Aaron Bell
[Saja TypeWorks]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Adaptype
[Beatriz Diogo]

For her Master's degree in Design and Multimedia at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, Beatriz Diogo created a script---Adaptype--- that allows any font's width to respond to the window size and the development of a website. Github link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Adobe Variable Font Prototype

[More]  ⦿

Aimur Takk

Tallinn, Estonia-based designer of IDA Display (2018, a variable font that reacts to music) and Sveta Bold Condensed Display (2018, for Latin and Cyrillic), which was developed for the branding of Tallinn Music Week 2018. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alexander Slobzheninov

Prague, Czechia-based designer of Octarine (2017: a geometric sans typeface family with two free weights), Fivo Sans (2017, free) and Fivo Sans Modern (2017, free).

In 2018, he published two large mischievous sans families, Objective and Subjectie. In the summer of 2018, he added the 42-font sans family Agrandir (available from Pangram Pangram) and the 7-weight Swiss neo-grotesk Gestalte that is characterized by mathematically precise horizontal and vertical strokes and terminals. In the fall of 2018, he designed the Baskerville grandchils AS Grafier for the identity of Other Poets Society. There is a free beta version, and comes with a variable font option. [Google] [More]  ⦿

ATypI: OpenType 1.8 announcement

The original announcement of OpenType 1.8 that covers for the first time variable or multiple-axis fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Axis Praxis

Laurence Penney's test site for variable fonts. Requires Mac OS Sierra or later, or Webkit Nightly. He writes: Axis-Praxis relies on the font-variation-settings property in the draft CSS4 specification, implemented in WebKit. On the server, it uses TTX to extract the variations information from the font. Once it has this data and has delivered the font back to the browser as a @font-face webfont, the server has no further use for the font so it is deleted immediately. In the browser, the CSS font-variation-settings property of the textboxes is changed using JavaScript when you adjust the sliders or click the named instances. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Balazs Szemmelroth

During his studies in Szeged, Hungary, Balazs Szemmelroth designed the multistyle geometric sans typeface family Balage (2016) and the free typeface family Sometimes (2018).

In 2018, he created the 4-axis variable font Fluido at Visual Arts Institute Egere. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Beatriz Diogo
[Adaptype]

[More]  ⦿

Black Foundry
[Jérémie Hornus]

Typefoundry in Paris, est. 2016 by Jérémie Hornus, who is the design lead. Type designers associated with Black Foundry include Alisa Nowak and Ilya Naumoff. They initially bought the font collection of FontYou. Typefaces not included in the original FontYou collection:

• Angus (2018). A multiplexed rounded sans typeface family by Elliott Amblard that includes a variable font.
• In 2018, Elliott Amblard and Jérémie Hornus co-designed the information design humanist sans typeface family Drive. It is accompanied by the more typewriter-styles families Drive Mono and Drive Prop, and published by Black Foundry. The fiorms in Drive Mono and Prop are great, but all fonts in Drive are too widely spaced (as are several other fonts in the Black Foundry collection).
• Clother (Jeremie Hornus, Julie Soudanne, Ilya Naumoff, 2017). This geometric sans workhorse covers also Cyrillic, Hebrew and Arabic.
• Vesterbro (Jeremie Hornus, Alisa Nowak, Ilya Naumoff, 2017). High-contrast Latin / Cyrillic typeface with a Viking feel that won an award at Granshan 2017.
• Jeremie Hornus, Gregori Vincens, Yoann Minet, and Roxane Gataud (and possibly Riccardo Olocco) designed the free Google web font Atma for Latin (in comic book style) and Bengali. Github link.
• In 2016, Google Fonts published the free Latin / Bengali signage font Galada (2015). It is based on Pablo Impallari's Lobster (for Latin). The Bengali was developed as a studio collaboration by Jeremie Hornus, Yoann Minet, and Juan Bruce at Black Foundry.
• In 2016, Franck Jalleau designed the monospace sans typeface family Aubusson. Initially designed as a custom typeface by Franck Jalleau for the Cité internationale de la tapisserie d'Aubusson, the monowidth proportions are linked to pattern and tiles arrangements used in tapestry. The retail version of Aubusson offers four weights with matching italics. It was published by Black Foundry.
• Drive (2016). A corporate sans serif family.
• Dragon (2016). A clean sans typeface.

BuffaloGals

Buffalo Gals is one of the first variable fonts, originally made in 1992 for an Apple TrueType GX developer CD. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Christoph Koeberlin
[Sportsfonts]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

C.J. Dunn
[CJ Type]

[More]  ⦿

CJ Type
[C.J. Dunn]

CJ Dunn has a background in graphic design and typeface design, and currently works on typefaces for Font Bureau. He is a graduate of Type@Cooper, a postgraduate certificate program in typeface design, where he also assisted Sumner Stone & Sara Solskone in teaching typeface design. He started TypeNY.com to keep track of type related events in New York City.

In 2017, he designed the stunning 2-axis variable font Dunbar and writes: Dunbar is an exuberant geometric sans with a unique structure, including Tall and Low display versions for large sizes and a Text version for smaller sizes. Inspired by Jakob Erbar's Erbar-Grotesk, it is not a strict revival but interprets the design for contemporary applications, rediscovering some of Erbar's innovative ideas of alternate letterforms and proportions. Dunbar comes in large and small x-heights, Dunbar Tall and Dunbar Low. Speaker at ATypI 2016 in Warsaw on A Proposal for a Common EULA. [Google] [More]  ⦿

CSS Tricks

A great article by Ollie Williams that explains how we should use variable Opentype fonts on web sites. [Google] [More]  ⦿

David Berlow

David Berlow (b. Boston, 1955) entered the type industry in 1978 as a letter designer for the Mergenthaler, Linotype, Stempel, and Haas typefoundries. He joined the newly formed digital type supplier, Bitstream, Inc. in 1982. After Berlow left Bitstream in 1989, he founded The Font Bureau, Inc. with Roger Black. Font Bureau has developed more than 300 new and revised type designs for The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Hewlett Packard and others, with OEM work for Apple Computer Inc. and Microsoft Corporation. The Font Bureau Retail Library consists mostly of original designs and now includes over 1,000 typefaces. In a video made for Mike Parker's TDC medal in 2011, Mike Parker says that David Berlow is the most talented type designer he ever met. David lives in Martha's Vineyard.

At ATypI 2004 in Prague, David spoke about Daily types. At ATypI 2009 in Mexico City, he spoke on The heart of my letter, (and the online version). Since that time he has been very active and vocal on the issue of high quality web fonts. Speaker at ATypI 2011 in Reykjavik and at ATypI 2014 in Barcelona.

David Berlow Type Specimens (free pdf). Another type specimen booklet. Interview by A List Apart in 2009. Speaker at ATypI 2010 in Dublin. FontShop link. www.typovideo.de/david-berlow. David Berlow on web fonts. Interview by The Boston Globe. His typefaces:

