More than half a millennium has passed since the invention of moveable type in Europe. It’s now just about impossible to imagine a world without it. That very sentiment is set in ink in this new print collaboration with Stefan Hattenbach. A sumptuous screen-print of gold, white, and black inks on beautiful red Plike paper. A truly stunning print, and perhaps the perfect Christmas gift!

It’s been a while (too long) since the last Week in Type, so without further ado:

Let’s begin with a smile and this great tee from Able Parris:

A lovely short of Robert Warner dancing with his Golding Jobber press:

Another video. This one a delightful spelling video, and some unusual materials for letterforms:

Practice your kerning (or, more accurately, letter spacing) with KernType.

And read Paul Shaw’s comprehensive review.

All you need is a large chainsaw and an even larger piece of ice. Promo video from Monotype for Kobayashi’s Akko:

A little baffled by Google’s foray into Kickstarter projects. Why would one of the richest companies in the world seek crowd-funding for its fonts. The quality of many of the fonts in their library is pretty poor. Perhaps they should stick to investing in technologies for improving screen fonts, rather than publishing more sub-standard fonts in a market that is already bursting at the seams with crap free fonts. See Stephen Coles’ no-holds-barred Roboto is a Four-headed Frankenfont, where he describes Roboto as an “unwieldy mishmash.”

It’s merger/buyout time: First Adobe buys Typekit. Though Adobe fails and fails again when it comes to software, when it comes to fonts, they’ve done well. If they keep the present Typekit team — and they’ve announced that they will — then it’s a really great move.

Then Monotype (Linotype, ITC, et al.) bought Bitstream (MyFonts). Looks like a good deal for Monotype. Not sure what it will mean for customers. Perhaps this is a good time for new players (distributors/resellers) to enter the market?

Type Can, where Type Campers talk about their experience of Dr. Shelley Gruendler’s wonderful Type Camps. New Zealand plays host to the next one in January.

In case you missed it, FontFont has a page devoted to free fonts, including FF Nuvo Web Medium.

Typographic Design in the Digital Domain: Elliot Jay Stocks interviews Erik Spiekermann:

Great to see the Ludlow Projectt has reached its funding goal. Still time to add your support:

Oded Ezer has a great new Hebrew Typography blog:

Think you’ve seen it all? Leg hair letters (upper- & lowercase):

I gave up trying to find a segue from leg hair to Matthew Carter, so:

Highlights from Paul Shaw’s interview with Matthew Carter for the TDC. A must-see:

Bookmarks

How to enable more languages in InDesign CS5.5
FontLab Studio 5.1 released at last. Now compatible with Lion.
What Should I Look For In a UI Typeface? (comments are more valuable than the article).
The trouble with font classifications
Putting the ‘Fonts’ into Webfonts
Seminario de Profundización y actualización profesional en Tipografía
Interactive Typography Effects with HTML5
James Mosley on the Elzevir letter
My Type of Music
The Typography Out Approach
Video interview with Oded Ezer

Still controversial, but if you are in the yes camp, here’s how Ralph Hermann thinks the capital Eszett should be drawn:

Further details on Ralph’s excellent blog, Opentype.info.

New & notable type

Grilli Type is a very promising new Swiss foundry. Like GT Lena,

Cassia, the soft and friendly ‘Egyptienne’ from Dieter Hofrichter, and available from MyFonts:

A display type that’s as fat as they come. Meet Daisy from Ludwig Übele:

Erler Dingbats is free to download and use for both private and commercial use. The core glyphs are from FF Dingbats. You can read more about it on the FontShop blog, the FontFeed; and download it here.

Importantly, it’s Unicode friendly, mapping to Unicode address U + 2700 through U + 27BF, so you can use it on websites and embed it in apps.

Many more great new releases featured on Typedia.

And finally…

There are a handful of Codex magazine still available. Or you can buy the PDF version of Codex.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Sponsored by H&FJ.

Heaven Devoid of Stars

Hard to believe that 2011 is coming to a close. Autumn is showing its face, and before you know it, we’ll be Christmas shopping. Some inspiring stuff in this week’s The Week in Type. Sit back and enjoy.

Let’s begin with a gorgeous book cover by Carlo Giovani for the new Brazilian edition of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth:

Lovely use of Phaeton by Randy Jones & Kevin Cornell.

Via @ThinkingType.

We’ve seen typographic ornaments, clothing, furniture. But what about the floor! Enter LinusDean and their type-themed rugs:

If a rug is too big, then how about something a little smaller: Type-Rings:

The Wood Type Revival site of Matt Griffin & Matt Braun has launched. This started out as a Kickstarter project. You can now buy licences for some of the ‘revived’ fonts. Some of the library is available on Typekit.

Linotype is one of the last of the big font foundry/distributors to redesign their websites. Looking pretty good. Certainly a huge improvement:

PBS continues its series of Off Book shorts with one devoted to type:

This could well be the world’s largest printing type. The work of Nick Sherman:

And, yes, he printed with them.

Created for the Wood Type Evolved exhibition at Columbia College, Chicago. The exhibition runs until December 10, 2011.

Promotional video for Simon Garfield’s Just my Type:

Just My Type from Pentagram on Vimeo.

And Paul Shaw’s scathing review of the book.

I recently featured the work of the 2011 Hague Type Design graduates. Now for the Reading class of 2011:

Particularly like Saja for its Korean component, and mostly for its ground-breaking true italic:

Vaibhav Singh’s Eczar is also pretty ambitious. Like the stencil:

Web Fonts has just released its Web Font plug-in for Photoshop. Basically access to the entire library of WebINK web fonts for comping.

See Elliot Jay Stocks’ review of the plug-in for more info.

Emigre’s award-winning type specimen catalogs are now available for free as PDF files:

Wonderful interview with the brilliant graphic and book designer Irma Boom:

via @klimtypefoundry

Bacteria type. You might not want to try this at home:

Via @tina_stsh. Didn’t Oded Ezer do something similar to this a while back?

Right now the annual ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) convention is in full swing in Iceland. We’ll have a review posted here in due course. For me one of the highlights is the release of the long-awaited font editor, RoboFont.

And congratulations to type designer Eben Sorkin who was nominated for election to the ATypI Board. Great news.

New fonts

Love Filmotype Prima available from FontShop. Drawn by Patrick Griffin (see also his Ambassador Script & Bigfoot)

The bulbous and voluptuous Fiance by Sudtipos:

A lovely new Fatface from James Puckett of Dunwich Type. Meet Sybarite in four weights with complimentary italics:

Like the naming convention: Small, Medium, Large, and Huge.

And Mark Simonson scores another home run with his third typeface in the Filmotype ‘G’ series, Filmotype Gay. Wonderful:

See also Filmotype Ginger and Filmotype Glenlake.

