Posts Tagged ‘Generate your own font’

Bitstreams Releases Latest edition of its Font Technology

Monday, April 30th, 2012

Bitstream Inc. today announced the newest upgrade to the company’s font technology, Bitstream Panorama and Bitstream Font Fusion. Bitstream Panorama is the worldwide text composition engine that enables developers to compile and render text in any language. Bitstream’s Font Fusion is a text rendering solution that offers developers the fastest rendering speeds and best probable text output of any font engine on the market today.

Bitstream Panorama 7.0

Panorama is currently available as a plug-in for iOS and Android operating systems. The plug-in allows access to features akin to better layout control, complex script sustain not supported by the base system, and support for non-TTF font formats. Panorama 7.0 also includes a scaling aspect which allows users to execute a pinching effect on rendered text, making this kind of layout faster.

Panorama 7.0 Supports:

  • Sinhala and Tibetan Script – The Sinhala script is used mostly in Sri Lanka, while the Tibetan script is used in Tibet, Ladakh, Nepal and northern parts of India.
  • Native OTF is sustained in Panorama 7.0. This superior feature provides the option to apply OTF features like superscript, subscript, fractions, scientific inferiors, etc. even if the font does not sustain them.
  • Improved performance using OTFP coverage data by using embedded preprocessed data directly within the fonts.
  • Glyph Bitmap Distribution Format (BDF) through open type fonts (OTF).
  • Dynamic Font Array which allows every number of fonts at run time.

Bitstream Font Fusion 7.0

Bitstream’s Font Fusion provides the premier quality, fastest text output on any device, at any resolution. Its small footprint is predominantly well suited for mobile devices. It can render almost any font format, including bitmap, TrueType and Open Type.

Font Fusion 7.0 Includes:

  • Support for optical axis of Multiple Master (MM) fonts and the addition of a new API that works on the real rendered width of a device.
  • A new feature called Render Path that enables passing of lane data to Font Fusion. Font Fusion will then render the lane and return a bitmap shield.
  • Smart Scale scales taller accented characters to not exceed the standard capital letter height. This new feature in Font Fusion 7.0 allows the real height limit to be individual.
  • Support for the Standard Encoded Accented Character (SEAC) command that allows the font to identify the base character and the accent character and offset in a single “end char” command.
  • The addition of new filters, counting a trim filter that removes all the blank lines from the rendered glyph and updates glyph metrics consequently.
  • Numerous enhancements to the Font Manager, including Unicode mapping which provides an easy way to identify different fonts for different Unicode ranges.
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National Geographic Gets New System to Direct Its 10,000 Fonts

Friday, April 20th, 2012

National Geographic Society has called on Extensis’ Universal Type Server to manage its records of over 10,000 fonts. Distributing fonts and maintaining licensing control is an essential effort when considering the size of National Geographic’s library and the number of its publications.

Extensis, a provider of font management and digital asset managing software, has already collaborated with many other major publishers as well as Conde Nast and Future Publishing. Vice president of publishing scheme for National Geographic Dave E. Smith describes Extensis’ system as more robust than the before system.

To elaborate, the Universal Type Server will now allow National Geographic to classify, package and distribute the appropriate fonts to the creative directors who need them. Additionally, the system will allow easier right to use to control, track or relocate fonts as necessary. Smith stresses, it’s crucial that we fulfill with font license terms without hindering manufacture work. Universal Type Server allows us to manage font allocation and use across our organization while delegating some control and freedom to our publishing groups.

Smith also suggests that the company’s new system will be most useful for the book-publishing group, because they typically rely on a large number of fonts to produce a variety of book titles. However, the system is a welcome addition across all groups for the reason that Smith says that the fonts are part of our brand, they are tied together.

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A New Serif: The Fonts used on London’s signs and shops have an army of fans

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

Antony Harrington is passionate with type. It is partly the job of doing well fonts to be invisible and as such they are usually overlooked. Johnston Sans, as it occur, is the font of London Underground. Harrington wants everybody to know this and is inviting fellow enthusiasts to draw a typographic map of the capital. He wants to use contemporary technology to record great or endangered examples of lettering to show the unique and quiet way the words around us can help shape the identity of a place and how we feel about it.

