The Glossary of Typefaces

[Gare]

If you want to spec type like the pros, you gotta speak the language of typography.

FontShop has graciously proviede us all with this free resource:

Typeface Anatomy & Glossary

Check it out!

My Best,

Gary

[angelize]

There is a lot of good information there. Thanks for sharing this.

[wizard509]

That's cool Gare! What a neat resource.

[jon404]

What I REALLY want, Gare, is for Adobe to sell their Font Folio library for $99, instead of what, $3,000? Maybe we can get Magix to ban Adobe products from the EU unless Adobe agrees to my reasonable request. After all.

[Gare]

Well, Jon, the $2,599 SMRP I've seen for Adobe Font Folio 11 is certainly a kick in the wallet for anyone who has a real professional need for the best renderings of popular and classic typefaces. Adobe, to the best of my recollection, has never discounted typeface collections, at least not significantly.




I almost never want to "be fair" when I'm a consumer, but to be fair (!) in this case, Adobe Systems got taken for a ride several years ago when Apple and Microsoft essentially trashed the pricing of commercial typefaces by introducing TrueType. You could get packs of 20 fonts for $49 or less and they were from Monotype and other classy foundries.

This mostly set the "dollar a font" trend and the bottom feeders who'd make knock-offs thought this was great because prior to TrueType, someone with a copy of FontMonger or some other font making program would rip-off, say, Gradl (Led Zepplin albums used this typeface on occasion), and have to put it up as shareware. After TrueType set a new low for font prices, these same people suddenly were charging $2 a font and you could pay with the just-born PayPal micro-payment invention!

However, two things happened, actually 2.7. As the market became saturated with typefaces, people became more selective and the "junk fonts" became relegated to backwaters websites or pirate sites where many of them originated. This need for quality typefaces was seen by a lot of foundries who promptly celebrated and got drunk in the streets for several weeks.

Microsoft and Adobe Systems (the square dance of Commerce frequently changes partners) decided to try to stuff the genie back in the bottle by introducing OpenType, which is both a robust coding language and more like Type 1. And I've never seen font prices for OpenType drop to a buck a font again, not even with the indie foundries.

I'm not going to play the "Oh, Adobe Font Folio averages out to less than $2 a font" game, because many of the fonts one would buy are shovelware—unusable, uninspired, trash—or foreign language fonts, or all 103 members of some font family of which you only need four.

Adobe is in the position to never really discount the font folio, or even individual typefaces. They can sell this $2,599 pack to enterprises as a perk for their art directors instead of giving them a raise. Don't laugh; I knew an art director that got a corner window office instead of a raise.

What Adobe might consider is adopting a limited version model for their typefaces, like they used to do with Photoshop LE, and the elements line of limited Adobe design software.
How about marking down a font if a certain character is missing?




Okay, _eriously: I have to design print and web stuff all the time, and

1. I've been collecting typefaces since 1991, and I find it hard to believe that serious designers don't already have the workaday fonts such as Adobe Myriad, Futura, Garamond, and other staples. There's certainly a better and less expensive way to get a working set tucked under your belt than to buy Font Folio. Before Bitstream was bought by Monotype, these folks used to be the OEM for Monotype, Linotype, Adobe and others, rivaling URW for EOM design typefaces. And I think you can still get over 900 ove the "essential" fonts a good designers needs by buying CorelDRAW, even back to version 5 if you can find a discounted or legitimate used copy.

2. I support "the Little Guy", not because I'm an altruist, but because really and truly, some of the best novel, well-coded, inventive designs do not come from a "font clearing house" which Adobe Systems sort of is. P22, Nick Curtis, Emigré, Letterhead Fonts, the Fontshop, The Font Bureau, and many, many more independent "boutique" font places will sell you a designer type from anywhere from $15 and up. Nope, it's not the "dollar a font" world out there; it never really was if you're serious about typography.

My Best,

Gary

[jon404]

You're right... Adobe never discounted fonts. Digitally, I came up on the PC side... with Corel Draw and that full font collection. Still have my library book! I don't suppose that Magix has something similar? But I'm no fan of Adobe. Zero love. Oh, that's not fair... I like Acrobat Pro, and old Photoshop 7. And before Xara, I used Illustrator quite a bit. But all the rest of it's bloatware at ridiculous prices.

Did you know that Dan Solo died last year? We used to send off to Solotype for headlines... he was a real type guy. A few of those 4,000 fonts are at http://www.myfonts.com/foundry/Solotype/ ... shame the whole collection never made it to a CD or DVD.

Stepson sent me a subscription to Wired magazine at Christmas. Good God. Never thought six-color printing would have the unintended consequence of unleashing typographical insanity. But times change. If people don't read much, who cares?

[Gare]

I don't suppose that Magix has something similar?

