Daines

Designer at Letraset of University Roman, 1972-1983 (originally a font from the 1960s: Typographic Systems International [TSI]/Lettergraphics). Redesign by Michael Daines in 1972, and re-redesign by Timothy Donaldson & Phillip Kelly in 1977 in the Letraset Type Studio, based on his and Mike Daines' original design.

His Hawthorn (1968) is a slightly serifed black typeface of elegant proportions. The lower case a is too far below the baseline though. He also released the Monotype Small Office/Home Office package: Diversities (dingbats), Gravura (calligraphy), Humana Medium, Humana Sans Medium, Orbon Bold, Pink (distressed), Stylus (architectural lettering) and University Roman. I am not sure if this is the same Michael Daines, but a certain Michael Daines made the iFontMaker font Monzter (2010, hand-printed).

Linotype link. FontShop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Michael Di Canzio

Designer of the film font Di Canzio Sans. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Michael Sharpe
[Algol Revived]

[More]  ⦿

Michel Besnard
[Les Besnardtypo]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Michel Waxman

Creator of the multiline typefaces Oxford (1970s), Optex (1970, Letraset) and Michel (1970s, A. Hollenstein). At Mecanorma, he created Bronx (Shaded, Dropshadow) and Surprise. Optex was digitized and extended in 2010 by Jonathan Hill as Olympik. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Milka Peikova

Milka Peikova (b. 1919, Pavel, Bulgaria, d. 2016, Sofia, Bulgaria) was a famous Bulgarian artist. She created paintings, posters, book covers, portraits of famous Bulgarians, textile designs and alphabets, both individually and together with her husband Georgi Kovachev-Grishata (1920-2012). She is a graduate of the Bulgarian National Art Academy, class of 1948. She founded Cosmos magazine and designed for the Women Today and Problems of Art magazines.

In 1979, she designed an alphabet that was extended to an 8-style Latin / Greek / Cyrillic stencil typeface---Milka (2016)---by a team of designers at Lettersoup that includes Ani Petrova, Botio Nikoltchev, Adam Twardoch and Andreas Eigendorf. The basic Milka font is a clean stencil design, while the Aged, Baked, Brittle, Crunchy, Dry and Soft styles are inspired by stencil and letterpress techniques and expand the usefulness by adding various degrees of warmth or roughness.

Milka Peikova also designed the first Bulgarian typeface for phototypesetting called Grilimil with her husband Georgi Kovachev-Grishata. She is the recipient of the first prize for a typeface at the Bulgarian National Book Exhibition and Illustration [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Milton Glaser

Milton Glaser (b. 1919, New York, d. 2020) was an important American graphic designer who founded Push Pin Studios (in 1954) in New York where he worked with Seymour Chwast. He left in 1970 and founded Milton Glaser Inc in New York in 1974. He taught classes at SVA, where according to Michael Samuel he said to his students: There are three responses to a piece of design---yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for. One of his most iconic designs is the New York City logo from 1977 set in ITC American Typewriter. Glaser designed type on art boards. In the 1973 monograph Milton Glaser Graphic Design, George Leavitt is credited for lettering execution. Author of Sketch & Finish: The Journey from Here to There (2020, Princeton architecural Press). Glaser's typefaces:

• Baby Teeth (1968, Photolettering). Milton Glaser's inspiration for his Babyteeth typeface came from a hand-painted advertisement for a tailor he saw in Mexico City. He was inspired by that E drawn as only someone unfamiliar with the alphabet could have concieved. So he set about inventing a completely legible alphabet consistent with this model. Available in the grapevine as BabyTeats. Cyrillically extended by Alexey Kustov (1993, TypeMarket) as Bebit. For a variation of Glaser's psychedelic Baby Teeth Baroque, see Nick Curtis's Aint Baroque NF (2009). Other digital versions include OPTI Buford (Castcraft: after Baby Teeth Ajar) and Baby Teeth (2009, Daylight). Drew Maughan's Wisdom Teeth (2020) is a modern and personal take on the original Baby Teeth, made in response to the large number of hideously bad clones of Baby Teeth (in Drew Maughan's own words). Finally, in 2021, Richard Kegler at P22 published P22 Glaser Babyteeth. Kegler writes: In 2019, P22 Type Foundry met with Milton Glaser to initiate the official digital series of typefaces designed by Glaser in the 1960s and 70s. P22 Glaser Babyteeth is the first family released in the series. P22 Glaser Babyteeth was based on original drawings and phototype proofs from the Milton Glaser Studios archives. Over the years there have been many typefaces that borrowed heavily from the Glaser designs, but these are the only official Babyteeth fonts approved by Milton Glaser Studio and the Estate of Milton Glaser. The solid and open versions are designed to overlap for two-color font effects and can even be mixed and matched for multi layer chromatic treatments.
• Glaser Stencil (1967, avant-garde typeface available at URW, Elsner&Flake, Linotype, and Apply Interactive). The Cyrillic version is due to A. Kustov (1993). For another digital version, see F37 Glaser Stencil by Rick Banks (2015). Glaser Stencil is sometimes referred to as Neo Futura and Futura Stencil.
• Hologram (1970). For a revival see Capital Ideas NF (2012, Nick Curtis).
• Baby Fat (1964). Glaser's first typeface. Digitized by Nick Curtis as Keepon Truckin NF (2007) and Baby Curls, and by Richard Keglet at P22 as P22 Glaser Babyfat (2021), which introduces six additional variations to allow the user to easily colorize the type as Glaser envisioned: Keyline, Fill, Glyph, Left, Right, and Down.
• Test (1996, a Braille simulation face).
• Houdini (1964). Milton Glaser commented about this type family: The typeface is called Houdini after the famous American magician. I wanted to produce a letterform that would gradually disappear as one line after another was removed. For a digital revival, see Richard Kegler's layerable family P22 Glaser Houdini (2021).
• Kitchen or Big Kitchen (1976), an art deco shadow caps face. It was digitally revived by Nick Curtis as Coochie Nando NF (2011) and by Richard Kegler as P22 Glaser Kitchen (2021).
• Einstein (1970s).
• Film Sense (1968, Photolettering, with Seymour Chwast). This typeface was digitized and extended by Adrian Candela in 2013 as Newsense.
• Sesame Place (1980).