Trajan Style Typeface

I meet Harrington, a partner at a branding and design company in north London, outside the Covent Garden Tube station, where lunchtime shoppers steer a course about two men behaving strangely. We are doing what few Londoners ever do, looking up to admire the Underground’s unambiguous roundel sign, as well as the more ornate typeface used on the station’s façade. After a little minutes I reach for my phone, starts the app Harrington has devised and takes a photo. I write a caption and upload the image to the London Typographic website, where it is added to a map of the city now spotted with examples of type.

Harrington admits to being a font geek, but says there’s a motive we should all look with fresh eyes at the words in our own towns and cities. Typefaces work well as tiny milestones. They anchor a building to a time and a function, whether it’s profitable or social, and this is a heritage worth preserving.

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21 Latest, Free Fonts for 2012

Friday, April 13th, 2012

Help your design feel fresh by using an attractive new font. There is always a steady brook of new, free fonts to choose from.

Here is a list of latest fonts. There are model and traditional fonts, as well as modern and inventive fonts. All of the fonts are free, while some accept donations. Check each font for profitable limitations.

Enthused by the proportions of the 16th President of the U.S., and advertisements and playbills of the 1800s, Abraham Lincoln is a humanistic display face with reasonable contrast and sturdy serifs. Accent is a sleek, fashionable typeface that is both bold and elegant. It is free display font intended by Nelson Balaban. Archive is contemporary font constructed with strong statistical forms. It is a multi-purpose typeface for several type of graphic design.

Arvil Sans has strong lines with curved, soft terminals, to produce a strong, yet friendly letterform. It is available in all caps with numerals, punctuation and as well a wide range of symbols. Bemio is an ultra-bold sans serif font with a widespread character set. It bridges the gap between old signage and craftsmanship with modern forms and minimalism.

New Fonts: Abraham Lincoln, Accent, Archive, Arvil Sans, Bemio, Bender, Blanch, Forum, FV Almelo, Hagin

Bender is an industrial enthused throwback. It has a stocky face for display type in two weights: inline and solid. Blanch was intended for the Fruita Blanch brand, a family-run company. It is conventional font with a contemporary feel. Forum is the Antiqua font with model proportions. It is proposed for titles and headlines, but can be used to set body texts too.

FV Almelo is an all-caps curved font. Because of its doze to the past, the font was named after the city where the designer was born. Hagin is constructed with muscular geometric forms. It is appropriate for a variety of uses, such as web, print, logos and more. Haymaker is a display typeface that’s both jagged and developed. Stimulated by the workmanship, lettering, and baseball jerseys of the 1930s and 40s.

Intro has a strapping structure, based on principles of simple geometric forms: triangles, circles and squares. Jura is a stylish serif typeface of narrow proportions with distinguishing details. The rounded, wedge shaped serifs offer a more modern feel than many serif fonts, while maintaining legibility even at small sizes.

New Fonts: Haymaker, Intro, Jura, Ledger Regular, Meander, Metropolis, Noticia Text, Prosto, Rex, Static, Sullivan.

Ledger Regular is a versatile typeface. The letterforms are famed by a large x-height and sufficient stroke contrast. It’s appropriate for use in corporate, advertising and display typography. Meander is a free typeface creating a freestyle twisting and intertwining style. It is a curly, twirly, swirly font for an instructive effect. Prepared by doodling with felt pens, this font is best used at larger sizes.

Metropolis comes from the developed movement of the 1920s where skyscrapers where born. An Art Deco style font, it is a bold typeface with a quiet outlook. Noticia Text is a modern slab serif, which comes in four styles. It is a conventional typeface with a sculpted contemporary feel. Prosto is a clean contemporary font to use in titles or in body text.

Rex is intended to create unique titles on the fly. It’s an all caps font, but there is a variation between caps and small caps. Static is a smooth, fashionable font in a monospaced style, designed by Slava Kirilenko. It contains basic Latin letters and is obtainable in Open Type for PC and Mac. Sullivan is a bold display face that comes in three differences. Each can be used efficiently on its own or layered for a uniquely modern, industrial effect.

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