Hot answers tagged typefaces
11
To create a font, you need a font editing program. FontCreator is quite popular and inexpensive. FontForge is an open source font editor, if you're up to the somewhat dense documentation. FontLab has a utility called TypeTool, a little more expensive but has a good reputation.
8
I think upper & lower R, S, O & lower-case g & f are good to start with.
R will give you a good start for what the serifs (if you are doing serifs) will look like for straight & slanted letters (eg, T, X, A, etc). A good beginning for B as well.
S obviously a good start to B, while also showing you all the curves.
O gives way to Q, C, G ...
7
You need a program that can make actual font files from your vector illustrations.
In the 'olden days' the primary tool for that was Macromedia Fontographer, which is now owned by Fontlab
Fontlab also makes FontLab Studio and several other Font creating and designing programs that much of the type design industry uses.
Alternatives to their offerings ...
6
I got interested in the question (I don't design type, I just design with it), asked around folks that do, and did some research. There doesn't seem to be a consensus -- every designer works with his/her own natural creative process, and many start with a sketched idea that could be any letter or a combination.
Here are some interviews from ...
6
Summed up into a couple of points, here are my thoughts on the subject.
"Readability" is also about what we are most familiar with. English speakers tend to be familiar with both serif and sans-serif typefaces, enough to be able to read both extremely fluently. You could say that most of our most lengthy reading (eg, novels, newspapers) uses ...
5
Perhaps a slightly oblique answer, but I recommend you buy The Non-Designer's Design and Type Book by Robin Williams. There is no better resource, and you'll find all the answers you need to get you rolling, both for typography and layout. This is especially true for the "instructions on how to use these typefaces" -- that's a book length answer ...
5
Historically/traditionally it's called the colophon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colophon_%28publishing%29
From the article:
[…]
With the development of the private press movement from around 1890, colophons became conventional in private press books, and often included a good deal of additional information on the book, including statements of ...
5
There is no real difference. You are only using different techniques to reproduce the typeface's glyphs. It's the reproduced result which is the legal focus, not the technique used to reproduce it.
What requirements exists depends on the font and the author (you find free fonts that you can use commercially, and others that comes with a very strict ...
5
But what was their inspiration/model? What era were they trying to envoke, if any?
Haas set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that could compete
with the successful Akzidenz-Grotesk in the Swiss market.
And was there a predecessor to their inspiration that might provide a better understanding of this family?
Originally called Neue Haas ...
5
For a little background, the reason I originally posted this question was to provide some space to answer a comment on another answer of mine. The issue revolved around pairing fonts with Helvetica and I proposed looking to structurally and historically related faces: namely the clarendons.
It seems odd at first but, if you trace Helvetica's lineage (and ...
5
A visual search in dafont's or Font Squirrel's sans-serif section one will probably give you better results.
Fontscape has a section with long descenders, but they are paid fonts.
These are some of the ones I found, they look very similar, but I'm sure you can find lots more if you do a search.
Elegant Light:
Thin Lines and Curves
...
5
Not exactly an answer on "where to go to find fonts", Scott has mentioned the best places to do that, but in my experience it's great to also start from history.
A good book on typography (one of my favorites and excellent if you are new to the subject is Just my Type by Simon Garfield) can give you a solid foundation on how typefaces have been developing ...
5
These are
Helvetica Black (not Neue) and
ITC Avant Garde Gothic using stylistic set 02 (modifies ty) + stylistic set 03 (modifies c). Additionaly, c looks being adjusted manually.
5
In general, from a strictly technical perspective, the answer would involve making outlines of the font in Illustrator or another vector program, putting those into a new font file (I use FontForge to make fonts), and then adding the characters you need.
In your case, perhaps you could find some way to make Trajan work with Sell Your Soul, since the font ...
4
The discussion on the FL&U meta shows the community strongly rejects the obvious symbols and has affinity for the antique, so if you were my client I'd probably lean in the direction of the late-19th Century lithograph look, like the one you show. There are great Lautrec lithographs that could provide inspiration, but it's that hand-drawn, quirky ...
4
To @Horatio's answer, there is nesting in there, but there is also some kerning as well. That being said, I'm not sure you will be able to duplicate what you see in that image via CSS. If that graphic isn't handmade, then it is a typeface that was heavily modified to stylize it the way you see there. It certainly goes above and beyond the typical ...
