Art Deco Font Collection
Our new Art Deco font collection includes a remarkable selectiion of fonts from the design movements of the 1920s and 1930s, focusing on the kinds of fonts which were generally associated with the decorative arts movement which developed out of the Arts and Crafts movement. More...Wild West Fonts
Our Wild West font collection features 14 fonts based on designs from the classic days of the American West (1870-1890). They are typical of the type and lettering styles used in signs, circulars, posters and newspapers during that era. The selection includes both decorative, display and text fonts. All the fonts are historically accurate and they are not available from any other source. While they are basically fonts of the Victorian era, they represent a subset of the typefaces popular in that period particularly slanted to the environmnet of the wild west, frontier newspapers and wild west shows.More...Pre-Raphaelite Collection
The art of the Pre-Raphaelites recreated classical and legendary themes, fascination with architectural elements and realistic drapery, and the use of models who fit a particular style and appearance, usually with thick, curly hair and voluptuous figures. Our Pre-Raphaelite collection features select images from the most prominent artists of the movement in high-resolution suitable for use in print.More...The Baby’s Opera Collection
Or latest collection based on one of Walter Crane's childrens book is our comprehensive presentation of The Baby’s Opera, Crane's compilation of childrens songs (including music and lyrics) with detailed illustrations, hand lettering and clever decorations on every page. Many of the designs and motifs can easily be extracted for use in your own designs. More...Text Fonts Collection
You've got to have text fonts, so wny not make them interesting and unique rather than the same old boring set that come with every computer. Our Text Fonts Collection has more variety and more style than you'll find anywhere else. More...Howard Pyle Fonts and Art
Howard Pyle was one of the most renowned illustrators of the 19th century. His work was widely published in adventure novels, magazines and romances. He was the founder of the Brandywine school and artists colony in Chadd's Ford Pennsylvania, where he taught artists like N. C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover and Thornton Oakley their craft. Our Pyle collection includes a large selection of Pyle's art and designs plus original fonts based on his hand lettering. More...Medieval Fonts and Art
In the Middle Ages the demand for written documents required new and better forms of writing, styles which were readable, consistent, efficient to produce, and sometimes decorative as well. This package features a selection of fonts and art based on designs from the Middle Ages, emphasizing the years from 1100 to 1400. The 25 fonts include versions of the major popular lettering styles of this period and the art includes beautiful borders, frames and other decorative elements based on medieval designs. DETAILSThe Lady of Shalott
Howard Pyle’s illustrated edition of Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott is probably the single greatest expression of book design in the American arts and crafts movement of the late 19th century. This early Pyle work combines his vivid illustrative style with exceptional decoration and lettering into a modern illuminated masterpiece. Our Lady of Shalott CD package has every page from the book in high resolution format, including the decorated verses, the full-page illustrations and the embellished titles and flyleaves. It also includes extracted and instantly usable versions of the initials, illustrations background patterns, borders and frames from the book. DETAILSArt Nouveau Collection
This collection brings together all of our best fonts based on Art Nouveau period designs into an extensive collection, with over 30 unique fonts, including text, title faces and even decorative initials. This includes new fonts created just for this package plus classics in the Art Nouveau tradition. It also features a bonus collection of frames and borders based on designs from magazines and books of the period. Altogether it makes the ultimate resource for Art Nouveau style design. DETAILS2009 Sampler
About once a year we release a special sampler package with a collection of selected fonts and art from our most recent and forthcoming packages, including some unique items not available anywhere else, all brought together as an overview of what we've been up to at the Scriptorium during the past year at a special, extremely low price. This latest sampler has four complete new fonts, 15 demo fonts and a special selection of art and graphics which includes a special set of illustrations of Celtic mythology by Katherine Cameron. DETAILSViking Fonts and Art
This collection presents calligraphy and art based on the traditions of historic Germanic cultures. It draws on the broad scope of early Germanic design, from the pre-Christian era through the early middle ages, including not just Scandinavia, but other elements of Germanic culture from the Franks to the Saxons to the Normans and beyond. The main component is a collection of historic fonts which is complemented by a unique set of historic borders and motifs, plus art based on Viking myth and legend. DETAILS.Gothic Fonts
A collection of our best fonts based on gothic type and late medieval calligraphy. It covers the range from the historical styles in which gothic printing had its inspiration to the ornate heights of complex gothic fonts from 19th century Germany. This includes fonts in the style sometimes called 'Old English', as well as what calligraphers sometimes call 'Black Letter'. If you like your fonts dark, angular and complex, this is your dream collection. DETAILS
Gothic Fonts Collection
Our gothic font collection is a compilation of our most interesting fonts based on gothic type and late medieval calligraphy. It covers the range from the historical styles in which gothic printing had its inspiration to the ornate heights of complex gothic fonts from 19th century Germany. This includes fonts in the style sometimes called ‘Old English’, as well as what calligraphers sometimes call ‘Black Letter’. If you like your fonts dark, angular and complex, this is your dream collection.
