For this reason, corporate branding is a design industry of its own, and many type designers make much better money designing custom type and logos than they would ever make by designing commercial fonts, which are so widely pirated. Sometimes the names alone are distinctive enough, but often the typeface is part of the image that they project to the public. Just like sports teams, corporations do not want to be easily imitated, and they want the look of their products to be distinctive and recognizable. A general rule of thumb might be that the bigger a corporation is, the more likely it's logos and brand names have been custom designed.

In many cases a corporation's identity is closely tied to the way their name is shown, and it is represented by a distinctive logotype. People are often curious about the lettering that corporations use on the web sites and advertising. В• Corporate Logos and Product Brand Names Pilsner) Flashfonts 'Casey' (comes in three widths) Metroscript, from Alphabet Soup, and a more antique, fancier one from Letterhead Fonts, called 'Ephemera'. In fact, it is rare for them not to be custom designed. If anyone could print out any logo by finding the type on their computer that would cut into the sales of team-branded goods by teams, so it is usual to find that the logos are copyrighted property of the teams and the leagues, and they are custom designed. Sometimes the sport leagues help with the design work, but in most cases these are not type styles you can get as fonts. Even in the case where the logo is relatively new, what teams often use are commercially developed custom type styles. Some of these are much older than digital typefaces, being historic designs that have been nearly unchanged for generations. Many questions I get are about the names and numbers that you see on the uniforms of well-known baseball and basketball teams. Most of the fonts shown on my site are available from

The Script Font Reference List, which is linked from each Guide page, shows the sources of fonts. My advice in cases like this is to look at typefaces that you know are available (my Script Font ID Guide is a good place to see a wide selection of fonts separated by style category) and be willing to use one of those instead of trying to duplicate a stationer's typeface. This is because the stationery business has been around much longer than the widespread use of digital type, which began in the mid-to-late 1980's, and because these stationers understand that the way they can charge higher prices will depend on having type and printing methods that most of us cannot afford to duplicate. They may use engraving plates, metal type, film typesetting equipment or custom designed fonts. What you should know is that many well-known commercial stationers who specialize in formal invitations frequently use typefaces that are not available to the general public. I get many requests from people who are trying to find the same typefaces used by wedding stationers, usually so they can try to do their own printing and save money. If your font is like one of these please read the comments before you e-mail me for help. These are some frequent kinds of font ID questions I get.

Typeface identifier