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 8 styles: regular, Italic, Black,
Outline, Fancy,
II Initials, III Initials, Raised Shadow (the latter four
are caps-only). Complemented by a set of ornaments. Berthold
Fototypes announced the regular and Raised Shadow
in 1970 (also carried by Hollenstein), and lists 6 styles (w/o
Black and Fancy) in their 1974 E1 catalog.
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.
Photo-Lettering’s Staudel
Xenotype J AKA 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.
Roberta III was available from Mecanorma. [1973
catalog]
The freebie Legrand (Rick Mueller, 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 8 styles: regular, Italic, Black, Outline, Fancy, II Initials, III Initials, Raised Shadow (the latter four are caps-only). Complemented by a set of ornaments. Berthold Fototypes announced the regular and Raised Shadow in 1970 (also carried by Hollenstein), and lists 6 styles (w/o Black and Fancy) in their 1974 E1 catalog.
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.
Photo-Lettering’s Staudel Xenotype J AKA 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. Roberta III was available from Mecanorma. [1973 catalog]
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.