There’s an old cemetery in Castine, Maine—a lovely coastal town with a surviving crop of stately American elms. Dating back into the 1700s, the cemetery’s headstones have the familiar old domed-tablet shape, some topped by winged skulls. Thanks to the Castine Historical Society, I got my hands on a couple of epitaph rubbings and modeled a typeface after the lost stone carving style peculiar to the time and place. Castine (the font) has a melancholy, wistful, nostalgic air—and is frankly just a little bit spooky. Its long, sharp serifs and slight uneveness recall simpler times when character meant more than precision. Castine has roman and italic styles.* (Check out the epitaphs.) $49 | Order  

*The OpenType release of Castine™ adds numerous ligatures, old-style and lining figures, and Central/Eastern European alphabets.

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“Our 3rd and 4th graders are thrilled that their historical writing is going to look so authentic!
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“Bonsai is very beautiful; the font's antiquity seems to conjure a sweet staleness of old newsprint, somehow.”
—A.T., Ontario, Canada