Workflow: Freelance» Fonts

What’s That Web Font?

Fonts — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:04:40 +0000

WhatFont is a free tool that works with your Web browser to identify webfonts.

TypeTalk: The Anatomy of a Character

Fonts — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:20:36 +0000

You've known the names of letters and numbers since you were a little kid. But did you realize that every part of those characters have names, too? Knowing this terminology will help you better understand typefaces and communicate about design.

When It’s Safe to Use Free Fonts

Fonts — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:01:58 +0000

Type foundry FontShop explains the ins and outs of font licensing in a free, downloadable guide.

Type Is Everywhere

Fonts — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:20:45 +0000

Help to preserve the vernacular typography that makes a place unique by supporting this Kickstarter project.

TypeTalk: Hand-Drawn Type

Fonts — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:10:12 +0000

When you want your work to stand out, swap a font for hand-drawn letters.

Try These Type Webinars from Ilene Strizver

Fonts — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:55:56 +0000

If your print or online projects use type, you can benefit from this series of webinars designed by CreativePro.com columnist and type expert Ilene Strizver.

Hand-Lettering Lovers, Rejoice

Fonts — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:26:13 +0000

Lisa Congdon (known for her Collection a Day and her work as an illustrator/artist) is at it again. She's committed to creating and posting an example of hand lettering for every day in 2012.

Daily Drawings Reach One Thousand

Fonts — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:59:18 +0000

Professional illustrator/designer Chris Piascik has drawn something every weekday for the last four years. The project has brought him personal and professional satisfaction, and soon there'll even be a book compiling all 1,000 of the daily drawings, many of which are heavy on type. Take a look.

Starry, Starry Type

Fonts — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:46:34 +0000

Gravilux 2.0 is an app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch that lets you render text in stars and then affect that text with the gravitational forces of an alternate univers. It's art, it's a game, it's Gravilux!

Free For All: Give Yourself These Gifts

Fonts — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:02:14 +0000

Ring in the New Year with this jolly collection of goodwill to creative freebies, including photo mosaic software, fonts, stock photos, print-your-own graph paper, and inspiring 2012 desktop and tablet wallpapers.

TypeTalk: The Dos and Don’ts of Type in Motion

Fonts — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:59:11 +0000

Type has gone multimedia, appearing in many forms beyond its traditional role. Now it's in motion on websites, commercials, movie titles, video games, and more. These tips will help you create type in motion that will attract and hold your viewers' attention.

2011 Holiday Gift Guide

Fonts — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:46:08 +0000

Flummoxed by what to buy for the creative professional on your gift list? Perhaps one of the items in the 2011 CreativePro.com Holiday Gift Guide will do the trick.

Five Tips for Choosing the Best Webfonts

Fonts — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:18:00 +0000

Learn how to evaluate typeface readability, legibility, optimization, character set, and weight and thickness variety when choosing fonts for a website. Plus, I'll throw in a bonus tip!

Get to Know InDesign’s Glyphs Panel

Fonts — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:36:21 +0000

Some people never even open InDesign's Glyphs panel, and that's a shame. It can reveal alternate characters in your typefaces; help you quickly select and enter unusual characters, such as currency or math symbols; and find and change glyphs instantly no matter how long your document is.

European Design Conference Comes to America

Fonts — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:36:20 +0000

The first TYPO conference held in the United States will be in San Francisco on April 5 and 6, 2012.

What Do You Think of the Creative Cloud?

Fonts — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:25:59 +0000

Adobe's pushing a subscription model for its software and services, sweetening the deal with access to its Touch apps, webfonts, tablet publishing, and 18 desktop applications. But is it right for you?

Photoshop Plug-in Adds Google Webfonts

Fonts — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:11:09 +0000

The Extensis WebInk Web Font plug-in for Photoshop expands its offering with 288 webfonts from Google.