Musings about life (dead link). Linotype link. FontShop link. A brief tour of Milton Glaser's typography. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Mo Lebowitz
[Quad Typographers]

[More]  ⦿

Monika Hartmann

French type designer who designed Aïda, Monika and Silvia, all in 1972 at Hollenstein Phototypo. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Monsen Typographers Inc

Japanese publishers in 1980 of a phototype book called Display typefaces. Scans by Maniackers. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Murray Fuchs

Creator of phototype typefaces at VGC, such as Accant (1978) and Erwin (a comic book / psychedelic style face). Erwin was digitized by Nick Curtis and extended to Nerwyn NF (2010).

At Photo Lettering (New York), he designed Erwin, Joanie, Off Beat (beatnik style), Space Age, Space Age A and Space Age Outline B. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Name equivalences

A list of phototype equivalences for fonts from these foundries: Alphatype, Apple, AM, ATF, Autologic, Baltimore, Bauer, Berthold, Bitstream, CompuGraphic, Deberny+Peignot, Harris, IBM, Ill, Intertype, Itek, Lanston Monotype, Letraset, Linotype, Ludlow, Monotype, Neufville, Photon, QMS, ScanGraphic, Simoncini, Stephenson Blake, Tegra, Typoart, Weber, Xerox. These were scanned from a book, but I forgot which one. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Natacha Falda

Photographer. Type designer in the 1970s who won a Letraset type competition in 1973 with her design, Astra, co-designed with François Robert. Her name is sometimes Natasha Falda-Robert, as she seemed to have married François Robert. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ned Bunnel

Designer in 1983 of ITC AvantGarde Mono and ITC Souvenir Mono. Note: The geometric sans family ITC Avant Garde Gothic was designed by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase and based on Lubalin's logo for Avant Garde Magazine. Ed Benguiat designed the condensed fonts for ITC. Souvenir was originally drawn by Morris Fuller Benton in 1914 as a single weight for the American Type Founders company. It was revived in 1967 by Photo-Lettering and optimized for phototypesetting equipment. ITC was formed in 1971 and, with the help of Photo-Lettering, introduced ITC Souvenir as one of its first typeface families. ITC Souvenir was designed by Ed Benguiat and comes in four weights, each with a matching italic. Linotype link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Norman Green

Creator at PhotoLettering Inc of the decorative caps family Buzzard. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Norton Photosetting Ltd
[Robert Norton]

Oxford, UK-foundry of Robert Norton (1929-2001). It produced Else NPL (1982). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Oscar Ogg

Twentieth century book designer and calligrapher, b. Richmond, 1909, d. 1971. Ogg was an architecture graduate of the University of Illinois in 1931. The New York Times writes: He won recognition as one of the outstanding graphic artists of his time. His first book, Alphabet Source Book, published in 1940 by Harper, was a copy book of lettering styles. The 26 Letters, published by Crowell in 1948, a history of the alphabet from cave drawings to contemporary type fonts, was illustrated by 275 of his drawings.

For Photolettering in New York, he designed these typefaces: Ogg Folio, Ogg Irish Uncial, Ogg Roman 3 and 4, Ogg Italic 3 and 4, and Ogg Semi Uncial. Digital revivals include Ogg (2013) by Lucas Sharp. Sharp's Ogg is a fashion mag typeface loosely inspired by the hand lettering of Oscar Ogg.

Lucas Sharp's Salter Roman (2021) is based on two designs penned by Oscar Ogg in 1942. The first is his title page design for Design & Paper No.11 (Marquardt & Company, New York); the second is his design for Gates of Aulis (Gladys Schmitt, The Dial Press, New York) that same year. The former became the basis for the lowercase, while the latter informed the uppercase. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Othmar Motter

Austrian graphic and type designer (b. 1927, Austria, d. 2010, Hard, near Bregenz) who set up Vorarlberger Graphik Studio in 1951 in the town of Hard am Bodensee (Lake Constance) after graduating in 1950 from a graphic arts academy in Vienna. He specialized in poster design, and in the late 1960s, early 1970s, he turned to logo and type design. His typefaces:

• At Berthold and Letraset, he made his first set of typefaces, all phototypes: Motter Tektura (1975; used for the original Apple logo and the corporate typeface for Reebok; see also the free FontStruct font by Gene Buban called Motternasl (2011)), Motter Ombra (1972, a famous and popular psychedelic face; for revivals or extensions, see Zombra EyeFS (2013) by Antonio J. Morata, RL Lyra (2017) by Jozef Ondrik and AT Dombra (2014) by Zhalgas Kassymkulov), Motter Alustyle (1972; revival by Steve Harrison in 2019), and Motter Femina (early 1970s, a headline face; see MotterFemD (URW, 1994)).
• ITC: ITC Motter Sparta (1997), ITC Motter Corpus Bold. ITC Motter Corpus (1993, + Condensed) was turned by Adobe staff into a multiple master family. A free outlined typeface based on ITC Motter Corpus is Nick Curtis's Toyland NF.
• Fontshop: FF Motter Festival (2000).
• At Motter Design, in chronological order: Motter Danubia, Motter Ornata (psychedelic), Motter Ductus, Motter Forte, Motter Ferrum (octagonal), Motter Austriana, Motter Bodan, Motter Alustyle, Motter Sans Book, Motter Neo-Tech (fat octagonal), Motter Teak, Motter Tektura, Motter Factum (1998), Motter Air (2009, techno, by Siegmund Motter).
• At Motter Fonts: Motter Ombra, Motter Factum, Motter Femina, ITC Motter Sparta, Motter Regatta (1999), Motter Air, ITC Motter Corpus, Motter Bregenz (1970), Motter Pretiosa (1990), and Motter Festival (2000).

The web site Motter Fonts is managed by Othmar's grandchildren, Peter and Siegmund. An excerpt from his obituary at FontShop: Motter was the first Austrian designer who managed to establish his type designs on the international scene. In the early 70s four of his headline typefaces were produced by Berthold and Letraset: the striking ornate display sans Motter Ombra; the aforementioned Motter Tektura, a constructed sans; the striking geometric all lowercase typeface Motter Alustyle; and the curvaceous bold display script Motter Femina. In the following years the all-round graphic designer interrupted his type design activities, profiling himself through international assignments as a logo designer, winning several competitions.

View Othmar Motter's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Otmar F. Adler

German designer of the phototypeface Black Wings (1976, H. Berthold AG). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ottmar Mergenthaler
[Mergenthaler]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Pat Collins

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Collins Bicentennial (1975), which comes in Solid, Open and Ornate subfamilies. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Patrick Collins

Designer of the film font Arlenette. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Patrick Griffin

Type designer at Canada Type. Wikipedia tells us that Patrick Griffin had been locked away in a mental institution by Carter and Barbara, after he walked in on his mother performing oral sex on Jackie Gleason. He had a nervous breakdown and was sent to a mental hospital, where he came to the conclusion that Gleason was evil because he was fat, leading him to hate fat people. However, that is a different Patrick Griffin. The real Patrick Griffin, a graduate of York University, lives and works in Toronto, where he founded Canada Type and made it the most successful Canadian type foundry. His work is summarized in this 2009 interview by MyFonts. It includes lots of custom work for banks, TV stations, and companies/groups like New York Times, Pixar, Jacquin's, University of Toronto, and the Montreal Airport. His retail fonts include the following.