Abril from TypeTogether is a really sound text face. Interesting are the dual sources for the complimentary text and titling styles. The titling face is based on the Didone, while the text face is inspired by the Slab Serif and Scotch Roman. Comes complete with a number of typographic ornaments and borders:

Bookmarks

The shape of of future book.
Roman Opałka: 1 – ∞
What made scribes laugh?
About face: Ratio Display
Three-Letter approach to kerning
Typotheque sues US presidential candidate Rick Santorum
Stop Motion Video Introduces The Vocabulary Of Typography
Veer Ideas: Behind The Typeface
The books business: Great digital expectations
Really looking forward to @Contents magazine.
Who really designed Times New Roman?
Some nice spreads of Codex magazine over at Typetoken and here.

Finally, some news about Codex magazine. You may have heard via Twitter that I am having problems with PayPal and their arbitrarily imposed rolling reserves. Without going into the impossibly dull details I’ll just say that Codex will be published twice yearly instead of quarterly. Though it will mean fewer issues per year, it will mean that the quality remains exceptionally high. Work on issue two has already begun, and I hope to publish it in December or thereabouts. If you enjoyed issue #1, then you will go crazy for issue #2. As issue #1 is almost sold out (4,000 copies sold!), I will be releasing a PDF version soon. I will announce it on Twitter.

Finally, finally, I have some great new feature articles coming soon to ILT. So, keep your eyes peeled, and have a really great weekend, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing.

Today’s I Love Typography header set in Jean François Porchez’s AW Conqueror Carved One & Four.

Sponsored by H&FJ.

Gay type

Before I dive into this week’s the week in type, I’d like to tell you a little more about Codex, the journal of typography. First, I’d like to introduce the Codex team: the Editor in Chief, Carolyn Wood and Assistant Editor, Allen Tan. It’s a joy to work with them — a mixture of many late nights and hard work with laughter and occasional obsessive-compulsive behavior. It is without a doubt the most incredible, most rewarding project I’ve ever worked on. Working Format in Canada is designing the magazine, and the latest proofs I saw are wonderful. The supporting cast includes H&FJ’s Knockout and Commercial Type’s Lyon, gracing 144 full-color pages. The magazine measures about 8″ by 11″, (approx A4).

We have great authors writing exemplary material for the first issue. For more about the magazine, including its design and contents, be sure to follow @Codex on Twitter and sign up on the Codex website. The full web site, built by Justin Stahl, will be coming soon. And, for all of you who have been so patient, the magazine will be in your hands in April.

And without further ado, please enjoy this week’s week in type.

Love this series of font face posters from the Spanish studio atipo:

LetterMPress is a truly inspired and fun idea.

LetterMpress™ will be a virtual letterpress environment—released first on the iPad—that will allow anyone to create authentic-looking letterpress designs and prints.

For more information, and an opportunity to invest, visit their Kickstarter page.

Suitcase Type Foundry has just released this nice and innovative Type Specimen app for the iPad:

And it’s free.

A lovely teaser or intro by character.fi:

www.character.fi from aleksi hautamäki on Vimeo.

A superb new site. The Case & Point:

The Case & Point is a curated selection of custom type design and lettering created for a specific project or use.

You can follow them on Twitter too, @thecaseandpoint

Nick Sherman made my day when he posted this. Words fail me, but if you could see my smile:

The Noun Project:

The Noun Project collects, organizes and adds to the highly recognizable symbols that form the world’s visual language, so we may share them in a fun and meaningful way.

Fonts in Use continues to impress. A great piece on Moby Dick, the Arion Press edition.

This isn’t a new project, but one I’ve only just discovered. Bauwelt, a German architectural publication, redesigned by edenspiekermann. It’s just wonderful:

Paul Shaw’s brilliant Overlooked typefaces:

Nice lettering and illustration from Darren Booth:

Discovered a PDF of De Vinne’s The practice of typography: modern methods of book composition (1904). Long out of print, but worth reading. Letterpress printers in particuler will enjoy this one.

New Types

Sweet Sans from the incredibly talented Mark van Bronkhorst:

The engraver’s sans serif has been a popular lettering style since around 1900, yet digital interpretations of it have been limited. From antique engraver’s “masterplates,” Mark van Bronkhorst has produced a family that gives the designer a greater range of weights and styles, in both Standard and Pro character sets.

Opula, a new Didone-inspired titling face from Brian Jaramillo:

Yana from Laura Worthington.

Torino Pro, Jason Walcott’s revival of Alessandro Butti’s italic Didone. Swashes and ball terminals aplenty:

Be sure to check out History of the Book’s stream on Flickr. Many new additions, including the magnificent Vesalius woodcuts of 1543:

Looking forward to the publication of Explorations in Typography — Mastering the Art of Fine Typesetting. I’ve pre-ordered mine.

A young and upcoming book designer to keep your eye on: Nina Stössinger. Particularly like this, Das Auge des Wals, a novel by Danish writer Arthur Krasilnikoff:

And Nordlandliebe, a 160-page anthology published by Verlag Martin Wallimann:

Great to see Hrant Papazian’s TMF Patria used to set the texts.

Some great content being posted to WLT. We’ve now reached 10,000 submissions. I can barely keep up:

Reading list

In search of the font effect.
The lost art of editing.
Designers and Books.
Typedia, Type News: Hwæt-Out.
How to open a new book.
iPad Review: The Daily.
Graphic Content: Carter Sans.
Why The Glass Is Half-Full For Tablet Magazines.
An abbreviated history of books.
John Walters lauds Erik Spiekermann.
An interview with type designer Stefan Hattenbach.
Preliminary program of TYPO Berlin 2011.
The Pilcrow.

Have a great, great week.

Sponsored by H&FJ.

iType

Hope you enjoy this week’s week in type. To kick things off, lets all give a warm hand to the makers and bakers of the fonts that made it into MOMA’s permanent collection. Particularly happy yo see Barry Deck’s Template Gothic in there — one of my all-time favorite quirky display types.

Be sure to read Jonathan Hoefler’s thoughts over at the exceptional Kottke. H&FJ see four of their types added to the collection: HTF Didot, Gotham, Mercury and Retina.

New types

The lovely new Carter Sans from Matthew Carter. Available from Linotype:

Looks especially good in all-caps settings.

Juliet Shen’s Bullen, available from Font Bureau:

Complete with an italic aspiring to be a script.

On the money with LettError’s LTR Federal:

Added to my growing font shopping list.

Pollen by Brazilian designer Eduardo Berliner. Available from Typetogether. Three fonts: regular, italic, and bold. And be sure to take a look at Pollen’s PDF specimen.

A taste of Art Nouveau, with Typonine’s newly released Delvard:

Inspiration

Type Snobs? Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich and Matteo Bologna talk about the concept for this year’s Type Directors Club call for entries:

Type Snobs from Type Directors Club on Vimeo.

The original typomaniac Erik Spiekermann, interviewed for Deutsche Welle TV:

Typographer and communication designer Erik Spiekermann on Deutsche Welle TV from Edenspiekermann on Vimeo.

Make it Better:

Make it better from Sebastianbap on Vimeo.

