Fonts in Focus, June 2005

Atlantis™ by swedish designer Lutz Baar is classified as a European sans serif. In comparison to its American cousins, which display the heavier influence of an antiqua, the European version usually have strictly constructed forms. Those of Atlantis are based on the geometric forms of the circle, square and rectangle. The a is rather stout and the g has an open descender, another characteristic of the European sans serifs. Atlantis has almost no variation in stroke width and the strokes are so optically balanced that the eye sees them as identical. Only portions of a few strokes display a slight reduction in weight. The cool, clear Atlantis is a good choice for both body text and headlines.

Cabaret™ was designed by Alan Meeks, a light-hearted, fun font. From the shapes of the letters to the shading within the outline forms, Cabaret displays a variety of details making it unique and appealing.

Fine Hand™ font is the work of British designer Richard Bradley and is based on his handwriting. Its capitals are designed for initialing purposes only. The elegant Fine Hand font includes many alternative letters which help give it the spontaneity of true handwriting.

Linotype Gneisenauette™ is part of the TakeType Library, selected from the contestants of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. The handwriting font was designed by Latvian artist Gustavs A. Grinbergs and is available in eight weights. Linotype Gneisenauette is a dynamic font which also reflects a bit of the optimistic spirit of the 1950s. The font is best used for headlines or middle length texts with a point size 12 or larger.

Take a look at our Linotype Gneisenauette usage sample

The display font Linotype Gotharda™ started as an experiment of the Croatian-German designer Milo Dominik Ivir. He wanted to design a font with characteristics of both sans serif and Gothic faces. From the Gothic he took the heavy strokes, the narrow letters, the exaggerated overmatter and the high x-height. The modern standard forms of the letters s, a, x and z, the clear capitals and the lack of serifs are the characteristics taken from sans serif faces. The result is a font with a constructed, old German feel. Linotype Gotharda, a font of the TakeType Library, is intended exclusivley for headlines in large point sizes.

Ronald Trogram designed the Handel Gothic type family in 1980. Substituting curves for parts of letters that are normally straight, he created this family of sans serif typefaces. This new roundness, which is most often found on the on the left-hand side of the Handel Gothic’s letterforms, gives the face a futuristic, space age feel. Handel Gothic is available in light, medium, and bold weights.

ITC Johann Sparkling™ is the work of Austrian designer Viktor Solt, a perfect imitation of the handwriting of an educated person of the 18th century. "ITC Johann Sparkling is intended to close the gap between highly formal copperplate scripts and the scribbled look of ’true’ handwriting," says Solt. "I am not much interested in highly formal and perfect calligraphy, but in quick, personal-looking scripts. Usually I start with some historica samples. I do not try to copy these sources, but to incorporate them into my own handwriting. It takes up to two weeks and many sheet so paper until the respective script becomes my own. Of course, this would not be an economic approach to individual lettering jobs, but I can conserve the custom script for future use by digitizing it." ITC Johann Sparkling should be used in fairly large point sizes and its capitals only as initials.

Take a look at our ITC Johann Sparkling usage sample

Moscow-based designer Julia Borisovna Balasheva created her Lubok™ face as a pictogram-based font. The term lubok refers to a popular style of Russian folk art printing, which dates back to the 18th Century. In Lubok, Bakasheva has digitised several whimsical characters and animals, which were common in these prints. She suggests that you use Lubok’s symbols to illustrate fairy tales; we suggest that you use Lubok to decorate everything: from your next office party invitation to comic books of your own design!
Lubok was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 2003 International Type Design Contest , sponsored by Linotype GmbH.

Linotype Nautilus™ was designed in 1999 by German designer Hellmut G. Bomm. "Nautilus is based on a handwritten type used for the text "Li. Das Helle, Klare" from the I Ging“ says Bomm. „ The intention was to create a clear, highly legible typeface. While the even strokes of sans serif types eventually tire the eyes in long texts, the marked stroke contrast of Nautilus lends the type its legibility. The characters were drawn with a broad tipped pen, and like an antiqua type, the forms of Nautilus display a variety of elements. The narrow figures with relatively large spaces between them create an overall open appearance and allow a large quantity of text to fit into a small space.
The headstrong forms of Nautilus make this an excellent display type. The italic weights are independent typefaces with hints of a handwritten character."

Take a look at our Linotype Nautilus usage sample

Lutz Baar created Linotype Nordica™, which is part of the Take Type Library, in 1997. The two all-caps fonts that make up the Linotype Nordica family are a refreshingly expressive approach to headline face design. Each font includes two versions of each letter within it. These narrow creations appear as if they had been carved into wood, or cut out of thick, dark paper. All of Linotype Nordica’s curves are made up of several straight lines: it is their quality that lends the type its unique appearance.

ITC Riptide™ is a work of British designer Timothy Donaldson. Abrupt changes in stroke, pointed stroke ends and changing slant direction characterize this very experimental alphabet. The temperamental figures are irrepressible and aggressive, the forms seem to have been chosen randomly, and these traits lend the font its informality and spontaneity. ITC Riptide is legible in point sizes of 14 and its fresh character is perfect for comics and cartoons.

The Linotype Scriptuale™, designed by Renate Weise in 2003, has a lively appearance and is dignified as well. Its italic and roman faces complement on another perfectly, for designing documents for example.
The combination with sans-serif styles strengthens the character of the Scriptuale.
The roman styled cuts of the Scriptuale can be combined with different italic style types, and on the other hand the Scriptuale italic can be combined with different roman style types.
The Linotype Scriptuale is suitable for all fields of design leaflets, labels, posters, booktitles, advertising of headlines in magazines for example. It opens up many possibilities for the designer, provided the text content and type expression are in harmony.

Take a look at our Linotype Scriptuale usage sample

The fun font Linotype Supatropic™ from German designer Isabell Laxa is part of the Take Type Library, chosen from the entries of the Linotype-sponsored International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. Linotype Supatropic is generously decorated with delicate flower silhouettes which are reminiscent of Asian flower chains and subtropical flora. The font is meant exclusively for headlines in point sizes of 18 or larger.

Take a look at our Linotype Supatropic usage sample

Mark Stanczyk designed Linotype Typo American™ in 1999. The font, which is part of the Take Type Library, is an excellent revival of American style typewriter type. As most of us can remember from our childhood years, or through old stories and movies, everyone used to type with typewriters before the invention of computers. Unlike computers, most individual typewriters only had one typestyle, or font, to chose from. To make matters worse, the letters in a typewriter font would wear down with use. Over time, text typed out on a typewriter would look more and more corroded, old, and uneven. Stanczyk has captured exactly these features in this "revival" font!
Also like most older typewriter styles, Linotype Typo American’s letters are all mono-spaced, i.e., the letter i is the same width as the letter w. Typewriter letters also all tended to be cast in the same size - around 12 points or so. When using typewriter-style fonts, it is best to keep setting your text in similar sizes (of course, you can set really large and fun headlines with Linotype Typo American, too; if anything the unevenness of the design will come even more across in these applications).

Linotype Zootype™ was designed in 1997 by Victor Garcia of Argentina and as a winner of our Second International Type Design Contest is included in our TakeType Library. In the words of the designer, the design concept is meant to display the ’funny, happy joy of animal nature.’ Animal heads peek into the block forms of the letters, giving the font a unique whimsical character.