HVD Fonts’ latest family Pluto has been easily the most successful release of the last year. Initially, designer Hannes von Döhren was not convinced that his new display family actually needed an italic, but he soon gave in to popular demand and released Pluto Italics, again with a very attractive introductory discount. It came as no surprise that Pluto Italics soared to the #1 spot of our list of Hot New Fonts. Even at its current list price, the extended Pluto family is excellent value, with Normal and Condensed weights in two widths and with matching italics — 32 fonts in all. Informal yet sturdy and readable, Pluto and Pluto Italic work well in display as well as longer text settings. Great for cosmetics and food packaging and advertising — and much more.

Among the many fine script fonts from Sudtipos the recent Feel Script occupies a special place. Based on 1950s lettering by calligrapher and logo designer Rand Holub, it is, to some extent, an update and an extension of Holub’s font Monterey. Freed from the technological constraints that Intertype struggled with fifty years ago, Ale Paul was able to more faithfully represent the hand-lettering from that era and in a more complex way using today’s OpenType technology. Some letterforms were redrawn from vintage American magazine ads (some by Holub himself), along with many new alternates, ligatures, ending forms, and strangely beautiful character combinations. Feel Script comes with a wealth of alternate letters, including three-letter ligatures and “the dreamiest swashes” Ale Paul could imagine.

Carolyna technically belongs to the same broad category of exuberant connected scripts as Feel does, but it is in fact a very different kind of creature. While Feel pays tribute to the stylized, masterful curves of mid-century commercial lettering, this new font by the Emily Lime foundry reflects the spontaneity and whimsicality of some of today’s calligraphic work. The font uses OpenType wizardry to connect letters seamlessly, automatically replacing letter pairs as you type. With over 1,000 characters, there are many stylistic alternates and fun swashes to choose from. If you go for the Pro version, you don’t need the other two fonts, as Carolyna Pro contains all the available characters. But if the programs you work with do not support full OpenType functionality, designer Emily Conners recommends choosing one of the other options, in which what you see is exactly what you get.

Melany Lane is the third connected, swashy script in this newsletter, and again it is surprisingly different from the previous two. Its designers at Yellow Design Studio took the flourished shapes of traditional lettering, and added the quirks and warmth of informal hand-drawn type. The regular version is monolinear, i.e. its strokes don’t change in thickness, which gives it the feel of a font drawn with a round technical or felt-tipped pen. Melany Lane’s basic character set has traditionally connected letters and expressive charm. The font’s Contextual Alternates (which can be activated using your design software’s OpenType panel) add flair with unconnected letters and additional contour options. Melany Lane comes with swashes and stylistic alternates for extra funkiness and fun, as well as 118 lovely ornaments and a free set of fourteen seamless background patterns.