Greek type design

Fonts and More Font Related Information
1

I happened to notice the following web page yesterday.

http://blogs.adobe.com/typblography/2007/05/greek_type_desi.html

There is a link to some web pages about a typography conference in Thessaloniki, Greece.

This includes a Greek type design contest. As far as I can tell at present, entry appears to be free with a closing date of 31 May 2007. There are entry categories for student, amateur and professional.

This seems like a good opportunity to study the design of Greek type and maybe to produce a font.

The phrase required for the contest includes some accented characters (maybe accented is not the correct word, I am hoping to learn about such matters as I proceed): it appears that a new FontCreator font already includes cells mapped for those that are needed.

Unicode offers the following items.

http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0370.pdf

http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F00.pdf

http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.0.0/ch07.pdf

The above chapter includes a section about Greek.

I remember from long ago that the sixteenth century printer Christophe Plantin used Greek type.

http://www.theculturedtraveler.com/Heritage/Archives/Plantin_Moretus.htm

William Overington

8 May 2007

2

I have been trying to find out what sort of Greek fonts are already available.

I have not yet found any display fonts which are other than what might be termed ordinary lettering.

Does anyone happen to know please if Greek fonts have been made in the wide variety of styles in which Latin alphabet fonts are made? Latin alphabet fonts have such styles as Blackletter style and Art Deco style with fonts such as Broadway and other stylish designs. Do such styles exist for Greek fonts? Are there other styles which are not available in Latin alphabet fonts?

William Overington

13 May 2007