Fonts in Focus, January 2007

Linotype Albawing™, designed by Hans-Jürgen Ellenberger, is the text type that is derived from the original idea for Linotype Albatross™. The sketches were done with Fontographer 3.5 using the simplified outlines of Linotype Albatross. Linotype Albawing is an agile, lively and elegant font and well-suited for headlines, posters and advertisements.

Take a look at our Albawing usage sample

ITC Anna™ is a literal labor of love, created by Daniel Pelavin. He first designed this font for use on his wedding invitation, and it was later reused on the birth announcement of his first child, Anna, after whom the font itself is now named. ITC Anna’s simple geometric forms and proportions create a unique appearance appropriate for any special occasion.

ITC Blaze™ was designed by Patty King in 1995. It is a typeface which looks as though it were written by hand with a broad tipped pen on rough paper. The pointed ends of the characters and the leaning to the right give the font a dynamic, energetic feel. Blaze shows the influence of the late 1940s and is best suited for headlines and short to middle length texts.

The Swedish designer Anders Bodebeck designed the Bodebeck™ type family in 2002. The family, which includes five different styles, is primarily intended for use as a titling, or display face, and belongs to the neo-transitional style of typefaces. Transitional style type first appeared in England during the late 1750s, when John Baskerville released his first sets of type. Bodebeck bears similarities to another, later transitional style typeface as well – Eric Gill’s Perpetua™ (originally released by the British Monotype Corporation in 1928).
Like these two previous English stonecutters turned masters of typography, Anders Bodebeck has given us a modern re-interpretation of classic letterforms.

Take a look at our Bodebeck usage sample

Buzzer Three™ is the work of Tony Lyons and Paul Crome. Its futuristic appearance is in the OCR style, however, it contains unique design characteristics that separate it from the more predictable geometric styles in this category.

The Swiss designer Felix Arnold designed Cisalpin™ during the late 1990s, after he had challenged himself to create a contemporary typeface that could be used for cartographic uses. Arnold came to the subject of cartographic typefaces after analyzing many maps and atlases, and discovering that there was no standard typeface for these types of documents. Like any good cartographic type, Cisalpin is very legible at small sizes. While he was drawing this typeface on his computer, Arnold used a reduction glass to refine his design, making it work in these situations. Cisalpin is a linear sans serif face, with slight resemblance to renaissance serif types. The various weights are all clearly differentiated from one another. And because space is often a premium on maps, Cisalpin runs narrow. Words close in around themselves to help them become more identifiable. The letterforms in Cisalpin are durable, and can maintain their readability when placed over complex backgrounds. They have open interior forms, flattened curves, tall x-heights, and a capital height that almost reaches the tops of the ascenders. Cisalpin also has pronounced Italics, with a very clear angle of inclination. Each letterform in the family has been optimized so that they cannot be easily mistaken for another. This again helps minimize the misunderstandings that often occur because of illegibility.
Although Cisalpin was developed for use in cartography, it may be used for countless other purposes; any font that can work well in small sizes on a map could be used almost anywhere else!

Take a look at our Cisalpin usage sample

Congress from Adrian Williams was shown for the first time at the Association Typographique International Congress, which proved to be so popular in 1980 at Kiel; designed to present a style equally appealling in European languages. Many characters are more condensed than is usual, while others have had certain elements exagerated, bringing notice to new elements of certain letters. The concept being to bring an equality of importance to the whole, producing a collection of International characters working together in harmony on the page – a common aim that Europeans wish of any Congress.

Linotype Contacta™ is part of the TakeType Library, which features winners of Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contest. Ralf Weissmantel designed this font to display no stroke contrast at all. Instead of using conventional letter forms, Contacta is a more designed-oriented font, with some characters recognizable only in context, not necessarily at first glance. The technical, unconventional forms look almost like a maze, especially when set together. This font is not suitable for text but makes a unique impression in logos and headlines.

The Horatio family is a delightful look back into the modernists experiments of the 1920s. This geometric sans serif design was created in 1971, and was originally released by Letraset. We are please to offer the family in digital form, in light, medium, and bold weights.

Linotype Inagur™ is a lightly rounded sans serif. Its design seems to have traces of handwriting in its forms, almost as if it were a combination between a sans serif and a script font! Because of this mix, some letters are particularly unique, for example the ampersand and at signs. Their uniqueness could be a strong aide in logo design. Even though Hans-Jürgen Ellenberger created in 1999, the font family still has a strong contemporary feeling, and creates an interesting impression in text. Linotype Inagur’s numerals are of the old style figure variety, which are sometimes referred to as “lowercase” numbers.

Take a look at our Inagur usage sample

Linotype ReadMyHand™ is part of the TakeType Library, selected from contestants in Linotype’s International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. It is the digitalized handwriting of its German designer, Leon Hulst. As is common of handwriting fonts, the forms of the letters seem spontaneous and individual. Linotype ReadMyHand is a dynamic font suitable for texts with point sizes larger than 12 and particularly good for documents which should have a personal touch.

Take a look at our ReadMyHand usage sample

This 1935 design from Monotype is an extremely condensed display font that has a slight flavor of nineteenth-century wood type. Runic Condensed font is tall and lean with a huge x-height and hairline serifs. It is an ideal display type for eccentric pieces where space is at a premium.

ITC Stenberg™ was designed by Tagir Safeyev based on the forms characteristic of the Constructivism in the early days of the USSR. The brothers Vladimir and Georgii Stenberg were two of the creative artists of this movement who were turning older forms to revolutionary use. ITC Stenberg has a caps and small caps alphabet and is available in a bold and an inline version.

German designer Roberto Mannella first sketched out the idea for Bobotta™ Icons during a vacation in 1999. Recently, he fleshed these sketches out into a full-fledged symbol font, which was awarded with an Honorable Mention in the 2003 International Type Design Contest, sponsored by Linotype GmbH. Bobotta Icons presents a lively, spontaneous style of drawing, guaranteed to bring a new voice to your funkiest typographic work. The characters contained in this font are a wide array of comic symbols, word shapes, and fantastical creatures. This font contains both symbols that resemble happy crocodiles, and symbols that resemble a neon sign flashing the word “love.”

Take a look at our Bobotta Icons usage sample