TSR & WotC Font FAQ

TSR & WotC Font Usage FAQ

This is a FAQ in that the question "What font did/do they use?" is frequently asked; it is (obviously) not a standard FAQ question & answer session. None of these fonts are available here for download, nor do I plan to make them available, for copyright reasons. Please don't ask me for them! In most or all cases, as long as you know the name of the font in question, you can find it somewhere on the net, either as freeware, shareware, for-sale-ware, or pirateware. If there is not already a link to a font foundry's page, I recommend trying a Google search for the font name and the word "font". In addition, there are also some font-specific search engines and reference sources in the list of related links, as well as a small, non-exhaustive selection of webpages which have some of the freeware clone versions of these fonts available for download. * = Confirmed by TSR and/or WotC Where used Font Name Example from books Example of font

Original D&D
Quentin EF (Elsner+Flake) Similar to Wood Type (URW++) (But as an outlined form) Also similar to: Buffalo Bill (Intecsas), Rosewood (Adobe), Antique (Datascan), Buffalo Gal (Agfa-Monotype), Madame (Linotype), and Subway Regular *? Souvenir Demi, Light (Linotype, Adobe, etc.) a.k.a. Soutane, Souvienne (Confirmed as "Souvenir", but which version was not specified)

Original D&D & early 1st ed. titles

Original/Basic D&D headers & text (e.g. Basic "Red book", B3 [green cover])

1st ed./Basic D&D

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Early Hardcovers: Interior Titles (e.g. MM, PH, DMG)

Chisel D (URW++) a.k.a. Chisel EF (Elsner+Flake) *? Futura Bold (Neufville/ Linotype, Datascan) a.k.a. Twentieth Century Bold (Agfa-Monotype) a.k.a. Tw Cen Bold (AgfaMonotype) (Confirmed as Futura, but which version was not specified) *? Futura Book & Italic (Neufville/Linotype, Datascan) a.k.a. Twentieth Century & Twentiety Century Italic (AgfaMonotype) a.k.a. Tw Cen, Tw Cen Italic (Agfa-Monotype) (Confirmed as Futura, but which version was not specified) Futura Light (Neufville/Linotype, Datascan) a.k.a. Twentieth Century Light (Agfa-Monotype) a.k.a. Tw Cen Light (AgfaMonotype) (Example is Tw Cen MT)

Early Hardcovers: Headers (e.g. MM, PH, DMG)

Early Hardcovers: Text (e.g. MM, PH, DMG)

Later Hardcovers: Titles & Headers (e.g. ITC Korinna Bld (ITC) UA, MoP, DSG)
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Later Hardcovers: Text (e.g. UA, MoP, DSG)

Helvetica (Adobe, Linotype, Agfa-Monotype, etc.)

[Example coming soon]

[Example coming soon]

Avant Garde Bold (Bitstream, Early Module Titles (e. Adobe, URW++, Linotype, etc.) g. B1 [pastel & brown], G1 [pastel], S2 [pastel], ("1" character apparently customized) S3 [black]) Cloned as: Decker Bold Later Module Titles (e. Helvetica Bold (Bitstream, Adobe, URW++, Linotype, etc.) g. S4 [brown], N1) Avant Garde (Bitstream, Adobe, URW++, Linotype, etc.) a.k.a. Century Gothic Cloned as: Decker

Early Module text

[Example coming soon]

2nd ed.
Friz Quadrata No. 2 D [Bold] (URW++) a.k.a. Fritz Quadrata Bold (Top is Linotype's "Friz Quadrata Bold"; bottom is URW's "Friz Quadrata No. 2 D". Note the different 'g') University Roman Bold Plain: 1.0 (Bitstream, ITC)

Logo & Headers

Revised 2nd ed. Hardcovers: Headers (also Labyrinth of Madness headers) Text (e.g. early 2nd, e. g. PH2, 1st printing)

Zapf Calligraphic 801 (Bitstream) [Example coming soon]

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Revised 2nd ed. Hardcovers: Text Text (late 2nd ed., e.g. Reverse Dungeon) Map text (e.g. Vecna Lives)

Formata (Berthold, Adobe) Book Antiqua (Agfa-Monotype) a.k.a. Palatino (Adobe) Libra BT (Bitstream) Cloned as: Livingstone

[Example coming soon]

Night Below Title and * Blackmoor Plain (ITC) "Players Handout #" Cloned as: Black Castle headers Night Below "Players Handout 7" text Night Below "Players Handout 9" text Night Below "Players Handouts 13-16" text Night Below "Players Handout 23" text Night Below "Players Handout 26" text Return to the Tomb of Horrors "Journal of the Tomb" text Charme (Neufville/Linotype, Adobe) Tekton Regular (Adobe) Bergell (Linotype, ITC) Shelley Andante Script (Linotype) a.k.a. English 111 Adagio (Bitstream) Clairvaux (Linotype) Mistral (Fonderie Olive; nearidentical fonts with the same name are available from Adobe, Linotype, Agfa-Monotype, URW) a.k.a. Stacatto 222 (Bitstream) Goudy Heavyface (Bitstream) not 100% match
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[Example coming soon]

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2nd ed. Skullport room headers

similar to Goudy Medieval (public domain, from book publ. by Dover)

[Example coming soon] [Example coming soon]

3rd ed.
Cover Titles Interior Titles (in adventures & sourcebooks) * Not an electronic font; it's from an old book of fonts (probably one published by Dover) * Vitriol (Margo Chase Design's Gravy Fonts) [Example coming soon] [Not a font--no example]

