The League's Typelog

The Blog of the Infamous League of Moveable Type, the first open-source type foundry.

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

We're super excited to introduce a new member to our catalogue – League Spartan. We've been working on this one a while, and we're starting out by releasing a single, bold weight. It's a beautiful, modern geometric sans-serif, and we've actually been secretly using it on our own site for the last few months. It's superb. You'll love it.

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

Tyler Finck's helping his son sell his first font, and it is awesome. All the money earned goes directly to the kid's savings account. Let's share this, and buy copies, and show Jonah how great he is. [$5 - Go buy a copy](http://theleagueof.co/1goiVe8)

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

Sriracha, a documentary by Griffin Hammond, with @finck's Ostrich Sans everywhere. The Los Angeles Times says its the hottest movie of 2013. Get it? It looks awesome.

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

Awesome, creative music video for Ophelia from @octochamp using Ostrich Sans. Well done.

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

So flipping cool. Custom type design for a saw mill from @carterwongthink, via @finck

[hitrecord]

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

The new hitRECord TV show is fantastic, and their use of League Gothic everywhere is so insanely exciting. We love it. Go watch it.

YouTube | iTunes | Amazon | Hulu

Keep up the awesome work, guys.

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

What the %$#0 is kerning?

If ever there were a popular question, it’d be that.

With or without a curse word, it’s a question that we’ve gotten asked countless of times – “What is it? Do I need to understand it? How’s it work?”

Kerning is an essential part of finishing a good font. Notice I use the word font, as opposed to typeface; that’s because I’m about to explain what kerning is – in terms of software, and how you use it.

Long ago, in a galaxy that looks suspiciously similar to ours, people made documents by placing tiny little chunks of metal that were molded into the shapes of letterforms onto a plate, and then covering them with ink to press into a piece of paper. Back then, a typographer’s job was to do the same thing you do now (choosing excellent fonts for the piece you’re designing, and laying it out in a beautiful and readable way) – but the fact that they had to arrange each individual letter on the page meant that they were ultimately in complete, minute control of spacing.

Nowadays, of course, we have InDesign and Photoshop and Pages.

But as difficult as it sounds to have to arrange each of those individual letters, there’s a skill that came from it that we just don’t get taught as inherently as we once might have. We haven’t all learned the skill of determining optimal spacing between each letter.

For the sake of discussion, let’s just say “optimal” and “readable” are the same. And the thing is, not all letters are weighted equally. When you’ve got an A next to a Y, there may be a funny negative space there that just doesn’t match. There’s sometimes too much negative space next to a lowercase c – that’s just how it works sometimes. As a designer, your eye will over time start sensing when some spacing is off, but unlike the typographers of yore, most of us honestly weren’t trained with that level of detail.

The difference of the present, though, is that now, fonts – i.e. the piece of software that enables you to use a typeface – almost always come with special rules that the type designer has determined are the optimal spacing between letterforms.

So I’ll just come right out and say it. Kerning is the spacing adjustments of individual characters that comes embedded in the font you installed.

Above is an example of Orbitron with kerning shut off and kerning turned back on. I didn’t manually adjust that spacing, though tools like Photoshop & InDesign do let me if I personally feel like it should be different.

In general, the type designer’s kerning suggestions are your friend. He or she has most likely spent a great deal of time going between individual letter pairs and tweaking spacing with his or her trained eye – use that to your advantage.

So how do you make sure kerning is on?

It depends on what you’re using, of course.

If you’re using Microsoft Word, I recommend quitting immediately. But you know, if you have to, I’m told kerning is shut off by default, and you have to find the Font Window, open Advanced, and check a box that says “Kerning for fonts XX points and above.” Set it to 8 or so.

If you’re making a website, and using CSS, the cautious designer’s best bet at the moment is to set text-ren­der­ing: optimizeLegibility; for headings, and leave the body as-is. Which is only because some browsers still have one or two tiny bugs about it, and it can slow stuff down a bit for mobile phones.

If you’re using Adobe InDesign, or Photoshop, or Illustrator, it may already be on. Check your character pallet for a symbol that looks like a V/A (hover over and a tooltip will say it’s the kerning tool). Use Metric.

