What's up at FontShop.com, from
new and recommended fonts to website features, plus the latest ideas and inspiration from the FontFeed.
OurType holds a special place in FontShop’s heart because it was co-founded by the clever captain of our Benelux operation, Rudy Geeraerts. The foundry was born in 2002 when Rudy teamed up with Fred Smeijers who is internationally known for his writing and lectures, but above all, for his type designs. Smeijers’ work is sought after by designers seeking to dip into the deep well of contemporary Dutch typography. Seven years later, OurType is now one of the world’s preeminent font collections with over a dozen extensive families from both established designers and promising young guns. This latest batch includes four new releases. Also new this week is an exclusive sans serif family from Alejandro Lo Celso of PampaType and the first collections at FontShop to specialize in Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese fonts.
Our popular email newsletters are a benefit of FontShop.com membership. We regale our subscribers with new and free fonts, typographic tips and trends, and important FontShop developments.
Fred Smeijers’ latest creation is already raising eyebrows among the internet typorati, whose contemporary eyes are more accustomed to polished sans serifs. Purposely adopting the blunt and inelegant forms of early German grotesques, Smeijers seems to nod to the past while he winks at those modern designers who truly appreciate it.
While Ludwig is based on grots of the 1800s, it is not a mere revival. It embodies Smeijers’ personal vision of how an early 19th-century sanserif design might look and perform today. While Ludwig᾿s roman shapes are rooted in antique material, its italic is more contemporary in approach. Much like his FF Quadraat, “Ludwig charms simply by being there, without looking too smooth and beautiful,” says Smeijers. His words are proven by the cover of the book Elmgreen & Dragset and Hyphen Music’s album sleeves (shown above).
Along with its glyphs that echo typical 19th century letterforms — like the capital G, for instance — Ludwig includes alternates for G, Q, W, a and g, plus a large variety of ligatures and other fine typographic features necessary for present-day use.
Ludwig’s other significant feature is that it’s been designed as a companion to Arnhem. Both families have the same x-height, cap-height, ascender-height, and descender-depth proportions, and while Ludwig offers more weights, most are shared with Arnhem.
To the Standard version, Ludwig Pro adds small caps; lining, old style and small cap figures (each in tabular and proportional widths); fractions; comprehensive scientific superiors and inferiors, nominators and denominators; case sensitive punctuation sets; mathematical and monetary symbols (in tabular and proportional widths); arrows; standard and discretionary ligatures; and support for all (Latin script based) Western, Central and East European languages.
Designed by Thomas Thiemich, Alto is a no-nonsense typeface that avoids quirky details in favour of down-to-earth usability. Its neutral design is well attuned to daily design needs, suitable for a broad spectrum of subject matter and functions.
With an impressive nine weights, Alto joins a group of contemporary humanist sans serifs notable for their large font families, such as those by Erik Spiekermann and Luc(as) de Groot. Alto is also built around four widths, making it OurType’s largest sans serif family to date. Monospaced versions of each width are also available.
As an alternative to the Standard version, Alto Pro adds small caps; lining, old style and small cap figures (each in tabular and proportional widths); fractions; comprehensive superiors, inferiors, nominators and denominators; case sensitive punctuation sets; mathematical and monetary symbols; arrows; standard and discretionary ligatures; and support for all (Latin script based) Western, Central and East European languages.
With its graceful, high-contrast strokes Lirico appears at first glance too delicate to be a text face. But witnessing a paragraph of text on good paper reveals a design that is both elegant and sturdy, charming and reliable. It is Hendrik Weber’s first commercially available type, though it is by no means the work of a beginner. Weber is an accomplished calligrapher and designer with a fine sensitivity to letterforms. His debut in type design won him a TDC2 award in 2009.
The six-weight Lirico is also available in a Pro version with small caps; lining, old style and small cap figures (each in tabular and proportional widths); fractions; comprehensive superiors, inferiors, nominators and denominators; case sensitive punctuation sets; mathematical and monetary symbols; arrows; standard and discretionary ligatures; and support for all (Latin script based) Western, Central and East European languages.
Maurice Göldner’s Meran grew out of an exercise to construct capital letters from strips of black paper. Its origins make Meran difficult to characterize. A sans? Undoubtedly, but its angular forms might also qualify it as a “contemporary rotunda”. A 3-width, 6-weight text face that works equally well in headlines as it does in small print.