Vitriol Alt (Margo Chase Design's Gravy Fonts) Interior Titles (in web- (definitely a slightly different font from the above, but is not listed only adventures) on the designer's webpage; probably a custom version) (Example is normal Vitriol) Section Headers * Pterra-dactyl (Margo Chase Design's Gravy Fonts) a.k.a. Pterra

* DL5AIcons Regular (custom Encounter Icons/ created for TSR, orig. for Dingbats (trap, town, Dragonlance 5th Age) creature, treasure, etc.) Cloned as: Adventure

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Main text

* Celestia Antiqua Medium (Example is Adobe's Celestia Antiqua Regular) Cloned as: Caslon 540 (Adobe, Linotype)
(Celestia Antiqua has "corroded" edges; Celestia Antiqua Medium doesn't.) ("Numerals in 3e handbooks are closer to those of Celestia Antiqua SC [Small Caps] than to those of Celestia Antiqua Regular" -Doug Bailey)

Players Handbook Credits page

* Historical All Sorts, Fell Type, SmallCaps (Woefler Type Foundry)

("WotC's use of Historical Fell Type and Scala Sans LF are slightly modified... the numbers are not old style." -- Patrick Murphy)

Players Handbook tables, 3rd ed. Adventures copyright block & sidebars

* Scala Sans Regular LF, Scala Sans Bold LF

("WotC's use of Historical Fell Type and Scala Sans LF are slightly modified... the numbers are not old style." -- Patrick Murphy)

Scala Sans Regular LF Expert 3e Character Sheet Class/Cross-class dingbats Universal News w. Commercial Pi 97 (Linotype) a.k.a. UnivNewsCommPi (Linotype)

[Example coming soon]

[Example coming soon]

Campaign Worlds
Al Qadim Titles * Ondine (Linotype, Datascan)

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Birthright Headers & * Democratica (Emigre) Cover Text Cloned as: Bebris Birthright text Dark Sun (Revised) Titles Forgotten Realms headers "For all levels of play" and "Anauroch" on FR13: Anaroch; and Skullport section headers Forgotten Realms CS (3rd ed.) Section Headers * Minister Book (Adobe) * PapyrusLET (Letraset) a.k.a. Papyrus Cloned as: FZ Hand 16 Uncial (Datascan) Neue Hammer Unziale 2 (Linotype) (Not 100% match, but closest match so far) * Democratica (Emigre) (customized for FRCS) * Masonic (customized for FRCS) Apparently customized from: Mason (Emigre) (Example is Mason) Cloned as Splendors (Mad Irishman) * Historical All Sorts Fell Type, Small Caps (Woefler Type Foundry)
("WotC's use of Historical Fell Type and Scala Sans LF are slightly modified... the numbers are not old style." -- Patrick Murphy)

[Example coming soon]

[Example coming soon]

Forgotten Realms CS (3rd ed.) Logo & Chapter Titles

Forgotten Realms CS (3rd ed.) minor headers

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* Historical All Sorts Fell Type, Roman (Woefler Type Foundry) Forgotten Realms CS (3rd ed.) text
("WotC's use of Historical Fell Type and Scala Sans LF are slightly modified... the numbers are not old style." -- Patrick Murphy)

Kara-Tur & Oriental Adventures titles

(Actual font unknown) Cloned as: Bonzai Regular (creator unknown) Cloned as: ChinaOne (creator unknown) (Example is Bonzai) * Feinen Bold (Datascan) a.k.a. FC-Feinen, Furst Cloned as: Baldur (Mad Irishman Productions) (Example is Baldur) * Exocet Heavy (Emigre) * Exocet Light (Emigre) Cloned as: Visitation, Avalon Quest * Blackmoor Plain (ITC) Cloned as: Black Castle * Heidelberg a.k.a. Honda (Datascan) * Ironwood (Linotype, Adobe, Datascan) Cloned as: Irongate [Example coming soon]

BD&D Mystara Titles & AD&D Map Text (e. g. D&D Gazetteers, Forgotten Realms maps, Dragon Mountain title) Planescape Titles Planescape Spot Text Ravenloft (Revised) Logo Ravenloft (Original) Titles & Headers Ravenloft Titles & Headers

[Example coming soon]

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Ravenloft Maps & Titles

* Nosferatu

Some D&D/Fantasy Font-related URLs (In no particular order...)

MyFonts.com (search for & purchase most of the fonts listed in the above FAQ) MyFonts.com WhatTheFont font recognition system (Free! Upload a sample of an unknown font, and WhatTheFont will attempt to figure out what font it is) Identifont (Identify unknown fonts by answering a series of questions) FontSeek (Font search engine; including free, shareware, and commercial fonts) Alt.binaries.fonts FAQ Famous Fonts (Fonts or clones of fonts used in TV shows, movies, various publications, advertising, etc.) Secrets of the Kargatane: Ravenloft Fonts (the four most common Ravenloft fonts, though two are only available here as clones) Neale Davidson's Fonts (includes many clones of D&D fonts) RPGHoard's fonts (the D&D adventure dingbats, plus several Vampire: The Masquerade fonts) TuDragons Fonts (includes several runic fonts) Dungeon Redskaber (D&D books, netbooks, fonts, etc.) Louras' fonts (including several that are useful for D&D) Northern Journey Campaign downloads (includes Forgotten Realms fonts) Datascan's font examples (includes Feinen) Coron's Fantasy, Ancient, and Symbolic Fonts MyFonts.com Font Foundries (includes links to foundry web pages) EyeWire Type Viewer (see examples of any text in various fonts by various foundries) Mad Irishman Productions' Fonts (includes some clones of D&D fonts)

List compiled by Aardy R. DeVarque

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