TT2020 is "an advanced, open source, hyperrealistic, multilingual typewriter font for a new decade!" As there already are so many, why another? Creator Fredrick Brennan (previously) points out that most fonts which attempt to create the look of a real analog typewriter lack alternative glyphs and other modern features, displaying tell-tale repetitions of aberrations and flaws. He spotted some recent howlers in expensive Hollywood productions that should know better, such as The Joker.

The absurd lack of realism displayed here let me know that I could put this project off no longer. In case you don't see anything wrong ... In the second image, there are three ‹N›’s. Yet, they all look exactly the same. A real typewriter can, quite rarely, have one of its letters damaged, or misaligned, such that that letter regularly makes an inferior strike to all the other letters. However, this degree of regularity is impossible; could Underwood or Remington have acheived it, they would have leapt for joy. It is therefore clearly a digital facsimile and not a real typewritten document.

The example he shows from The Irishman is similarly egregious. Doesn't anyone in Hollywood own a real typewriter?

TT2020 comes in a variety of weights and styles to emulate specific reproduction environments. It's open-source, too, with technical notes to enjoy.

TT2020 [ctrlcctrlv.github.io] Read the rest

The New York Times' logo looks like it might be set in a classic blackletter typeface, but it is in fact hand-made. Enter Chomsky, a typeface designed by Fredrick Brennan (yes, the Fredrick Brennan) and derived from the NYT's distinctive old-timey nameplate.

This font is not an exact copy of the New York Times masthead. Rather, it aims to be suitable for running text as well, so I used a larger stem size. The difference between some of the characters are shown below; the N.Y.T. logo is above, and Chomsky below... :

I was quite surprised, that to my knowledge, I am the first to have undertaken this project. Many other famous brands, for example that of CNN, Sega, and Coca Cola have fonts in homage to them; indeed, most of these fonts were made in the pre-Unicode era and are branded in terms of metadata with the name of the defunct, but once prominent, Macromedia Fontographer; the CNN copy cat font is itself going on twenty years old.

Perhaps it was the difficulty of creating the extra letters in a blackletter face that scared away would be font authors. Perhaps it was lack of knowledge about the law in this area. Either way, I do believe that I am the first.

Bitfont Maker 2 is a free online app that lets you design and save pixelated low-fi fonts. You can import TTFs too, if you just want to edit an existing one. Be sure to check out the gallery. Read the rest

Pissjar Sans is a free typeface evoking the unique letterforms of urine on cotton fabric. What's remarkable about it is the fastidious attention to detail and workmanship evinced by type designers in pursuit of what could easily have been something dashed off and doomed to dafont.com obscurity. They really put their backs into it.

HOW WAS IT DONE? We built a custom frame and tried out loads of different fabrics, using some good pieces of worn bed sheets with the perfect absorbency to cover the frame. Then we just started to pee a lot, one letter per pee session. When the bladder was empty we had like 5 seconds to photograph the frame before it bled out. After that we vectorized the photo and edited it with a font software.

HOW LONG TIME DID IT TAKE? The peeing took approximately six months, plus about a month or so to finish up the font.

DID YOU CHEAT? Well, we worked on the R for like two weeks until we gave up and had to recreate it from three different peeing sessions.

Perfect for wedding invitations and children's birthdays. Read the rest

In March 1913, Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson threw the most beautiful typeface in the world off of London's Hammersmith Bridge to keep it out of the hands of his estranged printing partner. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll explore what would lead a man to destroy the culmination of his life's work -- and what led one modern admirer to try to revive it.

We'll also scrutinize a housekeeper and puzzle over a slumped child.

Show notes

Please support us on Patreon! Read the rest

There are typefaces that attempt to remain legible at ludicrously small sizes. Ken Perlin's Tinyfont attempts to do so while retaining traditional letterforms, putting LCD subpixels to clever use. There are various 3x5 pixel fonts for those who prefer the crisp purity of the traditional pixel, and prior attempts at the holy grail of a legible 3x3 nerd font.

Minima is an effort to make the perfect 4x4 pixel font, allowing itself a little more space but also going step further toward abstraction, abandoning legibility in favor of more easily-distinguished characters. It's €10 and I need a tylenol.

via Brutalist Websites. Read the rest

I love marveling at good type design because I know how much effort it takes to make things look just right.

To me, there’s no deck of playing cards that uses intertwining fonts better than the Type Deck. It took designer Chris Cavill over 5 months to get this project off the ground and I think it was worth the effort.

Each suit of the deck has been uniquely handled, while maintaining a cohesive style throughout.

Usually, the lion’s share of time and effort in a deck of cards is given to the court cards. But not in the Type Deck.

Though the illustrations of the royal cards are crisp and beautiful…

They are pushed back and subdued to let the typography be the star.

No matter what Chris says, these cards were never meant to be played with. They were meant to be studied.

And when I grow up as a graphic designer I hope to create something that hits typographic nerves like this deck does.

But for now - I'll just have to be content with what I have.

  Read the rest