“In the new computer age, the proliferation of typefaces
represents a new level of visual pollution threatening
our culture. Out of thousands of typefaces,
all we need are a few basic ones, and trash the rest.”
— Massimo Vignelli
A quick search of just a few font-distribution websites will tell you
that not everyone agrees with Mr. Vignelli. In fact, there are over
200,000 digital fonts currently available to designers—and new
ones are added daily. While Vignelli may seem somewhat of a Luddite,
200,000 fonts are clearly more than anyone can possibly use
in a lifetime. Which begs the questions: “Do we need all these
fonts?” and “Why are there so many?”
WHY SO MANY?
The reason designers create so many fonts is simple: because
they can. Building a digital font can take about as much time as it
takes to eat a good lunch. But this wasn’t always the case. When
type designers created metal type, they would draw each letter.
The drawings were sent to a punchcutter, who carved each letter
into the end of a steel shank. The resulting punches were, in turn,
used to make matrices from which metal type was cast. After the
type was cast, the castings were used to set proofs of the designer’s
work. Once the proofs were pulled, the designer would alter
the drawings to improve the design—and the process started all
over again. In the days of metal typesetting, it could take years to
develop a family of type. Phototype technology improved the process,
but the gestation period for a new typeface design could still
equal that of a large mammal.
With design tools like Fontographer and FontLab, however,
anyone with enough money to purchase the software can crank
out digital fonts with the speed of a celebutante changing relationships.
The phenomenon has been aptly called the “democratization
of typeface design.” Trouble is, not everyone is a good type
designer. Good tools alone do not create fine artisans. In fact,
most of the folks using the software have proved themselves to be
pretty bad—or at best middling—at typeface design.
This is not to imply that there are no good digital typeface
designers—just as it’s not to imply that creating a quality digital
font is a slam-dunk. While it’s relatively easy to make bad fonts,
the good ones—the ones you probably want to use—are still the
result of skilled artisans and talented designers devoting months
to the process.
DO WE NEED THEM?
Given the above, it’s pretty obvious we don’t need all 200,000.
There are, however, real benefits for graphic designers in the
plethora of fonts now available. Happily, 200,000 fonts can provide
a range of choice, a potential for distinction, an improvement
over older designs and the possibility of nuance.
MORE ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS
Before digital fonts, common typographic questions tended to
be answered with common typeface designs. Now they don’t
have to be.
Looking for a sans serif? Why settle for Helvetica? (Sorry, Massimo.)
Need a good book face? Why limit yourself to Garamond
or Baskerville? Need a face that is space-economical? Why restrict
your palette to Univers 57 or Franklin Condensed? These, and the
myriad of other demands designers place on fonts, need no longer
be met by tried-and-true (but sometimes predictable) typefaces.
While it’s similar in design to Helvetica, Akzidenz Grotesk’s
slightly modulated stroke weights and angled terminals may be
preferable to the obvious choice. And if you are looking for more
typographic flair, FF Sanuk, Neo Sans and Syntax will do just
about anything Helvetica can do—with more style.
Gilgamesh and Goodchild are sound alternatives to the standards
of Stempel Garamond and Adobe Jenson when you are looking
for an Old-Style “book” face. Likewise, typefaces such as
Laurentian and Prensa can also prove to be excellent replacements
for the more common text faces.
And entries like the new Loft family, Avenir Next Condensed
or FF Unit may be the perfect choice for a typeface that takes up
little horizontal space.
BACK … & BETTER
Many of the newly available fonts are revivals and improvements
of older designs. Bembo Book, for example, is much closer to the
original metal fonts of Bembo than the first digital fonts were.
The new design was drawn to be more suitable for setting text in
the 10- to 18-pt. range and to produce results comparable to those
achieved from the letterpress version.
P22, under the Lanston Type Company banner, has released a
large number of revival typeface designs. According to the company’s
website, “The Lanston Type Company is ‘closest to source’
for original Goudy fonts. These digital typeface revivals are based
on the original brass patterns. These are the only known complete
patterns in existence; the others were destroyed by the fire
[that destroyed Goudy’s Deepdene studio in 1939]. The others
are digitized from proofs taken from patterns produced under
the direction of Goudy in the Lanston punchcutting department.”
Typefaces in the Lanston Type Company collection include
designs such as Goudy Village, Kaatskill Oldstyle, Kennerley Oldstyle
and Pabst Oldstyle.
And there are countless more revivals: CastleType has released
a series of Art Deco revivals and, most recently, a “not wide” version
of the classic Latin design. Lettergieterij Amsterdam has
revived the 19th-century Egyptienne series of slab serif display
faces. Historical Allsorts from Hoefler & Frere-Jones is, as their
site proclaims, “a resurrection of six typefaces rescued from the
dustbin of history.” The list goes on.
NUANCE
“I want something that is elaborate—but sort of light and frivolous.”
