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An area where fans from all over can ask each other questions and voice their own ideas and opinions on anything Columbo.

This Forum is fondly dedicated in memory of  "cassavetes45"  (Carleen Zink),
Columbo's greatest fan and a great friend to us all.
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All Columbo Fonts - Download Here

Hi everyone - here's something for all you font freaks, like me. Someone recently posted a link to FOLIO BOLD EXTENDED - the font used in Columbo as well as all the other Mystery Movies of the 1970s, and even superimposed the font over a Columbo screengrab. The font was called FOLIO BQ. It was perfect in every way except for the capital "R" which was not as extended horizontally as it should be. I corrected it and I am enclosing FBE as one of 4 Columbo font downloads - see link at the bottom.

I have also created a secondary version called FOLIO EXTRA BOLD EXTENDED. If you check out the main titles of "Lovely But Lethal" & "The Bye Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case" (among others), you'll see that a heavier version of FBE is shown. This font has been specially created for all Columbo fans here, so I hope you enjoy using it.

The third font is FOLIO MEDIUM EXTENDED ITALIC. This font is thinner and was used for credits such as "Directed By" & "Special Guest Star".

The fourth font is CLARENDON BOLD HEAVY, which was used in the later Columbo episodes of the 80s & 90s.

Copy and paste the link immediately below to see a sample image of all 4 fonts. I managed to find a way to reproduce Wayne Fitzgerald's block shadow effect rather than using Photoshop's drop shadow effect. If anyone wants to know how to achieve this, get in touch with me and I'll reveal all.

Here's the sample image link:

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee436/stevedowthwaite/COLUMBOFONTS_zps1028cf59.jpg

And here's the link to the fonts:

http://www.filefactory.com/file/1ad39e3vsfld/n/Columbo_Fonts.rar

I hope you enjoy these; any and all feedback would be welcome.

Re: All Columbo Fonts - Download Here

these are great many thanks

Re: All Columbo Fonts - Download Here

You're welcome, Steve.

Re: All Columbo Fonts - a note on ep titles

Thanks, steviebaby (that made me sound like a Hollywood agent) -- I love fonts, got thousands of them, and this will lend some authenticity to my fanfic artwork.

I loved when TV shows had actual titles (not just script names on the cable listings). It made it easy to track and discuss favorite eps and somehow gave a little pizzazz to the production. I got a real kick a few weeks back when the Hawaii Five-O remake used the original's in-your-face ep title for a story that definitely harked back to the Jack Lord version (creepy weird psycho serial sniper on a rampage -- H5O.1's signature as much as Dog and the Peugot belonged to our hero). Take the Mentalist -- all the script names have some form or shade of red in the title. Why waste that unifying identifier?

Columbo definitely used titles to maximum benefit -- the Molotov cocktail-punctuated credits in Publish or Perish, for example. The only show of the time that outdid Columbo for credit panache was the Rockford Files. Titles like "The Aaron Ironwood School of Success," "The Dwarf in the Helium Hat," and "Just Another Polish Wedding" told you you were in for a cool story and some real fun.

Bring back the titles, preferably in yellow Folio.

Re: All Columbo Fonts - a note on ep titles

Thanks for your reply, Martin...glad to hear from another font freak! I think Wayne Fitzgerald, who did most of Universal's title designs in the 60s & 70s, must have loved Folio Bold Extended (FBE) - because he used it extensively. In addition to Columbo, McCloud, & McMillan & Wife, FBE was used for The Rockford Filles, Hec Ramsey, The Name Of The Game (what a great series that was!), the 1968 Richard Widmark movie Madigan, and a rarely seen 1969 TV Movie called Any Second Now starring Stewart Granger. It was also used for the LP cover of Orson Welles' War Of The Worlds radio drama and on the poster for Boris Karloff's 1968 thriller, Targets.

By the way, I mentioned I discovered a way to create a 45% 3D block shadow effect on titles as opposed to the usual drop shadow...here's how its done:

Open a picture image or blank image in Photoshop. If using a blank image, make it a landscape rectangle of about 1000 x 800 pixels and use paint bucket to give it a subdued blue or purple background.

Then select a nice yellow and type COLUMBO in FBE capitals. Once you've chosen a size and position for the word COLUMBO, don't move it.

Go to your layers palette and you will see you have 2 items: COLUMBO & background - in that order

Right click COLUMBO and duplicate the layer. You will now have COLUMBO copy, COLUMBO, and background in your layer palette. Turn off the visibility of COLUMBO by unchecking the "eye" icon.

Click on COLUMBO copy and rename it SHADOW, then change the colour from yellow to black.

Make COLUMBO visible again by clicking the "eye" icon. You won't see it though because it's underneath the SHADOW layer.

In the layers palette, drag the SHADOW layer below the COLUMBO layer and you will now see your yellow COLUMBO title.

You should now see COLUMBO, SHADOW, & background in your layers palette.

With your pointer activated, click on SHADOW. On your keyboard you have 4 arrows. Click the down arrow once and the right arrow once.

You should now see a slight change in your image because have just moved SHADOW one pixel down and right from COLUMBO.

Right click SHADOW and duplicate it. You should now have COLUMBO, SHADOW copy, and SHADOW.

Drag SHADOW copy below SHADOW in your layers palette, and again click down arrow once and right arrow once. You now see a more noticeable change - the block shadow is starting to imerge.

