Desert Island Fonts - Round 3 | June 27, 2005
If you could only buy 6 fonts, what would they be?
Dan Cederholm
Triplex
I’d have to have this one, as it’s used in the SimpleBits logo. I really dig the “e”.
Mini7
Especially “Condensed”. Can’t live without this one for tiny interface bits.
Comic Sans
Gotcha.
VAG Rounded
I just purchased this for a project, and I’m loving it’s friendly roundness. So much better than Arial Rounded.
DIN
So common, but so euro-sans great.
Prensa
I need a serif. This one is quite nice.
Richard Rutter
Myriad Pro
A highly screen readable, modern sans-serif. And it’s our corporate typeface.
Lucida Bright
A serif accompaniment to Lucida Grande (and designed to be readable on screen and in print). The italic is also infinitely superior to Georgia.
Minion Pro
An elegant, highly readable Garamond derivative by Robert Slimbach (who also designed Myriad). My serif of choice for printed body copy. Works well on screen for headings and has a fabulous true italic.
Syntax
A tight, tidy sans-serif that works well with Minion. Would be good for clients keen on classic rather than modern typographical feel.
Univers
Because you should always have a grotesque in your armoury, and this is a classic designed by Adrian Frutiger. Comes in heaps of different weights.
Avenir
A fairly random sixth choice, chosen for its flexibility. Modern sans-serif for headings that works well in all sizes.
Jason Santa Maria
Franklin Gothic
Good big and small, for headlines and body copy. It’s a workhorse a sans serif.
Garamond
The grand daddy classic. It hurts to think of how many fonts were based off of Garamond (like the also gorgeous Sabon). It’s a beautiful achievement and a quintessential face.
Unibody
One of the only pixel fonts that really matters, and includes the best pixel italic around. It’s more readable and practical than Mini 7, and carries quite a bit more personality.
Caslon
Dependable and flexible as hell. Caslon drips with sophistication.
Gill Sans
Stylish and subdued in the same breath, and nothing more than it needs to be.
Freight Family
A new face on the block, but oh so grand. Perfectly readable at minute sizes, breathtaking in a headline and a pleasure to set. You could use this font 10 different ways and not get sick of it.
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Any chance of linking up Dan and Richard’s fonts? I’ve been really enjoying clicking through everyone’s choices… A few surprises in there!
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I’d like to echo Mike’s request. Checking out the fonts is the best parts of these articles.
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Lovin’ these “Fuck Comic Sans” and “DIN” t-shirts.
DIN’s a great and versatile font, but as common as muck. BTExtraBold is very similar, but ever-so-slightly curved at the tips, and is great to use. Unfortunately I think I’m only really allowed to use it on projects for BT, since it’s not a publicly available font. Should be though!
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What did you design your button for that master class in that is on your left side bar? Photoshop? If so how’d you go about doing it?
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Yeah, but why bother purchasing all these fonts when we are restricted to what fonts we can use on a PC. Image Replacement Text - fair enough, but for everything else like dynamically created text you have to use safe fonts. Or am I wide of the mark here?
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I love Myriad and Minion, we’ve used them as our official fonts for letters, contracts and brochures. Both very beautiful and highly versatile in their use.
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“why bother purchasing all these fonts when we are restricted to what fonts we can use on a PC.”
Nick: CD covers, magazines, portfolios, leaflets, books, advertising, posters…it’s not all about web design. Also, where I’m working at the moment makes a lot of websites for books, so we tend to use the book cover fonts for graphical headers for the site — they’re admittedly usually static sites, though, but sIFR is available for dynamic replacement…
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Who are these people on your survey? It’s a weak list.You forgot to include Dean Allen in your survey:
http://textism.com/textfaces/
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