Featured Articles
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
Projects In Development
Here at the Scriptorium we’re constantly working on new projects, drawing on material in our remarkable library of antique books of illustration, design and typography and on original designs as well. At any time we have 3 to 5 projects in various stages of development, from scanning images to designing fonts, to assembling material to create new packages of fonts and art. Development can take anywhere from weeks to years depending on the project.
One of our current projects is being developed based on art and lettering by Fanny Railton for her 1891 illustrated edition of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Railton is known for her fairy illustrations, and this book gave her plenty of opportunity to be creative with depictions of several distinct types of fairies, including traditional dragonfly-winged sprites and more unusual and goblinish moth-winged pixies. The illustrations are great, but perhaps the most interesting element is Railton’s beautiful hand lettering. We are going to develop two distinct fonts from it, one based on her title lettering which is in an elaborate artist’s style similar to our very popular Folkard font, and another in a simpler arts and craftsy pen style reminiscent of our Brandywine font based on Howard Pyle’s lettering.
We’ve had an ongoing super-project of developing a massive collection of ebooks and design resources based on the designs of Walter Crane. We’ve already released sub-packages for his Baby’s Opera and Baby’s Own Aesop. Also in development for this series are packages based on The Baby’s Bouquet which completes that trilogy, plus a complete package based on Pan Pipes which is another song book in the same style, but aimed at an adult audience, with some of Crane’s most extraordinary designs in it.
When completed the Walter Crane super package will also include fonts based on Crane’s designs like the recently released Walter Crane and Crane Gothic fonts, plus at least two more new fonts based on Crane lettering which are still in the planning stages.
Also in development is a new collection of fonts with a far eastern theme in the tradition of our historic theme packages like the Arabian Nights and Viking font and art packages. It will include fonts like Katisha, Cipango, Suchow and Yoshi Toshi plus two brand new fonts.
There’s much more than this in the pipeline, but these are some highlights to look forward to. Suggestions and recommendations are always welcome.
New Font: Krasny Mir
Working on revisions to Structura a few weeks ago brought the whole topic of Russian poster art to the surface and it seemed like a good time to do a font based on typical poster lettering from soviet-era propaganda posters. The result is Krasny Mir, a new font which combines the look of super-bold cyrillic letters with some nice special features, including a set of capital initials with star embellishments and selected alternate character forms. We were going to name the font Red Star, but discovered there was already another font with that name, so we went with Krasny Mir which is fun because both words have double meanings in Russian, which means they combine into four different possible names.
You can download and try the demo version of Krasny Mir in TrueType format for Mac or PC. The full version of the font is available if you want to BUY IT NOW.
The Scriptorium on Facebook
It’s impossible to function these days without being tied into the world of social networking, so we’ve launched an interest froup for Scriptorium fonts and other design ideas on Facebook. Just click on the link to the right and you’ll be able to sign up for the Scriptorium Facebook group and if you aren’t already a Facebook member it will give you a chance to join Facebook as well. The group is just getting started, but we’ll be adding more info there and will also use it to spread news of new developments on the website.
Free Fonts for the Web
After a while using the web you get tired of seeing everything in the same old fonts. Since fonts are what we do here at the Scriptorium it seemed like our responsibility to do something to make the web look a bit more interesting. We’re putting out a series of free web fonts which we hope will bring your web pages and your browsing to life.
Our first three Web Fonts have been specifically designed for readable text. Unlike other fonts designed for screen display, ours are made not only with an eye towards legibility, but also with a desire to provide something a bit more stylish and eye-pleasing than some of the very utilitarian fonts you may have encountered.
Sirona is the best example of the special style we want to bring to web fonts. It is based on Lombardic calligraphy, but with modifications which make it extraordinarily readable on screen even at small sizes. Sirona is an excellent replacement for Times or New York or any other serif font set by your browser, but we particularly recommend it for web designers as a titling or captioning font.
As an alternative for those who value ease of reading over style and artistry, we offer Divona which has many of the characteristics of the most readable sans serif fonts, with the addition of moderate serifs which help the eye travel more easily when reading large areas of text. This makes it one of the most readable fonts you’ll ever encounter. Use it where your browser suggests Times, New York, Arial or Helvetica.
For tables you’ve got to have a non-proportional font, so we’ve developed one which is very special. It is a hybrid font. Essentially it is a sans serif font, but has some serifs added in appropriate places on certain characters to address some of the spacing problems common in sans serif fonts and increase readability. We think the result is pretty remarkable. Use it in places where your browser suggests Monaco or Courier.
