TypEdu | Theory Lesson Listing

These are short texts I use in my classes to give a theoretical backbone that supports the practical, hands-on work. The texts range from general computer use to graphic design and type design. To see examples of the practical exercises that go along with these texts please turn to the Work section of this site.

When you go ahead and study these texts please remember that this is just me having a stab at the subject matter and all of these ideas might all be completely wrong. Read it with a critical mind, try to come up with better concepts for explaining type and then let me know.

As I am transferring the texts from the old website to this new one here I have introduced a little indicator light to show which articles are available here already. Green means yes the link works, red obviously says nope, the link will take you to an empty page. Now there is a third one, empty and grey which means there is something but it's not finished and might need a lot of work. As ever your input is highly appreciated.

Hannes Famira · Sep 12,’07

Before Design Starts

№ 00

Writing

Writing roman and itallic letterforms with the broad edged and the pointed nib dip pen forms a solid foundation for all further study of type. The instruction is simple and craft oriented. Getting aquainted with the pen and it's behavior on paper informs all future design endeavors.

Design Basics

Four basic lessons to understand type design theory.

№ 01

The Design Space

Understanding type design in terms of navigating a multi-dimensional space containing all possible shapes opens the door to real creative thinking.

№ 02

The Letter Model for Translation Typefaces

This modular system of building blocks illustrates the analogy of shapes throughout the alphabet. It turns writing with the broad nibbed pen into a tool for understanding the anatomy of the lower case alphabet.

№ 03

The Two Kinds of Contrast

The two basic types of writing tool — rigid vs. flexible — are essential for understanding the nature of contrast in writing and by extension in type design. In the conceptual model of the design space expansion and translation form one dimension.

№ 04

Two Types of Construction

Roman and italic, different motions in writing result in different character shapes.

Computer Basics

Before starting to get into the type design application there are a few basic skills to address.

№ 05

The Keyboard

An overview of the keyboard of your Mac. What are the keys called and where can I find them? Most of the lessons farther down the list here will refere to the keys, which is one reason why it makes sense to memorize their names.

№ 06

The Job Folder

It seems trivial but when you start using the computer beyond browsing the web or writing emails, when you start actually creating things all of a sudden it becomes very important to store your files in a structured manner. There is a way to set up your job folder that is basically good practise and that will one day definitely save your bacon.

FontLab Studio v.5

№ 07

Getting Started with FontLab Studio

First things first: Setting up the application's Preferences and View Options to create the optimal workspace.

№ 08

Font Info

There is a lot of information that ends up in a font file which goes beyond the actual drawings of glyphs. It is important to know which of the settings need to be taken care of.

№ 09

Bugs and Errors

Software bugs, advise and work-arounds for common software bugs and error messages.

Vectorizing

Technical know-how for creating fonts for the computer from hand drawn letter forms.

№ 10

Nodes

Different kinds of control points and the point structure, places where points belong.

№ 11

Drawing Tools

The drawing tools in different software applications.

№ 12

Good Curves

Four simple rules to help you build good curves

№ 13

Auto Tracing

From a scan to a font file in three easy steps.

Metrics

№ 14

Spacing

Strategies and steps to take when spacing characters in a font.

№ 15

Kerning

Strategies and steps to take when kerning character pairs in a font.

№ 16

Different Metrics Applications

Editing metrics data in FontLab Studio and other dedicated apps.

Accents and Diacritics

№ 17

Different Accenting Applications

Working with components or composite characters in FontLab Studio and in other dedicated apps.

A very good reference for shape and position of diacritics of all sorts is the Diacritics Project.

№ 18

Locations

Placing accents

Custom Glyphs

№ 19

Encoding

Adding glyphs to a font and crating a custom encoding file.

№ 20

OpenType Features

Different substitution features (like ligatures, swash characters or stylistic alternates) make custom glyphs acessible for design applications.

Hinting

№ 21

FontLab Studio

Auto-hinting and Type 1 hints in FontLab Studio

№ 22

VTT, Microsoft Visual TrueType

The Font File

№ 23

Font Formates

Th different file formats PostScript Type1, TrueType, OpenType and their qualities.

№ 24

Generating a Font File

Different file formats for different platforms.

№ 25

The Rasterizer

Different algorythms that turn splines into pixels.

№ 26

Resolution

What does the output resolution mean for to a font.

Online Resources

For many problems in type design there are excellent websites providing free information. These are sites that I turn to.

Untill this list grows too long it will stay here on this page

№ 27

More Knowledge on the Web

Community

Online community Typophile
Typebase is an outstanding list of foundries and designers compiled by connoisseur Donald Roos

Resources

The interactive Unicode database DecodeUnicode
EKI, the letter database
OT-Feature Tags at Adobe
Adobe, glyph naming syntax
Adobe, glyph list
Diacritics, a project by Typo.cz and Desiniq.cz
Polish Diacritics by Adam Twardoch
Mark Jamra's Academic Resource

Software

Fontfinagler, a type utility for garbled output (font cache cleaner)
Linotype's FontExplorer X an alternative for the FontBook
FontNuke a free tool for removing font cache files on Mac OS X
Tal Lemming's Typesupply
Multidimensional interpolation and extrapolation in Letterror's Superpolator
RoboFab is a Python library for FantLab

Letterpress

The printshop is a logical next step to follow the design process of a digital typeface. Here type design is integrated in the larger context of graphic design and realized in a historic production environment. This illustrates quite powerfully that digital type with its somewhat abstract quality eventually will end up as a very real thing, as ink on paper. The student examines how their own font holds up on the letterpress.

№ 28

Printshop Resources

When you get started in the printshop there are a number of supplies you will need. Here is a listing of essential addresses for polymer plates, metal dies, machine composed type and supplies for foil stamping.

№ 29

ATF Instruction Cards

These beautiful cards were probably used for the instruction of printer and typesetter apprentices.