Fontographer Practical Font Design For Graphic Designers

This is the Fontographer version of Practical Font Design. In it I guide you through the process of designing several fonts while discussing the options and decisions you need to make as you do so. It is an effort to let you inside the head of an experienced font designer. The goal is to get you up and running with your own designs as quick as possible with a good solid conceptual understanding of the entire process of font design. Why do you want to use Fontographer? For the fun of it! When I received the opportunity to go back to my roots, and see what the new Fontographer was like, I was a little concerned. I had just spent nine years painfully teaching myself to letterspace by hand, to write OpenType features, and to become accustomed to the tool set of FontLab. Don't get me wrong, FontLab is a great program and I am grateful for what I have learned. There are still a few features of FontLab that, as a professional font designer, I cannot do without. But I was taken by surprise. Fontographer brought the fun back! It is still the same marvelous program with which I first learned to design fonts. The drawing interface is still clean, clear, and elegant. I still works the way I have learned to work over the past two decades of digital graphic design. I found pure joy in drawing again. Fontographer is a wonderful drawing experience. It has been a real joy to experience that fun again. After nearly a decade in FontLab, font design is fun again. To quote from the book: "Fontographer is an application which appeals to experienced graphics designers with a background in PostScript illustration-especially those with FreeHand experience from version 7 and earlier. The majority of designers working in the mid-1990s had a copy of Fontographer. It came free with the FreeHand Graphics Studio first released in 1995-and everyone probably used it [at least a little]. Fontographer had [and still has] a unique and intuitive set of drawing tools that enable amateurs of that era to enter the world of font design. I'm talking amateurs in the sense that John Baskerville considered himself an amateur-as I also consider myself, though I am certainly not in Baskerville's league. For me, font design is a beloved sideline with which I indulge myself. It's become a treasured tool I use in my current trade-book writing, designing, and production." Please help me by emailing me with your comments & typos

Practical Font Design has built a niche for itself among graphic and Web designers who want to build their own fonts: especially with the first book. I learned a lot since I wrote that first book. This radically revised, updated, and expanded third edition combines the first two books. They are rearranged so they make a lot more sense and some brand new material is added. This is a quick introduction showing a workflow to build new fonts using FontLab 5. Fourteen fonts are developed in this book including an 8-font text family and a companion 4-font sans serif for headers. The techniques are simple and easy to understand. The results are completely under your control.

This book uses Fontlab 5 to design a new OpenType font of 600+ characters, step by step. The focus is on practical design tips and techniques for those of us who do not like nor want to do coding. The author has been designing fonts since 1994 and has over 100 fonts on the market at Myfonts.com and the Monotype family of sites under the Hackberry Font Foundry banner.

The bestselling introduction to designing the written word Typographic Design: Form & Communication is the definitive reference for graphic designers, providing a comprehensive introduction to the visual word. Done well, typopgraphy can communicate so much more than the words themselves. Typographic design determines how you feel about a message, the associations you make, and ultimately, the overall success of the communication. Typographic design extends from the page to the screen, and is a critical element of almost any graphic design project. This book provides essential guidance on everything related to type: from letterforms and negative space, to messaging, processes, and history, aspiring designers will find great utility in mastering these critical concepts. This new seventh edition has been fully updated with new coverage of contemporary typography processes, updated case studies, and new examples from branding, print, web, motion, and more. On-screen typographic design concepts are discussed in greater detail, and the online supplemental materials include new flashcards, terminology and quizzes. Understand design factors as they relate to type Explore communication and typographic messaging Learn how typography has evolved, and where it is headed Adopt established approaches to designing with type The irony of typographic design is that, when done well, it often goes unnoticed—but its impact on a project’s overall success is undeniable. Typography can make or break a page, can enhance or overpower an image, and can obscure a message or bring it into sharp focus. It is one of the most powerful tools in the graphic designer’s arsenal, and Typographic Design is the complete, practical introduction.

Specimens of 38 of the finest type families in the world are brought together in Typographic Specimens: The Great Typefaces, making it an invaluable reference tool for graphic designers, editors, art directors, production managers, desktop publishers, and students. Each type family is shown in display and text specimens with complete fonts including italic and bold variations; extended families such as Futura and Univers include additional type weights and widths. Each type family's section opens with a full-page experimental design, created by an outstanding graphic designer to demonstrate its potential. The specimens are accompanied by a concise discussion of each type family's origins, charactertistics, and usage. Typographic specimens provide an opportunity to study typefaces, to select and plan typography, and to increase one's knowledge of letterforms. Drawing and tracing specimens remain excellent ways to understand type and create logos and other typographic designs. Study of specimens aids in the selection of fonts to be purchased for the font library. Typographic specimens introduce unfamiliar typefaces in printed form and aid in the development of connoisseurship. Comparative analysis of similar faces in printed form becomes possible. Over one hundred prominent designers and design educators were sent a ballot listing all major typefaces and were asked to vote for the type families that best fulfilled their personal criteria for typographic excellence. The typefaces contained in this book represent the results of this poll, providing a compendium of excellent typefaces that have stood the test of time. Typographic Specimens: The Great Typefaces will provide information, inspiration, and a keener knowledge of typography. Akzidenz-Grotesk American Typewriter Baskerville Bembo Bodoni Bookman Caledonia Caslon Centaur Century Schoolbook Cheltenham Clarendon Didot Folio Franklin Gothic Frutiger Futura Galliard Gill Sans Garamond Goudy Old Style Helvetica Janson Kabel News Gothic Optima Palatino Perpetua Plantin Sabon Serifa Stone Sans Stone Serif Stymie Times New Roman Trump Mediaeval Univers Zapf Book

A new font is created every day. Whether you are creating fonts for your own project, for a client, or to sell, this is the first book out there to show you how to create unique fonts, use the most inexpensive software available, and make money doing something you absolutely love to do. Stand out in the crowd! Starting with the creation of fonts, moving to lessons on the software used to create them, and ending with helpful ways of marketing and selling, this is a groundbreaking must-have for digital artists of all kinds. Goes beyond just print and web to also help you transition your skills to new and emerging outlets (such as tablets). Stunning design contains a software key and a rating scale to help you navigate the various difficulty levels and software available.

This step-by-step guide to digital typographic design covers font history, terminology, manipulation, and getting the most out of industry-standard software, as well as looking at the relationship between the art and science of typographic design.