The Typographic Hub. A project to keep an eye on:

New T-shirts featuring FontStruct fonts:

Photos of pages from a Day & Collins wood type catalog:

Some great work over at Ross Milne’s site, including this custom lettering that I’m particularly fond of:

Twenty-six Types from Craig Wills:

More typing than type, but fun nonetheless. Z-Type:

Some great T-shirts designed by calligrapher and lettering artist, Luca Barcellona. The Gold Series:

I have a copy of Early Venetian Printing Illustrated in my library. It’s difficult to find, as it’s been out of print for decades; but it is available on Archive.org. You can view it online, or download the PDF. Hundreds of facsimiles of woodcut initials and decorative borders.

This one printed by Bernardinus de Benaliix in Venice, 1486.

Typefaces of the World, an ‘infographic’ poster by Shelby White. Not sure of its usefulness, but it does look nice.

Events

This year’s TypeCon ‘Surge’: New Orleans, Louisiana — July 5-10, 2011.

Type links

Stephen Coles: Some Thoughts On Web Fonts.
Discussion: How does Webtype compare with Typekit?
Typetogether newsletter.
Three questions, nine typographers.
Tom’s Glossary of Book Publishing Terms (humorous).
Daily Calligraphy.
Subsetting CJK fonts for web delivery.
A life in letters: Remembering Zvi Narkis.
Designing a 22nd-century classic: Oded Ezer
Johanna Biľak’s Jigsaw used by Tzegoh — Fonts in Use.
Typophile: The caron in ascending letters.
Pseudo-study: Comic Sans Makes Learning Easier. (In other news: A breed of farting monkeys has been discovered on Uranus.)
Free App Icon template.
Redefining Design: Introducing the New Face of Print Magazine
Introducing the New Face of Print Magazine.

Have a great weekend!

Sponsored by H&FJ.

MOMA on the money

Perhaps you thought ‘The Week in Type’ was dead. Well, this post marks its resurrection. It won’t be weekly just yet, but from 2011 it will be: a weekly roundup of new releases, type and lettering to inspire, type tips, videos, and lots, lots more. If you haven’t yet subscribed to ILT, then do so now — that way, you’ll never miss a thing. So, ladies and gentleman, without further ado, I present The Week in Type. Enjoy.

The biggest news from my camp is that ILT will soon be a publisher, the publisher of Codex, the journal of typography. A real ink and paper magazine, measuring approximately A4, and weighing in at around 150 pages. An eclectic mix of longer articles, shorter essays, opinion pieces, interviews, type tips, inspiring type treatments, and … well, you’ll see. I’m more than a little excited about its launch. The presses will begin rolling Q1, 2011. I hope to be taking pre-orders at the end of January. Codex will be available online, and will ship anywhere in the world. The plan is for Codex to be a quarterly. Codex is also looking for advertisers, so if you’d like to be a part of the magazine, then send an email to johno@ilovetypography.com

Enough about me. 3, 2, 1:

Always nice to begin with something beautiful. Patrica has photographed and uploaded these wonderful lettering specimens from the French Album du peintre en batîment (1882). Here are just two to whet your typographic appetites (lettering appetites to be precise; but perhaps they will inspire revivals or derivative works.

Beautiful isn’t it.

And just one more. This one struck me! Remember this is dated 1882, yet this rounded sans looks so much more recent. Bearing the caption Forme Bambous, or Bamboo shaped! Looks more like steel to me.

Lots more to drool over in Patricia’s Flickr stream.

Sixteenth century scribes didn’t own marker pens, but had they, then they might have done something like this. The wonderfully talented Luca Barcellona:

Legacy of Letters from Vimeo.

Typograph, a very useful little tool for web typography. An easy way to create vertical rhythm.

Like this work from Dowling | Duncan:

via @klimtypefoundry. Ten points if you can name the typeface.

Ttype is an interesting way to find fonts. For now it only supports Safari and Chrome. It uses the MyFonts database, so tens of thousands of fonts:

A fun book, that would make a fine Christmas present. Hyperactivitypography from A to Z, published by Gestalten.

via @CreativeReview

Chocolate. Who doesn’t like chocolate? Chocolate type! Well, you just can’t go wrong, though I might feel a little guilty munching on these gorgeous glyphs. I want to see Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche eating these in Chocolat Deux.

Drawn, molded, poured (and no doubt eaten) by the Type & Media students. Extra points if you can name all the type styles.

And the making of:

Type]Media2011 Chocolate Letters from Yanone on Vimeo.

New type

Let’s begin with a script. Stephen Rapp’s Hiatus. Lots of alternates and flourishes. Though it’s a connected script, its low body and generous extenders let in a lot of light. A very pretty script:

Lady Rene, a collaboration between Laura Varsky & Ale Paul:

Modern takes on Blackletter types can be disastrous, but recently, Martin Wenzel, with Ode, showed that it can be pulled off. The recently launched BAT foundry has pulled it off too. Here’s Adso, drawn by Bruno Bernard. Impressive:

Commercial Type’s latest release will have you sighing ‘oh!’ when you’re looking at the roman; then you’ll be moaning orgasmatronic oohs upon seeing the italic — the fatter the italic, the bigger the ooh. It really is lovely. Paul Barnes’ Dala Floda started out as a logo, then was used by frieze in 2005. Now it’s been expanded to twelve fonts, including that voluptuous Fat Italic. Stencil meets French Renaissance:

Svetoslav Simov’s reinterpretation of Art Deco in his Aston:

Another stencil type. Ray Cruz’s Cruz Stencil:

And one more: Embarcadero from MVB Fonts. Grotesque sans meets vernacular signage. Love it.

Other type

Leyton, a lovely, fat, counterless display face from The Colour Grey, and available through MyFonts.

Perfect for Christmas. Surprised I haven’t yet seen this typeface used in an ad campaign for Marks and Sparks or Coca Cola: Snowflake from Drop Cap Queen, Jessica Hische.

Tips & tricks

A very neat solution to custom kerning in Adobe InDesign:

Add subpixel-hinting to your PhotoShop text layers:

Font Game

Any day now the updated version of the smash-hit Font Game for iPhone and iPod touch will be submitted to the app store. Version two comes with lots more fonts, a terminology game, scalable samples, favourites, Retina Display graphics, Game Center integration, and much more. I’ll shout its release on Twitter. Justin Stahl, the app’s developer, has done an exceptional job. I can’t wait for you all to see it.

Sneak peek at the upcoming Font Game HD for the iPad. Expect it to hit the app store in January.

Type Links

The last letter engraver Kinnosuke Shimizu.
Where Microsoft beats Apple — via @zeldman
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Typeface
TeX line breaking algorithm in JavaScript
WOFF File Format 1.0 Submission Request to W3C
Font Displayer for testing typefaces on the iPad.
Helvetica vs. Arial iPhone app.
Worthy text alternatives to Georgia.
Web Type at Last! — John D. Berry.

