Category Archives: Typography

New release! Librum Book Design Group font package

Skilled Workman Posted on by

This is the release of the fifteen-font package for book design which I developed in the writing of Practical Font Design With FontLab 5. It is a further development of the Contenu/Buddy group. Click here to purchase the Librum Book Design Group The x-heights are larger, it’s slightly narrower, and the general design is a bit more conservative. There is a serif text family, named Librum, for body copy, and a companion serif ebook family, named Librum … Continue reading →

The 12-font bundle offered in Practical Font Design is available now!

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Over the years, I have sold quite a few of these bundles, but I never really had a place where it could be purchased and downloaded. Now I do. It’s a value-added offer for readers of the book. Buy the 12-font bundle here

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A short note about ebook licensing for your fonts

Skilled Workman Posted on by

As a font designer, Monotype is the biggest and best. They have all the top sites: fonts.com, myfonts.com, itc.com, and several more. They are the sites used by the pros, primarily. At the least, the pros sell their fonts there also. These places are where my fonts are sold, in most cases. Ebook licensing is very new I have the entire Adobe library and several others, maybe 4000 fonts total. None of them are licensed for anything other … Continue reading →

Enhanced typesetting and new inaccessible Kindle format?

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Back to scratching mud Aaron Shepherd is convinced that this is true. The .kfx (which Aaron believes stands for .kf10) is a post-uploading process done to your books over the first month or two after uploading. What it means as far as he is concerned is this: In practical terms, this means there is no longer any effective way to proof your book before or after publication. You can get it looking absolutely perfect in a KDP proof, and … Continue reading →

More on Kindle Problems…

Skilled Workman Posted on by

A continuation of the Kindle formatting issues On one of the Facebook groups I participate in, there’s been some general poo-pahing over my most recent posting on the problems with Kindle formatting. I can understand it because many in that group only upload very simple novels. But the problem may be worse than I thought. So, I thought I better give some samples. In the process I found that Kindle has indeed destroyed the Kindle version of this … Continue reading →

Canva adds a nice type glossary

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I got an email today about a type glossary at Canva. It’s nicely done. I even learned a new term: Gadzook I wish they’d used a prettier pair of ligatures. They can get real pretty (though the ones from Contenu below have quite a ways to go to reach that level). So, who knew and who cares? These are all terms you need to know to discuss type, fonts, typography and so on. These terms are a good … Continue reading →

Why you need an extended keyboard

Skilled Workman Posted on by

writing in English class, silviac I’ve talked many times over the years about needing an extended keyboard. Creative Pro has a good article about the two Enter keys and their different functions in InDesign.  But this is just the beginning of the advantages. The numerical pad on the right must be used for keyboard shortcuts for styles. Applying styles by shortcut is a major factor in production. It can cut your formatting times by 75% or more … Continue reading →

Readability is the prime virtue of book design

Skilled Workman Posted on by

I decided I needed to beat an old drum. Readability is the focus of book design typography. This was the core of curriculum in my digital publishing degree. It’s the center of my graphic design and book design efforts. Without comfortable, readable content, your book has a severe handicap. What is readability? This is all about book design typography. Here’s a little graphic to show you some of the things that influence how easily you can read a … Continue reading →

On a lighter note: we have a legal replacement for Comic Sans…Comic Neue

Skilled Workman Posted on by

One of the most maligned fonts in recent years is Comic Sans. I’ve never really understood why people (especially type pros) hate Comic Sans so bad. But then, it’s really not a part of my life. This is the new solution: Comic Neue! If you click on the image above it will take you to the page where you can download this for free. The change is fairly radical, but it does have a similar feel to … Continue reading →