Jasmine Dobie

The TT Tsars font family is a collection of serif display titling fonts that are stylized to resemble the fonts of the beginning, the middle and the end of the XVIII century. The project is based on title fonts, that is, the fonts that were used to design book title pages. The idea for the project TT Tsars was born after a small study of the historical development of the Cyrillic type and is also based on Abram Shchitsgal’s book “Russian Civil Type”.

At the very beginning of the project, we had developed a basic universal skeleton for the forms of all characters in all subfamilies of the family, and later on we added styles, visual features, artefacts and other nuances typical of the given period onto the skeleton. Yes, from the historical accuracy point of view it might be that such an approach is not always justified, but we have achieved our goal and as a result we have created perfectly combinable serifs that can be used to style an inscription for a certain time period.

The TT Tsars font family consists of 20 fonts: 5 separate subfamilies, each of which consists of 4 fonts. Each font contains 580 glyphs, except for the TT Tsars E subfamily, in which each font consists of 464 characters. Instead of lowercase characters in the typeface, small capitals are used, which also suggests that the typeface is rather a display than text one. In TT Tsars you can find a large number of ligatures (for Latin and Cyrillic alphabets), arrows and many useful OpenType features, such as: frac, ordn, sinf, sups, numr, dnom, case, onum, tnum, pnum, lnum, salt (ss01), dlig.

Time-related characteristics of the subfamilies are distributed as follows:
• TT Tsars A—the beginning of the 18th century (Latin and Cyrillic)
• TT Tsars B—the beginning of the 18th century (Latin and Cyrillic)
• TT Tsars C—the middle of 18th century (Latin and Cyrillic)
• TT Tsars D—the end of the 18th century (Latin and Cyrillic)
• TT Tsars E—conditionally the beginning of the 18th century (only Latin)

TT Tsars A and TT Tsars B families (both the beginning of the 18th century) have different starting points: for TT Tsars A it is Latin, for TT Tsars B it is Cyrillic. The development of the TT Tsars A family began in Latin, the font is based on the royal serif Romain du Roi. Cyrillic alphabet is harmoniously matched to the Latin. The development of the TT Tsars B family began in Cyrillic, which is based on a Russian civil type. Characteristic elements are the curved one-sided serifs of triangular characters (A, X, Y), drops appear in the letter Ж, the middle strokes В and P are adjacent to the main stroke. Latin was drawn to pair with Cyrillic. It is still based on the royal serif, but somewhat changed: the letters B and P are closed, and the upper bar of the letter A rose. This was done for the visual combination of Cyrillic and Latin and at the same time to make a distinction between TT Tsars A and TT Tsars B.

TT Tsars C is now the middle of the 18th century. Cyrillic alphabet itself did not stand still and evolved, and by the middle of the 18th century its forms have changed and become to look the way they are shown in this font family. Latin forms are following the Cyrillic. The figures are also slightly modified and adapted to the type design. In TT Tsars C, Cyrillic and Latin characters are created in parallel. A distinctive feature of the Cyrillic alphabet in TT Tsars C is the residual influence of the flat pen. This is noticeable in such signs as З, Ж, K. The shape of the letters Р, Ц, Щ, Э is very characteristic of the period. In the Latin alphabet, a characteristic leg appears at the letter R. For both languages, there is a typical C characterised by an upper serif and the appearance of large, even somewhat bolding serifs on horizontals (T, E, Г, L).

TT Tsars D is already the end of the 18th century, when with the development of printing, the forms of some Cyrillic characters had changed and turned into new skeletons of letters that we transposed into Latin. The figures were also stylized. In this font, both Cyrillic and Latin are stylistically executed with different serifs and are thus logically separated. The end of the century is characterized by the reduction of decorative elements. Straight, blueprint-like legs of the letters Я, R, K, Ж. Serifs are very pronounced and triangular. E and Э are one-sided on the middle horizontal line. A very characteristic C with two serifs appears in the Latin alphabet.

TT Tsars E is a steampunk fantasy typeface, its theme is a Latinized Russian Сivil type (also referred to as Grazhdansky type which emerged after Peter the Great’s language reform), which includes only the Latin alphabet. There is no historical analogue to this typeface, it is exclusively our reflections on the topic of what would have happened if the civil font had developed further and received a Latin counterpart. We imagined such a situation in which the civil type was exported to Europe and began to live its own life.

