CreativePro.Com Type Design

A Question of Character: Finding What You Need in Your Fonts, Part 2

Editor in Chief — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:13:14 -0700

In the previous installment of this column, I talked about the first generation of scalable, digital desktop fonts, the so-called single-byte fonts that contained only a couple hundred characters or so. This time we dive into the deep end of the pool: double-byte fonts, big character sets, and awkward font navigation tools.

New Type Suite Is a Study in Contrasts

Editor in Chief — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:53:00 -0700

Press release

TypeTalk: Find Figure Styles in OpenType Fonts

IleneStrizver99 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:36:01 -0600

TypeTalk is a regular blog on typography. Post your questions and comments by clicking on the Comments icon above. If Ilene answers your question in the blog, you'll receive one Official Creativepro.com T-Shirt!

Type Luminaries Speak on PRI

Editor in Chief — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:20:28 -0700

Public Radio International program "To the Best of Our Knowledge" recently devoted an hour to type.

Listen to the episode here.

SEGMENT 1:
The style of type used by the Obama campaign is called Gotham and was designed by the team of Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones. They tell Anne Strainchamps how they feel about having designed the font of Hope and Change and where the design originally came from.

New Fonts from Independent Foundries

Editor in Chief — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:23:39 -0700

Press release

FontShop doesn't just carry fonts from the big guys; it's also your source for the best of independent foundries. Each of these outfits are run by a small group of talented craftsmen and women who are creating original, useful typefaces under their own banner.

Premiéra

TypeTalk: Times Roman vs Times New Roman

IleneStrizver99 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:47:16 -0600

Q. What is the difference between Times Roman and Times New Roman, and why are both listed in my font menu? Is Times Roman the “Old” version? Please explain!

Mrs Eaves Gets a Hubby

Editor in Chief — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:01:08 -0600

Mr Eaves is the often requested and finally finished sans-serif companion to Mrs Eaves, one of Emigre's classic typeface designs. Created by Zuzana Licko, this latest addition to the Emigre Type Library expands the versatility of the original Mrs Eaves with two complimentary families: Mr Eaves Sans and Mr Eaves Modern.

19 Top Combos of the 19 Top Typefaces

Editor in Chief — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:10:21 -0600

Anne-Marie Concepcion spotted the interesting post "19 top fonts in 19 top combinations," written by Douglas Bonneville for the blog BonFX.

Antique Gothic Grotesque: Deciphering the Typeface Name Game

Editor in Chief — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:18:51 -0600

The previous installment of this column opened the can of worms known as type classification. It's the process of assigning names to various kinds of type. The question of whether a face should be called an italic or an oblique is just the tip of the iceberg.

For example, what label would you apply to the following face?

New Typeface Family Well-Suited to Newspapers, Periodicals

Editor in Chief — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:59:55 -0600

Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., a leading global provider of text imaging solutions, has released the 20-font Ysobel Pro typeface suite. All Ysobel fonts can be viewed, purchased and downloaded from the company’s e-commerce sites: www.fonts.com, www.linotype.com, www.itcfonts.com and www.faces.co.uk.

P22 Gets Spooky

Editor in Chief — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:39:14 -0600

Spooky is a new font from designer Ted Staunton and is part of the Sherwood Type Collection. This chilling font is evocative of the type used in horror films and posters. It's creepy, it's kooky... it's spooky! Perfect for invitations, banners or other ghastly uses.

Greek Font Inspired by Roman Column

Editor in Chief — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:28:14 -0600

Greek type foundry Parachute has released Monumenta Pro, a titling face influenced by Trajan (the column, not necessarily the typeface). The letters are based on Roman and Greek characters carved on stone.

Monumenta's Normal and Shaded styles are designed to have serifs with a finer thinning. The Metallic style is bolder and simulates in the most realistic way three-dimensional metallic lettering. As a set, they cost $185.

Monumenta includes alternate characters placed at lowercase positions as well as a few stylistic alternates, which are accessed through the OpenType features.

Scanning Around With Gene: Really, Really Deep Type

GeneGable — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:04:43 -0600

I’ve been collecting a few examples of super-three-dimensional type, which I truly love. I can picture a designer drawing these examples using a T-square, triangle, and ruled graph paper (and in a few cases an airbrush). They are the sorts of logos you might draw in an advanced drafting class to show off your mastering of perspective.

All of these examples are from between 1943 and 1953. Click on any image to see a larger version.

Les Kerning Disses Mrs Eaves

Editor in Chief — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:49:12 -0600

For a while now, Extensis has been having fun with the fictional brothers Max and Les Kerning. (Get it?!) Max is fussy about type and everything else; Les is decidedly not so. I've enjoyed their antics -- until the video that came out yesterday.

Free For All: Harvest These Freebies

Editor in Chief — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:04:56 -0600

Take Your Publications Beyond Print and PDF
InDesign and QuarkXPress are the tools of choice for creating a multiple-page publication destined for print or PDF, but neither is of much use when those publications are headed elsewhere. And yet, with the growing popularity of digital magazines, books, and slideshows, you've got to think outside the traditional output media. Of the online applications that are cropping up for this purpose, FormatPixel is among the most promising.