fonts posts

First Look: FontShuffle puts FontShop in your pocket

by Robert Palmer (RSS feed) on Dec 22nd, 2008

If, like me, you do a lot of your font shopping at FontShop, you're sure to love FontShuffle.

FontShuffle is like having a copy of the indispensable FontShop catalog right on your iPhone or iPod touch. I know my dog-eared copy from 2002 needs to be updated and/or retired: FontShuffle is a nifty, free replacement. It's ideal for situations where you know what look you want, but don't know what font to use.

FontShuffle lets you choose from six major classifications of type: sans serif, serif, slab serif, script, blackletter, and display. Tap one, and FontShuffle shows you six more sub-categories to choose from. Tap one of those, and you're presented with six selections from the FontShop catalog based on the look you selected.

If none of the fonts fit the bill, press "Shuffle" or simply shake the device to get six more fonts. Tapping a font lets you view a customizable string of text in that font, and even save a picture of the text to your device's camera roll. Rotating the screen displays a specimen.

Unfortunately, FontShuffle can be frustrating if you know what font you're looking for, as there's no search tool. You have to shuffle through page after page of fonts until it comes up in a random selection. Also, FontShuffle doesn't contain FontShop's entire catalog. They promise to add more fonts in upcoming versions.

FontShuffle is free, and available from the App Store. It's a must-have for any type geek or designer that needs a font reference handy.

Gallery: FontShuffle

Tags: app store, AppStore, catalog, fontfont, fonts, fontshop, fontshuffle, iphone, type, typography

Filed under: Software, Beta Beat

Beta Beat: Fontcase

by Christina Warren (RSS feed) on Dec 21st, 2008

A few months ago, a teaser appeared for a new Mac OS X font management app, Fontcase, developed by Pieter Omvlee and with an UI design by Laurent Baumann. Fontcase is designed to replace Apple's Font Book utility, which is not only a mediocre font management app, but has a less than nuanced interface.

For the last several months, Fontcase has been in private beta. Today, subscribers to the Fontcase newsletter were invited to download the latest beta. The app is very close to completetion, with a release date scheduled for sometime mid-January 2009, after Macworld. I used a few version of Fontcase while it was in private beta, and as a typography nut, have really been looking forward to this release.

First off, the interface is just beautiful. This won't be surprising to anyone who has seen Laurent's work in the past, but it is worth mentioning because of just how elegant and Mac-like the application feels. I think I've used almost every font manager available for OS X and Fontcase is certainly the most attractive.

When you open Fontcase, you are given the option to import your System and user fonts (basically everything that is already in Font Book). If you use Linotype's FontExplorer X , you can also import sets and meta-data directly from that application. You can share font collection via Bonjour to other computers on your network.

Continue reading “Beta Beat: Fontcase”

Tags: beta, font book, fontagent pro, FontagentPro, FontBook, fontcase, fontexplorer x, FontexplorerX, fonts, typography

Filed under: Enterprise, Graphic Design

Extensis Universal Type Server: Font management for workgroups

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Jun 18th, 2008

Another product announced at Macworld Expo, Extensis Universal Type Server, is now shipping. Universal Type Server is designed for corporate font management, requiring Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server 10.4 or 10.5 on a G5 or better machine. My personal opinion is that this would be a perfect application to run on a headless Mac mini.

There are two flavors of Universal Type Server - Professional, which is scalable to any size workgroup, and Lite, for workgroups of up to 10 users. The server and client applications are cross-platform, running on Windows as well as Mac.

Migration paths are available for users of Font Reserve Server or Suitcase Server. The Lite package is available for $1395 directly from Extensis, but you'll want to contact a reseller for the Professional version. If you want to kick the tires before you buy, you can download 30-day free trials for both Pro and Lite.

Tags: enterprise, extensis, fonts, server, suitcase, tweet-this

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Graphic Design

PopChar X 4.0

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Jun 16th, 2008

PopChar X, the little utility that gets all of those funky symbols, accents, and other special characters into your documents without having to remember arcane key codes, has been updated to version 4 for Mac.