• AgencyFB.
• Amstelvar (2017). a variable (or parametric) font at Font Bureau. Contributors include David Berlow, Santiago Orozco, Alexandre Saumier Demers, and David Jonathan Ross. Open Font Library link, where one can download the font. Github link.
• Apres (2008, a sans with 40 styles). David Berlow and staff drew Apres as part of a series designed originally for the Palm Pre smart phone, for use both on the device and in print marketing. Simple, open letterforms and generous proportions provide a clear, comfortable, and inviting experience for navigation and readability.
• Belizio (1987-1988), a beautiful slab serif modeled after the 1958 original slab serif by Aldo Novarese called Egizio Corsiva Nero. Claudio Piccinini would have liked Font Bureau to acknowledge Aldo Novarese's Egizio as the source of this family.
• Belucian (1990, by David Berlow and Kelly Ehrgott Milligan. Several weights exist, including Demi and Ultra.
• Berlin Sans (1997).
• Bureau Grotesque (1989). This 27-style family is now called Bureau Grot. Font Bureau's blurb: The current family was first developed by David Berlow in 1989 from original specimens of the grotesques released by Stephenson Blake in Sheffield. These met with immediate success at the Tribune Companies and Newsweek, who had commissioned custom versions at the behest of Roger Black. Further weights were designed by Berlow for the launches of Entertainment Weekly and the Madrid daily El Sol, bringing the total to twelve styles by 1993. Jill Pichotta, Christian Schwartz, and Richard Lipton expanded the styles further, at which point the family name was shortened to Bureau Grot.. Note: there is a custom version called M&C Saatchi Grotesque with truetype data created by dtpTypes in 1998.
• CalifornianFB.
• CheltenhamFB.
• Custer RE (2014), a typeface for small on screen use. The Font Bureau blurb: In 2009, a book from 1897 in the library of the University of Wisconsin caught David Berlow’s attention. It was set in a clear text face---a predecessor of Bookman---cast by the Western Type Foundry who called it Custer. Upon noting how well the typeface worked in point sizes of 6 and 7 points, Berlow developed it into a member of the Reading Edge series specifically designed for small text onscreen. Custer RE is a broad and approachable typeface drawn large on the body with a tall x-height to maximize its apparent size when set very small. The minimal stroke contrast and the hefty serifs let it stay exceptionally clear down to a font-size of 9px. Font Bureau.
• Decovar (2017). A variable font. Github link, where one can freely download the font family. See also Open Font Library.
• Desdemona (1992). An art nouveau face.
• Eagle (1889-1994). This art deco typeface Font Bureau Eagle was started in 1989 for Publish. David Berlow designed a lowercase, finished the character set, and in 1990 added Eagle Book for setting text. In 1994, Jonathan Corum added Eagle Light and Eagle Black to form a full series.
• Eldorado.
• Empire.
• Esperanto (1995).
• ITC Franklin Gothic (1991). In 2008, David Berlow added Condensed, Compressed and Extra Compressed widths to Vic Caruso's 1979 ITC Franklin interpretation (which had Light, Medium, Bold and Black), and Font Bureau sells a complete ITC Franklin now. In 2010, Berlow completed his definitive revision of ITC Franklin, a single new series of six weights in four widths for a total of 48 styles. Typeface review at Typographica.
• Giza (an Egyptian family.
• Hitech (1995).
• Juliana Text (2009), a rebirth of Sem Hartz's Juliana (1958, Linotype), a popular narrow legible paperback text face.
• Kis FB (2007): a revival of old style types by Nicholas Kis from ca. 1700.
• Letras Oldtsyle (1998). Letras Oldstyle was commissioned by Letras Libres, the reigning literary magazine published by Enrique Krauze in Mexico City. This garalde series was inspired by the earliest typefaces cut in the Americas in the early 1600s by printer Henrico Martinez. Proofs survive in the Biblioteca Nacional. Letras Oldstyle stands as the first typeface ever cut in the Americas, the root of American type design.
• Meyer Two (1994). Based on a 1926 type by L.B. Meyer.
• Millenium BT Bold Extended (1989, Bitstream). Also known by insiders as Starfleet Bold Extended, this font was used on federation starship hull markings until episode ten. MyFonts link.
• Moderno FB (1995): an exhibitionist didone in 32 styles, for Esquire Gentleman. In 1996 Berlow cut new styles with Richard Lipton for El Norte. In 1997, Roger Black ordered new weights for Tages Anzeiger. It grew further when the Baltimore Sun, with FB Ionic as text, was redesigned. The whole series was then revised for Louise Vincent, Montreal Gazette, with further styles added in 2005 for La Stampa. [It is my favorite type family at Font Bureau.]
• Nature (1995).
• Numskill (1990).
• Old Modern.
• Online Gothic (1995).
• Ornaments.
• Phaistos (1990-1991). A flared angular design done with Just van Rossum, and inspired by Rudolf Koch's Locarno.
• Poynter Agate.
• Reforma: Based on Giza.
• Rhode (1997).
• Romeo.
• Scotch Roman (1993).
• Skia (1993, Apple). A Greek simulation sans, in the style of Twombly's Lithos, co-designed with Matthew Carter for Apple's QuickDraw GX project.
• Skyline.
• Titling Gothic FB (2005): Berlow spent 10 years developing FB Titling Gothic in seven weights of seven widths each for use as display and headline romans. It was inspired by the popular ATF Railroad Gothic and grew out of Berlow's own Rhode.
• Throhand: a classic family based on metal type found at the Plantin Moretus Museum in Antwerp.
• Truth FB (1995).
• Village.
• Vonness (2007): a newspaper sans family. Font Bureau: Vonness was designed by David Berlow working closely with Neville Brody on corporate redesign for Jim Von Ehre at Macromedia. Core weights are loosely based on Bauersche Giesserei's Venus, 1907-1910. Berlow expanded the ideas behind the series to 56 fonts.
• Yurnacular (1992, part of FUSE 4).
• Zenobia (1995).

View David Berlow's typefaces. Another catalog of David Berlow's fonts. Speaker at ATypI 2018 in Antwerp. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

David Jonathan Ross
[DJR Type]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

D.B. Latner: Critique on Variable Fonts

D.B. Latner writes: I am glad Multiple Master fonts was mentioned, as this is remarkably similar to that technology from the mid-90s. But I am worried that many of the same reasons that MM failed (as well as the Panose numbering system) will play out again in this century, including:

• Too much choice can cause more frustration rather than less.
• Hard to create consistency throughout a publication.
• Very difficult to spec the type ("no, I told you to use Helvetica 105cba7, not Helvetica 105a9e!")
• Hard to create a good UI, so only the hard-core font geeks get around to using it.
• Hard to convince software companies to include a technology that only font-lovers see the value of (look how long it has taken for even some basic OpenType formatting to catch on).
• Hard to design these fonts, so there end up not being very many of them.

DJR Type
[David Jonathan Ross]

DJR Type (Conway, MA, and before that, Deerfield, MA, and before that Los Angeles, CA, and before that, Lowell, MA) stands for David Jonathan Ross Type. Originally from Los Angeles, he was a student at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, where he studied information design and typographic tradition. In 2007, he joined Font Bureau as a junior designer and was assisting with custom projects and expanding Font Bureau's retail library. Soon after that, het set up DJR Type. In 2016, DJR Type joined Type Network and pulled all his typefaces from MyFonts. He also runs Font of the Month Club.

In 2018, he was the tenth winner of the Charles Peignot Prize. His typefaces:

• Manicotti (2010). An ultra reversed-stress Western saloon style typeface that won an award at Modern Cyrillic 2014. DJR Manicotti won an award at TDC2 2007. For a free lookalike, see Plagiacotti (2009, Saberrider).
• Lavinia.
• Climax Text (2006) is a text and display series that was designed for Hampshire's student newspaper.
• Trilby (2009, Font Bureau). Trilby is based on a 19th century French Clarendon of wood type fame.
• Condor (2010, Font Bureau). This is a 60-style art deco family.
• Turnip (2012) is an angular and manly text face, also published at Font Bureau.
• In 2013, Ross revived Nebiolo's Forma for the redesign of Hong Kong Tatler, a fashion mag, supervised and commissioned by Roger Black, who was then based in Hong Kong. Read about the whole process in this piece by Indra Kupferschmid. Page specially dedicated to DJR Forma.
• Bungee (2013, Google Fonts) won an award at TDC 2014. This homeless typeface, which comes in Regular, Hairline, Inline, Outline and Shade versions, is free: Bungee is a font family that celebrates urban signage. It wrangles the Latin alphabet to work vertically as well as horizontally.
• In 2014, David Jonathan Ross created the formidable 168-style programming font family Input (Font Bureau). Input is free for private use. It won an award at Modern Cyrillic 2014 and in the TDC 2015 Type Design competition.
• Gimlet (2016). A 112-style Opentype family loosely based on Georg Trump's 1938 typeface, Schadow, and advertized as funky and functional. Ross writes: Gimlet is half Schadow, half imagination, and nothing else. And like its namesake beverage, Gimlet is a a little tart, a little sweet, and can really pack a punch.
• Fern Micro (2014, Font Bureau). A Venetian typeface designed for screen.
• Output Sans.
• Fit (2017, by David Jonathan Ross and Maria Doreuli). A tall black display family that runs from ultra-compressed to very wide. It screams Use me for the Oscars! Fit was first developed as a variable font. It won an award at Granshan 2017.
• DJR Lab, or Lab Variable (2017), is a free pixelish variable font.
• Under miscellaneous, we find an untitled French Clarendon and an untitled semi-serif.
• Font of the Month Club fonts from 2017: Nickel, Roslindale (Roslindale is a text and display serif that takes its inspiration from De Vinne, a Victorian oldstyle typeface named for the nineteenth century printer and attributed to Gustav Schroeder and Nicholas Werner of the Central Type Foundry), Zenith (blackboard bold), Crayonette, Bild (a compressed headline font), Pappardelle (spaghetti Western style), Roslindale Text, Klooster.
• Font of the Month Club fonts from 2018: Extraordinaire, Rhody, Output Sans Hairlines, Rumpus Extended, Roslindale Light, Merit Badge (a variable color font).
• A tech type virtuoso, he charmed me with his art deco variable font Extraordinaire (2018) that was influenced by the diamond-shaped forms found in the center of the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Speaker at ATypI 2016 in Warsaw and at ATypI 2017 in Montreal. Klingspor link. Home page. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

DooType
[Eduilson Wessler Coán]

Curitiba-based Brazilian digital type foundry, est. in 2008 by the successful and talented type designer Eduilson Wessler Coan (b. 1983, Curutiba). Myfonts link. Their fonts:

