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 Inspiration. I don’t moderate this group, so the quality may vary, but I do plan to pick out the best and feature them right here; so if you have some typographic inspiration that you’d like to share, then, well…share it. It doesn’t need to be your own work; could be a photo of some type in a book, or of a road sign — so long as it’s type-related, you can add it to the group.

There’s another wonderful Flickr set put together by Vernon of New Typography: Flickr New Typography Set. Moreover, be sure to check out his other sets on the wonderful Typotect Piet Zwart (1885-1977) and the Typeface Design set.

Typographica

Stephen Coles has been writing on Typography since the 1930s — or at least it feels like it. Insightful news items and never scared to express his opinion on type-related matters. A true Type-Trooper (try saying that with your mouth full). Great discussion around his article, “Embedded” Web Fonts Return. Uh-oh. If you’re both a TypeNut and a MacNut, you’ll want to read “Grading the New Font ‘Features’ in OS X Leopard”. It’s also worth digging around in the archives. You’ll unearth some real gems. Stephen is one of the unsung heroes of type; that’s given me an idea: anyone care to write a type-related Stephen Coles song? You write the words, and I’ll choreograph the dance routine; the other people at FontShop could be the backing singers… (enough! [Ed.]).

iLT news:

Work has begun on an iLT Typography Wiki. I already have a couple of willing volunteers. We need a few more people willing to devote a couple of hours a week, writing and editing entries. You don’t need to be Stephen Bringhurst to help out; if you’d like to be involved, then wing me a mail through the ether at m{AT}ilovetypography{DOT}com, or wing it via the contact form. (I like the word “wing” today, by the way).

I’m also considering starting an I Love Typography Forum. You see, I receive about 100 emails each day; a number of those ask for my opinion on type, to suggesting a typeface for a project. Now, it’s impossible for me to write for iLT and answer 100 emails a day, so I thought a forum might be a good way, not only to build community, but to have you — the famed iLT readers (enough flattery?) — get involved in answering questions and expressing your opinions on type-related matters in a forum. Let me know what you think. I thought we could have the forum divided into sections; for example:

1. Font/Typeface questions;
2. Identify a font;
3. Request feedback on own work;
4. A found type section, where anyone can upload “type they find”, photos, etc.

Would love to hear what you think. If we go with it, it will be your forum, so your input is imperative.

There’s also an iLT page of Type-related videos. If you find others, then leave a note and link in the comments to the Video Page.

Coming up soon is “Getting Started Designing Type — Part One”, and some great tips to improve your web typography. To stay forever tuned, become part of the Type Revolution and subscribe to I Love Typography today.

For iLT’s numerous German-speaking readers, there’s a great podcast on CSS and embeddable web fonts entitled, Technikwürze 94 - Die Webkrauts sind los! It must be good because I listened to the entire podcast, and I don’t speak German. However, Thomas Schaaf of Technikwürze kindly sent me a summary of the podcast in English. Thanks, Thomas.

And finally, to discover who won the Kinescope Font give-away, just follow the link.

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 named after something you might find in the kitchen. Name that typeface.

And the answer is of course, Refrigerator.

Kazuo is a Physicist with a penchant for:

I really wish I could afford to give more away (the prizes come out of my own pocket, by the way, and iLT does not make a profit — in fact it runs at a loss); and although the random integer generator didn’t pick them out of the proverbial hat, these few deserve at least an honourable mention for their entries:

Refrigerator is Simonson’s typeface named after something that might be found in a kitchen… though in my kitchen you’re also likely to find a Felt Tip pen. You’re not likely to find a Coquette, but then, my wife is neither vain nor trifling (and not always in the kitchen anyway). — Joey

On the question regarding a font called after an item in a kitchen, I was a little confused as I have more than once used Sharktooth and on occasion I have been in need of a Grad, but I’ll settle for Refrigerator, (I won’t mention the bottle of Kandal I have tucked away somewhere). — Ko van Hespen

Near my Refrigerator the Felt Tip Woman — a recent Grad - gave a Snicker. What a Coquette! — Anonymous — (John Nolan)

And, what the heck, a couple more honourable mentions:

Refrigerator! R-E-F-R-I-G-E-R-A-T-O-R! Refrigerator! — Erica Heinz

Well, presumably you’re looking for “Refrigerator” — but my wife and I have several academic degrees, so there’s usually a “Grad” in our kitchen. Our daughter cooks a lot and has astonishing gifts for the arts; she’s sort of a “Changeling” in that respect. My wife likes chocolate, so we occasionally have “Snicker“s. We have candles, but not “Kandal“s. And “Kinescope” is indeed lovely. — AKMA

Thank you to everyone who took part. I read every single entry, and everyone without exception got the answer right. I’m working on getting many more prizes (I can’t afford to buy them all, so I’m begging various companies to donate prizes — wish me luck).

