Small masterpieces from the age of metal type, foundry specimen booklets introduced new typefaces to the world with exquisitely arranged showings and a variety of original in-use examples. Distributed as ephemeral marketing, many are bold visual essays, statements of typographic craft, and prized keepsakes containing essential information about type as it was meant to be seen.

This volume reproduces specimens of typefaces by quintessential Italian type designer Aldo Novarese, one of the most influential and prolific Italian type designers of the twentieth century. 

At age sixteen, Novarese joined the in-house design team of the Turin-based type foundry Società Nebiolo. From 1952 through the early 1970s, he served as the company’s artistic director. In addition to designing many of Nebiolo’s most popular typefaces, Novarese authored important studies on type design, including Alfa-Beta (1964), and later originated dozens of typefaces for use in phototypesetting and dry-transfer lettering. Found everywhere from movie titles to computer advertisements, many of Novarese’s typefaces for Nebiolo remain in widespread use today.

The sixteen specimens collected in this volume includes a wide sampling of roman, script, sans serif, and display type, and features well-known typefaces such as Landi Linear (1938), Cigno (1954), Ritmo (1955), Juliet (1956), Slogan (1957), Recta (1958), Estro (1961), Eurostile (1962), Nova Augustea (1964), Oscar (1965), Metropol (1967), Forma (1968), Stop (1971), and Dattilo (1972).

Preserved in their original trims and brought together in book form (with an inside pocket containing additional booklets), this dazzling edition of facsimiles from Letterform Archive offers a rich document of Novarese’s best work.

Art directed by Alice Chau

Published by Letterform Archive Books, 2025

Hardcover, 156 pages, full color, 9.5 × 12.5 inches

ISBN: 979-8-98-914235-4