For you Fontlab junkies, Tim Ahrens just released version 1.6 of his font-remix tools. New to the mix is the RMX Harmonizer which allows you to harmonize glyph shapes. These tools are invaluable for the serious font designer.
Archive for February, 2010
FontFonts Are Webfonts (woohoo!)
Last night FontFont announce that more than 30 of the most successful FontFont families are now available as Web FontFonts®, including FF DIN®, FF Meta®, FF Dax®, andFF Kievit®.
Finally we are getting to the point where the fonts used for print branding can be utilized on the web, thereby allowing for consistent branding across all media.
FontFont provides the following points for why Web FontFonts:
- They look great. Great care was taken to optimize Web FontFonts for display on nearly any screen, whether that screen is connected to a Mac or driven by Windows with ClearType switched on.
- They are easy to buy. Buying a Web FontFont is as easy as licensing a conventional desktop font. There is no subscription to sign up for and you pay only for the font you need. Pricing is determined not by domain or bandwidth, but by the average monthly pageviews for all websites in the licensed organization.
- They work on most major browsers. Web FontFonts are delivered in EOT Lite and WOFF, the two formats supported by the most commonly used browsers: Internet Explorer® and Firefox®, covering more than 90% of all web visitors. We expect other browsers to join in implementing WOFF soon. A free Typekit hosting option extends compatibility to Safari® and Chrome® users.
- No DRM. Because webfonts are essentially shared with everyone who visits a webpage that uses them, some font makers may want to use some sort of DRM to prevent unauthorized use. Not us. Web FontFonts come in formats that work only on websites (not in any desktop app), and do so without crippleware or user interruptions.
- They speak more languages. The FontFont library has always offered top class language support, extending many of the most popular families to include character sets like Central European, Cyrillic, and Greek. Web FontFonts are no exception. The Pro versions contain the same language support as their desktop companions.
More info available at Fontshop’s Blog. Technical info on what you get is here.
Don’t be too surprised if this blog is update to FF DIN or FF Milo sometime in the future.
Typophile: Highsmith on Glyph Space
In the typophile forums their is a livlely debate about Cyrus Highsmith’s Glyph Space blog entry for Font Bureau.
I think the deabte about attachment of spacing to glyphs as a distinctions between typography and writing is interesting. Faces like legato by Evert Bloemsma have tried to address reworking the stroke/ counter relationship. Given this discussion over at typhophile is quite compelling: http://typophile.com/node/66574
Plan Grotesque by Typotheque
Typotheque has just announced Plan Groteseque by Nikola Djurek. From their press release:
Plan Grotesque is a sturdy, unpretentious typeface for text of any kind; it is a functional workhorse, but has enough character to be distinctive at larger sizes. Plan Grotesque has distinguishing closing terminals, and unlike Grotesque typefaces of the previous century it comes with a true italic. Plan Grotesque comes in a comprehensive range of weights, widths and display versions (Normal, Condensed, Stencil,Stencil Condensed). It has friendly, subtly-modulated strokes and is more refined and economic than traditional grotesques.
More info can be found at: http://www.typotheque.com/fonts/plan_grotesque
Plan Grotesque also include a staggering range of numerals across all weights—seven in all. The typeface includes: ranging, or OsF (Old-style proportional Figures) for use in running text. Lining figures for use with capitals letters, because their proportions match the height of caps. Tabular (both Lining and OsF), Superior and Inferior figures, and special numerator figures for usin in fractions.
ILT | Designing Armitage
James Puckett of the Dunwich Type Founders has written and article for I Love Typography about the design process for his typepface Armitage. The link to the full article is here: Designing Armitage.
I am always fascinated by these glimpses into the font design process. To be able to see the inspiration for a typeface, as well as the choices made by the designer are always appreciated.
Armitage is available from FontSpring and MyFonts.
http://www.fontspring.com/fonts/dunwich-type-founders/armitage
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/dunwich/armitage/
H&FJ-Typography Delivered Fresh
Hoefler & Frere-Jones has posted links to all of its old email circulars. Topics covered include — how to choose fonts for information-heavy projects like annual reports being an especially hot topic; though he also encourages his students to dig deeply in the character sets of their fonts; and to look for value when building their own font libraries.
Typographica: Making Geometric Type Work
Ian Moore for Typographica has written an excellent primer on designing type. It is specifically intended for the beginner looking to create geometric faces. While a lot of this info is available from other sources, the article is a wonderfully concise overview of the topic.
Adjusting Stroke Wdths
Drake: Display Font
While watching Disney’s fantastic “Donald in Mathmagic Land” I was so taken with the lettering in the opening sequence that I decided to design an homage revival font based on it. The beginning fruits of this labour is Drake. Work is progressing slowly, but the letterforms are so much fun to work with. The character set from the opening credits is far form complete so some extrapolation will be required.
Webfonts Wiki
Ralf Herrmann has created a webfonts wiki. In Mr. Hermann’s word it is “The website dedicated to webfonts & @font-face embedding”. With info on what webfonts are, to browser support, and demo pages, the wiki is an great resource for those try to navigate the morass that is web typography now.
Guardian Font Collection Now Available
The Guardian Collection by Paul Barnes &amb Christian Schwartz is now available from Commerical Type.
What is the Guardian Collection:
A large family intended for editorial design and situations requiring complex typographic hierarchy, Guardian was designed for Mark Porter’s groundbreaking 2005 redesign of The Guardian. As a text face it exhibits a rational and clear disposition, lending a serious air to the text, while the display components capture a wide range of moods with their comprehensive range of weights.
Currently made up of 4 related families – a Headline size in both Sans and Egyptian; a Text size in Egyptian; and an Agate Sans – this superfamily was designed to fulfi ll every possible typographic need throughout the daily paper: serious news headlines, expressive features, readable text, tiny financial listings, information graphics, and everything in between.
Now at $1200 for the entire collection, this is clearly intended for a larger institutional buyer. Yet without the Agate San, you have a very robust and more affordable superfamily that is easy to recommend to a client. Plus I am always taken in by well executed slabs/egyptians. In particular, I am enthralled by the alternate R in Guardian Egyptian Text.