• Estado Serif (2006), co-designed with Ericson Straub (Straub Design) and Fabio Augusto for use in the Jornal O Estado do Paraná.
• DooSans (2006): custom design for the magazine abcDesign.
• Ninfa (2006-2008), an organic serif face. He calls it a modern semi-serif. Whatever. Ninfa won an award at Tipos Latinos 2008 in the non-text typeface category. Ninfa Serif followed in 2012. Ninfa Serif won an award in the typeface family category at Tipos Latinos 2012.
• Encorpada Black (2011) is a fat didone display face. It was extended to Encorpada Pro in 2012. Encorpada Classic was published in 2013. Encorpada Classic and Encorpada Pro won awards at Tipos Latinos 2014. In 2014, he published Encorpada Essential. In 2015, Eduilson added Encorpada Classic Compressed and Encorpada Classic Condensed.
• Fluence (2012) is a calligraphic typeface family. Fluence won an award at Tipos Latinos 2012.
• Tres Tres Chic (2012) is a very thin geometric fashion mag headline face.
• Maestra (2012) is a calligraphic copperplate script. Gorgeous, mouthwatering, heavenly, just about the perfect font. Future brides and grooms need look no further than this for wedding invitations.
• Niks Sans (2012).
• dT Delicatta (2012, revised in 2017) is a formal connected calligraphic script face, destined to win many awards.
• Unimed Sans, Unimed Slab and Unime Serif (2013) is a bespoke typeface family done for a Brazilian health insurance company, Unimed.
• Typefaces from 2014: Bommer Slab and Bommer Slab Rounded. Bommer Slab won an award at Tipos Latinos 2014. Accura (2014, a sans typeface created together with Thiago Bellotti).
• In 2015, he designed the techno sans family Sica (+Expanded, +Condensed) with Volnei Antonio Matrté Coan at DooType. Sica won an award at Tipos Latinos 2016.
• Bommer Sans (2016). A Latinized (i.e., curvy) humanist sans.
• dT Jakob (2017). This typeface started out in 2007 as a revival by Gustavo Soares in Paul van der Laan's class at KABK of Jakob Erbar's grotesk from 1927. It was refined and completed in 2017 at dooType with the help of Eduilson Wessler Coan. In 2018, Gustavo Soares and Eduilson Coan developed the variable inline and shadow font dT Jakob Variable Concept.
• dT Ampla (2018). A sans with some warmth.

Klingspor link. Creative Market link. Behance link. MyFonts interview. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Eduilson Wessler Coán
[DooType]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Edwina Lee

Edwina Lee works for the Taiwanese foundry Arphic Technologies. Speaker at ATypI 2013 in Amsterdam How to find or develop matched Chinese typefaces for existing Latin typefaces. She also spoke at ATypI 2017 in Montreal and at ATypI 2018 in Antwerp, where togerher with Jeff Wu of Arphic she points out the challenges of designing variable Chinese fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Elliott Amblard

Elliott graduated in graphic design at EPSAA (Ecole Professionnelle Supérieure d'Arts Graphiques et d'Architecture de la ville de Paris, France) in 2012.

Together, Elliott Amblard (France) and Gia Tran created the bold signage / retro baseball script typeface Paname FY at FontYou in 2014. At Long Type, he created Oradour: Inspired by french vernacular lettering, it is also a very contemporary re-interpretation of Eurostyle typeface (Aldo Novarese) by stripping it from this dated aesthetic. FontYou link.

In the TypeMedia program at KABK in Den Haag, he designed Emil for his graduation in 2015. Emil is situated between a text typeface and a slab serif typeface. It is characterized by convex stems and low contrast and includes a Hairline weight.

In 2016, he published Yuzu at Indian Type Foundry. It is a simple yet effective straight rounded sans typeface family. Guide (2016), also published by Indian Type Foundry, is a wayfinding and traffic sign sans typeface family.

In 2017, Elliott Amblard and Théo Guillard designed Read Greek Condensed, which won an award at TDC Typeface Design 2018.

In 2018, Elliott Amblard and Jérémie Hornus co-designed the information design humanist sans typeface family Drive. It is accompanied by the more typewriter-styles families Drive Mono and Drive Prop, and published by Black Foundry. Angus (2018) is a multiplexed rounded sans typeface family by Elliott Amblard that includes a variable font. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Frida Medrano

During her studies in Monterrey, Mexico, Nueva Leon-based Frida Medrano created the creamy didone display typeface Kalnia (2014). In 2017, she designed the free ``variable font'' Fraktur typeface Jabin.

Recipient of The Society of Typographic Aficionados Catalyst Award in 2018. She now cooperates in type design projects at TypeMade. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Frostype
[Harrison Marshall]

Graduate of UCA Farnham. Leicester, UK-based designer who specializes in producing visual identities through branding, editorial and art direction. Creator of the modular multiline typeface Luminous (2015). During his studies at UCA in 2016, he created the sans typefaces Typic, Deep and Camber.

In 2017, he designed Wolfgang Sans and Passo (a custom sans for the new Italian restaurant Passo).

In 2018, Harrison founded Frostype. His typefaces at Frostype: FT Switch (2018), FT Polar (2018: sans), North (2018: sans), Frigid (2018, a variable font). Home page. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Geen Bitter
[Thom Janssen]

Geen Bitter (Den Haag, The Netherlands) consists of Thom Janssen (b. 1984, Maastricht), Jorn Henkes and Rogier van der Sluis. All three are graduates of the Graphic Design course at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, The Netherlands. Thom Janssen is a graduate of the TypeMedia program at the KABK in The Hague in 2017. The work of Geen Bitter has a strong typographical influence and covers designing typefaces, books, websites and identities, all with a typographic approach. Late in 2014, Geen Bitter disbanded. Thom currently works as a freelance type designer and as a researcher at PXL, Hasselt University, Belgium.

In 2013, they published Gewone letters Gerrit's early models. The blurb: A couple of years back, while cleaning the letterpress workshop at the KABK in The Hague, we had an amazing find. A package that hasn't been opened for some time. We opened it and found eighteen printing plates in mint condition. The printing plates, we soon found out, were made by Gerrit Noordzij and date back to the late 1960s. They contain a brief lesson about writing with the broad nib and, once familiar with this basis, writing and drawing some different techniques. Since it seemed the plates are never published before, we decided to do so and made a book containing prints from the plates. Next to the plates we asked former students if they still had old work and sketches with comments by Gerrit Noordzij. The result is a collection of sketches and material, together with five writings about the plates, Gerrit Noordzij and his contribution to the field of type and typography. The text has contributions by Albert-Jan Pool, Frank E. Blokland, Aad van Dommelen, Huug Schipper, and Petr van Blokland. It was published in 2013 by Uitgeverij De Buitenkant, Amsterdam.

Thom's graduation typeface in 2017 at KABK was Rikhard. He wrote: A variable font project with letter shapes inspired by English letter forms from around the 1780s, mainly Richard Austin, hence the name. With a weight axis for hierarchy in texts and an optical size axis in order to make small and larger text sizes look good. This project is an exploration in variable fonts. The goal was to learn about it, build workflow solutions, and have fun. This project is meant for typography on the screen. Browsers can take advantage of variable fonts, optical size can be automated and with CSS and JavaScript all the styles of the variable font can be accessed. One font, many styles: the future.

Their commercial typefaces:

• Bex (2013). This sans typeface family is based on Thom Janssen's graduation project.
• Cramp (2012). A casual hand-printed typeface by Rogier van der Sluis.
• Herman (2013, Rogier van der Sluis). An elliptical monospaced signage typeface family with possibilities of layering and shadow effects. It is quite attractive and one of the finest typefaces in its genre.

Gen Ramirez
[Tapatipo]

[More]  ⦿

Gluk Fonts
[Grzegorz Luk]

Grzegorz Luk, aka Gluk, is a Polish type designer (b. 1973). Type catalog in 2010.

Creator of the free artsy font Wanta (2008), of Resagnicto (2010), of Rawengulk (2010), of Rawengulk Sans (2011), of Reswysokr (2011), of the bold slab serif typeface Zantroke (2011), and of the free calligraphic typefaces Odstemplik (2009), promocyja (2008) and Konstytucyja (2008).

He published the elegant serif family Foglihten (2010), which includes the inline typefaces Foglihten No. 1 (2011), Foglihten Fr02 (2011), Foglihten No. 3 (2011) and Foglihten No. 4 (2012). The latter is inspired by the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791. Foglihten Petite Caps Black (2012) and Foglihten Black PCS (2012) are high-contrast fat didone typefaces, minus the ball terminals. The series continues with Foglihten No. 6 (2012) and Foglihten No. 7 (2013).

Qumpellka No 12 (2011) is a flowing italic. Opattfram01 (2011) is a dingbat typeface with onamental patterns. The Okolaks family (2008) has a bit of an art deco feel. It covers East-European languages as well as Cyrillic. Sportrop (2008) is a neat multiline face. Gputeks (2008) is a delicate decorative face. Szlichta07 (2008) on the other hand is an experimental typeface based on tilting the horizontal edges about ten degrees up. Kawoszeh (2008) is a curly Victorian pre-art nouveau face. Spinwerad (2009) and Itsadzoke S01 (2010) and Itsadzoke S02 are display didones. Znikomit (2011) is an impressive lachrymal hairline slab face. See also Znikomit No. 25 (2012) and Znikomit No. 24 (2012; image by Benjamin Frazzetto).

