Type News is a new website from Rob Keller, featuring an aggregation of news, photos and tweets related to typography. He and his wife have also unveiled their new foundry, Mota Italic. Help Rob repay his student loans and get some great fonts for your generosity.
Tag: typography
Full issues of LIFE
Google Books teamed up with LIFE, to scan full issues of LIFE magazine from the 1930s-1970s and provide them for public viewing.
Update: A Year in Pictures is a particularly interesting artifact for the type nerds out there.
Cheese or font?
Cheese or font? Pretty much what it sounds like, they give you a word, you decide whether it’s a cheese or a font. It’s harder than it sounds.
Subpixel type
The first subpixel typeface has an x-height of just 3px. It can be used to improve the legibility of favicons.
Leaden Army
Goudy Fonts is a tribute site, dedicated to the work Frederic and Bertha Goudy and their impact on American typography. I am type is one of Goudy’s more famous essays on the subject. This quote is a bit dated, but I like it.
I am the leaden army that conquers the world. I am type.
That essay and others can be found in Texts on Type.
Edward Rondthaler dies
Edward Rondthaler has passed away at the age of 104. He was a founder of ITC and one of the early developers of phototypesetting. There’s a more type-centric obituary up at FontFeed.
Typeface encyclopedia
Typedia is a community website that aims to classify typefaces and educate people about them. It’s also worth checking out the story behind the development of their logo. Jason Santa Maria and Tim Brown have posted articles outlining the impetus for the project, and why we need it.
Times New Roman history
The Financial Times takes a look at the history of the Times New Roman typeface and who may or may not have been involved.
Movie title type
Christian Annyas has created a collection of movie title stills from the films that he has watched over the years. It also serves as a good repository for typographic inspiration.
Stereotypes
Paul Shaw looks at the use of “ethnic typography” for Print Magazine, and finds that it serves its own purpose.
They are shortcuts, visual mnemonic devices. There is no room for cultural nuance or academic accuracy in a shop’s fascia. Restaurant owners want passersby (often in cars rather than on foot) to know immediately that they serve Chinese (or Greek, or Jewish) food.
His article also examines the background behind a few of the more popular typefaces. I understand that these typefaces serve a purpose, but I still balk at the use of Papyrus as an “Irish” font.
A special type specimen
Amassblog tells the unique story behind a beat-up and battered type specimen. Saying anything more would probably ruin the surprise.
Designing Klang
Work Associates recently created a typographically inspired cover for Klang, the third album from The Rakes. Given that the album was recorded in Berlin, Work turned to the Bauhaus movment and the work of Ludwig Hirshfeld Mack for inspiration. Hirschfeld-Mack developed a light and colour modulator apparatus, to provide a visual translation of music.