Meran is available in Standard or Pro which adds small caps; lining, old style and small cap figures (each in tabular and proportional widths); fractions; comprehensive superiors, inferiors, nominators and denominators; case sensitive punctuation sets; mathematical and monetary symbols; arrows; standard and discretionary ligatures; and support for all (Latin script based) Western, Central and East European languages.
The work of Argentinian designer Alejandro Lo Celso is often inspired by literary luminaries and the Perec family is no exception. It pays tribute to the genius of French writer Georges Perec, one of the most original authors of the 20th century. The type system will consist of 3 subfamilies, the first of which is this contemporary grotesque with 15 text fonts of roman, italic, and small caps in 5 weights. The rest of the Perec subfamilies will follow soon, each as unique and invigorating as Georges himself, and all exclusive to FontShop.
Hasan Abu Afash was educated as an engineer and developed an interest in Arabic type design later in his career. He started Hiba Studio in Gaza-Palestine in 2007. Among Hasan’s Arabic fonts are traditional Kufi designs like the award-winning Hasan Hiba, along with more contemporary styles.
Our online sampler isn’t yet capable of generating custom samples of these fonts — Arabic scripts require a very different kind of rendering — but you can see all the glyphs of each font by clicking through to their Character Set or contact us for more samples.
Chinese and Japanese Fonts from DynaComware
DynaComware (formerly DynaLab) has been providing high quality fonts for Asian design and communication since 1987. We’re pleased to offer over 200 of their Japanese and Chinese typefaces in both Traditional and Simplified forms.
Our online sampler isn’t yet capable of generating custom samples or displaying the full character set of these fonts (which contain thousands of glyphs each) but you can get a taste of each style in the one-line samples and contact us for extended specimens.
Like FF Meta Serif, FF Unit Slab is a collaboration between Erik Spiekermann and Christian Schwartz with Kris Sowersby. Read the creation story of this addition to the FF Unit family.
This month’s review of movie poster typography examines Public Enemies, Brüno, I Love You Beth Cooper, Soul Power, and In The Loop.
ATypI’09 Preview: Mexico, Forging The Character
Isaías Loaiza Ramírez’s slides give a concise overview of the history of type and lettering in Mexico.
Optima Alternatives
Hermann Zapf’s elegant Optima has become synonymous with cosmetics and luxury branding, but it᾿s not the only sans serif with stroke contrast. Here are some less common options.
Staff Picks: August
Each month we pick the typefaces that we’ve seen put to fine use — and undiscovered gems we wish were used more often. Here are selections from FontShop.com designer Michelle Nguyen.
Constructivist
Typefaces inspired by the strong, square forms from Russia’s social art movement of the the early 1900s offer a simple, stereotypical way to evoke communism.
Good morning, class. Today we’re going to be discussing typography, a subject that I’m sure you are all familiar with. Please take out your books and turn to the chapter on Education. There are two parts to this chapter: one for Students, and one for Educators. You’ll find that there are a whole bunch of great resources, links, and information that will help prepare you for the semester.
Oh, and FontShop is currently offering a 10% discount on all of your class materials! Simply create an account with your .edu email address, and use the promo code EDUCATE10 during checkout. For you students who don’t use an .edu address, let us know and we’ll enable your account to receive the discount.
There will be a quiz at the end of class, so be sure to study up, get the materials you need, and you’ll be on your way to mastering typography.
Due to a rigorous acceptance policy and extremely high production values, new FontFonts are rare and widely anticipated. This batch of four new typefaces — each one a unique addition to a different genre (slab, grotesque, handwritten, and casual sans) — is no exception. Eight existing FontFont families also get language or style extensions in this release.
Image: LiveSurface®
In 2002, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) changed from broadsheet to tabloid — a change that came along with a major impact on DN’s journalism, editing, and design. Pangea design’s Creative Director, Örjan Nordling, had already worked with DN as a design consultant in 1996. In 2000, DN had been redesigned under the leadership of Mario Garcia. For the new design Nordling created DN Bodoni exclusively for Dagens Nyheter. The change to tabloid called for a more compact setting and Pangea design was commissioned to produce a matching sans serif for Sweden’s largest daily newspaper. With assistance from Nordling’s colleague Göran Söderström, DN Grotesk has evolved into FF Dagny.
For the FontFont library several adjustments were made. The contrast in stroke thickness was reduced for better legibility in small sizes and characters were redesigned together with the FontFont type department. The family now includes a range of consistent weights from Thin to Black making it perfect for use in body text and all kind of other applications. The name Dagny is an abbreviation of Dagens Nyheter as well as an old nordic female name meaning “new day”.