PopChar has been around for over 20 years and is a favorite of editors and designers. To type a special character, you click on a P in the menu bar and a list of characters appears. Selecting the character you want drops it into your current document. Sure, you could always use Apple's Character Palette tool, but it's slow, and difficult to search for a special character in a particular font.

PopChar X 4.0 adds a new feature for searching Unicode characters by name across font boundaries. Ergonis, developer of PopChar, provides an example of searching for a "cubic meters" symbol in Helvetica. Typing in "cub" produces no results, but you can click a new "All" button to search across all Unicode fonts.

You can download a trial version of PopChar X 4.0, or purchase it online from Ergonis for €29.99. Multiple license packs are available at a discount.

Tags: fonts, popchar, symbols, utilities

Filed under: Macworld, Software, Graphic Design

Show floor video: Extensis Universal Type Server

by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on Jan 17th, 2008

We had a quick visit with Kelly from Extensis and a demo of Extensis Universal Type Server, an upcoming workgroup management package for fonts. Administrators can control font sets and lock down user preferences, including for mobile users, and both server and client are cross-platform, Leopard and Vista friendly. Pricing not yet established, but the product should be shipping later this year. Video after the jump.

Continue reading “Show floor video: Extensis Universal Type Server”

Tags: extensis, fonts, macworld08

Filed under: Odds and ends, Apple, Retro Mac

Apple flag for sale on eBay

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Aug 14th, 2007

After we posted that neon Apple sign a little while back, reader Franco thought we'd get a kick out of this Apple flag for sale on eBay, and he was right. The best news is that right now, it's ~~sitting pretty at only $10 (reserve not yet met, though)~~ flying upwards-- what are you TUAW readers, rich?-- so you could own a little piece of Apple history ~~for cheap~~.

As for dating it, the page says the 80s. No mention of Macintosh might put it before 1984, but that's just a guess-- Apple IIs were known as the first "personal computers" and those were made all the way up until the early 1990s. I really love those fonts, though, and of course the rainbow logo is a classic.

Tags: apple, ebay, flag, fonts, logo, personalcomputers, retro, sale, vintage

Filed under: OS, Odds and ends

Safari for Windows: Mac vs. PC Font smoothing

by Mat Lu (RSS feed) on Jun 16th, 2007

One of the first things users noticed about the new Safari for Windows beta is that Apple is using their own font smoothing technology (found in OS X) instead of the Windows standard ClearType. Joel Spolsky has an interesting discussion of the different approaches Apple and Microsoft use with respect to sub-pixel font smoothing. Basically his conclusion is that Apple, coming from a desktop publishing background, "believes that the goal of the algorithm should be to preserve the design of the typeface as much as possible" even if that means some onscreen blurriness, whereas Microsoft sacrifices letter shape "to prevent blur and improve readability." Joel notes that it's not entirely obvious which is the superior way of doing things, though predictably Mac users prefer the Apple way and Windows users the prefer the Microsoft way. In the end, however, this is likely as much a result of familiarity as anything else.

For my part, I've always thought the Mac way of doing text just looked right. Thanks to Joel I now understand why; definitely worth a read.

[via Red Sweater Blog]

Tags: font, fonts, safari

Filed under: OS, Software, Cult of Mac

The Little Things: anti-aliased fonts help Mac OS X shine

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Sep 8th, 2006

Continuing our new The Little Things series that highlights the often-overlooked polish and underrated features that make Mac OS X such a joy to use, I thought I'd highlight one of those 'guy behind the guy' features that makes Apple's OS so gorgeous: font anti-aliasing. Nerdy, I know, but check out the screenshot: Windows, even XP, doesn't support this feature system-wide like Mac OS X does, and it shows. Type looks like garbage in everything from desktop icons to most applications and their menus on Windows. Mac OS X, on the other hand, supports anti-aliased fonts from the ground up (to my knowledge), so everything from System Preferences to desktop icons, text editors to iLife and more are incredibly legible and lickable.

Some call it a minor detail, but given the undeniably pleasant usability this brings to the OS, I would argue it's one of those trademark additions that Apple's engineers don't receive enough credit for.

