Oct 31
Type talk and some free fonts
2005 at 12.07 pm posted by Veerle
Type has always been a important part of Graphic Design so that’s why it is time that little bits and pieces about type find a place here too. A great start and secret for success is talking about a quality free font. The font that I’ve found on Fontshop sure is quality because it is a Type Directors Club 2 2004 winner.
The font is designed by Veronika Burian and is called Maiola. The family contains Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic with Small Caps, ligatures, lining and old-style figures. Fontshop is giving away the Maiola Bold Italic.
There are a few other freebies on that page too like Blackcurrant Cameo, Baskerville Old Face. Always great to have in your design arsenal are some handy pictograms like FF Dingbests. Personally I have a soft spot for those.
I’m planning on doing a little something on typography. Nothing fancy though, just some basic stuff like : types and styles of fonts (the differences), the family members in a typical font family (how you can recognize them), and last on the list are some practical examples (which font is best for which purpose). It’s coming soon.
15served
1
Awesome, it’s always great to find out about free fonts that are also good. Thanks!
2
It’s nice to see someone else on the lookout for quality typefaces, free or otherwise. Looking forward to those articles Veerle…
3
Thanks for the tip!
4
you guys should check out this:
http://www.praegnanz.de/essays/
5
nice of them to give away the bold italic!
6
looking forward to reading your articles on fonts!! :-)
7
hey looking forward for your article on types and thanks for free fonts..
8
Ooooh. I love the Baskerville font. Thanks for these.
9
@Mark Boulton, I will keep the articles a bit basic since I’m not a real specialist in that area (like you are ;-)). As usual I’ll try to explain things in a practical way. It will be as visual as possible.... and let’s hope not boring ;-) Oh, and if I doubt about something I know who to turn to :-D
@chris, thanks for the URL! :-)
10
Thanks for the info, nice fonts + free = a very good thing indeed! Look forward to your articles. Question: Have you learned about typography formally or informally? You always have suck nice usage of fonts ;-)
11
Speaking of fonts, anyone here tried fontexplorer x? It’s free, very intuitive in an itunes sort of way ;-). Reports from users show it to be very robust. Have a look and be pleasantly surprised despite the Linotype store link. Apple must wish they’d done this with fontbook.
Fontexplorer X
12
I’ve been using FontExplorer for a few weeks now. I’d say it’s the easiest that I’ve used so far to compare and manage fonts, and using a familiar metaphor for the interface was a brilliant move.
13
The FontShop freebie changes monthly. Sign up for their newsletter to receive a notice of the next free font.
14
I’ve written the article 20 Best License-Free Quality Fonts in my blog. You might be willing to check it out.
15
Hey Vitally,
That’s a great collection. Thanks!