Xara has had a relationship with FontBank for many years and although a zillion fonts don’t come with Xara, there are several nice ones. On one hand, folks like Corel Corp. who struck a deal with Bitstream before Monotype bought the foundry, give you the whole nine yards, regardless of whether all the fonts are generally perceived as worthwhile. I think typically, CorelDRAW has come with over 900 typefaces of good quality but questionable use ever since version 5, after their proprietary WFN file format we “enjoyed” in Windows 3.1.
On the other hand, I see no reason to be stingy just because a company isn’t motivated to strike a deal. Macromedia I think was in the “sweet spot” in the mid 1990s: they gave you about 100 typefaces in TrueType format, I think but am not sure they licensed from Linotype, and every font was useful—and they had industry standard names. If you bought Freehand, you were basically set with a good working set of typefaces.

But I'm no fan of Adobe. Zero love.

Ah, Jon, here’s the schism I encourage people not to weave. You don’t have to love a company to use their product. I wrote 11 books (I think) on Photoshop from 1993 to 2003. And necessarily, I had to be on the inside track with beta testing and some of the personnel. As a corporate culture goes, you’d have to be blind or brainwashed not to notice that Adobe Systems is “haughty”; taste-setters every once in a while, a bunch of dilettantes at other times. I’ve known terrific product managers there, and also people with no people skills.

My conclusion is that there isn’t a program out there that can match Photoshop in every aspect. I also conclude that when the CS versions started coming out, Photoshop became top-heavy. I have no idea why they added forensics tools and 3D to an already mature and full-featured program. I suggested that they make Photoshop 3D, just as they have Photoshop elements, just to keep feature-it is out of the best program I’ve ever used for image editing.

I also need to conclude that Adobe is the only other big software vendor who did for graphics what Microsoft did for office products: they’ve made a truly integrated suite. And Adobe has strategically priced individual products in a way so as if you’re interesting in 2 to 3 products, you might as well but the suite.

Before I drift too far off-topic (although I enjoy this discourse), I’d disagree that all Adobe products are bloatware, Jon. Photoshop for all of its too-many features still loads and runs pretty darned fast with CS6. I haven’t spent quality time with Illustrator, but I think they’re doing the right thing—they’re concentrating on making vectors tool more robust, as CorelDRAW is doing and I’ve “Dear Xara”-ed several times that we need smudge and roughen tools in Xara Designer!

But Adobe didn’t fold Encore into Premiere although they could have, which is good at not producing bloatware. Also, Soundbooth could have been folded into Audition to bloat it., but they didn’t. The Media Encoder is a separate app that serves After Effects and Premiere (which could be combined but thankfully they’re not). Nope.

I use Adobe products that are “best of breed” with respect to a specific task. I think they are over-priced with certain products, although I think Photoshop elements is a steal. I can’t warm up to the company, but you know what? I don’t have to. I use their products, I don’t go on long moonlit walks with it, I don’t send it flowers, I don’t put software in a position where I’d think of myself as a fan or an enemy of it. Tools are tools I save passion for people. :)

Did you know that Dan Solo died last year?.

I did not. I’m very sorry for the loss of a gifted person in the graphics community. I have a few fonts that are credited to Dan X. Solo with a Dover Publications as a side credit.



Very few artists today can revive the ornamental intricacy and the historic richness of the typefaces I own that Dan digitized. If you ever need to reproduce the label to an Altoids tin, or do a poster for Pablo Fanques Fair, you’d use Dan’s typefaces.



We still have Nick Curtis alive and well, though. http://www.dafont.com/nicks-fonts.d83 Nick’s copied some historic fonts, but has also produced some amazing originals in his career and has made it a practice to share some fonts as free, while maintaining a healthy number of commercial (IOW $) offerings.

If people don't read much, who cares?.

Um, publishers? :)
Oh, and authors! I really don’t like writing if no one is going to read.

Wired is a little on the self-important side when it comes to layout and trends. I think all publications have an ebb and flow.

Just my 2¢ marked down to adjust for inflation,

Gary

[jon404]

I lost it with Adobe when Photoshop CS came with a secret flag that popped up when you tried to edit a dollar bill image, or a euro note. Also went to a programmer's protest here in San Diego to spring Dimitri Skylarov out of jail... Adobe had the FBI arrest him for phony DMCA violations. We got him out, they had to drop the case.

But Photoshop, what a great program. I've used PS7 for years and am still learning new things. It does so much. Did for us what spreadsheets did for the suits. Amazing.

Glad I'm retired now though. Won't have to learn video. Saw the future coming a few years ago, with Apple Motion, and felt it was a good time to draw my line in the sand and walk away. The kids coming up now will be as fluent with video as we were with still graphics... and good luck to them! Video can be so complex, so time-consuming... so expensive.

Anyway, thanks for the typography notes and links. An old shared love.