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: Airship
In a slightly different reality where the Hindenberg never crashed, we were contacted by the TransAtlantic Zeppelin Company to develop a new logo font specifically for use on their new line of airships and the advertising campaign for their new schedule of overnight flights from America to Europe.
We met their request with the development of the new Airship font set, which combines a feeling of dynamic movement with the rounded and graceful curves of an elegant queen of the air.
Well, it might have happened that way, anyway…
Airship includes three different character sets. There’s the regular character set, a set with variants of many of the capital letters and an italic style, all included as part of the package.
You can download and try the demo version of Airship in TrueType format for Mac or PC. The full collection of all three Airship fonts is available if you want to BUY IT NOW.
2009: A Year in Fonts
In 2009 we released 20 entirely new fonts (pictured here) plus an assortment of revisions, variations and special fonts. 18 of the 20 fonts were released through the Font Club and two were special releases associated with the Steampunk and Art Deco packages. For those who aren’t in the Font Club and didn’t want to buy all of these fonts individually, all 20 of them are now available in a special collection for only $79, a great value at less than $4 per font. Orders for this package will be shipped or delivered online starting on December 26th.
Classic T-Shirt Designs
As the father of a teenage girl, I’m constantly exposed to the latest trends in fashion. Nothing is more popular these days than the ‘vintage’ look, which basically comes down to fairly simple clothing – especially t-shirts – decorated with graphic arts designs with antique, ethnic and often highly stylized designs. I have to admit that some of these designs are pretty clever – creative yet simple clothing which doesn’t have to be gaudy to be interesting. Many of them even feature our fonts.
So it occured to me that we’ve collected some amazing antique art which would look awfully good on vintage-style clothing, so why not design some fashion items and make them available. The stumbling block for this in the past has always been the need to print large runs of shirts at considerable up-front expense. That’s much less of a consideration today since new technology has made high-quality, full-color, on-demand printing an option. And we’re not talking heat transfers here, but direct pigment imprinting right on the fabric.
To launch our fashion line we’ve come up with four unique designs. The Celtic Loon design is a lovely decorative motif reminiscent of the initials in the Book of Kells, with a knotwork pattern that terminates in what we’ve concluded are probably loon heads. The Kashmiri Garden design is similar to the floral designs frequently found on lacquered boxes from the Indian region of Kashmir. It’s colorful and very striking. The Medieval Mosaic design is particularly striking, based on medieval tiles found in Owen Jones’ Grammar of Ornament. My personal favorite is the Lady of Shalott design which combines 9 images from Howard Pyle’s illustrated edition Tennyson’s classic poem The Lady of Shalott into a montage which tells the story of the poem.
Each of the designs is available on a selection of different style shirts, including several colors of t-shirt and a lovely womens tank top. To order any of the shirts just go to our page at CafePress. The process is easy and they ship quickly and direct to you. To see the designs in more detail, click on any of the images in this article.
If these designs are well received we plan to offer more in the future and we’d welcome any suggestions for improvements or of other designs to produce.
Classic Font: Beaumarchais
Beaumarchais was one of our earlier font designs, part of a series of display and title fonts we released in the early 1990s based on Art Nouveau period designs. It was later used in a publishing venture we were partners in as the primary title font for the card game Quest for the Grail at which time it was revised and improved with an expanded character set. Since then it has become a popular standard for signage and book cover design and for some reason came to be especially associated with books associated with the H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. It has a sister font called Bucephalus which is conceptually similar, but more calligraphic and unrestrained. Beaumarchais is a strong and elegant font, very well suited to title design and use on posters and signs. This new release has some additional tweaks and improvements as well as the expanded character set and other features of the previous revision.
You can try the demo version of Beaumarchais for free, or order the full version online.
On the Shelves
Given the historical and often fanciful character of so many of our fonts I’ve been surprised not to see more of them showing up on the cover of romance novels, especially those with a historical setting. Well, that changed recently with the discovery of our Ardenwood font used very effectively on the cover of the high-end historical romance No Greater Pleasure by Megan Hart, which is part of a series which uses the font extensively. Unlike the last time I saw Ardenwood in use in a Michael Jackson memorial publication, where it was used very poorly, the use on the cover of No Greater Pleasure is done exactly right, using Ardenwood as an initial in combination with a plainer font for the main text. That type of use showcases the decorative aspects of Ardenwood while not overwhelming the reader. It’s eyecatching rather than bewildering, which is just how it should be.
Another font which showed up on the bookstore shelves recently is Scurlock featured on the cover of a short story collection called Lovecraft Unbound, edited by Ellen Datlow. It’s a good use of the font, which has a bit of an eldritch character to it, and the book includes an excellent selection of Lovecraftian short stories by some outstanding contemporary fantasy and horror writers incliding Caitlin Kiernan, Michael Shea and Brian Evenson.
Scurlock is actually an unusual choice for a Lovecraft book. A much more common choice for use in Cthulhian publications is our very early font Beaumarchais, which has been associated with Lovecraftian publications since it was released in the early 1990s. It is currently featured on the cover of the rather amusing horror novel The Mall of Cthulhu by Seamus Cooper. It’s not a towering work of Lovecraftian literature, but it’s an amusing first novel from a promising writer who seems comfortable poking fun at the genre. The Mall of Cthulhu could be a good set-up for a series, so keep an eye out for more from Seamus Cooper.
New Font: Borealis
Borealis is based on samples of advertising lettering from the 1930s with a strong Art Deco influence but a unique almost futuristic look. The characters are formed from very fine hand-drawn lines reminiscent of our Ducatus and Broadley fonts. Drawing a font like this with such regular lines and curves is extremely challenging and demands a great deal more attention than traditional fonts where broader strokes and heavier weights give some room for variation. With lines this thin and precise everything has to be perfect from the width of the lines to the balance of the curves. The end result is a stylish and distinctive font with a look that’s great for logos or custom title designs.
You can download and try the demo version of Borealis in TrueType format for Mac or PC. The full version of the font is available if you want to BUY IT NOW.
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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.