The collection has recently been updated with five new fonts, bringing the total to 18 gothic lettering fonts and four gothic initials fonts. The newly added fonts are recent releases — Monumental, Goldwork, Waldeck, Yngling and Roncesvalles. The selection is all gothic, but quite varied. Fonts like Theodoric and Cadeaulx are an excellent combination of style and readability, while others like Ghost Gothic, Rheingold and Tyrfing offer more decorative ornamentation.
The Gothic collection is currently at a special price of only $89. It comes with both TrueType and Postscript fonts for either the MacOS or Windows. You can order it by calling 1-800-797-8973 or just CLICK HERE to order it online and get it delivered by email or on CD..
New Font: Agravain
Agravain is a very attractive speedball-style hand lettering font with elaborate and stylish character forms, expecially in the upper case which feature unique characteristics of the type of traditional calligraphy from which it derives. It has nice, clean lines and a high readability factor and would be excellent for posters, menu designs or theatrical programs. It’s compatible in style and character with some of our past fonts like Valentin, Ganelon and Gaheris.
You can download and try the demo version of Agravain in TrueType format for Mac or PC. The full version of the font is available from our ordering site.
Sighting: Valdemar Font in Age of Misrule
While browsing through our local bookstore over the holiday weekend my eye was caught by a whole series of books which were using our Valdemar font prominently. The Age of Misrule book series by Mark Chadbourn features Valdemar as the main title for the series, so it appears on all the books in the series — three have been published so far, World’s End, Always Forever and Darkest Hour. The interesting part is that cover designer Nicole Sommer-Lecht actually seems to be paying attention, and used not only the widely disseminated original version of Valdemar, but also the much newer Valdemar Alternate character set. In fact, all of the letters in the word “misrule” in the title are from Valdemar Alternate except for the “s” which is drawn from the regular Valdemar set. The overall result is excellent, and it’s just the kind of book Valdemar was designed for. I also quite like the cover art by John Picacio, which is surprisingly conceptually reminiscent of the cover Howard David Johnson did for my Ysgarth RPG. Special kudos also go to Jon Anders of Pyr for putting such a good design team together.
I haven ‘t read the entire series yet, but so far World’s End is quite an engaging read. It’s well written and fast-moving, thematically reminiscent of some of the work of Robert Holdstock or Neil Gaiman, but much more commerically written for broad audience appeal. In some ways it’s a bit of a mish-mash, throwing every possible element of Celtic mythology together in an almost overwhelming way, but engaging characters and a quest-theme plot which keeps moving along makes it work. As a part-time celtophile I even rather like the particular interpretation of Celtic mythology which Chadbourn has opted for and the integration of mythological themes with a realistic contemporary setting. It’s more approachable than some books with similar themes without descending into the lighter fairy story mode which is so popular. In fact, it gets kind of grim with a strong ending which sets up the scenario for the coming books.