Creations from 2012: Charakterny, Garineldo, Mikodacs (an Impact-like black display sans), Yokawerad (a didone headline face), Resagokr, Nikodecs, Garineldo SC.

Typefaces from 2013: Etharnig, Namskin, Namskout (a layered heavy display face), Prida 65 (spurred antique face), Ketosag, Prida 61, Gatometrix, Glametrix, Gallberik.

Typefaces from 2014: VECfont FogV4, EtharnigV (a bi-colored font), Risaltyp, Wabroye, Kleymissky, Sortefax (an outline font with engraved versions as on dollar bills), Dragerotypos (blackboard bold), Resamitz.

Typefaces from 2015: Prida 36, Sudegnak No. 3 (script), Vecfont Sudegnak (cartoonish), PridaEn (a vector font for color), Prida S4, Prida01, Prida02 Calt.

Typefaces from 2016: BroshN, Tofimpelik (+Candy), Prosh3, Digitalt, Agreloy (a lovely curly Victorian typeface), Gluk Mixer (ransom note font), Fogtwo No 5.

Typefaces from 2017: Prosh 4B (a variable color font), BroshK2 (an origami style color font, in OpenType SVG format), Fuetargio (a multiline bejeweled typeface).

Typefaces from 2018: Rostef (all caps titling typeface), Fogthree.

Dafont link. Digart link. Fontspace link. Dafont link. Open Font Library link. Scribus Stuff link. Fontspace link. Kernest link. Abstract Fonts link. Behance link. Font Squirrel link. Klingspor link. Creative Market link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Grzegorz Luk
[Gluk Fonts]

[More]  ⦿

Gustavo Soares

Graduate of the KABK in Den Haag in 2008 (Masters in Type and Media), and from the University of Reading in 2007 (Masters in Information Design). He joined dooType in 2016. Originally from Sao Paulo but now based in Rio de Janeiro, he created these typefaces:

• The text family Pocket (2008). His graduation project at KABK.
• In 2012, the Dalton Maag Brazil team designed the font for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The 5448-character connected script font Rio2016 was developed by Dalton Maag Brazil, and involved a team that includes Fabio Haag, Fernando Caro and Gustavo Soares. Beth Lula is the Branding Director of the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee. Passages of the press release: Each letter expresses a characteristic of Rio 2016 Games, its people and city. The letters are written with a single continuous linework, with a fast and fluid movement, suggesting the movements of the athletes in action. The variety of curves in the letters has a unique informality, inspired by the joyfulness of the Brazilian people. Fabio Haag, Creative Director at Dalton Maag: As a Brazilian typophile, designing the Rio 2016 font was a dream job. This is a milestone for the design scene in Brazil---it's a great example of how type designers can collaborate with graphic designers, sharing their expertise to strengthen an identity.
• Veja Serif (2013). This is the new typeface for Veja, Brazil's leading weekly news magazine. This project originated from a specific demand to improve the publication's reading experience on screen, while keeping the type visually close to Times Roman. The team consisted of Gustavo Soares (creative direction), Eduilson Coan (type design), Fernando Mello (consultant) and Paratype (hinting). Veja Serif replaces VJ Times.
• dT Jakob (2017). This typeface started out in 2007 as a revival of Jakob Erbar's grotesk from 1927 in Paul van der Laan's class at KABK. It was refined and completed in 2017 at dooType with the help of Eduilson Wessler Coan. In 2018, Gustavo Soares and Eduilson Coan developed the variable inline and shadow font dT Jakob Variable Concept.

Alternate URL. Behance link. Old URL. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Hansje van Halem

Dutch graphic designer, b. 1978. Graduate of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, who started her own studio in Amsterdam in 2003. She creates alphabets, textures and patterns, both digitally and manually, that she applies to designs for posters, illustrations and public space art works such as gates and floors. In 2017, she developed an experimental typeface called Wind at Typotheque. Technically produced by Peter Bilak, there is variable font version by Thom Janssen. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Harbor Type
[Henrique Beier]

Henrique Beier (Harbor Type, Porto Alegre, Brazil) is the designer of the excellent angular semi-calligraphic text typeface Garibaldi Regular, which won an award at Tipos Latinos 2014. In 2015 it was extended to a great 7-style typeface family. He writes: Garibaldi is a text typeface based on humanist calligraphy. It started with a desire to learn more about the origin of the strokes on humanist typefaces. It features a 20 degree axis, medium contrast based on translation and expansion, asymmetric serifs, and terminals related to the broad nib stroke.

In 2014, he created the free font Densia Sans, which is condensed and has a tall x-height and some contrast. Graviola (2014) is a soft sans family, with possible applications in information design and wayfinding. It won an award at Tipos Latinos 2016.

In 2016, he published Graviola Soft, an even softer version. He also published the fresh corporate sans typeface family Malva, which can be recognized by the typically Latin American curvy tail on the lower case a and l. Winner at Rocher, a wonderful layered stone emulation font, Flintstone style. It won an award at Tipos Latinos 2018. He has a free variable color version with bevel and shadow axes, Rocher Color (2018).

Behance link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Harrison Marshall
[Frostype]

[More]  ⦿

Henrique Beier
[Harbor Type]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

I Can Variable Font

Tips for making variable fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Indestructible Type
[Owen Earl]

Owen Earl (Indestructible Type, Seattle, WA) takes a new look at old classics. He reinvents them from scratch, and redesigns each glyph very carefully. Some of his work is completely free, and other typefaces are commercial. His fonts:

• Besley (2017). A redesign of Robert Besley's Clarendon. For modern times, the x-height has been increased, and a totally new italic has been added. Buy it at FontSpring.
• The free sans typeface Geo (2013).
• The free sans typeface Quizzical (2015).
• Renner (2017). A revival, from scratch, of Paul Renner's Futura. Totally free! Github link. FontSpring link. Open Font Library link. A major update, Renner 3.0, followed in 2018---it includes a variable font, a blacker Black and the thinnest Hairline ever. And due to a trademark dispute Renner became Jost in August 2018.
• Bodoni (2015). With Bodoni 6 and Bodoni 12 subfamilies. Includes a delicious Bodoni 6 Fatface.
• Jones (2016).
• Miedinger (2015). A clone of Helvetica. Only two weights were ever finished.
• Umbra (2017). A variable Opentype font with two sliders---distance of the shadow, and time of the day.
• Gnomon (2017). A free variable font: Gnomon is the first font ever to respond to the user's actual time. The shadow of Gnomon changes location throughout the day in relation to the time.

Aka Ewon Rael. Github link. FontSpring link. Facebook page. [Google] [More]  ⦿

InstaVar

A plug-in for Glyphs that allows you to add variable font axes to glyphs or points. [Google] [More]  ⦿

James T. Edmondson
[Oh No Type]

[More]  ⦿

Jan Weidemüller
[Ultra Kühl]

[More]  ⦿

Jan Weidemüller

Designer in Berlin, Germany, who created the blackletter typeface Blak (2017, The Designers Foundry) and the ornamental didone family typeface Koor (2017).

At Ultra Kühl, he published the fun reverse stress display typeface family Guzi Warp (2018) and the crisp typeface family Para. Both Para and Guzi have variable font versions. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jason Tselentis
[Monotype on The History and Future of Variable Fonts]

[More]  ⦿

Jérémie Hornus
[Black Foundry]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jean-Baptiste Morizot
[Phantom Foundry]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jeff Wu

Jeff Wu is the General Manager of Arphic Technology. He has led Arphic R&D Division for more than 20 years. His specialties are development of font technology and products. Also, he is familiar with font design and application in versatile devices. He worked as a Software Engineer and Manager of Software department in Mitac Internationl Corp. before Arphic. He received his B.S and M.S degrees in computer science from National Chiao-Tung University of Taiwan. Speaker at ATypI 2018 in Antwerp on Chinese font design: There are about twenty-eight thousand Chinese characters that need to be designed. The average number of strokes in a Chinese character is 12. In Arphic JingXi Hei, for example, the average number of control points for each stroke is about 100. Therefore, there are about 33,600,000 control points to deal with when developing a Chinese typeface. When creating a Variable Font, the control points of every pole of every axis need to correspond, so it is a huge work to design, test the transfer to a Variable Font, and fix the design and control points. In this talk Jeff Wu shares the problems he met in developing Chinese Variable Fonts and how he overcame them: 1) The traps that must be avoided when designing strokes. 2) How many axes are proper for Chinese typefaces? 3) When transfering to Variable Fonts, how to set up the parameters of each table. 4) How to avoid different results when setting up the same parameter on different platforms (OS, browser, applications).. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jeremy Mickel
[MCKL (was: Mickel Design)]

[More]  ⦿

Jeremy Tribby

San Francisco-based designer of the free variable font Barlow (2017). He writes: Barlow is a slightly rounded, low-contrast, grotesk type family designed by Jeremy Tribby. Drawing from the visual style of the California public, Barlow shares qualities with the state's car plates, highway signs, busses, and trains. The family includes 54 manually-hinted styles in three widths and nine weights, as well as obliques, suitable for large and small digital and print use. Customizable weights and widths are available via the included variable font (GX) file. Barlow is named after internet pioneer, EFF co-founder, songwriter, and activist John Perry Barlow, in tribute to his lasting impact on the information superhighway. The original motivation was to replace the DIN Engschrift font currently used by the Eletronic Frontier Foundation by an open source font that does not look too different.

