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Practical Font Design - FOG ed. |
Practical Font Design - Fontographer Edition
Revised and Expanded for Fontographer 5 by David Bergsland
Buy the e-book
 Available as an e-book (PDF and ePub formats) download for US$9.99
Buy the bundles
Fontographer 5.1 for Mac OS X (for Mac OS X 10.4 or higher) PLUS David Bergsland's Practical Font Design, FOG Ed. (eBook) US$408.99 
Fontographer 5.1 for Windows (XP, Vista, or 7)PLUS David Bergsland's Practical Font Design, FOG Ed. (eBook) US$408.99
About the e-book
A rewritten, expanded 3rd edition plus new materials giving a
practical walk through the process of designing a font and families with Fontographer, v.5.
This is not about artistic considerations, but the practicalities of
putting a font together. On the other hand, the design approach is fine
art. David's training is as a fine art printmaker: etchings & stone
lithography.
The
basic procedures used for font design are found in this book. It is a step by step following of creating new font designs
with tips and comments along the way. This is not a book for programmers and scripters. This is a book for
graphic designers and typographers who love type and want to make their
own fonts?either for themselves or to sell.
In the process of writing this book several things were
developed that you might find useful in your design process. In general
these are pieces of copy or files that will save you the time
required to make your own. There are lists of composite glyphs to
generate, an OpenType features file, and a text file to use when
generating metrics and kerning tables. You can find them on this page. Other linked resources include: A standard 256 character font to start from. A 371 character OpenType font and feature file. A text file to use in letterspacing and kerning by hand. A 577 character OpenType template with the feature file. Three more OpenType templates.
Here's an abridged table of contents for you to see what is in the book: Fontographer or FontLab?
Which one should you use?
Who is this book written for?
The key role of Fontographer in the font revolution
Defining typography
Some type terminology
How do you draw with paths?
Type drawing tools
The Fontographer Toolbox
The transformation tools
The Pen Tool
A Revised Decorative Font
The Font Info dialog
Using the Layers palette
Modifying a font
Building a pieces glyph
Pasting in the components
Fixing all the special characters
Moving on: a new font
Setting up the font
Doing the caps
Developing a work style
Doing the lowercase
If you do not like my serifs or weight decisions
Finishing the lowercase
Letterspacing
Looking at letterspacing conceptually, What is the goal?
Auto-spacing in Fontographer
If you are going to sell your fonts
Accents (diacritics) and composites
Currency glyphs & other specialities
Ligatures, Swashes et al
OpenType features
Designing oldstyle figures
Building the small caps
Finishing the letterspacing
Auto Kern settings
Dealing with the small caps
Finishing the font
Fixing the rough glyphs
Doing a bold version
This is where you find out how well you drew the original font
Dealing with the different weights
Adding an italic
Generating a font
Web fonts
Beginning a new font of your own
Type Classifications
The entire oldstyle period
Sans serif classifications
Current fashion
Mimicking handwriting
Starting to draw a new font
Dealing with scans & stuff
Developing a standard procedure
An order of creation
Letter construction tips
Number construction tips
Appendix A: Advanced Letterspacing
Hand letterspacing fonts
Fontographer?s Metrics panel
Letterspacing as you draw
Conforming your options to reality
Using the Metric Panel
Some letterspacing tips
Appendix B: Dealing with OpenType & Resources
Index Richard Fink wrote a review of the 3rd edition (very similar) here.
If you're really interested in following the text and learning by doing, a companion spiral-bound workbook is available from Lulu . |
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Practical Font Design - 3rd ed. |
Practical Font DesignThe Revised and Expanded Third Editionby David Bergsland
Buy the e-book
 Available as an e-book (PDF and ePub formats) download for US$9.99
About the e-book
A rewritten, expanded 3rd edition including the second edition of part one and
part two (on building book font families) plus new materials giving a
practical walk through the process of designing a font and families using FontLab Studio.
This is not about artistic considerations, but the practicalities of
putting a font together. On the other hand, the design approach is fine
art. David's training is as a fine art printmaker: etchings & stone
lithography.
The
basic procedure we use for font design is found in this book. It is a step by step following of new font designs
with tips and comments along the way. This is not a book for programmers and scripters. This is a book for
graphic designers and typographers who love type and want to make their
own fonts?either for themselves or to sell.
