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
Night on Bald Mountain
Especially appropriate for Halloween, an example of when animation transcends genre and becomes a remarkable work of art. As with all of the segments in Fantasia, this one draws on the work of particular classic illustrators. In this case the main influences seem to have been Edmund Dulac and Kay Nielsen who was under contract to Disney at the time that Fantasia was made.
Dave
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.
Because we already have collections of Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau fonts from related periods, we were able to narrow the focus of this collection very specifically to concentrate exclusively on those fonts which were most typical of the Art Deco genre. Some fonts outside the collection like Semiramis and Chelsea Studio could probably also be classed as Art Deco, but because they are already in other collections they were not included here. The same is true of the Roycroft fonts which are in the Arts and Crafts package. We’ve also tried to avoid any fonts which would be typical of the German Bauhaus movement which overlaps with Art Deco in the same way that the Jugendstil movement overlaps with Art Nouveau, mainly because we may want to release a Bauhaus collection in the future.
The package includes traditional text fonts from the Art Deco period like Broadley, Advertising Gothic, Falmouth and Gargantua. It also includes two purely decorative fonts, Decoration and Art Deco Borders which are ideal for completing the overall look of an art deco project with floral and geometric motifs to accompany your text. Together they make lots of unique and complex art deco designs possible.
Many of these fonts are among our newest designs, like Broadley and Madding, some are older and have been waiting for an opportunity to be released in a collection like this, and Art Deco Borders and Magnin are new releases put out to coincide with the release of this package, though Magnin was originally designed on a commission for a vintage clothing outlet some years ago.
Art Deco fonts are interesting, because although they may vary considerably in style they all share characteristics necessary for their use in graphic design, ornamentation and industrial design. In many cases they are fonts designed to be molded in metal, etched in glass, carved from wood or embossed on leather and they have peculiarities related to the mediums in which they were intended to be used.
The package includes 12 original fonts in postscript and true type format for both MacOS and Windows. It also includes a bonus set of selected full-color art deco motifs from our collection of designs by Pedro Lemos. You can order the complete package now and takje delivery online or by main from our ONLINE STORE.
Classic Font: Taranis
Taranis was one of the very first fonts we ever produced. It actually originates way back in 1987 when it was first drawn as a font for the cover of the old Ysgarth roleplaying system when we were still mainly in the game publishing business. It then went through a number of revisions and improvements and was eventually kind of left on the back bench and not heavily promoted as we came out with newer fonts. But it deserves a revival, so here’s a new version with the outlines cleaned up and the weighting much improved.
Taranis is basically a modernized uncial font int he tradition of some of our other uncial fonts like Constance Martel or Koch Gothic, but with less of an emphasis on historical accuracy and a a stronger, more angular look which appeals to a more modern sensibility. It still retains most of the basic uncial characteristics, but it doesn’t look old-fashioned. The name comes from the gallic name for the god of thunder.
You can try the demo version of Taranis for free, or order the full version online.
On the Shelves: Captain Kidd and Folkard
It seems like it’s always the young adult section of the bookstore where I find our fonts being used. This time what caught my eye first was a book by Berke Breathed who started his cartooning career at the Daily Texan here in Austin and went on to national fame with Bloom County. His new illustrated novelette is Flawed Dogs, It features our Captain Kidd font prominently for the cover and interior titles. It’s the first time I’ve seen Captain Kidd in use on a book that wasn’t about pirates, but it looks good even out of its element. Sadly they just used the basic version rather than the fancier and newer version with the full lower case character set.
Also among the new releases in the youth section was Ptolemy’s Gate the latest entry in the Bartimaeus fantasy trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. It features a very attractive cover design with the title done in our Folkard font. Folkard has overtaken Kelmscott and Abaddon as our most widely used font, featured in Disney’s Fairies, World of Warcraft in the movie Lady of the Lake, on the manga book Princess Ai and lots of other places.
New Font: Cascade
In looking through our fonts for something to use on a project my teenage daughter complained that we don’t have enough fonts which feature characters with decorative inside the character form. We have a lot of decorative initials, but only a few fonts where the decoration is inside the character rather than surrounding the character. The two most notable examples are the medieval font Florimel and the celtic font Padstow which only has selected decorated characters.
Taking up the challenge I started by looking for examples of past fonts and lettering which had interior decoration. I found several good examples and decided to start by adapting one of them as the new Cascade font, which is our new featured font. Cascade is based on an early 20th century advertising font and features a river-like motif inside the wide vertical sections of the characters. Coming soon is an entirely original sister font called Celestial which uses the same concept as Cascade with a different design motif.
You can download and try the demo version of Cascade in TrueType format for Mac or PC. The full version of the font is available if you want to BUY IT NOW.