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. I like some of the examples; however, what most of them demonstrate is the power of type. Good type standing alone can make quite an impression. You certainly won’t need to use your screen reader with most of these sites, so even your grandmother will be happy.

However, something that really baffles me with a number of these sites, is their use of Flash and text as image (TAI). Text at large sizes on the web works pretty well, so why not use browser text? For example the yellow Designer Shock web site, could easily be turned into plain old XHMTL and CSS site (or even use sIFR) — and, if they wish to keep the clock, then that too can be achieved with real browser text and a little JavaScript. What do you think?

Type Radio

Hundreds of podcasts of interviews with people in type. Sometimes it crosses the twilight zone into the surreal, but overall it’s pretty entertaining and informative. There are interviews with the incredibly talented type designer and former Type Director of Linotype Akira Kobayashi, (designer of FF Clifford, Conrad and the ITC Woodland typeface, among many others; he also worked with Hermann Zapf, and with Adrian Frutiger on the redesign of Avenir); and also interviews with Gerard Unger and even one with Helvetica (yes, an interview with Helvetica the typeface).

If you’d like to learn more about Letterpress, then take a look at British LetterPress, a new site about getting started with Letterpress — with everything from where to buy equipment to assembling type. Even if you don’t plan on buying a a 2-ton letterpress and 100kg of lead type, then it’s a wonderful educational resource. Many thanks to Manuel Martensen for the link.

There’s also a wonderful Flickr set of photos on Letterpress Composition, Make Up and Proofing that’s an absolute must-see. I’m hoping to interview Michael of Interrobang Letterpress next month, so stay tuned.

I’ll announce the winner of the Kinescope Font Giveaway in the next article. More than 300 of you have already entered. I really need to get some more prizes for you all!

I was recently interviewed for SheUnlimited in what is becoming known as The 10,000 Toilet Rolls Interview (why did I have to go and say that? Well, you live and learn). I hope that’s enough to sate your typographic thirst. Let me know what you think of these links, and feel free to send me your own via the contact page.

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 more good typefaces to choose from; the only drawback is the dent it’s making on my credit card. Anyway, on with the show.

This weeks new face has a sweet taste, a full body, and leaves a lingering glow in one’s throat. It’s the 80% dark chocolate of fonts. In fact, if I ever go into the chocolate making business (and that’s unlikely), I will name my chocolate after Mark Simonson’s latest face, Kinescope, “a dashing 1940s-style brush script, inspired by hand-lettered titles in the Fleischer Brothers’ Superman cartoon series.” I can just picture customers entering my little Chocolatier and asking, “I’ll take two bars of Kinescope, please.”

When I first saw even a small sample of Kinescope, I just had to lick my lips. Some typefaces make me go “ah”, while others elicit an “oh”. Kinescope is definitely in the “oh” camp. But that’s quite enough drooling from me; let’s take a look:

I was intrigued by Mark’s choice of name, and when I quizzed him about it:

“Kinescope” is another word for motion picture, but one that’s not used any more. The fact that it’s an obsolete word suggests the historical period that inspired it. I also had a nice sampling of the characters of the font. — Mark Simonson

Although Kinescope’s bodywork looks pretty sleek, it’s not until you lift the bonnet, that you really begin to appreciate the hard work that has gone into fine-tuning it. One of the problems with many brush script faces is that certain letter combinations just look odd, and the connecting strokes when unconnected (for example when the character ends a word), just don’t look right. Well, smart designers, include contextual alternates. These are accessible in most image/text editing software; for example, in Photoshop CS3, the contextual alternates are available here:

Not all fonts include these contextual alternates — and not all need them; perhaps some of yours have them, but you’ve never realised they were available. They are called Contextual Alternates because they offer alternative glyphs for different contexts or situations.

