Fresh Flow From Fountain

I totally agree, quality faces for low prices.
Though I think it took way too long for the site to get this deserved upgrade :).

he's quite nice too (unlike most type designers?)

this isn't the first time somebody has said this. why do type designers have such a bad reputation? almost all of the type designers i know are very nice people.

when and where did you meet all of these mean and unpleasant type designers?

it's great to finally see an update -- I had virtually forgotten Fountain altogether! I am very irritated, however, to see that (still) the only way to see the catalog is to go to each type's individual page. why can't there be an overview with, say, one line set in each font? the site has some really great fonts, I just hate digging through to find them.

i never met a type designer i didn't like.

some of my best friends are type designers.

2 cliches, and both true.

Type designers are generally really nice people. Just don't mention Tekton or Comic Sans around them. If you do, get your tetanus shot in advance.

> why do type designers have such a bad reputation

Well, primadonna hissy-fits sessions like the one in early October on the ATypI list don't help...

What's interesting is that at ATypI-Rome people were indeed much nicer (to me at least) than I expected. To be fair, most of them are nice, yes. It's just that some of them aren't really as nice as they seem in person.

hhp

I'm equally as baffled. Again, all the type designers I've ever met are very nice people. My guess is some people may mistake the critical dialog on type boards for crankiness, discontent and general meanness. Of course it's the complete opposite. Where else can you get nearly instant feedback and support from people all over the world? Not many places. I think we're very fortunate.

And yes, the new Fountain site looks real good.

It's just that some of them aren't really as nice as they seem in person.

or as unpleasant as they seem online?

> some people may mistake the critical
> dialog on type boards for crankiness,
> discontent and general meanness

No, I "mistake" the backstage demands that people get kicked off discussion lists as meanness, and arrogance...

> or as unpleasant as they seem online?

You said it, not me!

hhp

I agree – I never been in contact with a typedesigner that wasn't really nice.

plain * clothes - the one line sets are on their way, I just had to draw the line somewhere, or I would've never finished the site. There will also be a possibility to print the specimens directly to your laser printer.

You know what else gives us a bad rep? Rampant, abusive anonymity. Although more than mean that's just plain spineless. On the other hand, insecurity is in fact the wellspring of abuse.

hhp

Good point, Hrant. Nothing pisses me off than someone without the balls to use their own name.

I had not seen the Baskerville 1757 before. Looks good. I've been putting links to the various foundries resurrecting historical designs over at the Yahoo group site PPLetterpress. Especially interested in size optimized designs for letterpress production.

Would like to be informed by the various foundries of efforts in this area. You never know, could result in the occasional sale.

Gerald

Wow Peter! A job well done!
Så... behöver du en praktikant? :)

Peter Bruhn has improved his talent enormously from the beginning.
Watch out for an upcoming (future) text typeface by Pete really, really beautiful (with plenty of swedish ligatures, too).

Same is happening to Simon Schmidt (just have a look at the beautiful Monolith, from Fountain, of course).

> why do type designers have such a bad reputation

I've met only 2 (two) type designers really non-respectful. But I don't think type designers have a bad reputation. To my friend Lucio I (and every other person tampering with letters) have no reputation at all! The only typefaces he would recognize are Times, Helvetica and Cooper Black. The others are just derivates of those for him. And he has a doorbell label set in Courier. I wonder why I still hang out with him...

(I'm sure it's to keep my feet on the ground)

Why Hrant Papazian felt touched by that anonymous poster rambling about unpleasantness online?

I'm sure he was not talking about anyone in particular.

Besides, stop posting anonymously. It's sad.

Btw Hrant, where could you download standard Macintosh foreign language keyboards (for MacOS up to 9) for languages not included on the OS installation CDs?

I've read Linotype supplies the Armenian one with your armenian typeface family Maral but I'm interested in almost every language in use. Maybe you have to buy them?
Could you help me or give me some link?

Thank you for the flowers, Claudio! As you know, I wouldn't be designing fonts if it wasn't for Peter. he's the nicest person i've ever met and a brilliant type designer, IMHO!
I've also seen his work in progress and I must say, there are some really great typefaces coming our way from Sweden.

