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
New Font: Rasael
We started work on the Rasael script font early last year, but because of the complexity and fine lines of the characters it took a long time to complete, with some breaks to work on easier projects. The end result is worth the wait, with an elegant combination of calligraphic and script elements which make it rather like a more refined cousin of our Pavane and Azariel fonts, which are part of the Script Fonts Package, which Rasael will eventually be added to. Like almost all of our script fonts, Rasael takes its name from the name of a minor angel.
You can download and try the demo version of Rasael in TrueType format for Mac or PC. The full version of the font is available from our ordering site.
The Art of Howard David Johnson
Some years ago I had the pleasure of working on some publishing projects with Howard David Johnson a local Austin artist who I met through a mutual friend. He was a classically trained artist who was working as a studio photographer at the time and was interested in getting back into art. I was working as an editor and art director for a couple of different publishing ventures and his style was very compatible with my tastes, so I encouraged him to start doing some illustration work and threw a few small jobs his way. It was at a time when digital art was really coming into its own and I gave him a shove in the right direction with some suggestions of ways he could combine his traditional style and techniques with digital technology and got him started experimenting and discovering things on his own.
It’s now years later and I recently stopped by his website and discovered some impressive new works and really remarkable developments in his skills and technique. He’s living proof that in advanced middle age if the will and imagination are there you really can learn new things and grow creatively. David always had a remarkable facility for copying the style of other artists and illustrators, and was particularly influenced by the great illustrators of the late 19th century and the artists of the pre-raphaelite period. For example, you can see the influence of Millais and Waterhouse in the first and last images accompanying this article. As he began to explore digital media he began combining these classical styles with his interest in photography and digital art to produce mixed media images where elements were hand drawn, scanned and then finished as digital paintings incorporating photorealistic elements and figures based on live models, a technique which proved to be very powerful when combined with the themes of fantasy and mythology which he favors.
His online gallery is a remarkable resource and provides a history of the development of his technique, because many of his works are dated on the site. When I first worked with him there was an awkwardness in how he combined these elements, and sometimes the relative perspective wasn’t quite right or the different textures of hand-drawn elements and digital elements was jarring. By the time of our last collaborations his style had become more integrated, but you could still tell where he was working freehand and where he was working from photos or live models, and in works he did quickly like his illustrations like Reiner Knizia’s game Res Publica he still sometimes lapsed into a kind of two-dimentional cut-out style which was distinctive but less aesthetically pleasing. Then, sometime in 2006, several years after our last involvement he seems to have reached a creative tipping point. Works from that period on show a seamless integration of styles and a fully developed awareness of depth and proportion and lighting. You can tell that he’s still using the same combination of traditional techniques and photorealism, but the two styles have met in the middle, creating works which are realistic but clearly original and stylistically coherent. Many of these are just magnificent, like “Queen Cinderella” (above and left) and “Valkyrie Maiden” (to right), with subtle shading and use of light and a kind of altered realism which is very effective at making the fantastical seem real.
In his latest works he seems to have come full-circle, moving through digital art and returning to traditional media, but bringing his new techniques with him. Some of his most impressive new works like “Circe the Enchantress” (to the left) and “Athene” (top right) are done entirely without digital modification, in pencil and oils on canvas respectively. That he is able to work in both digital and traditional formats and produce such similar results is a truly remarkable commentary on how completely his skills have matured and what a great command he has over his tools. I find “Athene” to be particularly impressive, with the realism of the figure softened enough to fit with the more painterly background, and a really excellent recreation of the style of the pre-raphaelites with a result which reminds me a lot of the work of Sir William Russell Flint.
When browsing David’s art, be forewarned that he does take the occasional foray into the “chicks in chainmail” genre in the tradition of Frank Frazetta and he does have a fondness for beautiful and scantily clad women. The site even includes a section of erotic pin-up art, though he seems to have removed some of the most provocative images. There are also some disturbing religious themes if that kind of thing bothers you — both from a pagan and Christian perspective. He’s been very productive in the last few years and has managed to do detailed illustrations for the major themes of Greek, Celtic and Norse Mythology plus Arthurian legends and elements of other mythologies as well, all included on his website. He also has extensive samples of his fairy and fairytale illustrations included on the site, as well as articles on his technique and some of his subject matter and even a set of short art lessons for beginners. And just to beat my own drum for a second, he uses my font designs extensively on his site, particularly Stonecross, Brandegoris and Durrow.
