New Releases Featured Designer: Ray Cruz
T
Laurentian™ Family
Laurentian
Laurentian Italic
Laurentian Semi Bold
Laurentian Semi Bold Italic
Laurentian Bold
Laurentian Small Caps
LAURENTIAN INITIAL CAPS
Old English Style Value Pack
Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa
Invitation Script Value Pack
Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa
Plus, new typefaces from 12
new foundries!
he philosophy of Ray Cruz is lishers, and firms specializing in pack-
age design and corporate identity and
“learn by doing.” He empha-
sizes this to lettering students has netted him over 30 art achieve-
and practices it in his career. After ment awards.
graduating from New York’s High
School of Art and Design, he contin-
ued to hone his craft by working in
several of New York’s top custom let-
tering studios. The more he drew, the ...to page three to see type samples from
better he got. Ray Cruz, including “Cruz Handy,™”
His expertise in custom lettering and featured above.
typographic design has brought in
freelance work from ad agencies, pub-
Ligatures, Part II by Ilene Strizver
D
ecorative ligatures come in others, like the joined ‘oo’ in ITC
many varieties, but they’re Rennie Mackintosh and the ‘LL’
®
all intended to add visual and ‘TT’ in Jokerman,™ are
designed just for fun, creating an
interest to your typesetting. Also
called discretionary ligatures, some almost hand-lettered appearance.
of these characters combine fre-
quently occurring letter pairs (like
‘Th’) into a single, graceful design.
Other ligatures, such as the ‘ck’,
‘ct’, and ‘st’ combinations found in
faces such as ITC Dyadis™ and ITC ...for more on decorative ligatures.
Continued on page three.
Founder’s Caslon,™ originated from
historical usage and add elegance
and individuality to a setting. Still
In This Issue
2 The Letter K 6 New Foundry Preview
2 Ask the Type Guru 7 Type Contest
3 Ray Cruz Typeface Samples 7 Typeface Showcase: Plantin ®
4 New Releases page 1
Ask the Type Guru
H
e’s spent 30 years in type. He’s
committed more typefaces to
memory than you’ve ever
seen. He’s the guy that knows his p’s
and q’s when it comes to s’s and t’s.
He’s Allan Haley, our resident type
guru. Allan is here to answer your
most pressing and puzzling typo-
graphic questions, so ask away!
Our featured question comes from
Mary Ozee:
Can you tell me where I can find a
font based on the Palmer Method of
cursive handwriting?
You can learn more about the Palmer
method and purchase Palmer-based fonts
on EducationalSoftware.com. Looking for
a variation on the design? Try School™
Script, available on Fonts.com. As the
Web site describes, the Palmer method,
features “a very smooth-flowing cursive
style” and stresses “loose, free-flowing
repetition.” Invented by A. N. Palmer,
this method of handwriting offers a prac-
tical approach to learning cursive that
has influenced the way students are
taught today.
Thanks again for all of your questions.
Although we can show just one question
in each issue, we do respond to everyone
who writes. Remember, no type question
is too big or too small.
To put Type Guru, Allan Haley to work
for you, email your type-related question
along with your name, city and state to
nt@fonts.com, with “Type Guru” in the
subject line.
Typefaces Used
ITC Berkeley Old Style Book
®
ITC Berkeley Old Style Book Italic
ITC Berkeley Old Style Bold
ITC Berkeley Old Style Bold Italic
Gill Sans ®
Gill Sans Italic
Gill Sans Bold
Gill Sans Bold Small Caps
Monotype Bodoni
®
Monotype Bodoni Italic ( Nameplate)
Impact (Nameplate)
®
Letter Series: The Letter K
The tenth article in our series dedicated to the history of the Latin alphabet, by Allan Haley
S
ome letters are slaves to fashion.
They’ll change their images for
any number of reasons: to satis-
fy the whim of some snazzy new
writing utensil, or even because
Semitic Kaph
they’ve taken up with a different lan-
guage. The K, however, sticks to the
tried and true. It’s remained virtually
unchanged for the last three thousand
years or so.
K was the 11th character of the
ancient Semitic alphabets, a position
it still retains in our current character Phoenician Kaph
set. In form, it has probably varied
less than any other character. The
Semitic sign “kaph,” the forerunner of
our K, was a three-stroked character
that represented the palm of an out-
stretched hand. While several ver-
sions of the kaph were used by the
Semites, and more specifically the Greek Kappa
Phoenicians, all were composed of
three strokes drawn in a similar fash-
ion. First, the character was a simple
drawing of a hand. Next, the charac-
ter looked something like our Y with
a short middle stroke between the
two longer diagonals. Finally, it was
simplified even more and turned on
Roman Kay
its axis so that its two diagonals
pointed left (like a backwards version
of our K). But even as the character In the Greek language, two signs rep-
was modified and turned in several resented the ‘k’ sound: K and Q. The
directions throughout its evolution, Etruscans, however, had three signs
the basic form has remained nearly for the same sound: C, K, and Q. The
the same. early Romans adopted all three, but
in time dropped the K, using it only
The Greeks took the simplified kaph for words acquired from the Greeks,
and introduced symmetry into the or those of an official nature. The lat-
design. Eventually, they turned the ter use was probably the reason the K
character around so that the diago- made it to the Roman monumental
nals faced right. The Greeks even inscriptions, which set the standard
kept the basic name of the letter, for our current design.
changing it only slightly, to “kappa.”
the perfect font
is out there
find it on
Cruz continued

To the left are several typeface families

from designer Ray Cruz. Visit Fonts.com,
the exclusive home of these designs to see
additional weights of Cruz Handy,
Romantica and Elegante.

