Berlin based punchcutter and typefounder Ferdinand Theinhardt (1820–1906) is usually associated with the design of early sans serif typefaces. Yet little is known of the pivotal role he played in printing works in characters for Tibetan and other writing systems of the world. Not much has been written about Theinhardt, especially not in a language… Continue reading Ferdinand Theinhardt’s Legacy in Tibetan Typography
As with Chinese and Japanese scripts, one of the biggest difficulties in developing Hangul fonts is the huge number of glyphs that need to be drawn. Fortunately, thanks to its scientifically based writing system, Hangul exhibits a predictable pattern and a relatively simple structure. Because of this regularity, designers have been able to systematize the… Continue reading Building Hangul like an Architect: Utilizing Variable Fonts
Sans serif types began to spread in England in the early 1830s and later became popular on the European continent. Their introduction and development in France remain only minimally researched and documented to this day. Although the first French sans serif types such as the “Lettres sans traits” (Marcellin-Legrand, Plassan et Comp. foundry) were influenced… Continue reading The Sans Serif in France: The Early Years (1834–44)
While something like a self-writing font may sound like a contradiction in terms at first blush, we also know that a typeface and a font are two different things. A font is a type in a particular size, weight, and style, and a typeface is a collection of fonts. And now that fonts are becoming… Continue reading Grammatography
This talk covers the past and present support of Type1 fonts’ various software products and platforms. Type1 is an old font format introduced by Adobe; it was one of the first font formats that supported hinting. Most Type1 fonts were migrated to OpenType when that new format was introduced. But there are still Type1-font-based workflows… Continue reading Type1 Fonts: A Brief Biography
Google Fonts aims to make typography fast, easy, and open. The company met the advent of variable fonts with excitement, but not without reservations. Although variable fonts offer immense potential, they come with new complexities, placing the goal of “easy” somewhat at risk. Simplicity is a particular concern when starting from a user base that… Continue reading Variable Fonts in Google Fonts
The role of text in the visual and aesthetic balance in the use of space in Japanese graphic design has been overlooked or misunderstood in the development of modern publishing technologies, especially when it comes to dynamic and responsive layout systems. Specifically, traditional metrics relating to the ideographic em-box are often not fully supported, and… Continue reading Japanese Text Layout for the Future: Dynamic and Responsive Mojikumi
A common issue with multiscript typography arises when a graphic identity, originally designed with only Latin in mind, is later extended to cover other scripts—more often than not, the fonts lack the necessary characters. The problem becomes particularly acute on the web, where texts in scripts unforeseen by a site’s designers may need to be… Continue reading Parametric Fallback Fonts for the Web
This talk looks at Shima Shotai as an example of linguistic and cultural preservation. Shima Shotai is a typeface designed for the indigenous languages of Ryukyu (i.e., Okinawa), which are losing speakers and in fact face extinction. The typeface follows the unified writing system for the Ryukyuan languages and supports more letters and diacritics than… Continue reading A Typeface for Endangered Languages
With their “ample” character, fat faces have existed in Japan since its inception. This talk focuses on fat faces from the Edo period to the present day. The political capital of Edo (the former name of Tokyo), nurtured many pop cultures, and in that environment, hand-painted letters on storefronts and quotidian consumer goods evolved to… Continue reading Japanese Fat Faces from the Edo Period to Today