-Retro-

EPICURUS was inspired by Roman manuscripts on papyrus from Herculaneum. I’ve modernized the forms of the distinctive capitals, adding the “new” letters, lowercase and non-Roman numerals. Epicurus has a clean stroke and the feel of a contemporary sans serif. The example is just for reference. The texts I actually used are in Oxford’s Bodleian Library and cannot be reproduced here. The font is named for the Greek philosopher, not the recipe website. Includes upper and lowercase, numbers, punctuation, and international characters.  

COMFY has the bold but friendly look of cutout letters. Inspired by an example of “Pinselschrift” (brush lettering) by Wilhelm Dechert*. Has the feel of a handlettered version of a 20th-century geometric font like Paul Renner’s Futura* or Rudolf Koch’s Kabel. *Reproduced in Iron Fists: Branding the 20th-Century Totalitarian State by Steven Heller (thanks, John, for bringing this to my attention.) This font, of course, is much more gemütlich (comfortable, homey, informal, cozy, approachable, good-natured) than that title suggests. Includes upper and lower case, numbers, punctuation, and international characters.

COLUMBIA STAMP was suggested by my correspondent Marsha, who sent me scans and lots of encouragement. It’s based on her set of vintage rubber stamps and has a smoother edge and straighter alignment than my other stamp fonts. Upper and lower case, numbers, punctuation, and international characters.

BRUCE MIKITA is my digital version of an analog font of the same name. It has a rustic, hand-crafted feel and suggests East Asian calligraphy. The highlight is a distinctive feature; I’ve also made an un-highlighted version, which Dan X. Solo identifies as “Lantern.” At long last, its origin has been revealed to me by Herman: “Since you ask, there is no Bruce Mikita. The type you digitized was issued by George Bruce’s Son & Co’s New-York Type-Foundry. It was patented 12 Feb 1867. It was called by them Ornamented no. 1048. When Phoenix typefounders got some mats they invented… continued

BENSGOTHIC was inspired by the work of the artist Ben Shahn. (See also Bensfolk) This style–which Shahn applied to psalms, Christmas cards, posters, and many other item—suggests inscriptional capitals like those of Byzantine mosaics, the Bayeux tapestry, or medieval manuscripts. He made great use of fanciful ligatures, which are included in the font for a totally hand-lettered feel. The new OpenType version of Bensgothic allows you to access the ligatures easily. In applications that support OpenType features, enable “discretionary ligatures.” Type your text in ALL CAPS to automatically use the ligatures as available. Type in lowercase (or MiXeD cAsE) to… continued

AEOLIAN is a narrow, elegant font that was inspired by the lettering on a pipe organ manufactured by the Aeolian Company. My friend Nelson got me started with scans of the various stop labels, like the one at left, found on the amazing Longwood Gardens Aeolian organ which he has worked to restore. I invented missing letters and numbers, then created two additional weights, Demi and Bold. Always grateful for posts like this: “Thanks for digitizing Aeolean for posterity. The original tradename was Façade, and it was introduced by the Boston Type Foundry in 1881. John F. Cumming cut certain… continued

Exotic, “Egyptian” MYSTIC PROPHET is my third font inspired by Ouija boards, or, strictly speaking, talking boards. (This one is from another company, Haskelite, from the 1940s.) My friend Wink first brought it to my attention. The planchette (the divining tool) is shown here; you can find much more information at the Museum of Talking Boards. My other talking board fonts are Captain Howdy and Sideshow. Includes caps, numbers, punctuation, and international characters. Planchette image courtesy of the Museum of Talking Boards.        

KING XMAS is a versal, or Lombardic, alphabet inspired by a small sample in a 1930s Speedball book. The current version combines two fonts in one: solid in the uppercase positions, white-starred letters (like the words above) at the lowercase position. It pairs nicely with a bold blackletter font like Fette Fraktur. Now with Arabic numbers in v2.5.

HARLEQUIN was inspired by this poster from the 1953 film Kiss Me Kate (detail at left). It has a jolly jester’s hat feel and also resembles turned wooden spindles. Includes caps, numbers, punctuation, and international characters.         As seen in use in these “personalized totes for the eco-check girl,” from Label Me Lisa.      

The Dominican fonts are designed to look like old letterpress printing. Originally inspired by a font from Dan X. Solo’s books, I expanded the series to also include Italic and Small Caps. Version 3.0 now contains lining figures with the old-style figures still available as stylistic alternatives. All 3 fonts have been expanded and refined, making these a fine alternative to the overused Caslon Antique.