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
J. M. Bergling Art Nouveau Fonts
Over the last few years we’ve developed a number of fonts based on the hand lettering of early 20th century calligrapher J. M. Bergling. A lot of his work fits into the Art Nouveau category and of the notable calligraphers of the period his work particularly stands out as influential in the development of Art Nouveau derived poster lettering of the psychedelic era of the 1960s.
When you look at Bergling’s designs it is impossible not to see that they are the direct antecedents of some of the most famous styles of the lettering on show posters from clubs like the Fillmore. Some of the fonts in our Psychedelic Fonts package show their influence like Hendrix and Pantagruel.
As we developed more fonts based on Bergling’s lettering it seemed inevitable that we should put together a package focusing just on his fonts, and the obvious first choice was his most typically art nouveau style designs. We had already released Belgravia and Boetia in 2008, and Belgravia was one of our featured fonts for the Font Club. That wasn’t enough fonts, so we moved two more up in our production schedule and in the last month they were completed and thus came the release of Beaumains and Bosphoros – we thought we’d stick with names starting with “B” for the series since Bergling starts with it.
So we gathered the four fonts together into a mini-collection and it’s now released and available so you can get the set at more than half off the price of buying the fonts individually. The package is only $39 and can be bought in our ONLINE STORE.
New Font: Bosphoros
| We don’t normally like to follow the same theme too much with our new font releases, but because we wanted to put together a special package of fonts by J. M. Bergling we’re following the release of Beaumains with Bosphoros, another font based on Bergling’s series of art nouveau themed lettering styles. Bosphoros fits the same general style but has a unique form and a lot of alternate characters. Of our various Bergling fonts it is one of the ones which is closest to the style of the psychedelic poster lettering which Bergling’s designs influenced and which you can find many eamples of in our Psychedelic Fonts collection.
You can try the DEMO version of Bosphoros for free by registering. Or you can ORDER the full version for only $24 online and download it right away. |
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Psychedelic Font Collection
The 1960s was a time when creativity flourished, in music, in literature and in the visual arts. This creativity found its outlet mostly in the counter culture, and one big aspect of that was in poster design for concerts at the great nightclubs of that era like the Fillmore.
Rock posters of the 60s have a particular, identifiable look to them – united by the wild and freeflowing design ethos, even if many different artists did the actual designs. The lettering on these posters has made more of a mark on the popular imagination than any other relatively recent lettering style, to the point where people have a particular vision in their minds of what looks like the 60s or the Psychedelic era.
Poster lettering in the 60s was heavily influenced by the Art Nouveau movement of the late 19th century, but the most imaginative poster designers took those basic ideas of full, somewhat fabulous lettering to an entirely new level. While you can see the influence of Mucha and other Art Nouveau poster artists in the work of designers like Wes Wilson and David Singer, there’s something more in their poster designs – what might be called the ‘free spirit’ of the 60s.
By the 1970s the free form hand lettering of classic 60s posters began to give way to some standardized fonts and a lot of this unique character was lost in the drab pragmatism of the disco era and then the ransom note xeroxes of the punk movement.
We’ve been working on fonts which capture the spirit of the Psychedelic era for several years and have finally reached the point where we have a large enough collection to be truly representative of the period. This collection includes fonts based on specific samples from classic posters and fonts based on general styles which were popular in the 60s and used by many artists.
Some of these fonts have been previously released as single fonts, but the collection also includes 5 fonts specifically designed for this collection, 3 of which are entirely new releases, plus variant versions of several of the fonts like the custom outlines of Hendrix and Bad Acid.
Pantagruel is the linchpin of the collection. It is the quintessential bridge between Art Nouveau and 60s era design. It is based on an Art Nouveau style which was enormously influential in the 60s and often duplicated directly by 60s artists like Greg Irons and Randy Tuten.
Harbinger and Sprite are also examples of styles commonly used by many poster artists of the period who drew on Art Nouveau designs for inspiration. Earthpig and Bad Acid are based on original poster lettering characteristic of the outrageously spurred and flourished designs favored by many artists of the 60s. They are core designs just begging for augmentation with rays, overlaps and extrusion.
