Letterform Archive: 1000 Years of Typography Online In Ultra-high Quality

Let the Letterform Archive’s ultra-high quality digital collection inspire your typography

Letterform Archive was founded by Rob Saunders, a letter arts collector who wanted to share his collection with the public.

They have been a reference for over 10,000 visitors in the last five years, but visiting their diverse collection of typographies, calligraphies, artworks, and texts has become impossible in quarantine.

However, whether it’s a loose page from a Qur’an from 1150 or every copy of the boundary-breaking design magazine, Emigre, they’ve gone to extraordinary measures to bring the artwork to you.

Their custom-developed photography standards–raking light, sensitive staging, premium camera equipment, and very high-resolution files–let you get you up close and personal with the pieces and analyze each stroke, style, and imperfection.

Our goal is to capture every paper texture, artist correction, and metal type impression, so each item is documented in its essential form — not as a flat image, but as an object with a story.

The site has been designed with graphic designers in mind, with search filters for disciplines, firms, and people and time and place.

You can flick through these archives and see if its gems–a cigarette poster from WWII or the slickest New Year’s Party invite you’ve ever seen–can spark your creativity.

If you’re stuck for something to search, just type in asterisk and scroll to your heart’s content. It’ll get you a lot further than your average Instagram!

The Letterform Archive also provides numerous other resources for typography enthusiasts and professionals, including seminars, design inspiration kits, and design documentary film recommendations.

You can even bring timeless creations from the archive to your Zoom calls with these Letterform Landscapes: 24 virtual backdrops for your next video conference call.

You may be interested in:

- Basic Principles of Typographic Design, a course by Latinotype
- Experimental Typographic Design with Processing, a course by BlueTypo
- Digital Reinterpretation of Classic Typography, a course by Oscar Guerrero Cañizares