These fonts are licensed to you for free for your personal use. Download them. Install them on your computer, and you can redistribute them if you include a link to our site.
Define them in your HTML code (FONT FACE=”Sirona,Divona,Onuava”) to give your site a unique look. All we ask is that you distribute them with a link to this page. Just copy this link button and use it on your page. The fonts are also now available in .swf format for embedding in your site so that users don’t have to download them. Look for a forthcoming article on how to do this.
Download Fonts for Windows and MacOS in a Zip archive. For the Flash .swf fonts download here.
We have other resources which you may find useful. You can find our web design packages of fonts and art at WEB DESIGN. We also have a special offer for webmasters at WEBMASTERS.
Classic Font: Joyeuse
Joyeuse is one of our earliest developments of a really high-end font. It is based on samples of early 20th century metal type derived from a popular variant of William Morris’ Troy Typewhich deviated a lot from the original source design, but has much of the same stylish gothic revival look and feel. We originally released Joyeuse in 1992 and have done several revisions and updates since then. It was developed to fit in our Master Fonts series of fonts designed for expert typography. In the years since then it has seen a lot of use in print publishing and is especially popular for internal titles and chapter headers.
As a Master Font Joyeuse includes an expanded foreign language character set, lots of special characters and custom designed bold and italic styles. It is available as a single font or in one of our Master Fonts collections and is also included in our Holiday Fonts and Art package. You can try the demo version for free, or order the full version online.
Sightings in the Youth Books Section
On a recent trip through the local bookstore I stumbled into the “youth” section, which is full of interesting looking books which I found hard to believe were really targeted at teenagers, since the quality of the writing and design of many of them was up to or beyond the level of adult books. There’s a higher emphasis on fantasy themes than you’d find in general fiction, but it reminded me that many books we now consider literary classics were once marketed to a youth audience, including major works by Robert Heinlein, C. S. Lewis and Arthur C. Clarke which are anything but childish.
I also noticed that a lot of the books featured our font designs. The first to catch my eye was Derek Landy’s Scepter of the Ancients which is the first book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series of supernatural mystery/adventure novels. All the books in the series feature prominent titles done in our Potsdam font, which has just the right mix of the ancient and arcane. Other books in the series include Playing with Fire and The Faceless Ones. All excellent reading for younger teens.
Also quick to catch my eye was The Last Olympian which is the fifth and latest entry in Rick Riordan’s series Percy Jackson and the Olympians also aimed at young teens, and while the series is a bit blander than Landy’s series, there’s plenty of action and an entertaining concept with ancient Greek gods and monsters running around in modern times. All of the books in the series use our Windlass font for their titles. Windlass is a bit overused, especially for pirate-related products, but it works well in this context. Windlass also shows up in the titles for Joseph Delaney’s The Last Apprentice series, a lengthy series also aimed at the 9-12 Junior High market, with a traditional fantasy theme with some magic and some humor mixed together.
Finally I ran accross Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series which uses our Scurlock font for its titles, though they’ve made it more narrow and added some customizations. The latest entry in this series is Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary. It seems to be pretty well written, but the fantasy/quest theme is a bit predictable, perhaps not as much fun as the font used for the titles. This book is also aimed at the 9-12 year old audience, though it is not as sophisticated as the Riordan or Landy books mentioned earlier.
It’s interesting that the book market for younger teens and pre-teens seems to slant so much towards fantasy and a bit of a relief to see that the maudline vampire obsession of the older teen market has not infected the younger age groups significantly yet, so if you are buying for a kid in that age group the choices are still appealing and the title fonts look excellent.
New Font: Rockne
Rockne is based on samples of mid-20th century wood type in a style which was clearly an influence on the poster lettering of the 1960s as demonstrated in our Butterfield, Harbinger and Pantagruel. It clearly comes out of the Art Nouveau tradition, and with wood type already obsolete at the time the font was made, it presents a chronological anomaly and seems to fit in the gap between the art nouveau period and the psychedelic art movement.
You can download and try the demo version of Rockne in TrueType format for Mac or PC. The full version of the font is available from our ordering site.
Walter Crane’s The Baby’s Opera
We have been building a library of illustrated books by Arts and Crafts era designer Walter Crane for several years and are now finally at the point where we can start to release some of our Crane material in useful packages for contemporary designers who want to incorporate his unique aesthetic into their work.
Our first Crane release was The Baby’s Own Aesop and it was very well received. Now we are offering another book in the same series, The Baby’s Opera. It is a collection of classic 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.
