29 posts tagged “typeface”
These are plastic chopsticks from the Yangtze Restaurant on Willis Street, which were obviously done many years ago: they feature a six-digit telephone number and a non-Linotype version of Helvetica Italic, which I enjoyed.
I ate there Thursday night to celebrate my friend Nick’s 40th birthday, and want to give them one plug: this was the first time that I can remember, when eating at a Chinese restaurant that didn’t make ‘no MSG’ one of its claims, where the chef respected a customer’s request for the additive to be omitted from the meal. (There is a chain, whose name I forget, but it is something like Noodle Wok or Noodle Box, that has MSG-free as one of its claims; it is the exception and not the rule.)
So often, MSG is still put in regardless of the customer’s request, which is dangerous: I have a friend who is so allergic to it that she carries around an adrenalin shot in her handbag. If she has MSG, she risks dying. When a customer says no, respect it.
Just to put this bad stereotype at rest: MSG is not a must in Chinese cooking and I have not known a single Chinese person who uses it in a home-made meal. It is, however, used by second-rate chefs who can’t get the traditional flavours or the wok heating the way it should. And those folks don’t deserve the title of chef.
So a major thanks to the Yangtze for understanding that ‘no MSG’ means just that—hopefully we can begin getting other Chinese joints doing the same. (And the meal was delish, thank you very much.)
I have written to the creator of the WP-Cufón plug-in for Wordpress about this bug, which caused some missing characters at the Lucire website today:
At least when we have bugs, I act on them (hello, Facebook?).
But the above video is a great one. Click here to have a view of it—and watch it right to the end, if you don’t know how it finishes. I also put it here on Vox.
Here are some more neat finds on YouTube. I have only a vague recollection of this show, but I might be confusing with others that had fake computer messages going across the screen (The Invisible Man, The Gemini Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, etc.). Apparently, it was originally entitled Probe, but was retitled Search (possibly due to a conflict with another TV series). It didn’t last, due to a producer change and the idea of a revolving star each week (mixing between Hugh O’Brian, Doug McClure and Tony Franciosa). But the theme music and titles are great (note the use of the MICR typeface) and very early 1970s. They also hint at the optimism people had toward technology as a tool to aid mankind, in this case, an agency specializing in searches.
I am so behind on work after taking delivery of my new Asus Pro 50 SR! I spent an evening installing software, including the odd few which had Windows Vista incompatibility issues. And I spent ages trying to delete Arial, a typeface family I never use, because one has to change the administrator privileges (not easy during your first 24 hours with Vista).
First impressions are generally positive. The keyboard is great, the res is not bad (but I feel it is less than what I saw at the shop and I don’t think I dreamed this, unless the guy at Dick Smith gave me the wrong model number). Good processor, independent graphics RAM, and generally a more solidly made machine than the Acers that I saw. After my experience with Compaq, I won’t return there for a while. And the Num Lock works when I tell it to! Eat that, Compaq!
I also like the fact that even my old Type 1 fonts are natively supported, which means a saving on buying an extra site licence for a new platform.
But there are some down sides:
- not quite wide enough for a numeric keypad, though having said that, I have limited desk space for the laptop;
- no noticeable speed increase from some of my older machines as Vista is clunky, though it’s streets ahead of the Compaq;
- function key where I expect Control to be;
- while the battery theoretically can go for three to four hours on the power-saving mode, in normal mode it runs for under two;
- the idea that the power-saving mode is less efficient for computer performance (!);
- the double quotation mark (the one on the keyboard) seems to be a bit slow (!);
- no infrared or Bluetooth, as far as I can tell. I had expected the SD card reader to be able to take my MicroSD off the cell, but the smallest it can do (with an adapter) is the MiniSD.
I also don’t go for the wankiness of the Vista interface. I am not a Luddite: when I first got a Windows 98 machine a decade ago, I was very amazed by it. I loved Mac OS 7. Windows XP, I thought, was actually quite a well presented interface from a design point-of-view, and it was more customizable than Vista. These three-dimensional effects in Vista seem unnecessary to me, and I have the same qualms about Mac OS X.
I know I can turn them off but I’m going to give it a chance.
So, no pics of the machine coming out of the box (I know a few of you like seeing those) and none of it on my mega-messy desk. But here it is from a publicity shot (the real thing has more stickers with specs, and logos from ATI, Intel and Windows Vista):
In true Jack fashion I have been able to find bugs. Didn’t Microsoft say that ClearType was standard in Vista? Try telling me that after seeing how it displays Loïc Le Meur’s blog:
Are you doing anything special to celebrate Easter?
Isn’t this question a day late, even for Americans? Anyway, the special event was visiting the grave of my friends Chris and Linda.
I took a pic as I am quite proud of the plaque, which I laid out based on Chris’s family’s requests, using a typeface family that Chris saw me develop in 1995. He saw the original drawings I did and I still remember having a brief discussion about them. I was honoured that I could give something to keep Chris and Linda’s memory alive.