A good read with a great font as part of a really appealing cover design. What more could you ask for?
Viking Fonts and Art Collection
For a PDF of art samples click HERE Click any font to see a larger sample.           
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In previous collections we’ve tried to preserve and give access to the graphic arts traditions of groups like the Celts and Russians. This collection does the same for Ancient Germanic culture. While we call this the Viking collection, it draws on a broader scope of early Germanic design, from the pre-Christian era through the early middle ages. The sources are not limited to Scandinavia, but include the breadth of German culture from the Franks to the Saxons to the Normans and beyond.
The main component of our first release in this series is our Viking fonts. These include both fonts based strictly on historic sources and fonts which are modern interpretations of the Germanic calligraphic and inscriptory tradition. The starting point of the collection are the Futhark and Surtur fonts. These are based on historic runic inscriptions. Futhark contains the traditional runic alphabet, while Surtur adapts the style of ancient runes to the Latin alphabet. Early Germanic calligraphy was heavily influenced by the lettering of Celtic missionaries. The Volund, Koch Gothic and Martel fonts represent this early medieval tradition. Volund is a pure Germanic uncial. Koch Gothic is a hybrid of Germanic uncial and later gothic lettering styles based on lettering by Rudolph Koch. Martel is a somewhat modernized interpretaion of Frankish lettering. Two other historical fonts are Ranegund which is based on Merovingian courthand lettering from the Viking period and Altenburg which is based on northern German lettering from that same period. For ;the necessary element of practicality and a bit of fun we’ve added in Taranis, Vafthrudnir and Walhall which are modern reinterpretations of early Germanic lettering. Walhall is based on lettering by Art Nouveau designer E. Doepler. Taranis is based on an early 20th century modernized Germanic uncial which has become particularly associated with the Vikings. Vafthrudnir is a new original font based on Germanic uncial and developed by Dave Nalle. Finally, to complete the collection we have a unique set of decorative initials based on designs by A. R. Bowker which draw on the serpentine wood carving traditions of the Vikings.
While the primary component of this collection is the fonts – four of them are entirely new releases (Volund, Koch Gothic, Vafthrudnir & Fafnir) – we’ve also added in a few bonus items to make the collection more varied and give a taste of what’s to come in the future. These include some selected borders, frames and emblems based on designs from antique illustrated books on Germanic mythology. These include both color and black and white decorative pieces, many of which are very striking.
As we did with our Celtic collection we plan to expand this collection in the future. We will eventually add more fonts and especially additional art, including a substantial selection of illustrations of Germanic mythology by artists like Arthur Rackham and N. C. Wyeth. Future expanded releases will be available to those who get this initial release at a special discounted upgrade price.
All of our Viking fonts are available individually, or you can get the starter package with all the fonts plus the selected borders and decorations for an introductory price of only $49. The package is available for Windows or Macintosh, including both TrueType and Postscript fonts. The special introductory price is only going to last only through the end of November. You can order our Viking collection directly for delivery on CD by phone from 1-800-797-8973, or you can purchase the package online. Just CLICK HERE TO ORDER
Classic Font: Evadare Enhanced
Evadare is a stylish text font which we originally released in 2002. It is based on a character set which was hand calligraphed by Rudolf Koch, which take a stylized approach to the idea of a classical Roman-style font. Evadare is both readable and full of personality. For those who are curious about such things, the name of the font comes from a character in Manly Wade Wellman’s classic stories of John the Balladeer collected in his book Who Fears the Devil
This new release of Evadare upgrades the original substantially, adding an expanded character set and custom bold and italic versions of the font. The italic is particularly stylish, with some script-like characteristics which make it very distinctive. And now all three styles are available in a single package at a reasonable combined price. The demo version combines the standard uppercase with the custom lowercase from the italic version.
You can download and try the demo version of Evadare in TrueType format for Mac or PC. The full version of the font with the new lowercase is available from our ordering site.
