Comments on: Recommend some great fonts

Question: Recommend some great fonts

Foci for Analysis — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:02:15 -0800

Which high quality fonts - mainly serifs/sans-serifs - can you recommend that should be in every designer's toolkit? I'm thinking about gorgeous and versatile fonts such as Helvetica, Futura, Frutiger, Franklin Gothic, Myriad, Garamond, Palatino, etc. Go on, get that list underneath your pillow because I really want to know!

By: Typographica

Typographica — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:08:54 -0800

There are far too many to list. Let's narrow it down. What sort of work do you do?

By: rokusan

rokusan — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:12:57 -0800

I could live happily without ever seeing Palatino or Futura again. The others you mention are lovely.

Like Typo says, this question is really really broad. Mainly serifs and sans-serifs? So slab-serifs are out, I suppose...

By: artdrectr

artdrectr — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:23:46 -0800

I recommend Palatino and Futura.
Sorry. The question is like asking what kinda music do you like. (I like 'high quality' music).

By: wabbittwax

wabbittwax — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:35:14 -0800

It is a broad question.

There are some designers who would say all you need are two typefaces, a serif and a sans-serif, because the typeface shouldn't be the center of attention, it should simply serve its purpose. They might say Helvetica and Times are all you need.

There are some designers who like a to use a different font everyday. For them fonts are a fun way to express a mood and there's a perfect individual font out there for every task. For these folks, no list of typefaces could ever be long enough.

I recommend seeking out the documentary Helvetica, which is a lot of fun for font geeks and kind of a good primer overall.

As for me, my default positions are Helvetica for sans serif and Caslon for serif

But I also like Garamond (particularly in italic), Futura, Univers, and Trajan if I'm feeling especially classical

There are obviously millions of other fonts out there and I use a lot of them, but I think it's simpler and more efficient to stick to a few nice clean fonts that you happen to like for your own design work.

Beyond that, it's worthwhile to be as informed as you can about what's out there and be able to identify fonts quickly when you need to. I've linked to a few Wikipedia entries in my post and I have to say their entries on typefaces are very good and a great place to start researching the history of typography.

By: Foci for Analysis

Foci for Analysis — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:44:36 -0800

Ah, I see. I guess what I really want to know is what characterizes great fonts. I mean, there are tons of fonts out there, so how do you figure out which are the better ones, especially if typography isn't part of your job? Maybe by looking at some really nice ones, I thought.

On preview: thanks wabbittwax, that's what I'm looking for.

By: Typographica

Typographica — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:48:41 -0800

Wabbit names many of the classics. Here are the best new typefaces of the last few years selected by a group of experts.

By: phunniemee

phunniemee — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:56:42 -0800

My favorite font is Gentium.

By: clearlydemon

clearlydemon — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:30:56 -0800

"A designer should use only these five typefaces: Bodoni, Helvetica, Times Roman, Century, and Futura." - Massimo Vignelli

I don't necessarily agree, but he has a point: your typography might make the design, but it can also be a crutch. If your design doesn't work with the basics, it might not work at all.

That said, here are some recommendations:

Typographica's favorite typefaces: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.

13 typefaces every graphic designer needs

By: signal

signal — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:42:03 -0800

It's a huge subject, not really easy to reduce to rules of thumb. Some people will tell you that the font's history, inspiration, etc, must match the subject matter, so a book about Renaissance painting has to be set in a humanist font, for example.
Other than that, the classics are classics for a reason, though some people abhor some widely used fonts like Helvetica.
My man Robert Bringhurst picks out about 40 useful typefaces at the end of The Elements of Typographic Style, which you should read just on account of it being the best book ever written about any subject whatsoever.

By: signal

signal — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:51:33 -0800

Oh, and my current faves are Swift , Neo Sans and TheSans.

By: killdevil

killdevil — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:06:54 -0800

The answers to this question that I asked back in 2005 may be helpful.

