The type nerd website Typographica recently released its list of notable typefaces released in 2008. Given the biblical flood of digital typefaces released every day, attempting to highlight quality over dreck is probably a worthwhile exercise.
People who care about typefaces may have strong and often eccentric opinions on some matters, but are surprisingly unanimous about high quality faces. There is often a moment of almost religious intensity for typophiles when a beautiful typeface swims into view. Sometimes the deciding factor is the way the face sets in body text, or a particularly graceful letter, or the relation of one letter to another, or an evocation of a particular epoch or event.
Although type design, like music, is highly influenced by precedent and fashion, the best typefaces have a completely distinctive personality. If a designer does not respect that personality, the typeface will not work for her.
Read moreTake me to your Masters
Multiple Master (MM) typefaces were an interesting experiment in digital typography. Created by Adobe, MMs dispensed with the usual system of font weights (bold, semibold, regular, bold, etc) in favour of smooth variation in the axes of weight, width and optical size. Many more variations were therefore available than could be achieved with a standard family of typefaces.
Adobe released several attractive and useful typefaces in this format: Cronos (see image below), Bickham Script, Chapparal, Myriad, Minion, Ocean Sans and others. However, the sheer time and expense involved in creating MM typefaces meant that other type designers were slow to come on board, and eventually Adobe allowed the format to lapse in favour of Open Type (in the context of the bigger debate surrounding the harmonisation of True Type and Type 1). Adobe has released a collection of 'equivalent' Opentype typefaces with a slew of additional characters, but they don't fully recapture the range of subtle variations that characterised the MM format.
Read moreBy the Letter
Perhaps you saw an interesting typeface on a poster, or in a magazine. You're not a typeface expert and you've got no idea how to track it down beyond hunting through hundreds (if not thousands) of candidates on the web. There are a few simple options:
What the Font is a very neat way of identifying a typeface from just a small sample. The feature will work with a scanned sample or a fairly low resolution image from a digital camera. The clearer the sample, the better the program works. What The Font managed to correctly identify several partial samples we uploaded to it. A linked forum also offers a bit of human interaction if the software doesn't do the trick.
A simple way of identifying a type sample
Typophile is a haunt for hardcore typeface enthusiasts and designers. If you don't have any luck with What the Font, then some of the folks at Typophile may rise to the challenge posed by your enigmatic sample. Membership is free.
Search by Sight is offered at ITC's website (among other places) and involves the font seeker answering a series of yes/no questions relating to the type sample. If you only have a small number of letters/characters, the questions may continue for some time until the list of potential matches is narrowed down.
Type Navigator at the Font Shop doesn't require a sample, but instead offers clues based on whatever aspects of the typeface you might remember. Even if you don't find the exact typeface, you will probably see something else of interest.
Read more A simple way of identifying a type sample
Typophile is a haunt for hardcore typeface enthusiasts and designers. If you don't have any luck with What the Font, then some of the folks at Typophile may rise to the challenge posed by your enigmatic sample. Membership is free.
Search by Sight is offered at ITC's website (among other places) and involves the font seeker answering a series of yes/no questions relating to the type sample. If you only have a small number of letters/characters, the questions may continue for some time until the list of potential matches is narrowed down.
Type Navigator at the Font Shop doesn't require a sample, but instead offers clues based on whatever aspects of the typeface you might remember. Even if you don't find the exact typeface, you will probably see something else of interest.I Love Typography
Well, who doesn't? ILT is also a website that type lovers should visit as often as possible. Created by one John D. Boardley and featuring additional contributors, I Love Typography is a testament to a simple idea done very well. The contributors make it clear that there is a world of interesting typeface useage out there, whether hand lettered or computer generated. The examples they find and photograph are discussed intelligently and at some length. They also feature new typefaces and sometimes give away a sample weight or two.
Other occasional features include interviews with type luminaries, in-depth discussions of a specific aspect of typography and a bit of type history. Even if you're not a font geek, the site is good for ideas and examples, links to other quality resources and a general sense of unrestrained enthusiasm.
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