New Downer font

[ktinkel]

Paperback by John Downer is an extended family of size-modeled text and display fonts, including sets of small caps and old style figures and a dingbat/ornament font.

The entire collection includes text fonts (in 6, 9, and 12-point models; with roman, small caps, bold, and italic, multiple styles of figures and fractions, historic ligatures, and ornaments); and display (in 24, 48, and 96-point masters in roman and italic). The two sets are also available separately.

Available for Mac OS X, older Macs, and Windows.

From House Industries.

House is also offering a 10th anniversary retrospective book, House. Fancy printing (six colors, varnishes, variety of papers), five fonts included.

[Norman Hathaway]

i took his workshop last wednesday, on speedball lettering, and he just received the specimen booklets during the class.

not wild about the character shapes, but i support obsessive size modeling and shaping for ink traps/flow.

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by Norman Hathaway

not wild about the character shapes, but i support obsessive size modeling and shaping for ink traps/flow.

Me, too. The possibility of size-adjusted type was the great (unrealized) benefit of multiple master fonts. Maybe this approach will find wider favor among users.

I’m not gung-ho for the roman characters in Paperback either (but hasten to say that I have only seen the face in online specimens, which is not a fair showing).

I do like the italic, as it avoids that loose softness so common to many Century-like faces. I like the crispness, the horizontal serifs, the neat fit, and especially the k — the flirty kickup leg is charming (and easy to fit, too).

[Stephen Coles]

Other post-MM families with size-specific cuts: ITC Founder's Caslon, ITC Bodoni, Cycles, HTF Didot.

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by Stephen Coles

Other post-MM families with size-specific cuts: ITC Founder's Caslon, ITC Bodoni, Cycles, HTF Didot.

Actually, all of those were developed and released while multiple master fonts were still being produced at Adobe (and used and supported).

And all, for different reasons, were more effective than any of Adobe’s MM fonts with a size axis.

Monotype used to make size-modeled fonts, both photo and (a few) digital — Times Seven, for example. Typesetters were not particularly receptive, however. It was too much trouble to switch in the middle of a job, especially as clients often failed to notice the difference.

Always seems to work out that way, somehow. :-(

[donmcc]

> too much trouble to switch in the middle of a job

Or the shop was too cheap to buy two fonts. I remember using a marker to fill in ink traps in Avant Garde, where the company bought only the text size, which meant massive traps when used at 72 point.

Don McCahill

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by donmcc

Or the shop was too cheap to buy two fonts. I remember using a marker to fill in ink traps in Avant Garde, where the company bought only the text size, which meant massive traps when used at 72 point.

Yeah, that too.

I once produced a quarterly that used ITC Eras Ultra at about 80 point in the nameplate, and the client (running its own Compugraphic system) had only a text font and just blew it up. The traps made it look like a completely different face.

I think I finally redid it with Letraset, and swapped in a stat. Nobody seemed to notice, either way. Yikes.

[tphinney]

Paperback is a nice piece of work.

You know, I'm starting to think that there may be more people doing quite good text faces now than at any previous point in history.

Cheers,

T

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by tphinney

Paperback is a nice piece of work.

You know, I'm starting to think that there may be more people doing quite good text faces now than at any previous point in history.

Good thing, too. We need ’em.

Much as I love the classical revivals — Bembo; the Garamonds true and not, including Sabon and Granjon; Janson; etc. — it has been ages since I used any of them. Faces designed recently, even if they don’t sing to me fundamentally, work better for today’s printing qualities and reader (not to mention designer) taste.

So I am happy to see serious development in text types now. Surprised, somewhat, but happy.

[Norman Hathaway]

i think the craftsmanship on paperback is good- i just find the character shapes a bit quaint.

did you see the photolettering talk ? that was one of the few things i'd have liked to have seen at typecon.