And, little known tip – despite the fact that Optical sounds way better, it’ll actually ignore the font’s embedded kerning and apply it’s own mathematical ones. So choosing Metric makes sure you’re using kerning that was suggested by the designer.

So there you have it. Designers, that’s kerning. Getting into how to set up kerning in your own font is a tutorial for another day; possibly it’s own chapter in a future font-making book. But hopefully that gives you a little insight into how to make good use of the kerning that’s there, and why it is what it is.

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

Logo Design & The Art of Modifying

Not too long ago, we got a really great email.

In response to one of the newsletters about modifying open-source fonts, our new friend David asked us this:

"Can you modify typefaces that don’t have OFL licenses? Also, have any advice on using type in logo designs, if that’s not too much of a stretch?" - David

Definitely not a stretch. Let’s talk shop.

Now, you may not be solely an identity designer, but there’s no real debating the benefit of a good logo – it’s the basis for your brand & describes your personality, like a stamp on everything you put your name on. Back when I was graduating college, I remember every single one of my classmates had made themselves a logo for their name, so when they were sending out resumes, potential employers could instantly get a feel for your design sense and who you are professionally. The same goes for branding companies, of course, which we learned when we launched A Good Company back in the day.

So before we answer everything, let’s quickly touch on picking out typefaces. Granted, coming from the last few years of designing identities for new companies & awesome startups, the fact is that you can’t really come up with rules that fit everybody. But for the sake of being helpful, a few good tips to keep in mind:

Make ’em solid. In our experience, the best logos are the ones that feel like they’re confident in who they are. Sometimes that means a bold font, sure, and sometimes it means the opposite, but find something to weigh it down, or give it strength to stand on it’s own.

Make ’em simple. Common consumer-society-sense says that logos need to be unique, but here’s the truth: your entire brand is what matters, not just one piece. So make the logo simple, with maybe a tiny twist. Just keep in mind simple is always better.

Make ’em honest. Because the whole brand matters, your logo should somehow, in the context of the entire company, at least feel like the type of company you want to be.

Now, I’ve collected a couple examples to show you, demonstrating those tips, and what modifying can mean. The logos are copyrighted to their respective companies, and likewise with the fonts & their makers, but you’re visual, and so are we, so let’s see some things.

Facebook is a fantastic example, because it totally matches all those points. It sits squarely on that page, it’s super simple, and it’s an interesting mix of modern & a little fun.

In terms of modification, we’re talking subtle here. Like, holy-crap-thats-subtle subtle. But look closely, and you’ll see a few of those letters are different – wider c, wider e, the k is all connected. That bowl on the a sticks out a bit more, and the top has been bent to align with the crossbar on the f.

Next up, let’s peek on our friends at Foursquare. The tracking is tight, but that’s not modifying – what counts is chopping & extending that f, and carving off endpoints to match the curves of the letters next to it.

This one’s a classic, and at first glance, almost too simple to count, right? "That’s just Helvetica, with a weird capital C." Yes. But. Crate & Barrel is awesome in terms of branding – it’s their whole aesthetic beyond the logo that makes it all fit.

And this one’s a great one. Partially cuz I like TV, but mostly because we’re finally talking real modification here. I’ll admit, this one comes without definitive proof in my research – Futura is my best guess. But whether the designers literally moved points around, or just had something like it in mind, what we’re talking about here is a drastically different visual change.

And that’s totally fair game. For you, designing your logos, whether for clients or yourself – you can, and probably should, make those typefaces unique. You have to follow the license you bought, or at least know the basics of licensing, but by bringing your font into Illustrator (or something like it) and outlining it so it’s just simple vector lines & shapes, you’re no longer working with a font, just the shapes that make up the typeface.

Which gives you freedom to tinker, even with what started as a commercial font, to make something as unique & personal as your creative head can imagine.

Good luck! If you have any more questions, just email us.

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

The Font You Bought's Only Good For One Thing

If you've ever bought a font – even a really, really fantastic font – you were no doubt, at one time, confused.