By: Cranialtorque

Cranialtorque — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:21:27 -0800

Oh, happy day! Someone actually wants to know about type. My essentials list (which is constantly being mentally revised) follows. My criteria are legibility, usefulness, and character, and I work (and enjoy working with) longer texts and information-design jobs. For this reason, my choices would be very suited for editorial, informational, and signage design; maybe less so for packaging design.

sans-serif:
- Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk: very similar to Helvetica but with more character. The Berthold foundry's cut has lots of weights and widths. Very useful for small text as well as display.
- Avenir: an update of Futura that is slightly more humanist and infinitely more readable, even in extended texts.
- Univers: A classic, can be used in almost any situation.
- Gill Sans: an unusual and beautiful typeface, unless you are British, in which case it is ubiquitous and beautiful. (I have a fantasy of waking up one morning to find all the Helvetica in the world replaced by Gill Sans. Common courtesy and smiles would increase 10%.)
- Syntax: looks very modern, but was actually designed in the 1950's.
- Eagle: more useful for labels/headers/display type than text. Bold, quirky, art-deco flavor.
- Myriad: clean, modern, useful. It's only drawback is that its being used everywhere by everyone all the time.
- Trade Gothic: a clean sans-serif that evokes mid-century modernism.

semi- or slab-serif:
- Optima: simply gorgeous. (Has recently been refreshed as Optima Nova by the original designer to take full advantage of digital type.)
- Caecilia: bold, beautiful, legible, useful. It appears overly designed at first glance, but is very sturdy even in long uses.

serif:
- Sabon: my hands-down favorite serif face; classically beautiful without being fussy.
- Caslon: The face to choose when you don't know what to use. If typefaces are construction materials, Caslon is red brick.
- Electra: a little fussy for long text, but beautiful letterforms make it fantastic for short texts and display use.
- Filosofia: the revival I turn to when a Bodoni is called for. (There have been so many cuts of Bodoni/Didot that just saying "Bodoni" is almost useless.)

newbies:
- Gotham: the beautiful sans-serif family now nearing ubiquity. A wide range of weights from ultra-thin to heavy. (Hoefler Type Foundry)
- Archer: the new slab-serif family, also with a huge range of weights, several in the ultra-thin range. I could imagine them being very useful in publishing and fashion. (also Hoefler Type Foundry.)
- Dolly: designed as a book typeface, appears too heavy at first glance (and may be too heavy for display use) but works incredibly well in extended texts. Only 4 styles; roman, italic, smallcaps, and bold; all you really need for a book. (Underware type foundry.)

digital: (specifically for web & onscreen use)
- Verdana: really the only typeface I ever spec for web & onscreen reading. Only one of a handful of faces out there that are well-designed specifically for this purpose.
- Georgia: If you had to spec a serif face for for web & onscreen, this is it.

By: oaf

oaf — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:27:16 -0800

Benguiat.

By: DarlingBri

DarlingBri — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:28:26 -0800

There are a lot of good fonts out there, not all of which are well known but many of which are useful. The problem with non-professional fonts from Joe Shmoe instead of a proper type foundry is that the spacing between the letters is often fairly crap and requires manual, letter by letter adjustment, which sucks.

It also depends if you want body fonts or display fonts, but I most often use Gil, Aviner, Helvetica, Berlin, Helvector Geometric, Officina, and the world's best font, Syntax. Trade Gothic is an excellent, readable body type, too.

By: Foci for Analysis

Foci for Analysis — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:23:05 -0800

Now we're talking! Thanks everyone for your suggestions (especially you, Cranialtorque!). It's interesting how certain fonts keep popping up.

By: snuffleupagus

snuffleupagus — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:29:41 -0800

Goudy Old Style

By: jjno

jjno — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:55:23 -0800

Here's a good list of 30 fonts that I bookmarked a few months back.

By: DarlingBri

DarlingBri — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:35:13 -0800

Here's a good list of 30 fonts that I bookmarked a few months back.

That's a great list, made even more awesome by the inclusion of Vag Rounded.

By: spyke23

spyke23 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:52:24 -0800

gill sans every time, din mittelschrift, and gotham is indeed lovely for sans serifs.

By: netbros

netbros — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:22:45 -0800

A fine article about CSS font stacks.

By: wundermint

wundermint — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:40:02 -0800

I'm coming in a bit late here, but I recently found this list on the Thinking With Type site (from the book of the same title) and I remembered your post. I like how they are presented with info telling who designed it when. ...And one of the fonts listed is called "Meta" :)