font_category: serif

A WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster for the Rural Electrification Administration’s promoting of running water for rural areas is the basis for Tap Water JNL. A condensed slab serif, it is available in both...

A vintage metal stencil from a saw mill with the term “reusable skid” was the model for Saw Mill Stencil JNL. Although the original was what would be termed a semi-stencil (some letters did...

A late-19th Century song book entitled “Gems of Scotland – A Beautiful Collection of Scottish Songs” had the words “Gems of Scotland” hand lettered in an ornate, condensed type style now reproduced digitally as...

“Answer Songs” have been around for [probably] just as long as there have been songs. 1917’s “If I Catch the Guy Who Wrote Poor Butterfly” was the answer to the 1916 hit “Poor Butterfly”...

Auto-scanning an example of a vintage typewriter font created the design which is now the digital typeface Bitmap Typewriter JNL, available in both regular and oblique versions.

There are thousands of pieces of vintage sheet music available for collectors and curiosity seekers. Prior to the 1930s, a large percentage of them had wonderfully hand-lettered titles on the covers, but gradually there...

The free-form, Art Nouveau hand lettering on the cover of the sheet music for 1915’s “She Was All That a Pal Ought to Be” inspired Neurotic Roman JNL; available in both regular and oblique...

The very first Speedball-Lettering Book was published in 1915, and within its pages was a rough-hewn example of lettering with the name “Rapid Sho-Card Style”. The design is now available as Antique Show Card...

Fine and Dandy JNL comes from the hand lettered title of the 1929 movie “Isle of Escape”; found on the sheet music for its theme song “My Kalua Rose”. An engraved and fancy Roman,...

The box cover of “Drawing Stencils No. 3 for Use on Slate or Paper” [a children’s drawing set produced by Montgomery, Ward & Company of Chicago circa the 1890s] had its title in an...