To Richard _ "Så... behöver du en praktikant?"
Sorry, om jag ändå hade plats ;)

To Claudio & Simon: Stop making me blush or I'll will hunt you down like rats;)

> Why Hrant Papazian felt touched

I'm a sensitive fellow. Hey, don't laugh: the things I care about, I care about a lot. They're just different.

Keyboards:
The keyboards I supplied to LL were: an old-fashioned keyboard resource for the MacOS (which I made with ResEdit), and a freely redistributable utility for Windows (which I added a keyboard to by hand). As for other ones, I haven't been following the scene for a while now, but I guess you'd get them the same place you got the font.

What I'd recommend is getting on the TD discussion list and asking there; recently Peter Lofting of Apple provided some very nice help specifically about keyboard drivers.

hhp

Thanks for the help, Hrant.
Would it be possible to have the old-fashioned armenian keyboard MacOS resource you did with ResEdit? I don't know when but since I intend to design every possible langiuage version for my Neoritmo, I will surely need it.
It's not that I don't want Unicode et al but I'm still using pre OSX systems and I would like to collect mac keyboards not available on the installation CD.

If you can't is not a problem at all. It's just that I wished to have some sort of standard to start on for an Armenian version under pre OSX systems.

BTW When those sweet russians will put out FontLab 4.5 for the Mac?

Sure - could you please remind me (hrant@inverselogic.com) on Tuesday or something?

BTW, just so you know, there are over 20 different 8-bit encodings for Armenian! :-/ So there's no real standard. My own encoding (finalized in '91) is the second most popular (and has significant functional advantages over the first one), so obviously my driver supports only fonts made with my encoding. The good news is Unicode.

hhp

Thank you very much, Hrant! I'm really not into technical matters at all and I will ask for help when in the future I will develop foreign versions of my typefaces.
Luckily some friends have already agreed to help me.

Let's hope Unicode will really become a standard for everyone. From what I've seen in FontLab it's amazing. I've not bought Fontlab v3.x however because it's crappy to design and do the metrics. Friends of mine like Chester and Fabrizio Schiavi really studied/are studying FontLab and his strengths but I prefer to improve my drawing skills more and more. I still use my Fontstudio/Fontographer combination.

I hope John Downer will not be angry at me because I asked you a favor.
I respect everyone but I just hate aggressive behavior and when you tend to be polemic apparently just for the sake of it. Education and respect make the difference and I'm sad because John seems often to allow himself committing the same errors or lack of ethics he criticizes. Just from different angles.

He's right however when he points out that often you but other people as well, comment or criticize without knowing really the matter. This is nothing at all but when you do it politely is a thing, when you assault or offend is another.
Just to make clear I don't allow myself to judge anyone. I may do so, but after all, I have my weaknesses and I didn't realize it when it happens.

Sorry to anyone I might have offended.

I would enjoy helping you whenever you think it's a good idea to ask.

The only thing I am just for the sake of it is myself.

Yet another quaint Armenian proverb:
Not every crazy person wears his underwear on his head.

In any case, please keep being a nice person.

hhp

Yes. That's why I said *apparently*. You have no way to tell if someone is being polemic just for the sake of it or because they have a strong motivation for the issue they are defending/talking about.

It's just that while I share keeping a strong attitude or replying with decision when you defend something you believe in I think that we should always try to avoid arrogance.

With "you" I mean everyone, just to make it clear.

Thank you.

Hmm...
Seems to me that type designers are just like the rest of the population: some are nice and some are not.
(For the record: I am not nice.)
c

I have heard from people I trust that Chester is not only nice, but a kind and thoughtful human being. Apparently, he also wears especially great pants.

For the record, I really am not nice at all, and I think everyone who knows me will testify to this.

yeah, jlt's quite a bad man, but his wife's very nice...i have to say, though, he arm wrestles like goliath...

That's very sweet, Joshua. I hear that you're a bad man, but I'd rather make my own judgements about people, rather than relying upon hearsay. After all, I am just a pair of pants, and it's not my place to judge, but to cover.

What a world twould be were pants unnecessary. But a man can only dream.