Typography Addiction

Forsaken

Well-known member
I had to run by my house earlier (not living at home as I'm in the process of getting ready to move still) and noticed that a lot of the books on one bookcase were dedicated to typography (I'm an avid typophile, so that wasn't surprising) which made me think to look through my office & network to see just how much stuff I have dedicated to it.

Books: I have close to 100 books dedicated to typography whether its the history of, learning how to do something, or the science of typography. Worst part is, I remember reading all but two of the books :cry:.

Typefaces: 8,431 typefaces (These are all the commercial ones), and over 50,000 free typefaces.

Typography Programs: I have 15 programs that I use for typography, whether its for organizing them (Suitcase Fusion) or designing/editing them (Font Studio, Fontographer, Illustrator) and other misc ones.

Typography Feeds: About 40 (I Love Typography, Typophile etc).

My point being... Anyone know any self-help typography groups? I think I'm in dire need :cry:.
 
I had GB's of the things when I was designing regularly.

I once spent 5 hours trawling through all the fonts I had at the time, just to find the perfect match for a customer's logo that he'd had done elsewhere years ago (and the design firm had closed down). I found the little blighter, but had a sore back, stiff neck and needed a gallon of coffee to get me back to normal ... :D

It's amazing just how minutely subtle some of the differences are between fonts, isn't it?
 
I had GB's of the things when I was designing regularly.

I once spent 5 hours trawling through all the fonts I had at the time, just to find the perfect match for a customer's logo that he'd had done elsewhere years ago (and the design firm had closed down). I found the little blighter, but had a sore back, stiff neck and needed a gallon of coffee to get me back to normal ... :D

It's amazing just how minutely subtle some of the differences are between fonts, isn't it?
Thats mostly because the laws pertaining to typography IP are such that the font isn't copyrighted, only the font file is. Basically as long as you adapt the font to a way where it can b differentiated, you're doing something perfectly legal.

I actually tend to design my own fonts (or use to as its hard to use a tablet now, and its a lot of work to get things right. I much prefer designing/styling a whole new site than creating a single font sometimes :cry:.
 
I much prefer designing/styling a whole new site than creating a single font sometimes :cry:.

I remember creating a font pack years ago using some free program (can't remember what it was) and I can say I praise anyone that creates fonts. The time you can spend on these often goes overlooked, I'd go mad, okay madder than what I am if i did this for a living.
 
I remember creating a font pack years ago using some free program (can't remember what it was) and I can say I praise anyone that creates fonts. The time you can spend on these often goes overlooked, I'd go mad, okay madder than what I am if i did this for a living.
You have to have a very steady hand to do it as well if you want to do the more detailed fonts, which is partially why I can't do it any longer.
 
You have to have a very steady hand to do it as well if you want to do the more detailed fonts, which is partially why I can't do it any longer.

I may give the whole font creation thing a try again. There's some styles of font I want to create but unsure what are the best programs to use. What programs would you suggest?

Edit: I'm using windows 7
 
I may give the whole font creation thing a try again. There's some styles of font I want to create but unsure what are the best programs to use. What programs would you suggest?

Edit: I'm using windows 7
Fontographer if you're fairly good with detailed work, or Fontlab Studio if you're willing to pay down the money + learn how to use it properly.

You can also do the individual characters in Illustrator and move it to the programs.
 
Fontographer if you're fairly good with detailed work, or Fontlab Studio if you're willing to pay down the money + learn how to use it properly.

You can also do the individual characters in Illustrator and move it to the programs.

I'll look into that. Judging by the screenshot it looks like it's using some kind of path, anchor point feature which is simple enough if your fluent with photoshops Pen tool.

I don't think I can justify purchasing that much for the program unless I took on some jobs which entailed this to be used and pay for itself like i did when I first purchased photoshop. But that fontlab studio does look like something I can get to grips with easily. Thanks Forsaken.

Illustrator for me is not an option, loathe using the program. If I'm correct I could do this in photoshop and then import the individual font creations to the specialised program?
 
I'll look into that. Judging by the screenshot it looks like it's using some kind of path, anchor point feature which is simple enough if your fluent with photoshops Pen tool.

I don't think I can justify purchasing that much for the program unless I took on some jobs which entailed this to be used and pay for itself like i did when I first purchased photoshop. But that fontlab studio does look like something I can get to grips with easily. Thanks Forsaken.

Illustrator for me is not an option, loathe using the program. If I'm correct I could do this in photoshop and then import the individual font creations to the specialised program?
Custom font logo's start paying at around $1,500 for a skilled designer, so the cost is far outweighed by the benefit of one job ;p.

It pretty much is using the pentool, and it does work with a tablet and stylus (which I recommend especially ones aimed at typographers).

I actually don't like Illustrator much myself, and I'm not sure whether or not Photoshop works with it. You could go Photoshop -> Illustrator -> FontLab though.
 
I may give the whole font creation thing a try again. There's some styles of font I want to create but unsure what are the best programs to use. What programs would you suggest?

Edit: I'm using windows 7

Was going to ask the same thing :p

I have tried Fontographer too, and wowsers font creation is time consuming!

Forsaken... it's an area of great interest, nothing wrong with your collection, it's admirable in fact to deeply study something you are interested in! :D
 
Interesting how serifs work too ... I never realised until I read about it, and then experimented with block of serif and sans-serif text.

I think one of the things that makes XF so easy to get into is the font choice for post content!! :D
 
Arial:
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Times New Roman:
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

safe1.jpg


Arial is "cleaner" than Times New Roman.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080131112922AA0PODZ
http://hubpages.com/question/30907/which-font-looks-better-in-website---arial-or-times-new-roman
 
sets mode /ignore +fontlover
Your post was borderline off-topic as it wasn't really a discussion on whether you like certain fonts, but more along the subject of typography.

Your attempt at derailment failed, and now you're just peeved that you look bad... Once again.

Obviously you don't realize that each font has its use, and that Times Roman while cliche and over used is a very useful font for heading (exactly why its used by most news papers and magazines).
 
Was going to ask the same thing :p

I have tried Fontographer too, and wowsers font creation is time consuming!

Forsaken... it's an area of great interest, nothing wrong with your collection, it's admirable in fact to deeply study something you are interested in! :D
Well... Not so much an interest as an addiction.

I've showed you a portion of my fonts (I went through about 5k looking for a decent font for what you wanted but you're so picky :mad:) so I've gone far past interest :p.

I might actually start working on doing calligraphy and typography again, once I have time. Just difficult to use a pen tool/tablet when I don't have as much feeling in my hands anymore.
 
Re: Offtopic.
Yes it was, my apologies.
I started using Arial vs. Times New Roman when I switched from Wordperfect 5.1 for DOS to Word 97. It was probably "bigger" and took up more space so I could make my essays shorter.
 
Well... Not so much an interest as an addiction.

I've showed you a portion of my fonts (I went through about 5k looking for a decent font for what you wanted but you're so picky :mad:) so I've gone far past interest :p.

I might actually start working on doing calligraphy and typography again, once I have time. Just difficult to use a pen tool/tablet when I don't have as much feeling in my hands anymore.

LOL True... but probably an addiction that does you good not harm :p

I used to do Calligraphy.. by hand that is, did a course ages ago, not really done any for a long time though...hmmm maybe I should hand write my own font for that project I was telling you about!
 
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