Articles & Essays

• David Hebrew: The First Multi-Style Hebrew Typeface Family

  Shani Avni

  Ismar David was a remarkable type designer who began creating an innovative Hebrew typeface design in the 1930s. The resulting multi-style family contained features that would be considered ground breaking for decades…

• Braille, A Tactile Writing System

  Jonathan Fabreguettes

  It would take a type designer well acquainted with Braille, the writing system used by the blind and the visually impaired, to arrive at the conclusion that even this centuries-old system of…

• Display Phototype in New York: Folks, Firms and Fonts

  Peter Bain

  There wasn’t a place on Earth that photocomposition had a greater visual effect than on the New York advertising scene in the mid-20th century. The liberation from the limitations of metal type…

• Trump Mediaeval: The Story of its Creation

  Norbert Krausz

  Trump Mediaeval is one of those versatile typefaces that book designers turn to when they want something decidedly different from the usual book types (Garamond et al.). Norbert Krausz tells the story…

• Modularity: An Elemental Approach to Type Design

  Aoife Mooney

  The term “elemental approach” is used in this exceptional essay to describe an approach to design that seeks to reduce and rationalize the characteristics of the Latin alphabet. Aoife Mooney acquaints us…

• The Design of Multilingual Type Families

  Jonathan Perez

  Type designers often strive for a new interpretation of letter forms, but Jonathan Perez seems just as interested in developing new design processes to better address an era of increasing multilingual communication…

• Frederic Warde: New York State of Mind

  Simon Loxley

  The book and type designer Frederic Warde is little more than a phantom in most histories of type, known only for creating the typeface Arrighi, and for being the husband of the…

• Aesthetic Innovation in Indigenous Typefaces: Designing a Lushootseed Font

  Juliet Shen

  It’s still possible for a type designer to create a single typeface and have an impact on an entire language and culture. Juliet Shen did just that when she designed a Lushootseed…

• Copte Scripte, Design of a Coptic Font for Science and Publishing

  Jonathan Perez

  The design of a typeface is often a solo effort – the result of the ideation and perseverance of a single designer. The aspect of teamwork usually appears only in type houses…

• The Scribe and the Silhouette

  Mark Jamra

  Rudolf Koch (1876–1934) was an artist-craftsman of tremendous capabilities and one of the great type designers of the twentieth century. As a scribe, he created works in blackletter of such breathtaking energy…