“I’d like to encourage designers to open their mind and consider using some of the other typefaces that are often pre-installed on computers these days. There really are some great choices that are being completely ignored. Granted, not every user is going to have them, but those who do will get an enhanced experience, and those who don’t will be just fine, so long as you specify appropriate alternates (as in MOSe).

Let us compile a list of useable typefaces that we can count on being installed at least some of the time — as well as good alternates for them that are more reliable. Here’s a few I came up with. I think you’ll notice that there are not only some great faces here, but even some that are considered classics or essentials.”

A blog dedicated to quality, not quantity… …oh, and title sequences and their respective designers. And maybe some other stuff.

Someday.

Take a stab at identifying 34 different fonts in this online quiz.

Like ffffound (for the rest of us): “We Heart It is a social bookmarking tool for images and videos. We see many great images on blogs and websites around, and now you can put everything you saw and liked on the same page to look again whenever you want.” (Thanks Chris Glass!)

“What;’s your true type? What type do you click best with — and which types spell doom? In five quick questions, we’ll decipher your identity.” (Thanks Design Observer!)

This is awesome: “Video Demonstration of a work in relief filled with ingenuity: on each page deploy forms cut from paper. The book by Marion Battle is a lively primer in three colors: red, black and white. “

“Happy (belated) birthday Helvetica! The typeface turned 50 last year and feted with the release of an eponymous independent documentary film. While Helvetica has claimed its own place in history, still, it remains only one of myriad options on your Microsoft Word toolbar. Think you can tell one typeface from another?”

“Minuscule is a typeface for extremely small sizes, which could be used under the commonly acknoweledged threshold of legibility (around 7 points). At this stage, the loss is so important during the shift to a lower size that I quickly decided to design a master for each size.” (Thanks On Paper Wings!)

“Ascenders, arms, crossbars, counters, spines, shoulders, tails, stems and spurs, altogether there are over 20 components in the anatomy of type. There remains a gap in the vocabularly of this most respected of crafts, however.

In the designing or cutting of stencil letterforms, one is invariably brought to a point wherein the supporting canvas is joined to counter of the letter. Up until now, these supporting areas have gone without definition or label. A gross oversight by the standards of any industry, let alone one with as rich and respected a history as typography.

The purpose of this initiative is to remedy this oversight by introducing a new term and definition into the common vernacular of designers and typographers.” (Thanks Grant!)

“Most of us need to make the time to go out on walks, swim, collect little bits of things, take photos, get drunk (or not), talk to friends, etc. So, you have to wonder, who wouldn’t want to spend 5 nights on an island while talking about and working with type? British Columbia in the summertime is heaven on earth—a place where most people would be happy to kick back and relax for a week, but if you’re into typography you can relax your body and exercise your brain at the same time. Three typographers, Marian Bantjes, Shelley Gruendler and Ross Mills will offer differing and convergent approaches to type in a relaxed but structured program over five days. [Note: This session is over but more are planned, like the one below.]

Type Camp—INFO DESIGN: 10-15 August 2008 | We’ll bring a bit of the Bauhaus to Canada with the head Info Design instructor, Jay Rutherford. Jay is a Professor of Visual Communications at the Faculty of Art and Design at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany.” (Thanks Chris Glass!)

“When we asked you, our readers, to tell us whom you would like us to interview for Creative Characters, one name that kept coming up was Christian Schwartz’s. Although he’s not even 30, Christian Schwartz is among the most prolific type designers in the USA, having published fonts with about half a dozen foundries. He has also created successful corporate type systems, such as the superfamily made for the German railways, for which he and Erik Spiekerman received the Federal German Design Prize 2007. And that’s not his only award this year…”

“These pages are provided as an outline for [Marietta College’s] GRPH: 210 Typography. At right you will find links to the material covered each week throughout the course, as well as links to each weeks assignments, distributed via Adobe PDF files.” (Scroll down for a broad overview of typographic history and usage…)

“‘So, what do you see?’ Martin Pietrucha I asked, turning around in the driver’s seat of his mint green Ford Taurus. It was a cold day in January, and we were parked in the middle of a mock highway set on the campus of Pennsylvania State University in State College. Pietrucha is a jovial, 51-year-old professor of highway engineering. His tone was buoyant as he nodded toward the edge of the oval stretch of road where two green-and-white signs leaned against a concrete barrier.

What I saw, Pietrucha knew, was what we all may see soon enough as we rush along America’s 46,871 miles of Interstate highways. What I saw was Clearview, the typeface that is poised to replace Highway Gothic, the standard that has been used on signs across the country for more than a half-century. Looking at a sign in Clearview after reading one in Highway Gothic is like putting on a new pair of reading glasses: there’s a sudden lightness, a noticeable crispness to the letters.”

“There has been a lot said recently about Vertical Rhythm. Richard Rutter began the work on 24ways last year with the piece ‘Compose to a Vertical Rhythm’. This was built upon by Wilson Minor on A List Apart recently with his article on Baseline Grids. All sound typographic advice… At @media this year, I presented ‘Five Simple Steps to Better Typography’. Step two in my presentation was was Vertical Rhythm where I reiterated some of the excellent points Richard made in his article and also the presentation we both gave in at SXSW in March. I also added something of my own: Incremental leading, or Incremental line-height.”

This is a list of international corporations and the fonts used in their identity and branding systems. (Thanks kottke.org!)