Henry Caslon’s specimen of printing types digitized by Google books:

I’ve ordered mine — Issue number two of 8 Faces magazine. Get yours before they’re sold out. Interviews with Martin Majoor, Ale Paul, Stephen Coles, Tim Brown, Nick Sherman, Rich Rutter, Veronika Burian, and José Scaglione.

And, just in case you missed it, be sure to read H&FJ’s Four Techniques for Combining Typefaces. Forget those silly out-dated, arbitrary cross-reference grids. Read the H&FJ article instead.

Emigre has produced a wonderful series of specimens in their Historia catalog.

Great examples of how to combine type. These demonstrate too that the rules about mixing and matching type are mostly nonsense.

Back to H&FJ: their entire library is now available in OpenType format. Particularly pleased to see Requiem in there. That reminds me: one more H&FJ news item. Something many will be excited about. On Twitter, Jonathan Hoelfer (HEFF-lur) writes that H&FJ webfonts are on the horizon.

And finally…

I have begun compiling my list of favourite types for 2010. Knowing my luck, December will witness an avalanche of beautiful new types. If that happens, then I guess I’ll just extend the list. In the meantime, you might want to take another look at my 2009 list.

Hopefully, some time before the sun turns into a red giant and vaporises our solar system, I’ll be rolling out a redesign of this site. Very excited about next year, what with Codex, that redesign, weekly Week in Types, and A Beautiful Book, a sumptuously illustrated book I’m co-authoring with Dr Paul Dijstelberge.

Next week on ILT: Sea changes — the coming of the book.

Have a great weekend! It’s back to lots of coffee and lots of InDesign for me.

Header set in Photina MT, Ultra Bold Italic.

Sponsored by H&FJ.

Codex type

Welcome to a slightly later than usual week in type. Lots happening in the world of web fonts — links to the best content below. There’s also free stuff, so don’t click away.

I’m thrilled by the launch of a new type foundry, Mota Italic. Congratulations to Rob and Co.

As others have noted, the shopping cart is particularly novel and intuitive. Be sure to check out Vesper, their present flagship typeface; it’s bursting with lots of OpenType features, including numerous smart contextual alternates.

This article’s header is set in Vesper Pro Italic & Heavy Italic.

Inspiration

This wonderful invitation for Ale Paul’s TDC talk on November 3:

Nancy Harris Rouemy from the NYT Sunday Magazine designed it with ten (yes ten!) of Ale’s fonts. I wonder who can name them all.

Love this series of photos from Lajos Major:

A web site from Ascender Corp., dedicated to the Frederic & Bertha Goudy:

New Fonts: A Graphic Designer’s Perspective is a wonderful piece on the H&FJ blog. I’ve always loved their specimens (both on- and off-line). A must-must read:

It’s no secret that Trajan is the movie typeface. If you don’t believe me, then take a look at this Flickr pool:

Some fine alternatives to Trajan over at FontShop. — via @zeldman

Which leads nicely on to this great piece over at the FontFeed, about the making of the Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles:

I’m sure you all know Nicholas-Felton. Now he has most of his portfolio on Cargo. Nice:

I think I’m going to be buying a copy of alphabeasties and other Amazing Types (I’m sure I’ll have children one day — when they come genetically engineered not to cause trouble and puke over one’s clothes):

You can read more about it at the brilliant Grain Edit. — via Christian Schwartz.

iA (Information Architects, Inc.) has posted a great piece about their pitch for the redesign of the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. They’ve even posted the entire proposal online — a 95MB PDF:

I like their choice of Frutiger Next & Frutiger Serif (Meridien), and the idea of highlighting key words in blue to facilitate scanning. Be sure to follow iA on twitter.

Video

Typembrya by Oded Ezer from www.odedezer.com on Vimeo.

LAIKA, the dynamic typeface:

And a little more info about the project at Laika.ch.

I like this video promotion for Neuforma:

We’ve had Helvetica the documentary; now:

No comment. And, if that’s not enough Comic Sans for one day, here’s an entire book set in Comic Sans. Someone had to do it.

Be sure to check out Jos Buivenga’s Wild Type Gear:

New faces

At last, a sans-serif companion to Mrs Eaves. Meet Mr Eaves Sans:

And if that’s not enough, there’s Mr Eaves Modern. Thank you Zuzana Licko.

A redesign and update of Linotype Really. Meet Really No. 2:

This is fun. A slabby Western by the name of Cowboyslang, from Hype for Type:

Featured face

First up is the lovely Starling from Font Bureau:

An interesting back story to this typeface. You can read more about it over at FontShop (scroll almost to the bottom of the page).

The wonderful Aunt Mildred:

Specimen from FontShop’s Flickr stream.

Web fonts news

Lots to report. In addition to growing support for the new Web Open Font Format (WOFF) specification, there’s this wonderfully exciting taste of what the future holds, and how browsers will one day begin to take full advantage of OpenType features: read After Firefox 3.6 – new font control features for designers and be sure to watch the video.

WOFF sample page — you will need the latest development version of FireFox to actually see the fonts at work (or wait until FF 3.6). Let’s hope the other browser vendors get behind it, and start implementing support for WOFF.
Boing Boing Redesign Uncovers Web Font Ignorance

Where to get Web fonts

Better Postscript CFF font rendering with DirectWrite.

Typotheque has now released its Web fonts. Comes with a 30-day free evaluation, so why not give it a go:

I used it while they were testing the service, and It’s pretty easy to set up.

If you’re wondering how it all works, then watch the video:

They also have a comprehensive FAQ.

From Typotheque to Typekit — nice use of David Březina’s Skolar. Site designed by Jason Santa Maria for Liz Danzico:

Type links

An interview with Rob Leuschke
Ellen Lupton on 90s typography
Web typography techniques
Designing a font to preserve a vanishing language:

League of Type voting
The awful new Hilton logo
Covering the Good Books
Matthew Carter and Hamilton Wayzgoose
I have seen the shadow of the moon
Serene Infoboards
The Art Institute of Chicago — Pentagram
NBC Sued in Font-Related Flare-Up — via

Need a new wallet? Look no further than:

via @danoliver

Events

Type as Object — Oct 20 through Nov 20:

Typo Zürich
Typographic Exploration in Hangul
Adopt a Bodoni

On a lighter note

Think you can tell Helvetica & Arial apart? If you read my Helvetica versus Arial from the archives, you’ll be well-prepared for Ironic Sans’ Arial-Helvetica quiz:

via @typophile

And the winners are…

Congratulations to Dan Reynolds for winning gold in the Designpreis Deutschland for Malabar (his third award for this typeface):

And another three cheers for David Březina for winning first place at the Gransham International Type Design Competition for Skolar Pro (Cyrillic):

Available for purchase later this year from Type Together.

Free stuff

Seb Lester has kindly agreed to give away one of his wonderful prints. The winner gets to choose from Tits Arse or Hellfire.

To be in with a chance to win one of these great prints, simply be following @seblester and me, and tweet about this post. Be sure to add the hashtag #ilovetypography, then I can find you and enter you into the draw. I will announce the winner early next week.

