Designed by Karl Reissberger for Monotype in 1962,
Forte arguably is Austria’s most successful
contribution to type design – after all, the bold brush script
comes bundled
with many Microsoft products. Karl Reissberger (1915–1983) was
a commercial artist and a typesetter by trade who also taught
typography and drawing in Vienna later in his life. Many sources
have his given name with a ‘C’, but on his book Schrift,
Bild, Druck (1977) as well as on his
grave in Dornbach, it is spelled with a ‘K’. Forte
is Reissberger’s only typeface design. According to
Linotype, “[t]he idea for this script face came More…
Designed by Karl Reissberger for Monotype in 1962, Forte arguably is Austria’s most successful contribution to type design – after all, the bold brush script comes bundled with many Microsoft products. Karl Reissberger (1915–1983) was a commercial artist and a typesetter by trade who also taught typography and drawing in Vienna later in his life. Many sources have his given name with a ‘C’, but on his book Schrift, Bild, Druck (1977) as well as on his grave in Dornbach, it is spelled with a ‘K’. Forte is Reissberger’s only typeface design. According to Linotype, “[t]he idea for this script face came from the study of plants, individual letterforms being inspired by the long stems and furry heads of the reed.” Forte is available in various digital fonts, but none features the ‘ffi’ and ‘ffl’ ligatures nor the alternate unslashed ‘7’ that were included in the original metal version.