There really should be no studio without this in its library.Īfter spending an hour or so flicking through its pages, Monty Python’s exploding glutton, Mr Creosote came to mind. Anyway, it’s the cross-references that do it for me, making FontBook an invaluable tool for just about anyone who uses type. In fact I’d love to see this further developed, so that for example, I’m looking for a good sans serif accompaniment to Swift, and there’s a cross-reference that points me to one. I can go to the Serif section–where all the types are arranged alphabetically,…p, q, r, s,… Swift! The cross reference in the inside margin displays an eye icon (denoting similar types) and listed are ITC Charter (b), Demos, Hollander and Bitsream Oranda. For example, I’m looking for something similar to one of my favourite types, Gerard Unger’s Swift (a). My favourite feature of the book–and this must have taken ages to prepare–is the ample cross references. The types are organised into eight main groups: Sans, Serif, Slab, Script, Display, Blackletter, Symbols, and Non-Latin. I took the FontBook to my local café, where I often work in the evenings, and complete strangers approached me (unusual in Japan) several people remarked ‘ookii hon desu ne!’ (big book, isn’t it!), while others simply asked what the book was about.īeyond the trademark FontShop yellow covers, the content is prefaced by a ‘how to use this book’ section in both English and German however, to be frank, you could be a Martian and/or only speak Zangalulob and still find your way around the book without any problems. However, with some 32,000 type samples, 1,760 pages, and 100,000 footnotes and cross-references, I don’t think FontShop will be publishing a pocket version any time soon. This book really should come with a health warning: my postman almost had a hernia delivering it, and very nearly sprained his wrist attempting to hold it in one hand as he passed me the delivery receipt with the other. No, not a genetically modified banana, but FontShop’s FontBook, an the encyclopaedia of type. Recently I received through the post something large, yellow and weighing 3kg.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |