
Our Favorite Typefaces of 2012 - shawndumas
http://typographica.org/features/our-favorite-typefaces-of-2012/
======
mnicole
Some nice type here, some not-so-nice. This site does a better job showcasing
some of them than their respective Foundries/gallery pages do (Signalist,
Xtreem), which is always something to consider when looking at typefaces.
<http://fontsinuse.com/> used to be a good resource to see different typefaces
in the wild, but now it's pretty watered down with crap. You might still be
able to find some gems there though.

Can't stress enough how fantastic the MyFonts email newsletters
(<http://www.myfonts.com/newsletters/>) are if you enjoy being up to speed or
collecting inspiration for later use. The FontShop ones
(<http://www.fontshop.com/blog/newsletters/>) are also pretty good.

~~~
stewf
Hi mnicole, I’m the proprietor of Typographica and Fonts In Use. Glad you
like(d) them. On FIU quality: one person’s crap is another’s treasure, so we
don’t limit what can be contributed as long as type is clearly present. But if
you want to filter your experience to just the best (as selected us) you can
click on Blog Only or Staff Picks Only nav at the top right.

~~~
mnicole
Hi Stewf, thanks! That definitely wasn't a dig at your curation/aesthetic -
just a reality of the site becoming popular. Didn't even notice the filters
you pointed out, so those will definitely help!

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pkorzeniewski
One thing I dislike about the custom CSS fonts is that they usually look
really rough. For example the Typographica header - in my taste, no matter how
beautiful the font is, the rough rendering kills the visual appeal and a
common, but smoothly rendered font looks way batter [1]

[1] <http://i.imgur.com/U5UObQh.png>

~~~
wittyphrasehere
Retina displays.

I know they're not common yet, but they will be someday. Designers often use
the latest (Apple) hardware, so what looks good on their screens may not look
good for everyone else. In some ways I see this as a positive—it helps push
the industry forward—like PC game developers who require the latest $800 video
cards for the best experience.

~~~
aw3c2
Retina is just a marketing term by Apple. They are actually displays with a
high DPI. You could call them high DPI displays or high resolution (kinda
misleading) displays instead.

~~~
wittyphrasehere
Yes, HiDPI, whatever you want to call it, doesn't change my point.

Also, Kleenex is a brand name but if I ask for a kleenex people know what I
mean.

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josephlord
I was looking for a font for a children's literacy app last week and it was
amazingly hard to find one where it was nice and clear with the letters in
shapes recognizable to normal handwriting. 'a' without the extended line
across the top, 't' with the curve at the bottom and 'g' in plain form without
a loopy squiggle were quite hard to find together in a non-italic form. In the
end the font I found was Andika [1] which is available under the Open Font
License (although I'm not that keen on the 'a' and might attempt to tweak it
if I get chance).

Does anybody know of a site that lets you search for fonts by the shapes of
particular letters?

[1]
[http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&...](http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=andika&_sc=1)

~~~
Samuel_Michon
If you can draw a few characters or if you can find a specimen, you can take a
photo of it and run it through WhatTheFont [1].

In the case of your last search, you would've taken a photo of a single-storey
'a', and then WhatTheFont would've provided you with several geometric sans-
serifs to choose from. If you're still looking for a nice free font with a
single storey 'a', try Aaargh. [2]

You can also use Identifont to search for fonts with a single storey 'a':
[http://www.identifont.com/identify?12+%20+2F+8E+6X4+53K+8B+6...](http://www.identifont.com/identify?12+%20+2F+8E+6X4+53K+8B+6X8+79+1KI+1QY+7G+9Z)

[1] <http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/>

[2] <http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Aaargh>

~~~
3JPLW
AG Schoolbook Two BQ?[1] Found by simply looking for fonts similar to Futura.

[1]
[http://www.identifont.com/list?3+futura+16+M2+1+3R8+2+4B7+2+...](http://www.identifont.com/list?3+futura+16+M2+1+3R8+2+4B7+2+HD7+2+1N2+2+284+2+621+2+HVQ+2+2BI+2+9WW+2+2444+2+2ZCX+3+2TA+3+N6+3+L0+3+FY+3+HG6+3+2WM+3+FRF+3+OFY+3+29Z0+3+FRN+3+GB0+3+SC+3+2CV+3+688+3+2GRR+3+2DUQ+3+FRB+3+N10+3)

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mnazim
A website about typography and the text on the top black strip is too small to
be readable.

~~~
stewf
Hi mnazim, I run Typographica.org. I’d love to know what OS and display you’re
using so I can get a sense of what you’re seeing.

~~~
alex_doom
Well the font size is set to 10px, even with my great eyesight it's annoyingly
small.

~~~
snogglethorpe
The problem seems to be that the text is both very small _and_ uses very low-
contrast colors (dark brown on black or something?). The almost per-word
variation in text color for emphasis also seems to make the text harder to
read (given that it's already hovering on the edge of readability).

Given that the text in that bar is mostly noise text, it's not all that
important, but it'd be nice if the more useful search box stood out a bit
more...

[FF 19.0.2, on Debian]

