Papyrus Alternatives

ITC Tempus is the work of British designer Phill Grimshaw. He claims that every calligrapher's aspiration is to draw perfect roman capitals with a pen, but admits that this is extremely difficult. For this typeface, Grimshaw used a fountain pen on cheap, porous paper and, of course, the ink bled. The resulting forms are classic but their rugged edges deviate from the perfection of roman... Read More

ITC Cancione is the inspired work of California calligrapher and illustrator Brenda Walton. She gave a rough texture to her tall, thin all caps alphabet and its ornaments, making them look as though they were drawn with a brush on stone and then left to withstand years of weather and wear. The graceful letters are complemented by a variety of ornaments and flourishes as well as alternates and... Read More

ITC Tempus is the work of British designer Phill Grimshaw. He claims that every calligrapher's aspiration is to draw perfect roman capitals with a pen, but admits that this is extremely difficult. For this typeface, Grimshaw used a fountain pen on cheap, porous paper and, of course, the ink bled. The resulting forms are classic but their rugged edges deviate from the perfection of roman... Read More

Arial was designed for Monotype in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders. A contemporary sans serif design, Arial contains more humanist characteristics than many of its predecessors and as such is more in tune with the mood of the last decades of the twentieth century. The overall treatment of curves is softer and fuller than in most industrial style sans serif faces. Terminal strokes... Read More

Humanistika was designed in 1997 by Hellmut G. Bomm after the humanistic italics used in the lettered arts at the beginning of the Renaissance. Its classic calligraphic design is available in two versions which only together create the intended historical effect.

Linotype Charon is the work of Renate Weise. Linotype Charon is a typeface with two sides to it: both objective and classic, it is neither neutral, nor an everyday typeface. Charon is modern and animated; its curving letters seek to touch the reader. Linotype Charon is named after the ferryman of Greek mythology who brought the souls of the dead across the River Acheron into the Underworld,... Read More

Linotype Mateo font is part of the Take Type Library, which features the winners of Linotype's International Digital Type Design Contest from 1994 to 1997. Jürgen Ellenberger included three styles in his font, roman, bold and outline. The characters of Mateo consist exclusively of lines, giving the font an extremely angular look. However, Mateo font retains a certain handwritten style... Read More

Rotis® is a comprehensive family group with Sans Serif, Semi Sans, Serif, and Semi Serif styles, for a total of 17 weights including italics. The four families have similar weights, heights and proportions; though the Sans is primarily monotone, the Semi Sans has swelling strokes, the Semi Serif has just a few serifs, and the Serif has serifs and strokes with mostly vertical axes. Designed by... Read More

ITC Ironwork is the work of Serge Pichii, who was inspired by a piece of decorative lettering done by Jan Tschichold in the early 1920s. Tschichold had interlocked a series of rough sans serif letters and embellished them with scattered decorative elements. The original was of only capital letters, touching and overlapping like an ironwork gate made of letters. Pichii completed the typeface... Read More

ITC Highlander font is the work of Dave Farey and loosely based on the handwriting of the late American graphic artist and lettering master Oswald Cooper. ITC Highlander is a unique font family, but not so unusual that it is limited only to display applications.

Gudrun Zapf von Hesse designed the first sketches of Alcuin in 1986. The namesake of this typeface was an advisor of Charlemagne and was responsible for the writing reform of the Carolingian era. Alcuin was born in 735 in England, became an abbot in Tours and died there in 804. It was the idea of Zapf von Hesse to develop a modern text type based on the forms of the Carolingian miniscule. ... Read More

The impulse behind André Maaßen's design of the Anno typeface was the design of a New Year's card for the year 2000 (Anno 2000). His desire to create the perfect printed image developed into a family with four styles: Anno 1, Anno 1 Italic, Anno 2, and Anno 2 Italic. Anno 1 and its Italic are semi-classicist typefaces, with a high degree of stroke contrast, while Anno 2 and its Italic are... Read More

Palatino Sans is a 21st Century sans serif typeface from the master German designer Hermann Zapf. Palatino Sans and Palatino Sans... Read More

The Swiss designer Hans Eduard Meier originally designed Barbedor for the Hell Digiset machine. Barbedor is based on handwritten humanist book scripts of the 15th century, and its chracters are typical of the style of those made by broad tipped pens. Tiny serif-like elements reveal the line of the writing utensil and emphasize the nature of this typeface. Classic and legible, Barbedor is a... Read More

The Ambigue designed by Carla Schweyer, originally was named "Confidence". This font family receives the first prize at the German Kurt Christians-Foerderpreis in 1997/98. This professional typeface is available in the weights Light, Regular, Medium and Bold. Its interpolated weights offer a subtle differentiation in the grey levels. A special "Small" weights is available which offers a better... Read More