Cool Undigitized Fonts

Throughout THP publications, the “#” symbol following a type tradename indicates that it is known to be digitized at the current writing.

One of the Top Priorities of the Type Heritage Project is to facilitate digitital archival of as many 19th– and pre-World War I 20th–century typefaces as possible. If you are a revival font developer who fancies a face already “done,” THP may be equipped to suggest a historically documented alternative supported with full alpha-numeric patent and/or commercial specimens.

The Flickr tag “undigitized” leads to patent and commercial specimens of extra-interesting 19th- and early 20th-century fonts not yet available for computer use. USPTO specimens are native 300 DPI tiff files, page size 7.73 in × 11.38 in. The specimens themselves are usually large enough to downsize and resample at higher resolution before vectorizing. Because of its super-close magnification muscle, Corel Draw is highly recommended for this purpose. Additional commercial specimens are nearly always available on request.

Cosmopolitan=Nelson, 1891. This handsome free-form script has a fascinating history spanning from US wood type in 1891 to a German TF in 1894 to a patent by a US TF in 1895–1896. Preliminary vectorization work available on request.

Ornamented No. 1053=Rosella, 1876. Take a look at this latin beauty—a personal favorite full of twist ‘n’ turn surprises! Designed by Henry Brehmer for the Bruce TF, it was known as “Ornamented No. 1053″ and nearly forgotten until Dan X. Solo found a “proper name” for it. A perfect high-resolution scan is available on request.

BTF Scored Fonts, 1879-1880. “Ordinary condensed gothic” [sans serif] caps with ornamemtal elements above and/or below. Single-Scored Gothic is simply underlined; Double-Scored Gothic and Legend [shown] offer banner-style joining and line finials.

Motto, 1879. Designer unknown, shown in the Boston Type Foundry’s 1880 catalog. This charmer is bestowed with plaque-like corners and screw-heads or scroll-style word spacers and line finials.

Albino, 1882. Motto’s wicked step-sister? Another “banner” style, this light-faced latin alphabet of the “runic” variety has knob-like word spacers and line finials.

Enchorial=London, 1884. This smashing bold concave sans was a triumph for the Caslon TF in 1884. J.F. Cumming cut a copy entitled London for BTF, probably the same year.

Heraldic, 1880. Strong language! Patented by BTF Agent J.K. Rogers, the designer is unknown. Production and/or distribution rights to this face were granted to the Caslon TF c1881.

Renaissant and Artistic, designer unknown. Renaissant was cut by Henry Brehmer for Dickinson TF (Boston), 1879. A light-face derivative tradenamed Artistic was cut by J.F. Cumming for DTF in ≤1888. Neither face was patented in the US.

New Info! Ornamented No. 33=Gothic Double Shade=Marble Heart,Samuel S. Kilburn(?) ­≤1860. Check out the quaintly quirky “Q”! As reported by Lieberman [113] in 1967, McGrew [235] concurs that this all-caps beauty was “an 1870s face of the Boston Type Foundry.” After “giving up on” this lead, THP recently identified a dual-case specimen in BTF 1860. Assuming that Lieberman and McGrew were otherwise correct, it was almost certainly designed/cut by Kilburn (BTF ≤1835–1864), who specialized in “two-line” faces.¹ It was shown soon after by Farmer (New York) in 1866, by Trowitzsch (Berlin) in 1868, and by MacKellar Smiths & Jordan (Philadelphia) in 1869. No specimen examined claims IP rights; BTF’s first design patent was issued in 1870. Apparently discontinued by BTF after 1879, it was revived as “Marble Heart” by ATF in 1933.

Old Bowery and Abramesque, Caslon ≤1841–c1844. These breezy British brats, originally called Rounded Open and Rounded Ornamented, have led interesting lives. As a teenager, Rounded Open visited the Bruce TF (c1854), where she was called Ornamented No. 1007. After a suspected Bruce facelift as Gothic Round Shaded (≤1869), she was reintroduced by ATF as Old Bowery in 1939. Her fanciful little sister (now called Abramesque) retired much earlier. They long to be reunited soon with their burly big brother, Rounded (an early “fill” font for multicolor work?), as a digital family!

Ornamented No. 1=Egyptian Shaded=Extended Shade=Galena# has been digitized and was removed from this page.