TypeTalk: Font Games Galore

Fonts — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:09:36 +0000

It's OK to play with your type; in fact, it's fun! Just don't assume that professional typographers agree with all of the supposedly correct answers to these font games.

Best of the Blogs: November 4, 2011

Fonts — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:42:41 +0000

This circumnavigation of the blogosphere includes posts about fonts (best, worst, and missing), color correction (Photoshop curves and/or levels), paper (handmade and mill run), printers (desktop and press), color calibration (monitor and printer), and an impressive if controversial demo of photo-deblurring technology. Plus, job hunting tips and product how-tos.

Make Monograms the Easy Way

Fonts — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:46:47 +0000

Inexpensive fonts let you create custom monograms and cyphers from any letter combination. The styles range from traditional to childlike.

Be a Type Designer in New Game

Fonts — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:00:18 +0000

These font games are not just fun--they're educational! At least, that's what you can tell yourself when you realize you've been playing them for an hour.

The Seven Lively Sins: Try These InDesign Type Effects

Fonts — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:30:10 +0000

Some people think it’s a sin to alter a typeface. But I say that, used with skill and discretion, InDesign's transparency effects can make your type more lively.

TypeTalk: Smart Punctuation on the Web

Fonts — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:14:47 +0000

Is it acceptable to lower your print design standards when your type appears on the Web?

Free For All: Design and Photography Freebies

Fonts — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:32:21 +0000

Here's how to get 10 InDesign table styles, 12 sans serif fonts, 13 letterpress Photoshop layer styles, and 3 color reference infographics. And none of them will cost you a thing!

What You Need to Know About Webfonts: Part 2

Fonts — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:44:29 +0000

Don't limit your web designs to the same five fonts everyone has on their systems. Part 1 of this series introduced you to @font-face basics. Part 2 will steer you through webfonts' legal complexities so you can get the best fonts for your sites while staying on the right side of the law.

Add Rare Wood Type Faces to Your Digital Designs

Fonts — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:19:26 +0000

Wood Type Revival finds old wood type, prints them, turns the results into fonts, and sells the digital typefaces for very reasonable prices.

Terrific Typographical Photoshop Brushes

Fonts — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:47:00 +0000

Do a Google search for "free typography Photoshop brushes" and you'll find so many that your head will spin. We've helped you out by combing through the many possibilities and creating this one standout collection. We've even refined the results by dividing them into sub-categories, such as vintage, calligraphic, grunge, musical, and more.

Download Second Dot-Font Book for Free

Fonts — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:42:31 +0000

Topics in the free book by John D. Berry include "the pleasure of old type books," "warm modernism," "industrial cool," and "where type designs come from."

Scanning Around With Gene: Stuff Magazine

Fonts — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:42:29 +0000

The Los Angeles independent publishing scene was enjoying a renaissance in 1980, and one unusual standout was the oversized Stuff Magazine.

What You Need to Know About Webfonts: Part 1

Fonts — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 04:54:13 +0000

Are you still limiting text in your websites to Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman, Trebuchet, and Verdana? (And no, fonts in images don't count.) Learn how to use webfonts and your Web design horizons will open to a beautiful new world. In Part 1 of this series, you'll get a little history and an introduction to writing the @font-face rule so that all browsers display your font choices correctly.

Updates to Font Explorer X Pro

Fonts — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:14:09 +0000

Monotype Imaging made changes to all three versions of its FontExplorer X Pro font manager: FontExplorer X Pro 3.1 for Macintosh, 2.3 for Windows, and FontExplorer X Server 1.6.

Marrying Types: All in the Family

Fonts — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:47:49 +0000

For many designs, the typographic variety afforded by a single typeface family is enough. And maybe more than enough.

Turn Letters Into Sketches with Fontify

Fonts — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:50:00 +0000

Fontify is a free app that uses letters from 18 typefaces to build illustrations. You can save your sketches as high-res PDFs.