Github link for Barlow. Behance link. Google Font links for Barlow, Barlow Condensed and Barlow Semi Condensed. Typedrawers link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

John Hudson: Introducing OpenType Variable Fonts

John Hudson's informative introduction to OpenType variable fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Lewis McGuffie

Graphic designer and sign painter in Tallinn, Estonia. Old German Baltic maps gave him the inspiration for the signage family Livo Display (2014). Other typefaces, all done in 2015: Imperija Roman (2015, an impressive Trajan typeface for posters and editorial use; Lewis explains: The original letters were drawn from a memorial engraving in Ljubljana, Slovenia), Trout Beer (display type), Andra Roman (a humanist sans based on a letter sample dated around 1920 found in the Estonian History Museum), Cream (an Italian western type based on an original wood type), Gauss (a pointy stencil type), Heath Egyptian (based on Caslon's Two-Line Egyptian: a custyom type for London-based craftsman Daniel Heath), Poison, Titanik Tuleva, Hebden (a grotesque and incised pair inspired by the original signs at Hebden Bridge train station in Yorkshire).

Typefaces from 2016: Fleischer Display, Bobik (a sans / slab / wedge serif triplet of fonts initially developed based on basic principles described in Jean Alessandrini's Codex 80), Cindie Mono (four monospaced fonts of widely varying widths), Cenotaph Titling (a free engraved titling typeface influenced by Eric Gill's inscriptions).

Typefaces from 2017: Osselian Demi (lapidary), Borough Grotesk (free; updated to Pro in 2018), Tusker Grotesk (a headline grotesk in the tradition of Haettenschweiler, Impact and Helvetica Inserat; influences include Inland Type's Title Gothic No.8 and Stephenson Blake Elongated Sans No.1), Gardner Sans.

Typefaces from 2018: Chicken Shop Gothic (a condensed grotesk published by Typeverything: partly inspired by Benguiat's 1968 sample book Psychedelitype and part-nod to the stretched tacky stick-on-vinyl lettering on the windows of late-night takeaways, Chicken Shop is a variable font with a super-size height axis), Zierde Grotesk (a take on early advertising, small-copy grotesks of the late 19th/early 20th century, and is largely inspired by Miller & Richard's own range of grotesques. The ornaments were inspired by J.G Schelter & Giesecke's 1913 type specimen book Die Zierde). Sortie Super (Italian stress Western font). During his studies at Ecole Estienne (Paris), Manuel de Lignières (Montpellier, France) published Waba (2018) with Lewis McGuffie. Inspired by woodblock types and art nouveau, Waba is a bit of love letter to Estonia, the Baltics and the visual history of Eastern Europe. The free variable font Waba Border (2018) was added by Lewis McGuffie. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Marlene Arnold

Marlene Arnold's Masters Thesis entitled Dir Rolle der Typografie im Internet der Dinge (HS Mainz, 2017) covers variable fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

MCKL (was: Mickel Design)
[Jeremy Mickel]

Jeremy Mickel runs a design studio in Brooklyn, New York, but lives in Providence, RI. Originally called Mickel Design, the studio and foundry was renamed MCKL in 2012. Mickel has taught at RISD and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

He is working on this VAR-Rounded sans serif style face (2007) that was based on plastic cut letters seen in New York's subway. See also here and here. Mickel's typefaces:

• Router (2008, Jeremy Mickel): a rounded sans family.
• Baro (2010, Chester Jenkins and Jeremy Mickel): Baro is inspired by memories of Antique Olive Nord, Roger Excoffon's landmark design originally commissioned for Air France in 1956. Nord, the heaviest weight of Antique Olive, was the starting point, but Baro shares DNA with other Village designs, including Apex New and Mavis.
• Eventide (2009, Jeremy Mickel): octagonal and 3d family based on ideas by Paul Carlyle in the early 1940s. That Carlyle typeface had also made it into the PhotoLettering collection in 1971. Eventide was developed into a family at House Industries under the art direction of Ken Barber and Christian Schwartz, and won an award at TDC2 2011.
• Superior (2010, Jeremy Mickel): a high-contrast transitional "nearly didone" face. Superior Title (2013) is described as a high-contrast missing link between Times and Bodoni. It was designed for fashion publications.
• Shift (2010, Jeremy Mickel): a slab serif family that won an award at TDC2 2011.
• Gonesh (2009, Jeremy Mickel): a great new sans family.
• Aero (2010, Village Type) was developed in cooperation with Chester Jenkins. This poster family, inspired by Excoffon's Antique Olive, was awarded at TDC2 2011.
• Letterboxes (2008). A stencil typeface that was part of a collaborative project with John Caserta at the Design Office.
• Union (2011). A basic sans family, ideal for corporate design.
• Jeremy Mickel created a digital version L.Harl Copeland's (prismatic, beveled, roman caps) Trillium typeface [originally done at Photolettering] in 2011 at the new digital Photolettering / House Industries.
• Fort is a sans family published in 2012 by Village.
• Playoff Sans and Playoff Serif (2015).
• Adidas has partnered with MCKL to create an innovative suite of variable fonts. These fonts are being used across a wide spectrum of applications, including Creative Direction, Product Design, Graphics, Communications, Digital Experiences, and the brand campaign for the upcoming World Cup. In 2015, Mickel expansed the Adineue Pro family. In 2017 they started the first Adidas Variable Font, Adineue CHOP Variable, an octagonal athletic sans in a wide range of weights from hairline to black, and widths from extra-condensed to extra-wide. In 2018, Mickel embarked on Adineue Pro Variable.

Klingspor link. Village link. Speaker at ATypI 2018 in Antwerp. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Michael Cina
[You Work For Them (or YWFT; formerly Cinahaus or TrueIsTrue)]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Monotype on The History and Future of Variable Fonts

An article by Jason Tselentis in February 2017 on variable fonts through the eyes of Monotype's Tom Rickner. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Monotype on The History and Future of Variable Fonts
[Jason Tselentis]

An article written in 2017 by Jason Tselentis, a designer, writer, and educator based in North Carolina. As Associate Professor at Winthrop University, he teaches visual communication design, brand strategy and development, web design, and typography. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Monotype Variable Font Demo

[More]  ⦿

Myles Maxfield: Variable Fonts on the Web

Myles Maxfield explains variable fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Nick Sherman: Variable Fonts for Responsive Design

Nick Sherman writes about variable fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Oh No Type
[James T. Edmondson]

San Leandro and/or Oakland, CA-based designer, whose company is called Oh No Type. In 2011, he was a student at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Graduate of the Type & Media program at KABK in Den Haag in 2014. Before that, he was based in Leeds, UK. James teaches Type at Cooper West. Typefaces:

• 2008: at FontStruct of the blackletter typeface Eclyptico and of Mopper.
• 2010: Edmondson, Dode (script).
• 2011: Edmond Serif (in progress) is being designed in Rod Cavasos Type Design class at CCA. Edmond Sans (2011) is a headline all caps sans face. Duke (Lost Type) is a beveled typeface based on the signage for the Cup and Saucer Luncheonette in New York. Wisdom Script (Lost Type) was originally designed for Woods of Wisdom, a 50 part poster series on bad advice. Working on a roman caps version in Ed Interlock style. Lavanderia (2011, free at Lost Type) is a signage script family inspired by fancy laundromat lettering in San Francisco's Mission District.
• 2012: Edmond Sans (Lost Type).
• Mission Script (2012) is a connected signage script, also inspired by lettering in San Francisco's Mission District.
• 2013: Mission Gothic. Influenced by wood types, this sans was co-designed with Trevor Baum.
• 2014: Covik, his graduation typeface at KABK. He writes: Covik was designed with the goal of creating a small text family with complimentary display typefaces which work together to create a rich typographic palette. How divergent could a style be while remaining kindred? In what ways could weight, width, proportion, and construction be played with in order to create a varied family? See also Covik Sans Mono.
• 2015: Hobeaux (a take on Morris Fuller Benton's art nouveau typeface Hobo), Viktor Script (a retro script done with Erik Marinovich). Accompanied by Hobeaux Rococeaux (2016).
• 2016: Vulf Mono (Vulf Mono is the official typeface of Vulfpeck, a funky four-piece rhythm section from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The typeface draws main inspiration from 12 point Light Italic, a font for the IBM Selectric typewriter.)
• Year unknown: Bordeaux Script.
• 2018: Eckmann Psych (a psychedelic take on Otto Eckmann's art nouveau type), Ohno Blazeface, Cheee (a variable font).