In the process of writing this book several things were
developed that you might find useful in your design process. In general
these are pieces of copy or FontLab files that will save you the time
required to make your own. There are lists of composite glyphs to
generate, and OpenType features file, and a text file to use when
generating metrics and kerning tables. You can find them on this page.
Here's a condensed table of contents for you to see what is in the book:
A practical approach to classifying fonts 9
Type drawing tools 33
The creation of a font 47
Starting to draw 67
Letterspacing 109
Generating fonts for testing 123
Making composite glyphs 127
Adding OpenType Features 133
Kerning your new font 151
Tracing drawings & artwork 163
Designing font families 171
Building the Display version 243 Richard Fink says: "If you?re looking for a brief, straightforward introduction to fonts, I recommend David Bergsland?s Practical Font Design.
Unlike a lot of books that make you feel like you?re seated in the back
row of a crowded lecture hall, this one feels like a private tutorial." Read his full review here.
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Type Posters from Fontlab These beautiful posters make
great decorations for classrooms, studios, offices, even dorm rooms!
And not only are they good-looking, but each one is a reference work in
its own right. Buy the bundle and save 50%!
1. Periodic Table of Typefaces by Cam Wilde
A
takeoff on the periodic table of elements illustrating the top 100
typefaces of all time, from Helvetica (#1) to News Gothic (#100),
grouped by font style with an example from each typeface.
24 x 36 inches US$19.95
2. Designing Type by
Karen Cheng, Associate Professor and the Chair of the Visual
Communication Design Program, University of Washington, and author of
the book Designing Type
An award-winning poster of techniques of Latin type design University and College Designers Association Annual Competition, 2008
Excellence Award for FontLab Educational Poster Linotype Helvetica Now 2007 Poster Contest
FontLab educational poster, placed 21st from more than 1400 entries.
27 x 39 inches US$19.95
3. Type Terminologyby Mandi Pralle, Adjunct Instructor at the Art Institute of Colorado A
new update of our poster of illustrations and definitions of terms
frequently used in type design including all the parts of a glyph,
different font styles, spacing nomenclature, etc.
24 x 36 inches US$19.95
4. History of Type
by Priscilla Holme s
A beautiful cornucopia of the evolution of type from hieroglyphics to OpenType, webfonts and photofonts.
24 x 36 inches
US$19.95
5. The Italic
by Priscilla Holmes 
A family tree of the italic typeface, including the original, its descendants, relatives and illegitimate offspring. Nicely done with portraits of the great type designers and examples of their work.
24 x 36 inches
US$19.95
ShippingWe ship posters by first class mail. Bulk ordersSpecial Bargain Bundle - buy posters #1-#5 (all 5 of them) for only US$59.79 - a 40% discount!
We
sell orders of multiple posters, either the same poster or mix and
match, at a discount. Please contact our order department (orders @
fontlab.com) for a quotation. |
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Learn FontLab Fast; A Simplified Manual
"Learn FontLab Fast" by Leslie Cabarga is a simplified guide to creating fonts using the Fontlab Ltd. series of applications including TypeTool , FontLab Studio 5, and Fontographer. On 164 picture-packed pages in 8 x 10-inch format, he goes through the process of font creation from concept to installation. The book has been written to enable users to dramatically cut down the learning curve required to master FontLab and its sister programs, TypeTool, and Fontographer. Author and designer Leslie Cabarga (who also wrote Logo, Font, & Lettering Bible) packed Learn FontLab Fast with illustrations, diagrams and screenshots, and cut the text to a minimum so learning to create fonts that you can load onto your own computer and/or distribute commercially becomes easy and enjoyable
The book explains drawing and editing glyphs, metrics and kerning. There is information about OpenType, encoding and other mysteries of the font header, contributed by the book's technical editor Adam Twardoch.
Learn FontLab Fast begins by explaining the techniques used by five established font designers to create their own fonts. The book will tell you everything you need to know to: begin using the program; to open existing fonts and create new ones; to scan your sketches and add them as backgrounds; to paste drawings into FontLab from Adobe Illustrator; to understanding and using the brush and pen tools to draw glyph characters; to correctly setting up parameters in the Font Info window so your fonts will perform correctly on any computer; to making Type 1, TrueType and OpenType fonts; to spacing, kerning and hinting fonts; to adding accented characters; to using components and anchors; to setting up font families; to making OpenType fonts with special features and organizing those features into classes. The book also features an extensive, cross-referenced "find-anything" Index.