• Ambassador Script (2007): a digital version of Juliet, Aldo Novarese's 1955 almost upright calligraphic (copperplate style) connected script, with hundreds of alternates, swashes, ends, and so forth. Done with Rebecca Alaccari.
• Autobats (2005).
• Ballantines Twelve (2014). A custom typeface for Allied Domecq Spirits & Wine Limited, the brand owner of Ballantine's Scotch Whisky.
• Bananas (2020). An 18-style informal sans.
• P22 Barabajagal (2018): P22 Barabajagal is a unique take on the display fat face by way of doodling fun. Somewhat informed by the shapes of an uncredited 1960s film type called Kap Antiqua Bold, this font's aesthetic is the stuff of boundless energy and light humour. This is the kind of font that makes you wonder whether it was drawn with rulers, protractors and compasses, or just by a mad doodler's crazy-good free hand.
• Bigfoot (2008), the fattest font ever made (sic).
• Blackhaus (2005), an extension of Kursachsen Auszeichnung, a blackletter typeface designed in 1937 by Peterpaul Weiß for the Schriftguss foundry in Dresden.
• Blanchard (2009): a revival and elaborate extension of Muriel, a 1950 metal script typeface made by Joan Trochut-Blanchard for the Fonderie Typographique Française, that was published simultaneously by the Spanish Gans foundry under the name Juventud.
• Bluebeard (2004), a blackletter face.
• Book Jacket (2010): this is a digital extension of the film type font Book Jacket by Ursula Suess, published in 1972.
• Boondock (2005): a revival of Imre Reiner's brush script typeface Bazaar from 1956.
• Borax (2011-2021). An ode to the typography scene of New York City and Chicago in the late 1970s.
• Broken (2006): grunge.
• Bunyan Pro (2016, Patrick Griffin and Bill Troop). Bunyan Pro is the synthesis of Bunyan, the last face Eric Gill designed for hand setting in 1934 and Pilgrim, the machine face based on it, issued by British Linotype in the early 1950s---the most popular Gill text face in Britain from its release until well into the 1980s.
• Chalice (2006). Religious and Cyrillic influences.
• Chapter 11 (2009): an old typewriter face.
• Chikita (2008): an upright ronde script done with Rebecca Alaccari, and rooted in the work of 1930s Dutch lettering artist Martin Meijer.
• Clarendon Text (2007). A 20-style slab serif that uses inspiration from 1953 typefaces by Hoffmann and Eidenbenz and the 1995 font Egizio by Novarese.
• Classic Comic (2010).
• Coconut and Coconut Shadow (2006). Great techno pop typefaces.
• Coffee Script (2004): the digital version of R. Middleton's Wave design for the Ludlow foundry, circa 1962. Designed with Phil Rutter.
• Colville (2017). A set of sans headline typefaces based on letters used by Canadian painter Alex Colville.
• Comic book typefaces: Caper or Caper Comic (2008), Captain Comic (2007), Classic Comic (2010), Collector Comic (2006, a comic balloon lettering family), Common Comic (2013).
• Counter (2008): A futuristic beauty with a double-lined cursive thrown in. Available exclusively from P22. This typeface was based on the idea for an uncredited film typeface called Whitley, published by a little known English typesetting house in the early 1970s.
• Cryptozoo (2009): Late director of design for VANOC, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Committee, Leo Ostbaum, commissioned Canada Type to make a typeface for the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Patrick Griffin came up with a rounded signage font called Cryptozoo, whose Notice reads Concept and design by Leo Obstbaum, VANOC Brand & Creative Services. Additional character data and technical production by Canada Type. Copyright 2007 VANOC Brand&Creative Services.
• Dads Handwriting (2014, custom typeface).
• Dancebats (2004).
• Davis (2016, a slab serif) and Davis Sans (2016). Typeface families designed for precision-engineered corporate use. All proceeds will go towards higher education expenses of design graduates.
• Dokument Pro (2014). This is a reworking of a typeface made in 2005 by the late Jim Rimmer: Jim Rimmer aptly described his Dokument family as a sans serif in the vein of New Gothic that takes nothing from News Gothic. Dokument Pro is thoroughly reworked and expanded, with different widths still in the pipeline.
• Dominion (2006). Based on an early 1970s film type called Lampoon. Dominions severely geometric shapes are a strange cross between early Bauhaus minimalism and later sharp square typefaces used for instance in Soviet propaganda posters.
• Doobie (2006). 60s psychedelic style.
• Driver Gothic (2008): based on the typeface used for Ontario license plates. Although unique among Canadian provincial license plates, this typeface is very similar to, if not outright identical with, the typeface used on car plates in 22 American states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia. Ideal for license plate forgers.
• Expo (2004): an octagonal family.
• Fab (2007). A tube-design family reminiscent of the 1980s. Ricardo Cordoba writes: Fab reminds me of leafing through my first Letraset catalog in the mid-1980s all those decorative typefaces with rounded ends and tubular shapes, trying to imitate the look of neon signage. But Fab, with its contemporary twist on that aesthetic, and its unicase characters, manages to look like a cross between Cholla Bold and Frankfurter Highlight. Its handtooled, narrow shapes are perfectly suited to pop subject matter and bright colors. Fab Trio can be used to create layered chromatic effects, but its components can stand alone, too. The Seventies sure aint drab in Patrick Griffin's hands.
• Fantini (2006). An update of the curly art nouveau typeface Fantan, a film type from 1970 by Custom Headings International.
• Feather Script (2012). A revival of an old Lettering Inc font from the 1940s, known then as Flamenco.
• Fido (2009) is the official font of dog owners everywhere. Has Saul Bass influences.
• Filmotype fonts: Filmotype Ace (2015; based on a Filmotype script from 1953), Alice (2008, a casual hand-printed design based on a 1958 alphabet by Filmotype), Filmotype Arthur (2015; based on a Filmotype script from 1953), Athens (2014), Filmotype Brooklyn (2009, a casual script based on a 1958 Filmotype font), Filmotype Candy (2012), Filmotype Carmen (2012), Filmotype Hemlock (2013, a retro signage script), Hickory (2014), Filmotype Homer (2014, a brush signage script), Filmotype Hudson (1955, based on a 1955 original), Filmotype Jessy (2009, a flowing upright connected script based on a 1958 design by Filmotype), Filmotype Jupiter (2015; based on a Filmotype brush script from 1958), Filmotype Kellog (2013), Filmotype Lakeside (2013, a retro signage typeface), Filmotype Leader (2013), Filmotype Liberty (2015; based on a Filmotype brush script from 1955), Filmotype Giant (2011, a condensed sans done with Rebecca Alaccari) and its italic counterpart, Filmotype Escort (2011, done with Rebecca Alaccari), Filmotype Keynote (2013, a connected bold advertising script), Filmotype Lacrosse (2013, a retro script from the 1950s sometimes used in department store catalogs of that era), Filmotype LaSalle (2008, based on a 1952 retro script by Ray Baker for Filmotype), Filmotype Harmony (2011, original from 1950 by Ray Baker), Filmotype Kentucky (a 1955 original by Ray Baker), Filmotype Kingston (a 1953 original by Ray Baker), Filmotype Lucky (2012, based on a font by Ray Baker), Filmotype Hamlet (a 1955 original by Ray Baker), Filmotype Panama (2012, a flared casual serif typeface based on a 1958 original), Filmotype Prima (2011, with Rebecca Alaccari), Filmotype Quiet (2010, based on a 1954 military stencil typeface by Filmotype), Filmotype Yale (2012, a wedding invitation script based on a 1964 original by Filmotype), Filmotype York (2014).
