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Ilene Strizver
Ilene Strizver, founder of The Type Studio, is a noted typographic educator, consultant, designer and writer. She specializes in all aspect of visual communication, from the aesthetic to the technical. Ilene has written and lectured extensively on type and typographic design to both students and professionals in the field.
Ilene formerly was the Director of Typeface Development for International Typeface Corporation (ITC), where she developed more than 300 text and display typefaces with such respected and world-renowned type designers as Sumner Stone, Erik Spiekermann, Jill Bell, Jim Parkinson, Tim Donaldson, and the late Phill Grimshaw. She cut her typographic teeth by working on Upper and Lowercase (U&lc) and other type projects with such legendary icons as Ed Benguiat, Aaron Burns, and Herb Lubalin.
Her clients included International Typeface Corporation, Monotype Imaging, Linotype, Adobe, Galápagos Design Group, BJ's Wholesale, Haband, Nassau Guardian, Johnson & Johnson and bethere.com.
Ilene has written for HOW, Dynamic Graphics, and STEP Inside magazines. She also authors the popular column "fy(t)I For Your Typographic Information," which can be found on www.fonts.com and www.itcfonts.com. Her current book, Type Rules! The designer's guide to professional typography, 2nd edition, has received numerous accolades from the type and design community. She conducts her widely acclaimed Gourmet Typography workshops internationally.
TypeTalk: Scaling Logos
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on January 7, 2009
What’s the big (or small) deal? Learn how to tweak logos so they look good at any size.
TypeTalk: Hyphens at Your Discretion
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on December 30, 2008
It's much better to use discretionary hyphens than to manually enter the hyphen character. Not only do discretionary hyphens disappear when text reflows and they're no longer needed, but they can even prevent character strings -- like URLs -- from breaking. Here's how to use them.
TypeTalk: Font Importing Problems
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on December 17, 2008
Some FontAgent Pro users experience a seemingly mysterious import problem. Here's the solution.
TypeTalk: Justified Text
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on December 10, 2008
Justified text can look good, but only if you know a few typographical secrets.
TypeTalk: Metrics versus Optical Kerning
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on December 3, 2008
When applications give you a choice of automatic versus optical kerning, which is best? Can you combine the two kerning methods?
TypeTalk: Horizontal Alignment
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on November 20, 2008
Proper horizontal alignment is key to professional-looking typography. Here's how to get it.
TypeTalk: Vertical Alignment
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on November 11, 2008
When it comes to pleasing vertical alignment, let your eyes be the final judge, not leading numbers.
TypeTalk: What Makes a Font a Pro?
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on November 5, 2008
Some OpenType fonts have the word "Pro" at the end of their names. What in the world does it mean?
TypeTalk: Email Etiquette
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on October 29, 2008
Email is different from print publications. But does that mean all typographic rules fly out the window?
TypeTalk: Automatic Leaders to the Rescue
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on October 22, 2008
When you need a string of dots between text, such as you see in tables of contents, don't type a bunch of periods. Add the dot leader automatically!
TypeTalk: Kerning in Action
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on October 15, 2008
In Part 2 of this series on kerning, we look at good and bad examples.
TypeTalk: Kerning Principles
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on October 9, 2008
Unravel the mystery of kerning in two parts. This week is Part 1: the Basic Principles.
TypeTalk: Axes Aren't Evil
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on October 2, 2008
In the world of typefaces, an "axis" refers to the way the round part of a character leans (or doesn't lean).
TypeTalk: Unplumbed Depths
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on September 24, 2008
Are you looking for one particular character in a font that has thousands? A little-known feature of the glyph palette is here to help.
TypeTalk: A Dash of This, a Dash of That
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on September 18, 2008
When you're working with negative mathematical values, is it OK to use a keyboard dash, or a hyphen, or an en dash instead of a minus sign?
TypeTalk: Titling Fonts
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on September 11, 2008
Some typefaces are designed to look best at large sizes. Here's how to spot them.
TypeTalk: Ellipsis Etiquette
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on September 3, 2008
What is an ellipsis, and how do you make one?
TypeTalk: Small Caps in Illustrator
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on August 27, 2008
Illustrator not only squirrels away your access to an OpenType font’s true-drawn small caps in an odd location, but it also has some unwelcome small-caps behavior. Here's how to find the caps and fix the conduct.
TypeTalk: Say No to Word's AutoFormatting
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on August 20, 2008
Microsoft Word may think it's being helpful when it automatically formats your text with numbers, bullets, hyperlinks, and so on. But if you've had enough, here's how to take control.
TypeTalk: Character Reference
Blog: Written by Ilene Strizver on August 14, 2008
Quiz time! Can you tell the difference between a character and a glyph?