Conference poster
Just a quick post to say that Dave Crossland will be lecturing a couple of conferences and workshops in Portugal. He will be at the University of Aveiro on the next Monday, January 9. Read more about it on my Portuguese Blog: http://pedamado.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/dave-crossland-aveiro/
Timeline of font formats and production software (version v9)
While working on the past Designa Conference presentation (November 2011) about the development of an online software tool/service to help design typefaces, I’ve been compiling data for a timeline on font formats and production software packages.
While rushing through the slides, I got stuck with the few data compiled from the typography chapter from my PhD draft thesis. I’ve decided to share the working version…
Since then, thanks to the feedback I’ve got from many friends, colleagues, and important designers and programmers I’ve corrected much of the information in it, as well as aligned the dates properly. By now, the scope of it has changed, and now it list not the main production software, but almost all of them… I hope I haven’t missed anything important, although there is still much to be done and revised.
The latest (and final?) version 9 is being included in the short paper to be published by the organization.
The purpose is to better understand how font formats have evolved, and how software has “helped” develop them. Ultimately, this aims to better understand the role of the designer and how processes have evolved through time. This timeline compilation only lists the ones that have been put into use:
Author of the timeline and original research and literature review:
Contributors:
Notes and Revisions
[update 1: contributions] A quick thank you note to Vítor Q. for replying with Truetype GX, F3 font formats – I didn’t know about F3, and I thought TTGX was just another Apple proprietary mania… He also sent a couple of page description languages like Interpress and PCL 5, but AFAIK these use other formats internally, like Intellitype. Stephen Coles and Rui Abreu mentioned Robofab… After ageeing, I’ve added it, but since then he also sent me Font Remix Tools… Finally a quick thanks to Diogo O. for reminding me to add SVG and WOFF fonts. Although he mentioned EOT also (another packaging format for TTF / OTF) these web font formats are pretty important, and I believe they will mold the future of the technology!
[update 2: enter the giants] Thanks to Stephen Coles for warning me to insert/correct the “van” in the names of Petr van Blokland, Erik van Blokland, otherwise besides being wrong, I guess it would just be confusing! Just another quick note to remind that it is still missing many font production software packages. I’ve concentrated my efforts on mapping only the main outline font formats and main production software, but I it can still be complemented. Please drop me a note!
[update 3: new formats] Thanks to the feedback obtained (mainly on twitter) I’m currently working on version 6 of this graphic.I’m adding a couple of formats and parametric systems do the timeline. Now the analysis is somewhat different…
[update 4: analysis, analysis, analysis...] On the one hand, the 5.1 version of the graphic reveals a “break” in the development cycle of new formats/solutions , 1977 and 1989-90. On the other hand, it also reveals that there was an intense development of different solutions in 2001-03, 2006-07 and in 2009. This raises several questions while contradicting the common notion that new industry developments had come to a halt with the release of Fontlab 3+…
[update 5: author, and list of contributors]
[update 6: never-ending story...] Ok, every time I update the timeline, I find new tools or formats to include, or the ones in the timeline need correction… I’ll be updating as regularly as I can until it’s good enough for everyone…
[update 7: still missing important software] New iteration. Still missing the dates of Asia Font Studio, Type Tool, etc… The usual problem is to find the release dates of the original software when they were release before 1999, or before they were acquired by other companies…
[update 8: all together now] A new version (v7, 2011-12-16). Almost all font production software I know and heard of are now listed in this timeline. Frank Grießhammer has suggested this image could be converted into a wiki page. I actually have these (and some bitmap font editors) in a spreadsheet. If enough people are interested, I can publish this wherever is more practical: either on Typophile (they already have a Font Software pages on the Wiki), Wikipedia Font Editors webpage, Google Docs, or… And I’ve just realized that I still have to double check Luc Devroye’s software listing…
[update 9: are we there yet?] New version (v8, 2011, 12-18). Petr Van Blokland revised some dates and software and I’ve corrected the insertion of an “alpha” state promising software – Fontclod. When doing this late at night I tend to “loosen the filter” ;). Still need to do a final check on Luc Devroy’s webpage. His web page and Typophile wiki have been valuable sources of information… Later, I’ll try to figure out someway of merging this info with them… Ever since Note 5 the patterns of development have been changing… now I’m just wondering what happened between 1988 and 2001. There’s a break on the development. Maybe it was due to the Internet hype people lived back then. My guess is that after the bubble burst, people went back to develop software they needed… And now, we’re seeing the internet applications slowly coming back in a web 2.0 style, with Fonstruct (that I’m a huge fan), Fontclod (currently in alpha, and I’m already a fan of it), and the future release of Iris (or Horus from Aviary, still in proof of concept since 2009, but they’ll have a regular user from the moment they release it).
