FontBook is the most complete digital type reference in the world.

Since 1991, “the big yellow book” has been the trusted friend of designers, typographers, advertisers, manufacturers, publishers, historians, and anyone else who uses type.

FontBook is the only guide that compiles original, digital typefaces from multiple manufacturers and presents them in a systematic way.

FontBook is all-inclusive, with typefaces both old and new. It contains all the classics of the art of printing, insofar as they are available digitally, as well as the latest font releases and extensions.

FontBook is a type encyclopedia with an abundance of carefully researched notes on type designers, year of publication, similar fonts, and additional language versions.

What’s New

This long-awaited fourth edition of FontBook is the first revision in eight years. Thanks to a streamlined design, it includes thousands of new typefaces with only a slight increase in size.

• More specimens (32%)
• More foundries (39%)
• More cross-references (300%)
• Less clutter
• One single volume (index and content together)
• More language/encoding information
• Improved specimens (more complete and more relevant to each typeface category)

Tale of the Tape

• Weight: 3kg (6.6 lb)
• Height: 29.7 cm (11.7 in)
• Width: 15.5 cm (6.1 in)
• Pages: 1,760
• Type Samples: 32,000
• Type Foundries: 90
• Cross-references: 7,400
• Other References: 100,000
• Editors: Mai-Linh Thi Truong, Jürgen Siebert, Erik Spiekermann

FontBook Reviews

We think FontBook is the best thing since Gutenberg. But you don’t have to take our word for it. Read testimonials from FontBook users and reactions from the press in our FontBook Reviews newsletter.

What Does FontBook Look Like?

See for yourself. Download and print actual pages from the book:

• Introduction (English) (1.5MB PDF)
• Introduction (German) (1.1MB PDF)
• Samples from Each Chapter (2.1MB PDF)

The Specimen Page

1. 

   Font name.

   On the left side of the black bar you’ll find the name of the font family, single typeface or font package – large families also have a package number (e.g. 1, 2, …). The initial letter determines the alphabetical order; manufacturer prefixes are ignored. Families with a large number of interpretations (for instance Garamond or Bodoni are sub‒arranged in order of popularity and ⁄ or date of publication.

2. 

   Historical information.

   Here you can find the name(s) of the designer(s) and year of publication of almost all of the typefaces in FontBook. If the typeface is a reinterpretation or adaption of an earlier design, the original date of publication will appear in brackets.

3. 

   Header sample.

   The most important characters of a font are displayed here (upper and lower case, numbers and punctuation), generally in 24 point. The sample also shows accented letters, special Western European characters and currency symbols if they are available.

4. 

   See also reference.

   Here you’ll find references to similar or related fonts. If these are in a different chapter, it will be noted in brackets (e.g. Display). With over 7,000 references, FontBook invites vast typographical forays.

5. 

   Text sample.

   If a typeface (family) contains more than one weight, a small (12 point) four-line text specimen is shown for each; including the one used for the header (note the black instead of yellow arrow). A text sample may display several versions of a weight such as Roman, Small Caps, Expert set, Old Style Figures, Tabular Figures, etc.

6. 

   Weight names.

   The name of the weight is listed above every text sample. Should a weight have variations (e.g. Small Caps, Tabular Figures,…) these are attached to their names, separated by a slash. The weight displayed in the header is indicated by a black ▸ arrow.

7. 

   Language references.

   Should a font be available in language versions other than Western (for example CE = Central European, B = Baltic, T = Turkish), references will be found on the right hand side of the bar. The fonts are displayed in the Latin Plus and Non-Latin chapters.

8. 

   Bookmark ribbons.

   For the first time, three handy placeholder ribbons now reinforce FontBook's designation as ‟The Font Bible.”