Rag Time Is Perfect Game for Picky Typographers

Fonts — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:34:35 +0000

If a sloppy paragraph rag drives you crazy but tinny computer music doesn't, Rag Time is the type game for you.

Web-Only Series Covers Typography, Photography, More

Fonts — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:21:03 +0000

"Off Book" is a little gem of a program from PBS Arts. It's available only on the Web, which hopefully means no pledge breaks.

Fire Up FontDropper 1000 and Test WebINK Typefaces Online

Fonts — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:29:52 +0000

For a quick and free way to preview any WebINK web font, try the new FontDropper 1000 bookmarklet.

Free For All: Won’t Cost You a Penny

Fonts — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:41:52 +0000

The amazing Internet once again yields a crop of freebies so good that you'd pay for them--but you don't have to! These free resources help you to make your own fonts, snag stock photos, watermark images, track your to-do's, and annotate Web pages.

Virtual Printing Press Moves from KickStarter Project to iPad App

Fonts — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 01:30:47 +0000

It's not the same thing as setting your own metal type and printing letterpress designs, but LetterMpress, the new iPad app, lets you design with vintage wood type on a virtual printing press, then import the results into your preferred graphics or design software.

Best of the Blogs: July 7, 2011

Fonts — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 01:30:44 +0000

Mega-retailer Target meets tiny Hamilton Wood Type; Acrobat Pro X users get testy; photographers are called idiots; Photoshop warps girls' minds; and the Web is doomed. Read these and many other interesting tidbits culled from the past few weeks of design, graphics, and photography blog posts.

Scanning Around With Gene: Typography at the County Fair

Fonts — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 01:30:43 +0000

From deep-fried cheesecake on a stick to gut-wrenching carnival rides, we love the fair for all that is bad, including, sometimes, the typography.

Google Improves Its Web Fonts Interface

Fonts — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:02:45 +0000

Google is about to roll out a major change to its Web fonts library interface. Currently clocking in at 180 fonts, the interface changes will make it much easier for you to find the fonts that are the best fit for your needs.

The Sweet Sound of Punctuation

Fonts — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:46:16 +0000

While punctuation gives text rhythm, some beats are more familiar than others. Learn how to play the music in InDesign.

Avast, Me Hearties! It’s a New Typeface!

Fonts — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:47:12 +0000

"Prosperity" (from Brian Sooy's Altered Ego) is an OpenType script that gives your designs a hand-lettered, historical look.

Brothers and Sisters, Get Up and Textify!

Fonts — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 23:27:23 +0000

The online service and iPhone app Textify.it uses letters to paint a picture. You can control some parts of the conversion, but the results are more fun than for commercial projects.

Save Wood Type with this Kickstarter Project

Fonts — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:07:42 +0000

For as little as $20, you can get a specimen sheet hand-printed with the woodtype you helped buy, thanks to the Western New York Book Arts Collaborative's Kickstarter project.

Take Your Inner Child to the Letter Playground

Fonts — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:28:04 +0000

The letterPLAYGROUND website is a great source for typographic inspiration. But it's even better when you join in and play along.

New iPad App Teaches Typography

Fonts — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:49:14 +0000

This $1.99 app helps you understand and even play with typographic forms. The theory is that you'll then better understand historically important type.

Centering Lines of Type? Don’t Trust Page-Layout Software

Fonts — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:48:32 +0000

A print ad shows that centered lines don’t always look that way. Learn the source of the problem and the fix.

Design New Fonts or Modify Existing Ones with New App

Fonts — Sat, 28 May 2011 12:35:02 +0000

The new font editor, called Glyphs, claims that its "smart and simple" approach helps you draw fonts and modify existing typefaces with ease.

Wake Up In Style with this Alarm Clock App

Fonts — Thu, 19 May 2011 10:53:59 +0000

For under a buck, you can be woken by a famous graphic designer. The crouwelclock app for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad is from the Design Museum.