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Design Your Own Fonts There are a lot of fonts available in this world, but let's be honest. Wouldn't you like to have your own font? Of course you would. Everyone needs their own font. Well, your dreams can come true. You are standing at the door of happiness. All you have to do is walk through. Web:
Famous Fonts Coca Cola has its own font. So does the New York Times, the Walt Disney company, and lots of other well-known brand names, including various popular TV shows and movies. Would you like to see what it is like to use a famous font? Give it a try, and see what it is like to write letters like Walt Disney. Web:
Field Guide to Fonts Have you ever used a Roget's Thesaurus? Although many people think it is a synonym finder, a Roget's Thesaurus is actually designed to help you find the exact right word. You use a Roget's Thesaurus when you know the meaning of a word, but you do not know the word. Analogously, there are times when you need to find out the name of a particular font. For example, what do you do when you know the characteristics of a font -- perhaps because you have a sample -- but you don't know its name? Here are some unusual tools to help you track down the mysterious font. Web:
Figlet Fonts A figlet font is a large font in which each "character" is made up of smaller characters: letters, punctuation, and so on. In other words, when you use a figlet font, you create pictures of letters. You can use a figlet font to "write" your name as a signature at the end of your email messages or Usenet postings. Experiment and see just how cool figletting can be. Web:
Font and Typeface Resources This is an eclectic set of resources for people interested in typography: check out the strange, interesting and useful fonts, take a look at the typesetting tricks, and read a number of articles, all related to fonts and the people who use them. Web:
Font Talk and General Discussion These are the Usenet groups that are used to discuss fonts, typefaces, typography and related topics. If you are in the page layout business, these are good groups to read regularly. These are also good places to ask a question about fonts when no one around the office has any idea what you are talking about. Usenet:
Listserv Mailing List:
Font Utilities Do you go to bed every night worried that you have duplicate fonts scattered around your hard disk? Do you have trouble keeping track of the huge number of fonts in your collection? Would you like to be able to make a catalog of various fonts? If you are a font-o-phillic, you'll really appreciate how easy and convenient your life will become once you start using these font utilities. Web:
Foreign Font Archive This is a huge repository of fonts from around the world. There are many different fonts for a large variety of languages, such as Hebrew, Gaelic, Arabic, Japanese, Cyrillic (Russian), and many more. All of these fonts can be downloaded for free, either as shareware or freeware. Web:
Free Fonts There are a large variety of fonts available for free on the Net. Here are some resources from which you can download a large variety of different fonts. When you have a spare moment, these are great places to browse to find a new and interesting font (say, to give to your wife or husband for an anniversary present). Web:
History of Fonts and Typography How did typography begin? Who developed the first fonts? What is the real story behind serif and sans serif? If you work with fonts and typography, you'll enjoy reading about the history of your profession. There's a lot more to it than most people appreciate. Web:
Truetype Fonts Truetype is a family of fonts that was originally developed by Apple. They developed these fonts for two reasons. (1) They didn't want to have to pay royalties to the owners of existing fonts. (2) They wanted to fix some of the technical problems in Adobe Type 1 fonts. The Truetype family was designed to be compact, flexible and extensible. Since Microsoft had been looking for a similar type of font family, Apple agreed to license the technology. Since then, Microsoft has done considerable Truetype development, enhancing the font technology. Today, Truetype fonts will work on any current Microsoft platform or Apple computer. Web:
Typography Terminology The world of typography has a great many technical words and terms. Here are some glossaries that can help you understand these terms. In my experience, knowing what the words mean counts for a lot. So the next time someone (say, your manager) acts like he or she knows more than you do, you can say, "Well, I can do it your way if you really want, but the glyphs in that particular typeface will force me to use slightly different kerning which may change the lines by a few points." Web:
Unusual Fonts Are you a font hog? Do you love collecting all types of fonts until your disk is full? If so, I think you'll enjoy these Web sites. You will find unusual offerings, free for the downloading, that only a real font hog could appreciate. Web:
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© All contents Copyright 2005, Harley Hahn
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