Type Tips

    • Typography Basics

      Refresh yourself with the terminology and fundamentals required for sound typesetting.

    • Typography Tutorials

      Step-by-step methods for getting the most out of your fonts and graphic design software.

  • OpenType FontFonts and the Languages They Speak

    The OpenType format offers typographers more glyphs, and (sometimes) more confusion. As the FontFont library is converted to OpenType, premium fonts are continually released with advanced typographic features and language support built-in. With so many new releases we don’t expect you to keep up on which FontFonts can speak which languages. Just keep an eye […]

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    Tutorial: Photorealistic Perspective

    Sometimes, flat just doesn’t cut it, and we need to find other, more attractive ways to present designs to our customers. One technique I’ve been using recently works remarkably well for text, logos and other vector artwork. It consists of taking a virtual photograph of the work by combining Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop filters. The […]

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    Tip: Using FF Headz

    FF Headz is the first typeface by designer and illustrator Florian Zietz. The concept for FF Headz is similar to the effect found in some children’s books, where pages are split into sections that can be grouped in unusual and humorous combinations. For example, a crocodile head from one page might be paired with an […]

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    Fred Smeijers on Legibility

    Fred Smeijers, the award-winning designer of FF Quadraat and fonts for OurType, and author of “Counterpunch,” describes the trouble with “legibility” — not just in achieving it as a goal, but describing it as a concept.

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    Elements of Web Typography

    Robert Bringhurst’s “The Elements of Typographic Style” is the undisputed bible of typography, but its instructions are limited to print design. Richard Rutter is filling that need with “The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web”. The new site will present Bringhurt’s principles one nugget at a time in a manner relevant to web […]

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    Erik Spiekermann’s Typo Tips

    With the invention of “desktop publishing”, designers found themselves setting type on their computers for the first time. Until then, they had made type specifications for typesetters and left the job up to the professionals. As a result, you can still see classic inaccuracies in typesetting, even in top-quality printed matter. Here you will find […]

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    Tutorial: The Worn/Weathered/Stamped Look

    There are quite a few quality stamped or distressed fonts available — Frankie and Frankie Dos, Roadkill, Battery Park, Hawksmoor, Chase, Coldharbour, Despatxada, FF Stamp Gothic, FF Confidential, FF Bull, Elephantmen to name but a few. Unfortunately ready-made stamp fonts present a number of drawbacks: repeating characters are identical (unless you have alternate glyphs), and the amount […]

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    Tip: GIF Your Type Right

    It would be great if we could use any font we wanted in designs for the web. But since we’re limited to what’s installed on everyone else’s machines, creating an image is the only way to make non-standard fonts viewable online. Here are a few tips for creating a web graphic in which type is […]

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    Improve your typography skills with these basic tips and advanced tutorials.

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