Ragtime

From Paul Dini & Chip Kidd’s Batman Animated (1998):

These imaginatively rendered title cards were a high point of each Batman episode. While some (like “Harley’s Holiday” and “Time out of Joint”) were character portraits, most often the cards depicted an emotional impression of the given episode’s theme. According to Eric Radomski, who designed many of the cards, “Going with the overall retro-forties feel we were giving the show, we wanted to treat the episodes as mini-movies. The title cards allowed us to create great drama in a very subtle fashion. It was a process of trying to capture what the overall episode was, and not just show a scene or moment from it.”

Most of the title cards of Batman: The Animated Series’ first season (which first aired in 1992–1993) use fonts that were available from Letraset.

See also the post on the series’ logos.

Engravers Old English

Pendry Script

Rundfunk

Commercial Script and Compacta Italic

Pendry Script

Cable (Kabel) Light

Univers 49

Brody

Univers 49

Peignot Medium

Alpin Gothic

Plaza

Pendry Script and Compacta

Windsor Bold Outline

Compacta

Plaza

Peignot Medium

Brush Script

Microgramma Medium Extended

Mistral

Compacta Bold Outline

Univers 49

Goudy Handtooled

Mistral

ITC Benguiat

Brody

Univers 49

Plaza and Univers 49

Mistral

Laser

Univers 49

Stencil Bold

Univers 49

Univers 49

Papyrus

Berling Bold

Mistral

Mistral

Ragtime

Berling Bold

LCD Outline

Cloister Bold

Shatter

Helvetica Extra Light and Medium

Goudy Extra Bold

Freestyle Script and Flash

Plaza Inline

City Medium

Murray Hill Bold

Plaza and Univers 49

Ragtime

Tarragon

Compacta Outline

Titus Medium

Augustea Open

Cortez

Front

“My Prerogative” is a single from Britney Spears’ similarly-titled album Greatest Hits: My Prerogative, released on September 21, 2004 by Jive Records. The art direction and design is credited to Jackie Murphy and Courtney Walter, with photography by Kathryn Indiek.

The artist’s name uses Anime Pornstar, a free font created by Jason Harlan of Eternal Maelstrom Studios. The single title uses all-caps Compacta, in an angled box similar to the corresponding album. Other text uses Alternate Gothic.

[More info on Discogs]

Inside

Alternate version

Fonts from the Flea Market #1439

Adam & Eve were a – very blonde – schlager music pop duo from Germany. Founded in 1966 by Eva Bartova (1938–1989) and John Christian Dee (1944–2004), the latter was replaced by a new Adam in 1967, Hartmut Schairer (b. 1946). Released in 1972, Wenn die Sonne erwacht (“When the sun awakens”) was their third studio album.

The cover design combines three typefaces that were available from Letraset at the time: Stack by Les Lawrence, Linear by Fred Lambert, and Welt-Antiqua Extra Bold for the ampersand.

[More info on Discogs]

Fonts from the Flea Market 1438

“Dynamite Dragster” is 1976 single by French disco combo Performance. For the Spanish release in Carnaby’s Especial Discotecas series, the title was unceremoniously altered to “Dinamita” on the cover. The perspective caps are from Buster. Originally a shadow-only design, the uncredited sleeve designer added an outline to the top and left of the letterforms, probably to enhance legibility. The series logo enclosed by headphones is another Letraset classic, Compacta.

[More info on Discogs]

This Christmas compilation featuring ten songs by five of their artists was released by budget label Holiday Records in 1981. With the exception of Eckmann, all display typefaces (printed in red) were available from Letraset, with several of them being originals by the British dry transfer pioneer. Annlie (1966), here used in italic with the alternate swash cap, was conceived by Fred Lambert. Revue (1968) and Octopuss (1970) are both designs by Colin Brignall. University Roman by Mike Daines was added in 1972, and Maurice Schlesinger’s Cut-In Bold by 1973.

The secret star of this album cover is Crafton Gothic, though: the narrow sans used for the titles in green was shown by Photo-Lettering already in 1960, in four weights, without designer credits. The label in their 1971 catalog indicates that Crafton Gothic originated elsewhere, but it doesn’t say where.

