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WESTERN AVENUE is a pair of fun fonts with triangular “latin” serifs and spurs. The bouncy irregularity befits their inspiration: the unsigned 1950s album cover at left. Includes upper and lowercase, numbers, punctuation and international characters. OpenType features include stylistic alternates and discretionary ligatures for a more random, hand-lettered feel. An earlier caps-only version in this style was called Western Egg.

WALDORF TEXT is my digital revival of a classic “lost” font of the same name. An elegant blackletter font with details that spell luxury. Waldorf Text was produced by Barnhart Brothers and Spindler Type Foundry in 1914. When American Type Founders acquired BBB&S, they continued to produce it, including it in their 1934 and 1941 catalogs. And then it was gone, never making the transition from type to film or digital. (Thanks, Bill, for all your help!) I’ve completely redrawn the font, maintaining the graceful lines while expanding the font and making other slight changes for modern use. There are… continued

VALENTIN is a sweet and simple cursive font. A mix of friendly and formal, Valentin’s vertical letterforms are in the French style. Valentin was inspired by 18th-century experiments in raised-letter printing for the blind. Designed by Valentin Haüy, this style is beautiful on the page and could be read by both blind and untrained sighted readers. Later designers would create more simplified raised-letter designs, eventually leading to the dot grid of the Braille system. VALENTIN 1.5 has an expanded character set and improved spacing and kerning. More legible versions of a few characters have been substituted and the originals moved… continued

Quirky UPBEAT could be categorized as a latin uncial. “Uncial” because it has one case, of x-height plus ascenders and descenders in the style of so-called uncial and half-uncial fonts. “Latin” because of the triangular serifs which give the font a lively texture. I love alternate characters and UPBEAT has its share. Use these to create variety in your lettering. Located in the lowercase positions. Each font (Regular, Demi, Bold) includes single case letters plus alternates, numbers, punctuation, and international characters.

TRICOT was inspired by the 2007 US holiday stamps, designed by Nancy Stahl (left). I liked them so much that I designed my Christmas cards to match (at right) and developed the Tricot font for the greeting inside. A knitted design has much in common with a bitmap image, but the pairs of oval stitches combine to suggest the warm and fuzzy feeling of a handmade sweater. Includes upper and lowercase, numbers, punctuation and international characters. No accent marks on uppercase. Plus knit-style patterns using special keys (below).

THANKSGIVING was inspired by this handlettered “Buzza-type” motto (left). Grandma would have had a couple of these homilies tacked up in little frames. My partner, Al, collects them and I became interested in the lettering on this one in particular. The feel is of handlettering in imitation of print, rather than the other way around. Includes upper and lowercase, numbers, punctuation, and international characters.

THALEIA is a bold and curvy font, suggestive of both the 1920s and the 1970s. This is my digital interpretation of an analog  commissioned by a client who could no long find the original in a usual form. The new THALEIA LIGHTS font has is set with white dots, suggesting an old music hall marquee. Version 1.6 includes an expanded character set, improved spacing and kerning.

Formerly called “Christmas Card,” TESTIMONIAL was inspired by the hand-lettered titles of the classic holiday film It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, directed by Frank Capra, art direction by Jack Okey.) The caps are in a decorative versal style, the lowercase a more traditional blackletter. Pair it with Director’s Script for the total look of the original. This font retired a while ago but, at Jordi’s prompting, it’s back with a more complete character set including Arabic numbers. (The Roman numerals have been moved; please see the Read Me file.) Includes caps, lower case, numbers, punctuation, and international characters.

SYNCOPATED SCRIPT was loosely inspired by the work of the painter Stuart Davis. His jazzy canvases bridge Cubism and Pop Art, often featuring words, written in this style and others. Davis’s work always seems fresh and inventive to me. After looking at all the reproductions of Davis’s paintings I could find, I used some of his writings and my own intuition to fill out the alphabet. I’ve tried to maintain both the erratic, jumpy quality and the continuous linking. The originals were painted; these feel as if they were cut out of paper. Includes caps, lowercase, punctuation, numbers, several alternates… continued

SWIZZLE SCRIPT is my digital interpretation of the classic analog font “Stylescript”, designed by Sol Hess in 1940 for the Lanston Monotype Company. Elegant and low-slung, in the manner of Trafton (designed byHoward Trafton, cast by Bauer, 1933) and Coronet (R. H. Middleton for Ludlow, 1937). But it’s bolder with a thin-thick contrasting stroke and a higher x-height. I worked from a print reference (VGC Alphabet Library, 14th Edition, 1988) and some metal type (left) for certain characters. Thanks, Bill, for the inspiration and research! Includes caps, lowercase, punctuation, numbers, and international characters.