Confusing (and Frequently Misused) Type Terminology, Part 1

via fonts.com
“In the world of type and design, several typographic terms are either commonly confused with other terms, or are simply misunderstood in their own right. In Part 1 of this two-part series, we will shed light on three pairs of words that are widely misused. The words in each pair are related, but they refer to different things - and they are not interchangeable…”

Font vs. Typeface
Character vs. Glyph
Legibility vs. Readability

Read the rest here.

Fluid type font

via designboom
“Designed by Hussain Almossawi of Bahraini studio Skyrill Design, ‘fluid type’ is conceptualized as a dynamic typeface, in which each character in addition to being usable as a static letter has its own exploding animation…”
Read the rest here. I was so wishing that this included an ampersand...

Dyslexie: Typeface for dyslectics

spotted via a friend
The University of Twente did research on the typeface Dyslexie. Watch a part of their conclusion here.

Hamilton Wood Type and Target announce a new Hamilton inspired Fall clothing line

via kartemquinfilms
Target has just announced their Fall line inspired by designs and prints from Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. Visit the link below to watch a video from Target that features a behind-the-scenes look at the design, and a quick glimpse of the clothing. Also, you can find a link to an article in The Atlantic, where you can find a bit more about how this all came to be. And finally, watch a video interview from earlier this year with the Moran Brothers on how Typeface has made a positive impact on Hamilton.
All the links and more can be found here.

Typeface Software

This is my face as interpreted by the software.

via typeface project
“The design of typefaces is founded upon principles from the days of metal type, when creating individual fonts was a laborious process and constrained by physical requirements. Most digital type design follows those same conventions, but technology gives us opportunities to make type design more spontaneous and personal. The Typeface software translates facial dimensions into generative type design.”
Learn more about it here, and download the software to generate your own typeface.

Making Faces: Metal Type in the 21st Century

via nytimes
“Making Faces: Metal Type in the 21st Century is a new documentary by Richard Kegler. It is a video document of the late Jim Rimmer, the Canadian designer of almost 200 typefaces. In the film, Rimmer, who died in 2010, painstakingly demonstrates the lost art of pantographic type making. The pantograph is a mechanical device, based on parallelograms, which allows the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, to replicate that movement with a second pen. A craftsperson can draw on one side at a particular size, and on the other the type is “reproduced” at a chosen point size…”

“Is producing this display of vintage technology simply hanging on to the old for dear life, or is there a good reason for designers to know these processes? Kegler responds: “In any field of expertise there is a history and a cumulative reason that things are the way they are. How many Adobe Illustrator users know that kerning, leading, picas and points are terms that should have absolutely no relevance on the computer, but do, since they are direct analogies to the terms and processes of hundreds of years ago? The more time that designers spend on the screen, the more valuable the hand processes become. There is great subtlety and unique flavor in heirloom typefaces.”
Read more about the making of the documentary here, the DVD is available for order here, and the blog of Making Faces is here.

Kurt Weidemann Passes Away At Age 87

via the font shop

“. . . During a discussion at Swiss Mediaforum in 2010 [Kurt Weidemann] literally said: ‘There are ten, maybe fifteen very good typefaces, with which one can at least make do. There are 30,000 on the market, of which 29,990 can sink in the Pacific Ocean without causing any cultural damage.’ ”

Read the entire post here.

Linoskala

via Blue Pencil

“…Linoskala from Linotype GmbH, a two-sided volvelle (wheel chart) used to find out characters per cicero for 25 Linotype typefaces (presumably hot metal rather than Linofilm) at a series of [Didot] point sizes. The sizes vary from typeface to typeface with most being available in 6 pt, 7 pt, 8 pt, 9 pt, 10 pt and 12 pt while a few stop at 10 pt and Excelsior additionally offers 7.5 pt and 8.5 pt. Oddly there is no 11 pt.

There are two parts to the volvelle. One is a bright orange wheel with a handle and a viewing slot that has the list of typefaces and the cicero increments (in black) as well as Linotype’s logo. The other is a larger light gray wheel with the typeface names and point sizes in black arranged around its edge.

The volvelle is not dated but it is most likely from the early 1960s since Optima (1958) is among the typefaces.”

Read the entire post here.

Periodic Table of Typefaces Wall Decal

via scribbleoneverything


The Periodic Table of Typefaces Wall Decal, pretty darn geeky. Find out more about it here, and here.

Alphabet Animation

spotted on green chair press

“A nifty animation by Allesandro Novelli shows letters in various typefaces melting together and reforming.”


The Alphabet from n9ve on Vimeo.

Typefaces of the World

via swissmiss

“Typefaces of the World is a poster Shelby White created to show the typefaces that are most commonly used in a lot of today’s design. The poster includes information for each typefaces such as the year it was made, the location and the typographer. These 50 typefaces were chosen based on popularity and usefulness in present design.”

Read more here.