- 05.09.13
Library Subscriptions: The Future of Fonts? Shall We Sing or Cry?
Rudy: I think that you forgot one major question: Why would a type designer continue to develop type? Their part of the cake become… - 05.04.13
Roof Kerning in Amsterdam
Matijs van Zuijlen: So, does the current actual placement of the letters match the one in the artist's impression?… - 05.02.13
Instant
Hrant: Instant confuses me… The part of me that loves innovation gets happy looking at it, but the part of me that insists on sober … - 04.26.13
Krul
Tim: I love that a face so decorative is this legible. A very nice achievement.… - 04.16.13
Source Sans
Hrant: There's something I'd like to clear up, although it might essentially be merely a terminological issue: assuming it's true th… - 04.14.13
Roboto is a Four-headed Frankenfont
Christoph: Amazing! Thanks, Stephen. And the fun just never ends.… - 04.09.13
Comenia
Andrew Boardman: A beautiful and extremely usable "superfamily" that I hadn't considered previously. Thanks, Florian, as always.… - 04.09.13
Balkan Sans
Thomas Dang: Interesting concept but it's difficult to read and the kerning leaves something to be desired. I'm certain that it would not … - 04.07.13
The Elements of Typographic Style, Version 4.0
Craig Eliason: Thanks for this well considered and written review. For me, I never considered Bringhurst's book a bible. Among other quirks,… - 03.31.13
JAF Bernini Sans
Hrant: Thanks to Bill Dawson's piece on XK9 I just realized that Bernini is actually a brother-sister twin, with one being more rese… - 03.20.13
Our Favorite Typefaces of 2012
Stephen Coles: Nick Sherman raises good questions about quantity. I think it’s useful to have a discussion about what this list means and wh… - 03.19.13
Turnip
Hrant: I love Turnip, for the magical transformation it performs between display and text, and the wonder it injects into the craft … - 03.18.13
Quintet
Stephen Coles: It’s been over a year since I saw Quintet on the KABK class of 2011 site and I am still amazed by it. It was a monumental ach… - 03.18.13
Colvert
Hrant: I could opine that the Greek is particularly nice, but most of all I think the collective level of sensitive competence in Co… - 03.18.13
Garvis
Hrant: It was great to watch this design grow up, go to college, and get a job! James is a proud dad for sure.…
- Commercial Type
- Dutch Type Library
- Enschedé
- FontFont
- Font Bureau
- Hoefler & Frere-Jones
- House Industries
- Lineto
- OurType
- Process
- Typotheque
- Village
- MyFonts — As a retailer with a very liberal acceptance policy the quality of type available at MyFonts varies widely. Here are my personal recommendations (rated 4 stars and above) as a start.
- FontShop — The foundries represented at FontShop are more carefully curated, but there is still dreck through which to wade. I can’t link to my picks until the site’s Favorites function is shareable, but the Bestsellers, Award Winners and Underused lists feature some of the best stuff.
Of course, there are dozens of reputable outfits that make and sell good fonts. It’s almost irresistible to list every little foundry I love, but most of them are available via one of these outlets and a set of links longer than the one above is often more overwhelming than useful. Think of this list as a shopper’s starting point for building a lasting typographic toolset. These sites offer most of the best fonts available, and — crucially — present them well, too.
The focus here is on downloadable desktop fonts for print use, but some of these shops offer webfont versions as well. For now, my webfont service shortlist is simply: Typekit, Webtype, Typotheque, Fontdeck, and Fonts.com. MyFonts and FontShop also offer downloadable, self-hosted webfonts.
Speaking of typeface recommendations, our very own Typographica.org reviews are also a good introduction to a few of the best new typefaces. After an unforgivable two-year hiatus, we’re wrapping up the 2011 edition now.
What about Underware and TypeTogether?
The goal of this list is to be as concise as possible. Like many other foundries that aren’t listed, Underware and TypeTogether are both top-notch with only good stuff in their libraries, but because their fonts are available at FontShop, MyFonts, and Village (Underware), they don’t get a place on this shortlist. If they offered something extraordinary and exclusive on their sites I would consider mentioning them separately. Meanwhile, you’ll find many of their typefaces are represented in my favorites on MyFonts.
Ah, that makes perfect sense. In hindsight, silly question. Sorry. And, I did notice that as I made my way through your list of favorites.
This was very useful. I never realized how many font websites there were. The one I only really new of was Dafont.com. This will definaitely help me with college projects and my career after school.
What about YouWorkForThem? I find them to be much nicer than the MyFonts site you mention.
YouWorkForThem offers many of the same fonts available at MyFonts. Those that they offer exclusively are not good enough to warrant a special mention. The YWFT site itself is aesthetically appealing to many designers, and its functionality is improving, but MyFonts still offers much more information and faster, more flexible sampling — not to mention thousands more fonts of a professional-level quality.
Thanks for this, I always go back to this list when looking for a new font to buy. I would only add the absolutely excellent fonts from Jean François Porchez.
You should definitely check out http://www.fontspring.com. They are pretty new but they have grown a lot. Their selection is pretty complete, but the real winner is they keep things simple. Licensing is one affordable fee without all the requirements. I have also found their web font hinting to be superior to some of the other distributors.
I’d love to hear what fonts and what distributors you’ve tried. The hinting is going to vary quite a bit at Fontspring as there is no single production flow for every font. Some are probably quite good, as they offer some of the same fonts available at higher end retailers, but many are very poor.