FontShop Newsletter | October 19, 2011

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Libertine Volume OT by Canada Type

Runda OT by psType

ISTD 2011 Award winners: FF Dagny, FF Milo Serif, FF Spinoza

New foundry: psType

New fonts: Kozmetica Script, Sweet Square, Recta Volume, Libertine Volume

Mobile FontFonts: Reminder

Three typefaces of the FontFont Library from FontShop International won Certificates of Excellence in ISTD Awards 2011. FF Dagny, FF Milo Serif and FF Spinoza were recognized in an awards ceremony at the Museum of Brands and Packaging in London on October 14.

The ISTD International Typographic Awards are held as an appraisal of current standards in typographic design. The quality of work entered, and the reputation of companies and individuals taking part, express the status of the awards. The jury includes some of today’s leading graphic, interactive and typographic design specialists.

View the ISTD 2011 Award Winners. Get 10% off until October 31, 2011.

Help us welcome psType to FontShop’s catalog! Mark Caneso started psType in 2004 as his own “custom type playground” to feed the lettering needs of his ever-inventive pprwrk studio. Several successful designs later, we’re proud to bring his vivacious type designs to a wider market.

Neplus Ultra OT

Neplus Ultra poses a few uncommon solutions to the common problems designers face when a character’s stroke width exceeds half its x-height. The strong diagonals in characters like M and N differentiate strokes in what would otherwise be a solid mass. When the strength of a diagonal stroke is at odds with a natural connection, such as in the & or R, Neplus Ultra prioritizes the diagonal. Slit counters pinch the stroke weight back here and there. As a design tool, Neplus Ultra ranks among the handsome, pragmatic ultra bold slabs.

Neplus Ultra Specimen PDF

Runda OT

In developing Runda, Mark Caneso saw a subtle exuberance in the realist grotesque that’s often missed. Here he achieved it with a large x-height, a relatively low stance on the baseline, and a clever slowing of the strokes as they approach the curves. Runda is a willfully optimistic sans in five weights. The italic is an optically adjusted oblique with cursive forms such as a descending f, unicameral a, and single-story g and y.

Runda Specimen PDF

Quatro Ultra OT

Quatro is a sweet-tempered giant. Its terminal angles and overall low contrast almost put the face’s caps and figures in the sign-painter sans category. The lowercase is of a decidedly humanist sans tradition. Made for display, Quatro works well when you need a font with muscle, whose tone is controlled and not at all pushy. Need serifs with that? Try Quatro Ultra Slab.

Quatro Specimen PDF Quatro Slab Specimen PDF

Ratio OT & Ratio Display OT

Ratio has too much feeling to be tossed in with the rest of the tech sanses, though the two share much in common. Rounds, bowls, and shoulders square off noticeably. Spur length is minimal. Yet the face finds ample ground between the geometric and the humanist. Its x-height in general and the openness of its letterforms in particular give this text face a spirited personality. Ratio Display is a tighter-fit, slightly condensed companion design with a normalized cap/ascender height. Available in six weights, Ratio’s range is broad. It goes from ebullient to austere in seconds, getting the job done equally well in cutting-edge communications or sophisticated, professional settings.

Ratio Specimen PDF Ratio Display Specimen PDF

Kozmetica Script

Kozmetica is a new original typeface from the dynamic team of Koziupa and Paul. This elegant design combines the warmth of a delicate brush script with the ornamentation of classic penmanship, evoking the Art Deco period. Thoughtful and fluid strokes create soft, warm letter forms. The typeface includes a wealth of alternates, primarily in the lowercase, with hairline swashes swirling from beginning and end forms.

Sweet Square

The Engraver’s Square Gothic—like its rounder cousin, the engraver’s sans serif (Sweet® Sans)—has been one of the more widely used stationer’s lettering styles since about 1900. Its minimal forms, made without curves, were popularized long ago by bankers and others seeking a serious, established feel to their stationery. Referencing various masterplates, Mark van Bronkhorst drew Sweet Square in nine weights, and added italics to give the family greater versatility.

Sweet Square Specimen PDF

Recta Volume

Recta was one of Aldo Novarese’s earliest contributions to the massive surge of the European sans serif genre that was booming in the mid-20th century. This “Italian Helvetica” maintains traditional simplicity as its high point of functionality, while showing a subtle infusion of humanistic traits. It shows that the construct of the grotesque does not have to be rigid and can indeed have a touch of Italian flair.

Libertine Volume

Taking its cue from the lettering of 1930s Dutch commercial artist Martin Meijer, Libertine displays expert calligraphy and total wrist control. With strokes stopping and starting at very steep angles and extreme contrasts, every character is a high riff jolting from within a stunning epic that brings the message home. This is the rebel yell, the adrenaline of scripts. The font includes tons of alternates and ligatures for a seamless, hand-lettered look.

Last week FontShop International released 15 type designs in 14 font packages, tailored for use in iOS apps. These nicely priced packages include licensing with the iOS developer in mind.