4
I suggest that you use BirdFont and follow these steps to import your work in the editor.
Draw a triangle and a rectangle. Use them as test shapes to decide what your x-height should be.
Compare your test glyphs to other fonts using the preview tab. (Ctrl+p)
Turn on grid and guidelines for x-height and margin. Create four rectangular markers at the ...
4
As KMSTR states, the idea of a "bold" typeface has its own channel of history. A blackletter in contrast to a Roman font would certainly appear bold, and chunky lettering goes back much further than either of those styles.
But in checking out this thread, the consensus seems to be that Clarendon is the first bold typeface that was made to complement a ...
4
English is NOT the best-constructed language. It's a mess of etymological influences, irregular verb conjugation, homonyms, and there are just exceptions everywhere. I'm sure people could successfully make the case that Spanish or Esperanto or whatever is not only a better candidate for lingua franca status because of the ability to learn it quickly and ...
4
Yes, there are methods to do this. It's not used with the typography though (speaking in general). It's related to steganography and the common method is to use yellow ink to print a pattern of dots which can be recognized as a serial number or other ID depending on purpose.
It is printed in a small size typically close to an edge. As yellow is hard to ...
4
There is a certain depth that two well-paired type families lend to a design. Varying weight is good for certain applications but, as you note, it can fall flat if an International Style affect isn't what you're after.
The magic is in the pairing and their structured use.
Finding typographic soul mates
Pairing type is an art that comes with experience but ...
4
To add a bit more:
What was their inspiration/model? It was part of the international style of Swiss typography (the "International style" or "Swiss style"), and is an example of a 'Grotesk' (Grotesque) sans serif (Germanic 'Grotesks' are sometimes associated with a more geometric approach than US/UK 'Grotesques'). It's a movement associated with crisp ...
4
What you're looking for is FontShop's Type Navigator; the link appears to be dead.
Try Identifont; I don't think it's quite what you're after but you might find it to be helpful.
EDIT: I e-mailed FontShop to ask about TypeNav and this is the relevant part of the response. I guess they valued it for font identification more than browsing...
Our TypeNav ...
4
The answer may seem a little too obvious, but if you go to fonts.com (which has ALL the same fonts as linotype.com but features more extensive descriptions) and find the Cronos page, you will see a short article on the top of the page and Category as well as the tags in the right column.
Both article and category say it's a humanist sans serif typeface.
...
3
The short answer is: no. “Light” is not universally just thinner/inset incarnation of “regular”. It might be, but not necessary (if it would be then each “regular” version should be taller than “light”, because top and bottom curves would be moved to the inside too). “Light” version can sport some changes in shape when compared to “regular” (e.g. they can ...
3
I've been wondering this myself. I'm afraid I can't give any revolutionary, cut and dry guidlines, but I'll try my best.
The theme of your logo is really important in deciding what font(s) you want to use. If it's a more futuristic logo, you'd want to stick with sci-fi fonts. If it's a grunge logo, you want to stick with grunge fonts. Even so, there are som ...
3
Something like this?
to quote from the link:
"You can make any active font the default font in the document by first making sure that's nothing's selected in your document (Command-Shift-A/Ctrl-Shift-A), then choosing the font you want from the Type > Font submenu or in the Character palette. All new text frames you create from then on in the document will ...
3
Typefaces in which numbers look great for “sale offers” “discounts” “price tags” and stuff like that
I can't recommend any because I have no idea what "nice and sexy" mean to you. Nor, I'll bet, would you find three clients who all agree on what those mean in a typeface.
Beware the urge to change something just because you're bored. It's not a reason to change. If the customers are bored, that might be a reason, but sameness has advantages when it comes to ...
3
This is a difficult question to answer. This is an art, not a science, and there are no hard rules. Every rule has a counter-example which is arguably successful. Many successful rule-breaking forays are things which the previous generation would have thrown away rather than submit.
Regarding typefaces use, the old rule is that 3 typefaces is one too many, ...
3
I disagree with joshmax's suggestion to start with R, S, O & lower-case g & f. I appreciate the reasoning, but the /S and /g are among the most difficult letters to design, so it's probably not a good idea to start with those to get a general feeling of the style and proportions of the typeface. In case of a serif typeface with a diagonal weight ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