[Cross-posted] I have finished the basic variants of my next type family, JY Alia, and MyFonts.com should have it ready for retailing shortly. I’ve already uploaded the archives there.
It’s been interesting to get back into a retail release, rather than
the private ones we’ve been doing for a while. Our designers will tell
you I neglected things at JY&A Fonts a couple of years back and in some respects we are still playing catch-up. The font website, finally, got a nip–tuck today, and we’re continuing to work on it and updating the links.
In 2005–6 we did receive some offers to update the website and we
asked for proposals but nothing panned out. But that is another
story—the main reason for writing is to show off the specimen pages and some shameless self-promotion.
New Zealand’s leading font foundry announces “workhorse” serif family, JY Alia
JY&A Fonts, one of Australasia’s most experienced typefoundries, has added an aldine to its extensive range
Wellington, February 16 (JY&A Media) JY&A Fonts, founded by Jack Yan in 1987, has announced a brand-new typeface family, JY Alia.
The New Zealand-based
foundry was the first to branch into digital type in its country, and
has spent the last several years working on private commissions only.
JY Alia marks its return to releasing retail fonts.
Initially in four variants only, with extra weights, more complex OpenType
versions and a second subfamily to emerge in 2009, JY Alia is described
by its designer, Jack Yan, as a workhorse serif typeface, based on an
aldine model.
It is meant to complement his 1994–5 release, JY
Ætna, which was based around the original Bembo design. JY Ætna was a
successful family for the foundry and helped establish its reputation
as a source of dependable, traditional designs.
‘The problem with JY Ætna, as I saw it, was that it wasn’t robust enough for text usage,’ says Mr Yan.
He sees JY Alia, which is stronger but still approachable as a design, as a rival for other workhorse typeface families such as Adobe Garamond or Monotype Bembo.
In technical aspects, JY Alia has between 3,200 and 3,300 kerning
pairs and a full complement of eastern European and extended Latin
characters in its OpenType and TrueType versions.
Mr Yan cites
both his own JY Ætna, based on designs by Francesco Griffo and
Giovantonio Tagliente, and Plantin, by Robert Granjon, as his
inspirations. However, he says JY Alia does not slavishly follow any historical model and merely has an aldine skeleton.
The name originates from a role once played by American actress Alicia Witt.
A PDF specimen for JY Alia can be downloaded from the JY&A Fonts website, currently being revamped, at <http://jyanet.com/fonts/font145.htm>.
Mr Yan expects JY Alia to be available for licensing at MyFonts.com shortly, then at other retailers.
[Cross-posted] A typeface getting a lot of attention lately is the Ecofont (acknowledgements to Jim Donovan), a design from SPRANQ based on Bitstream Vera
(which went open source under GNOME). The claim: that by putting dots
into the characters, one can use up to 20 per cent less ink or toner.
The idea of omitting a part of a character or even manipulating
outlines is not new, but what SPRANQ has done is, to my knowledge,
original. Typeface designers have done ink traps for years—these are most obvious on designs like Bell Centennial,
which are to be used at small sizes for phone books. Ink traps are
where ink can go in a less-than-ideal printing environment (e.g.
high-speed presses, low-grade paper) and “fill in” the rest of the
letter.
And people have been doing funny things to characters for
ages, including putting holes in the design, but that was always for
ornamental purposes, not for sustainable ones.
SPRANQ claims that the result of its roman-only design works at small
sizes, and that it should display all right at 9 or 10 pt.
It’s not a bad idea and I am not surprised it has taken the Dutch, who have been turning out excellent type in the last 25 years, to have thought of it.
‘After the Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well,’ jokes the website.
However, is it the best solution for the environment?
The company claims that it won’t do a serif version of Ecofont,
because seriffed letterforms use more ink. I’m not sure if that holds
true always.
A typical serif design has greater contrast between
verticals and horizontals. Seriffed typefaces tend to be more compact
when it comes to copyfitting (how many letters per line). There are, of
course, many exceptions.
If you take in the contrast (knowing that the horizontal strokes are
going to use less ink) and accept that seriffed characters are narrower
(in general), you might still be helping the planet. Notably, better
copyfitting means less paper. Ecofont, being wide, uses more paper.
The only way to test these claims about ink is scientifically—maybe
someone with way more time than me can put it all to the test? (The
problem: you use more ink or toner and paper doing it. Not good.)
So I hope SPRANQ might consider Ecofont Serif, with holes through the
verticals, but keep the horizontal strokes more intact (or use smaller
holes). It has already employed a similar idea, anyway: the holes in
the horizontals in the existing Ecofont are necessarily smaller,
because there is still some contrast between their and the verticals’ thicknesses. And they should make it more compact.
As for the sans serif, intuitively the idea works and it certainly
makes for some deserved press. I only wonder if the rasterizers for
computer printers
will pick up that the holes are there and allow the ink or toner to
cover them. I assume SPRANQ has that covered, or perhaps someone can
inform me of how that process works.
All in all, I take my hat off to these guys.
This prewar monumental typeface at the WCC council chambers is beautiful.
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