Start Your Collection With the Basic Fonts
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You have to start building your font library somewhere, and where better to start han our Basic Fonts Collection. It’s a great introduction to our wide variety of fonts at a very reasonable price. It lets you get a great set of versatile fonts which represents every aspect of our collection without paying a higher price for more specialized packages. It includes a sampling of text, display, calligraphic and decorative fonts with an emphasis on the most practical and useful fonts to meet a range of needs. All fonts are in both Postscript and True Type format for Windows and Macintosh, and the package also includes shareware and demo samples of additional fonts and graphic arts resources, plus a PDF catalog.
The Basic Fonts collection starts with a set of 10 text fonts which should provide all the variety most users need in this area, from the clear, legibility of traditional serif fonts like Centurion and Marquis to the more unusual and specialized look of the ultra-narrow Everest and the decorative demi-serif Baldessare. It even includes two of our best monospaced fonts, Cincinnatus and Vidilex.
The Basic Fonts collection also includes 8 specially selected display fonts. These are some of our most popular fonts, like the antique lettering of Buccaneer and the striking art nouveau style of Ariosto and Harbinger, as well as versatile display and titling fonts like Academy, Beaumarchais and Mazarin. Most of these display fonts are based on classic 19th century designs, but with all of the improvements and additions to make them truly modern and adaptable. While most of them include full upper and lower-case character sets, some were specifically and solely intended for titling use (Mazarin, Acadian, Primer), so they have more limited character sets.
Because calligraphic fonts are our specialty, the Basic Fonts package includes a selection of our best calligraphic fonts, from the Roman period with fonts like Procopius, through the Middle Ages with the classic black letter look of Burgundian and the more fanciful style of Cymbeline, to Renaissance lettering in Magdelena and Palmieri and early modern italics like Terpsichore and Iphegenia. It even includes our very popular and more modern Allembert brush script calligraphic font. Together these fonts represent a tour through calligraphic history and a useful range of styles with a selection varied enough to fill any need you have for decorative text or titling with a hand-drawn look.
Finally, we’ve included a few of our most generally useful decorative initials and art fonts. Parsifal and Jongeleur are two of our most attractive and most adaptable decorative initials styles, and their style is highly compatible with other fonts included in the package, like Burgundian and Cymbeline. Sigil and Emblem are essential art fonts, with a wide variety of decorative symbols and motifs which will add character to any document.
The Scriptorium’s Basic Fonts package is a great way to start off your font collection at an exceptionally reasonable price. The package includes the 30 fonts shown here, plus shareware versions of a selection of our most recent fonts and images. It includes a little bit of everything at a total price per font which comes to only a bit more than a dollar, at $59 for the package either on CD or as a quick download from our server.
To order online just go to our ONLINE STORE.
Found Artist: Darren Minke
Earlier this month I got a chance to attend the 31st Annual Old Pecan Street Festival in Austin with my family. It’s a huge street fair with lots of live music and arts and crafts vendors which sprawls down East 6th Street and this year sprawled somewhat over to 7th Street as well. There’s always something new and interesting to see — along with some of the same old junk — and this year as the kids rushed me through everything way too fast, my eye was caught by the work of a local artist named Darren Minke.
The work Minke had on display basically fell into two styles, fantasy paintings done digitally from photographic source material and peculiar stylized images done on laminate siding with wood stain. The former seems to be his main oeuvre, but the latter is what really caught my eye. I suspect I was drawn to the wood stain works because I’ve been working with a lot of laminate siding in remodeling projects I’ve been doing and in finishing out our pool house, where I’ve decided to use laminate siding instead of drywall for a variety of reasons. With that heightened awareness of the medium, I found the work he did with stain to take the grain in the outer veneer of the wood and turn it into the basis for an interesting image. He even uses sheets with different types of wood veneer for variety. Some of the wood-stain pieces are rather abstract, some are more realistic, some are bizarre and grotesque and others are quite attractive. What makes them so interesting is that the nature of the work clearly stems from the grain of the wood, and if there’s an image lurking in the grain then Minke brings it out, but in others he just makes the grain itself into a work of abstract art. I found most of the erotic figures in the stain paintings to be unappealing, but the technique is fascinating regardless of the subject matter.