Useful links:
TT Tsars PDF Type Specimen
TT Tsars graphic presentation at Behance

Elicit Script is a hybrid script family, that can be as casual or formal as the occasion demands. Created by Laura Worthington and Jim Wasco, the design is based on pointed pen Spencerian Script handwriting. “It’s like one of those German italics from the early 20th century, that have beautiful shapes that hold their own,” says Wasco.

Elicit Script spans five weights, from Extra Light to Bold, and three styles – Formal, Normal and Casual. This makes it an incredibly versatile script design, easily paired with other typefaces and able to be dressed up or down, depending on what it’s used for. The monoline Casual style offers a more relaxed tone of voice, while Formal sits at the more decorative end of the spectrum. Designers can keep things straightforward, tidy and practical with the typeface’s simple caps, or add in swash caps if they need more exuberance and expression. Generous spacing means Elicit Script works well at smaller sizes as well.

All handmade – the versatile Sofa Serif Family.

Sofa Serif’s handcrafted character is friendly and eye-catching. Stylish features and alternates add personality and let you create unique logos and stunning headlines. The family boasts 5 weights from Monoline to Fat, each containing more than 1000 glyphs, plenty of OpenType features and full ISO latin 1 & 2 language support. In addition, extra shadow-, 3D-, inline- and hatched-styles round out the package. 7 font-styles are especially created to be used as layers/layered styles.
High contrast is one of Sofa Serif’s key features. To maintain a wide range of use, choose from two optical sizes: Standard and Display with a maximum of contrast especially in the heavier weights. This makes it a flexible solution for any display and editorial need.
Sofa Serif includes a variety of OpenType alternates which add uniqueness to your work. OpenType features include Swashes- and Titling-Alternates, Beginnings and Endings and a number of alternates within various Stylistic-Sets for even more variation. OpenType Swashes- and Titling-Alternates are smart features which automatically adjust all swashy letters to the available white space. Switch one on and let Sofa Serif do the rest. The font-guide “SofaSerif-FontFamily-and-OpenType-Overview” from the gallery will be included in your purchase automatically.
Sofa Serif is a organic, rough and decorative hand-drawn/handmade all-caps display-family for packaging, posters, book-covers, wedding-, kids-, food- and logo-design and will best stand out in huge grades. It’s handmade origine is subtle yet visible.
Have fun!

With designs drawn specifically for comfortable reading in everything from on-screen digital content to print in periodicals and books, Mundo Serif is ready to take on just about any project. Carl Crossgrove drew the suite of typefaces to complement his Mundo Sans family’s classic humanistic design traits – and added a subtle modern influence. Restrained stroke modulation, generous counters, commanding x-height and tall ascenders ensure that content set in Mundo Serif is both legible and easy on the eyes. While primarily designed for text copy in print and on screen, Mundo Serif becomes a powerful display type tool in the lightest and boldest weights. Headlines, navigational links and banners are naturals for this versatile collection of typefaces.

Mundo Serif is a large family. Nine weights, each with an italic companion, enable precise typographic tuning. Captions, subheads, pull quotes and long-form copy can be melded to create a welcoming page of modulated text. For best results in digital environments, skipping a weight – or even two – ensures hierarchical clarity. Crossgrove did extensive testing of Mundo Serif to ensure the best possible on-screen readability. To further guarantee optimal digital imaging of the family, he gave the design generous inter-character spacing and slightly expanded intricate characters like the lowercase a and g.

If the goal is diversified or multi-platform branding, look no further than Mundo Sans. The two designs harmonize with each other perfectly in weight, typographic color and proportion. Both designs benefit from large international character set that includes support for most Central European and many Eastern European languages. For a stronger contrast, pair Mundo Serif with virtually any sans serif grotesque design.

Crossgrove has designed a variety of typefaces ranging from the futuristic and organic Biome™ to the warm, clean lines of the Mundo Sans. His work for Monotype also often takes Crossgrove into the realm of custom fronts for branding and non-Latin scripts.

Say hi to new member of Typoforge zoo! Gambero family consists of 18 styles (including italics) with a subtle rounded finished details. Gambero is a stable, slab cousin of Kapra, Kapra Neue adn Kapra Neue Pro. It is ideally suited for advertising, editorial and publishing, offering new design potential.

Font Gambero is inspired by a “You And Me Monthly” published by National Magazines Publisher RSW “Prasa” that appeared from May 1960 till December 1973 in Poland.