[update 10: to short to finish] Minor update/addition and final JPG file to include in the short paper to be published by UBI / Design Conference Proceedings.
Dino dos Santos (portrait image from DSType.com)
If you are in Portugal in the next week, make sure to drop by Aveiro—the Type Designer Dino dos Santos will be presenting a conference on Typography and Type Design at the University of Aveiro. This is a rather rare opportunity to hear a Portuguese Type Designer speaking in public about his projects (at least I hope he will do so). Here is the invitation issued by the class teacher Olinda Martins, roughly translated:
In the scope of the Typography class at the Communication and Art Department of University of Aveiro, we’ve invited the Type Designer Dino dos Santos (http://www.dstype.com) to present a conference about typography and type design:
· 26 of April (tuesday);
· 10h30;
· Room 10.1.3 (DEGEI).We’re counting with your presence and participation in this unique event!
For those who don’t know it, or are traveling from abroad, the DEGEI is the building nº 10 on the Campus Map. Drop by and have a word with us ;)
DSType was founded in late 1994 by Dino dos Santos and since then designed typefaces for several corporations, magazines and cultural projects. Graduated in Graphic Design by ESAD, Matosinhos and awarded with a Master in Multimedia Arts at FBAUP, Porto, teaches Typographic Studies at ESAD Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Matosinhos. Featured in several magazines like Computer Arts (UK), Creative Review (UK), Page (DE), Publish (PT), Page (PT), Attitude (PT/UK), Zoot (PT/UK) and Direct Arts (PT). Dino dos Santos designed some notable typefaces like Andrade, winner of the Creative Review Type Design Awards, for the Best Revival / Extension Family in 2005 and Ventura, awarded with the Certificate of Excellence in Type Design by the Type Directors Club of New York in 2008, among many other notable releases. Our work was selected for the “Schrift in Form” exhibition at the Klingspor-Museum in Offenbach, Germany. Contributes regularly to conferences, seminars and publications.
DSTYPE specializes in creating custom typefaces including, completely new typefaces for every purposes, improving balance, legibility and fine tunning existent typefaces and/or logotypes.
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You can find the original Portuguese version of this post on my DesignLab blog: http://pedamado.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/dino-dos-santos-ua/
For more information on the Typography class: http://tipografia.blogs.ua.sapo.pt/15303.html
This Christmas, I proudly received one of the coolest gifts of the past years: The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog: Typeface Memory Game, by Fabio Prata and Flavia Nalon from Bis Publishers.After trying to buy it a couple of times from Amazon (they continually postponed its shipping), I forgot about it. Yesterday, on a gift exchange during a traditional Holy Kings dinner (that we celebrate in Portugal, but is mainly celebrated in Spain), I received a small package from Isabel A. To my surprise it was the long awaited Memory Game!
Detail of the Typeface Memory Game, 2010 Bis Publishers
We quickly unwrapped it and browsed all the cards. The game consists in 25 pairs of standard sized, double-faced, one color, but surprisingly thick (built to last?) cards. Each one depicting a specimen and the credits of well-known typefaces. At least the majority of them.
A nice surprise was to find Lucas de Groot’s Thesis (my favorite typeface of all time), followed by Mário Feliciano’s ever popular Flama (at least one Portuguese representative in the slim list of typefaces). In the package we also found lots of famous fonts, like Caroll Twombly’s Trajan, Bruce Rogers’ Centaur and even Sibylle Hagmann’s Cholla (this last one is specially for you Isabel!)
This is the perfect (typophile) gift. Fun to use, great to collect and it has lots of potential use in the classroom. I highly recommend it. I just wish that BIS Publishing would issue a second volume…
P.S.: Buy it from my US Amazon store, or from my UK Amazon store.
No words to describe… absolutely gorgeous!