Opentype Font Variations: David Berlow

David Berlow explains OpenType Font Variations. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Oscar Cobo

During his studies in Barcelona, Oscar Cobo created the modular Tuscan typeface family Batto (2015, free) and Atzur (2015, free). In 2016, he published the commercial version, Atzur Pro.

In 2017, he designed the free modular display typeface Golem.

In 2018, he designed Carbono (an octagonal family in 42 styles, and a 3-axis variable font). In 2018, Oscar Cobo and Wete co-designed the piano key variable font UT Morph, which was inspired by Wim Crouwel's Nagasaki poster. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Owen Earl
[Indestructible Type]

[More]  ⦿

Pablo Gámez Navarro

Graduate of the TypeMedia program at the KABK in The Hague in 2017, who first worked at some design studios in Spain and now develops typefaces at Bold Monday. His typefaces include:

• Driver (2017), his graduation work at KABK. This is a variable font, Driver Small, and a fashionable typeface family, Driver Big. Pablo explains: Inspired by the world of motorsports and hypercars, Driver is a modern interpretation of the squarish styles from the sixties and the aesthetics of car races. The smaller version is a four axis variable font that adapts to a responsive interface, enabling the designer to link visual parameters of the typeface to conditions like luminosity, size and background color. The bigger version is a typeface intended for branding and editorial environments, inspired by racing banners. It includes six sets of decorated figures.
• Trump Mediaeval: an etched typeface revival.
• Mango. A text typeface.
• Modena.

Paul Christ

During his studies in München, Germany, Paul Christ designed the angular typeface Oh No (2017) and the wavy typeface Crooked (2017). In 2018, he designed the variable font typeface Herbivore. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Pedro Leal

Pedro Leal graduated in graphic design and advertising from the ESEIG-Escola Superior de Estudos Industriais e de Engenharia in Vila do Conde, Portugal, and lives in Porto. In 2010 he obtained a degree in type design at ESAD (Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Matosinhos) and started working at DSType. MyFonts link. Behance link.

He used FontStruct in 2008 to create the pixel typeface Minimal 8pt (514 glyphs!). In 2010, he created the text family Mafra at DSType. This was followed a bit later by Mafra Display (2010; +Medium, +Black). Apud and Apud Display (2010, DSType) are high-contrast typefaces.

Penna (2011) is a calligraphic type system. Braga (2011, Dino dos Santos and Pedro Leal, DS Type) is a layered font design family. Dino writes: Braga is an exuberant baroque typeface, named after a Portuguese city, also known as the baroque capital of Portugal. Our latest typographic extravaganza comes with a multitude of fonts designed to work like layers, allowing to insert color, lines, gradients, patterns, baroque, floral swashes, and many other graphic elements. Starting with Braga Base, you can add any of the twenty-three available styles, to create colourful typographic designs.

In 2012, he designed User, User Stencil and User Upright>/a>, a monospaced type family with 30 styles, from Hairline to Bold. This too will many awards. Girga (+Italic, +Engraved, +Banner, +Stencil) is a strong black Egyptian family designed together with Dino dos Santos at DS Type. Solido (2012, with Dino dos Santos, DS Type) is a versatile type system with five widths: Solido, Solido Constricted, Solido Condensed, Solido Compressed and Solido Compact. In total there are 35 fonts.

In 2012, he created the sans family Global, with its own dedicated web site, The Global Font. In 2013, he followed that up with the Global Stencil typeface family.

In 2013, Dino dos Santos and Pedro Leal published Diversa, a set of nine very different fonts that are jointly kerned so that letters can be swapped out and replaced at will. Diversa Std (2014) extends this to include Stencil, Inline and other decorative styles. Pedro Leal's main typeface of 2013 is Aparo, a script that is calligraphic, yet keeps the characteristics of penmanship scripts, and the pizzazz of a good fashion font.

In 2014, he published Ocre and Ocre Poster in sans and slab serif substyles inspired by W.A. Dwiggins, Torio, a penmanship script based on a style used in Arte de Escribir por Reglas y con Muestras (1798, by Spanish penman Torcuato Torío de la Riva y Herrer). Torio received the Communication Arts Type Award of Excellence in 2014.

In 2015, he created the large Rudo and Rude Slab typeface families that exhibit many humanist traits: Rude ExtraWide, Rude Icons, Rude SemiCondensed, Rude SemiWide, Rude Wide, Rude, Rude Condensed, Rude ExtraCondensed, Rude Slab, Rude Slab Condensed, Rude Slab ExtraCondensed, Rude Slab ExtraWide, Rude Slab SemiCondensed, Rude Slab SemiWide, Rude Slab Wide, Rude Slab, Rude Slab Condensed, Rude Slab ExtraCondensed, Rude Slab ExtraWide, Rude Slab SemiCondensed, Rude Slab SemiWide, Rude Slab Wide. Early in 2015, he also did a custom typeface family for the Jornal de Notícias, including sans, serif and micro sub-styles. Dino dos Santos and Pedro Leal published Jules and Jules Text in the summer of 2015---a fat fashion mag didone 45-style family inspired by several plates from Portuguese calligrapher Antonio Jacintho de Araujo; it comes in Big, Colossal and Epic. Ecra is a workhorse slab serif, also done in 2015. Viska (2015, by Dino dos Santos and Pedro Leal) is designed for small print. Finally, TCF Zellige (2015, TypeCult) is a modular typeface inspired by the tiles that can be found in Southern Europe and North Africa.

Typefaces from 2016: Oposta (Italian, Western style pushed to the esthetic extreme; received the Communication Arts Type Award of Excellence in 2017), Ardina (with Dino dos Santos: a text typeface family with three optical sizes).

Typefaces from 2017: Scrittore (a heavy dark Italian bastarda influenced by the connected hand of Giovanniantonio Tagliente and Robert Granjon's Civilité; at DS Type), Zart (a voluptuous ebullient black didone, or fat face). Fusta (a gorgeous wood-type inspired poster typeface), Ordem (a low-contrast contemporary Capitalis Monumentalis).

Typefaces from 2018: Striver (a crisp contrasted curvy display typeface), Certo Slab and Certo Sans, Foreday (a forward-looking typeface family with associated variable font, covering sans, serif, semi-sans and semi-serif), Perfil (an inline and swashy high end script). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Phantom Foundry
[Jean-Baptiste Morizot]

Type designer at the open source typefoundry Velvetyne in Paris. His creations there include Trickster (2017), Bluu Next (2014, a free wedge serif typeface) and Steps Mono (with Raphael Bastide).

In 2015, he switched to the commmercial camp, and cooperated with the Fontyou team in the production of the didone typeface family Télémaque FY, which brings Didot in its most rigid and tuxedoed manner, for the black-and-white fashion mags showing James Bond with a black bowtie and spotless high-contrast shirt.

In 2016, Alisa Nowak, Julie Soudanne and Jean-Baptiste Morizot co-designed Graphico (Indian Type Foundry): Its letterforms are industrial and square-sided. The typeface looks like the product of precision mechanics: it should be featured together with tech---either old tech like appliances or watches, or new tech like apps and laptop stands. Still for Indian Type Foundry in 2016, he designed the hipster sans typeface family Bobo---perhaps one of the greatest hipster typefaces of all times. Bobo stands for bourgeois Bohemian---I am not sure it is identical to gauche caviar, but that is the societal class the author of this typographic encyclopedia belongs to.

In 2016, Morizot designed the high contrast wedge serif newspaper typeface families Editor and Editor Condensed, and the car license plate font License at Indian Type Foundry.

In 2017, as part of the new Black Foundry, he extended his free font Bluu and even added a variable font to the set, as well as a collection of emojis. The new name is Bluusuuperstar: Bluu Suuperstar is a brutalist serif typeface featuring very prominent triangular-wedges for serifs and terminals. Bluu Suuperstar's letters have a tall x-height, and the diamond dots are a chief characteristic of the design. Notches like these [diamonds] are found in several blackletter designs; but most-famously in the romain du roi created for Louis XIV. Nothing in Bluu Suuperstar is soft or cuddly; this is a sharp typeface, and you could cut yourself on its letters. The separate emoji font, designed by Gaëtan Baehr, is wittily named Bluumoji, and it includes 73 glyphs.

In 2018, Morizot set up Phantom Foundry, where he published Super Fat Bob (2018) and Phantom Sans (2018: trying to bring some warmth to the geometric sans genre, and now also a variable typeface).

In 2018, he designed the free display typeface Trickster at Velvetyne. Fontshop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Richard Rutter on variable fonts

Richard Rutter explains how to use variable fonts in web pages. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Saja TypeWorks
[Aaron Bell]

Aaron earned a Bachelor's degree in Asian Studies, with a minor in Japanese, at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. Aaron is a graduate of the University of Reading in 2011, where he earned an MA in typeface design. His graduation typeface was Saja (2011), which covered Latin and Korean. In the Fall of 2011, he joined the Microsoft Typography team.

In 2015, at Microsoft, he designed the free sans typeface Selawik, which is metrically compatible with the infamous Segoe UI. Selawik now also exists as a variable font.

