Fonts in Focus, March 2006

Bandalero™ is a witty display font from British designer Richard Yeend. The letterforms in this poster/display typeface are quite square-ish and geometric. The lowercase letters have short x-heights, and the uppercase letters look dressed for a showdown, with bandoleer-like elements strapped across their tops. Because of this, Bandalero should only be used in large sizes, where it can really stare down its opponent, or reader. This might be the best font yet for a keep out sign!
Bandalero was designed in 2003, and is part of the Take Type 5 collection.

Castle is a family of humanist sans serif typefaces, designed by Steve Jackaman in 1975. This family, which includes faces in light, book, bold, and ultra weights, more stroke contrast than is typical of sans serifs, making it very legible in text. Because of its large x-height, it is recommended for used in point sizing ranging from 12 point upward. Of course, it functions well in display sizes, too. The contrast between the four weights makes this family optimal for use in hierarchical advertising systems, and corporate identity uses.

The American designer Paul Veres designed the Caterina family in 1999. Caterina, which has six different styles, is a calligraphic sans serif face. While he was producing the film The Legend of Suriyothai, director Francis Ford Coppola personally selected Caterina for use in some of the films subtitles-in this case, they functioned like chapter titles in a book, or silent movie captions. Aside from Hollywood films, Caterina can be used for a wide variety of applications, including wedding invitations, greeting cards, and advertising purposes.

ITC Cherie™ is the work of calligrapher and designer Teri Kahan, who is self-admittedly "most partial to scripts and elements created with the brush". The design is based on a logo she developed with a "sophisticated, feminie look" and the result is a condensed display typeface whose forms consist of sharply tapering strokes. Cherie is an all caps typeface with two different sets of capitals. The difference between the two lies mostly in the height of the cross strokes, high in the first alphabet, low in the second, although they also display other form variations. ITC Cherie thus provides the opportunity for subtle changes in a line of text.
ITC Cherie is part of the Linotype ITC Library.

Quartan™ is an industrial, unicase sans serif family, with three weights. The Austrian designer Maria Martina Schmitt developed this series of typefaces for designers to use when setting chunks of text en masse. Being a unicase design, Quartan’s letterforms have no ascenders or descenders; lines of text may be stacked virtually on top of one other. This offers a multitude of possibilities for headline, logo, or corporate identity design.

Eirinn™ was designed by Norbert Reiners for Linotype in 1994. Its forms are based on those of Irish scripts of the 7th and 8th centuries, an example of which can be found in the Book of Kells in Dublin. Characteristic of this style are for example the lower case f with its short cross stroke on the base line and long cross stroke above, the unusual form of the g, and the t, whose form is almost like that of a c. This style consisted of a mixture of lower case and capital letters at the time of its conception, but Eirinn has a full set of both lower case and capital alphabets. At first glance the viewer is reminded of ancient and indecipherable writings of the Celts before the forms of our contemporary letters and words become evident. Eirinn will lend a touch of mysticism and secrecy to any text.

Franciszek Otto of Poland designed Linotype Notec™ in 1999.Hollyweird™ is an original, funky work of California designer Jill Bell, a bold display script with intentionally shaky strokes and tightly curled flourishes. The capitals are ideal as initials and the lowercase is best used tightly set. Hollyweird is a good choice for any work requiring a casual chic appearance.
Hollyweird is part of the Linotype ITC Library.

Jan™ Regular combines an experimental, bold, mono-weight geometric sans serif with the Arabic writing system’s means of joining letters. Adding in script-like letter connections, a feature that is found in both western cursive and Arabic type, as well as distinctly Arabic-like accents above and below certain letters, Michael Parsons has created a cross cultural typographic statement. Jan Regular is best used for headlines, and small strings of text, in sizes large enough to view and appreciate the unique counter forms within the letters. This font is one of 10 creations from the young Swiss designer Michael Parson included in the Take Type 5 collection, from Linotype.

Franciszek Otto of Poland designed Linotype Notec™ in 1999. Linotype Notec is a "low-tech" (or even "no tech!") typeface. By embracing handwriting’s spontaneity, it has gotten as far away from technology as it can.
Classified as an "inky"-style script face, for lack of a better term, Linotype Notec’s informal design seems immediately artful and full of expression. Its irregularity and unexpectedness enlivens any composition, similar to how jazz or modern dance animate a room. Quite full of "ink," Linotype Notec’s "strokes" are written in a sort of short-note-handwriting-style, which a slow-writing, thoughtful humanist might theoretically scribble to himself late at night. Yet Linotype Notec’s character still maintains a jolt of energy; try Linotype Notec in small applications, in any size from 12-point on up.
The Linotype Notec is part of the Take Type Collection.

A self made bamboo or reed stick nicely cut down to a broad edged nib must have been the tool with which the designer Andrew Weed wrote his letters for the typeface Pine™. Its irregular outline is the result of the flowing of the ink. Ideal for a headline or a poster which reflects the personal touch of the tool.
The Linotype Pine™ is part of the Take Type Collection.

Pump™from designer Philipp Kelly is a simple, geometric sans serif typeface in the Bauhaus style. It should be set closely for maximum effect. The simplicity of its geometric forms give Pump a timeless quality which makes it ideal for a variety of applications.
The Pump™ Font Family is part of the Linotype ITC Library.

Linotype Sjablony™ is part of the TakeType Library, chosen from the entries of the Linotype-sponsored International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. Designed by Dutch artist Mark van Wageningen, the typeface with its interrupted strokes has the characteristics of the stencils seen on crates and barrels. The difference lies in the raw contours of this font, which make the characters look as though they were slowly eroded away by water and wind. Linotype Sjablony is composed exclusively of heavy capital letters and is particular suitable for initials and headlines with point sizes of 18 and larger.

Telegram™ is the work of British designer Timothy Donaldson, a casual style influenced by the ball and rod, or atomic, imagery popular during the 1950s. Donaldson called the typeface Telegram because it reminds him of dots and dashes. Telegram is a play alphabet which communicates an almost childlike innocence and is ideal for work directed at younger people.
Telegram is part of the Linotype ITC Library.

Varius™ from designer André Maaßen has three separate styles. Varius 1 and its italic are the base style of the family, and are typefaces in the baroque serif manner. Varius 2 and its italic are slab serif egyptiennes, slightly heavier than Varius 1’s more classical forms. Varius 3 and its italic are semi serif faces; their characters are serifed, but some of the serifs have been cut off. The family is rounded out with two pi faces: an ornaments font (which can be used in conjunction with the text fonts, or on its own to create beautiful borders or individual decorative elements), and a font of musical symbols and notations. Each of the six text fonts has dozens of supplemental ligatures included in their character sets. When these fonts are used in an OpenType-supporting application, such as Adobe InDesign, these ligatures automatically appear in text when the "Discretionary Ligatures" feature is activated. Additionally, the character sets include added alternate glyphs, such as a swash "m" or "n" to finish off a line of text. These can be inserted manually in applications that include glyph palettes (e.g., Adobe InDesign or Illustrator CS).