Resources
Links to articles and videos about: How-To, Software, OpenType, Rendering, Education, Conferences & Workshops, Meet-ups, Famous in Type, Forums, Services
How-to
Guides & tutorials for designing type and creating digital fonts. Sometimes general, sometimes very specific.
Drawing Vectors for Type & Lettering — James Edmondson
Detailed tutorial on just what it says: drawing vectors effectively and efficiently.
Bézier Curves and Type Design: A Tutorial — Fábio Duarte Martins
Illustrated explanation of cubic vs. quadratic Bézier curves.
How to Create Your First Font from Scratch: A Step by Step Guide — Laura Busche
Basics of creating a font, using Fontself and Adobe Illustrator.
So You Want to Create a Font: Part 1 — Alec Julien
Guide to designing a digital typeface and to (then-current) font-editing software.
Getting Started on MyFonts
How to market and sell fonts through MyFonts.com.
Are You Ready for MyFonts? (And is MyFonts Right For You?)
Guide to setting up or joining a digital font foundry.
Common Errors in Type Design
Just what it says: some common errors to avoid in creating fonts.
So You Want to Create a Font: Part 2 — Alec Julien
Various possible forms of Latin letters and their metrics.
ILT Investigates: Type Torture
Witty introduction to kerning.
Type Basics
Sketches of detailed aspects of Latin letter design and common problems.
Hand Lettering: How to Vector Your Letterforms — Scott Biersack
More of a tutorial on how to turn lettering into vector shapes in Adobe Illustrator than a guide to designing type.
A Useful Guide to Bad Type — Erik van Blokland
Also a guide to what makes good type.
Drawing Good Paths — Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer
Guide to best practices in drawing digital fonts.
So What’s the Big Deal with Horizontal & Vertical Bezier Handles Anyway? — AGSC (Australian Graphic Supply Co.)
Good practice in positioning Bézier handles while digitizing letters in Adobe Illustrator.
Bumpy Curves — Gunnlaugur SE Briem
Getting smooth curves in digital fonts.
Making Geometric Type Work — Ian Moore
Balance, spacing, and optical illusion in geometric sans serifs.
Typeface Mechanics: 001 — Tobias Frere-Jones
Expert advice, well illustrated, on optical effects in typeface design.
Typeface Mechanics: 002 — Tobias Frere-Jones
Further examination of the fine points of designing type well.
Optical Illusions — Gunnlaugur SE Briem
Advice on optical compensation in type design.
Vertical Metrics — Rainer Erich Scheuchelbauer
Tutorial on vertical space in digital fonts.
Vertical Metrics How-To — John Hudson
Clear technical explanation of the mechanics of how vertical spacing works in digital fonts.
Spacing, Metrics, and Kerning
Explanation of spacing tools in FontForge.
Article on details of designing Cyrillic typefaces — Aleksandra Korolkova
English translation of article on details of designing Cyrillic typefaces, by an excellent Russian type designer. For those with some familiarity with Cyrillic letter forms.
Polish Diacritics: How To — Adam Twardoch
Historical and practical discussion of the forms of diacritical marks that are particular to Polish.
Thorn and Eth: How to Get Them Right — Gunnlaugur SE Briem
Discussion of the two unique letters in the Icelandic alphabet.
Illustrated Guide
Illustrated guide to problems in the size, shape, and placement of diacritical marks in a variety of digital typefaces.
Capital Sharp S designs. The good, the Bad and the Ugly — Ralf Herrmann
Article on the varying designs of the newly established capital Sharp S in German type design.
How to Draw a Capital Sharp S — Ralf Herrmann
Historical background to the development of the German capital Sharp S.
Localize Your Font: German Capital Sharp S — Rainer Erich Scheuchelbauer
Practical problems and solutions in adding this glyph to existing fonts.
Context of Diacritics
“An analysis of diacritics made to help type designers with refining the character sets of their fonts.”
Comprehensive survey of diacritical marks for languages that use the Latin alphabet.
