FSI FontShop® International releases new FontFont®

BERLIN, GERMANY, April 2009 - FSI FontShop International announced the latest additions to its award-winning FontFont® typeface library.

The New FontFonts

FF Dingbats™ 2.0: The original FF Dingbats font package was designed in 1993 when there was no other symbol font available except Zapf Dingbats. The FF Dingbats package was the first with some 800 symbols and icons from the world of modern communication: faxes, ISDN, disks, keyboards... all absolutely usable. But over the following years times have been changing and quite a lot of pictograms for office communication are no longer needed – no-one uses floppy disks nowadays – or simply changed their appearance, so Johannes Erler and Henning Skibbe started a complete redesign two years ago. All pictograms have now been revised and adjusted according to the current stylistic vocabulary. Arrow and number fonts have been reworked and extended as well. All symbols have been sorted into clear categories, and the font “Strong Forms” includes the most needed symbols in a bolder version. Besides this, many symbols can be layered and coloured via an easy-to-use layering feature (see FF Dingbats 2.0 info guide PDF). All this makes FF Dingbats 2.0 a state-of-the-art font package again and probably the largest collection of contemporary symbols and icons for office communication.

FF Milo® was started in 2000 with the goal of a compact typeface with very low ascenders and descenders. Because of its compact design FF Milo is a workhorse typeface suitable for magazine and newspaper typography. It has modern bones with a touch of detail for distinction (especially in the italics). The name Milo is from a resilient grain and that's why the designer chose this name for the typeface. He wanted it to be a basic usable font like corn or grain is to any culture.

With the help of Paul van der Laan for kerning, spacing and production, Mike Abbink developed FF Milo Serif as a companion to the Sans, but it is also perfectly suitable as a stand alone typeface or used together with any other sans serif typeface. Like FF Milo, FF Milo Serif is a text face with the utmost legibility, perfect for setting newspapers and magazine copy. Although rooted with historical attributes it is truly a contemporary face. FF Milo Serif comes with SC, TF, OSF, LF as well as a wealth of ligatures. Like the Sans, FF Milo Serif is also a resilient grain!

FF Seria® Arabic, originally called Sada, by designer Pascal Zoghbi, is an Arabic type companion to FF Seria, designed in the nineties by Martin Majoor. The Arabic type family was part of the Typographic Matchmaking 01 project organised by the Khatt Foundation. Echo, which means “Sada” in Arabic, is the repetition of a sound caused by the reflection of sound waves from a surface. Accordingly, Sada/Seria Arabic is the echo of FF Seria. FF Seria Arabic is a young crispy type based on the Arabic Nasekh style. The Regular and Bold are text typefaces, the Light is both display and text type, while the Black is purely a display typeface.

The beta versions of Sada Regular and Sada Bold were released with the Typographic Matchmaking book in August 2007. The Arabic typeface works well together with FF Seria as with all modern serif fonts that share similar proportions and characteristics as Seria. FF Seria Arabic also functions as an independent Arabic modern type.

FF Seria Arabic combines basic Latin (Western) and Arabic character sets. As FF Seria does not have any Light and Black variants, the FF Seria Arabic Light comes with FF Seria Regular Western characters instead, while FF Seria Arabic Black contains the Western characters of FF Seria Bold. Type designer and engineer Hasan Abu Afash programmed the OpenType layout features that are needed for the Arabic script system.

FontFont Language Extensions and OpenType Versions

FF Balance Pro, FF Dolores® Pro, FF Milo® Pro, FF Oneleigh™ Pro, FF Backstage™ OT, FF Care Pack™ OT, FF Elegie™ OT, FF Merlin™ OT, FF Nelio™ OT, FF Ticket™ OT.

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont brand in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative digital typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of 130 designers worldwide, with over 4,000 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta®, FF DIN®, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit™, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release (Word, 32KB) and the showing (above, as PDF, 218KB) are available for download.

FSI FontShop® International releases new FontFont® designs, expands existing offerings

BERLIN, GERMANY, November 2008 - FSI FontShop International announced the latest additions to its award-winning FontFont® typeface library.

The New FontFonts

FF Mister K™ is a typeface inspired by manuscripts of Franz Kafka and named after main characters of the novels "Das Schloß" and "Der Prozess". Kafka's manuscripts reveal a unique handwriting style with strong calligraphic features. Looking closer, glyph shapes derived from the Latin as well as the German script popular in Austro-Hungary at the beginning of the 20th century can be distinguished in different texts. In designing the typeface, a balance had to be found between the Kafka's strong and partly excentric letterforms and new forms to enable a steady typographic flow. Technically, Mister K is in OpenType format and includes several hundred ligatures (2-, 3-, 4-characters), which reflect typical sequences in different languages and reduce repetitions, alternate glyphs for "high", "medium" and "low" connections and stylistic alternates allowing for different kinds of crosshatching, underlining, etc.

FontFont Language Extensions and OpenType Versions

FSI is continually expanding its library with OpenType versions and language extensions. This release includes OpenType and/or new language versions of FF Brokenscript™, FF Celeste® Small Text, FF Cocon™, FF Dax® Condensed Italic and Wide Italic, FF Dirty Faces™ 1, FF Fago™ Office Sans, FF Instant Types™, FF Moderne Gothics™, FF Reminga™, FF Sale™ and FF Signa™ Serif .

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont brand in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative digital typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of 130 designers worldwide, with over 4,000 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta®, FF DIN®, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit™, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release (Word, 28KB) and the showing (above, as PDF, 198KB) are available for download.

FSI FontShop® International releases new FontFont® designs, expands existing offerings

BERLIN, GERMANY, JULY 2008 - FSI FontShop International announced the latest additions to its award-winning FontFont® typeface library. The independent foundry released three new designs, expanded two favorites with new weights, and added language extensions and/or OpenType® upgrades to six other FontFont families.

The New FontFonts

FF Chambers™ Sans is based on the combination of static grotesque forms with the dynamic forms of a traditional antique typeface. This experiment of bringing together oppositional forms to create an harmonious unity was the idea for this typeface. In a historic scientific book from 1686 Verena Gerlach found a beautiful manually engraved Antiqua which inspired her for her own new typeface and which is still recognizable in the subtle classic appearance and the stressed diagonals of FF Chambers Sans. For a contemporary look Verena reduced the contrast by optically monolinear strokes. The rounded stroke endings make the typeface soft and legible.

Starting from the idea to develop a no-frills typeface with as little historical ballast as possible German designer Daniel Utz designed FF Netto™: He reduced the letter forms to their characteristic basic shapes and removed all dispensable details. He adjusted the stroke weight unobtrusively, keeping the geometric construction principle and thus optimizing legibility and balance of the typeface. Besides the alphabet Daniel designed a whole lot of icons and arrows - very useful for information and orientation systems.

FF Enzo™ by Swedish designer Tobias Kvant is a vigorous sans serif consisting of five weights, ranging from Thin to Black. It was inspired by type from the past as well as the present, giving it quite a unique look. Its short ascenders and descenders makes it a good headline face, ideal for magazines, posters and such, but it will work fine for body text as well.

Design Expansion of Existing FontFonts®

FF Max™ has been expanded with extra light and fat weights, along with italics and small caps for each. FF Quadraat® Sans has finally got its fourth family member, Bold Italic.

FontFont Language Extensions and OpenType Versions

In keeping with its mission to offer enhanced options to type users, FSI is continually expanding its library with OpenType versions and language extensions. This release includes extended versions of six families: FF Clair™, FF Dax™ Wide, FF Jambono™, FF Page™ Sans and Serif, and FF Trixie®. The Trixie OpenType series offers a number of improvements over the original design from 1991: bigger character sets, and more choice in roughness and texture.

New FontFont designs and additional upgrades are currently in production. For more information about the FontFont collection, its designers, and other news, please visit www.fontfont.com.

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont brand in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative digital typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of 130 designers worldwide, with over 4000 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta®, FF DIN®, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit™, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release (Word, 30KB) and the showing (above, as PDF, 168KB) are available for download.

FSI FontShop® International releases new FontFont® designs, expands existing offerings

BERLIN, GERMANY, JUNE 2008 - FSI FontShop International announced the latest additions to its award-winning FontFont® typeface library. The independent foundry released four new designs, expanded three favorites with new weights and/or styles, and added language extensions and/or OpenType® upgrades to 20 other FontFont families.

The New FontFonts

FF Cube™ is a geometric sans serif with an industrial modern flair. Danish designer Jan Maack drew FF Cube with open terminals and angled glyphs to evoke the feel of old handwriting interpreted by machines. Authoritative design details and a tall x-height offer a firm but friendly foundation for delivering powerful messages in both text and display applications. FF Cube features three weights in four widths, with complementary italics available for the condensed and regular styles.

Siegfried Rückel drew inspiration for FF Nuvo™ from the elegant extravagance of French magazines. The Berlin-based designer wanted to create a rounded typeface in an unconventional way. He drew FF Nuvo to take advantage of the visual limitations of the human eye: stroke endings appear soft when seen from a distance or at small point sizes, only revealing their peculiar forms when seen up close. This contemporary sans reveals a hint of calligraphic flair and includes a number of alternate characters for added versatility. This text and display family is available in five weights with companion italics and small caps.

Warsaw´s Lukasz Dziedzic drew the first incarnation of FF Pitu™ in 2002: a set of swash capitals accompanied by a lowercase combining characteristics of a Didone italic and a copperplate script. Used as a text face by the Polish weekly “Europa” until the magazine underwent a redesign, FF Pitu's striking blade-shaped stroke endings are softened by generous calligraphic loops with flirty "foxtail" terminals. Dziedzic expanded the initial face into a three-weight family and added a complete set of regularized Didone capitals and small caps.

Slovenian designer Mitja Miklavcic drew FF Tisa™ to meet the technological and aesthetic requirements of modern magazine use. His primary goal was to develop a softer, more dynamic version of a nineteenth-century slab serif wood type. A large x-height and pronounced serifs make FF Tisa extremely legible in text sizes, its unique design details - including slightly exaggerated ink traps and a fairly upright italic - becoming evident in display applications. FF Tisa is available in regular, medium, and bold weights, with italics and small caps.

Design Expansion of Existing FontFonts®

An earlier FontFont by Dziedzic, FF Clan™, has been made even more versatile with the introduction of complementary italics for each weight in the large type system. Italics and small caps are now available in the compressed, condensed, narrow, regular, wide, and extended variants, which feature seven weights from thin to ultra. German designer Hans Reichel's FF Daxline™ now boasts italics and italic small caps for its seven weights, ranging from thin to black. FF Milo™, by American innovator Michael Abbink, has been expanded with thin, extra light, and light weights, along with italics and small caps for each.

FontFont Language Extensions and OpenType Versions

In keeping with its mission to offer enhanced options to type users, FSI is continually expanding its library with OpenType versions and language extensions. This release includes extended versions of 20 families, including FF Clifford™, FF Dax™, FF Super Grotesk™, FF Transit™, and FF Zine™. New FontFont designs and additional upgrades are currently in production. For more information about the FontFont collection, its designers, and other news, please visit www.fontfont.com.

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont brand in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative digital typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of 130 designers worldwide, with over 3,900 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta®, FF DIN®, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit™, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release (Word, 34KB) and the showing (above, as PDF, 160KB) are available for download.

FSI FontShop® International releases new FontFont® typefaces, expands FF Celeste®, FF Dax®, FF Sari™, and others

BERLIN, GERMANY, February 2008 – FSI FontShop International announced the latest additions to its award-winning FontFont® typeface library. The independent foundry released three new type families and added language extensions and OpenType® upgrades to a selection of popular FontFonts.

The New FontFonts

FF Polymorph™ is an experimental typographic system inspired by characters found in languages all over the world. German designer Stefanie Schwarz selected approximately 500 characters from 43 scripts in the Unicode Standard – forms that evoked the shapes (but not necessarily the meaning) of Latin letters. She built four distinct sets of letterforms – Decoration, Serif, Loop, and Interruption – resulting in ten separate alphabets. FF Polymorph's decorative and abstract glyphs can be layered with the legible base character sets to create multi-colored effects or used alone as ornaments and patterns.

FF Unit™ Rounded started as a custom typeface Berlin-based Erik Spiekermann (with New York City's Christian Schwartz) developed for Gravis, the biggest Apple dealer in Germany. The brief called for a friendly yet precise design versatile enough for to be used in signage, T-shirts, print advertising, and onscreen. Spiekermann wanted to expand the family from the two base weights used by Gravis, and, with the help of Dutch type designer and programmer Erik van Blokland and his Superpolator technology, created multiple weights displaying varying degrees of roundness. FF Unit™ Rounded is available in six weights with complementary small caps for each.

Originally conceived as a headline typeface (in a thesis project dubbed Gazoline), FF Utility™ has evolved into a functional text typeface with an independent spirit. Inspired by familiar types like DIN and Franklin Gothic, Frankfurt designer Lukas Schneider's sassy sans boasts a technocratic attitude with a humanistic touch. FF Utility is comprised of five weights, each with four figure sets, and features alternate "g" and "a" characters for added typographic flexibility.

FontFont Language Extensions and OpenType Versions

In keeping with its mission to offer enhanced options to type users, FSI has announced language extensions to sixteen important FontFont families. FF Meta® Condensed Italic is now available with Baltic, Central European, Turkish, and Greek language support. FF Dax® Condensed, FF Fago™ Condensed, FF Fago™ Extended, FF Profile®, FF Sari™, FF Signa™ Condensed, FF Signa™ Extended, FF Zwo™, and FF Zwo™ Correspondence now include Baltic, Central European, and Turkish character sets, while FF Eureka®, FF Eureka® Mono, FF Eureka® Mono Condensed, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Eureka® Sans Condensed, and FF Fago™ have been upgraded to support Baltic and Turkish.

Type designers and type users worldwide have embraced the cross-platform OpenType format, which offers a wealth of advanced typographic features and extended language support. This release includes an OpenType Standard (Western language) upgrade for FF Celeste® Sans. Of the new FontFonts, FF Polymorph™ is available in OT Standard, with FF Utility™ and FF Unit™ Rounded available in both Standard and Pro (multilingual) versions.

New FontFont designs and additional upgrades are currently in production. For more information about the FontFont collection, its designers, and other news, please visit www.fontfont.com.

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont brand in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative digital typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of 130 designers worldwide, with over 3,900 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta®, FF DIN®, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit™, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release (Word, 34KB) and the showing (above, as PDF, 160KB) are available for download.

FSI FontShop® International releases FF OpenType versions of FF Tartine Script and FF Fago

December 2007 – FF Tartine, originally designed for food packaging, is also suitable for logos or in short texts. The new OpenType Pro version supports additional Latin languages (Baltic, CE, Turkish) as well as Greek and contains many alternative characters in all weights.

FF Fago is a true corporate typeface, the result of many years of experience with the challenges and requirements of complex corporate design projects. FF Fago offers a series of five finely balanced weights in three widths each, enough for every conceivable application. The new OpenType Pro version supports CE, Baltic and Turkish languages and a lot of special characters for all needs.

More information about FontFonts in OpenType format: www.fontfont.com/opentype/.

New FontFont designs and additional upgrades are currently in production. For more information about the FontFont collection, its designers, and other news, please visit www.fontfont.com.

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont brand in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative digital typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of 130 designers worldwide, with nearly 4000 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta®, FF DIN®, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit™, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release (Word, 36KB) and the showing (above, as PDF, 120KB) are available for download.

FSI FontShop® International releases FF Meta Serif

November 2007 – It took three years and three designers to develop FF Meta Serif: Erik Spiekermann, Christian Schwartz and Kris Sowersby. All through the nineties, Erik Spiekermann had made several attempts at designing a companion for his original Meta. Colleagues had frequently been asking him which serif face would best fit to FF Meta. He recommended Swift, Concorde, Minion, FF Clifford and others until he realized that he should just make his own serif Meta.

At the beginning of 2005 Erik finally admitted to himself that he was stuck – all of his sketches looked like Meta with serifs added, not like a serif typeface that could survive on its own. He needed fresh eyes, so he got Christian involved who, in turn, asked Kris to take on some of the workload.

Obviously, a serif Meta would need to fit in with the existing Meta family. After drawing the first weights the designers saw that there was still something wrong: the serifs were too strong so that both families didn't really go well together in the same line, despite identical x-heights. The theoretical approach obviously hadn't worked well enough, so they decided to trust their experience instead. They changed the metrics so that the letters are not mathematically identical, but optically the same. Now what you see is what you get. And they discarded the idea of a tighter spacing to make it appear darker. After much trying, comparing, generating fonts and printing out samples, the final formula for a new Meta was found: two percent heavier and two percent more condensed than the sans.

Erik van Blokland's sophisticated technology "Superpolator" helped to extend the family, although manual corrections were always necessary: the spirit of a typeface can still not be delegated to software.

The OpenType version of FF Meta Serif offers Book, Medium, Bold and Black, each including Italics and of course Small Caps, OSF, LF, TF and a range of arrows and other symbols. While it is a typeface that can stand up on its own in a wide range of applications, the extra benefit is its close relationship to the original Meta, its sans serif sister. The two families can be mixed in the same line and one can be used to accentuate the other. Using both on the same page adds variety and meaning to a text.

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont brand in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative digital typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of 130 designers worldwide, with over 3,900 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta®, FF DIN®, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit™, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release (Word, 36KB) and the showing (above, as PDF, 60KB) are available for download.

FSI FontShop® International releases FontFont OpenType Versions

October 2007 – Type designers and type users worldwide have embraced the cross-platform OpenType format, which offers a wealth of advanced typographic features and extended language support. This release includes OpenType Standard (Western language), OpenType Min (Western language, display encoding) or OpenType Pro (multilingual) versions of FF BeoSans Hard and Soft, FF Beowolf, FF Celeste, FF Dax Condensed, FF Eureka, FF Eureka Mono, FF Eureka Mono Condensed, FF Eureka Sans, FF Eureka Sans Condensed, FF Gothic, FF Legato, FF Meta Condensed Italic, FF Pop, FF Profile, FF Sari, FF Signa Condensed, FF Signa Extended, FF Soupbone, FF Strada, FF Strada Condensed, FF TradeMarker and FF Zwo.

More information about FontFonts in OpenType format: www.fontfont.com/opentype/

New FontFont designs and additional upgrades are currently in production. For more information about the FontFont collection, its designers, and other news, please visit www.fontfont.com.

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont brand in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative digital typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of 130 designers worldwide, with over 3,900 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta®, FF DIN®, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit™, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release (Word, 32KB) and the showing (above, as PDF, 184KB) are available for download.

FSI FontShop® International releases new FontFonts®, expands FF Absara®, FF Disturbance®, FF Seria® Sans, and others

BERLIN, GERMANY, May 2007 – FSI FontShop International announced the latest additions to its award-winning FontFont® typeface library. The independent foundry released five new type families and added language extensions and OpenType® upgrades to a selection of popular FontFonts.

The New FontFonts

FF Absara™ Headline adds power to French designer Xavier Duprés popular FontFont family. The new additions, available in both sans and serif versions, feature larger x-heights for enhanced readability, narrower characters for better fit, and black weights designed for maximum impact. FF Absara Headline features four weights in the serif family and six weights in the sans. The addition of these headline styles makes the FF Absara superfamily a versatile tool for publication design and other projects calling for multiple text and display types.

FF Atomium™ is the latest FontFont by Dutch designer and musician Donald Beekman. The rounded display typeface was part of a proposal for an underground electronic music festival in Amsterdam. Inspired by the Atomium building in Brussels, Beekman echoed its futuristic spherical architecture in his letterforms. FF Atomium features thin, regular, heavy, and outline fonts that can be stacked to create layered effects. A quirky set of dingbats rounds out the family.

FF Good™ is the second FontFont family by Warsaw’s Lukasz Dziedzic. Originally intended as the new text type for the redesign of a newsweekly, FF Good is a readable sans with an informal personality. FF Good is seen in the pages of Polish-language tech magazine Komputer Swiat, while the Cyrillic is used in the Russian edition of British celebrity tabloid OK! FF Good features three weights and complementary small caps in regular, condensed, and wide widths.

FF Holmen™ is a book text family by Danish designer Per Baasch Jørgensen. Commissioned by a publishing house for a Hans Christian Andersen novel, the brief called for a "neoclassicist" typeface. Although inspired by the classical elegance of Bodoni and Didot, Jørgensen incorporated modern features for a contemporary appearance and improved readability. FF Holmen includes regular and bold weights with italics, small caps, and a titling version.

FF Speak™ is a humanist sans serif from a new FontFont designer, Denmark’s Jan Maack. With FF Speak, Maack wanted to capture the tone of voice of youthful conversation. He created smooth but lively letterforms that would evoke different intonations depending on the weights and ligatures used. FF Speak features light, regular, bold, and heavy weights with companion italics.

FontFont Language Extensions and OpenType Versions

In keeping with its mission to offer enhanced options to type users, FSI has announced language extensions to important FontFont families. FF Good™ includes Baltic, Central European, Cyrillic, and Turkish character sets, while FF QType™ and FF Seria® Sans have been upgraded to support Baltic, Central European, and Turkish languages.

Type designers and type users worldwide have embraced the cross-platform OpenType format, which offers a wealth of advanced typographic features and extended language support. This release includes OpenType Standard (Western language) and Pro (multilingual) versions of FF Good™, OpenType Pro upgrades for FF QType™ and FF Seria® Sans, and OT Standard versions of FF Absara™ Headline, FF Atomium™, FF Disturbance®, FF Dot Matrix™, FF Eboy™, FF Holmen™, FF Letter Gothic™ Mono, FF Letter Gothic Text®, FF Market®, and FF Speak™.

New FontFont designs and additional upgrades are currently in production. For more information about the FontFont collection, its designers, and other news, please visit www.fontfont.com.

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont brand in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative digital typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of 130 designers worldwide, with over 3,900 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta, FF DIN, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit™, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release (Word, 44KB) and the showing (above, as PDF, 154KB) are available for download.

"Made with FontFont" explores the typographic revolution that changed the face of design

BERLIN, GERMANY, DECEMBER 2006 – FSI FontShop International announced the publication of "Made with FontFont: Type for Independent Minds," a new book commemorating the fifteen-year anniversary of the groundbreaking digital type foundry. Edited by FSI co-founder Erik Spiekermann and Dutch writer-designer Jan Middendorp, the colorful compendium showcases the award-winning collection of fonts created by "designers for designers."

Spiekermann, along with partners Neville Brody and Joan Spiekermann, conceived of FontFont in the late 1980s, after desktop publishing put type in the hands of the masses. Newly minted typographers and experienced design professionals demanded fresh, vital lettering styles for client work and personal expression. Spiekermann and company worked with an international group of innovators, including many young talents, to develop the FontFont collection.

"We just knew all these great designers who now had the tools to do their own type, while we had the tool for distributing them through FontShops," Spiekermann says. "We also knew that we were not the only designers who were ready for alternatives to Helvetica, Times, and even Garamond."

Type users worldwide have embraced the foundry's unique range, from contemporary text types and historically inspired titling faces to playful picture fonts and experimental alphabets. "When the FontFont type library was founded in 1990, it provided a meaningful alternative to what was then available to graphic designers," Middendorp says. "Over time, FontFont has become one of the most influential players in the type world."

"Made with FontFont" illustrates just how visible these typefaces are in the global landscape. The 352-page book is replete with real-world examples of FontFonts in use, from high-profile ad campaigns for big automakers and fast food giants to iconic poster designs for the Tyson/Tubbs heavyweight battle in Tokyo and New York's Shakespeare in the Park.

To complement the array of existing work in "Made with FontFont," Spiekermann and Middendorp commissioned art and articles by members of the type and design community. Amsterdam's Strange Attractors designed the book's cover; other contributors include John D. Berry, Peter Bilak, Brody, Susanna Dulkinys, Eboy, Rian Hughes, Max Kisman, Akira Kobayashi, LettError, Ellen Lupton, Ian Lynam, Martin Majoor, Albert-Jan Pool, Paula Scher, Christian Schwartz, Nick Shinn, Fred Smeijers, Studio Dumbar, and xplicit.

"The many contributors all share an emotional approach to type," Spiekermann says. "For us, it is more than a tool to do our work with. We love type, and we think that this book shows our affection and enthusiasm for all things typographical."

"Made with FontFont" is a companion to "FiFFteen," an exhibition celebrating FontFont and FUSE. The show has been traveling internationally, with previous stops including Barcelona, Berlin, Helsinki, London, and New York. "FiFFteen" will open in Los Angeles in the spring. The book is available now.

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont brand in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative digital typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of 130 designers worldwide, with over 3,900 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta®, FF DIN®, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit®, and FF Fago™.

For more information about the FontFont collection, its designers, and other news, please visit www.fontfont.com.

About the authors

Erik Spiekermann is an information architect, type designer, and author. He founded Germany's largest design firm, MetaDesign, in 1979, and started FontShop in 1989. He has numerous typefaces to his credit, including the bestselling FF Meta® and ITC Officina®. Spiekermann lives and works in Berlin, London, and San Francisco.

Jan Middendorp is a Dutch-born designer, writer, editor, and educator based in Berlin. He was previously editor of "Druk" magazine for FontShop Benelux, and authored the critically acclaimed reference "Dutch Type," the first overview of type design in the Netherlands.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

The press release (Word, 37KB) and an excerpt (PDF, 3.7MB) are available for download.

To order, contact or buy it online.

FSI FontShop® International releases new FontFonts®, updates FF Blur®, FF Seria®, and FF Signa™

BERLIN, GERMANY, November, 2006 – FSI FontShop International announced the latest additions to its award-winning FontFont® typeface library. The independent foundry released two new type families from innovative European designers, along with language extensions and OpenType® upgrades to a selection of popular FontFonts.

The New FontFonts

FF Clan™ is an extensive family from Warsaw's Lukasz Dziedzic. A fresh take on the contemporary sans model, FF Clan is comprised of seven weights in six widths. Dziedzic's experience in publication design is evident in these strong, readable types, which feature a large x-height, short descenders, and small caps for all weights. The thin weight is delicate but substantial, ideal for fashion and cosmetic campaigns. On the other end of the spectrum, the ultra weight makes a powerful statement in posters and dramatic headlines. No stranger to experimentation, the self-taught Dziedzic imbued FF Clan with a distinct personality that engages the reader while remaining truly legible.

FF Soul™ is the creation of Amsterdam's Donald Beekman. A musician, DJ, and chief of an underground record label, Beekman also develops branding and packaging for his colleagues in the entertainment business. FF Soul evolved from a logo he drew for Dutch club/house label Hardsoul. A brash, meaty face, Hardsoul has hard edges and a rock-and-roll feel. Softsoul's rounded corners show the softer side of this family, mixing the spirit of the 1970s-80s disco and new wave music scenes with a modern tone. FF Soul boasts a pair of display styles with five weights each, and is best suited to graphic display work and larger text settings.

FontFont Language Extensions and OpenType Versions

In keeping with its mission to offer enhanced options to type users, FSI has announced important extensions to a number of FontFont designs. FF Clan™, FF Signa™ Correspondence, and FF Seria® have been extended with Baltic, Central European, and Turkish character sets. FF Signa™ and FF Signa™ Italic now support the Turkish character set.

Type designers and type users worldwide have embraced the cross-platform OpenType format, which offers a wealth of advanced typographic features and extended language support. FontFont has released OpenType Standard (Western language) and Pro (multilingual) versions of FF Clan, FF Seria, and FF Signa, as well as OT Standard versions of FF Blur and FF Soul.

New FontFont designs and additional upgrades are currently in production. For more information about the FontFont collection, its designers, and other news, please visit www.fontfont.com.

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont brand in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative digital typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of 130 designers worldwide, with over 3,900 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta, FF DIN, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit™, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release (Word, 44KB) and the showing (above, as PDF, 97KB) are available for download.

FSI FontShop® International publishes the new FontBook

Berlin, Germany, September 2006 – FSI FontShop International announced the publication of the new, long-awaited fourth edition of FontBook.

What is FontBook?

FontBook is the largest digital type reference in the world. Since 1991, "the big yellow book" has been an indispensable tool for designers, typographers, advertisers, manufacturers, publishers, historians, and anyone else who uses type. The long-awaited fourth edition of FontBook is the first update in eight years. Thanks to a streamlined design, it includes thousands of new typefaces with only a slight increase in size.

Where can I purchase FontBook or get further information?

Visit www.FontBook.com.

What does FontBook look like?

See for yourself. Text and images are available at www.fontbook.com/press.zip:

1. FontBook images (low-res images 500 KB JPGs)
2. Image of the FontBook editors in front of a supersized FontBook dummy
3. FontBook basic facts (PDF)
4. FontBook basic text (short version PDF)

We would appreciate if you wrote an article about the new FontBook. Further materials like hi-res images, introduction, sample pages and a long version basic text are available upon request.

FSI FontShop® International releases new FontFonts®, updates FF DIN®, FF Meta®, FF Quadraat®, and other typefaces

BERLIN, GERMANY, MAY, 2006 – FSI FontShop International announced the latest additions to its award-winning FontFont® typeface library. The independent foundry released two new type families from internationally renowned designers, along with language extensions and OpenType® upgrades to a selection of popular FontFonts.

The New FontFonts

FF Milo™ is the second FontFont offering from noted NewYork-based designer Michael Abbink. The six-weight sans serif is compact and readable, and features ascenders and descenders that are slightly shorter than the norm. This economy of design makes FF Milo well suited for use in magazines, newspapers, and other text-heavy applications. Abbink's creation is utilitarian but not sterile – a number of letterforms bear tiny curved stroke endings that add subtle flavour to text and headline settings.

Prolific French designer and lettering artist Xavier Dupré unveils FF Sanuk™, his ninth contribution to the FontFont collection. The lively sans serif combines readable shapes with a calligraphic spirit. FF Sanuk's roman letterforms are clean and crisply drawn, but their stylish detailing showcases Dupré's artistic sensibilities. Nearly upright italics convey a contemporary air while maintaining a high degree of legibility. The eight-weight family runs the gamut from a delicate hairline to a chunky fat face, and is an inspired choice for both text and display typography.

FontFont Language Extensions and OpenType Versions

In keeping with its mission to offer enhanced options to type users, FontFont has released important updates to a number of existing designs. FF Cocon™, FF DIN® Italic, FF DIN® Condensed, FF Kipp™, FF Max™, FF Meta® Condensed, and FF Unit™ have been extended with Baltic, Central European, and Turkish character sets. FF Kievit™ has added Baltic, Central European, Cyrillic, Greek, and Turkish character sets.

Type designers and type users worldwide have embraced the cross-platform OpenType format, which offers advanced typographic features and extended language support. FontFont has released OpenType Standard (Western language) and Pro (multilingual) versions of FF Cocon, FF DIN (Italic and Condensed), FF Kievit, FF Kipp, FF Max, FF Meta Condensed, and FF Unit. OpenType Standard versions are now available for FF Info™ (Display, Display Italic, Office, Text, and Text Italic), FF Profile®, FF Quadraat® (original Quadraat, plus Display, Headliner, Sans, Sans Condensed, and Sans Mono), and the newly published FontFonts, FF Milo and FF Sanuk.

New FontFont designs and additional upgrades are currently in production. For more information about the FontFont collection, its designers, and other news, please visit www.fontfont.com.

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont brand in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative digital typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of more than 100 designers worldwide, with over 3,000 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta, FF DIN, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release and the showing (above) can be downloaded as PDF files.

FSI FontShop® International releases new FontFonts®, updates FF DIN®, FF Meta®, FF Scala®, and other designs

BERLIN, GERMANY, NOVEMBER, 2005 – FSI FontShop International today announced the latest additions to its award-winning FontFont typeface collection. Four new designs were released in tandem with long-awaited extensions to three of the independent foundry's bestselling font families. Several key FontFonts were also upgraded to OpenType®.

The New FontFonts

Classically trained French lettering artist and designer Xavier Dupré created FF Megano™, a six-weight sans serif encompassing both humanistic and calligraphic shapes. The typeface, while evocative of feminine curves, offers high readability and a fun yet functional complement of stars and arrows in all weights.

Martin L'Allier, a recent graduate of the University of Quebec at Montreal, mixed the classic and the contemporary in designing FF Karo™. The three-variant display typeface combines the calligraphic heritage of Fraktur letterforms with the rational and optical dynamics of the grid.

FF Headz™ is the first typeface by German designer and illustrator Florian Zietz. The concept for the playful, interactive picture font is similar to the effect found in some children's books, where pages are split into sections that can be grouped in unusual and humorous combinations. Each "complete" head in FF Headz is composed of four separate characters (upper part of the head, eyes and nose, mouth, and chin), which may be combined to create ten thousand funny faces.

FF PicLig™, by Berlin-based designer Christina Schultz, is a smart OpenType font that makes it possible to create symbols out of typed characters. While OpenType's "discretionary ligatures" usually connect two or more characters to create a typographic ligature, Schultz used this feature of the technology to combine several glyphs into an icon, or picture ligature. The automatic substitution of certain character combinations allows the direct integration of icons into text, enabling users to communicate more expressively.

FontFont Extensions and OpenType

In an effort to offer type users increasingly useful tools, the FontFont team frequently updates existing designs. FF Kievit™ 3 adds thin, extra light, and light weights with complementary small caps and italics to a versatile, legible sans. FF DIN® has been extended with Baltic, Cyrillic, and Turkish character sets, while FF Nexus™ now features Baltic, Central European, and Turkish character sets in its Sans, Serif, Typewriter, and Mix variants.

Type designers and type users worldwide have embraced the cross-platform OpenType format, which offers advanced typographic features and extended language support. Four of the most well known FontFont designs are now available in OpenType: FF Dax®, FF DIN®, FF Meta®, and FF Scala®. Other OpenType FontFonts in this release include FF Eddie™, FF Nexus™, and the newly published designs, FF Karo™, FF Megano™, FF Headz™, and FF PicLig™.

The entire FontFont collection is available at fontfont.com, fontshop.com and from local distributors.

About FontFonts

Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody launched the FontFont library of digital typefaces in 1990 with the goal of producing innovative typefaces by designers for designers. FontFonts represent the work of more than 100 designers worldwide, with over 3,000 contemporary fonts in the collection. The FontFont library features some of the most popular typefaces in use today, including FF Meta®, FF DIN®, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit™, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release and the showing (above) can be downloaded as PDF files.

New Liberal License Conditions for FontFonts

FontShop International (FSI) has updated the license terms and conditions for their FontFonts. The new rules acknowledge two important user requests regarding the use of fonts on laptops and working with service bureaus and printers. These changes are valid immediately, and even cover FontFonts licensed in the past.

"Many of our customers now work at different locations, they take documents on business trips, work at home, and, in the end, they send documents for output to a service bureau," says Jürgen Siebert, member of the FontFont Typeboard. "Font licensing should be compatible with these flexible working conditions."

FontFont's updated End User License Agreement (EULA) respects this new environment. Users who work both at the office and at home may load their fonts on their laptop – without any effect on the number of licensed users. Licensing is no longer applied per workstation (CPU), but rather on number of users. Supplying FontFonts used in a specific document to a service bureau or printer for outputting is subject to an important condition: the service bureau may output the given document but not make any modifications. After outputting, the fonts must be deleted.

There are also new rules for the internet. If you embed FontFonts in a non-commercial secured PDF, you may put the PDF on your website for viewing and downloading.

The rights of FontFont designers will also be strengthened by the new license conditions. Without FSI's permission, FontFont data may not be renamed or modified.

Read or print the new FontFont EULA.
Download this Press Release (as text) and FSI/FontFont logos (in EPS format).

FSI FontShop® International releases new FontFonts®, including the award-winning FF Maiola™ and Headline additions to the FF Meta® family. Many of the fonts in this release are available in OpenType® format.

FF Maiola™
FF Maiola was born as part of Veronika Burian's MA in Typeface Design at the University of Reading. Although a contemporary typeface, it retains strong links to historical models by implementing old-style features and calligraphic forms. Sources of inspiration include Czech type designers Oldrich Menhart and Vojtech Preissig, whose works display both vigor and elegance. Still, the intention was not to follow their path, but to define a personal interpretation. Maiola bears its idiosyncrasies with care and imparts the concepts of irregularity and angularity in a beautifully discrete way.

OpenType technology adeptly combines typographic features such as small caps, lining and old-style figures, both tabular and proportional, ligatures, alternate characters, case-sensitive variants, and fractions. In addition to the regular Latin character set, Maiola Pro includes Central European, Cyrillic and Monotonic Greek characters.

In 2004 FF Maiola received the "Certificate of Excellence in Type Design" award from the Type Director's Club (TDC).

FF Meta® Headline
Erik Spiekermann's best-known face is without doubt FF Meta, whose lively shapes give it a distinctive character – often too much so for headlines. Enter FF Meta Headline. Under the direction of Spiekermann and Christian Schwartz, Joshua Darden created three widths (normal, condensed, compressed) with four weights each. There are several alternate characters for tight setting: an 'a' and 'l' without tails and a simple 'g'. A few arrows and dingbats are also included.

FF Absara™ Sans
The renaissance period was Xavier Dupré's inspiration for this companion to FF Absara. It includes a wide palette of weights, and strikes a healthy balance between old and new, resulting in a handsome and legible face for many uses.

FF Oxide™
Named for the chemical composition of rust, FF Oxide has an unvarnished industrial aesthetic. In 1999, designer Christian Schwartz was asked to draw a stencil typeface for a Pittsburgh-based clothing label. He found his inspiration at a hardware store down the street, purchasing a set of 1.5" stencils with a bare minimum number of "breaks" in the characters, making for an unusually subtle stencil effect.

FF Daxline™
The aim with this variation of Reichel's mega-popular FF Dax was to balance the contrast so that it works well in long texts with small point sizes. FF Daxline is much wider than its predecessor, and the capitals are larger. There is even a lighter version than Light: Thin. Each of the 14 weights contains all Eastern European accented characters, including small caps, Cyrillic, superiors, inferiors, fractions and several special characters.

Designer Info

Veronika Burian
Veronika Burian was born in Prague in 1973. Her family fled seven years later to Munich, Germany, where she graduated in Industrial Design at the University of Applied Sciences. Before completing her studies she went to Vienna, Austria, to work as product designer at Gregerpauschitz. In 2000 she joined the team of Japanese designer Makio Hasuike in Milan, Italy. Here, Veronika's interests shifted increasingly from product to graphic design and typography where she felt more at home. The decision to focus more exclusively on type design developed naturally, amongst others, through her collaboration with Leftloft for the exhibition Italic 1.0 at ATypI and her involvement in teaching at the Politecnico of Milan. In 2003 she completed her MA in Typeface Design with distinction at the University of Reading. where she started the typeface Maiola. In 2004 it was awarded the TDC Certificate of Excellence and in 2005 became part of the travelling exhibition e-a-t. Currently, she is working as type designer at Dalton Maag in London, UK.

About FontFonts

The FontFont library of digital typefaces was launched in 1990 by Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody with the goal of producing cutting-edge typefaces by designers for designers. Now representing the work of over 100 designers, the FontFont Library contains over 3000 contemporary fonts (many of the most popular typefaces in use today) including FF Meta®, FF DIN®, FF Scala®, FF Eureka® Sans, FF Kievit™, and FF Fago™.

FontFont and FontFont typeface names are trademarks of FSI FontShop International. Other trademarks mentioned for informational purposes are the property of their respective owners.

Both the press release and the showing (above) can be downloaded as PDF files.

FSI FontShop® International releases new FontFonts® including the new FF Nexus type system in OpenType format.

The latest FontFont release features five original typeface families: FF Absara™ and the FF Nexus™ system in Sans, Mix, Serif, and Typewriter styles. FF Nexus is unique in its integrated design – four harmonious fonts built on the same skeleton.

FF Nexus and FF Absara are among the first FontFonts to be available in OpenType®, a new typographically advanced font format. OpenType has become increasingly popular due to its multi-platform ease of use (the same font file works on Macintosh, Windows, Sun, Unix, and other systems), and its ability to support widely expanded character sets and layout features. FF Absara and FF Nexus are released as OpenType Standard FontFonts, which denotes a Western character set, but typographic layout features – such as automatic substitution of alternate glyphs and discretionary ligatures – are included. Each weight provides, in one file, small caps, lining figures, and characters that in traditional formats would be included in expert font files. OpenType FontFonts will be available online very soon and you can get more information about OpenType and font specific features from FSI.

Existing FontFont families are extended by this release with the addition of FF Hydra™ Text, FF Max™ Demi Serif and Demi Serif Italic, and an oft-requested italic companion to the popular FF Bau™. Also new is FF District™, Albert Boton's expansion of his District Bold face which was released in 2002 as part of FF Bastille™ Display.

Along with these new designs, FF Bau, FF Scala® and FF Signa™ receive character set additions for setting Baltic, Central European, and Turkish languages.

Background Info: New FontFonts

FF Absara™ – Xavier Dupré's FF Absara is a typeface of French proportions, but its shapes take their cues from the Dutch style: less polished, more direct. The casual forms refer to humanist handwriting. Absara's rough cut makes it an interesting display typeface, but thanks to its generous proportions and firm serifs, FF Absara works equally well at text sizes. The idiosyncratic italic builds a strong contrast with the roman. FF Absara is functional and expressive, and lends a humanistic colour to both editorial and advertising design.

FF Max™ Demi Serif – Morten Olsen designed this addition to his FF Max family as a personal wish to create a "less technical looking" version of the popular sans. In this cut he adds friendly tails (see 'a', 'h', 'i', 'l', 'm', and 'n') and a subtle bend to some of the stems to soften the forms. The typeface's expert fonts add a bundle of useful and decorative ligatures.

FF Nexus™ – Between 1988 and 1994 Martin Majoor designed FF Scala® and FF Scala Sans. The idea behind FF Scala was to design a serif, humanistic typeface from which a sans serif version would be derived. Majoor called it: two typefaces, one form principle, and it would become the basis of his type design philosophy. Since FF Scala's release, the combination of a serifed and sans version has proven to be highly successful in corporate, book, and newspaper design. Now, ten years later, Majoor has expanded his idea of two typefaces, one form principle into three typefaces, one form principle, with a new family of typefaces as a result. FF Nexus borrows some of its structure from FF Scala, but adds the slab-like FF Nexus Mix and monospaced FF Nexus Typewriter to the set. Its OpenType features, such as built-in small caps, alternate glyphs, and optional swash glyphs make it an extremely versatile type system.

Both the press release and the showing (above) can be downloaded as PDF files.