RE-INTRODUCING
MODESTO
WITH FOUR NEW ITALICS ADDED
MODESTO IS A TEN-FONT FAMILY
Modesto Text
A SIX-FONT FAMILY WITH
THREE NEW ITALICS
2014
Manual No. 2
Background
A
s a hand-lettering artist in the decades before personal computers, I was
challenged to absorb and regurgitate many different lettering styles for
dozens of applications. Packaging, book covers, advertising, &c. All of my
sketches were done on tracing paper and I saved them in a cardboard box under
my desk. When I needed a boost, idea-wise, I would rifle through that old box of
sketches. Over the years, I had favored one lettering style more often than all the
others. It was elastic and maleable. Very versatile. It has been used by lettering
artists and sign painters for decades.
The sign for the Wolf Paper Co. in lower Manhattan sports a version of this lettering style (top left).
Bulletin, an alphabet in an old sign painting instruction manual (top right). And The Radio Papers,
some lettering I did for a book cover demonstrates the easy flexibility of the style.
© Copyright 2014 by Jim Parkinson, Parkinson Type Design
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Still More Background
T
he Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Baily Circus logo was ready-made for this
old sign painting style. It was a test of the flexibility of those letterforms.
Once I got my hands on a Mac and a copy of Fontographer, I started
digitizing several variations of this style. Eventually I had a small family of six
fonts. The family has grown over the years. I named the fonts after Modesto, the
central California farming community where my Mom grew up.
A pencil sketch for the circus logo (Top). A Circus ad (middle left). Blue Plate,
the font for the San Francisco Chronicle (middle right top). The lettering on the Modesto train station
(middle right bottom ). Developmental fragments used as a sketch for a nameplate project.
© Copyright 2014 by Jim Parkinson, Parkinson Type Design
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About the Fonts
T
he first Modesto fonts were released in about 2000. The first two fonts
were Modesto Regular and Modesto Expanded, built from the Blue Plate
font I did for the San Francisco Chronicle, When I added Italics in 2014,
I realized the name would be Modesto Regular Italic, and, worse, the
original Modesto Regular would become Modesto Regular Regular. Since Regular
means Nothing Special, or Just Average, or Meh, Modesto Regular Regular was
too much Regular for me, so, after thirty seconds of careful consideration, I changed
the name Modesto Regular to Modesto Poster, after its sign-painter roots.
Modesto Poster
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890$
Modesto Poster Italic
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890$
Modesto Expanded
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890$
Modesto Expanded Italic
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890$
Most of the Modesto fonts are Caps and Little Caps. You could call them Small Caps, but
they don’t fit the definition of Small Caps, being taller than their lower case counterparts would be.
I guess these could be called Smallish Caps, or Little Caps, or even Caplets...
© Copyright 2014 by Jim Parkinson, Parkinson Type Design
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ModestoLite
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
1234567890$
ModestoLite Italic
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
1234567890$
ModestoLite Expanded
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
1234567890$
ModestoLite Expanded Italic
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
1234567890$
Modesto Condensed Light
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
1234567890$
Modesto Condensed Bold
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
1234567890$
The Little Caps are missing from this page, in the interest of saving space.
They look just like the Caps, except they are a bit smaller.
The Little Caps are in the actual fonts.
© Copyright 2014 by Jim Parkinson, Parkinson Type Design
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Modesto Text Family
Modesto Text Light
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890$
Modesto Text Light
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890$
Modesto Text Medium
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890$
Modesto Text Medium Italic
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890$
Modesto Text Bold
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890$
Modesto Text Bold Italic
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY&Z
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890$
The Modesto Text Family is a text family in name only.
It’s called text because it has a Lower Case and, also, to distinguish it from the rest of the Modesto clan.
You should feel free to use it as small as you see fit.
© Copyright 2014 by Jim Parkinson, Parkinson Type Design
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MODESTO
available at:
MyFonts.com FontShop.com Fonts.com
ask for the free
user manual
typedesign.com
Parkinson Type Design
© Copyright 2014 by Jim Parkinson, Parkinson Type Design.
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