the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy blog.
Paul´s Crit Session, originally uploaded by ysch.
We were blessed with a surprise visit today from Jonathan Hoefler of Hoefler & Frere-Jones type foundry. Pictured here (from left to right) are Fiona Ross, Jonathan, and myself. It’s always an inspiring experience to have such talented folk look at your work, and give feedback and encouragement. Thanks, Yvonne, for publishing these pictures!
Okay, so if you’re reading this, you already know that I am a hardcore typegeek. Typically that entails spending countless hours in front of my computer screen tweaking bézier outlines of glyphs (read ‘letters’ all you non-hardcore types) with highly-specialized software, followed by more hours inputing and checking vital font information that users will likely never see. Does this sound like a lot of work? Well it is!
But no more. Now you at home can get hooked on creating fonts with no special expertise or software required other that what you’re using to read this blog. FontShop International (who recently promoted some of my typefaces for P22 in their last newsletter) has unofficially released FontStruct, ‘a free font-building tool,’ which ‘lets you quickly and easily create fonts constructed out of geometrical shapes.’ For being live just over a week old, there are already several interesting and well-designed offerings available for download. Having tried my hand at using the site myself, I must admit building fonts with this tool is simple and fun. I’d be interested in what some of you non-typegeek people think. Give it a whirl: go to the site, make a font, come back here, and post your thoughts with links to your work. (Be careful, though, it’s addicting!) While you’re there, be sure to check out my creations and give ’em good ratings!
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