Tag Archives: font

Readability: the most important aspect of typography?

Skilled Workman Posted on by

If you ever took one of my classes, you know how much I harped on readability—especially the importance of aperture and other page layout factors concerning readability. Aside from the kindness issue (blessing your readers), this is governed by the realities of modern living. Everyone has too much to read. If you give them any excuse, they will quit reading your work and go on to the next piece in their long list of things they have … Continue reading →

Fontographer 5.1 book: proofing release extended

Skilled Workman Posted on by

I’ve decided to extend the proofing release for at least another month until I decide what to do with letterspacing in Fontographer. I want to develop an easy way for font designers (who do it for fun) to letterspace their work. I no longer believe that Fontographer will auto space well enough for pro releases of fonts for sale. Please take a look at the proof and let me know what you believe. http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/practical-font-design-for-graphic-designers-fontographer/17144172 The PDF download … Continue reading →

Why I switched back to Fontographer 5.1

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Personally, I started in Fontographer in the early 1990s and gradually built a little sideline of designing fonts. They were selling a little on Myfonts.When OpenType became viable with the release of InDesign I needed to find something else. My old version of Fontographer would not run in Mac OSX very well. Thomas Phinney, then of Adobe, told me I had no option but to go to FontLab. This transformed my career. I learned how to write … Continue reading →

1st Proof: Fontographer: Practical Font Design For Graphic Designers

Skilled Workman Posted on by

This is the new book on Fontographer 5.1. It’s has been great fun to go back to my roots, as it were and relearn the program that started me in font design. Fontographer is the app that started graphic design on the computer. It preceded Illustrator by over a year. It was the core that was developed into FreeHand. This is digital drawing that is fun again! As I got back into the application something remarkable happened. … Continue reading →

Basic formatting tips

Skilled Workman Posted on by

This is the rough draft of a third portion of “The New Publisher” which will be a guide to ministers, ministries, and non-profits who need to get their vision out to their people. This new paradigm of the 21st century radically changes things. It gives us an opportunity we should not pass up. Formatting basics Designing your paragraphs We need to talk a bit about setting up your paragraphs. Again most of this knowledge is assumed by … Continue reading →

Why ebooks need typography

Skilled Workman Posted on by

What is typography? A good functional definition is very sweet and simple: Typography is the art & craft of making words easy and comfortable to read Some of this has to do with font choices: But ebooks (other than PDF) do not presently allow embedded fonts Some has to do with leading and point size: but ebooks give few controls here, and the readers can butcher that at will A lot has to do with column width: … Continue reading →

A major new release at Hackberry Font Foundry

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Announcing this all over You may have seen this already, but it is a major piece of work and probably my most mature and sophisticated set of font designs yet. I finally broke down and spaced them for body copy—so they will work well at text sizes [from 9-point to 12-point] without the need to fiddle with the spacing. The design is a contemporary take on oldstyle serif typefaces using Jenson as the mask. The roots of … Continue reading →

Silly me! Found a new shortcut in FontLab

Skilled Workman Posted on by

It really helps production efficiency and speed. Great find! Command+Arrow Key on selected pieces moves 100 units This shows my ignorance of things like this, but I just discovered a great shortcut built into FontLab. As I have mentioned many times, moving selections right or left is a constant thing—especially while building composite glyphs and letterspacing a new font. One of my irritations over the years has been the internal debate over whether it is more efficient … Continue reading →

Hackberry New Releases: Acadami, Cutlass, Chunkie

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Hackberry Font Foundry has released three fonts since the first of the year. They’ve all had a good response, and they’re all on sale until the early April. Acadami is working well as a book font and on sale until April 2 for $9. It’s up to  38 on the Starlets list of the old site, and 58th on the hot new fonts list on the new site. Cutlass is just fun and up to 26 on the … Continue reading →