Digital type Archives

compendium of digital type from independent foundries

This is a wonderful collection of over 2000 fonts from eighteen of the most innovative independent type designers. It’s essentially a typographic sample book, but some top class design and innovative presentation make it much more than that. Indie Fonts itself is an amazingly stylish production. It’s well designed, beautifully printed on good quality paper, and laid out in a way which displays full font sets without every page ending up the same. They don’t do the usual thing of simply showing the alphabet in upper and lower case over and over again. Every page is different, and the text often describes what the font is attempting to do.

The font styles include serif, sans serif, script, display, non-Latin, and ornaments. They also include all sorts of page decorations, swashes, figures, icons, and dingbats. Another interesting feature is that almost all these fonts are actually usable for practical day-to-day applications. There are none of the scribbles, distortions, and virtually unreadable grunge fonts that sometimes wish to pass as clever modern typography. Even the wacky and avant-garde Chank studio of Minneapolis produces font sets that can be read and used commercially.

The foundries represented range from Letterror, PSY/OPS, and Test Pilot Collective, to P22 type foundry, Font Diner, and Astigmatic One Eye Typographic Institute. Each of them is introduced with the print equivalent of a colour splash page. There are also introductory notes on each foundry, and the entries for Matthew Carter for instance offer mini-essays in typeface construction and the practical reasoning behind design decisions.

Type styles range from the best of Carter’s classic designs to the latest irreverence of Chank Diesel. Any designer searching for unique typefaces will find what they are looking for, from historical revivals to futuristic techno faces.

The book comes with a CD-ROM which features a selection of thirty-three font sets which are free for you to use – but not distribute. Anybody who is interested in typography ought to see this book. Serious designers will want to own it.

Buy the book at Amazon UK

Buy the book at Amazon US

IndieFonts, Buffalo, NY: P-Type Publications, 2002, pp.408, ISBN: 0963108220

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illustrated guide to new digital typography techniques

This is a stunningly attractive book. It jumped off the shelf first time I saw it, and after reading it, I’m more in love than ever. Part One offers a history of digital typography and shows how it works. Bob Gordon discusses the features that go into the design of type – the anatomy, rendering, technology, and fine tuning. This is a quick history lesson and a valuable tutorial in basic typography. He gets through the basics quickly, then concentrates on type in the digital age – how it is rendered on screen, in print, and even how it is created, down to pixel level.

This part also explains those terms you have seen mentioned but never quite understood – such as bitmap, antialiasing, and rasterization. He clarifies all the complexities of font technology in a very straightforward manner – showing how tracking, kerning, and hyphenation can be used to good effect.

What makes this book such a visual treat is that every double-page spread is a work of exquisite design in its own right. The pages are designed on a consistent grid; they are deeply ‘layered’ and colour-coded by subject; the colouring is elegantly restrained; and every detail is illustrated with beautifully-chosen examples.

Part Two shows a a range of classic and contemporary font designs. These range from Bembo and Bodoni to Rotis and ITC Stone. Each font is described, illustrated, and shown with hundreds of examples of styles and setting values. There are also tips on how to set each font to best advantage, using tracking and kerning.

Part Three looks at display type – both on the printed page and the computer screen. He discusses customised font design – making your own font sets using software such as Fontographer and Pyrus. There is a thorough round-up of how the latest font technology is being used on the Web. This involves font-embedding, which is now much more easily achieved than it used to be. Then he concludes with a review of the most innovative font foundries and contemporary designers – such as Neville Brody, Matthew Carter, Zuzana Licko, and Adrian Frutiger.

The really successful feature of this book is that it will appeal to beginners and professionals alike. For those new to typography it offers a visual masterclass of design examples, and for the seasoned practitioner, it is a technical guide to the latest techniques. For anybody interested in good design, it is an example of book production raised to the level of an art form.

NB: The UK and the US editions have different jacket designs and different ISBNs.

Buy the book at Amazon UK