If it’s not sufficient to view his work on the web — and it really isn’t the ideal format for this sort of detailed artwork — he has collected many of his images into two books which are available for purchase online. One covers mythology and the other covers fairies and fairytales. Original paintings are available for sale and you can also purchase prints of many of his works. And it looks like more and more you’ll be able to see his work on book covers and other publications, because as his work has improved his marketability has also increased and it looks like after years of hard work he may be starting to get some of the attention he deserves. Bravo!
Dave
Classic Font: Tuscarora
We first released Tuscarora in the early 90s based on samples of rough hand-drawn poster lettering. It became very popular and ended up being used as the basis of the Beynkales font which was used in the movie Corpse Bride. The original Tuscarora has a more dramatic look than Beynkales and we’ve enhanced this new release with additional alternate characters and a full set of foreign language characters. But most of all, it remains a fun, wild font which is great for a lot of uses.
You can download and try the demo version of Tuscarora in TrueType format for Mac or PC. The full version of the font with the new characters and features is available from our ordering site.
Decorative Intials Collection
decorative Initials font consists of characters which combine basic letter forms with artistic embellishment, often in the form of floral or geometric patterns used as a background or intertwined with the letter. Decorative Initials have their origins in medieval manuscript decoration where complex and colorful characters were used to make a manuscript page more attractive. 
Most Decorative Initials fonts have their origins in the adaptation of this medieval concept to early typography, limiting them to complex two-color patterns, though in some cases these might be decorated after printing. Decorative Initials fonts are sometimes referred to as ‘Drop Caps’ because they are ‘dropped’ into a page of text.
he Scriptorium Font collection includes a wide variety of decorative initials fonts based on designs from the middle ages through the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements of the late 19th and early 20th century. Many of these initials follow traditional floral motifs, but some are quite unusual, offering unique themes like the nymphs found in Maidens or the arcadian scenes in Campobello.
Some go even farther afield, like the wild art deco style of Finestra or Romantica. And not all initials come in the traditional style you’re probably most familiar with, where a letter is superimposed on a box of foliage or other decoration. 
We also offer initials which are characters drawn or decorated in unusual ways, like the anthropomorphic initials in Netherworld, Otherworld and Boneyard, or the decorated Celtic calligraphy initials of Knotwork and Columba, or the floral decorated uncial capitals of Florimel. Initials in the forms of animals or people were quite common in medieval and early modern design.
ecause of their original use and the complexity of the images, decorative initials fonts may present some unexpected challenges for the user. More than other fonts, decorative initials demand at least a 32-bit operating system to function properly, though that isn’t an issue with computers less than 5 years old these days. They also require substantial printer memory and processor power because they are composed of such complex outlines. Generally they will work fine under any version of Windows or the MacOS, but with older operating systems some decorative initials fonts may cause various problems. In addition, because most decorative initials were originally designed to meet the needs of a specific book or document, they may not always feature complete modern character sets. 
In particular, many of our fonts are based on early woodcuts or hand-drawn initials, rather than actual typefaces of initials. So in a font like Burghers (17th century Dutch woodcuts) or Batten (19th century hand-drawn initials) you’ll find duplicates of many letters and you may find other letters missing. Generally the most popular letters like O, T, A and C are well represented, while less common letters may be missing. Fortunately, in most cases your need for initials will be likely to match the letters which were in high demand in the original, and there is a definite benefit to having a variety of different initials to pick from for a specific letter.
For more information on using Decorative Initials fonts, take a look at our previous article on Designing With Decorative Initials
ll of our decorative initials fonts are available in both True Type and Postscript format for Macintosh and Windows computers. They are available individually or in a special collection with all the initials for $79.00. Our single fonts and decorative initials font packages can be ordered online, by mail or by phone for delivery online or by mail for internet delivery or delivery on CD by mail.
To order the full collection online and take delivery online or shipped on CD, CLICK HERE. To order by phone call 1-800-797-8973. To browse individual decorative initials try THIS LINK.
To get an idea of what our decorative initials fonts are like, try out our special Initials font which combines characters from most of our decorative initials fonts into a single font. Just CLICK HERE to download it.