Note in the example above: No.1 does not have Contextual Alternates applied, and so the “e” looks as though it’s reaching out to connect with the next letter, which just isn’t there — it looks like one of those stray puppy dogs holding out its paw.

In the second example, the “e” flows smoothly into the following “l”, so no problems there, and therefore no need for any Contextual Alternates.

The 3rd example is the same as the first, only we have applied Contextual Alternates to the letter “e”; the font has a quick think .. .and muses, “ah, the ‘e’ is all alone, so we can replace the ‘e’ with the long ‘tail’ with something more appropriate.” Clever isn’t it.

To download a sample pdf, or to learn more about Kinescope, simply visit Mark Simonson Studios.

So what do you think of Kinescope? Where and how might you use it?

I bought two copies of Kinescope. Not because I like it so much — that would be silly; the second is a prize. All you need to do to have a chance of winning this beauty is answer this question:

Mark Simonson Studios has one typeface in its portfolio named after something you might find in the kitchen. Name that typeface. All correct entries will go into my new bigger hat, and a single winner will receive Kinescope, the font. Send your answers through the contact form, please. [competition now closed. See Kinescope Font Winner].

To discover who won the two copies of Ellen Lupton’s Thinking With Type, just follow this PrizeWinners link.

Coming up soon:

Back to school with more type terminology, and a new series on The History of Type in four parts. Next week we also have the first in a two-part series on “Getting Started Designing Type”, from one of iLT’s US correspondents. If you’d like to read an interview with me over at SheUnlimited, you can discover what I think of PMS, Prada, and the latest JayLo gossip :)

To ensure you don’t miss out, join the type revolution and subscribe to I Love Typography today.

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 own comments out of the “hat”, and guess who won a copy? Yes, me. However, after a re-run, the lucky winners are:

Jeff Mueller (comment no. 718)
Ian Stewart (comment no. 705)

Their books are in the post. In future I hope to be giving away many more prizes. If any wealthy readers are reading this and would like to contribute type-related prizes, then by all means send me a mail. If you’re a font designer and you’d like to offer one of your faces as a prize, that would be great too.

Thinking With Type Book Review.

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 great “propaganda” piece that you can loan to unbelieving friends and relatives, in an effort to convert them.

Thinking With Type is a well structured book that does not bombard the reader with type-speak. When new terms are introduced, they are defined and illustrated in a no-nonsense way.

The book comprises three main sections, namely Letter, Grid and Text. The first section of the book, Letter, briefly introduces type with a very short history, looks at type classification (Humanist, Modern, Transitional et. al.), designing typefaces and screen fonts.

Selecting type with wit and wisdom requires knowledge of how and why letterforms evolved. — from Thinking With Type

The second section, Text, deals with some of the finer details like kerning, spacing and alignment and includes some simple type exercises.
The third and final section, Grid, is concerned with the Golden Section and the importance of grids in controlling and presenting type.

There’s also a brief but excellent Appendix that deals with punctuation, editing and proofreading. Moreover, there’s a complimentary Thinking With Type web site that hosts some Tools For Teachers, Exercises and even a Dumb Quotes arcade-style game.

In conclusion, this title is an excellent compromise between the “design” books — that are really nothing more than coffee table adornments — and the weightier typography books like Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style.

If you don’t already own Thinking With Type, I suggest you buy it.

I have one copy two copies of this book to give away as a prize. I’ll put all the commentators in a hat (your names, not literally “you”), and pick one out. I’ll then ship it off to you.
Winners will be announced in the next published article, on or around October 14.

Do you own it? Have you read it? What do you think?

Coming up next is a gorgeous new font (I love it) and some more Type Terminology. We have some great articles planned for this month, including one about how to get started designing type, and…well, you’ll see. If you’re not already subscribed then you can subscribe to I Love Typography now. A huge thank you to everyone who has thus far subscribed, read and commented. You are all stars, and you are all part of the Type Revolution. Forward Comrades!

See also iLT’s Interview with Ellen Lupton, and
Ellen Lupton, the movie.

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 getting out our magnifying glasses and really taking a closer look. If you’ve forgotten to bring your magnifying glass, then don’t fear for the Fontometer is here (we’ll get to that in a moment).

