I released Ennobled Pet on October 17, 1999. It was a novelty typeface made up of paw prints with letters inside them, designed with my mother in mind. She had become interested in computers in the 1990s and enjoyed working with Corel Draw, but none of my techno or heavy metal–inspired fonts suited her needs. Since she was active in dog training, I thought a paw-print font would be something she could enjoy and share with her friends, and it turned out I was right.
The design consisted of uppercase letters placed within paw shapes. To help avoid obvious repetition, I tilted the versions stored in the lowercase slots at different angles, which allowed users to mix them as alternates. I named it “Ennobled Pet” by chance, after flipping through a dictionary until I found something that sounded appropriate.
It was released as a free commercial-use font from the start and remained in circulation until November 2022, when I placed it in the public domain. I never saw it used outside of my mother’s circle of dog enthusiasts, but it was a reminder that even small, playful projects can have value.