In 2016, het up his own typefoundry in Seattle, Saja TypeWorks. At Saja TypeWorks, he published the sans-serif typeface Salish, which is inspired by the art of the Salishan tribes in the Northwest Americas: It draws heavily on the concept of the ovoid, a wide ovular shape that is flat on the bottom and top heavy, that is central to the art style known as Formline. Language support includes some 200 Latin-based languages as well as the necessary orthographies for all Salishan languages, including: Comox, Sliammon, Klahoose, Pentlach, Sechelt, Squamish, Halkomelem, Nooksack, Straights Salish (Saanich), Lushootseed, S'Klallam, Quinault, Upper Chehalis, Lower Chehalis, Cowlitz, Bella Coola, Ditidaht, Tseshaht, Nuu-chah-nulth, Ehattesaht-Nuchatlaht, Kwak'wala, Shuswap, Lillooet, Thompson River Salish, Coeur d'Alene, Columbia-Moses, Colville, Okanagan, and Montana Salish. Haida (a non-Salishan language) is also supported.

At FontStruct, he designed Syzygy.

In 2017, he published HWT Aetna at P22. Aetna is a sturdy roman wood type first see in William H. Page's 1870 specimens.

Aaron Bell digitized the free logo font Air America in 2018. He writes: This font was produced for William G. Sherman who recreated this alphabet from samples of the logo and other sources from the airline company Air America.

In 2018, he published the free sans typeface Bahnschrift for Microsoft at Open Type Library. This font is flawed (look at the capital A), so I wonder if that post was done by an impostor.

Speaker at ATypI 2012 in Hong Kong: Seeking the Korean true italic. Speaker at ATypI 2013 in Amsterdam: Directionality in Korean type design. Fontsquirrel link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Sergio Martins

At University of Aveiro in Portugal, Sergio Martins designed the display typeface Tirana (2017). In 2018, he graduated from the University of Reading's MATD program. His graduation typeface, Argota, is a (variable) typeface family designed for complex multi-script environments. It is divided into two styles, a narrow serif with tall x-height for use in texts and lexicons, and a very contrasting italic. It covers latin and Arabic. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Simon Cozens: How OpenType Works: OpenType Font Variations

Simon Cozens explains variable fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sportsfonts
[Christoph Koeberlin]

German typefoundry, est. 2016 by Christoph Koeberlin, whose passion for FC Kaiserslautern in the Bundesliga led to the creation of Sportsfonts. Koeberlin previously designed retail typefaces such as Fabrikat and FF Mark (the latter with Hannes von Döhren and the FontFont Type Department).

His first typeface at Sportsfonts is the 24,000-glyph 49-font athletic lettering superfamily, Winner.

In 2016, he created the free variable font typeface Gingham. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Tapatipo
[Gen Ramirez]

Designer and lettering artist in Guadalajara, Mexico, who created the Mexican diner signage script typeface Tejuino (2015) and the informal sans typefaces Taqueta, Rabar and Festa, all made in 2015. Astro Regular (2015) by Gen Ramirez, Manuel Lopez (with assistance of Rodrigo Heredia and Rodrigo Nuñez) won an award at Tipos Latinos 2016. Rabar Ultra Black (2015) also won an award at Tipos Latinos 2016. Winner at Tipos Latinos 2018 of a type design award for Victus.

In 2018, he graduated from the TypeMedia program at KABK in Den Haag with a sans typeface called Entorno Sans. It includes a variable font intended for signage systems in urban and virtual spaces.

Home page. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Terrance Weinzierl

Grand Rapids, MI-based graphic designer. Terrance worked as a graphic designer for the university book store while earning a bachelor of fine arts degree with an emphasis in graphic design from Grand Valley State University in 2008. After graduation, he joined Ascender Corporation where he worked closely with Steve Matteson.

His typefaces include TW Geo Slab (2007), Dux (2007, ornamental Victorian type), Wingman (2006, handwriting) and Weinzierl Slab (2006, see also here). He joined Ascender and created there the stencil blackletter typeface Stenblak (2010), informal script typeface Rebus Script (2009, with Steve Matteson) and Romany (2009), a non-connecting script which was originally designed by A.R. Bosco and released by American Type Founders in 1934.

In 2012, he created Feldman Engraver and JMC Engraver.

Fonts from 2015: Kairos (Monotype: an octagonal typeface based on 19th century Grecian wood type). In 2015, Monotype set out to remaster, expand and revitalize Eric Gill's body of work, with more weights, more characters and more languages to meet a wide range of design requirements. As part of that project, Terrance Weinzierl designed Joanna Sans Nova (2015: sixteen fonts, loosely based on Gill's slab serif, Joanna, so technically, this is not a Gill revival, but a Gill extension. A well-balanced family with a medium-to-large x-height. But the italic g is disturbing).

Fonts from 2016: Terry Junior Basic (free), Kairos Sans (which accompanies his 2015 typeface Kairos; both cover Latin and Greek). The octagonal typeface Kairos Sans became Monotype's first variable font---it is free at GitHub. Also in 2016, he added some Greek, Cyrillic, weights and widths to Kobayashi's Eurostile Next, for a grand total of 50 styles in this popular Linotype font family.

Pizza Press (2013) won an award at TDC 2014.

In 2017, Jeong-Sook Lee, John Pompa, Terrance Weinzierl and the Monotype team won a Red Dot award for the 72-style typeface family 72 designed for SAP Fiori.

Fonts from 2018: Terry Junior (Monotype; a brush script perhaps with uses for children's books).

Klingspor link. Linotype link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Thom Janssen
[Geen Bitter]

[More]  ⦿

Thomas A. Rickner

American type designer, born in Rochester in 1966, who has worked for various foundries including Monotype. He graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He lives in Madison, WI, and is currently employed by Monotype, after a short period at Ascender. He co-designed a revival of W.A. Dwiggins' beautiful Eldorado family, Amanda (1996), Hamilton, the Western font Buffalo Gal (1992-1994, TTGX variations font done while he was at Apple). He worked at Monotype from 1994 onwards, where he hinted Carter's Georgia, Tahoma, Nina and Verdana fonts, for example, commissioned by Microsoft. While employed by Apple Computer, Tom oversaw the development of the first TrueType fonts to ship with Apples System 7. He worked on a freelance basis for Font Bureau for the last 12 years. He has worked on custom font solutions for companies such as Adobe Systems, Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lexmark, Lotus, Microsoft and Nokia. His custom fonts include a revival of Bodoni to serve Lexmark as their new corporate typeface. His experience with non-Latin scripts is broad, having designed fonts for the Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Thai, Thaana and Cherokee scripts. Tom also played a key role in the development of fonts for Agfa Monotype's proprietary stroke font format. In his own words, However I did the bulk of the drawing for Siegel's Graphite, and I did about 1/2 of the Tekton MultipleMaster (with Jill Pichotta and Tobias Frere-Jones on the other half of the masters) while in Palo Alto. In 2004, he co-founded Ascender Corporation, where he published

• Arial Mono (Ascender).
• Buffalo Gals (1992 and 2016): Buffalo Gals is one of the very first variable fonts, originally made in 1992 for an Apple TrueType GX developer CD. It was intended to push the boundaries on the number of stylistic axes in a font, with 6 axes in total, none of them being weight or width. Based upon wood type of the late 1800s, Buffalo Gals enables control over features with names like Cookies, Fringe, Hooves, Concavity and Bracketing. It offers 144 distinct combinations of these attributes, and seemingly infinite intermediate interpolations as well. Free download here.
• Circus Poster Shadow (2005): based an 1890s Tuscan style wood type.
• Goudy Borders (2009) and Goudy Forum Pro (2009), a revival and expansion Frederic W. Goudy's "Forum Title" (1911, inspired by Roman inscriptions on the Trajan's column monument).
• Hamilton (Ascender). A wood type face.
• Rebekah Pro (2006): a revival of ATF's Piranesi family, the regular being designed by Willard Sniffin, and the remaining weights designed by Morris Fuller Benton. Tom Rickner first revived Benton's Italic for use in his wedding invitations for his marriage to Rebekah Zapf in 2006. He completed the character set in 2009.

Tom Rickner on Variable Fonts

Monotype's technical font guru, Tom Rickner, discusses the 25 year history behind the events which led to the OpenType 1.8 variations announcement. Follow-up article from December 2016. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Travis Kochel: I Can Variable Font

Travis Kochel explains variable fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Twitter: Variable Fonts

Twitter news on variable fonts. Edited by Nick Sherman. [Google] [More]  ⦿

TypeDrawers: Variable Fonts

Discussion on Typedrawers of Variable Fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

TypeKit Blog: Variable fonts, a new kind of font for flexible design

TypeKit (Adobe) reports on variable fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ultra Kühl
[Jan Weidemüller]

Berlin-based designer of the didone typeface Para Supreme (2018) at The Designers Foundry. He also designed the reverse stress typeface family Guzi Warp. Both Para and Guzi have variable font versions. See also Para Supreme (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

UMPRUM Academy 2017: Variable Fonts

Many variable fonts were designed by the students in the Type Design and Typography studio at the UMPRUM Academy in Prague during the Winter term of 2017. These include:

• Jan Buble: Softhard.
• Josefina Karlikova: Krabat.
• Matej Vojtus: Kultivar.
• Stefan Osciatka: Hares.
• Simon Matejka: Baseliner.
• Premysl Zajicek: Reda.
• Viktor Janousek: Retroduktor.
• Jakub Hojgr: In the Pines.
• David Rericha: Flextura.
• Matyas Machat: Heroica.
• Matyas Barto: Minim.
• Zuzana Uhlova: Divotvor.