• Flirt (2005). Based on an art deco typeface found in a Dover specimen book.
• P22 Folkwang Pro (2017, at P22). A revival of Hermann Schardt's Folkwang (1949-1955, Klingspor).
• Fuckbats (2007).
• Fury (2008): an angry techno family.
• Gala (2005, expanded in 2017). By Griffin and Alaccari. Gala is the digitization of the one of the most important Italian typefaces of the twentieth century: G. da Milanos 1935 Neon design for the Nebiolo foundry. This designs importance is in being the predecessor - and perhaps direct ancestor - of Aldo Novareses Microgramma (and later Eurostile), which paved the worlds way to the gentle transitional, futuristic look we now know and see everywhere. It is also one of the very first designs made under the direction of Alessandro Butti, a very important figure in Italian design.
• Gallery (2004): art deco.
• Gamer (2004-2006), by Griffin and Alaccari: modeled after a few 1972 magazine advertisement letters, the origin of which was later identified as a common film type called Checkmate.
• Gaslon (2005): a modification of A. Bihari's Corvina Black from 1973.
• Gator (2007). A digital version of Friedrich Poppl's Poppl Heavy (1972), which in turn was one of the many responses by type designers to Cooper Black.
• Genie (2006): a psychedelic typeface based on a 1970s film type called Jefferson Aeroplane.
• Gibson (2011, with Kevin King and Rod McDonald). This 8-style humanist sans family is a revival of McDonald's own Monotype face, Slate. It was named to honour John Gibson FGDC (1928-2011), Rod's long-time friend and one of the original founders of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada. All the revenues from its sale will be donated by Canada Type to the GDC, where they will be allocated to a variety of programs aiming to improve the creative arts and elevate design education in Canada.
• Go (2005): a techno face.
• Goudy Two Shoes (2006): a digitization and expansion of a 1970s type called Goudy Fancy, which originated with Lettergraphics as a film type.
• Gumball (2005). A bubblegum font modeled after Richard Weber's 1958 font, Papageno.
• Hamlet (2006): medieval. Based on an old type called Kitterland.
• Happy (2005). Happy is the digital version of one the most whimsical takes on typewriters ever made, an early 1970s Tony Stan film type called Ap-Ap. Some of the original characters were replaced with more fitting ones, but the original ones are still accessible as alternates within the font. We also made italics and bolds to make you Happy-er.
• Heathen (2005). A grunge calligraphic script: The original Heathen was made by redrawing Phil Martin's Polonaise majuscules and superposing them over the majuscules of Scroll, another Canada Type font. The lowercase is a superposition of Scrolls lowercase atop a pre-release version of Sterling Script, yet another Canada Type font.
• Hortensia (2009): a semi-script Victorian typeface modeled after Emil Gursch's Hortensia (1900). Codesigned with Rebecca Alaccari.
• Hunter (2005). A revival of a brush script by Imre Reiner called Mustang (1956).
• Hydrogen (2007, a rounded geometric unicase family.
• Informa (2009): a comprehensive 36-style sans serif text family based on traditional lettering. He says: While some typefaces classified as such exhibit too much calligraphy (like Gill Sans, Syntax and Optima), and others tend to favor geometric principles in rhythm and proportion (like Agenda, Frutiger and Myriad), Informa stays true to the humanist ideology by maintaining the proper equilibrium between the two influences that drive the genre, and keeping the humanist traits where they make better visual sense.
• Jackpot (2005): The idea for Jackpot came from a photo type called Cooper Playbill, which as the name implies was simply a westernized version of Cooper Black. The recipe was simple: Follow Mr. Coopers big fat hippy idea, cowboy it with heavy slabs, give it true italics, then swash away at both for beautiful mixture. And there you have the bridge between groovy and all-American. There you have the country lover shaking hands with the rock and roll enthusiast. There you have your perfect substitute for the very overused Cooper Black.
• Jazz Gothic (2005): an expansion of an early 1970s film type from Franklin Photolettering called Pinto Flare. Image.
• Jezebel (2007).
• The psychedelic typeface Jingo (2014, with Kevin Allan King): This is the digital makeover and major expansion of a one-of-a-kind melting pot experiment done by VGC and released under the name Mardi Gras in the early 1960s. It is an unexpected jambalaya of Art Nouveau, Tuscan, wedge serifs, curlycues, ball endings, wood type spurs and swashes, geometry and ornamental elements that on the surface seem to be completely unrelated.
• Johnny (2006): with Rebecca Alaccari; based on Phil Martin's Harem or Margit fonts from 1969.
• Jupiter (2007): based on Roman lettering.
• P22 Klauss Kursiv (2018). A revival, at P22, of Karl Klauss's crisp fifties script typeface Klauss Kuriv (1956-1958, Genzsch & Heyse).
• Latex (2015). A layered all caps decal typeface.
• Leather (2005): an expansion of Imre Reiner's blackletter typeface Gotika (1933).
• Libertine (2011). Libertine (done with Kevin Allan King) is an angular calligraphic script inspired by the work of Dutchman Martin Meijer (1930s): This is the rebel yell, the adrenaline of scripts.
• Lionheart (2006). A digitization and extension of Friedrich Poppl's neo-gothic typeface Saladin.
• Lipstick (2006): handwriting. Plus Lipstick Extras.
• Louis (2012). A faithful digital rendition and expansion of a design called Fanfare, originally drawn by Louis Oppenheim in 1927, and redrawn in 1993 by Rod McDonald as Stylu.
• Maestro (2009) is a 40 style chancery family, in 2 weights each, with 3350 characters per font, co-designed with calligrapher Philip Bouwsma. This has to be the largest chancery/calligraphy family on earth.
