When i got into open source image manipulation/drawing programs like Gimp and Inkscape, i knew nothing about fonts.
I dont think i even noticed there are serif fonts (Times New Roman for example) and sans serif fonts (like Arial).

I guess the first thing everybody does as a font-newbie, is download every crazy free font you can find and install it.
Well, at least i did, and as a science fiction fan, i quickly had a huge collection of "space alphabets".
And if you are doing a texteffect, that is probably fine.

After a while i figured out that i never had good looking fonts for the simple stuff. Like plain text layout.

Thats when i began to do some research, and i think it started because Odinbc from Gimpchat suggested a documentary about Helvetica (with the same name).
Its really interesting and once you are hooked, all of a sudden you see Helvetica everywhere

I did some more research and learned about classic fonts. Like Futura, Garamond, Clarendon (the classic western 'Wanted' poster font), or Arial, etc.
A lot of these classic fonts are quite old (Helvetica is from the late fifties and a younger font), or based on typography 100 years ago and older.

The problem with these fonts is that they are very expensive for hobbyists to buy, while most of the free fonts, you can get on site like dafont.com, have limitations.

One of the biggest issues with free fonts is that they come with a limited number of weights. So if you are lucky you get a normal, a bold and an italic style. But very often, there is only one style, or no lowercased, or lack of support for certain languages.

Now luckily, i discovered there is google fonts. A huge compilation of free fonts (or thats how i understand it) in all kind of styles.
Some of the fonts are based on classic fonts. Designed as alternatives.
Roboto for example has similarities to Helvetica and Arial example, and comes with 12 different weights.

I recently took an online course about fonts, just to expand my horizon a bit

Thats interesting !

Can you tell us a little bit more, please ?!

LOL. Yes, of course

It was a free MOOC at Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/learn/typography), from Calarts (https://calarts.edu/), part of a series.

All parts listed here: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/graphic-design - you can watch and submit assignments for them without paying, only you won't get any certificates, or instructor feedback on the 'final project'. To go to the course directly, enter the name into the search box at the top.

The depth and difficulty level were for beginners (for all of those courses in the specialization), and they serve more to encourage exploration. That look into the artists' world is also just interesting for a non-artist.

I didn't send in any assignments for the typography course, I think (did the multiple choice parts only. But for the 'fundamentals', and 'intro to', I did). Those were just fun activities - they got me to experiment with tea bags, too... (what a mess!)

The descriptions all sound very abstract.

Do you have a favorite font by now ?

Nope (or rather, different ones for different purposes, and not based on knowledge, only on appearance). Also, I'm trying to only use freely licenced fonts.

But it resulted in the installation of a better fontviewer, so I can more easily browse my installed fonts, as Inkscape's new behaviour that makes it jump to the top of the list after applying a new font really eats a lot of time.

Moini wrote:Nope (or rather, different ones for different purposes, and not based on knowledge, only on appearance). Also, I'm trying to only use freely licenced fonts.

You should have a look at this german website for a nice overview on classic fonts:
100besteschriften.de

But it resulted in the installation of a better fontviewer, so I can more easily browse my installed fonts, as Inkscape's new behaviour that makes it jump to the top of the list after applying a new font really eats a lot of time.

Im using NexusFont. You ?

It's a nice learning resource, very informative - it's a pity that most of those 'famous' fonts are not free to use, at least not for commercial purposes.

The fonts at https://fontlibrary.org/ and those over at google (I think) are, though.

For a quick comparison, I'm using GNOME Specimen, for selecting which fonts to use, I've just tried Gnome Font manager. Which is buggy, unfortunately - it says it can produce a sample sheet and export a collection, but that doesn't work.

Moini wrote:Which is buggy, unfortunately - it says it can produce a sample sheet and export a collection, but that doesn't work.

Theres a script for Gimp that can do that.

You just prompted me to try out some more software TypeCatcher downloads google webfonts and allows you to quickly browse them. Fontmatrix can do a lot of things - also exports samples in pdf format.
Edit: But it can't reactivate deactivated fonts, and doesn't show which ones are deactivated. mmpf...

Moini wrote:It's a nice learning resource, very informative - it's a pity that most of those 'famous' fonts are not free to use, at least not for commercial purposes.

Check: The League Of Moveable Type for a good resource of free fonts.


Browsing google fonts through a font manager sounds like a good thing.

But what are deactivated fonts ?

Espermaschine wrote:But what are deactivated fonts ?

In the font manager, you can select which fonts are available to your applications, without deinstalling them. I just had a major font sorting attack, and I can now deactivate those fonts I don't want to see when I'm working in Inkscape (mainly those that are system fonts used to display non-Latin scripts and all those math-related TeX fonts). The font list is now about 33% shorter and shows more relevant entries.

Now i understand !

Are font managers working again with Inkscape ?

I used 'AMP Font Viewer' in the past, for temporarily installing fonts, but had to ditch it because it wasnt working anymore in 0.91

I'm on Linux - the font manager problem was on Windows, I think...

Espermaschine wrote:Thats interesting !

Can you tell us a little bit more, please ?!

1) search and delete all instances of ´comic sans'

2) ...

v1nce wrote:1) search and delete all instances of ´comic sans'

Within four years of its release on Windows, designers had begun to argue that it had become overused, often through use in serious and formal documents in which it could appear too informal or even as inappropriate and disrespectful.[2] Examples of uses to which it has been considered poorly suited have been a Dutch war memorial, printed advice for rape victims, blog posts by a law firm and as a font recommended for résumés in careers training.

I like this

That was right on time !

http://blog.logosbynick.com/design/best ... go-design/

v1nce wrote:

Espermaschine wrote:Thats interesting !

Can you tell us a little bit more, please ?!

1) search and delete all instances of ´comic sans' (*)

2) ...

... and for those nailed to fonts - this short introduction into The History of Typography *(4:42) should be self-explanatory ,)

Still, its all about the creation so it has to be playful as well ,)))

Be careful with Nick's post - Abeat font is does *not* appear to be free for commercial use. In the comments, when asked for a commercial licence, the author asks people to send him an email.

(But yes, very interesting Thanks for the link, Esper!)

ontopic:

Well, I won't be answering messages (except if I have an answer that no one else has posted), but I'll still visit and read messages, and send and answer PMs. Not disappearing from the community, but just moving forward!

And btw, for this topic, don't forget about Open Font Library!

<offtopic>@Maestral: The problem was that I had no idea how to make that mockup (and also not the intention to - i.e. I can give you the script, if you need it, but I can't make the drawing or a draft of it - but that's what I understood you were asking us to do). Had that notification lying around for quite some time in my inbox, but didn't know what to answer.</offtopic>

Moini wrote:Be careful with Nick's post - Abeat font is does *not* appear to be free for commercial use. In the comments, when asked for a commercial licence, the author asks people to send him an email.

(But yes, very interesting Thanks for the link, Esper!)

The thing with Nick is, everything he does, his youtube tutorial channel and his blog, its all for the money.
Which is not a bad thing, but it changes the open source game a bit, imo.

It was actually me who requested a blog post on fonts recently from him.
My thinking was, if he does graphics design for a living he will know about licensing and stuff.
And thats something i dont know much about.

Offtopic:
whats this offtopic stuff you are all talking about ?
I dont understand a word of it.

Maestral wrote:The History of Typography

Nice video, thanks for sharing !