Butterfield is classic block lettering characteristic of the world of designers like Wes Wilson. Quicksilver and Illuminata were developed from small samples of unique lettering and are most influenced by the designs of David Singer. Taken as a whole these fonts make an excellent representative sampling of the lettering of the 60s.
One of the characteristics of poster design in the Psychedelic era is that the lettering was often manipulated and distorted from its base forms. Fonts by their nature work most practically when they have a simple, horizontal base and characters have regular size and positioning. To achieve the full psychedelic effect you may need to take the base fonts and modify the pure letter forms, as we have done in the header for this page. Photoshop offers some excellent tools for doing this. We’ve found that the wave filter and the distort and perspective tools work particularly well to produce bent and disproportional type.
We’ve just released a new version of the Psychedelic Fonts package with three new fonts. The package includes all of the fonts in a single package for Windows or Macintosh, including both TrueType and Postscript fonts. The total price is only $59 for all the fonts. You can order the package online for immediate download or delivery by mail. Just – CLICK HERE TO ORDER.
Beehive Collective
So I’m on vacation with the kids and we happened to stop in to Finelli’s Pizza in Ellsworth, Maine. On the wall in Finelli’s is a mural-style poster of a banner opposing the Free Trade Area of the Ameircas from Beehive Collective, which reminded me that I had intended to give them a plug after seeing their work displayed at The Common Ground Country Fair (AKA Unity Fair) last fall in Unity, Maine. So that’s the context, and here’s the plug.
I don’t agree with 90% of the political ideas espoused by the folks involved in Beehive Collective, but I do admire the work which they do. They are a printing and design collective – a business model which I think has a lot of potential and is underused here in the US – and they do work which is unique and fascinating even if I find some of the political content naive and unappealing. They specialize in printing large posters and banners – and I mean really large. The minimum size printing job they will normally take on is 20 square feet. They also tour the country selling posters and banners and reproduction prints of their works at fairs and art shows, mostly in the northeast and midwest.
What’s particularly interesting about their work is the peculiar design style which they’ve developed in these murals, which are crowded with messages and images which are striking and even disturbing. They’re kind of a combination of Where’s Waldo and the work of Heironymous Bosch, telling a story with multiple little vignettes and images mixed in together in a gigantic maze of information and political statements and allegory and just pure bizarreness. The style of their work owes something to the underground comics of the 60s and also to editorial cartoons of the 19th and early 20th centuries, plus a sold dose of pure paranoid mania. It’s also interesting that they work only in black and white. They are what they call “narrative posters” and every one tells a story, but they are so complicated that it helps to have a guide to explain them, and they do have several pages on their website where they break down the content of the poster and explain the included elements. See this example from their Plan Colombia column-style banner. Or check out the more traditional shaped banner for their Free Trade Area of the Ameircas campaign which they also explain in detail.
They use a lot of interesting hand lettering in their posters and tend towards certain styles which you can also find preserved in our font designs. They seem to like Art Nouveau styles, or maybe they’re just influenced by 1960s concert posters which were heavily influenced by Art Nouveau. You’ll find fonts similar to those they use in our Art Nouveau and Psychedelic Fonts collections. They particularly favor the more topheavy Art Nouveau styles like our Fnchley, Gehenna and Estoril fonts. We may have more fonts along similar lines in a forthcoming collection of fonts which sort of bridge the gap between Art Nouveau and psychedelic styles.
Featured Font: Mephisto
| Mephisto is one of our more popular classic fonts. It was designed in the mid-90s and has gone through a couple of updates, but it was past due for being revisited and thoroughly revised. This new version includes more unique arcane alternate characters and improved outlines and tweaked proportions on some of the characters. It’s cleaner and better looking than earlier versions.