Now duplicate SHADOW copy and you will see SHADOW copy 2. Drag it below SHADOW copy and click the down and right arrows once each again.

Repeat this process as many times as you wish until you're happy with the size of your block shadow effect.

When you're happy with it, highlight all layers (COLUMBO & all SHADOW layers), right click and choose "Group into Smart Object". The title COLUMBO with its block shadow is now fully moveable.

Give it a try, Martin, and let me know how you got on with it.


Re: All Columbo Fonts - a note on ep titles

Thanks for the guide -- I'll give it a go this weekend after I finish my Wife Duties. And Name of the Game? You said it -- what a great show. It was the reason I got into journalism. About 10 years ago, the then-free sample Encore Mystery channel showed them on Friday afternoons, and, after I freaked out (hadn't seen them since the original network run), I recorded about 12 eps. Then, sigh, they quit. I never got to see the Peter Falk ep -- A Sister of Napoli -- and I've always wanted to see how much pre-Columbo he put into the role.

Actually, there werequite a few Columboesque touches in NOTG -- the reporters' subtle poking away at the secrets and crimes of their subject/"suspects" (if you can ever find it, see my all-time fav, "The King of Denmark," which has a mind-blowing murder motive for '60s TV), and the frequent climactic exposure and meltdown of the corrupt/sociopathic/murderous "villain." And Spielberg cut his directorial teeth on NOTG as well as Columbo, in the sci-fi episode "L.A. 2017." I wish Universal would follow Warner Bros.' lead and release some of these rarer shows on an on-demand burnoff basis -- I just got the second season of "Harry O," and am as happy as Leonard Nimoy when he thinks he's gotten away with it :).

Thanks for reminding me of NOTG -- I'll have a private viewing marathon this weekend (as soon as Wife Duties are over).

Re: All Columbo Fonts - Download Here

Outstanding, Steve. Thanks so much.

Re: All Columbo Fonts - Download Here

Wow Steve, thank you very much for this!! Could you name some of the "other Mystery Movies of the 1970s" which used this kind of font as well? I'm just curious.

Re: All Columbo Fonts - Download Here

I think almost all did -- I grew up watching them in the 70s. Positive Hec Ramsey (a western-mystery) and Amy Prentiss (female police chief spun off from Ironside) did. McCoy (conman comedy with Tony Curtis had different credit style) and Quincy had a different one when it moved from the Mystery Movie to a weekly show. I'm pretty sure Lanigan's Rabbi (funny whodunit with a rabbi detective) used Folio, I'm pretty sure.

Going to post later today about the Sunday and Wednesday Mystery Movies -- they were all great TV for a then-teen geek. I'm now a middle-aged geek.

Re: All Columbo Fonts - Download Here

Thanks for the nice comments, guys, you're all welcome. Folio Bold Extended was used on Hec Ramsey & the first season of Quincy, ME, as well as The Snoop Sisters, Tenafly, and Faraday And Co.

Folio Medium Extended Italic (included in my download) was used on Banacek, Madigan, and Cool Million. There are a couple of Banacek episodes which used an italic version of Folio Bold Extended which was never ( as far as I know) officially created by Konrad Bauer & Walter Baum - who designed the whole Folio font family between 1957 - 1962. However, if anyone's interested in an italic version of FBE - normal & bold, I can create one of each in a few minutes. Let me know and I'll do both and post links here...

All Columbo Fonts - Updated Downloads Here

Hi again fellow font freaks...

Okay, as I mentioned last time, I've added 2 extra italic versions of the Columbo fonts to the collection. And to avoid confusion with the names, I've given them a font family name of "Mystery Movie".

So, included in the new font package is:

Mystery Movie Bold
Mystery Movie Bold Italic
Mystery Movie Extra Bold
Mystery Movie Extra Bold Italic
Mystery Movie Medium Italic

For 2 samples of the fonts & how they look applied to other Mystery Movie characters, download these 2 links:

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee436/stevedowthwaite/
COLUMBOFONTS_zps2ab49c64.jpg

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee436/stevedowthwaite/
MYSTERYMOVIESAMPLES_zpsf423affb.jpg

For the links to the 5 fonts, download them here:

http://www.filefactory.com/file/16m51c717i3x/n/Columbo_Fonts_Updated.rar

I would suggest that you delete the previous fonts and install these updated & renamed ones. I hope you like these and all feedback is always welcome.

Re: All Columbo Fonts - Updated Downloads Here

Sorry but the link is dead! :(

Re: All Columbo Fonts - Updated Downloads Here

oz615
Sorry but the link is dead! :(


And so is steviebaby.

Re: All Columbo Fonts - Updated Downloads Here

Uh....perhaps on a more positive note: Anyone who wants the fonts can email me, kerumbo "at" gmail (dot) com. The set comes as a compressed RAR file, so you'll want a program such as 7Zip (free) to extract it into the actual files for installing as fonts. Hope this helps.

Re: All Columbo Fonts - Updated Downloads Here

Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated, as Mark Twain once said. Sorry I haven't responded for a while but I recently suffered a major hard drive crash and lost tons of data. My thanks to Ted for helping out with an alternative download source for the fonts. Glad to hear there are still lots of FBE font fans out there.

Re: All Columbo Fonts - Updated Downloads Here

Good to hear from you, Steviebaby!

Re: All Columbo Fonts - Download Here

Steve

Could you upload the Columbo fonts again?