On Diacritics — David Březina
Detailed overview of diacritical marks in the Latin alphabet.
Diacritics: All You Need to Design a Font With Correct Accents — Filip Blažek
Mark-by-mark discussion of the design of diacritical marks, including Greek and Sanskrit diacritics.
Make a Bold — Gunnlaugur SE Briem
How to make a bolder weight of a typeface.
Font Design: 17 Top Tips to Create Your Own Typeface — Jamie Clarke
Introduction to the process of designing a typeface.
Designing Greek Typefaces — Gerry Leonidas
Guide to designing Greek typefaces, with deep historical background and detailed examination of how Greek type works.
Software
These are tools for creating digital fonts, and for checking them technically and fixing problems with them.
Fontself Maker
An Illustrator & Photoshop extension for turning lettering into OpenType fonts.
Glyphs
One of the most widely used commercial type-design & font-editing tools. Mac only.
FontLab
One of the most widely used commercial type-design & font-editing tools. Mac & Windows.
RoboFont
Python-based tool for building fonts and extensions.
FontForge
Free, open-source tool for type design & font editing.
TypeTool
A very basic commercial type-design & font-editing tool. From FontLab.
FontCreator
Popular commercial type-design & font-editing tool.
Adhesion Text
A tool for generating dummy text in various languages and scripts.
Font Validator (Underware)
A tool for validating fonts, i.e., checking them for technical compliance.
AlternativeTo: validators
Links to alternative font validators and tools for working with digital fonts.
Microsoft Font Validator (GitHub)
A tool for validating fonts, i.e., checking them for technical compliance.
OpenType
These are resources for understanding OpenType layout features and incorporating them into OpenType fonts.
Caring About OpenType features — Tim Brown
Explanations of OpenType features and practice in creating them, including code examples.
How to Design Beautiful Typography Fast with OpenType Features — Laura Busche
Intro to OpenType and OpenType layout features.
The Unofficial OpenType Cookbook — Tal Leming
A knowledgeable guide to the logic and techniques of OpenType features. Very clear, but not a beginner’s guide: “This cookbook is written with the assumption that you have a basic working knowledge of the structure of a font.”
An Introduction to OpenType Substitution Features — Martin Wenzel & Christoph Koeberlin
A detailed “behind the scenes” introduction to OpenType layout features.
Type Rendering
Background information on how fonts are rendered onscreen, and techniques for improving this.
Font Hinting — Peter Biľak
Detailed explanation of hinting digital fonts, to control and improve how they render on the screen.
TrueType Hinting
Guide to hinting TrueType fonts.
Microsoft ClearType Overview
Introduction to Microsoft’s ClearType font-rendering technology for onscreen reading.
Type Education
A few of the many educational programs in type design, and some resources for type designers.
TypeMedia: MA in Type Design at the KABK
One of the two most established academic programs for earning a Master’s degree in type design.
University of Reading
Reading, United Kingdom. One of the two most established academic programs for earning a Master’s degree in type design.
International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of Handwriting
An association, founded in 1949, “dedicated to practicing and preserving the beautiful arts of calligraphy, engrossing and fine penmanship.”
Gunnlaugur SE Briem – Glossary
Glossary of type terms. Last updated August 2001.
ATypI Diversity Fund
Association Typographique Internationale.
“An initiative to enable communities that are under-represented in our membership to engage with the Association. The main objective is to increase the diversity of the Association’s membership attending our conference, with a focus on regions or communities that have not had a presence in the Association before.”
Type@Cooper Extended Program
Certificate-granting academic program at Cooper Union in New York City, for history of letterforms and principles and techniques of designing digital typefaces.
Conferences & Workshops
Some of the many conferences around the world for type designers and typography.
IAMPETH Annual Conference
Annual conference of the association “dedicated to practicing and preserving the beautiful arts of calligraphy, engrossing and fine penmanship.” A different city each year.
Typographics | New York City
“A design festival for people who use type.”
Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI)
Global forum and focal point for the type community and business. ATypI’s annual conference is in a different country each year. The 2019 conference will be in Tokyo.
Kerning | Faenza, Italy
“Kerning is the first international conference in Italy dedicated solely to typography and web typography.”
International Conference on Typography & Visual Communication
Tri-annual conference, held in Greece, focusing on “research, education, and practice in relation to typography and visual communication.”
Istanbul Type Conference
“The 6th ISType conference is taking place under the theme of axis.”
Adobe MAX
“The creativity conference.” General-interest conference on design.
How Design Live
“One of the largest annual gatherings of creative professionals in the world.”
TypeCon
Annual conference that moves around North America. The 2019 conference will be in Minneapolis.
Fontstand International Typography Conference
Porto, Portugal. International conference, now in its second year, for type designers and typographers. Sponsored & organized by Fontstand.
Meet-ups
These are local groups in various cities and countries that get together to talk about type and type design. Not an exhaustive list!
Type Brigade
“Vancouver’s type design and typography speaker series meetup.”
LetterPDX
Monthly gathering to draw letters together. (Last meeting was in 2017.)
Los Angeles is Just My Type (LAIJMT)
Los Angeles, California. “LA’s premier type enthusiast group.” Now morphed into TypeThursday LA (see below).
The Devoted Type: Fonts, Lettering, and Calligraphy
Start-up group of enthusiasts about letters and type.
Taller de Caligrafía y Lettering
Proposed meet-up (en español) for calligraphers and graphic designers.
TypeCrit Amsterdam
Informal meet-ups of local and visiting type designers.
Marathons Typographiques Libres
Marathons of typographic co-creation organized (en français) by the Velvetyne type foundry.
Typoholics
Informal gathering for drinking and collaborating.
Rio de Janeiro Typography Meetup
“A community for those who love type design and want to discuss and learn a bit more of the subject to improve his or her practice.”
TypeThursday
New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, London, Barcelona, Florence, Bucharest (currently).
Monthly meet-ups in many cities for designers and enthusiasts of type and letters. Networking and open audience critiques of work-in-progress.
Famous in Type
Just a few of the very many well-known and notable people in the history of type design.
Matthew Carter – “My life in typefaces”
TED talk, 2014.
Hermann Zapf
Page from the New York Type Directors Club on awarding the TDC Medal to Hermann Zapf, designer of Palatino and Optima, one of the most influential type designers of the 20th century.
Giambattista Bodoni
Brief outline of the life of Bodoni, one of the originators of the “modern” (as opposed to “old style”) style of type design.
W.A. Dwiggins (Linotype)
Brief outline of the life of William Addison Dwiggins, American typographer, graphic designer, and type designer.
W.A. Dwiggins (Wikipedia)
More extensive biographical note on Dwiggins, who coined the term “graphic designer” and designed some of the most widely used text types of the 20th century.
Anton Janson / Miklos Kis
History of the misidentification of a classic 17th-century roman typeface by the Hungarian punchcutter Miklos Kis, originally attributed to Anton Janson.
Adrian Frutiger
Interview (1999) with the designer of Univers, Frutiger, Avenir, Meridien, OCR-B, and many other typefaces, and the originator of the first complete system of typographic weights, widths, and styles across an entire type family.
Max Miedinger and Haas Type Foundry Manager Eduard Hoffmann
Biographical information on type designer Max Miedinger and Haas Type Foundry manager Eduard Hoffmann, who between them created the typeface Helvetica (originally Neue Haas Grotesk).
Carol Twombly
Short bio of one of the principal type designers of Adobe Originals.
Paul Renner
Biographical notes on the designer of the typeface Futura and his career in Germany.
Frederic W. Goudy (Linotype)
Brief outline of the life of Frederic Goudy, the most prolific American type designer.
Frederic W. Goudy (P22)
Somewhat more thorough overview of Goudy’s life and professional career.
Tobias Frere-Jones
Brief bio blurb about the renowned contemporary type designer.