[More info on Discogs]

Gemini is a 1999 album by Belgian electronic/downtempo artist Sven Van Hees.
Its cover, designed by the Re:peat studio (part of the Belgian record company N.E.W.S), uses the following: Clarendon Bold Expanded for the artist’s name and “Cosmic Lovegrooves”, Compacta Italic with an enlarged lowercase e and arrowheads added to the I’s for the title, and Eurostile Light Extended for the tracklist and the label name, Life Enhancing Audio.

[More info on Discogs]

From Wikipedia:

Dopes to Infinity is the third album by American rock band Monster Magnet, released on March 21, 1995. The album includes the song "Negasonic Teenage Warhead", the band's first hit single.

Art direction and design by Sandy Brummels and Walberg Design, with input from Dave Wyndorf. The illustration is by Mark Skillicorn.

[More info on Discogs]

This is a Danish single by Billie Davis featuring the two songs “I Can Remember” and “Nobody’s Home to Go Home To”. It was released in 1969 on Decca Records. Her name is in Folio extrafett with both her 2 songs in Compacta Bold

[More info on Discogs]

The incredible story of the Maine Yankee who discovered the world’s richest half mile of gold in Canada, and the strange and tragic end that befell him.

Geoffrey Bocca’s account of the Oakes case was first published in 1959 by Doubleday, as The Life and Death of Sir Harry Oakes. The cover of Greywood’s paperback edition from 1970 features Fred Lambert’s Sans Stencil for the title.

Italian 2 Foglio (39.25″×55″)

C’era una volta il West is the original Italian title of Sergio Leone’s epic spaghetti Western, known in English as Once Upon a Time in the West. The film starring Claudia Cardinale as Jill McBain and Henry Fonda as Frank was promoted in Italy with a series of posters that emphasize the cinematic aspect: each poster features a pair of juxtaposed black-and-white stills, shot by Angelo Novi.

Designer Folco Lucarini arranged the title in two crossing lines that levitate in the large whitespace above the scenes, further adding to the drama. The font in use is Playbill, which has become something like a typographic shortcode for the Wild West, together with other Italiennes, Egyptiennes, and related styles. The credit block is added in Letraset’s Compacta, likewise in all caps.

The posters were printed by Litoroma.

Italian 2 Foglio (39.25″×55″)

Locandina (13″×28″, cropped at the top)

Fonts from the Flea Market 1421

This single by the Dutch group around singer George Baker a.k.a. Hans Bouwens was released in 1970, from their second album, Love in the World. A follow-up to their 1969 hit “Little Green Bag”, it made the Top Ten in the Netherlands and Belgium.

[More info on Discogs]

Goblin is an Italian progressive rock band most famous for their film scores and especially the collaborations with director Dario Argento. Shown here is the cover of the soundtrack to Non ho sonno. The giallo film from 2001 is known in English as Sleepless.

[More info on Discogs]

Poster and artwork for a party series by DJ and music producer Some Guest, held at club Jasna 1 in Warsaw, Poland. I used Compacta Bold for the lineup in the reticle, and Generation Mono for the name of the party and date as usual.

In April 2024, satirist Toxische Pommes came to Berlin to read from her debut novel Ein schönes Ausländerkind (“The perfect immigrant child”). From Volksbühne:

The posters advertising the event were designed by LSD, specialists for using unusual and provocative fonts. For Toxische Pommes, they dug up Mystery Caps. This novelty typeface is comprised of guts, tongues, and other body parts. Its designer is unknown to me. The earliest appearance I’m aware of is in the 1970 catalog by Lettergraphics. Read more about it in a previously posted Use.

The specific font in use is Grog Caps, Traitor Vic’s 2009 digitization based on and named after a showing by Dan X. Solo in Special Effects and Topical Alphabets: 100 Complete Fonts from 1978. The typeface is printed in two colors, with some parts of its letterforms filled in. Small text is added in a wide(ned) style of Compacta.

Detail

Dazed Maxx is a special new edition of Dazed magazine, created in collaboration with Nike to spotlight the vibrant subcultures of sport across the United States. Edited by athletes Sunny Choi, Bijan Robinson, and Tobey McIntosh, it explores emerging communities in New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta through interviews, storytelling, and Nike’s AirImagination platform. The issue dives deep into how local sports scenes shape cultural identities, featuring conversations with community leaders and original articles from young local writers. Dazed Maxx is not just about sports but about how creativity, identity, and community intersect through athletic expression.

