Presto

Presto Free & Presto for Fust & Friends

Presto is a bold advertising script, with slightly inclined joined-up letters and economic proportions. Originally issued by Ludwig & Mayer in 1970, the metal version came in eight sizes from 12 to 48pt. It was probably the last designs to be cast as metal type in Germany.

The «Presto - Free» version was made in honour of its designer Helmut Matheis (1917-2021), who turned 100 in November 2017. Matheis was delighted with this proposal and happy to give Florian Hardwig and Fust & Friends his permission. The digital font development was done by Andreas Seidel.

In 2019 its character set was extended, making "Presto-Regular" usable in a wide array of languages.

After Jan Middendorp closed the micro foundry Fust & Friends in October 2021, this font can still be licensed via astype fonts - so far for free. :-)