Minke’s digital art consists of highly modified photographic images with a lot of symbolism and a strong erotic content. Most of the images are of beautiful women, fantasized and combined with symbolic images to represent a mythological or spiritual theme. Some of them are very well done, some are more traditional. Some were quite reminiscent of the work of fellow Austin artist Howard David Johnson with whom I’ve worked on a number of projects over the years, though Minke’s work is more symbolic and less sophisticated than Johnson’s. There’s room for more technical development and sophistication in Minke’s work, but it’s got a strength of vision and a passion which is very appealing. Some of the fantasy pieces are very impressive and his integration of the photographic and illustrative elements is quite good, with an overall result which is both realistic and clearly original and creative.
Minke also does work in other media and custom work on assignment. He does very bold semi-abstract oil paintings, some of which I saw at the festival and more of which are on display on his website. He also does commercial photography and even some rather eerie animation work. He’s a hard working artist with a lot of irons in the fire, but I think he’s one to keep an eye on. His work may not show up at MOMA anytime soon, but that may be more their fault than his. He seems to be doing pretty well selling his originals at fairly respectable prices (I couldn’t justify the price for his wood stain dragon which I really wanted) and I think he has a lot of commercial potential as an illustrator as well. He’s very much an Austin kind of artist, combining high tech and tradition and fantasy with reality.
New Font: Pencraft Initials
Pencraft Initials is an early 20th century sign-letteirng initials set developed from a set of early 20th century type. The initials are decorated with a motif of stylized flowering vines which is uniquely varied in each character box. They look similar, but each one is different. It also includes regular caps and a full number and punctuation set. This is the first of several related Pencraft fonts which we are developing, including a full text font, a swashed script letter set and custom ornaments which will be released later this year.
You can download and try the demo version of Pencraft Initials in TrueType format for Mac or PC. The full version of the font is available from our ordering site.
2009 Font and Art Sampler
About once a year we release a special sampler package with a collection of selected fonts and art from our most recent and forthcoming packages, including some unique items not available anywhere else, all brought together as an overview of what we’ve been up to at the Scriptorium during the past year. You can get all of this at a special price of only $9.95. The package also includes the latest updated version of our extensive PDF catalog for convenient reference. It’s a great way to promote our products and an excellent way for you to try them out at an unbeatable price.
The sampler includes four complete new font releases: Goldwork, Sylphide, Inksaver and Tangle. Goldwork is a dramatic gothic font. Sylphide is a stylish art nouveau font with its own set of unique initials. Inksaver is a special text font designed to reduce ink use in inkjet printers. Tangle is a very cool original design which looks like the letters are made from tangled vines.All of the fonts are in TrueType and PostScript format for MacOS and Windows computers.
Also included in the collection are the working demo versions of most of our other font releases from the last year, including some of our most popular new fonts like Malvern, Gwionbach, Boomtown and Crane Gothic.
The package also features a special selection of beautiful art and useful graphics. It includes a special set of illustrations of Celtic mythology by Katherine Cameron, like the illustration of Grania at the top left of this article. These unusual illustrations are not available in any other package. It also includes a great set of decorative frames and borders taken from designs by Walter Crane with animal and nature themes.
To get the whole package for only $9.95 either on CD or as an immediate download, just visit our online store.
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New Font: BigBlok
A great many years ago when working in game publishing I had a real fascination with doing titles in a strong, super-bold font called Bolt Bold. The truth is I rather overused it. In doing some research I find it on more than a dozen different game books I wrote in the early 80s, all quite collectable and out of print today.