Today we’re going to de-robe two popular typefaces, namely Arial and Helvetica — faces that are often confused, and often the subjects of mistaken identity. But first let me re-introduce you to these two popular faces:

Helvetica

Designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger, Helvetica’s design is based on that of Akzidenz Grotesk (1896), and classified as a Grotesque or Transitional san serif face. Originally it was called Neue Haas Grotesque; in 1960 it was revised and renamed Helvetica (Latin for Switzerland “Swiss”).

Arial

Designed in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders for Monotype (not Microsoft), it’s classified as Neo Grotesque, was originally called Sonoran San Serif, and was designed for IBM’s bitmap font laser printers. It was first supplied with Windows 3.1 (1992) and was one of the core fonts in all subsequent versions of Windows until Vista, when to all intents and purposes, it was replaced with Calibri.

I’ve read in several places that Arial is closer in appearance to Univers than Helvetica. I don’t think so. In How to Spot Arial, the type designer Mark Simonson looks at the similarities between Arial and Grotesque 215 (one of Arial’s true ancestors); and when you consider the details — for example, the flat versus angled finials (e.g. “t”) — then Arial does appear to be more closely related to Grotesque 215; however, the one thing that does stand out is the greater variation in stroke width of Grotesque 215. Arial and Helvetica share a more consistent, even stroke width. I guess it depends on whether one is looking at the form or the appearance. What do you think?

I can hear angels singing a heavenly chorus (I was tempted to include a sound track here) as I introduce to you the all new, shining, hopefully very useful Fontometer (sorry, but I couldn’t think of a better name) to compare the glyphs from Arial and Helvetica. In the grey corner (left), we have Arial; in the red corner, Helvetica. Simply drag the Arial glyph over the Helvetica version to compare (if the excitement of this is too much for you or your suffer from a heart condition, then take a short break between glyphs). The Fontometer only seems to work properly in FireFox (future versions will work for everyone):

A number of the glyphs are almost identical, and even an expert would have difficulty telling them apart. However, there are a few that stand out as being quite different; namely “a”, “G”, “Q”, “R”, and “1”. Did you spot any other differences?

In fact if you wish to quickly differentiate any font from from another, it’s usually best to start off looking at letters like “J”, “Q” and “g”.

What it’s wrong to do is criticize Arial as a clone or rip-off of Helvetica. It’s not. If Arial is a rip-off of Helvetica, then Helvetica is a rip-off of Akzidenz Grotesk; or we could simply say that they are both rip-offs of earlier Grotesque faces. The whole rip-off debate is a rather pointless one, I feel. Every face should be considered on its own merit. (We don’t criticise a daughter for looking like her mother.)

Further reading:
The Face of Uniformity. Against Helvetica. — Nick Shinn;
Akzidenz Grotesk (re release dates) on Typophile. (not for the feint-hearted).
How to Spot Arial — Mark Simonson;
Monotype’s Other “Arials” — Mark Simonson;
The Scourge of Arial — Mark Simonson (excellent article);
Alternatives to Helvetica — FontShop FontFeed.

If you don’t have some of the fonts mentioned in this article, then I will create some PDF sample sheets at large point sizes, so that you can have hours of fun comparing them. By the way, if the Fontometer crashes your browser, breaks up your marriage or has your kids asking, “daddy, daddy, why don’t you play with me more?”, I cannot be held responsible.

So, what do you think of Arial and Helvetica now?

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 College of Printing, David Dabner talks about typography, giving an insight into the principles of design, creative letterpress and why computers—in his opinion—make students sloppy.

An interesting use of type. The typewriter font mimics those used in old police reports. Individual letter forms are animated to illustrate characteristics of, in this instance, a serial killer.

Helvetica The Documentary (clip) Wim Crouwel:

One minute and 53 seconds with Wim Crouwel. “Neutralism was a word that we loved”.

Helvetica The Documentary (clip) Erik Spiekermann.

“I just like looking at type…they are my friends.”

Pulp Fiction

“What ain’t no country I ever heard of….”

Devil’s Advocate

“Inside information”

Typography in Motion

“Conscious”

Typography Brazil

Designing Multi Lingual OpenType Fonts

TV Interview: Typeface Design