• Magellan (2014). A custom stencil typeface.
• Martie (2006). Done with Rebecca Alaccari. Based on the handwriting of Martie S. Byrd.
• Marvin (2010): a fat cartoon typeface that recalls older Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies lettering.
• In 2013, Kevin Allan King and Patrick Griffin revived Georg Trump's transitional typeface Mauritius (1967, Weber).
• Memoriam (2009): An extreme-contrast vogue display script which was commissioned by art director Nancy Harris for the cover of the 2008 commemorative issue of the New York Times magazine. He also did the typography and fonts for the 2010 issue. This became an unbelievably successful family, and was extended in 2011 with headline, Outline and Iline variants.
• Merc (2007). Based on an all-cap rough-brush metal typeface called Agitator, designed by Wolfgang Eickhoff and published by Typoart in 1960.
• Messenger (2010), a calligraphic script. Patrick Griffin writes about Messenger (2010, Canada Type): Messenger is a redux of two mid-1970s Markus Low designs: Markus Roman, an upright calligraphic face, and Ingrid, a popular typositor-era script. Through the original film typefaces were a couple of years apart and carried different names, they essentially had the same kind of Roman/Italic relationship two members of the same typeface family would have. The forms of both typefaces were reworked and updated to fit in the Ingrid mold, which is the truer-to-calligraphy one.
• Middleton Brush (2010): a redigitization of R.H. Middleton's connected brush typeface Wave, ca. 1962; see also an early Canada Type face, Coffee Script.
• Miedinger (2007). Created after Max Miedinger's 1964 face, Horizontal. Canada Type writes: The original film typeface was a simple set of bold, panoramically wide caps and figures that give off a first impression of being an ultra wide Gothic incarnation of Microgramma. Upon a second look, they are clearly more than that. This typeface is a quirky, very non-Akzidental take on the vernacular, mostly an exercise in geometric modularity, but also includes some unconventional solutions to typical problems (like thinning the midline strokes across the board to minimize clogging in three-storey forms). This digital version introduces a new lighter weight alongside the bold original..
• Militia (2007). An octagonal and threatening stencil.
• Militia Sans (2007).
• Monte Cristo (2012, with Kevin Allan King) is a grand type family with five styles and 1630 characters with many swashes and ways of connecting the calligraphic glyphs---it is the ultimate wedding font.
• Neil Bold (2010): an extension of the fat typeface Neil Bold (1966, Wayne J. Stettler).
• Nightlife (2005): inspired by a pre-desktop publishing grid design by L. Meuffels.
• Nuke (2005): a fat stencil grunge weith pizzazz.
• In 2011, he and Kevin Allan King published the refined Orpheus Pro family, which was based on the elegant Orpheus by Walter Tiemann (1926-1928, Klingspor), and its Italic which was called Euphorion (Walter Tiemann, 1936). Their enthusiastic description: The Orpheus Pro fonts started out as a straightforward revival of Tiemann's Orpheus and Euphorion. It was as simple as a work brief can be. But did we ever get carried away, and what should have been finished in a few weeks ended up consuming the best part of a year, countless jugs of coffee, and the merciless scrutiny of too many pairs of eyeballs. The great roman caps just screamed for plenty of extensions, alternates, swashes, ligatures, fusions from different times, and of course small caps. The roman lowercase wanted additional alternates and even a few ligatures. The italic needed to get the same treatment for its lowercase that Tiemann envisioned for the uppercase. So the lowercase went overboard plenty alternates and swashes and ligatures. Even the italic uppercase was augmented by maybe too many extra letters. Orpheus Pro has been a real ride. Images of Orpheus: i, ii, iii, iv, v.
• Outcast (2010): a grunge family.
• Oxygen (2006): a great grid-based design.
• Paganini (2011,(with Kevin Allan King) is another jewel in Canada Type's drawers: Designed in 1928 by Alessandro Butti under the direction of Raffaello Bertieri for the Nebiolo foundry, Paganini defies standard categorization. While it definitely is a classic foundry text typeface with obvious roots in the oldstyle of the Italian renaissance, its contrast reveals a clear underlying modern influence.
• The last joint project of King and Griffin in 2012 was Pipa, a pseudo-psychedelic groovy bellydancing font: Originally made for a health food store chain we cannot name, Pipa is the embodiment of organic display typography.
• Player (2007). An 11-style athletic lettering family.
• Plywood (2007): a retro typeface based on Franklin Typefounders's Barker Flare from the early 1970s.
• Press Gothic (2007). A revival of Aldo Novarese's Metropol typeface, released by Nebiolo in 1967 as a competitor to Stephenson Blakes Impact.
• Quanta (2005, stencil). Two weights, East and West.
• In 2011, Kevin Allan King and Patrick Griffin completed work on an exceptionally beautiful revival, Ratio Modern (the original by F.W. Kleukens is from 1923). This is a didone family with a refined humanist trait.
• Rawhide (2006): a bouncy Western saloon font based on cover page lettering of the Belgian comic book series Lucky Luke.
• Recta (2011, with Kevin King). This is eighteen-stye sans family that extends Novarese's Recta.
• Rhino (2005): a revival of the informal typeface Mobil (1960, Helmut Matheis, Ludwig&Mayer).
• Normandia (2021, by Patrick Griffin and Hans van Maanen). A digital revival of the fatface typeface Normandia by Alessandro Butti at Nebiolo (1946-1949).
• Noteworthy (2009). A font commissioned for the Apple iPad. It is based on Griffin's earlier revival typeface Filmotype Brooklyn.
• Ronaldson Regular (2008, with Rebecca Alaccari), a 17-style oldstyle family based on the 1884 classic by Alexander Kay, Ronaldson Old style (MacKellar, Smith&Jordan). Griffin reconstructed this family from the metal typeface and from many scans from rare documents provided by Stephen O. Saxe, Philippe Chaurize and Rebecca Davis.
• Roos (2009): A 10-style revival of Sjoerd Hendrik de Roos's De Roos Romein (1948), created in cooperation with Hans van Maanen.
• Robur (2010): Done with Kevin King, this set of two fonts revives Georges Auriol's Robur Noir from 1909.
• Runway (2004): racetrack lettering.
• Rush (2005): futuristic.
• Sailor (2005): digital rendition of West Futura Casual (late 1970s film type).
• Salden (2019, by Hans van Maanen and Patrick Griffin). A grand effort to collect the lettering of Dutch book and book cover designer Helmut Salden in a series of typefaces.
• Salome (2008). Done with Rebecca Alaccari, this is a revival and expansion of a photolettering era typeface called Cantini (1972, Letter Graphics).
