Paperflame » fonts

Basic Font Anatomy

admin — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:34:40 +0000

After having played around with some font creation software, I found that the differences between the many different fonts to be most intriguing. I thought I would just provide a quick chart explaining the basics of font anatomy. Now realize, this is a pretty basic explanation of the different parts of characters. I could go into much more depth, but I think these basics are a good start. It is not really necessary to know all these names, but knowing them can come in handy if you are ever talking about or explaining an element of a design you may have created. Not only that, but it makes you sound like you know what you are talking about… and now you will! I Hope this little chart I put together helps. Give it a go-over. Remember, knowledge is power!

Free Pixel Fonts: When. Where. How.

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:41:50 +0000

As a designer or not, you may or may not be aware that most fonts do not look very nice to the eye when they get too small. Even if anti-aliasing is used, the fonts just lose their clarity. The typographical cure to all this? Pixel Fonts. No anti-aliasing needed. Pure Pixels. Created for the digital pixel screen used by computers, they are a refreshing answer to the fuzzy font blues.

Pixel Fonts are created by their designers at specific sizes and should only be shown at that size or in specific multiples. You cannot randomly scale the size of Pixel Fonts and do not use “points” to specify the font size – only use pixel size. They will not look correct otherwise. Also, as I said before, Pixel Fonts were created so as not to use anti-aliasing. Make sure you set anti-aliasing to “none” when using this type of font. If it is an anti-aliasing font that you want, then your reading the wrong post!

Now lets get on with this. Some of the best uses of pixel fonts I have seen are incorporated in websites designed with flash. Pixel Fonts are commonly used in some of those ultra slick and modern flash websites (you know what I’m talking about). Slowly, the Web 2.0 flavor has phased out that look somewhat, but I still come across quite a few of these sites. Do realize, that you don’t need to be some Flash guru or what-not to use Pixel Fonts. There are many uses for them, but I suggest using them sparingly and only where needed. They work great in navigation buttons, footer text (copyrights), captions and sometimes entire sites incorporate Pixel Fonts. Just use them wisely.

One of the great things (that I am always surprised by) is that there are many different Pixel Fonts available. One would think that designing fonts with only pixels would have it’s creative limitations, but it doesn’t. I am always greatfull to see all of the different (and unusual) Pixel Font styles that are available to us. The most widely used and famous Pixel Font is a font named “Mini 7″. It has been used all over the net. Magically created by Joe Gillespie, it can be had for $15 at www.minifonts.com. I know I know, this post is titled FREE Pixel Fonts. I will get to that. The thing is “Mini 7″ has celebrity status on the web, so I had to introduce you to the local star on the scene. Now, on with the Free Pixel Fonts…

Free Pixel Fonts – This should at least get you started. I will add more as I find them.
www.wantedfonts.com
www.dafont.com
www.fontsforflash.com
www.highfonts.com
www.beex.net
www.gosub.de
www.dsg4.com
www.vectorize.de
www.kottke.org
www.bestflashanimationsite.com
www.designerinaction.de

You can even create your own here at BitFontMaker and you should also check out their BitFont Museum.

Please remember to respect any copyrights and usage rights that accompany fonts. Thanks.

Check back… I will constantly be updating the free Pixel Font list.

Handwriting Font – Olicana by Nick Cooke

admin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:59:04 +0000

Feast your eyes on this very authentic handwriting font by Nick Cooke who studied Graphic Design at Blackpool College. I love how this handwriting font exudes the “inky” feel that it does. Full of imperfections and irregularities it really makes one believe at first glance that you may be looking at real handwriting. Real enough that you may find yourself looking around for a feather and a well of India ink. The font asks nothing of you and seems content within it’s own obvious imperfection. I find it both elegant and sloppy at the same time. Available in both rough and smooth versions, it’s possibilities become even more apparent. I prefer the “Don Johnson” stubbly rough version. Also included are Ink splats and scratchy lines to really heighten the effect. This is not a free font, and I am not suggesting that you purchase. I just wanted to show and tell.

Olicana by Nick Cooke

Killer Site #5: Artist TSANG Kin-Wah

admin — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:54:55 +0000

TSANG Kin-Wah creates some really interesting work. Born in Guangdong, China he then moved to Hong Kong about 6 years later. He has also had many successful exhibitions. His work is unique and seems to strive to show the “truth” behind things. More than what is just perceived. His goal seems to get the viewer to re-think things. I will let his art speak for itself. In this case, his site is considered a ”Killer Website” because he is a killer artist (must I always explain? LOL). A wonderful talent with motive.

TSANG Kin-Wah

Hungry For Fonts? Font Burner Serves It Up

admin — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:06:13 +0000

This a really neat idea. I think I may even try it on the Paperflame pages. Font Burner, hosted fonts. You say what!??!? Yeah they keep the fonts on their server and cast them up to your pages on the fly with only the need for a little block of code added to your web pages. Completely free, completely legit.

Font Burner

As you may or may not know websites are limited to what default fonts are on the viewers computer.. pretty boring, but this can also keep the web universe clean and I hate to say it “visually standardized” or should I say “Formatted”. It’s sort of like how Facebook has that clean cloned look – albeit inhibited (drives me nuts). Compare that to Myspace which is more of an everything goes service that lets you design your page the way you like on the most part. Now I am getting a little (way) off track. But the thought came out of nowhere and hit me upside the head. Oh what the heck.. let’s toss out these standards and get on with beautifying the net. The existing font sets we have on our home computers are the equivalent of bread and water and I smell something cookin’ over at the Font Burner website.

Font Burner uses Scalable Inman Flash Replacement (sIFR). SIFR is an open source project available to all and can be found at novemberborn.net. Font Burner uses valid XHTML and will validate. Now you don’t have to use a graphic to incorporate a neat font anymore. Font Burner is servin’ up a pixel feast for sure. I can’t wait to get home from my day job and give it a whirl!