This font is loosely based on H.C. Martin’s Modern Thick and Thin. He referred to it as the “Blood cousin to BROADWAY”. The alphabet appeared in a series of booklets produced by Martin in the mid to late 1930s. These “Idea Books” were to provide inspiration and instruction to both novice and professional sign painters. As I studied not only the alphabet but also the way Martin departed from it when it fancied him, I realized that he was producing what today would be referred to as alternate characters. It was these alternates that inspired me to produce this font. Also, since his alphabet was lacking lowercase characters, I created them along with matching numbers, punctuation and special characters; 241 glyphs in all.
Included with the Fats Deco font as a free bonus is my Common Connectors, eleven in all. These are connector words that are often used in signage and general headings, usually in a smaller size than the display type.
After installing just type the corresponding capital letter (shown in orange) to bring up the connector word. As an example, typing the capital “P” on the keyboard will bring up the word “with”.