Typophile - Er...what is a font? - Comments

@Mark Simonson: After a long

rogergordon — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:04:49 -0800

@Mark Simonson:

After a long period of confusion, I think I finally get it. Thanks a lot.

Perhaps Typophile.com could

paul d hunt — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 20:33:52 -0700

Perhaps Typophile.com could organise a Typography 101 for us newbies…

...it’s called The Elements of Typographic Style

Jim, I think your last post deserves its own thread. Email me if you need help on making a new posting: pauldhunt (a) yahoo . com. (take out the spaces and put the at symbol i there)

I’ve just completed

jim_rimmer — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 19:56:39 -0700

I’ve just completed cutting Eastern and Western dialect Cree matrices in 14 point from a new design of my own. The problem I now have aside from being completely illiterate in the language is how to font it. In other words a font count (scheme). Does anyone have any idea where a person can find such numbers? I have scoured the Aboriginal councils and various bodies, but have come up with nothing.

Any lead would be appreciated.

Jim

sebsan if there is a red

grod — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 08:23:17 -0700

sebsan if there is a red “w” superscript to the right of a wiki link it means the page is empty either because it was just created by making the link to it or because no one has gotten around to filling it in yet.

Writing to the Typophile

sebsan — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 08:19:14 -0700

Writing to the Typophile community is the best thing I’ve done for my graphic design career in a long time.

I am not sure how the TypoWiki works though. Often the the links take me to an empty entry field.

Alexei, We are hoping to

Norbert Florendo — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 04:40:54 -0700

Alexei,
We are hoping to expand the “Typographic Edumacators” topic thread to include not only suggestions for educators of design and typography classes, but also to include information useful to students and newbies.

For now, try the TypoWiki section for detailed and specific type info, and of course, ask questions — that’s how these topics get started.

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Yes, I’m old, but not too old to learn!

Interesting thread. Perhaps

adiazpaz — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 03:02:41 -0700

Interesting thread. Perhaps Typophile.com could organise a Typography 101 for us newbies...

Good one William :-) ChrisL

dezcom — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:54:19 -0700

Good one William :-)

ChrisL

Yeah, but you’ll have the

William Berkson — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 10:40:17 -0700

Yeah, but you’ll have the ’quoins’ for your trouble.

Don’t lounge on that chase

dezcom — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 09:23:39 -0700

Don’t lounge on that chase without the keys or you will be locked up for improper use of furniture :-)

ChrisL

I guess the ‘old coot’

Norbert Florendo — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 09:02:34 -0700

I guess the ’old coot’ typesetters weren’t pulling my leg after all.
Hmmmm... I better get rid of those type lice before I pull the furniture from the chase.

>make sense According to my

William Berkson — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 08:19:34 -0700

>make sense

According to my Oxford Concise Dictionary, the word Fount (English spelling) and Foundry come from the same French root, ’fondre’, which means according to my French dictionary not only ’melt,’ mentioned above, but more relevantly ’cast’, as in casting a metal statue. So a foundry is a place that casts metal, and a ’fount’ or ’font’ is a casting of an alphabet in metal. Makes sense to me.

“Our “font” has

dberlow — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 04:52:37 -0700

“Our “font” has nothing to do with the font as in fountain, or spring — it comes from the French fondre (Lat. fundere), to melt.”

yeah yeah yeah. I’ve heard that one before. So what you’re saying is our word for a composition-ready package of type comes from the French “to melt”? People, even French people, use words that mean something, so they remember. (Souvenir, by the way was originally drawn for the French Tax Department, according to Ed, remember?). So believe what you will, but I, when all evidence trails off, try my best to make sense. :)

Lost Terminology of the

Norbert Florendo — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 13:40:44 -0700

Lost Terminology of the Print Trade
What does it mean when a pica-thumper is pieing in his case?
Metaltype.co.uk has a great glossary of old typesetter trade terms.

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Yes, I’m old, but I’m a Swinger Wayzgoose Nailing on The Stone!

When I was serving my

jim_rimmer — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 12:54:02 -0700

When I was serving my apprenticeship during the age of dinosaurs, my ITU lesson books explained pragmatically that “font” sprung fom the word “fount” (still used today in the UK) meaning a source from which words gushed. It went on to say that a Font is an assemblage of enough letters, punctuation and figures with which to set a collection of words. So I guess I am saying about the same things that Mark has said.

The smaller the point size, the more characters of each you got; following what was called a “font scheme”, which meant that you got more a’s that z’s roughly.

I realize that the common useage of “font” today is for the actual stye of the typeface. I have no argument with that. Many terms in current use have come from ancient ones, and even thopught somewhat bastardized they become the modern nomenclature.

A couple of months ago I received a commission to make a simple wordmark for a young art director,and at first was confused becuase she wanted it to be an origianl “font”. Once we were on the same page everything was OK.

In my world a font is still a font of so many pounds of lead when I cast fonts for printers and designers, and I’ve gotten used to calling a digital face a font.

Jim

Er...what is a font?

sebsan — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 05:12:20 -0700

Hi,

I am a self-taught graphic designer and I have been lacking some real understanding of typography. I know very little about the history of typography, it’s technological evolutions and the rules of best practice. I see the world of typography as being as complicated and unfriendly as the messy font collection we have at work. When I dive into FontAgent at the office, I don’t know where the fonts come from, what they where made for and how I can best understand and use them (nor does my boss).

I’ve been reading some intersting articles on different sites dedicated to type and I’ve learned quite a lot but I feel there is still a website to make about typography vernacular. The language used is often confusing, contradictory and esoteric. For exemple what is a font? Seems like a silly question since I use the word everyday, but if I think about it I don’t really know where the word comes from and what it really refers to. Last night I was reading an advert for the excellent Enigma, it read “Enigma has 3 fonts, 2 wheights, and 4 styles”. Er... excuse me but I thought that Enigma was the font ?!

At this point I would like to recommand an article that has really helped me understand some of the fonts I am using at work. When typefaces were experimantal by Paul Shaw is the kind of essential literature for grahic designers to understand where those long lists of fonts in their machines come from. I just wish they were some more of that didactic stuff on the web or in books.

I have a straight question for you, it’s probably not the most important but it really bugs me. Why do Herculanum, papyrus and odd fonts like that come standard with my OS X system?

Seb