And finally

If you haven’t already RSS-subscribed, then you can do so with a mere click of your mouse. Would be nice to see ILT squeeze past the 50,000 mark. Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this week’s the week in type. Have a productive and happy week.

Sponsored by H&FJ.

Sex, lies, & type

Let’s jump straight in with some great photos from the Type & Media graduation exhibition. Really impressed, not only by the quality of the types, but by the specimens. Here’s a detail from the graduation poster:

And here are a few of my favourites types (by no means all of them):

Arietta by Abi Huynh:

Preto by Ján Filípek:

Malausséne by Laure Afchain:

Abi, a graduate of the Type and Media Masters program, has kindly agreed to write a piece about the class of 2008-09. What’s more, he’s sending me a couple of the above graduation posters, that I will be giving away here on ILT, via Twitter.

Tokyo based designer Craig Mod sent me a link to this Web page demonstrating the potential of @font-face.

The page also lists numerous @font-face related resources and articles. You’ll need a @font-face friendly browser like the new FireFox 3.5 (Safari and Opera seem to have some problems with @font-face referencing in conjunction with CSS pseudo selectors…). I like that even the Hedera used in the background (top-right) is text. What do you think?

Type news

Small Batch Inc., the company behind TypeKit has secured funding from some pretty big names. Among them: Twitter CEO & co-founder Evan Williams, Flickr founder Caterina Fake, and Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg. It’s good news, but ultimately the success of TypeKit will hinge on its ability to broker deals with the foundries and distributors. Unfortunately I’ve heard nothing about who, if anyone, is on board. One of the problems is that the font industry can hardly be described as such. Perhaps the only way forward is for the larger distributors like MyFonts (Bitstream), FontShop, LinoType, and Veer et al. to broker deals with the people at TypeKit. Then the foundries (there are thousands) who sell their fonts through those distributors have the option to opt-in to the scheme, thus making their fonts available for TypeKit and its implementation of @font-face. But then that still leaves big and important and independent players like H&FJ. Interested to hear what you think.
via typographer.org.

New fonts

Kevin Cornell is one of my favourite illustrators. Insanely talented (& perhaps insane) and very funny to boot, you perhaps know him by his illustrations for A List Apart, or through his Web site Bear Skin Rug. I’m surprised he hasn’t done this before. Anyway, better late than never. He and Randy Jones, designer of Olduvai (see below), have turned some of his lovely Victorian flavoured lettering into a font. Meet Phaeton:

Comes with a pretty extensive character set for this style of font, and numerous ornaments and dingbats, or miniature illustrations. This is going to find its way onto a book cover soon. Stay tuned for more from Cornell and Co.

And here’s Olduvai I mentioned above. Not new, but I like it:

Be sure to take a look at the Olduvai PDF specimen too.

The latest addition to my own font library, Fugu, drawn by Neil Summerour and available though TypeTrust:

And a lovely script with countless intelligent alternates — Liza Pro from Underware:

Whatever you call it — 42-line Bible, B42, Mazarin Bible, Gutenberg Bible — you can now view most of the two volumes online, thanks to the Harry Ransom Center.

The images are from the University of Texas copy that was purchased back in 1978 for a cool $2.4 million.

Great piece over at LetterCult on the making of Mark Simonson’s Kandal.

If you think working with FontLab is a chore, then step away from the computer, and take up your pencil, French curves and tracing paper.

You’ll want this

until you see the price. Via @SuzanneLemon, who wrote, I want it so badly I’m thinking of selling my soul to buy it. Can you buy souls on CraigsList? (Gogol-List, perhaps).

Nice die-cut stationery from Hyperkit:

Via Do it for the fame.

Experimental type design from Friday Fonts:

Via @designworkplan

Events

Seb Lester will be holding an exhibition of new work at the Electrik Sheep gallery in Newcastle (UK) next month. I’ve been lucky enough to have a sneak peek. One of the new pieces is certainly his best piece yet.

If you have a type-related event that you’d like to share, then simply send it to johno@ilovetypography.com, with type event in the subject line.

Letterpress

I’ll let you into a little secret. I have a thing for girls who print. An ink-smeared girl with dungarees— OK, I’d better stop there. Let me introduce you to the ultimate male (or gay girl) type nerd fantasy, Ladies of Letterpress:

There are a number of Ladies who print on Twitter too. Here are several I know of:
dolcepress dingbatpress, kristaprints, and moontreepress.

If you know of more, then leave them in the comments and I’ll add them here later. No stalking, please.

And some work: this simple and lovely card from Dingbat Press:

Discovered WoodTyper while listening to Nick Sherman on the RBtL podcast. A site dedicated to wood type (something Nick knows a thing or two about):

There are business cards, and then there are business cards. Half-inch thick, and made from recycled CDs and water containers:

Be sure to subscribe to FPO — great content.

Love this cover from USSR in Construction, a Soviet propaganda journal:

Via @iamkhayyam

Like this cover and spreads by Stockholm-based Frankenstein:

Ballets Russes The Stockholm Collection, published by Dansmuseet & Langenskiöld.

Font picks

My first typefaces of the week is a sans called… wait for it… Fishmonger. Love the tapered joins in the lowercase:

It’s available in numerous weights and styles (50 fonts!). Among other things, I think it would make a great logotype choice; or used to set an Architectural journal or magazine. [PDF specimen]

From minimalist sans to something strongly calligraphic. Vatican by Alan Meeks:

Type links

An interview with Nick Sherman of MyFonts — RBtL
The art of the carved letter (video) — via
Go Font Urself 2
What was next (audio)
Fixing Futura
Revised Web fonts proposal
New work on fonts at W3C
An interview with Canada Type’s Patrick Griffin
Angles of acuteness
Wedding invites — design sponge
The Questa project
First Saarbrücken Typostammtisch

Gargantuan give-away

I’ve decided to move the give-away to the beginning of next month, because ILT will turn 2 on August 8. So the give-away will celebrate ILT’s second birthday, and is ultimately a way of saying thank you to ILT readers.

I won’t list all the prizes here (there are more than 40). But these should whet your appetite:

$200 font voucher from FontShop, Fonts & merchandise from Veer and House Industries, a limited edition Flames print by Seb Lester, free hosting from Fused Network, plus lots of Field Notes, limited edition screen prints, letterpress stuff, books, CDs, DVDs, and much more. Most of the prizes will be given away via Twitter, with a couple of the larger prizes going to the winner of a competition (yet to be arranged). I will begin the give-away on August 8, and will publish more details then.

But why wait for next month! Today I’d like to give away three letterpress prints by Kevin Cornell, and available exclusively through Coudal:

Just include the hashtag #ilovetypography in a Tweet, and you’re automatically entered into the draw. I’ll pick three winners (one letterpress print per winner), and announce them in 48 hours. I can ship anywhere.

Have a stupendous week.

Who can name the fonts and styles used in the gratis, free, nothing graphic?

