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

Original D&D & early 1st ed. titles

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

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

*? Souvenir Demi, Light (Linotype, Adobe, etc.) a.k.a. Soutane, Souvienne (Confirmed as "Souvenir", but which version was not specified)

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

Chisel D (URW++) a.k.a. Chisel EF (Elsner+Flake)

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

*? Futura Bold (Neufville/Linotype, Datascan) a.k.a. Twentieth Century Bold (Agfa-Monotype) a.k.a. Tw Cen Bold (Agfa-Monotype) (Confirmed as Futura, but which version was not specified)

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

*? Futura Book & Italic (Neufville/Linotype, Datascan) a.k.a. Twentieth Century & Twentiety Century Italic (Agfa-Monotype) 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 (Agfa-Monotype) (Example is Tw Cen MT)

Later Hardcovers: Titles & Headers (e.g. UA, MoP, DSG)

ITC Korinna Bld (ITC)

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Later Hardcovers: Text (e.g. UA, MoP, DSG)

Helvetica (Adobe, Linotype, Agfa-Monotype, etc.) [Example coming soon] [Example coming soon]

Early Module Titles (e.g. B1 [pastel & brown], G1 [pastel], S2 [pastel], S3 [black])

Avant Garde Bold (Bitstream, Adobe, URW++, Linotype, etc.) ("1" character apparently customized) Cloned as: Decker Bold

Later Module Titles (e.g. S4 [brown], N1)

Helvetica Bold (Bitstream, Adobe, URW++, Linotype, etc.)

Early Module text

Avant Garde (Bitstream, Adobe, URW++, Linotype, etc.) a.k.a. Century Gothic Cloned as: Decker

[Example coming soon]

2nd ed.

Logo & Headers

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')

Revised 2nd ed. Hardcovers: Headers (also Labyrinth of Madness headers)

University Roman Bold Plain: 1.0 (Bitstream, ITC)

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

Formata (Berthold, Adobe)

Text (late 2nd ed., e.g. Reverse Dungeon)

Book Antiqua (Agfa-Monotype) a.k.a. Palatino (Adobe) [Example coming soon]

Map text (e.g. Vecna Lives)

Libra BT (Bitstream) Cloned as: Livingstone

Night Below Title and "Players Handout #" headers

* Blackmoor Plain (ITC) Cloned as: Black Castle

Night Below "Players Handout 7" text

Charme (Neufville/Linotype, Adobe)

Night Below "Players Handout 9" text

Tekton Regular (Adobe)

Night Below "Players Handouts 13-16" text

Bergell (Linotype, ITC)

Night Below "Players Handout 23" text

Shelley Andante Script (Linotype) a.k.a. English 111 Adagio (Bitstream)

Night Below "Players Handout 26" text

Clairvaux (Linotype)

Return to the Tomb of Horrors "Journal of the Tomb" text

Mistral (Fonderie Olive; near-identical 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

[Example coming soon]

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2nd ed. Skullport room headers

[Example coming soon]similar to Goudy Medieval (public domain, from book publ. by Dover)

[Example coming soon]

3rd ed.

Cover Titles* Not an electronic font; it's from an old book of fonts (probably one published by Dover)

[Example coming soon] [Not a font--no example]

Interior Titles (in adventures & sourcebooks)

* Vitriol (Margo Chase Design's Gravy Fonts)

Interior Titles (in web-only adventures)

Vitriol Alt (Margo Chase Design's Gravy Fonts) (definitely a slightly different font from the above, but is not listed 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

Encounter Icons/Dingbats (trap, town, creature, treasure, etc.)

* DL5AIcons Regular (custom created for TSR, orig. for Dragonlance 5th Age) 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)

3e Character Sheet Class/Cross-class dingbats

Scala Sans Regular LF Expert [Example coming soon]Universal News w. Commercial Pi 97 (Linotype) a.k.a. UnivNewsCommPi (Linotype)

[Example coming soon]

Campaign Worlds

Al Qadim Titles * Ondine (Linotype, Datascan)

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Birthright Headers & Cover Text

* Democratica (Emigre) Cloned as: Bebris

Birthright text * Minister Book (Adobe) [Example coming soon]

Dark Sun (Revised) Titles

* PapyrusLET (Letraset) a.k.a. Papyrus Cloned as: FZ Hand 16

Forgotten Realms headers "For all levels of play" and "Anauroch" on FR13: Anaroch; and Skullport section headers

Uncial (Datascan) [Example coming soon]

Neue Hammer Unziale 2 (Linotype) (Not 100% match, but closest match so far)

Forgotten Realms CS (3rd ed.) Section Headers

* Democratica (Emigre) (customized for FRCS)

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

* Masonic (customized for FRCS) Apparently customized from: Mason (Emigre) (Example is Mason) Cloned as Splendors (Mad Irishman)

Forgotten Realms CS (3rd ed.) minor headers

* 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)

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Forgotten Realms CS (3rd ed.) text

* Historical All Sorts Fell Type, Roman (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)

Kara-Tur & Oriental Adventures titles

(Actual font unknown) Cloned as: Bonzai Regular (creator unknown) Cloned as: ChinaOne (creator unknown) (Example is Bonzai)

BD&D Mystara Titles & AD&D Map Text (e.g. D&D Gazetteers, Forgotten Realms maps, Dragon Mountain title)

* Feinen Bold (Datascan) a.k.a. FC-Feinen, Furst Cloned as: Baldur (Mad Irishman Productions) (Example is Baldur)

Planescape Titles * Exocet Heavy (Emigre)

Planescape Spot Text* Exocet Light (Emigre) Cloned as: Visitation, Avalon Quest

Ravenloft (Revised) Logo

* Blackmoor Plain (ITC) Cloned as: Black Castle

Ravenloft (Original) Titles & Headers

* Heidelberg a.k.a. Honda (Datascan) [Example coming soon]

Ravenloft Titles & Headers

* Ironwood (Linotype, Adobe, Datascan) Cloned as: Irongate

[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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