Update: As many people pointed out Windows does, in fact, have a similar feature called 'ClearType,' which some consider superior to OS X's (though it is a matter of taste). The key difference is that ClearType is disabled by default, which in effect means that most Windows users have no idea that it is even an option. Another case of Apple paying attention to the little details, though Vista will have this feature enabled by default.

Tags: anti-aliasing, features, font, fonts, mac, os x, OsX, the little things, TheLittleThings

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Widget Watch

Widget Watch: CSS Tweak!

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Jun 5th, 2006

CSS Tweak!, as you might imagine, can optimize and clean up your CSS code with the drag and drop of a file. The widget will report how much smaller your file is going to get, and its description states that your new file is "saved in the same location as the original", so I'm pretty sure this means it doesn't overwrite the original, but proceed (and backup!) with caution.

CSS Tweak! appears to be free and is available from Andy Peatling at his site, CssDev.

Tags: backgrounds, borders, clean, clean up, CleanUp, comments, css, fix, fonts, lists, optimize, tweak, update, widget, widgets, widgetwatch, zero units, ZeroUnits

Filed under: Widget Watch

Widget Watch: Type Cast font preview and info

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on May 30th, 2006

This is one of those widgets that makes me wonder why Apple hasn't already made one. Type Cast is pretty simple and straight-forward: it's a font preview widget from Code Line Communications, makers of Art Director's Toolkit (amongst other things). This widget isn't short on capabilities either; you can navigate font families, styles and sizes with merely your keyboard, and you can even be taken directly to the font file in the Finder.

The Type Cast widget is free and available from Code Line Communications here.

Tags: families, family, font, fonts, preview, size, sizes, style, styles, Type Cast, TypeCast, widget, widgets, widgetwatch

Filed under: Software, Productivity, Widget Watch

Widget Watch: Art Director's Toolkit

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on May 27th, 2006

Code Line Communicators, developers of Art Director's Toolkit, has developed a handy widget for easy-access to some of the tools and features of their app right within your Dashboard. However, the widget only comes with a copy of Art Director's Toolkit 5; the latest version which I don't believe is bundled with Macs just yet.

Either way, this widget definitely pulls its weight, as it can "Search through thousands of color swatches in industry-standard libraries, view characters and keyboard equivalents of fonts, sample colors on-screen, convert fractions/decimals/units of measure, calculate file sizes, and much more."

While the widget is listed at Apple's Dashboard download site, the link simply points to the latest version of Art Director's Toolkit.

Tags: Art Director's toolkit, ArtDirector'sToolkit, color, colors, dashboard, fonts, Mac, OS X, OsX, swatch, swatches, widget, widgets, widgetwatch

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends

Typographica's favorite fonts of 2005

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Dec 28th, 2005

Typographica, a journal of typography, is listing their favorite fonts of 2005 in a two part series. If you're anything like me you have a number of fonts littering your Mac that you have accumulated from various websites.

Typographica gives the nod to Liboa, Freight, Ministry Script, Garamond Premier Pro, Deréon, Promixa Nova (my favorite of the bunch), Zingha, Vista Sans, Cézanne Pro, FF Maiola, Maple, Garda, Litteratra, and Relato. Keep in mind that this is just part one, people. Read the post to get the details and see samples of all the fonts.

What is your favorite font? I have a soft spot for Rockwell, myself.

Tags: font, fonts, open type, opentype

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Productivity, Software Update

Linotype FontExplorer X updated

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Dec 22nd, 2005

We've mentioned the most excellent (and free) Linotype FontExplorer X here before, and I figured its most recent update was worth a mention. A host of new features, updates and bug fixes have been issued including: Illustrator CS/CS2 plug-ins, copying to clipboard from the font preview will copy sample images, new Keynote support and Pages scanning, fixed multiple font deactivation, fixed crash on import of corrupt fonts and much more.

If you're on the hunt for better font management than OS X's built-in Font Book (who isn't?) that's in the range of "free" and you haven't picked up a copy of Linotype FontExplorer X, you really ought to either kick yourself or, as a better choice, download a copy and get crackin'.

Tags: font, Font Book, FontBook, FontExplorer, fonts, Linotype, management, type

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