Designed by Robert Trogman for FotoStar, either in 1962 based on
a Belgian restaurant sign [Trogman],
or in 1963, inspired by wood type initials spotted in a Belgian
magazine. [Trogman]
Comes in eight styles: regular, Italic, Black,
Outline, Fancy,
II Initials, III Initials, Raised Shadow (the latter four
are caps-only). Complemented by a set of ornaments. The regular and
Raised Shadow styles were carried by Berthold [1970
announcement] and Hollenstein [Hollenstein 1974]. Berthold eventually
listed six styles (w/o Black and Fancy). [Berthold 1974] Roberta III was
available from Mecanorma [1973 catalog].
Photo-Lettering’s Staudel Xenotype J a.k.a. Xenotype
3481 (1962, with lowercase) is very similar to Roberta
III. It’s not clear which came first, or if there is a
common historical source.
Lettergraphics showed a face that’s very similar to
Roberta (regular) in a 1966 ad. It’s listed in their
1968 catalog as Lautrec. The same face is shown in
Castcraft’s Enyclopedia (1978) under the alias
Platinum.
The freebie Legrand (Rick Mueller, 1993, revised by
Dieter Steffmann, More…
Designed by Robert Trogman for FotoStar, either in 1962 based on a Belgian restaurant sign [Trogman], or in 1963, inspired by wood type initials spotted in a Belgian magazine. [Trogman] Comes in eight styles: regular, Italic, Black, Outline, Fancy, II Initials, III Initials, Raised Shadow (the latter four are caps-only). Complemented by a set of ornaments. The regular and Raised Shadow styles were carried by Berthold [1970 announcement] and Hollenstein [Hollenstein 1974]. Berthold eventually listed six styles (w/o Black and Fancy). [Berthold 1974] Roberta III was available from Mecanorma [1973 catalog].
Photo-Lettering’s Staudel Xenotype J a.k.a. Xenotype 3481 (1962, with lowercase) is very similar to Roberta III. It’s not clear which came first, or if there is a common historical source.
Lettergraphics showed a face that’s very similar to Roberta (regular) in a 1966 ad. It’s listed in their 1968 catalog as Lautrec. The same face is shown in Castcraft’s Enyclopedia (1978) under the alias Platinum.
The freebie Legrand (Rick Mueller, 1993, revised by Dieter Steffmann, 1999) appears to be a digitization of Roberta II Initials. So is Display Art Three (Gerald Gallo, 2009). Roberta (profonts, 2003) is an unauthorized digitization of the Black. Roberta (Harold’s Fonts, c. 2014) was made by Harold Lohner with the assistance of Trogman and covers all styles except for the Outline and ornaments, while adding a Fill style to go with Raised Shadow. II has been renamed to Light and includes a lowercase, III is now Initials.
