Super sized typo

Norbert Florendo
10.Aug.2005 6.56am
Norbert Florendo's picture

Just read my emailed Clicks newsletter from Monotype Imaging and spotted one of the most common misspellings in the type community.

Nice to know that "spell checker" still isn't smarter than we are. ;->

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I'm not seeing it.


I see it…

It's "Go!", "go" is not spelled with an exclamation point, right? Right?


Frederic Goudy's name is not spelled with a k after the c, despite what the newsletters says (right?).


Frederic Goudy’s name is not spelled with a k after the c, despite what the newsletters says (right?).

Right.


Super quiz, Norbert.
BTW, Is there an "is" missing?


Error 2: Monotype marketing did not invent the term "super family".


Yes, I just checked. The master's name seems to have been Frederic W. Goudy, not "Frederick" Goudy. Funny! Didn't he even work for Monotype?


I make spelling errors all the time, I should add…


That is one spelling he did use. I thought. Grammar maybe.

What is: This collection of 21 fonts only available from Monotype and Fonts.com.
Should be: This collection of 21 fonts is only available from Monotype and Fonts.com.


Norbert,

Frederick --> Frederic? :)


Who did invent the term "super family"? I've used it before, too (although I know that I didn't invent it…).


Frederic changed how he spelled his names several times during his life.


Dan,

You beat me to it while I was composing my post! :)


I make spelling errors all the time, I should add…

I hear you Dan. Before this becomes a thread to rip apart font marketing copy I might want to go hide behind a rock. Let's spare that of other font sellers, particularly those dressed in yellow and black. Thanks.


Is that the error?

Boy, I've wasted a lot of time lately, but I think this was the most wasted.


Frederic changed how he spelled his names several times during his life.

That may well be true, but he's been dead long enough that he's not likely to have changed it again...at least, that's The Goudy Center's story.


OK, Stephen. I won't if you won't ;-)

We can broker a nice little truce here!


oldnick, my point is that he never legally changed his name. he simply adopted new spellings. i think it is a little anal-retentive to call that a spelling error.


Frederick/Frederic, whatever...

Should it technically be superfamily (one word)? Like supermarket, superscript, Supertramp (I'm old too). Otherwise aren't they just talking about a "nice" family vs an extended/mega/hyperfamily? Maybe they should just call it a 'clan' and have done with it.

Norbert?


Hmmm...
seems like my original reply fell off the board somehow. Here tis again:

I was just looking at Frederick with the "k."
I didn't realize Goudy kept changing the way he spelled his name... identity crisis?

Maybe that's what actually got him miffed when he got the award that prompted his infamous utterance:
What whacked gooney is sleeping with my sheep!

Tiffany... sorry.


Got a feeling superfamily was coined by some biologist...not really a type term.


I'm going to have to drop a "k", to avoid confusion with the other Nix...


My turn to eat crow.

I stand by my stance that it is a little anal. And further, it is nice to know oldnick is as much a curmudgeon as I am. fiber helps. ;^)

Although I'm totally and absolutely guilty of being anal too. As well as spelling errors up the wazoo!

In this instance I was thinking about Fred Warde, the other half of Beatrice. Boy! This'll teach me. So I owe you, Norbert (and oldnick), an apology. Sorry.

Yes. A foundry should be able to spell names correctly, esp those of people of such prominence, but ... oh foo! Like this matters. We're geeks cause we notice things like that. Nice catch, Norbert.


Wasn't that one of the type quiz questions at TypeCon? The question, I think, was to name which of the spellings Frederic did not use.


Ack, there are too many red icons in this thread. I'll see you guys elsewhere. =)


Joe, the TypeCon quiz question was about Fred Warde, not Fred Goudy. I am pretty sure that is what threw me.


> there are too many red icons in this thread.

Totally.

hhp


Uncanny about the red. Interesting fact: more football teams in England win wearing red than blue.

Nick Shinn, I have always reckoned Nic spelt without a 'k' to be a typo (red squiggly line and all that). Maybe, like you, Frederick (viz.) wanted differentiation from all the other Fredericks/Frederix, but always had that nagging feeling that he was actually spelling his name wrongly. (You can call me youngnick if it helps.)


Goudy spelled his name without a "k" in all the records I've seen (to include most of the materials in the Goudy Collection at the Library of Congress), but was infuriated when his name was misspelled. He remarked once "Someday I'll design a face without a "k", then let's see the bastards misspell my name." If anyone has the flyer produced by Monotype announcing the availability of Goudy Text, you'll see they spelled "Goudy" using a zero instead of an "o".
Poor guy couldn't win.


“Someday I’ll design a face without a “k”, then let’s see the bastards misspell my name.”

See, I was right.
I could just imagine the poor calligrapher or typographer who was responsible for letterspacing "F r e d e r i c k   G o u d y" in blackletter (or lowercase for those who believe it was).

All the typographers in town would say, "There's poor Charlie, he got bounced from the Type Guild for adding a "k" and his wife divorced him on the grounds he was shagging sheep."

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Yes, I'm old, but I can spell Gaudi!


> I can spell Gaudi

Not without an acute you can't!

hhp


Sorry Hrant, I was lazy last night.

Now I can spell Gaudí.

But now I have discovered that the names Goudy -- Gaudi are cursed since their first names are continually spelled differently:

Antoni Gaudí

Antonio Gaudí

(After spending much time in Barcelona, I know how fiercely passionate the Catalans are about their artists.)
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Yes, I'm old, but please spell my name right!


I know how fiercely passionate the Catalans are about their artists

...and about their grave accents.


sorry, forgot to claose than last tage .


and check my spelling.


tagged closed. :^D


thanks, Tiff..."Preview Comment" good. "Post Comment" too soon, bad.


Joan Miró Ferra
Salvador Dalí
Julio González
Antoni Tàpies (whoops, now that's grave)

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Yes, I'm old, but still have my ácçëñt!


now that’s grave

...as is català.


> I know how fiercely passionate the Catalans are about their artists.

And about everything. Some of them even pretent not to know Castillian. BTW, Antoni is Catalan, Antonio is Castillian. And don't forget Idelfons Cerdà!

hhp


Ahhh, Catalunya...

after a while I was saying Barthelona and grathias, which when I got back to the states seemed so thilly!

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Yes, I'm old, but I'm back in thtyle!


The local taco truck guys certainly became visibly
confused when I returned from my sojourn there...

hhp


Never been there or done that but, back in college, I knew a young woman from Barcelona named Ana, who used to hang and chill with Dalí (then in his dotage) when back home. The Spanish I was primarily used to hearing (this was Texas, you understand) had a distinctly unlyrical Mexican flavor, so hearing Ana's Castilian accent knocked me out (she wasn't bad to look at, either -- Dalí was no fool). Only marginally connected with the foregoing, in the next month or two, I'll be coming out with a typeface called Catalunya Choochoo, based on a 1930s poster bespeaking the evils of VD; despite the subject matter, the typeface is a lot of fun.


Nick,
I'd love to see Catalunya Choochoo when you're ready to show it.

We could even do a parody 1930s poster on the evils of DVD. I have some old retro stuff you could use. I used one on another topic to superimpose a poor sample of Sans Serif Shaded.

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Pardon me boys, is this the Catalunya Choochoo?