

Get the best ampersand - suraj
http://opensourceampersands.com/

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mseebach
Colour me clueless, but I've been seeing this go around Twitter and now here,
and I don't get it. Why is this cool?

~~~
lkozma
It can all be traced back to a remark by Robert Bringhurst in his influential
book "The Elements of Typographic Style" in which he suggests that in titles
it is worth using the most decorative & sign we have (some fonts have
different variants available) or even use the italic ampersand in roman
context, because the italic & is often more decorative (ultimately they all
come from a stylized "et").

I think many have taken it too far and the results sometimes look pretentious.
An example still on the safe side (IMHO) is in pg's book:

[http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR2J5Pw_xUwVNxV_z504...](http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR2J5Pw_xUwVNxV_z504PGH5Sc6-E_b2E5RladQpfGPcDCS_t-9hw)

And the typograhy book (highly recommended):

Non-affiliate: [http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-
Brin...](http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-
Bringhurst/dp/0881791326)

Affiliate:
[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0881792063/mybookbox-...](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0881792063/mybookbox-20)

~~~
kazuya
Coincidentally I have just started reading ETS. Care to tell me where he
actually talks about ampersands in the book?

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etcet
The ampersand (&) is an 'E' and a 't' fused together. A fact more readily
apparent in some designs[0] more than others.

[0] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Trebuchet_MS_ampersand.svg>

~~~
etcet
Also, this use of 'open-source' for of font characters is confusing. Why use
an embedded font for a single image? I was under the impression that it's
legal to embed images of characters from fonts (i.e. I could scan and use a
'&' set in Garamond from some print), it's just not legal to embed the
'program code' of the font.

~~~
billswift
I don't know about Garamond specifically, but copyright applies to images
also, and some fonts are copyrighted. In fact, with the automatic copyright
that came in with the copyright changes in the 1970s, all modern fonts are
copyrighted. Many have been released for public use, but if you want to use an
unusual font in your work, you should check to make sure that it is available.

~~~
_delirium
It varies by country, but in the U.S., typefaces are explicitly excluded from
copyright: [http://www.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/formprocessor/copyright/cfr.pl?&#...</a><p>Computer fonts are
copyrightable as software, and particularly novel font shapes can register a
design patent. But in general there's no legal barrier to redistributing
images of type specimens (or even producing a clone font by tracing the
outlines).

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leif
Every so often, I come across something which makes me feel a certain way.
That something is this. That way is best described as follows:

Thousands of years from now, historians (in a more enlightened society, one
can only hope) will look back on our time with disdain and pity, for our
countless fellow people allowed to suffer due to war, poverty, famine,
persecution of various kinds, curable disease, &c. They will find Locke's
Natural Rights of Man and wonder how a civilization like ours, with all of our
understanding, our might and technological prowess, our impressive wealth,
allowed these atrocities to continue. They will undoubtedly find something
which is to them like our rosetta stone, something which unlocks an
understanding of this phenomenon, something which makes our misguided
priorities clear, and they will be ashamed to be born from us.

But yeah man, cool ampersands!

~~~
redacted
Yeah, Mark Pilgrim should have used his considerable power to influence
geopolitics; rather than highlighting some interesting element of design he
could have helped end war or famine!

(Sorry for the snark, but these arguments (along with "Why aren't all
scientists ending cancer?" annoy me a _lot_ ))

~~~
leif
Nothing against Mark Pilgrim, I just felt like sharing the way reading this
made me feel. I can't explain to you why some things do this, it's a rare
occurrence.

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shii
Also see: <http://ampersandampersand.tumblr.com/>

~~~
DTrejo
Anyone know how to list all the posts on one page?

~~~
snippyhollow
Archive helps: <http://ampersandampersand.tumblr.com/archive>

~~~
DTrejo
beautiful, thank you!

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tuhin
Ampersand love:

<http://www.haafe.com/> <http://ampersandampersand.tumblr.com/>
[http://www.ligatureloopandstem.com/product/1-ampersand-
butto...](http://www.ligatureloopandstem.com/product/1-ampersand-button-
collection)

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bane
Meh.

Now if it was "Get the best Percent sign" or "Get the best Oglethorpe"....then
we'd be talking.

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quinndupont
Ampersands are great design elements. I'm not such a big fan of images, so
some nice typography can fill in for visual interest. My website uses an
ampersand like a logo: <http://www.iqdupont.com/>

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josepher
I love ampersands.

~~~
Zev
Why the down vote? Ampersands _are_ awesome.

What other character has so much variety on a font to font basis? Most
characters are basically the same, give or take serifs, thickness and small
curves[1]. An ampersand can look completely different in two font families!
Its one of the characters where the font designer gets to go all-out and make
something curvey and fun.

Also, ampersand is fun to say.[2]

1\. Yes, I know this allows for an incredibly huge variety. But, thats nothing
compared to the ways you can make an ampersand.

2\. For me. Results may vary.

