FHA Condensed French Font

One could speculate that FHA Condensed French probably started life as wood type for displays, headlines and posters. The exaggerated sharp serifs and condensed forms were not uncommon for that period. At some point, sign painters picked up Condensed French added their own character. At the end of the nineteenth century, Frank H. Atkinson included Condensed French in his samples of lettering for his book, ”Sign Painting, A Complete Manual.” This book became one of the definitive guides for signwriting and hand lettering. In 1999, Mike Adkins digitized Condensed to add to our Atkinson collection.