Sponsored by H&FJ.

Mojo Type

Welcome to another roundup of what’s new in type. If you missed the interview with French type designer Alice Savoie, then be sure to take a look. Alice’s next typeface, Capucine will be released through the Process Type foundry. Follow them on Twitter, and you’ll be informed the moment it’s released.

Not quite sure how I failed to mention this before. Chester Jenkins & Kris Sowersby bring us Galaxie Copernicus:

the seriffed sister of Galaxie Polaris. And speaking of Kris Sowersby, I received this stunning KLIM type foundry specimen in the post. KLIM is Kris’ foundry. The specimen is really a well-designed book. (There should be a photo of it here, but I couldn’t find my camera’s USB cable). There are few foundries that actually produce good printed type specimens. H&FJ is one of the exceptions; Typotheque another. Can you name a few more? There are some. A limited number of Kris’ specimen books will be available on vllg.com.

Right now, Kris is on a speaking tour of Australia. Dates and venues can be found on the AGDA Web site. And here are the tour posters:

Designed by the talented Duncan of The International Office. The poster is set in National (Kris Sowersby) and Exotique (Kris and Christian Schwartz) for House Industries’ photo lettering collection. I’d love to get my hands on these posters.

If you like your type tight, then you might like this t-shirt:

Via @fontbureau.

New fonts

First the eagerly anticipated Anonymous Pro:

I’ve been using Mark Simonson’s Anonymous for coding, for … a long time. The updated Anonymous Pro is a family of four fixed-width fonts. Oh, and did I mention, it’s free! (copyrighted freeware). Be sure to take it for a spin. I think you’ll be impressed.

Discovered this absolute gem of a script from @stwef. Linotype Gneisenauette. Here used in NewWork Magazine:

Fantastic, isn’t it. Available through FontShop.

The Axel family from FontShop AG comprises four fonts, and displays exceptionally well on screen.

The four fonts are just US$19. That’s a limited-time offer, so be quick. Also, see what Dan of TypeOff has to say about Axel. Also featured on the FontFeed.

Typonine Sans from Nikola Djurek:

A double offering from award-winning SuitCase. First up is the slab serif Kulturista:

And Nudista, proffered as an alternative to grotesques like DIN.

Rolet by Simon Page:

Not available as a font file, but available as vectors. There are many more interesting type treatments in Simon’s Typography is everything Flickr set, and on his blog. Via Paul D. Hunt on WLT.

Stefan Hattenbach has completely redesigned his Web site:

I’m still a big fan of Stefan’s Anziano and its lovely set of ornaments:

(The ornaments either side of the RSS feed count are Anziano).

Computer Arts devotes an entire issue to typography:

Be sure to visit Darren Scott’s Typographics blog:

Cyrillic typeface competition

ParaType announces the 2009 International Type Design Competition — Modern Cyrillic.
Open to Cyrillic typeface projects and completed typefaces created and/or
released after January 1, 2006. No other restrictions. No admission fee. Deadline is August 24, 2009.

Typographic sins

Meet — yes, I’m not joking — Helvetica Pointed:

I shall say no more.

Type talk

An interesting discussion on Typophile — initiated by Matt & Aaron of RBtL — on a donation-funded, non-profit, free font foundry.

Web fonts

Since the announcement of TypeKit, the Web has been awash with talk of Web fonts. The following will bring you up to speed:
Typekit blog:

Examining TypeKit
Why TypeKit will change everything
TypeKit — another layer of complexity

My thoughts (briefly):
I’ll be outlining my thoughts about Web fonts in my upcoming (yes, I know it’s been a long time coming) Why type matters article. Right now there really isn’t that much information available. We don’t know how many foundries will be involved, and we have no idea of the pricing structure, so I’m ‘waiting and seeing’. What I am happy about, is that the years of hot air are finally beginning to condense. That someone has the gumption to actually make this happen — that impresses me. Ultimately, if you don’t like the idea of paying for an additional or extended license for Web embedding, then the solution is pretty simple: don’t buy it.

And it looks as though Typekit already has a competitor (though at this stage they are merely competing ideas, rather than competing services). It will be interesting to learn more about Richard Rutter’s solution. In all of the discussions about Web fonts, the only thing that annoys me (and I don’t lose any sleep over it), is that some feel that they somehow have a right to use fonts for Web embedding. I think it’s important to put oneself in the shoes of a type designer who makes his or her living from selling fonts. Type designers should be no more obligated to give away their fonts, than Lexus should be obliged to give away their cars. Anyway, this year could prove to be something of a watershed for type on the Web. All in all, very exciting.

iPhone

After an initial ban by the silly Victorian prudes at Apple, Eucalyptus is now available from the app store. It’s an iPhone e-book reader with access to some 20,000 English-language titles. The text displays beautifully:

At $9.99 it’s not cheap, but I do think it provides the best reading experience for the iPhone. Pocket Picks has a good review. 20% of gross profits from Eucalyptus are paid as a royalty to the non-profit Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.

TypeDrawing is another iPhone app:

Not revolutionary, but for $.99, it’s fun. There’s a Flickr group too.

Type links

Typography’s Role in the Newspaper Recession
Register for TypeCon
Type for the Web — RBtL podcast
Fresh & refreshed — FontShop news
MyFonts — Rising stars
Keith Morris
Royal Mail’s Royal Insignia
Eurostile vs Bank Gothic: This Time It’s Personal

Other news

WLT’s co-creator, Kari is working on a raft of new and brilliant features. Our aim is to get more people involved. But rather than open it up to everyone (which invariably will dilute its strength), we’ll be enabling a secondary kind of contributor account. Stay tuned for more news on that. And while I’m the subject of WLT, here’s my WLT pick of the week:

My first ILT poster should go on sale some time next month. A fairly simple affair. A screen-printed poster, set in Restraint, and printed on A2 black Plike paper. Limited edition of 150. This is not the final design, but it will resemble this:

I’ll also be giving two of them away. My second poster will be of my own lettering. There are still several of Seb Lester’s Mightier posters available from the ILT store. More designs coming soon.

I’ll soon be launching ILT’s gargantuan give-away. 40 wonderful prizes from the likes of Veer, FontShop, and House Industries, plus books, t-shirts, software, posters, and much more besides. 30 of the 40 prizes will be distributed via Twitter, so be sure to follow ILT. You can always unfollow afterwards. I won’t be offended.

Have a great week.

Sponsored by H&FJ.

KLIM Type

I will soon announce ILT’s gargantuan give-away. There are 40 prizes, from vouchers to buy type, and books, to posters and Helvetica Moleskines. As soon as ILT hits 40,000 RSS subscribers, I’ll run the competition. Basically, I’ll do it like this: 20 prizes for the best-submitted type tips; the remaining 20 prizes will be distributed randomly to those who follow me on Twitter. If you haven’t already subscribed, then all it takes is a mere click.

