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: Letterpress Gothic
With all the coverage we did of the Hatch Show Print exhibit it seemed only appropriate to develop a font which embodied that design look. The result is our new Letterpress Gothic font which embodies one of the quirks of letterpress printing, the occasional combination of characters which are very similar, but don’t quite match. To do this we took characters from a number of different letterpress gothic style fonts, distressed them to give them the look of being printed from old blocks, and combined them together to form two complete alphabets, along with some special characters, particularly filled-in Em and En spaces for crude line balancing. The end result is surprisingly effectrive, with a lot of character and a good representation of the feel of primitive printed posters. It’s actually aimed somewhat below the sophistication of a lot of the fancy letterpress work Hatch produces, but it’s an excellent example of what you might have found on an early 20th century playbill or show poster from a smaller press.
You can download and try the demo version of Letterpress Gothic in TrueType format for Mac or PC. It includes a mix of characters from the different variants of the font. You can also order the full version online for immediate download: BUY IT NOW.
Rediscovering the Art of the Book Cover
In my endless perambulation of the web I stumble upon all sorts of sources of design inspiration, some of them intentional expressions of design ideas and others more accidental and serendipitous. One example in the latter category is Cover Browser, a site which features nothing but images of the covers of books, comic books, and magazines. I have no idea why these covers were collected together and scanned and preserved, but it’s an extraordinary resource, and I plan to make full use of it.
The collection includes some of my favorites from when I was a kid and comic books were a rare and precious commodity and a source of an instant education in art and design, like Creepy, Hand of Fate, and House of Secrets, but what really caught my eye from a design perspective was the huge collection of covers from 1950s and 1960s pulp novels from Gold Medal Books who published writers like John D. MacDonald, Louis L’Amour, Richard Matheson, and Sax Rohmer, offering hours of escapism for 35 cents a book. The covers are lurid and suggestive and feature title designs which scream and bleed and express the nature and content of the books extremely well. They’re also very “period” — the same styles you find on movie or TV titles and record album covers from the ’60s, evoking the paranoia and unsettled character of the post-nuclear era.
When compared with pulp novels of the ’30s and ’40s the thing which really sets them apart is the title lettering. In the earlier pulp era title lettering was simple and functional and often printed on a single-color band in a very passive block type. By the ’50s that had started to change and custom lettering was coming into use, integrated with the cover art and an unique and important part of the overall look of the book designed to catch the eye of the unwary reader and draw them in to the world of scantily clad fallen women and iron-fisted heroes found in the purple prose on the pulp-paper pages. The books include a lot of detective fiction, suspense, westerns and some science fiction, some of it associated with very popular franchises. In some cases the title designs became so associated with the writer or subject matter of the books that you would see the same design repeated in movie titles when a particularly popular book was filmed, as happened with the Matt Helm novels and with some of John D. MacDonald’s books.
It’s rich material for a font designer looking for ideas. I’m already working on a font based on the most common title style from John D. MacDonald’s books and also one on the titles from an action/mystery novel called Drive East on Route 66 which features intriguing nesting characters — hard to duplicate, but worth the effort. It’s also a great resource if you want to see some really outstanding illustration from the period. Some of the book covers are very good, but it’s the work of artists like Frazetta and Wrightson which really stands out on the covers of Creepy. They made me want to go rooting through the garage to find my old copies and reread them. There are also some surprising book finds. I was totally unaware that the legendary Harlan Ellison had written a pulp novel about the rock and roll business called Rockabilly, but now that I’ve seen the cover I’m headed to BookFinder.com to buy a copy for my collection.
Rich with visual inspiration and nostalgia, Cover Browser is an outstanding online resource.
Roman Inscriptory Fonts
Exploring his favorite historical period, Michael Scarpitti has developed a special collection of fonts based on Roman inscriptory lettering and calligraphy. You may have already seen a few of his fonts on our featured fonts page. While more Roman fonts are planned for the future, with the latest releases we now have enough fonts to release them as a package at a special price.
What we think of as Roman Capitals (the type found on the Trajan column) are really rather rare. Much more common was the Rustica, a less formal, rather free flowing sort of letter that was easier to write. Sometimes inscriptions would include both styles. Vespasiano features both types of lettering. It comes from an inscription dated May 24, AD 70. It was found intact in 1914 at Rome, in the Viale Trastevere, at a construction site, and bears the name of the emperor Vespasian who ruled from AD 69 to 79.
De Bellis is based on the sole surviving fragment of a lost Latin work, de Bellis Macedonicis, and is the first of Michael Scarpitti ancient Roman fonts to come from a parchment. The sample it is based on is the only surviving example of Roman Literary Cursive, which has elements of both rustica and uncial lettering. The date is uncertain, but probably 2nd-4th centuries AD. The original sample was written with a reed pen held at about a 35 degree angle.
Michael’s Roman fonts are based on historical sources from different eras of the Roman Empire and are extraordinarily accurate to the details of the different lettering styles which they represent. These are not modernized abstractions of popular styles like Rustica and Roman Uncial, but grittier, more interesting designs derived directly from ancient manuscripts and inscriptions. This is Roman lettering as it was actually done, not a contemporary designer’s reinterpretation.
Corbei Uncial is a calligraphic font based on lettering in the 5th century Latin gospel manuscript known as the Codex Corbiensis. It features some of the characteristics of more familiar uncial forms of the early middle ages, but also retains elements of earlier Latin lettering styles. One interesting feature is the broken nature of many of the letter forms, which are composed of multiple distinct, separate pen strokes.
