CreativePro.Com Typography

TypeTalk: Distorting Type

IleneStrizver99 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:41:23 -0700

TypeTalk is a regular blog on typography. Post your questions and comments by clicking on the Comments icon above. If Ilene answers your question in the blog, you'll receive one Official Creativepro.com T-Shirt!

Q. Most design software lets me stretch and squeeze characters, but I'm not sure how far is too far. Are there acceptable parameters for distorting type?

Use Real Fonts on Web Sites

Editor in Chief — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:08:02 -0700

Press release

Typekit is the easiest way to use real fonts on the web. It's a subscription-based service for linking to high-quality Open Type fonts from some of the worlds best type foundries. Our fonts are served from a global network on redundant servers, offering bulletproof service and incredible speed. And it couldn't be easier to use. Want to know more about fonts on the web? Read on...

Fonts, Browsers, and the Web

Web Fonts: The Experts Speak

Editor in Chief — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:45:32 -0700

When designing print projects, your typeface choices are theoretically unlimited. On the Web, of course, your font choices have been highly restricted. But recently new options have appeared. The FontShop's FontFeed has released a series of videos about web typography. In these videos, Stephen Coles interviews five type industry experts.

1. Bryan Mason speaks about the Typekit service, which gives subscribers access to a library of embed¬dable fonts and a way to include those fonts on Web sites.

A Question of Character: Finding What You Need in Your Fonts, Part 2

Editor in Chief — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:13:14 -0700

In the previous installment of this column, I talked about the first generation of scalable, digital desktop fonts, the so-called single-byte fonts that contained only a couple hundred characters or so. This time we dive into the deep end of the pool: double-byte fonts, big character sets, and awkward font navigation tools.

TypeTalk: Find Figure Styles in OpenType Fonts

IleneStrizver99 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:36:01 -0600

Type Luminaries Speak on PRI

Editor in Chief — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:20:28 -0700

Public Radio International program "To the Best of Our Knowledge" recently devoted an hour to type.

Listen to the episode here.

SEGMENT 1:
The style of type used by the Obama campaign is called Gotham and was designed by the team of Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones. They tell Anne Strainchamps how they feel about having designed the font of Hope and Change and where the design originally came from.

A Question of Character: Finding What You Need in Your Fonts, Part 1

Editor in Chief — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:59:32 -0600

When I asked a few columns back about your interest in Unicode, a lot of hands shot up. But just as many of you said you wanted to know how to get at characters that have been hiding in your fonts since long before Unicode was dreamt up. Unicode may be the key to understanding and using fonts with very large character sets, but on a daily basis most of us use smaller -- and often much older -- fonts that present mysteries of their own.

TypeTalk: Times Roman vs Times New Roman

IleneStrizver99 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:47:16 -0600

Q. What is the difference between Times Roman and Times New Roman, and why are both listed in my font menu? Is Times Roman the “Old” version? Please explain!

One Good Kern Deserves Another

Editor in Chief — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:29:54 -0600

The old saw that "it's the little things that count" was surely coined by a typographer, and few things are littler than kerning adjustments. Consider this: A 1/100 em kerning adjustment applied in 24-point type results in a movement equal to the width of a human hair.

19 Top Combos of the 19 Top Typefaces

Editor in Chief — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:10:21 -0600

Anne-Marie Concepcion spotted the interesting post "19 top fonts in 19 top combinations," written by Douglas Bonneville for the blog BonFX.

Antique Gothic Grotesque: Deciphering the Typeface Name Game

Editor in Chief — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:18:51 -0600

The previous installment of this column opened the can of worms known as type classification. It's the process of assigning names to various kinds of type. The question of whether a face should be called an italic or an oblique is just the tip of the iceberg.

For example, what label would you apply to the following face?

TypeTalk: Best Headline Breaks

IleneStrizver99 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:58:01 -0600

Q. Should I pay attention to how a headline breaks, or is that the job of the writer and copy editor?

A. Today, a designer is also the typesetter, so you're responsible not only for how the type looks, but for making it as readable, logical, and clear as possible. The line breaks of a headline have a major impact on this.

To Boldly Go . . . Or Is It Italically?

Editor in Chief — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:16:20 -0600

Your basic typeface family consists of four members: roman, italic, bold roman, and bold italic. They may go by other names (I'll hash that out in a future column), but this foursome has become standard. You might wonder why roman type is always followed around by these three secondary faces. Part of the answer is emphasis. The other part is advertising. This column will look at how to use these secondary faces and tricks in setting them.

Multi Style II XT for QuarkXPress 8 Now Available

Editor in Chief — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:40:14 -0600

With Multi Style II XT from Objectif Lune Benelux, text can be applied automatically with complex typographic specifications. Multi Style II XT is a must for everyone dealing with tables, ads, catalogs, brochures, magazines, newspapers and other complex formatting activities. Once the typographic settings (multistyles) have been defined, they can be swiftly copied and pasted onto unformatted text.

TypeTalk: Point Size and Letter Spacing

IleneStrizver99 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:20:51 -0600

Q. Should the overall letter spacing of type change as its size gets larger or smaller?