Mephisto is a very striking bold font with spiked ascenders and descenders and an overall look which is somewhat ominous. It has been popular for use in fantasy and horror publications and designs and inevitably in association with heavy metal bands and album designs. In addition to the basic character set it includes mystical special characters like the triskelion and eight-armed star of chaos. Mephisto is featured in our Horror Fonts and Art collection. You can try the DEMO version of |
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Olive Allen’s Tanglewood Tales Illustrated
Our ongoing acquisition of cool little illustrated books has included a lot of small chapbooks of illustrated stories from various sources. We’ve featured some by Katherine Cameron and other artists of the early 20th century before as mini-packages or as inclusions in samplers. We’ve just processed and are making available a new set based on Olive Allen’s illustrations for an abridged edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tanglewood Tales which features four of the most popular of the original stories, selected primarily for girls, including the stories of Europa, Persephone and Pandora.
The illustrations are done in a very attractive watercolor style with vivid colors and a soft, idealized look. The set includes seven original illustrations (two each from Pandora and Persephone) and a uniquely decorated front cover design with lettering in a style very similar to our Reynard font.
Olive Allen (Biller) was a little known, but very talented English/Canadian artist whose work has been archived in the special exhibits section at the rare books collection of the <a href=”http://www.library.ubc.ca/spcoll/displays/OliveAllenBiller/home.htm”>University of British Columbia</a> as the result of a family bequest. These illustrations are from her early career before she transitioned from illustration to mainly doing traditional watercolor paintings.
The mini-collection includes high resolution versions of all of the illustrations, plus a PDF ebook of the illustration set. You can buy it and download it for the nominal price of just $5 from our ONLINE STORE
The Art of Eleanor Brickdale
Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale was one of the great illustrators of the later Victorian era, even though she is not as well known as some of her male contemporaries. She was strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites like Waterhouse and Millais, and studied with Lord Leighton. Her work also shows the influence of the Art Nouveau period and even the Impressionists, but it remains unique in its combination of modern and classical elements and its extraordinary technical excellence.
Brickdale’s illustrations have many portrait-like qualities, and while they have some similarity in the formal poses and rich color to the work of Sir William Russell Flint, her subjects personalities shine through in a way which Flint’s work never achieved. She also gave many of her images a faux-medieval look with elaborate stylized backgrounds and even painted text frames and decorations. She was particularly adept with images of winged angels and spirits which appear in many of her works.
This new, expanded version of our Brickdale collection draws on all of her major works and includes illustrations for Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, Browning’s Dramatis Personae, Palgrave’s Golden Treasury and a number of other works. Her interpretations of these classic poems of the Victorian and Romantic eras bring to life characters like Sir Lancelot and the Pied Piper in a style which is unique and entrancing. Her work is particularly characterized by the brilliant, lively colors, realistic faces and depictions of angelic figures amid everyday life.
Our Eleanore Brickdale package is available for only $59 and includes a over 100 full-color illustrations in high resolution suitable for use in print, as well as bonus content, including a large selection of black and white borders, marginalia and decorations. As with all of our art packages the images are licensed for you to use in your designs and projects. If you have the older release of the package you can upgrade to the current version for just $25.
The easiest way to get this package is to order it online. To order online, just CLICK HERE . It’s also easy to order with our toll-free number at 1-800-797-8973.
If you like the Eleanor Brickdale colleciton, you might also like the art of the Pre-Raphaelites and Sir William Russell Flint, who come from the same time period and are similar in style. Just click here to check out the FLINT page or take a look at PRE-RAPHAELITE page instead.
New Font: Beaumains
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We’ve done a number of fonts based on lettering by vintage calligrapher and design historian J. M. Bergling, including several with an Art Nouveau flavor like Boetia and Belgravia. Our newest font is in that same tradition, but it is an unusual simplified alternative to traditional Art Nouveau lettering styles. It’s also set apart by having both a full upper and lowercase character set, while most Art Nouveau lettering only has an uppercase character set. The relative simplicity of the characters and the full set of characters makes it much more versatile and suitable for uses which more decorative fonts don’t adapt to well. It could even be used for text in select situations. The name of the font comes from Arthurian legend.
You can try the DEMO version of Beaumains for free by registering. Or you can ORDER the full version for only $24 online and download it right away. |
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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.