Variable Fonts: Adobe Typekit Blog

Tim Brown (Head of Typography for Adobe Typekit & Adobe Type) takes us in September 2016 on a tour of the new proposal for Variable Fonts. This new format in which one font file represents multiple fonts, is jointly developed by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe. He argues that at this point in time, we need (1) fonts, (2) rendering engines for the fonts, (3) browsers to support the rendering engines, (4) tools for designing the fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Variable Fonts: Genesis

The text below is quoted from "Introducing OpenType Variable Fonts" by John Hudson. Version 1.8 of the OpenType font format specification introduces an extensive new technology, affecting almost every area of the format. An OpenType variable font is one in which the equivalent of multiple individual fonts can be compactly packaged within a single font file. This is done by defining variations within the font, which constitute a single- or multi-axis design space within which many font instances can be interpolated. A variable font is a single font file that behaves like multiple fonts.

There are numerous benefits to this technology. A variable font is a single binary with greatly-reduced comparable file size and, hence, smaller disc footprint and webfont bandwidth. This means more efficient packaging of embedded fonts, and faster delivery and loading of webfonts. The potential for dynamic selection of custom instances within the variations design space---or design-variations space, to use its technical name---opens exciting prospects for fine tuning the typographic palette, and for new kinds of responsive typography that can adapt to best present dynamic content to a reader's device, screen orientation, or even reading distance.

The technology behind variable fonts is officially called OpenType Font Variations. It has been jointly developed by Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Adobe, in an unprecedented collaborative effort also involving technical experts from font foundries and font tool developers. In addition to specifying the font format additions and revisions, the working group has also committed to the goal of interoperable implementation, defining expected behaviours and test suites for software displaying variable fonts. This should be welcome news to font developers and users, who have often struggled with incompatible implementations of earlier aspects of OpenType that were left to the interpretation of individual software companies. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Variable Fonts: John Hudson's introduction

John Hudson introduces OpenType Variable Fonts on Septemer 14, 2016. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Variable Fonts: Video announcements

A Youtube video of the announcement of Variable Fonts at ATypI 2016 in warsaw. [Google] [More]  ⦿

variableFont.js

Handles variable fonts through OpenType.js [Google] [More]  ⦿

Wired: Tech Giants Team Up to Fix Typography's Biggest Problem

Wired magazine reports on variable fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

You Work For Them (or YWFT; formerly Cinahaus or TrueIsTrue)
[Michael Cina]

Michael Cina (Minneapolis) is the cofounder of WeWorkForThem and YouWorkForThem (in 2002), also known as YWFT. Before that, he ran TrueIsTrue, and before that was partner in Test Pilot Collective (which he left in 2001), and before that he ran Cinahaus. YWFT is located in Knoxville, TN and/or Baltimore, MD. The creative director is Michael Paul Young.

Cina's fonts include the pixel fonts YWFT Caliper (1998), YWFT Bit (1998), 6x7oct (1998) and BlackGold; the handwriting font Cinahand; Blessed (1999, techno), YWFT Cam (1998, a slab serif based on industrial lettering), CommunityService, Crossover (1998, dot matrix with stars instead of dots), Composite (1998, octagonal), Formation (1999, a big octagonal family), Jute (2004, a masculine, military, sans-serif), YWFT Maetl (1999, octagonal, angular family), YWFT Moteur (a technical, retro, machine-like design; it briefly went under the name Alloy---in the early 2000s it was heavily used in the video gaming magazine Playstation), YWFT Novum (2002: a heavy block font that draws inspiration from a typeface originally used by the Swiss graphic designer Siegfried Odermatt), Pakt, Reversion (1997, squarish), Selector, Selek (1998, pixelish), YWFT Blackgold (2000, pixelish), Service (2001-2002, an octagonal family), YWFT Signature (1998), Trisect (1999, three-lined family), Unisect (1999, organic monoline sans), YWFT Ultramagnetic (1996, a popular rounded gothic typeface family), Ultramagnetic2 (1999), YWFT Ultramagnetic Expanded (2011), YWFT Ultramagnetic Rough (1996-2017), Unfinished. Bastard (1998), Kcap6 (with Matt Desmond), Cheese (1998), Novum (2002), Overcross (2002, unfocused letters), Stem (1998), Testacon (with Kral and Desmond, 1999), Praun (2002, pixel typefaces), OneCross (2002, pixelish stitching family), Estenceler (2004, a great stencil family a bit related to Milton Glaser's Glaser Stencil), Graphium (2004, octagonal Western style family), Expos (2004, graffiti or poster face), YWFT Pixacao (2007, after the Brazilian graffiti style), Vox (2007, monoline sans), Militia Sans (2007, like a Russian constructivist stencil), Jupiter (roman), Militia (2007, heavier stencil), Merc (2007, grunge), Guild (2007), Clarendon Text (2007, a complete revival), Jezebel (2007, script), Ambassador Script (2007, a digital revival of Novarese's typeface by that name), Enam (2002, influenced by Crouwel), Enigmatic Hand (2007), Dusty (2007, a Tuscan-eared Western font), YWFT Poplock (2007, experimental), YWFT Pakt (2004, geometric sans), Sudsy (2007), Black Sabbath (2008, ultra black slab serif, by Stefan Kjartansson), YWFT Belle (2008), YWFT Agostina (2008), YWFT Bitwood (2007-2017, pixelish Western typeface), YWFT Mullino (2009, letterpress emulation), Trithart (2008, grunge by Emma Trithart), YWFT Tapscott (2008-2017, informal and nostalgic all caps family, in the style of Rennie Mackintosh), Habano (2008, script), Amorinda (signage script), Retron (2008, connected script), MD01 (medical-themed dingbats), Adelaide (script), Centennial Script (calligraphic), Alexia (calligraphic), Ultramagnetic (experimental), Nash (1997, grunge), Amber (kitchen tile), Fab (3d), 6x7 Oct (1998, pixels and dots), Wool (2009, stencil), YWFT Matter (2009, a wide bold grotesque), YWFT Merriam (2009, a Clarendon-styled slab serif), Agostina Alternate (2011, with Michael Paul Young and Taechit Jiropaskosol), Ramsey (2012), YWFT Dessau (2013, schizograms and capitals like Bauhaus on drugs), YWFT League (2014, inspired by college football jerseys), YWFT Yoke (poster typeface done with Pintassilgo), YWFT Illuminati (2015, abstract capitals).

Blog. His lovely g poster (2010).

House fonts at YWFT by unknown designers: YWFT Knit (2010: knitting patterns), YWFT Motif (2015), Ramsey Condensed (2015), YWFT Roamer (2016), YWFT Whisky (alchemic), YWFT Psychosis, YWFT Processing (2001-2010: YWFT Processing was developed in 2001 for Casey Reas, the co-creator of the Processing programming language. We created this display face to be sharp, tall, unique and interesting...much like Mr. Reas himself. The font was derived from an original logo that already existed, and we continued the idea into a fully working six-weight font family. YWFT Processing was converted to Opentype format in 2010), YWFT Filbert (2012), YWFT Nim (2012, combining the hipster style with overlays for bevel and shadow effects), Dogma (2012, alchemic), Attic (spooky poster face, in EPS format), YWFT Yoke (textured all-caps), Riblah (2003, dot matrix), YWFT Fraktur (tattoo face), YWFT Burls (2013, fat poster typeface), YWFT Coltrane (2011, handdrawn poster typeface), YWFT Symplify (2013: haute couture snowflakes), YWFT Smoothie, YWFT Chance (2016), YWFT Skipper (2016), YWFT Wheatgrass (2016), YWFT Estee (2002-2017), YWFT Watermelon (2017), YWFT Ink (2017, originally designed in 2008), YWFT QUE, YWFT Burtonian (2017, named after Tim Burton), YWFT Crew (hand-crafted), YWFT Maudlin (2017), YWFT Liana (2017; perhaps plumbing dingbats, who knows?), YWFT Victoria (2010: a bonbonnerie type), YWFT Valley (2017: a Memphis movement type), YWFT Wellsworth (2017), YWFT Harmony (2008-2017, a curly calligraphic script), YWFT Edger (2017), YWFT Chateau, YWFT Gummy (2002-2018), YWFT Blender (2018), YWFT Fluctuant (2018: a variable font).

View Michael Cina's typefaces. Alternate URL. Behance link. Interview. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Yuwsuke Kieda

Developer and maintainer of Variable LM (2017), a package for scaling the Latin Modern fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