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Revised Font Stack | A Way Back - A thorough assessment of font stacks around the web with suggestions for improvement. Fantastic article. Beautiful website, too.

Revised Font Stack | A Way Back - A thorough assessment of font stacks around the web with suggestions for improvement. Fantastic article. Beautiful website, too.

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The only problem with these new Vista typefaces is that they’re only distributed with Vista. So, I have two simple requests:

  1. Microsoft, please distribute these new Vista typefaces for older versions of Windows, especially XP. Perhaps include them with the release of Internet Explorer 7 and future Office updates?
  2. Apple, please license this set of fonts from Microsoft and include them with Mac OS X.
Making good on these two simple requests would go an incredibly long way towards improving the state of typography on the web — and should cost each company next to nothing.
JeffCroft.com: An open letter to Apple and Microsoft - This letter is three and a half years old now, but it’s never too late to stop hoping Microsoft and Apple will arrange an agreement to provide Microsoft’s ClearType Font Collection to OS X users for free (similar to the Core fonts for the Web).
IEBlog : An Early Look At IE9 for Developers - What’s Direct2D, you ask? Well, from the looks of it, the salvation of type on Windows. Truly remarkable improvements. Can’t wait for all Windows browsers to start supporting this API. Via Thomas Phinney. Correction, 3/1/2010: It’s not actually Direct2D that enables beautiful text on Windows. Rather, it’s a different, but related API new to Windows 7: DirectWrite. Direct2D provides hardware acceleration, but it’s DirectWrite that provides the improved text drawing system. My bad.

IEBlog : An Early Look At IE9 for Developers - What’s Direct2D, you ask? Well, from the looks of it, the salvation of type on Windows. Truly remarkable improvements. Can’t wait for all Windows browsers to start supporting this API.

Via Thomas Phinney.

Correction, 3/1/2010: It’s not actually Direct2D that enables beautiful text on Windows. Rather, it’s a different, but related API new to Windows 7: DirectWrite. Direct2D provides hardware acceleration, but it’s DirectWrite that provides the improved text drawing system. My bad.

Typography on the Web: Questions for Jeffrey Zeldman—Part 1

Two-part interview with Captain Z that provides a pleasant overview of the state of typography on the web. In brief: I’ve got to admit it’s getting better, a little better all the time.

ISO50 - The Blog of Scott Hansen  » Perky Bros. LLC - I, too, am a sucker for letterpress. Especially when it’s as gorgeous as this.

ISO50 - The Blog of Scott Hansen  » Perky Bros. LLC - I, too, am a sucker for letterpress. Especially when it’s as gorgeous as this.

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Frutiger produced the original drawings for one of his first designs, the Ondine™ typeface, by cutting and pasting black paper shapes. “The black-and-white contrast soon came to play an important part in my professional life,” he says. “The contrast conveys the absolute construction of an image. Taking black away means adding white. In this way, the space between an R and an S becomes like a sculpture for me.
Monotype Imaging: Type Designer Showcase: Adrian Frutiger : While we’re on the subject of type, this bit from a short bio on Adrian Frutiger caught my eye. It resonates with a segment from Helvetica in which they reference Swiss type design as focusing more on a letter’s counters and negative spaces rather than the letterform itself. This quote from Frutiger showcases how and why it appears that way—because he treats it like sculpture!
THE MAKING OF KANDAL — LetterCult : A short history of the development of a typeface. Most interesting are Simonson’s comments on traditional versus digital font production: “I would never go back,” Simonson says. “You do get a certain sense of accomplishment mastering things like French curves and technical pens, but the process is just so unforgiving and inflexible and slow. Unless you are trying to give a typeface a handmade look, it’s just not worth it. Plus, with the efficiency of working digitally, you can do so much more than just draw the letters. You can work out the spacing at the same time, play ‘what if’ scenarios with different design ideas, see how a partially designed font looks set in a paragraph, things that would be impractical or impossible working with traditional tools.” Reading this article gave me a newfound appreciation for the accomplishment of pre-digital type designers. It’s also an inspiration. We take so much for granted in today’s digital society that we often overlook (or forget) what drove us to use the computer in the first place. Our tools will never define us: only what we do with them will. Click for high-res photo

THE MAKING OF KANDAL — LetterCult : A short history of the development of a typeface. Most interesting are Simonson’s comments on traditional versus digital font production:

“I would never go back,” Simonson says. “You do get a certain sense of accomplishment mastering things like French curves and technical pens, but the process is just so unforgiving and inflexible and slow. Unless you are trying to give a typeface a handmade look, it’s just not worth it. Plus, with the efficiency of working digitally, you can do so much more than just draw the letters. You can work out the spacing at the same time, play ‘what if’ scenarios with different design ideas, see how a partially designed font looks set in a paragraph, things that would be impractical or impossible working with traditional tools.”

Reading this article gave me a newfound appreciation for the accomplishment of pre-digital type designers. It’s also an inspiration. We take so much for granted in today’s digital society that we often overlook (or forget) what drove us to use the computer in the first place. Our tools will never define us: only what we do with them will.

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High-flying ups and sideways-spiraling downs. False starts and fresh starts. The creative process can be unpredictable. Brent Barson’s short film F is for Fail is the story of one person’s creative roller coaster, told through type in an evocative A to Z.
Veer: Ideas: F is for Fail : A beautiful film made entirely of type. Must see.