At the time of writing, Jeremy Dooley’s insigne foundry has two new font families in the top 5 of our list of Hot New Fonts. We chose Sommet Slab to feature in this newsletter because it’s such a versatile (and quite original) addition to his Sommet family. A six-weight subfamily with narrow letterforms and sturdy serifs, Sommet Slab is an unconventional yet flexible solution for magazine design or identity projects. It is a powerful headline font, but will also work well in medium-sized texts such as intros and pull quotes. For more variety, combine with the companion sans-serif, Sommet. Sommet Slab includes oldstyle figures and small caps.

There is a style of handwriting fonts that we at MyFonts have dubbed “creative common” — inventive variations on what may initially seem to be ordinary handwriting, but is rather fancier when you take a close look. Check out bestsellers like Satisfaction and Nothing, and you’ll know what we mean. The successful new script Always from Anton Scholtz is a family in the same vein but is a somewhat more ornate variation on the informal script theme. With its four weights, from Light to Fat, it offers four distinct flavors, giving you plenty of variety for all possible uses — from packaging and book covers to greeting cards and advertising. All weights come with a set of automatic ligatures for a more natural, handwritten effect.

Ever since German design student Lukas Bischoff had a surprise hit with Sketch Block, sketched versions of well-known typefaces have been all over the place. We’re not supposed to mention the trade-marked classic that was the model for Hiekka Graphics’ Sketchetica but the name sort of gives it away, and that original is probably #1 in our bestseller list right now. Sketched lines of type were what the graphic designer used to draw to give the typesetter a clear idea of how he wanted a text to look. Today, these hand-made imitations are an end in themselves as display fonts full of character. If you’d like to see more of that stuff, check out Gert Wiescher’s Perfect Sketch and assorted Sketched Franklins.

Designer Laura Worthington calls Recherché “modestly extravagant”, and that is a very nice way of putting it. In the sample above, we’ve played with some of the font’s flamboyant swash forms — for example, it has a whopping 11 different versions of the “h” — but the good thing is, they are not absolutely necessary to make the font work. When refraining from any whimsical decoration, the result is a very readable and, indeed, modest informal script suited for more than just headlines, such as the text of an invitation or ad. Based on real hand-lettering with a pointed brush, Recherché contains over 100 alternate swash letters and a set of formal capital letters. Its name is a French word meaning "with studied refinement and elegance”, and Recherché lives up to that brilliantly.

We have created an extra slot this month for Coming Together, an amazing font that was produced for a good cause. Font Aid IV is a designers’ initiative to benefit the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The font consists entirely of ampersands, representing the idea of people coming together to help one another. Nearly 400 type designers, graphic designers and other artists from around the world contributed; the list of names is here. All proceeds from sales will go to Doctors Without Borders to help with their relief efforts in Haiti. (Needless to say, MyFonts and other distributors refrain from their usual commission.) Coming Together contains over 400 glyphs and is supplied as a single OpenType font for Windows and Mac OS X.