The Pro version of FF Dagny includes Extended Latin support for typesetting the news of Central Europe and Turkey.
Free Font: For a limited time, try one weight of the FF Dagny family for free. Download FF Dagny OT Thin »
Download FF Dagny Spec Sheet
Download FF Dagny Info Guide
Image: LiveSurface®
When Kris Sowersby, Christian Schwartz, and Erik Spiekermann were designing the parameters for FF Meta Serif, they spent quite some time on details like the thickness and the shape of the serifs — should the face veer towards a slab with blocky, heavy serifs or should it be more of a traditional book face? In the end, they went for a “normal” serif face with fairly solid serifs, but some thick-thin contrast and counters that aren’t totally parallel to the outside shape of the letters. Stronger and thus more useful than Times New Roman while not as constructed as Rockwell.They did, however, like some of their explorations into a “humanist slab” so much, that they asked Sowersby to develop the initial sketches further as a companion for FF Unit. That, in fact, is FF Meta’s more serious sister, and it looked good with heavier serifs.
FF Unit Slab is a fairly condensed slab which pulls a punch in bold headlines and looks surprisingly good in text with its typewriter-like discipline. It can be mixed with FF Unit, of course, but also works as companion to FF Meta, while FF Meta Serif looks good when mixed with FF Unit — whether for headlines or small text like captions. The two families share a common heritage and like to hang out with each other.
FF Unit Slab Pro adds Central European, Turkish, and Extended Latin character sets.
Download FF Unit Pro Spec Sheet
Download FF Unit Slab Info Guide
Image: LiveSurface®
Martin Wenzel’s original idea from 1998 evolved into a kind of informal FF Profile. FF Duper has a homemade touch, but provides all typographic qualities of a modern OpenType font. FF Duper consists of Regular, Bold, Regular Italic and Bold Italic weights, supports more than 60 languages (in the Pro version), has several figure sets and fractions, and includes alternative forms for ‘a’, ‘g’, and ‘y’ as well as a set of arrows, bullets, and ornaments. And there is a special extra: all weights contain three versions of each glyph and via an OpenType feature the three alternatives are used in succession, treating vowels and consonents separately and recognizing even spaces between words for a lively and hand-made appearance of the typed text. Preliminary versions of the typeface have already been successful in education and school projects, but there are surely more areas where FF Duper’s friendly personality fits in.
Download FF Duper Spec Sheet
Download FF Duper Info Guide
Image: LiveSurface®
FF Kava began as a free typeface called Kaffeesatz, published by Yanone in 2004 during the early stages of his type design career. The bold weight was reminiscent of coffee house grotesk typefaces of the 1920s, while the lighter versions bridged the gap to contemporary type design. The current FF Kava family is a carefully revised, more rounded version of the old Kaffeesatz fonts. A black weight has been added as well as small caps and more figure sets to complete an attractive and functional sans serif type family.
FF Kava Pro adds Central European, Turkish, and Extended Latin character sets.
Download Spec FF Kava Sheet
Download FF Kava Info Guide
FF Typestar OT
Now available in OpenType.
FF Avance OT
Now available in OpenType and OT Pro with Central European and Turkish support.
FF Jackie OT
This underused roman/script is now much easier to use with all its swashes, ligatures, and alts intelligently combined into a single OpenType font for each style.
FF Meta 3
The lightest weights of the FF Meta family are now available in OpenType. The Pro version supports Greek, Turkish, Central European, and other Extended Latin languages.
FF Dax Compact OT
Now available in OpenType and OT Pro with Central European and Turkish support.
FF Gateway OT
Now available in OpenType.
FF Luggagetag OT
Now available in OpenType.
The “in use” examples at the top of this newsletter were created with LiveSurface image templates — high-res, pre-masked, multi-layered images with built-in 3D surfaces. They make creating finished photographic images from your artwork as quick as cut + paste. Highly recommended.
Visit LiveSurface.com to learn more »
 Founded by Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody in 1989, FontShop is the original independent retailer of digital type. We offer more than 100,000 fonts from dozens of expert-selected foundries, including our house brand: FontFont.
FontFont Microsites
|
Get FontShop News |
|||
|
Copyright © 2009 FontShop USA | Proud sponsor of ATypI | Shop Region: |
||||