Beginners will appreciate the logical structure and detailed illustrations. Experienced users will learn new tips and tricks. Everything you need to know about creating a font is packed into this volume. To get your copy (only US$26.95) just follow the link to http://www.logofontandlettering.com/ to see all of Leslie Cabarga's logo and font related books. You can also click this *link* to order directly from Fontlab .
Leslie Cabarga: Learn FontLab Fast
Iconoclassics, July 2004, Second Edition, July 2007
ISBN 0965762858
http://www.logofontandlettering.com/
About the Author
Leslie Cabarga is an illustrator, designer and font designer who has authored over two-dozen books on graphic design. His illustration has appeared on the covers of such magazines as Time, Fortune, Newsweek, National Lampoon, and Los Angeles. He has created over 40 fonts including Magneto Bold, Streamline, Rocket, BadTyp and the Kobalt Family. Leslie's previous book, "Logo, Font & Lettering Bible," has received high-praise from many respected typographers and designers such as Matthew Carter, Roger Black, Rian Hughes, Jim Parkinson, Daniel Pelavin, Jill Bell, Alan Haley, Dirk Uhlenbrock, Hrant Papazian, Filip Blazek and Thomas Phinney. Where the Logo, Font & Lettering Bible teaches how to draw letters and comprehend all the rules of letterform design, Learn FontLab Fast goes the next step in teaching how to actually take those letters and make them into fonts.
Leslie figured he was the perfect guy to write Learn FontLab Fast, since he didn't know beans about the program. "I figured that I was the average designer trying to learn FontLab who didn't want to have to wade through the densely-written 700-page program manual," Leslie says. "So every time I felt confused, I got my answers directly from the creators of FontLab and then I made it my business to explain the procedures I was learning in simple terms, and with plenty of pictures, to make the kind of manual I wanted to read myself."
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Sample, Specimen, and Illustrative Books |
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American Type Play
by Steven Heller, Gail Anderson
ISBN:0866363246
Over 400 contemporary examples of typographic and design ingenuity from more than 150 leading designers. 400+ color images. |
Art Deco Display Alphabets: 100 Complete Fonts
by Dan X.Solo (Editor)
ISBN:0486243729
Dan Solo and Dover Press have about a dozen of these type sample books out. A very inexpensive way to get a good idea of a particular typographic genre. |
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Read more...
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Books on Typographic Technique and Technology |
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Digital Type Design Guide
by Sean Cavanaugh
ISBN:1568301901
Gets down to the nitty gritty of digital type. Covers both Mac and PC perspectives and has chapters on e-mail and graphic type as well. Includes a CD with 200+ typefaces and Hey! a FontLab demo!
CONTENTS:
1. Postscript and TrueType Fonts: The Basics
2. Postscript and TrueType Fonts on the Macintosh
3. Postscript and TrueType Fonts with Microsoft Windows
4. Cross Platform Issues
5. Working with Characters
6. Ligatures and Expert Set Characters
7. The Rules of Digital Typography
8. E-mail Typography
9. Type as Graphic Element
10. Choosing Typefaces
11. Typefaces (Examples)
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Type Rules! The designer's guide to professional typography
by Ilene Strizver
ISBN-10: 047172114X
ISBN-13: 978-0471721147
A comprehensive book (224 pages) on the niceties of typographic composition. Every chapter is loaded with illustrations and examples and has exercises to drive home the points. And there's even a chapter on making your own typeface.
Finer Points in the Spacing and Arrangement of Type
by Geoffrey Dowding
ISBN:0881791199
Photoshop Type Magic II
by Greg Simsic
ISBN:1568303297
More step-by-step instructions on how to create spectacular type effects in Photoshop. Lots of screen shots.
Cool Type
by Spencer Drate, Jutka Salavetz and Mark Smith
ISBN:0891347283 |
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Read more...
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Philosophy and Theory of Typography |
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History and Biography of Typography |
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Font & Typography Books