Praitor is based on a devotional inscription to the goddess Diana found a short distance from Rome in 1887. It is an early style from before 100 BC and has some characteristics of Etruscan lettering. It’s a rough, strong font which works very well for distinctive titles.
Pomponianus is based on lettering from Roman inscriptions. Pomponianus comes from a 4th century inscription found in North Africa. It is an attractive example of early uncial lettering. Uncial inscriptions are quite uncommon, because although the style was well suited for writing on vellum, the curved letters made it more difficult to carve in stone.
Roman lettering styles have a unique and ageless look which still appeals to the modern eye. The complete collection of Michael’s 8 Roman fonts is available for only $59. It can be delivered by mail or immediate download with an online purchase To order online just CLICK HERE to order online.
You can get a feel for these fonts by trying out the demo version of Falconis in zip archive format and usable on Windows or Mac OSX.
Classic Font: Linthicum
Since I first designed it for a book cover project back in In 2003, Linthicum has been one of my favorite original font designs. Its combination of clear character forms with unusual stylized elements is visually striking and it has an antique look which I find enormously appealing.
This is a new, somewhat revised version of Linthicum, which includes not only the full upper case and small caps character sets, but also an additional set of lowercase characters to make the font more versatile. The new lowercase character set has some clever quirks to make it fit really well with the stylish uppercase set.
You can try the demo version of Linthicum for free, or order the full set with both the original small caps and the lowercase online for immediate download.
The Hatch Show Print Exhibit
At the risk of overpromoting something which I’ve already given some attention to, I did get a chance to go to the last day of the Hatch Show Print exhibit at the Austin Museum of Art last weekend. Although it was certainly not the largest poster exhibit I’ve been to, for the specialized subject which it covered it really did exceed my expectations and the preview I published here earlier. I’ve also found more useful resources, including a video about the show (below) and the main page for the show at the Smithsonian which is the main sponsor. Their site also has the schedule for the show, which is going to make its next appearance at the Boston University Art Museum in November. Apparently the schedule is open between now and then, which I find surprising, because it’s an excellent show for a small museum or even a large library to host.
The show was had much to offer which I hadn’t expected. It included not only an excellent variety of posters spanning more than 100 years of history, starting with a poster for a speech by Lyman Beecher in the 1870s and ending with a section of posters for contemporary bands. The posters were accompanied by sample print blocks, including some of extraordinary size and some which had clearly seen a lot of use. There was also an interactive section for kids to try out some basic block printing techniques.
What really stood out to me among the many posters were some of the state fair posters and posters from shows at the Grand Ole Opry which demonstrated the creative combination of set type and wood block art to great effectiveness. From a historical perspective I was also intrigued by the several movie posters included in the show, particularly the two-tone poster for Island of Lost Souls, because they were made for movies from the 1940s and 1950s which certainly had regular four-color posters available, but for which Hatch was commissioned to make simpler letterpress posters, presumably to cater to the southern market. From a historical perspective the most surprising thing was a beautifully preserved poster from the 1920s advertising the “Rabbit Foot Minstrels” with a fantastic illustration of dancers in minstrel garb and black-face. That’s the kind of historical artifact which really grabs the imagination, and which (not surprisingly) I couldn’t find on the show website.
If you have an interest in printing and graphic arts, this is a show you really shouldn’t miss, though opportunities to see it may be rather limited. Go to your local museum curator and tell him or her to call the Smithsonian and book the show. You won’t be disappointed.
If the show doesn’t end up coming to your town, Hatch sells their classic posters online through their very impressive website. Or if you want to make an oldstyle letterpress poster on your own, we can at least help you with the right fonts. We have a lot of fonts in that same letterpress tradition, particularly in our Wild West and Colonial Fonts collections.
New Font: Bergling
Bergling came in second in our poll to pick our next new font, only a few votes behind the winner. So it seemed like a good candidate for our next new font. Unfortunately, like Ormandine it is also a complex font with outlined characters, one of the most challenging kinds of designs to render as vector outlines and make into a font. Outline font designs demand great attention to detail and exact proportions. Though the work is time consuming and frustrating the results can be worth it.
Bergling is a floriate script with the look of overlapping vines. It makes excellent decorative initials or titles. It originates with hand lettered samples by noted paleographer J. M. Bergling and has a look which is reminiscent of engraved brass lettering of the 17th century, though Bergling assigns the style a later origin. Nonetheless, the look is interesting and it was worth the extra time it took to develop. Bergling includes both the outline and a solid version of the font.
You can download and try the demo version of Bergling in TrueType format for Mac or PC. It includes a mix of characters from the different variants of the font. You can also order the full version online for immediate download: BUY IT NOW.
Hatch Show Print Exhibit in Austin
Austin Museum of Art for a month to see the Hatch Show Print exhibit. It’s a collection of historical posters from one of the most famous poster printers in the world. Hatch has been producing show posters since the 19th century and is still printing using traditional letterpress and hand-cut woodblock art. Their posters are iconic in the history of country, blues and rock music and have inspired generations of designers. I haven’t made it down there yet, but Sunday is the last day and I’m going to drag the family down with me one way or another. It’s a touring show and while they haven’t got other tour dates up on their site yet, keep an eye out for it coming to a museum near you.
If you can’t get to the show, Hatch sells their classic posters online through their very impressive website. Or if you want to make an oldstyle letterpress poster on your own, we can at least help you with the right fonts. We have a lot of fonts in that same letterpress tradition, particularly in our Wild West and Colonial Fonts collections.
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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.