• Santini (2004): Bauhaus-inspired architectural lettering.
• One of Heinz Schumann's unpublished typefaces from the early 1960s was revived in 2017 by Patrick Griffin and Richard Kegler at P22 as P22 Schumann Pro.
• Screener (2006): an extensive octagonal family, including Screener Symbols.
• Sears Social (2014). A custom typeface family that includes Sears Social Monocase.
• Secret Scrypt (2004): four shaky script styles done for a New York restaurant. With Alaccari.
• Semplicita Pro (2011). A grand revival of Alessandro Butti's Futura-like Semplicità, executed between 2009 and 2011 by Patrick Griffin and Bill Troop. Image of the Medium weight.
• Shred (2010): an octagonal heavy metal face.
• Siren Script (2009-2010): Done with Rebecca Alaccari, this six-style script family is based on the metal typeface Stationers Semiscript (BBS, 1899).
• Skullbats (2005).
• Serial Killer (2005): bloody.
• Slang (2004): a blood scratch face.
• Slinger (2010): a flared art nouveau face.
• Social Gothic (2007). After Tom Hollingsworth's Informal Gothic, a squarish unicase grotesk done in 1965. Followed by Social Stencil (2011-2012) and Social Gothic 2 (2014).
• Soft Press (2012). A rounded version of Canada Type's Press Gothic.
• Sol Pro (2010): a 20-style revival and extension of the monoline sans typeface Sol by Marty Goldstein and C.B. Smith (1973, VGC), done with Kevin Allan King. Griffin writes: This is not your grandfather's Eurostile. This is your offspring's global hope, optimism, and total awareness.
• Spade (2012). A super-heavy slab face, done with Kevin King.
• Spadina (2010): a psychedelic / art nouveau revival with Kevin Allan King of Karlo Wagner's Fortunata (1971, Berthold).
• Sterling Script (2005): done with Rebecca Alaccari. Sterling Script was initially meant to a be digitization/reinterpretation of a copperplate script widely used during what effectively became the last decade of metal type: Stephenson Blake's Youthline, from 1952. Many alternates were added, so this is a virtually new type family.
• Sultan: a Celtic-Arabic simulation typeface after "Mosaik" (1954) by Martin Kausche.
• Stretto (2008) is a revival and expansion of the reverse stress font Sintex 1 (Aldo Novarese, Nebiolo and VGC, 1973), a funky nightclub face. It was used as the basis of Cowboy Hippie (2010, CheapProFonts). Similar typefaces include ITC Zipper (1970) and Berthold Beat Star (1972).
• Symposium Pro (2011). This Carolingian family was drawn by Philip Bouwsma. Patrick helped with the production.
• Tabarnak (2012) and its shaded version, Tabarnouche (2012). Lovingly named to attract business from Quebec, this is a packaging or signage pair of fonts.
• Taboo (2009) is a geometric display typeface that was inspired by lettering by Armenian artist Fred Africkian in 1984.
• Testament (2010): a calligraphic uncial family done with Philip Bouwsma.
• Tomato (2005): done with Rebecca Alaccari, this is the digitization and quite elaborate expansion of an early 1970s Franklin Photolettering film type called Viola Flare.
• Treasury (2006): a huge type family based on a calligraphic script by Hermann Ihlenburg from the late 19th century. Canada Type writes: The Treasury script waited over 130 years to be digitized, and the Canada Type crew is very proud to have done the honors. And then some. After seven months of meticulous work on some of the most fascinating letter forms ever made, we can easily say that Treasury is the most ambitious, educational and enjoyable type journey we've embarked upon, and we're certain you will be quite happy with the results. Treasury goes beyond being a mere revival of a typeface. Though the original Treasury script is quite breathtaking in its own right, we decided to bring it into the computer age with much more style and functionality than just another lost script becoming digital. The Treasury System is an intuitive set of fonts that takes advantage of the most commonly used feature of todays design software: Layering.
• Trump Gothic (2005): a revival and expansion of two different takes on Signum (1955, Weber), Georg Trumps popular mid-twentieth-century condensed gothic: Less than one year after Signum, the Czech foundry Grafotechna released Stanislav Marso's Kamene, a reinterpretation of Signum. The differences between the two were quite subtle in most forms, but functionally proved to offer different levels of visual flexibility. Marso changed a few letters, most notably the wonderful a and g he added, and also made a bold weight. Trump Gothic West is a revival of Trump's original Signum, but in three weights and italics for each. Trump Gothic East is a revival of Marso's Kamene, but also in three weights and corresponding italics.. In 2013, Patrick Griffin redrew and optimized these condensed and ultra-economical typefaces in his Trump Gothic Pro and the rounded version, Trump Soft Pro.
• Trump Script (2010) revives the African look script by Georg Trump called Jaguar (1962). An improvement on an earlier Canada type family called Tiger Script.
• Tuba (2010).
• Valet (2006): inspired by an uncredited early 1970s all-cap film type called Expression.
• Veronica Polly (2005).
• Vintage Deco (2017).
• Vox (2007): a 24-style monoline sans family done with Rebecca Alaccari. This was followed in 2013 by a softer version, Vox Round.
• Wagner Grotesk (2010): a sturdy grotesk, after a typeface from the Johannes Wagner foundry. Kevin King is also credited.
• Wagner Script Pro (2011). Done together with Kevin King, this is a revival of Troubadour (1926, Wagner&Schmidt).
• King and Patrick Griffin published Wonder Brush in 2012. This is partly based on a signage brush script called Poppl Stretto (1969) by Friedrich Poppl.
• Opentype programming help for several fonts by Michael Doret, such as Deliscript (2009), Dynascript (2011) and Steinweiss Script (2010). Deliscript (a winner at TDC2 2010) is an upright connected script with accompanying slanted version. Steinweiss Script is a 2200-glyph curly script typeface called Steinweiss Script (2010), which captures a lot of the spirit of Steinweiss's album covers from the late 1930s and 1940s.
• HWT Tangent (2021, at P22). This revives a Morgans & Wilcox wood typeface known as Tangent in the Hamilton Manufacturing collection (after Hamilton took over Morgans & Wilcox).
• Patrick Griffin did the final mastering in 2021 for P22 Underground Pro, which was developed over the years by Richard Kegler (1997), Paul D. Hunt (2007) and finally, Dave Farey (2021) and James Todd (2021). This comes close to being thee ultimate implementation of Johnston's Underground.
• Filmotype Andrew (2021). A bold and wide extension of the retro casual script font Filmotype Athens.
• Ronaldson Pro (2021). A revision and extension of Griffin's 2006 font, Ronaldson Old Style. It now has four weights and two variable fonts.

Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Paul E. Kennedy

Author of Modern Display Alphabets: 100 Complete Fonts Selected and Arranged from the Franklin Photolettering Catalogue (1974, Dover). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Paul Gábor

Hungarian type designer (d. 1992) who made Totfalusi Antikva (Fonderie de l'État Hongrois, 1955). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Paul Jaccottet

Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Cactus Bold (1973). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Peter Bain
[Peter Bain Design (was: Incipit)]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Peter Bain Design (was: Incipit)
[Peter Bain]

Incipit, or Peter Bain Design, was Peter Bain's type and graphic design studio in Brooklyn, New York. It closed down gradually between 2007 and 2010.

Peter Bain received his M.F.A. in Design: Visual Communications from Virginia Commonwealth University. He was type director at Saatchi&Saatchi Advertising in New York, and taught at Parsons/The New School for Design and Pratt Institute in New York. After Saatchi, and before Incipit, he was freelancing. After Incipit, he relacted briefly to Virginia to attend VCU and then went on to Mississippi, where he was Assistant Professor of Art, Graphic Design at Mississippi State University. He lived then in nearby Starkville, MS. He is currently located in Birmingham, AL.

He is best known for his wonderful book Blackletter: Type and National Identity (1998, with Paul Shaw).

His photocomposition display typefaces were reedited and available in reproduction proofs (for a short time). The photocomposition display typefaces are in two-inch film format, as formerly used on machines such as the Typositor and Filmotype. They are being held in storage, and are no longer listed for that reason. PDF format list. Text format of Bain's file. Bain says he built this from the Typositor type libraries formerly offered by Techni-Process Lettering and Pastore DePamphilis Rampone, which he bought at an auction. Report on his talk in London on blackletter type (2003). MyFonts sells the 4-weight Josef Albers-inspired stencil family Gridiot (2003-2011). His thoughts about the art of Albers: Remember, any idiot can design a typeface on a grid: Gridiot.