mastodon 4.6.9A review of typography. Since 2002. Posts by editor @stewf@mstdn.party (https://stephencoles.org).
#Fonts #Typefaces #Typography #Lettering #GraphicDesign #fedi22
Last year I was honored to give the 50th Dwiggins Lecture for the Society of Printers in Boston. The recording is now up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4LEnuM0e1U
In the talk I try to capture what gives WAD’s type so much life, and suggest some contemporary designers whose work also has those attributes. Featuring @djrrb@mastodon.social, Cyrus Highsmith, Sofia Mohr, John Downer, Franziska Weitgruber, @SandrineNugue@typo.social, @klim@typo.social.
Harbor Bickmore of That That Type shares his font sales numbers from 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsPlT9KQEKU
Creative Market
2023: $24K
2025: $8K ↓↓
Envato Elements
2023: $9K
2025: $9.5K ↑
Etsy
2023: $3.5K
2025: $265 ↓ (he didn’t add new fonts)
Monotype
2023: $2K
2025: $28.7K ↑↑ (added many more fonts)
Supply Family
2025: $1.6K (can’t upload large families)
YouWorkForThem
2023: $10K
2023: $7.5K ↓
That That Website
2023: $4K
2025: $20.5K ↑↑
Custom Type
2025: $102K
Summary:
— Hobbyist retail market way down. Pro retail market slightly down.
— Build and invest in your own foundry website and promote it with Behance, email list, etc.
— Monotype big part of the biz, but many clients now asking for custom type due to subscription economics.
I keep coming back to this fabulous 1885 catalog from specialty printer, McNeil Bros: https://archive.org/details/specimensofdrugg00mcne/page/n3/mode/2up
Jim Parkinson died today. He was a prolific and astoundingly gifted lettering artist, type designer, and painter. I feel lucky to say he was also my friend.
https://typographica.org/on-typography/jim-parkinson-1941-2025/ #JimParkinson
Four tools for creating optically corrected italics:
1. Cursify in @glyphsapp@typo.social
2. Italic Assistant by @tribby@typo.social (Lecture: https://vimeo.com/1059825184)
3. Lettersital by Matt Burvil (https://tools.lettersetal.co.uk/)
4. Italify by @scarewe@typo.social (https://www.sebastiancarewe.com/italify)
Discussion (with more heat and sass than is necessary, but still interesting): https://typedrawers.com/discussion/5568/new-algorithm-italify-optically-corrected-obliques/p1
got messy fonts? https://www.ebay.com/itm/175767432847
Another banger from Maximiliano Sproviero, proving he is the master of 1960s script fonts. https://sproviero-type.com/font/feline/
Today, I am grateful for @internetarchive@mastodon.archive.org and all online archives, and the institutions that doggedly do the tedious and often thankless work of making them go. Like @SLUBDresden@wisskomm.social & @arthistoricum@mastodon.social who digitized and host the seminal German design magazine Gebrauchsgraphik (which was once available only at IADDB, a site currently offline due to a rebuild): https://www.arthistoricum.net/werkansicht/dlf/112648/1
Here are rock solid snippets from just the first issue in 1924.
Typophile was active for 18 years (2000–2018).
TypeDrawers (b. 2012) will reach that age in four years.
From today’s @ksmallgallery@typo.social email https://mailchi.mp/ksmallgallery/easter-feaster?e=593e4a1f1b
Sometimes it pays to ask a question. Like, we were told that this might be the work of Philip Burton. So we asked him. Here’s what he had to say:
“Here’s the story: I was on the design faculty in the School of Art between 1981 and 1989. I don’t remember the exact year but Steve Jobs gave us 22 computers. (Alvin Eliseman’s charm.) ¶ Each second year student in the graduate program had one at their desk. In fact, we had new tables designed so that the students could sit at their traditional slanted-top desk and swing around and use the computer on the new desk ¶ I had seen one of my colleagues demonstrate the new Fontographer program and I was thrilled with the idea of being able to design my own typeface. …
A #LetterWest moment: when Noel Weber gifted Letter Queen a vintage #Speedball set.
@blag@typo.social Skylar (https://www.instagram.com/letter.queen?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==) is worth including in the mag. They have a great collection and understanding of 19th-century ornamental lettering.
https://typography-debate.org/ — Digital archive of the modernist typography debate. Original texts, manifestos and rebuttals. By @svenofuchs@typo.social.
Abolish ICE. Screen print by Carlos Barberena. https://justseeds.org/product/abolish-ice-3/
“This print is to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis caused by the family separation policy, “Zero Tolerance” during the Trump administration. This policy separated more than 5,000 children from their parents, keeping them in detention centers that violate their human rights. To this day, there are hundreds of children who have still not been reunited with their parents.”
I was very moved by this Seb McLauchlan piece: https://counter-forms.com/texts/revivals
Looking to expand language support in your fonts? While not its intended purpose, the database on @juan_kafka@typo.social’s https://typecritcrew.com can be a good way to find type designers with expertise in specific scripts, with the added benefit of highlighting type designers who value diversity, inclusivity, and access to education.
#TypeDesign #Typography #Fonts #ArabicType #DevanagariType #KannadaType #GujaratiType #TamilType #GurmukhiType #HangulType #HanziType #ArmenianType #ThaiType #CherokeeType