Art Encounters: So Inclined at Middlebury College
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One of the stops on our ongoing college tour through the northeast was Middlebury College, a charming little liberal arts college on an enormous campus in northern Vermont. Middlebury has an outstanding academic reputation and is particularly known for its innovative arts programs and immersive language and international studies programs. One of the interesting decisions of the college’s board was to set aside 1% of their endowment for public art projects, with the result that the campus is graced with a variety of interesting art, including some large and very impressive sculptures.
Of these super-sculptures the one which really appealed to my imagination was So Inclined which is installed outside the entrance to the Kevin P. Mahaney Center for the Arts. It basically resembles some sort of primitive village of huts made out of maple and dogwood saplings and branches woven together into shapes resembling the hair of characters from Dr. Seuss in a way which suggests artifice and nature at the same time, as if wind or some other natural force compelled the branches to grow together and twisted them into a shape rather like an organic tee-pee. Each of the structures in the village-like cluster connects to some of the others and has a doorway and some have windows as well. You can go inside the structures and while I was there taking photos I saw a number visiting kids playing inside the structures which are perfect for hide-and-seek.
So Inclined really spoke to my imagination, conjuring up images from the more mystical works of Charles de Lint
So Inclined was created on site in September of 2007 by Patrick Dougherty who specializes in these large, stickwork installations and is currently artist-in-residence at the McConnell Arboretum near Sacramento. Samples of his 150 installations can be seen at stickman.com and it is remarkably diverse and creative given the limitations of a medium which essentially consists of nothing more than bent sticks. Dougherty produces clever and inspiring work made doubly appealing by its interactive character and accessibility to children (and playful adults).
New Font: Foundry Ornament
It’s been a dog’s age since we featured an art font, so here we go. Foundry Ornament is a decorative art font based on cast metal type printers ornaments. The images have a heraldic theme, with gryphons and lions and other mythical creatures. They include images suitable for marginalia and page decoration as well as for use as repeating borders. The font is very compatible in style with our Monumental Gothic font and also fits well with some of our other ornament fonts like Medieval Tiles and Caswallon Ornament.
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.
A Font-Conscious Visit to Williamsburg
This week I’ve been taking my lovely 17-year old daughter Caroline on a tour of colleges in the mid-Atlantic states which she’s considering applying to this fall. One of the first which we visited was the College of William and Mary located in historic Colonial Williamsburg, which is an area where fonts from our Colonial Collection have always had a large audience. We’ve sold fonts to area businesses, to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and to the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, who have used them for various publications and presentation materials.
Among the fonts which seemed to be particularly popular and which we saw in use more than once on books and signs and pamphlets and even in restaurant menus were Allegheny, Boswell, http://www.fontcraft.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=hesperides”>Hesperides and Buccaneer. All excellent choices for a colonial design and very characteristic of the period in which Williamsburg was founded.
There’s a lot to see in Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown and the associated colonial sites, but you can have some of that history for youself with our Colonial Fonts Collection and its selection of antique fonts which hold a bit of the spirit of old Williamsburg.
Classic Font: Melusine
Melusine is based on an ornate style of gothic calligraphy used primarily in decorative signs and advertising in Germany around the turn of the century. It has many of the characteristics of a true medieval gothic hand, but is a more elaborate, extreme variaton on the style. It is one of the fonts featured in our Gothic Fonts package. Melusine was first released ten years ago this month, so it was due for an update. This new release has an expanded character set and several improved and tweaked characters. It was quite popular when we first released it and it deserves a second look.
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.
Giving Your Page a Favicon
You may have noticed that on many pages you visit there is a little icon to the left of the address line in your browser which is unique to that page. For example, this page has a little color decorative initial of an “S” in that spot. This is what’s called a favicon, and it’s a way of identifying your website which not only shows at the top of the browser, but also makes it stand out in a user’s browser history and bookmarks or favorites list, where it will show up on any listing of your site. Favicons aren’t essential, but it’s a clever little gimmick to make your site stand out to users.
Making a Favicon is relaly pretty simple, but despite that many find the process bewildering. For example, child-prodigy WordPress developer Matt Mullenweig wrote a comprehensive article on the subject which successfully makes the process so confusing and intimidating that he apparently scared himself into not putting a favicon on his own web page. I may be twice Matt’s age, but I think I can explain the process a little more clearly.
The Technical Stuff
A favicon is basically just a little tiny image. The trick is putting it in the right format and in the right location. The rest is aesthetics and there is some skill required in making an image that small which is still visually appealing. Here’s the basic procedure:
- 1. Start with a larger image and shrink it down to 16 pixels by 16 pixels using the graphics program of your choice.