The thing is, most font foundries make it complicated. Or hard. And as designers, we're used to wearing different hats – Photoshop Tuesday, coding Wednesday, blogging on Thursday – but one most of us aren't really that great at is taking extra time out from designing to trudge through dense EULA jargon before using one of those fonts. And if you find yourself considering plunking down $30 or $50 or $100 on a new one, you better know what it is you're planning on using it for – if you pick the wrong license you're gonna have to bust that wallet out all over again. Most designers – nay, people – I've ever met have at least some amount of issue with spending money on stuff they can't actually use.

But those licenses doesn't have to be entirely confusing.

See, over the past couple years running The League (and being designers ourselves over at A Good Company) I've come to learn that there's basically only a few general types of licenses.

You've got your Desktop & Print licenses – those are the ones you're probably used to buying. They're the cheapest, usually, and are really just meant for use making static images.

Then you've got your Web Licenses, which are specific to embedding those fonts on your website.

And you've got your App & E-Book licenses, which usually cost at least an arm & a leg, but let you use a font in your awesome new iPhone app or downloadable e-book.

A fun fact (that is less than common knowledge) is simply that for most commercial foundries out there, each of those licenses are separate and have their own pricing model. If you buy a regular desktop license, and you try to embed that sucker on your website, you're in trouble. Like, get-ready-for-an-email-saying-you'll-get-sued kind of trouble. Because here's the other even lesser known whammy – when you buy a font, you don't actually own anything. Despite the fact that you're holding a font file in your digital fingers, all you've got is a contract with that font foundry, to use it in one particular way or another. Anything more & you're technically breaking the law.

Ok, so knowing that – now what? There's a lot of gotchas with licenses that designers today have to be prepared for. Which, honestly, is why we wrote our first book about licensing. We wanted something quick & easy & basic, because we feel like everybody ought to have that sort of simple foundation knowledge under their belt before they get in trouble. And we wish we'd had something like that when we were starting out.

So if you're at all interested in learning the basics of what you can & cannot do with the fonts you've got (or want to get) – you should definitely go check that shit out.

And – for the record – you'll probably be hearing a lot more from us in the near future. We've been writing a lot lately on our newsletter, and I think it's time for us to give the blog some love, too.

So keep your ears to the ground.

Check Out Our New Book

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

What this font says about you: “I am strong, assertive, and cry without fail whenever I watch Titanic.”

Very excited to be featured on Buzzfeed! 20 Life-Changing Fonts You Can Download For Free

[magtotoart]

Practicing my very rusty calligraphy skills. Really enjoying it. I dream about it now.

[hitrecordjoe]

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

So very excited to see League Gothic at the movies. #DonJon looks incredible.

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

The only thing more awesome than Assassin's Creed in the Golden Age of Pirates is the fact they're using League Gothic. So awesome.

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

This just in! Awesome new work from Tyler – two new styles of Ostrich Sans, dubbed Ostrich Sans Inline. With an international character set, and an italic version, let's show @finck some love and say thank you!

[flatshoestattoos-blog]

font friday

The above message came by way of a very special fortune cookie a few years ago. Sometimes we need to be reminded, & that’s OKAY. As long as we remember. We all create in different ways—whatever that means to you, please don’t stop.

Featuring a bold slab serif typeface aptly titled, chunk (c/o The League of Moveable Type). By the way—if you’ve never heard of these guys before, you should definitely check ‘em out. Their open-source mission and manifesto is inspiring.

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

They're back at it! You might remember [our last blog post](http://blog.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/post/26098816764/our-pal-kyle-fox-helped-put-together-an) about the [Crafting Type](http://craftingtype.com/) workshop, and they've got another one coming up. It's a not-for-profit workshop that teaches the basics of making a typeface, from drawing to finished font, and it's run by some extremely fantastic typographers – Dave Crossland, Alexei Vanyashin, Eben Sorkin, Octavio Pardo & Vernon Adams. The next one's coming up soon, with pricing for students, association members, and professionals:

Feb. 2-3-4 MIT Civic Media Center The Media Laboratory Wiesner Buildin E15, Room 344 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA 02139

Go check it out ([http://craftingtype.com/](http://craftingtype.com/)) and then show us what you make!

[micahrich]

[theleagueofmoveabletype]

Got a surprise in the mail today! Excited to be included in Hans Lijklema’s Free Font Index again. You can buy a copy on Amazon or in any Barnes & Noble. #published