By Julie Elman I admit it. I have a serious apostrophe pet peeve. I hate to see backwards apostrophes used in place of omitted letters. Example: I’m really into rock ‘n’ roll, especially from the ‘60s. Those reversed marks get me every time. Might as well just stick the sharp end of an apostrophe in […]

Choices, Choices, Choices [So You Want to Create a Font — Part 1] The sheer number of fonts out there (MyFonts.com sells over fifty-five thousand) is a testament to the fact that there are nearly an infinitude of creative choices that can be made when designing a font. Of course there are the basics: serif […]

Mr Type Erik Spiekermann is the HighLander of type. He was no doubt present when Gutenberg got his finger stuck in one of his prototype presses; and he’s still here—his enthusiasm for all things type has not waned. Designer of numerous typefaces including the huge FF Meta family, ITC Officina, FF Unit and many others; […]

BOOK REVIEW Made With FontFont: Type for Independent Minds is a celebration of 15 years of the FontFont type library. The low-down (why do we never say “the high-up”?): it’s big, it’s yellow, has 351 pages and it’s divided into an introduction and five sections. Introduction A brief history of the founding of type distributor […]

By Alec Julien So you’re a brilliant designer, a master calligrapher, and you’ve learned all about serifs, side-bearings, and kerning. Now you want to create your own font. (What! You haven’t learned all about serifs, side-bearings, and kerning? Well, make sure you read all of the articles on iLT before you embark on font creation! […]

Fuel Injected Links I was oh so tempted to post the first in our series of So You Want to Make a Font, but it’s Sunday; and Sunday should be one of those easy days. And what’s more Sunday is my day off (from iLT, at least), so on the odd Sunday, I’ll post some […]

Don’t (dumb) Quote Me As there was so much interest in Ellen Lupton’s book Thinking With Type, I’d like to share this video of a lecture she gave for Escola Superior de Artes E Design (ESAD). If you can’t afford the book, then it’s a great educational piece; and, even if you have read the […]

Lisboa, Leopards and Links Typeforyou.org Oddly enough, this is a type site I only recently discovered. Type For You has a great interview with Ricardo Santos the designer of Lisboa Sans (amongst others), and lots of other type-related news, views and links. You might also want to take a look at my Flickr Group Typographic […]

Eu amo tipografia Thanks again to everyone who sent in their answers to the Kinescope Font Competition (a little over 400 entries). The last prizewinners were from the US and Canada. Today’s winner is Kazuo from Brazil where they say “Eu amo tipografia.” The question was, Mark Simonson Studios has one typeface in its portfolio […]

super size my type Recently I promised some short ‘newsy’ pieces. Meet Subscripts a new and ‘irregular’ feature, where I’ll list some typography resources, web sites and events. First to pop Subscripts’ cherry is: Smashing Magazine’s super-size me feature, The Showcase of Big Typography, which lists a number of sites, that…you guessed it…use big type. […]

If fonts were chocolate You may, or may not, have noticed the featured fonts over on the right and down a little — in that black box. These fonts are sometimes new releases, or sometimes older ones that I’ve rediscovered. The wonderful thing about discovering and rediscovering all these great faces, is that I have […]

and the winners are… Thanks to everyone who contributed to the discussion on Ellen Lupton’s Thinking With Type. I wish I could send everyone a copy, but I don’t have a spare (160x$30). The winners were chosen using the Random Integer Generator from random.org. The first time I ran it, I forgot to take my […]

Book Review If you own not a single typography-related book, then reserve a place on your bookshelf for Thinking With Type. Ellen Lupton’s Thinking With Type is to typography what Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time is to physics. Even those who already know something about typography will benefit from this title. It’s a […]

Seconds Out, Round One Every typeface, like every one of us, has its distinguishing features. You might be forgiven for thinking that some fonts are clones, or identical twins. However, closer inspection reveals subtle differences and nuances that simply escape casual perusal. Something that can really help to heighten our sensitivity to those differences is […]

Here are some typography-related videos. This video is a beautiful brief introduction to typography. Typography is what language looks like - Ellen Lupton. A good typographer is someone who communicates a point of view with skill and imagination and makes the type taste good—Jeffrey Keedy Veteran graphic design, typography and letterpress teacher from the London […]

Part 1: Symptoms typoholism noun. A disorder characterized by the excessive consumption of and dependence on type, leading to physical and psychological harm and impaired social and vocational functioning. Also called typographical abuse, font dependence. You awake in a cold sweat, your hands trembling, your body stiff, eyes bloodshot; you need your fix. In every […]