Let’s get started with something free — a free font. A product of the inspired FontStruct, Sessions, by John Skelton, is a free modular display typeface that really is quite special. The specimens are particularly creative, and demonstrate how this face might be used:

You can download the font from FontStruct. There are more samples on Behance.

I’d like to see it released as an OpenType font with features like those available in Linotype’s Madame.

I’m feeling left out. These were sent out by Brazilian design studio, ps.2 arquitetura + design as gifts. Perhaps they’ll send a set to me (not-so-subtle hint):

Via Iain Claridge.

Something for the body. New from the Typography Shop, the sans and serif tees:

Never quite sure how to crop these.

And new from ISO50, is Vuela:

In the very unlikely event that you haven’t seen Scott Hansen’s posters, then do take a look, I recently bought Svenska.

Love this little book from Brighten the Corners. Meet Stanley & Marvin:

If you like this, then you’ll also like The Serif Fairy.

Lots of good work from A2/SW/HK. I particularly like this custom type for Foreground:

I like this work by Brazilian ps.2 arquitetura + design, and for the Museum of Image and Sound:

I also like some of the spreads, and the internal repetition of the cyan from the cover. The typeface set on the cover is the monospaced Simple by Norm, that was later developed as a set of proportional fonts for the Köln-Bonn airport in Germany.

And, talking of monospaced types and Lineto, their typewriter typeface, Valentine (a faithful digital reproduction of the type designed for the Olivetti Valentine) is worth taking a look at:

This is one of many decorated initial caps from illuminated manuscripts, photographed by Eben Sorkin. Absolutely beautiful, isn’t it:

What’s more, be sure to take a look at Eben’s Letters in old books collection. Here’s a little Jenson to whet your typographic appetite:

From decorated type to wood type. The online museum of wood types. Thought I’d mentioned it here before, but discovered I’d only tweeted about it:

Thanks to Antonio for the reminder.

For those seeking a fine start to the blissful[?] institution that is marriage (I’m tempted… but will say no more), look no further than 100 Layer Cake. This piece by Hammerpress:

What do 18,000 nails and the word enjoy have in common. This, by Juan Camilo Rojas:

On a lighter note

Kern in Space is fun game from Veer Ideas. It’s also from whence I borrowed stole this article’s title:

Type links

Oh No! Not More Web Fonts!
Typography tools for Linux
E-book design, and typography
Congress on type — via.
42 typography resources — via Peter van Impelen.
Mayflower Smooth Pro — P22
FontShop welcomes three new foundries
An interview with Ray Larabie
Helvetica & Univers
Printing terminology
Web font embedding, points missing
Web fonts now (how we’re doing with that)

I really want to like these new covers from Faber & Faber, but I just find them incredibly dull. I want to like them because they are an attempt at a purely typographic design; I don’t like them because I can’t see the design; I’m just seeing text slapped on a cover. Perhaps you see something else:

Or perhaps my judgement is prejudiced by my antipathy for Beckett. Of these covers I’m reminded of the words of Vivian Mercier who wrote that Beckett (semi-coincidentally the author of the above books),

has achieved a theoretical impossibility — a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What’s more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice. — Irish Times, 18 February 1956, p. 6.

Sidetracked there for a moment. What next? Ah, yes…

Another free display font. Cube from Font Fabric:

This does not come as a font file, but rather as vectors in an eps.

Read about the Dollar Redesign Project on the exceptional Ministry of Type:

Video

An epic battle. Helvetica vs Arial. Doesn’t do anything for me, but it might for you:

Click here to view the embedded video.

By contrast, this one made me chortle. Partly because, to my surprise, I make a brief (2:01), subtitled appearance in it:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Some very pretty animated type from Madrid-based Cocoe:

Click here to view the embedded video.

New releases

Whereas the relatively recent slab serif Archer, is the product of numerous historical sources, Sentinel takes the Clarendon, dusts it off, refines it, and makes it so much more useable (twelve weights & their italics). What most surprised me is that no-one else had really attempted to fill the Clarendon gap.

I’ve always found Clarendon to be a little claustrophobic for my taste; just a little clumsy too; and I always imagined that it had something to do with those small apertures. Guess I was wrong. I haven’t spent enough time with Sentinel to quite figure out why it works so well. I suspect some kind of magic. I picture Jonathan taking the fonts out of the oven; a solemn nod in Tobias’ direction, and he dusts the freshly-baked glyphs with something that resembles star dust. Anyway, the great thing about Sentinel is (whether or not you’re a fan of the Clarendon) is that H&FJ has reinvigorated or even resurrected the ‘genre’. I really think that Sentinel will come to be the go-to Clarendon.

Neutraface Slab from House Indistries, accompanied by the quality type-related merchandise that we’ve come to expect from them:

New from Linotype is Libelle, a Copperplate Script by Jovica Veljovic.

Comes replete with all the OpenType features that one expects to find in a good script — contextual alternates, discretionary ligatures, initial & final forms, etc.

We love typography

If I were to list all my favourite picks from WLT, I’d be forced to start another post. So, I’ll just feature this drawing by artist Jason Manley:

You can see more of Jason’s work on jasonmanley.com.

And this spread from the Rare Book Room:

And a third from Gig Posters, and designed by Salvador López:

ILT shop

I have the last remaining prints of Seb Lester’s beautifully screen-printed Mightier. These are the last available anywhere, so if you want one, hurry. Moreover, I’ll be printing a couple of my own posters; and, I’ve invited several designers to design new and exclusive posters for ILT. Ideally I’d like to offer two versions of everything: not everyone can afford a limited edition poster or letterpress print, so I’m hoping to offer a standard, less expensive, offset version for all designs. I’m discussing the details with my printer, and will let you know more soon. If you’re a type designer, and would like to design a poster for ILT, then let me know. Stefan Hattenbach is designing the first in the series of posters by type designers.

And, finally…

It’s no exaggeration to say that ILT wouldn’t exist but for the support of The Deck. They’re running a little survey, so if you have a couple of minutes, then please let them know what you think. It’s the most fun you’ll ever have with a survey, I promise — though question #21 is something of a challenge.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s roundup of all things type. Have a brilliant weekend.

Sponsored by H&FJ.

In space, no one can hear you kern

Let’s get right down to business, and start with something really beautiful. Seb Lester, who I’ve mentioned on these pages before, recently released a new poster. The picture below really doesn’t do it justice. The silver print on gorgeous Plike paper is absolutely stunning:

In fact, I don’t like to call this a poster. Flames is a work of art, deserving of a frame. Hand-pulled screen print, A2, metallic silver ink on black 240gsm Plike paper; a limited, signed edition of 100. And, you can now buy it from ILT. These won’t be around long, so hurry if you wish to own one. I’ll soon been posting more of Seb’s prints to the ILT shop. I’ll announce them via Twitter.

Love the work of artist Steve Lambert. Where signage meets art. Wonderful:

Like this piece by Luis Vicente Hernandez, from Madrid. Kind of Art Deco meets wood type:

Like this woven geometric lettering from Jordan Metcalf:

Wear some glyph with one of these MyFonts t-shirts. Which would you wear?

