What fonts did GW use in their publications?

[Zhu Bajie]

haha. Good stuff. I think Axiom mentioned using "Rouge Trader" as an eBay search as it's a common mistake, and so where bargains may be found.

Which is an old ITC / letraset type called Dynamo, it also appears as headings in the First Citadel Journal, and the advert for Rogue Trader contained within...

It is also used somewhere else that should be familiar to the locals, which necessitated this:

 

[Asslessman]

I'm liking this a lot, I've been looking to get the font used for the combat cards but my fonts skill is not as sharp as displayed by some here...

 

[Zhu Bajie]

Ooh, a challenge.

"Brother Travis" Is Friz Quadrata Bold* but heavily stretched
"Marine Missile Launcher" is Helvetica, again heavily stretched.

The side numbers and words, I'm not too sure, it's similar to Engravers Gothic, so maybe a variant on that. Definately squashed and stretched about tho.

*He turns up elsewhere to...

 

[area23]

great great great topic this! Thanks a lot. esp. the bank gothic font. Would the classic 40K catalogue font be a variation of that?
I'm not sure but I think the blue '88 and orange '89 catalogs have different fonts for 40K.

 

[Zhu Bajie]

The main heading "Warhammer 40K" is a really obscure font called Furst or Feinen in it's inline / handtooled variant - it's used on a lot of mid-80s D&D products (the Gazetter series - see here ). I don't think it's widely available any more, although I have a non-handtooled version from somewhere.

The product headings are Univers, but horribly deformed and stretched.

 

[Niibl]

although I have a non-handtooled version from somewhere.

That could be Baldur which is quite similar.
Note that there are two very different Fonts with this name available though.
Sadly there is no Hand tooled variant either.

 

[A Badger]

What's the Eavy Metal font?

 

[Zhu Bajie]

What's the Eavy Metal font?

It's a heavily redrawn Futura Bold Italic - used the lowercase 'y' and pushed the decender onto the baseline, the 'E' is redrawn, and the whole thing is slightly horizontally stretched. Probably Chaz Elliots work?

 

[tatsujin]

This is a bit of a departure and may be a long shot, but... I can remember having a Skaven 'font' on my PC a long time ago. It probably would require someone else to have the 'font' too, to make head or tails of it, but it looked great.

Does anyone have/remember that?

 

[Zhu Bajie]

I'm sure if you google for "skaven font" you'll find what you're looking for!

Thank said, GW have never (to my knowledge) released fonts containing their designs, so those out there are infringing their copyright.

I have seen a Tau font which is credited to Marc Gasgcoine, but I don't know if that was intended for general release.

 

[THelppi]

Might work! Wanted to keep it old-school black on blue, like...

("Counters" and other RT subheads are a 'wide' or squashed Helvetica Black BTW)

Oh man, I had to register here just for this post (though I would've done it anyways, but I just had to respond to this).

It's actually not Helvetica, though I thought that at first myself as I was identifying the RT fonts and putting up a file with the info. The difference became obvious with the letter Q, as Helvetica as the tail very differently from the ones we see in the book. After a bit of searching (and using a font identification website) I found out it is Univers (Extra Black Extended), though it has been stretched a bit in places. Same goes for the rest of the sans serif fonts in the book, I'm quite sure, though the difference to Helvetica is minuscule.

And in case anyone's interested, the main text font is Caxton (with different weights), and the blackletter used in illustrations (ie. "Imperium approved") and the "Unit Record Sheet" is Fette Gotisch, of which I found one free version that didn't have lower case s, and another that had different kind of s and one webfont that could be downloaded also.

Oh, and:
Hi! I'm Teemu, a newcomer to the Oldhammer community, but an oldhammerer anyways. Started with Rogue Trader in early 90's, mostly played 2nd edition WH40k, didn't play WHFB. Mostly a collector and terrain builder nowdays, but I'm planning on starting an RT campaign at some point.
And sorry for the necromancy of this old thread, I just couldn't let that misidentification slide ;D

 

[Zhu Bajie]

Great first post! Welcome aboard.

Yes it is indeed Univers ! ...but I think it's one of the more obscure weights that I don't think have been digitised - Heavy Extended (83) - Extra Black Extended (93) is IIRC a bit too heavy, and I've been using Black Extended (73) as a substitute Good spot on Fette Gotisch too

 

[THelppi]

Great first post! Welcome aboard.

Yes it is indeed Univers ! ...but I think it's one of the more obscure weights that I don't think have been digitised - Heavy Extended (83) - Extra Black Extended (93) is IIRC a bit too heavy, and I've been using Black Extended (73) as a substitute Good spot on Fette Gotisch too

Thanks
It might indeed be that 83, hard to say since I don't have it 73 feels a bit too thin for me, but I reckon it's a matter of taste. If it had that raster behind it, it might look right. That Fette Gotisch pestered me quite a while before I identified it. I think I went some long list of blackletter typefaces through It also helped, that I noticed that there were few samples in larger size. I don't understand how I could've missed that big ass Rogue Trader text with the image for this long

 

[THelppi]

Hey, seeing as you're also a font enthusiast and know about this stuff Zhu, do you have a clue what might be the fonts used in the logo of Rogue Trader? It might very well be totally unique, as it looks quite hand-made, but there are clues (the kerning for example) that suggest they might be some actually existing font that may have been just modified a bit.

 

[Zhu Bajie]

Hey, seeing as you're also a font enthusiast and know about this stuff Zhu, do you have a clue what might be the fonts used in the logo of Rogue Trader? It might very well be totally unique, as it looks quite hand-made, but there are clues (the kerning for example) that suggest they might be some actually existing font that may have been just modified a bit.

Yeah, the main "Warhammer" bit of the 40k logo is a re-drawn (airbrushed) version of ITC-Serif Gothic (I think this is the titles on the chapter pages too). I rambled on a bit about it here: http://realmofzhu.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/rogue-trader-t-shirts.html

 

[Curis]

Hey Zhu! Thread necromancy – can you work out the fonts used in the Astronomican lists? I'm keen to a make a retro-roster for Shadow War Armageddon in the style of these old lists, to match the figures I'll be using in the gang. I'd be super grateful if you could shed some light onto the mystery.



P.S. I spent Christmas reconstructing the old Rogue Trader Adventurers logo so I could mash it up with "Choose Your Own Adventure"…

 

[Zhu Bajie]

Nice work on the Choose Your Own Adventurers there matey.

Astronomicon is much the same as Rogue Trader. You'll be wanting Caxton and the Univers Extended Black (840). There's a few cuts of Univers out there, and some of them don't cover the whole family.



Looking forward to seeing your roster sheets!

 

[Curis]

That's amazing! Thanks Zhu! This'll come together a treat now!

 

[jayarnold]

Nice work on the Choose Your Own Adventurers there matey.

Astronomicon is much the same as Rogue Trader. You'll be wanting Caxton and the Univers Extended Black (840). There's a few cuts of Univers out there, and some of them don't cover the whole family.



Looking forward to seeing your roster sheets!

Perfect! Thanks for posting. And you posted it on my birthday so happy belated birthday to me!

 

[Jonas]

Hi, I realise this is an old thread. But I have a question about fonts.

What fonts are used for for the stat cards in Warhammer Armies 3rd edition? I was wanting to make my own stat cards for made up units.