Type News: In Particlear
One hundred: the atomic number of fermium, the year Trajan became consul — and the number of this edition of the Type News! So we should celebrate. The past week witnessed celebrations of Canada Day and Independence Day. Explosions! Freedom! Here’s something to go along for the ride:
And with that, put on your black tie — or at least your Sunday best: we’re going bowling. What.

When it was first released several years ago, Delve Withrington’s Tilden Sans was but a single face — light, stylish, and adaptable. Six new weights have been added to the family, increasing the range with a text-ready regular through to a beefy extra bold. The slightly condensed geometric construction features subtly rounded forms, incised lowercase terminals, and substantial x-height.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. There’s a lot to like about the way Dave Rowland describes Quayside — his latest baseball style display script. “Deliciously thick and bulbous” certainly hits all the right visual flavour points, but that just scratches the surface. The lineup of OpenType features is impressive, including plenty of alternates, expected and surprisingly clever ligatures, energetic swashes, and oldstyle figures.

His name may not be familiar, but Georg Salden has been designing type for over fifty years. His latest face is Daphne — a squat, squarish number inspired by his own broad-nib penmanship. Using the standard glyph set as a base, a nearly endless array of stylistic options can be applied — “clip-on” ascenders and descenders included — through the use of numerous alternates and calligraphic swash variations.
We might be light on new type, but we’re heavy on the linkbait, so here we go with “n links or topics to fill your time”:
- Nick Sherman shows off the incredible Dunlap Broadside.
- The interview of Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz from issue 82 of Eye magazine is now available online. You can also check out some of the images and captions from the interview.
- Yves Peters interviews the fine folks at Process Type Foundry.
- Find your Unicode codepoint from among the 110,181 in existence.
- Semicolons are difficult to use properly; they are nevertheless awesome.
- They found the Higgs Boson, maybe! (Jessica Kerr shares her thoughts about this “issue.”)
- Lo Siento created some interesting 4D typography.
- Matthew Tapia does some mighty fine work.
- Meet The Northern Block.
- Here’s a different kind of Declaration of Independence.
- At the news stand, the latest issue of Web Designer magazine features Richard Rutter on webfonts and cutting-edge web typography.
- Mr. Rutter also put together a great demo of OpenType in CSS.
- With a storm of high-pixel-density devices on the horizon, Jakob Nielsen once again wades into the Serif vs. Sans Serif debate.
- Three cheers for type and uniform design!
- Are you nuts about the nuts.com rebranding?
- Oooh, tattoos.
- Rimmer Type Foundry has returned to Canada.
- Frank Adebiaye recaps Typocamp 2012.
- Petrichor is an amazing smell — and a lovely word.
- The Type Directors Club profiled Mike Parker and has shared it on Vimeo.
- Let’s say you want to make a typeface. Think carefully before following this advice.
- Save Tio Pepe!
- Kris Vagner shines a spotlight on Frederic Goudy.
- Get a load of these photos from the Type and Media 2012 graduation exhibition.
- Is it TypeCon yet? Since you can still submit new typefaces for TypeGallery2012 and donate items for the silent auction, the answer might seem obvious.
- Elegantissima: The Design and Typography of Louise Fili is now available for preorder on Amazon.
- Speaking of preorders, take a look at these photos from the forthcoming Herb Lubalin: American Graphic Designer, and then try resisting the urge to buy, buy, buy it!
Oh, we have a couple more event-like things for your calendars, too:
- Head to Edmonton for “Crafting Type,” August 27–31.
- Join Ken Barber for “Building Bridges: The Stencil Letter and Typeface Design” at the Cooper Union, November 10–11.
At this point in the routine, I’d usually sign off, thank Grant Hutchinson for showing off some great new typefaces (thanks, Grant!), and call it a day. But this time I’d like to reminisce for a bit.
When we started the Type News, in an attempt to be witty about the whole enterprise, I opened with this excerpt from a Caslon specimen:
![The novelty of the present attempt, and some peculiarities in the execution of it, require that the reader should be addressed in a few words; first, to apprise him of what it is that he may expect to meet with in the volume before him, and, next, to bring him acquainted with the peculiarities of the above-mention’d. From what editions the several pieces were taken, is very faithfully related at the end of each piece; and the editor thinks he may with confidence affirm, that they are the first, and best, and […]](/media/blog/caslon_capell.jpg)
At the time, I had no idea where this column was headed or how it would take shape. I like where we’re at, but even more, I’m looking forward to seeing where this thing takes us in the next 100 (or more!) editions. We have some big plans for Typedia in the weeks and months ahead, and if our managing editor can get his shit together and ass in gear [Ed. — Hey, now.] I think you’ll like what we have in store. Meanwhile — see you next week!
Thanks to Grant Hutchinson for setting off all the fireworks at once. BOOM.
Comments are closed on this entry.
1.
Auré Jul 08, 2012
Congrats for the 100 !
It’s always a real pleasure to read the Type News, I hope you will continue to write this serie as long as possible :)
2.
Grant Hutchinson Jul 12, 2012
Thanks for the kind words, Auré. We’re definitely planning on sticking around and pumping out the Type News for a while yet.
Right, Erik?
Erik?
3.
Erik Vorhes Jul 14, 2012
Thanks, Auré!
Grant — you’ll have to pry the Type News from my cold, dead hands.
4.
Grant Hutchinson Jul 14, 2012
I ain’t pryin’ nothing.