Typography

I just realized that I am completely without a personalized letterhead.

The Got Milk? typeface is Phenix American. Looks like it needs a little kerning before it looks right, but that’s OK. Agfa will sell it to you for twenty-two bucks. I know I wanted this information for some reason, so I’ll just tuck it away here until I can remember why I wanted it. Late edit: no, I will not send you the font. Someone spent a great deal of time creating the font, and if you want to use it you ought to pay for it.

I’m a total slut for typefaces, so I really couldn’t resist Behind the Typeface Presents: Cooper Black. It’s a big Flash file, around 3 megs, but IMHO well worth it. And actually kind of informative as well as being funny, since I find it interesting to think about how a hot design concept such as a typeface goes from fresh to overused.

Invoking the LazyWeb. I am trying to find this typeface: It is not Bernhard Gothic, although it’s close. However, the “W” is stepped, like Burghley (original) (although much more regular). I have a PDF with this typeface in it, and it’s identified as Malloy, but I cannot find Malloy on the Web. I’m perfectly willing to pay for this, I just can’t find the damned thing. Edit: found it myself; it’s Martin Gothic Bold. (And while I’m at it: ITC Garamond Book Condensed.)

All Apple news sites are frantically clogged right now. Not a surprise. MacInTouch: Mac news, information and analysis (original) has some news on the Apple announcement, and I’ve pieced together some more stuff from here and there. Three new things: New iPods. Yay, 30 GB iPod. Some kind of a docking station, too, which seems unnecessary but whatever. I actually like my Firewire cable that doubles as a power cable when I go mobile so a docking station might be a step back. ...

Speaking of typefaces, I’m not quite sure how I feel about this (original).

daidala is another one of those cursed typographical blogs; lovely stuff, written by a man with a wise enthusiasm for the craft of typography. He points me at Bitstream’s Cambridge Collection (original). $200 for 200 fonts, none of them spectacular showy display fonts, most of them rather nice: that’s what I call a good deal. And the license is for five users! And it comes with a poster! And a Gill Sans clone in three weights!

I always go through this whole painful fifteen minute searching process when trying to find Nick’s Fonts. Phil’s Fonts (original) has a place of precedence in my memory palace, so I invariably go there first after a bit of guessing. Philfonts? Philsfont? Philsfonts! Oh, wait, wrong site. So now I’m logging it. Excellent, excellent source for art deco typefaces. I love his stuff. I want it all.

I have very fond memories of The Westing Game. Today, I stumbled across a link to an Ellen Raskin page (original) of rare quality. Turns out she was a graphic designer and an illustrator as well. The page includes scans of her original manuscript for The Westing Game and a pretty extensive discussion of her typesetting directions. Good reading. There’s also, of course, a bibliography and biography.

Not only do I dig typography, I dig the minute distinctions between various type families. Thus, I adore this discussion of twenty serif body text typefaces.