Sighting: Buccaneer in Starbucks
It seems our fonts have invaded the world of “corporate coffee.” Earlier this week, while picking up a coffee for my daughter at the local Starbucks I noticed that they were selling mugs labeled “Austin,” presumably in an effort to make them seem less corporate and generic and more tied in to our local culture.
Having no larger interest in coffee or its marketing, the interesting thing to me was that the font they picked for the word “Austin” was our Buccaneer font, one of the featured fonts in our Howard Pyle collection. Even more interesting was that Starbucks, which turned a profit of over $150 million last quarter, apparently as a result of radical cost-cutting measures. Sadly one of the areas where they appear to be economizing is in the graphic design department, because based on subtle hints in the appearance of the letters it’s clear that they are using the shareware version of the font released way back in about 1994 rather than springing lose $24 from their corporate profits to actually pay for the font.
When Buccaneer was first released as a shareware font on AOL it had a very poorly executed capital “A” which is stood out like a sore thumb. It was quickly replaced in every commercial release of the font, including the version shipped to those who registered the shareware with a different version of the “A” which fits in better with the rest of the characters. As is the nature of the internet, that old version is still circulating 15 years later, probably stripped of its documentation and maybe even the headers with the registration info.
Starbucks or their design minions are hardly the first people to use a font without doing due diligence and checking to make sure they had a legitimate version of the font, but it seems ironic given their enormous profits and mercenary corporate image — perhaps doubly ironic that they should be trying to endear themselves to the Austin community while exploiting the work of a member of that community.
Classic Font: Asrafel
We originally released Asrafel in 1999 after we developed it for a book cover project. It was conceived with the idea of combining art nouveau elements and calligraphic elements and to produce a look evocative of the feathers in the wings of a bird of prey. The result works well, with a kinship to our Abaddon font, but a less aggressive and more aesthetic look. The font includes capitals, small caps and alternate forms for many of the characters.
You can try the demo version of Asrafel for free, or order the full version online.
Arthur Rackham Fonts and Art
Arthur Rackham is probably the best-known book illustrator of the early 20th century. . In the early 1900s Rackham was in constant demand to illustrate childrens books and fantastic novels in his detailed and meticulous style. Rackham’s most famous illustrations are probably his plates for Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and his various illustrations for classic English fairytales. Rackham’s style is striking and unique, and his use of pen outlines, color ink washes and shading compensate cleverly for the limitations of color printing of the period. Rackham was also one of the highest paid illustrators of his time, setting new standards for the commercial value of book illustration.
The latest edition of our Rackham collection features a large selection of images, focusing on mythological and fantastic themes, a variety of borders and decorative emblems, plus a collection of fonts based on Rackham’s calligraphy and decorative ornaments. All of the fonts are in TrueType and Postscript format for the Macintosh or Windows computers.
Art is featured from books like Undine, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Goblin Market, English Fairy Tales and several other books. Recent additions to the collection include unique Rackham Celtic art, as well as a selection of Rackham borders and illustrations in black and white. The art selection is varied, including not only the great fairy illustrations for which Rackham is best known, but also more unusual, darker mythological pieces such as his illustrations for Wagner’s Ring Saga and Thomas Mallory’s Morte d’Arthur.
Rackham also designed his own frontispieces and book bindings, as well as filling many of his books with whimsical marginal decorations and illustrated headers. We’ve taken Rackhams title lettering and his marginalia and put them together into an excellent collection of fonts which are included in the package. The fonts are in Postscript and TrueType format and in versions for both the MacOS and Windows. The fonts include our Rackham Italic and Rackham text fonts, plus Sangrael, Florissant, Silhouettes, Fairies, Rackham Holiday Ornament and Goblins which are all based on Rackham’s marginal decorations from various books. Many of them feature the whimsical fairy images for which he is particularly known.
Since we first released our Rackham Font & Art package we’ve been continually acquiring more sources for Rackham’s art and decoration and doing additional development work with fonts based on his lettering and marginalia. As a result the package keeps getting bigger and better. We’ve even added a new selection of Rackham borders recently. Whenever we do an update we contact those with older versions of the CD and we make an updated version avaialable to them at a special upgrade price. We’re currently on our 5th version of the CD and it keeps growing and improving. The many high resolution images make it a very large download, so if you don’t have a high-speed internet connection, order it for delivery on CD.
Our new edition of the Rackham package includes over 100 illustrations and graphics, plus 8 fonts based on Rackham’s calligraphy and a selection of black and white borders, headers and footers. The complete collection including all the new fonts and art is only $69. To order give us a call at 1-800-797-8973, or visit our online ordering page — ONLINE ORDERING
If you want to try out one of our Rackham fonts, just download the demo version of the Goblins font using the link below. The full version of Goblins is one of the fonts included in the Rackham Fonts & Art collection.
Download the Rackham Goblins font in a zip archive for Windows or Mac OSX.
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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.