To celebrate the launch, Dazed is hosting simultaneous drop events in the three cities, offering limited-edition copies, custom merchandise, and immersive experiences that bring the magazine’s stories to life. They use three different typefaces to differentiate the cites: Los Angeles has Respira Black by Sharp Type, a robust yet elegant Rotunda, New York was illustrated with what appears to be ER Univers, and finally Atlanta used Louize Display by 205TF. Blending sport, subculture, and innovation, Dazed Maxx reflects a bold new era of community-driven storytelling and marks the first-ever US edition of Dazed.

Additional fonts in use include Compacta Black (Letraset/Linotype) for the logo and various members of Dinamo’s ABC Diatype for smaller text.

From Wikipedia:

“You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” is the first sentence and commonly used name of a public service announcement that debuted on July 12, 2004 in cinemas, and July 27 on home media, which was part of the anti-copyright infringement campaign “Piracy. It’s a crime.” It was a co-production between the Federation Against Copyright Theft and the Motion Picture Association of America (now the MPA) in cooperation with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, and appeared in theaters internationally from 2004 until 2008, and on many commercial DVDs during the same period as an ad preceding the main menu, as either an unskippable or skippable video.

The announcement depicts either a teenage girl trying to illegally download a movie or two women attempting to buy DVDs from a bootlegger interwoven with clips of a man committing theft of various objects, and equates these crimes to the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyrighted materials, such as films. The girl ultimately aborts said download and the couple choose not to purchase any of the bootleg DVD copies. According to the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, the announcement was unsuccessful, and was largely a source of ridicule. Likewise, a 2022 behavioral economics paper published in The Information Society found the PSAs may, in fact, have increased piracy rates. By 2009, over 100 parodies of the announcement had been created.

The intertitles use FF Confidential. On the computer screen, the text “FEATURE FILMS” is in Serpentine, “DOWNLOAD CANCELED” is in Compacta, and the remaining text in what appears to be Univers.

Poster and artwork for a party series by DJ and music producer Some Guest, held at club Jasna 1 in Warsaw, Poland. I used modified Compacta Bold Italic for the name in the center, Generation Mono for the name of the party and date as usual, and Microgramma Extended Bold for the lineup. Made using a combination of printing and scanning techniques, with a touch of digital color processing.

Live Wire / Blues Power is a live album by blues guitarist and singer Albert King, released in 1968 on Stax Records. Recorded at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, the album captures King’s signature guitar style and powerful vocals, featuring performances of songs like “Blues Power” and “Watermelon Man”.

The cover design, created by Beverly Parker, features Sans Stencil for the album title. This typeface is a follower of Filmotype Quiet.

[More info on Discogs]

Margaret Whiting’s Moonlight on Vermont is a jazz CD released in 2000 by ASV, under the company’s Living Era label. The compilation contains 25 different jazz songs performed by Margaret Whiting (1924–2011), a vocalist active during the 50s and 60s.

All-caps Compacta is used alongside Pritchard for the subtitle. The Living Era logo is set in Roco with a custom RA ligature. All three faces were released by Letraset. The back also features ITC Kabel and Univers for the body text. (The ASV logo is based on Stop.)

[More info on Discogs]

Front cover. The Batman logo in Plaza is paired with Compacta. “The Batman Adventure” appears to be Mekanik, stretched.

The Batman Adventures was a comic book published by DC Comics from 1992 to 1995, as a tie-in to the cartoon Batman: The Animated Series. The first 16 issues were lettered by Tim Harkins, but starting from issue 17 (dated February 1994, but actually on sale in January), lettering duties were taken over by Richard Starkings of Comicraft.

Dialogue and sound effects are hand-lettered. Titles and credits are in the Lite and Dark weights of Dutch Courage, which were created by Comicraft for The Batman Adventures. Dutch Courage appears to have been inspired by Plaza, which was used for the logo of Batman: The Animated Series.

Page 1, showing Dutch Courage Dark (“Tangled Web”), Dutch Courage Lite (other titles and credits), and hand-lettered dialogue. Small print in Helvetica.

Page 7, showing titles in Dutch Courage Lite and hand-lettered dialogue.