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Channel: OpenType – Skilled Workman
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What is a font?

A font is a very specific thing. A font is the entire set of characters for a given type style. In the days of letterpress (1460 to 1970), a font was all the characters in a given point size. You had...

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What is a font, part 2?

Last week I talked about the basic 256 characters in a “normal 8-bit” font . We covered the keystrokes used to access what the PC calls the Upper ASCII glyphs. Then I began to talk about additional...

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Fonts are not typography, fonts are used to create typography

Before we can get into this, though, we have to start with terminology. Typography requires a new language. Much of this is based on historical printing usage and the font design process. Without at...

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Kindle Export Plug-in for InDesign CS6 Released!

I probably shouldn’t have put an exclamation mark on the title for I haven’t had a chance to try it yet. I’m still wading through the documentation. But I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. The...

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The use of small caps is required

Use small caps. Small caps are a specialized letterform. They are a smaller set of capital letters (often a bit larger than the x-height), used in place of the lowercase letters, which are designed so...

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Some glyph or character shape terminology in font design

Some glyph terminology First we better define glyph. To be honest, I’ve never gotten this straight. To me it is just another term for a character or letter. Technically, it is typespeak for variations...

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Geralde: Garamond, the classic serif font

Garalde: Garamond 3 This group is named in homage to Claude Garamond and Aldus Manutius. These original serif fonts are exemplified by the work of Claude Garamond in Paris in the early to mid-1500s....

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Keeping your file size under control for graphic ePUBs

I was working on my best-selling book this morning, Practical Font Design, Third Edition. It’s an ePUB with 266 graphics in it—almost entirely screen captures—showing what I am doing in FontLab as I...

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The Book designer’s Book Typography and Fonts package

Make your book professional Self Publisher Book Typography & Font Only $49.99 For self publishers the conversion from Word to InDesign is a huge leap. The goal is a professional look to their book...

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Contrary to common opinion, InDesign CC has helped ePUB export a lot

In the ePUB world, it is amazing how much bad press is given to InDesign. In fact, the coverage given to coders and developers of ePUBs matches the hype received in the media by Obama. But we won’t go...

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Desktop, laptop, or tablet?

I found a good article today which explains many of the issues. My main issue with the conclusions is that I cannot be productive with a laptop. If you are just writing, an iPad with Apple’s wireless...

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Reminder: PostScript fonts do not work in ePUBs

 Click to enlarge This capture shows you some of the different characters available in an OpenType font. This font, Contenu Book, has oldstyle figures [lowercase], lining figures [caps], & small...

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Another font for book cover design: Astaire

An excellent book cover font Until just after the Fourth, this outstanding font family is on sale for on $9 a font. Astaire has the elegance you need At 64% off, through Myfonts, this is an excellent...

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It’s very good seed! A graphic & font family package

This is another package I’ve put up on Creative Market. An excellent image of good seed sprouting in good soil… A four-font serif family named Artimas. A good start to a card design This stuff is just...

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Font Design Webinar, tomorrow June 10 Noon Eastern

FontLab’s F I’ll be sharing tips and techniques on letterspacing. This important task is relatively easy in FontLab and I’ll show you how. Here’s FontLab’s invite: Advanced Font Creation Tips, Made...

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On a lighter note: we have a legal replacement for Comic Sans…Comic Neue

One of the most maligned fonts in recent years is Comic Sans. I’ve never really understood why people (especially type pros) hate Comic Sans so bad. But then, it’s really not a part of my life. This is...

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Readability is the prime virtue of book design

I decided I needed to beat an old drum. Readability is the focus of book design typography. This was the core of curriculum in my digital publishing degree. It’s the center of my graphic design and...

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A free sample of “Book Publishing With InDesign CC” is available

I’ve published a sample of the new book on the Adobe servers. It’s about 75 pages of the various sections of the book. If you are interested in a review copy I recommend the PDF is reader’s spreads...

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Keeping your mind open to creative typographic solutions

One of the main troubles we have in setting books for readability is the set of largely subconscious rules we’ve learned over the years. In an entertaining and useful article today by Jonathan Hoefler...

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Briskly: new font release for Fall 2016

I’ve put this off for years, but it just seemed time. Briskly: new font release is a font made from one sample of my handwriting. An ASCII font (256-character), it will work well for desktop, Web, and...

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