Our presentation of the book follows the model of our other recent Walter Crane package. It includes a complete 60-page print-quality PDF facsimile of the book, plus high-resolution graphics of every page and illustration including the and covers. In addition there are emblems, borders, decorative elements and other resources which we have taken from the book and cleaned up and made ready to use for other purposes. All of this comes with a license allowing you to incorporate the material in your own designs and creations. The package is only $39 and you can order online and download the package immediately — but be warned, it’s a very large download.
We’re going to be following this package with other Crane packages, including a similar treatment of The Baby’s Bouquet which was a companion piece to The Baby’s Own Aesop and The Baby’s Opera. We also have a collection of fonts based on Crane lettering in development, like our recently released Crane Gothic font and plan to release more Crane fonts in the future.
To see a sample of what is in this collection, try out the condensed PDF sampler which has lower resolution versions of selected images from the set. To purchase the whole package just order it online.
Arabian Nights Fonts and Art Package
Click any font to see a larger sample.       
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The culture of the east entices and allures. From the stony walls of Petra to the fabled spires of ancient Samarkand, the the legend of the great days of Caliphs, Wazirs and brave adventurers outshines the modern era of oil and petty tyrrany. Who would not trade a dozen Saddam Husseins for a single Al Hakim or Saladin? The visual style of Middle Eastern culture has intrigued artists for years and we’ve gathered some remarkable images to give you access to this great tradition.
Our Arabian Nights collection focuses on the visual arts of the ancient and legendary Middle East, including historical source material and modern artistic interpretations of the arts and themes of the Arabian Nights. This includes a selection of new fonts which capture the spirit of the east, plus our extensive collection of rug patterns and beautiful art nouveau illustrations of tales from the Arabian Nights by Rene Bull, Louis Rhead, J. D. Batten and Edmund Dulac.
Our Arabian Nights collection has recently been expanded to include seven original fonts. Samaritan is based on the poster lettering of Alphons Mucha from his poster for the play La Samaritan. Serendib and Waziri are based on the hand lettering of Rene Bull from his edition of the Arabian Nights. Caliph is derived from Ernst Schneidler’s classic Legende font, with variant characters based on his original lettering. Samarkand is an art font which lets you combine characters in different ways to create skylines for an ancient Middle Eastern city. Satampra is a fantasy calligraphy font with a middle eastern theme.
The package also features a wealth of great illustrations, in both color and black and white. Edmund Dulac’s haunting fairytale illustrations bring to life the era of the late Ottoman Empire. Rene Bull’s fanciful art nouveau pictures explore the more humorous aspects of the Arabian Nights. Rhead and Batten provide simpler material in black and white suitable for coloring or decorative uses. All images are in high resolution and well suited to use in print, or for scaling down for web use, and our standard license provides reprint rights with very few limitations. There are over 50 illustrations included in the package.
As an added bonus we’ve also included a large selection of decorative Middle Eastern rug and tapestry designs. These are high-resolution images from great source material. They feature traditional designs and motifs ideal for creating new graphics and decorative images, including legendary rug patterns like the classic Sarouk, Tabriz and Farahan styles.
This special package is compatible with both Macintosh and Windows based computers and all of the fonts are in both PostScript and TrueType format. All of this is only $59, either through our toll-free number at 1-800-797-8973 or our Online Ordering System.
There’s no better way to give your designs the romance and mystery of the Middle East.
You can see quick samples of the fonts in the package on this page. As a special, immediate bonus, you can also try out the new Satampra font. Download the demo version by clicking on the image below.
Classic Font: Structura
In these hard times it seemed appropriate to harken back to even harder times, so if you feel a yearning to sit in a freezing garret and contemplate the relationship between art and the state, we have the font to use in the poster for your next exhibit of art made from girders and old boilers. Our Structura font is inspired by the designs of Russian post-futurist artists of the Constructivist movement in the early 1920s, like Sergei Eisenstein and Alexander Rodchenko, who sought to glorify the state and industrialization through their work under the auspices of the Commisariat of Enlightenment. While they rejected the idea that art should be liberating and imaginative, they still managed to produce some striking — if rather stark — images in forms like posters and murals which were designed to reach a broad proletarian audience.
Structura was originally released in 1997 and was included in our Russian Fonts and Art collection, along with several other fonts based on lettering from the same period, like Vrubel, which is also based on Constructivist poster lettering. This is a revised new release of Structura with various tweaks and improvements, an expanded character set including not just foreign language characters, but also some alternative character forms, particularly for the bauhaus-style “w” which some users found confusing.
You can get the full version of the new release of Structura from our ordering site or try out the demo version for free to see if you like it.
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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.
