Award-Winning Fonts

Undeniably, both awards – the Type Directors Club’s TDC² and Typographica’s Favorite Typefaces – are always long awaited by the design community. The selection of world’s best published font releases are highly respected for years. While the TDC award is the traditional top dog, Typographica is the aspiring spring chicken, asking 25 high-ranking international designers to pick from the year’s fonts. Both lists give a useful view on what is new and hot in type design. Fortunately, if you’d like to increase the quality of your own projects this year, most of the “Best of 2007” typefaces are available at FontShop:

FF Beowolf OT and FF BeoSans OT, designed by Just van Rossum and Erik van Blokland, published by FontFont, Winner Typographica’s OFT 2007. The OpenType version of world’s first typeface with a mind of its own: with 1,000s of alternates as well, the new Beo are as close to achieving the original idea of randomization as nearly any composer can expect today.

BistroScript, designed by Tomáš Brousil, published by Suitcase Type Foundry, Winner Typographica’s OFT 2007. This contemporary calligraphic script was inspired by promotional art in the 1960s. Thanks to OpenType features, a variety of ligatures and alternative glyphs allow the user to create more authentic and varied connections between letters.

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Entertain and Embellish

Click to enlarge.

Entertain and embellish with the typefaces of IHOF, Comicraft, and Norwegian Fonts. FontShop is known for workhorse text and corporate typefaces, but these new collections offer something slightly different from standard fare, proving that we are your source for decorative and novelty typefaces, too.

View some of FontShop's new intensive fonts of strong character now in our March 2008 newsletter.

New FontFonts: Release 44

FF Utility by Lukas Schneider. Click to enlarge.

Our new font blog entries have fallen a little bit behind. We won’t point you to all the new releases announced in recent newsletters, but do be sure to check out the issue showcasing the latest FontFonts. Aside from FF Celeste™ Sans’ OpenType version and numerous character set extensions to foundry favorites, three new designs were announced in February newsletter: FF Polymorph™, an exploration of global forms in the FontFont’s experimental tradition, developed by Stefanie Schwarz for her Thesis; FF Unit™ Rounded, in which our founder reveals the softer side of his “strict sans”; and FF Utility™, a hard-working sans serif for text and information design by newcomer Lukas Schneider.

FF Polymorph by Stefanie Schwarz. Click to enlarge.

Types & Characters: Xavier Dupré and Martin Majoor

Type design super heroes Xavier Dupré and Martin Majoor are featured in FontFont’s new Types & Characters brochures. Their excellent typefaces and their approach to design is presented to provide an insight into the work of the people behind the letters. The Types & Characters series, designed by students of University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden, Germany reveals type designers’ sources of inspiration, their sketches and computer work, as well as some very personal statements. The good news? The PDF files are free:

• Xavier Dupré (4.7M PDF)
• Martin Majoor (2.4M PDF)

2008 FontShop Calendar: April

April Featuring P22 Operina Pro and P22 Koch Signs

While we no longer have a monthly calendar offering, there shall be special exceptions, and this fantasy alchemical calendar for April is one of them. James Grieshaber combined his own typeface, P22 Operina Pro, with P22 Koch Signs to conjure this mystical backdrop for your digital wallpaper or physical desktop. Each symbol has an actual meaning that pertains to the month. The two names on the side are the names of actual meteor showers that will be visible on the dates marked. The first shower will be visible from the Northern hemisphere and the second from the Southern.

P22 Operina Pro is a unusually extensive OpenType font from IHOF, a new collection on FontShop. Read more about other new additions in our latest newsletter.

• printable 11×17 (3.4 MB PDF)
• desktop wallpaper (1 MB)
• widescreen desktop wallpaper (1.1 MB)

In Use: Hermes for Wig-01

UK-based designer Andrew Townsend is in charge of Un.titled’s art direction. As Wig-01 he works on self-initiated art and design projects such as the “Graphic Poetry” book and illustrations for various magazines. The typeface of his simple, dynamic website showcasing these projects is Font Bureau’s Hermes. The typeface does an excellent job both in screen and print media.

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Figuring It Out: OSF, LF, and TF Explained

Numerals (or figures) can take various forms. The figure style you choose ought to be appropriate to the project you are working on. Readability is key. But which style is best for which purpose? There are two main forms, oldstyle figures (OSF) and lining figures (LF). Each can come in tabular and proportional widths. See some examples below.

Full-featured text fonts include all four figure styles. Click the image above to see figures from
FF Scala Sans Pro, Adobe Caslon Pro and PMN Caecilia™ Std.

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A Few Good Words for the Good Book

A little over a year has passed since we released the long-awaited Fourth Edition of FontBook and the praise is still pouring in. We chose a few of our favorite quotes for this week’s newsletter.

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OpenType FontFonts and the Languages They Speak

The OpenType format brings us more glyphs, and (unfortunately) more confusion. As the FontFont library is converted to OpenType, premium fonts are continually released with advanced typographic features and language support built-in. With so many new releases we don’t expect you to keep up on which FontFonts can speak which languages. Just keep an eye on this post for the latest updates.

Learn more about OpenType in the FontFont OpenType User Guide (700KB PDF). More information, along with a list of FontFonts in OpenType format, can be found in this lovely leaflet (506KB PDF), including the lowdown on Std (“OT”) vs. Pro:

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Meta Reaction

If you missed the newsletter, this month’s FontFont release was one of FontShop’s most exciting in years: FF Meta Serif. Yves Peters wrote an excellent piece for FontShop Benelux on the new typeface. The article, with quotes from the creators — Spiekermann (the old master), Schwartz (the new master), and Sowersby (the impressive newcomer) — is a rare look into the process of collaborative type design.

The blogosphere is buzzing about FF Meta Serif. You can find a rundown of coverage on Spiekermann’s own journal.

Update: FF Meta Serif is the current Featured Face on the popular forum Typophile, gracing the dynamic homepage background and all topic titles.

See also: The History of FF Meta