“I’m looking for a headline typeface that has the presence of
Matt Damon—but with a sense of humor.”
“This job calls for a Helvetica sort of design with a 19th-century,
slightly in-your-face feel to it.”
Many times, making the right typeface choice is about nuance;
the perfect choice isn’t one of the “usual suspects.” Design is about
subtleties, and typefaces are no exception. And 200,000 fonts
begin to come close to providing an answer to just about every
typographic question.
The elaborate-yet-frivolous typeface? Restraint, from Marian
Bantjes, might be the perfect choice. The Matt Damon design
with a sense of humor? How about Lisboa, a Fountain-type design,
from Veer … or Rumba, from Laura Meseguer? The in-your-face
Helvetica? Look no further than Benton Sans from Font Bureau.
IT’S A LONG TAIL
The Theory of the Long Tail posits that our culture and economy
is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively
small number of mainstream products and markets and toward a
huge number of niches. In an era without the constraints of physical
shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly
targeted products can be as economically attractive as those for
the mainstream.
iTunes is a perfect example of this new business model. The
iTunes website offers millions of songs. Even if only one or two
people purchase some of them, it is still good business for buyer
and seller. Translated to fonts, the theory suggests foundries and
distributors can now “stock” a virtually unlimited number of fonts
with the certainty that, even if only one person licenses the font, it
has been a sound business transaction.
FAMILIAR FACES
Love Garamond? Wouldn’t think of using anything but Univers?
They haven’t gone away. If you know what you want, and
it’s a classic of graphic communication, a simple search on the
major font distributors’ websites will locate your favorite designs.
While there may be over 200,000 fonts out there, your ageless
favorites are among them. And, for those of you who count yourself
among the classicists of type users, these are also still the
best-selling fonts.
SO WHAT’S THE CATCH?
Sure, there’s a downside to 200,000 fonts. You may have to spend
some time searching for just the right one. Not all 200,000 fonts
are of equal quality. Some may crash your favorite design application,
and some may not have all the characters you need. Having
200,000 fonts at our disposal also means there are some pretty
terrible designs out there.
AVOIDING FUTILE SEARCHES
It’s easy to find a font if you know exactly what you want. A simple
web search or a quick visit to a large font distribution site will
quickly yield positive results. However, if you are looking for a
special font with nuanced design traits or a new design to fulfill a
particular graphic need, you could spend the better part of a day
finding and comparing designs.
The more search-friendly sites do provide stylistic searches
of their offerings. But some search categories can be as broad as
“serif” and “sans serif” or as meaningless as “scary” or “fun.” Some
provide much more relevant search terms like “condensed sans
serif” or “legibility serif,” but the search engine will only find the
designs that have been labeled as such. If a distributor has fonts
from third-party suppliers, search results will only be as good as
the information the font suppliers provide. For example, if a type
designer decided that her newest handwriting font, constructed to
look like it was drawn with broken stick in wet clay, was highly legible,
and she included the word “legible” in the description or keywords
accompanying the design, it would show up in a search for
“legibility typefaces.”
FONTS THAT BREAK
Apple has quality-control procedures in place to ensure that every
song on iTunes will perform to optimum standards. Unfortunately,
most font distributors do not have similar procedures to
ensure that all the fonts they offer will perform consistently well.
You can be pretty sure any of the fonts that are part of a major
foundry or design studio’s offerings are industrial-strength. Fonts
from a company that goes by the name of “The Jennifer Green
Font Foundry and Rubber Stamp Company,” however, may not
carry the same assurances.
The more sophisticated font distributors will also show you
exactly what characters are in the Daisychain Bold font (good,
if you want to be sure that the font has a Euro symbol in addition
to letters made from daisies), but cannot provide guarantees
that the font will perform perfectly in the latest version of Adobe
Creative Suite. If you get a bad font, the distributor will usually
try to get it fixed for you—or at least provide a refund if it can
replicate the problem.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF BAD DESIGN
Some type designers should be paid by the quantity of typefaces
they don’t draw. While many of the thousands of typefaces available
as digital fonts are truly wonderful communication tools,
many more make implementing the Good Taste Police seem like
a great idea. Fonts like these may be technologically sound and
have the character set of an Adobe Pro font, but they are about
as attractive as Elwood, this year’s Ugly Dog winner (see www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19388806).
Without question, if bad type is available, people will use it.
Not every graphic designer should or can be a typeface design
expert. If you are not a typographic maven, the availability of
200,000 fonts may not be such a good thing. You may want to
seriously consider sticking with the classics. They may not always
be the absolute best choices—but you can’t go wrong using them.
STAYING OUT OF TROUBLE
Massimo Vignelli apparently believes the proliferation of digital
typefaces represents a new level of visual pollution threatening
our culture. Having a wealth of choice does put more responsibility
on the user. Here are a few safety tips that will help keep you
out of trouble:
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