2. Take your image, flatten any layers and save it as a Windows ICO file or a PNG file. Photoshop and Paintshop Pro both support these formats and Mac users can also use GraphicConverter, a powerful image manipulation tool from LemkeSoft which can even do the job in demo mode.
3. Upload the file you just created to the main directory which hosts your web page. If you put it in the top level directory of your site and host multiple pages it will show up on all of those pages. If you want separate pages to have separate favicons put them in individual directories with a different favicon in each one.
4. Add this code to the HEAD section of your page’s index.html or index.php file: <link REL=”SHORTCUT ICON” HREF=”/favicon.ico” type=”image/x-icon”>. Or if you’re using a PNG file use: <link REL=”SHORTCUT ICON” HREF=”/favicon.png” type=”image/png”>. PNGs have the advantage of being able to have a transparent background. The favicon does not actually have to be named favicon, so it is also theoretically possible to host your favicons in a separate directory and access different ones for different pages using code like: <link REL=”SHORTCUT ICON” HREF=”/absolute-path-to-favicon-directory/your-favicon-name.ico” type=”image/x-icon”>.
5. Don’t be dismayed when your favicon doesn’t show up in your browser right away, or occasionally disappears when you change pages. At the very least you’ll need to quit your browser and you may need to clear out your cache before it appears. You may also notice that if your page stores some sub-pages in separate directories or uses a separate template for those pages you may need to add the favicon code in more than one location for it to show up on all pages.
That’s not too complicated. But like a lot of things, the technical aspects are easy and the artistic element may take years to master. It’s not at all easy to make an image which is only 16×16 pixels and is clearly recognizable for what you want it to be.
The Artsy Part
Now, I’d recommend starting with a source image which is at least four times the size of your final favicon. It’s just difficult to work on an image which is smaller than about 64×64 pixels. But remember that most of the detail you could put into a larger image will at best be wasted or at worst be confusing and muddying at 16×16 pixels. What works best in that small size is usually one or two very clear letters from a bold, distinct font, or a clear silhouette or outline image. In fact, the decorative initial favicon on this page is a good negative example, because it’s just too complex and has too many shapes and colors. It does give the impression of a decorative initial, but it’s hard to tell what letter it is. Strangely, Google made a recent change from a nice clear “G” character favicon to a muddled multi-color image, perhaps because it’s more unique.
You’re much better off with a clear, bold font like Aventine or a clean and stylized art deco style font like Falmouth or for something more quirky I’ve had good luck with Squiffy. For an image-style favicon nothing works better than the kind of outlines and silhouette shapes which also work well as printers ornaments as you can find in fonts like Caswallon Ornament, Sangrael or medtilesMedieval Tiles. The process required to make an image work as a font also makes it simple enough to work well as a favicon. It’s key to use bold colors, sharp contrasts and make sure that you don’t use lines so thin that they blur when reduced to small size. If you use letters you may even want to consider not using certain letters like A or R because the small spaces inside them don’t work well. You may even want to play around with plugins if you have Photoshop which enhance the outlines or contrast of the image.
Here are some sample favicons to critique:
First is the new Google favicon, which has nice bold colors, but I really can’t figure out what it’s supposed to be. Second is the favicon from this page made with a colorized version of the Morris Initials font. It’s too busy, but the colors come through nicely and you can tell it’s a decorative initial. Third is a favicon made with a character from the Caswallon Ornament font. It’s simple and attractive and you can tell it’s a leaf. The next two are made with Falmouth and Aventine. Both work well because the characters are so bold and have such clean lines. But the more letters you add the less clear they are. There’s just not much room in 16 pixels. The 6th example with two characters from Falmouth works fairly well, but I don’t think it would be possible to add anything more to it. As you can see the letters had to be made smaller overall to preserve their proportions with the greater width required for two characters. Last is a favicon using the chalice character from Sangrael, and it’s a good negative example because it’s just too small and too detailed to work well.
So the technical aspects of setting up a favicon are fairly easy. It’s the aesthetics which are most challenging, and you probably won’t get the hang of making a really great favicon until you’ve practiced and experimented a lot on your own. I know I’m far from perfect with it, and I’ve gone so far as to go in and edit them pixel by pixel in bitmap format.
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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.
