MetaFilter posts tagged with type

"Please don't use any less than a 16px base font-size for body content"

mediareport — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:53:47 -0800

Stop Using Small Font Sizes "I'm calling you out. All of you. The hackers, the designers, the code monkeys, the word-smiths, the editors, the CSS gurus, and everyone else who works on content management systems and style sheets for news sites. Stop using small font sizes." (The before-and-after examples at the bottom of the post from The Atlantic, Wired and TechCrunch might be useful.)

Henceforward Shall Be Free

Horace Rumpole — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 07:42:58 -0800

For a stamp celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, designer Gail Anderson turned to a printing technique of the period, the classic wood types of Hatch Show Print (previously).

The Typewriter at the Gates of Dawn

Wordshore — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:25:16 -0800

The BBC reports that the last typewriter to be built in the UK (according to its manufacturers) has been donated to London's Science Museum. "Brother said it had stopped making typewriters because demand had fallen to 30 a day, with most of those being sold in the US." From less than five years ago, another BBC news story: "The Japanese multinational Brother sold 12,000 electronic typewriters last year in the UK..." The first typewriter was patented (but not commercially manufactured) in 1714. Though many other mechanical typing devices were invented thereafter, the Sholes and Glidden typewriter (developed between 1866 and 1874) was the first commercially successful model, and the one which gave us the world 'typewriter'. Though in decline, the typewriter industry is not - contrary to recent reports - completely over. As recently as last year, one manufacturer was producing machines for the US prison system. New Brother typewriters are still for sale on Amazon. And Mom and Pop and independent stores, from Oregon to Massachusetts, are still around. The Flickr Writing Machines group contains many pictures of typewriters.

The Evolution of Type

plinth — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 07:47:29 -0800

The Evolution of Type - by Andreas Scheiger. More examples here.

Taylor Mali poem, animated

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 04:41:39 -0800

A typographical animation of Taylor Mali's poem, "Totally like whatever, you know?"

You couldn't just Tweet the Declaration of Independence

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:45:06 -0800

The Dunlap broadside was the first printing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

We Love Typography World

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:17:31 -0800

We Love Typography World Geotagged selections of the world's best typography (in the form of signage).

editable visualized data

heatherann — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:57:26 -0800

FF Chartwell is a typeface for creating simple editable graphs and charts, designed by Travis Kochel. Driven by the frustration of creating graphs within design applications and inspired by typefaces such as FF Beowolf and FF PicLig, Travis saw an opportunity to take advantage of OpenType technology to simplify the process. Using OpenType features, simple strings of numbers are automatically transformed into charts. The visualized data remains editable, allowing for hassle-free updates and styling. Watch the demo video. Buy a license.

Installing concrete type on the grounds of the Blackpool Comedy Carpet

joeclark — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:54:25 -0800

The Comedy Carpet is an enormous public typographic artwork in Blackpool, England, for decades a waystation for every stand-up comedian and comedy troupe in the country. This giant expanse of typography – like a football field of flat concrete you can read and walk on – displays every punchline and catchphrase of 20th-century British comedy, up to and including the entire Monty Python “Parrot Sketch.” Designer Andy Altmann gives a talk (direct Vimeo version) describing the immense design, computation, and construction work that went into fitting all those letters together. But earlier this year, without consulting the designers, Blackpool city government decided one edge of the Carpet was too close to tram tracks and jackhammered it into rubble (photo).

Fluid and Spontaneous

netbros — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:29:50 -0800

Launched just last week, Calligraphica is the new Tumblr home for calligraphy and hand-drawn type. While you're at it, check out their sister site, Typeverything.

type connection

lalex — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:33:59 -0800

Type Connection is a game that helps you learn how to pair typefaces.

Character Study

Scoop — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:07:18 -0800

Graphemica. F o r people w h o ♥ l e t t e r s, numbers, punctuation, &c .

Henry Hargreaves: Bacon Alphabet and Toasted

OmieWise — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 06:23:45 -0800

Henry Hargreaves: Bacon Alphabet & Toasted (toast portraiture). His full site (Flash).

Experimental type of type

Blazecock Pileon — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:20:10 -0800

Generative Typografie - experimental programmatic type and infographics (demos and text auf Deutsch)

a feast for the eyes

crunchland — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:08:46 -0800

The art of the menu.

Typeface based on sculpture becomes motorized sculpture

joeclark — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:11:19 -0800

Typeface based on sculpture becomes motorized sculpture. The (European) typeface Jigsaw, “which was inspired by sculpture,” finds a use in typesetting the names of donors to a (U.S.) regional arts council. “A motorized disk contains approximately 2,000 names.... Pushing an initial letter on the control panel allows the viewer to find a particular name. The disk rotates and stops at the requested letter and displays all the names corresponding to the requested letter by backlighting them with white LEDs.” (Gallery; Vimeo video.) Cf. arranging the names on the 9/11 memorial.

Typography and the Kindle platform

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 30 May 2011 23:52:23 -0800

Typography is about reading – and so are ebooks [via]

Pay What You Want Type

netbros — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:21:37 -0800

The Lost Type Co-op is a collaboration between Tyler Galpin and Riley Cran. It was founded with the intention of providing unique and quality fonts based on a pay-what-you-want model. All designers get 100% of the donations their font receives.

Flawed Typefaces

joeclark — Sun, 15 May 2011 11:53:34 -0800

Flawed Typefaces. Paul Shaw, author of Helvetica and the New York City Subway System and a writer with a sharp eye even by typography standards, dissects the one or two characters in each of nearly two dozen fonts that stick out like a sore serif. (Yes, the Gill Sans numeral 1 is in there.)

HUGLAGHALGHALGHAL

ardgedee — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:29:59 -0800

You might expect a jokey April 1 press release announcing Comic Sans Pro is yet another seasonal prank. Yet here it is, as little as $35 per face or $120 for the whole family.

New Egyptian régime blows its chance to legitimately use the Papyrus font

joeclark — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:56:38 -0800

The new Egyptian régime blows its chance to legitimately use the Papyrus font. The Egyptian president’s official site (for standardistas: HTML 3.2 with no language declared!) squanders a chance at typographic symbolism, Typophile explains: “Unfortunately, they had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to legitimately use Papyrus and they blew it. Instead it’s Algerian.” (Type specimens: Papyrus; Algerian. Cf. Papyrus Watch [previously].)

What do type designers look like?

joeclark — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:47:24 -0800

The Museum of Modern Art announced this week it would induct 23 digital-era typefaces into its permanent collection (Times coverage). But what do the designers of these fonts look like? Pics or it didn’t happen: first set; second.

The Purpose and Techniques of Calligraphy

netbros — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 07:31:35 -0800

The Art of Hermann Zapf film "was produced in 1967 at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City and in my design studio in Dreieichenhain, Germany... After long discussions and the help of a lot of alcohol we started late in the night. I was sitting at a slanted glass table with a hot spotlight in my neck. Frank Robinson was lying on the floor with the camera ready for a frog-view shot. My task was to write beautiful letters with ink which dried as soon the pen touched the slippery surface of an astralon sheet." — Hermann Zapf

An identity so appealing, someone should launch a meat market just to adopt it

The Whelk — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 12:58:45 -0800

Why does Futura work here but Slanted Futura doesn't? Enter FONTS IN USE: A breakdown, explanation and appreciation of type design out in the real world.

Articles of distinction

madamjujujive — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 07:12:32 -0800

If you are a fan of the quirky type fonts of a pre-digital era, you may enjoy "the" project, a whimsical little romp through the graphic yesteryear brought to you by the hound of lettering. (via Mira y Calla)