Links for Typography and Design Standards

Post questions about type and font design here.
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Links for Typography and Design Standards

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Either in the Help File or on this site we need a source of reliable official information on Type Design Standards and Specifications.

Below are a few links I have found useful. I will update this list from time to time. I don't need links to yet more freeware font sites, but if you know of a link that really deserves to be here, please post a reply. When I update the list, I will visit the link, and add it here to keep all relevant information in one place.

Various

Ethical Type Design

Unicode Organisation

MICROSOFT TYPOGRAPHY

Microsoft Typography: Design Standards

Fonts and Products

Hinting Specifications

Character Sets and Code Pages

To Register a Font Vendor ID

Victor Gaultney
Dissertation on the Problems of Diacritic Design
Useful article on the correct design and position of accents.
1.3 Mbyte PDF

Balancing typeface legibility and economy:
Practical techniques for the type designer
1 Mbyte PDF

Alan Wood's Unicode Resources
International Language Support

Everson Typography
Alphabets of Europe

Typophile

Typophile Forums

Links Updated
Last edited by Bhikkhu Pesala on Sun Sep 02, 2007 5:11 pm, edited 12 times in total.
rolfengelbrecht
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Post by rolfengelbrecht »

Thanks, Bhikkhu.
FYI, some of the links no longer work (at least for me...) -
eg. Specification on glyph names, and both Point Central tutorials
Rolf
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Post by vanisaac »

Bhikkhu Pesala
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Top Typographer
Posts: 9873
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
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Updated Point Central Typography Tutorials

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Please add more links regarding type design that you think are important. Not links to freeware fonts, but design advice and tools.
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Location: Seven Kings, London UK
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Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Typographer Primer

You may find this PDF document from Adobe.com useful. It includes some sound advice on how to use type and a glossary of terms.
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
Dick Pape
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Post by Dick Pape »

Bhikkhu Pesala -- good idea. Especially if you will undertake the effort to consolidate these rather random materials. My list is probably in alphabetical order by article name, not by topic or writer or anything else logical. I dropped the obvious common links.

Quick aside Point Central has migrated to Typeindex.org

1. Classification of characteristics. "A Field Guide to the Faces". http://www.anthus.com/Typography/Faces.html "This Field Guide attempts to apply the principles of botanical taxonomy to the problem of typeface recognition"

2. Good picture of letter parts: http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/Article ... natomy.htm

3. Bowfin Printworks The Lists & Guides: http://bowfinprintworks.com/ Script Font Identification Guide, Script Font Reference List, Bauhaus-style Font Identification Guide. Shows examples of script types. Somebody should buy their Custom Spice Jar Labels...

4. Luc Devroye (Getting even longer "in the tooth") http://jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/index.html
a. Brief font style definitions: http://jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/britishstandards.html
b. Outline of references: http://jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/fontresearch.html
c. List of Links: http://jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/fonts.html
d. Type glossaries: http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/glossary.html

5. "A guide to written language" http://www.omniglot.com/
a. Index of writing systems and languages. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/index.htm
b. Deseret alphabet (of specific interest). http://www.omniglot.com/writing/deseret.htm

6. Typeface Classification http://www.redsun.com/type/classification/

7. Interesting, extensive and well designed site: http://www.paratype.com/help/term/

8. Lots of references and links, http://www.truetype.demon.co.uk/ Especially: http://www.truetype.demon.co.uk/ttopen.htm

9. Notes on Hinting with FontLab - research background: http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page ... esignTools

10. Typoasis articles, designers and more: http://moorstation.org/typoasis/typoasis1.htm

11. Narrative on Instructing Fonts: http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TTRefM ... Chap3.html

12. Apple Developer Connection: http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TTRefMan/

13. Getting started links: http://www.truetype.demon.co.uk/ttopen.htm

14. True Type Table Listing: http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page ... -AppendixC

15. Adobe Open Type Specificaton v.1.4: http://partners.adobe.com/public/develo ... _spec.html

16. For some light reading: The 'Zapf' Table http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TTRefM ... 6Zapf.html

Thanks for your good idea.

Dick Pape
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