Design Observer scores another hit with this great post on Printers’ marks:

In fact, some of my personal favourite printers’ marks are to be found in Swedish books. Perhaps I’ll write about that some day.

Your message in the sky with SkyTypers. The video on the home page shows how it’s done:

Just pretend you didn’t see the typeface used to set the captions.

What to do with all those old CDs? Well, you could try something like this:

Helvetica Neue Bold, but not as we know it. Sign constructed from 640 CDs.

Thanks, @steveavery.

Fire Type from You should like type too:

This is a great exercise. Take a movie, any movie, and create a poster for it; only using the title and the bare minimum of ornament. A wholly typographic poster:

If you decide to have a go, then be sure to show me.

This next one elicited a wow! These photos are stunning:

What’s even more exciting [deep, shallow breaths] is that you can buy the letters:

Must resist the urge, must resist …
Thanks to David Brown for the heads up. Also mentioned on the Ministry of Type.

Here’s something else I found via Ministry of Type. The Berlin Museum of Letters:

The World Digital Library is definitely worth taking a look at. Pan, zoom, download, enjoy:

Oddly enough, I discovered this Web site in my newspaper.

Really like the work of Japanese Commune Inc; especially this piece, and how it constructs kana from elements of the Latin alphabet:

I’ve seen this type of treatment before, but most make a pig’s ear of it.

Great Flickr set of covers from the Spanish magazine Nuevo Mundo:

Beautiful signage by fokusform:

Some nice branding/identity from Hook:

Just in case you haven’t seen the work of Alison Carmichael:

Smashing Magazine compiled a list of 30 typefaces for corporate design. I usually sigh when I see these lists; however, this is a good one. Here’s one of my favourites from the list:

I’ve been playing with the new Gotham Narrow, and I love it. If you’re a fan of Gotham (and who isn’t), then the new narrow is a welcome edition to the family. And, if you can’t stretch to buying all the new Gothams, then I’d recommend starting with Gotham Condensed.

New Faces

Lots of new typefaces released recently. Here are my top picks:

TDC2 2008 winner, National, from Kris Sowersby, now comes with light and thin weights, with respective italics. Fantastic:

Be sure to take a look at the PDF specimen. The Village specimens are excellent. Would love to see more foundries publishing such comprehensive specimens. A word of warning, however: if you print the specimen, you’ll then be consumed by an overwhelming desire to buy it.

Virtuosa, one of Hermann Zapf’s first typefaces gets an OpenType overhaul, and much more besides. Meet Virtuosa Classic:

From Fountain Type, the new Meadow, drawn by Swedish type designer Göran Söderström:

Catacumba, again from Fountain Type. This one designed by Rui Abreu. Comes with two distinctive titling sets:

Not convinced? Then watch this wonderful little video short from Rui:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Next up is a display face from James Puckett. The nomenclature set to reflect the present global economy. Meet Downturn:

It’s quirky in its intended unevenness, quite square, blocky, no-nonsense, industrial.

Matagrosso, a new rustic calligraphic script from Sudtipos:

I guess this next one shouldn’t be listed under new faces, as it’s unfinished, and therefore unreleased. But it coming along nicely. Read more about Nick Cooke’s work in progress over on Typophile.

Looking forward to its release.

Type links

Can Good Design Save Our Newspapers?
Real fonts on the Web
25 logos with hidden messages
Educational printing workshops in the home of Gutenberg
The romance of printing
Type Nesting — thanks Ivan.
The art of the grid
Slammer app — customizable grid overlays
Comic Sans Hairline — well, made me smile.
40 examples of typography in advertising design
Lots & lots of posters
Typography for Mobile User Interfaces
Arabic light calligraphy
MyFonts April rising stars
Font Police
The H&FJ Institute for Unapplied Mathematics
Web font embedding, points missing
Tal Leming on Web fonts
Letters, logos, & sign systems
Type Camp 2009 — Galiano & India
Jason Santa Maria interview on RBtL

Envelopes for Font Geeks:

OK, let’s take a breather. Got a few minutes (hours) to kill? Then try the type-themed Pong from Hype for Type:

If you’re looking for a WordPress theme that honours your type, then look no further than Thematic:

In fact, it’s not so much a theme as a framework. Whenever I create a new blog, I now start with Thematic. Incredibly easy to work with, and requires minimal edits to get it working with your design.

Letterpress

I have a big soft spot for this kind of over-printed wood type letterpress. This is a piece by Matt Busher from the London College of Communication.

And this piece is one of the very best examples of this method. The work of Nick Sherman:

For a veritable wood type feast be sure to check out Nick’s wood type Flickr set.

Parachute has a great interview with printer Justin Knopp of Typoretum:

Featured face

Here are two of my most recent purchases: first is a type that was originally commissioned by Nancy Harris Rouemy for the New York Times Magazine. Owing to popular demand, it’s now available for us mortals. It’s called Memoriam:

Gorgeous, Isn’t it.

The second is described as an ornament font which happens to contain letterforms. Restraint, the font-child of Marian Bantjes and Ross Mills, is such a pleasure to play with.

What else can I say about Restraint? Buy it.

News & new

For Print Only (FPO) is s great new blog from Under Consideration:

Plenty of proof that print is alive and kicking.

FPO is a blog dedicated to both the visual stimulus and the detailing of the development and production of printed matter.

One to subscribe to.

While we’re on the topic, another great little site from Bryony and Armin is Wordit. A simple idea: they select a theme word each and every month, and invite us all to create an image about or around that chosen theme. This month’s (May’s) word is flow. Why not have a go.

Adobe launches a new type site:

Check out their Font Finder too.

WLT

Now serving more than 3000 type-related images, WLT is proving insanely popular. I have to limit the time I spend on the site; it’s quite addictive. I was going to list some of my favourites here, but this post is already quite long, so just click on over to WLT, and take a look for yourself. Remember, you can now submit your own recommendations via the Repositorium. Kari and I have lots of new features planned. I’d like to thank the contributors for all their posts. Remember, you can naviagate between pages using the left and right cursor keys!

OK, just one pick. This beautiful letterpress piece by the incredibly talented Jessica Hische:

Posted here on WLT. You can read more about Alison over at Creative Review.

Gargantuan give-away

You may have heard me mention on Twitter, the 40-prizes give-away. I have 25 prizes thus far. If you’d like to donate something, then please mail me at johno@ilovetypography.com. Why 40 prizes? To celebrate ILT’s 40,000 RSS subscribers. We’re not there yet, but as soon as we hit that number, then I’ll launch the give-away. More than anything, it’s an excuse to say thank you — to all of you. There are some really great prizes. More details coming soon.

And finally …

A few of you have asked whether WLT will replace the week in type. I hope the above answers that. I have several articles ready to post — a rare luxury. What shall I publish next. I’ll surprise you. Thanks for reading. Have a fantastic week.

Sponsored by H&FJ.

Show some restraint