Ligatures continued
Where are they located?
Decorative ligatures (illustrated in
the graphics to the right) are not
standard in the typical 256 charac-
ter font layout, and are usually
located in alternate or extended
fonts, or expert sets. Sometimes
decorative ligatures are found in
non-standard locations within a
font and can be located with Key
Caps, Fontek Character Chooser, Four ligatures – ‘Th’, ‘st’, ‘of’ and ‘th’ – Two different conjoined ‘oo’ ligatures and
Character Map or any other key- are part of what helps this copy, set in a ‘Th’ ligature give a hand-lettered look
board layout utility. Marguerita,™ flow so well. to this example, set in ITC Rennie
In an OpenType font (the newest Mackintosh Light.
font format), ligatures are typically
incorporated into the font. Take
note, if you are working with an
OpenType Pro font, it is possible
that these extras may only be
accessed by the limited group of
applications that support this
emerging format. Take a look inside
your favorite fonts. You may be sur-
prised by what you find! The whimsical feel of Jokerman is The use of ligatures lends individuality to
Use With Care enhanced by the ligatures for double T this setting of ITC Dyadis.
Remember, a ligature is treated as a and L letter combinations.
single character by your graphics
application. Take care when you
open or close the overall letter
spacing of a word containing these
special combos. The ligature’s inter-
nal spacing will remain unchanged
and might look too tight or too
open in contrast to the remainder
of your text.

page 3
 a
What’s New!

Fonts available exclusively from Fonts.com. www.fonts.com 800.424.8973

Fonts available exclusively from ITC. www.itcfonts.com 866.823.5828 page 5
Type Contest
Answer the trivia question to win the ITC Kabel family ®
E
ach issue we give away a fabu-
lous font prize. This issue,
we’re putting the complete ITC
Kabel family up for grabs – a $119
value. To win, answer the trivia ques-
tion below. Send your answer and
contact information to nt@fonts.com.
We’ll choose one winner from the cor-
rect responses. Good luck!
The Kabel typeface was released twice
in the last century: originally for the
Klingspor Type Foundry before being
revived by ITC. Name both years
Kabel was released. Hint: You can
learn more about the history of Kabel
Typeface Showcase: Plantin
C
hristopher Plantin should be
remembered and honored, but
not for designing Plantin. This
important printer was instrumental in
helping to create the rich typographi-
cal tradition we enjoy today. He was
largely responsible for making type
and typography in The Netherlands
the model of 16th century printing.
Plantin, however, did not design or
use the types named after him.
If not Plantin, then who? Most refer-
ence books credit F. H. Pierpont as
the designer responsible for the mod-
ern revival of the typestyle we now
call Plantin. Actually, Pierpont did not
draw the face either. Pierpont was not
even a type designer; he served as
production manager of a large British
printing and publishing house in the
early 1900s. Although Pierpont did
not design Plantin, it was his passion
and guidance that brought the type-
face to light.
Pierpont had long thought that his
publishing house needed a typeface
that was distinctive, legible, and that
would print well on both coated and
coarse papers. No existing font
seemed to meet his requirements.
While on a business trip to Antwerp,
Pierpont visited the Plantin Moretus
Museum. There he saw the exquisite
collection of 16th century punches
and matrices use by the printer, along
with examples and documentation of
the various stages of early type manu-
facturing techniques.
Thanks to the enthusiasm of the
museum’s director, Pierpont left with
a wealth of knowledge, hundreds of
photographs and stacks of antique
typeset specimens – including a few
examples of Robert Granjon’s work
that were produced by the Plantin
Press but never used by its founder.
These were to become the premise for
Pierpont’s design.
Pierpont took his portfolio of type
designs to the Monotype works, and
under his direction, an adaptation
was drawn and cut. In adapting the
antique types for contemporary
needs, Pierpont and the Monotype
craftsmen mixed a love and under-
standing of 16th century type with a
healthy dose of poetic license. The
and other ITC designs by reading ITC
Classic articles on ITCFonts.com.
Last Issue’s Winner
Congratulations to Pam Sherrod of
Bay Area Labels, winner of last issue’s
Type Contest. Pam noted that the
original designs of Braff™ were created
for titling on book jackets.
For her prize, Pam will receive the
Braff typeface, courtesy of Fonts.com.
Thanks to everyone who entered!
classic Old Style text design was pre-
served in the basic structure, but
newfound strength and body were
added to this delicate frame. The
combination was a notable success.
Shortly after its release, a number of
influential presses adopted Monotype
Plantin and, as a result, it became the
typeface of choice for virtually all
kinds of printing.
Today, the Plantin family includes
Light, Regular, Semi Bold and Bold
weights. Plantin Headline was espe-
cially drawn for display setting, and a
full suite of small caps, ligatures and
old style figures have been drawn for
the text designs.
page 7
 Look Inside for These Exciting Features!

New Releases Informative Pieces Font Promotions

Featured Designer: Ray Cruz

Ligatures, Part II

History of the Letter K

New Foundry Preview

Typeface Showcase: Plantin

Plus, more classic typefaces revisited

Agfa Monotype Corporation

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Wilmington, MA 01887-1069

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