PTL Notes Alternatives

Zemestro is a straightforward design that is meant to be read. According to its designer, Dave Farey, "There's nothing calligraphic about it, and there are no defining or identifiable single characters -- it's just clean and simply constructed."Farey's goal was to create a more legible and friendlier typeface than those limited to single character and stroke widths. The face finds its... Read More

The branding agency's client wanted an "ultra modern" typeface that was "futuristic without being gimmicky or ephemeral," according to... Read More

According to designer David Farey, "Cachet is a monospaced, monostroke typeface -- that isn't." Why the sleight of hand? Typefaces that are limited to a single character and stroke width suffer in terms of legibility. Farey's goal in drawing Cachet was to create a typeface that gives the illusion of monospacing, while delivering a subliminal dose of reader-friendliness.At first glance, Cachet... Read More

The first drawings of FF Eureka date from 1995 when it was designed for the bilingual text “Transparency”. The typeface works particularly well with languages that commonly use accented characters. Because most contemporary Latin typefaces have large x-heights, little room is left to accommodate the accents which end up being small and tightly wedged in place. In many languages however, the... Read More

Created for magazine and newspaper headlines, FF Turmino is probably the first typeface that inverts the usual relation between weight and width. In other words: the heavier the font the more condensed it is. When using the family for newspapers or magazines it is now possible for the first time ever to set more text in Black than in Normal or Light. The result is a happy little family that... Read More

The Azbuka™ typeface family has its roots in a fairly pedestrian source. “The idea came in part from an old sign in London that read ‘SPRINKLER STOP VALVE’,” says Dave Farey, designer of the typeface. Like all good sign spotters, Farey took a photograph of the sign and filed it away for possible use in a lettering or typeface design project. In Prague a number of years later, the street signs... Read More

The European Union (EU) has added numerous members since 2004, increasing significantly the number of languages spoken within its boundaries. To write the thirty or more languages, three alphabets are required: Roman (Latin), Greek, and Cyrillic. The WGL character set supports all EU languages, in addition to Russian, Ukrainian, and Serbian, and Croatian. Current principal languages of the EU... Read More

When ITC Officina was first released in 1990, as a paired family of serif and sans serif faces in two weights with italics, it was intended as a workhorse typeface for business correspondence. But the typeface proved popular in many more areas than correspondence. Erik Spiekermann, ITC Officina's designer: "Once ITC Officina got picked up by the trendsetters to denote 'coolness,' it had lost... Read More

Compatil is the first comprehensive type system which enables all typographical elements to be used to full effect in order to reproduce the message conveyed by text information. Four different type styles with a total of 16 weights including italics have been merged into a unique typographical network. There are now no limits to the font user's creativity. The system is a product of technical... Read More

Basic Commercial is a font based on historical designs from the hot metal typeface era. It first appeared around 1900, and was created by type designers whose names have not been recorded but whose skills cannot be overlooked. This typeface's design has been popular among groups and movements as diverse as the Bauhaus, Dadaism, and the masters of Swiss/International-Style typography. It... Read More

The Handel Gothic™ typeface has been a mainstay of graphic communication for over 40 years - all the while looking as current as tomorrow. Designed by Don Handel in the mid-1960s, and used in the 1973 United Airlines logo developed by Saul Bass, Handel Gothic was an instant success when released to the graphic design community. Its generous lowercase x-height, full-bodied counters and square... Read More