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
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
Please add more links regarding type design that you think are important. Not links to freeware fonts, but design advice and tools.
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.
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
-
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”
-
Good picture of letter parts: http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/Articles/fyti/Anatomy.htm
-
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…
-
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
-
“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
-
Typeface Classification http://www.redsun.com/type/classification/
-
Interesting, extensive and well designed site: http://www.paratype.com/help/term/
-
Lots of references and links, http://www.truetype.demon.co.uk/ Especially: http://www.truetype.demon.co.uk/ttopen.htm
-
Notes on Hinting with FontLab - research background: http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&cat_id=FontDesignTools
-
Typoasis articles, designers and more: http://moorstation.org/typoasis/typoasis1.htm
-
Narrative on Instructing Fonts: http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TTRefMan/RM03/Chap3.html
-
Apple Developer Connection: http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TTRefMan/
-
Getting started links: http://www.truetype.demon.co.uk/ttopen.htm
-
True Type Table Listing: http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=IWS-AppendixC
-
Adobe Open Type Specificaton v.1.4: http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_spec.html
-
For some light reading: The ‘Zapf’ Table http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TTRefMan/RM06/Chap6Zapf.html
Thanks for your good idea.
Dick Pape