Vera Sans

Posted on Feb 24, 2012 by .
Vera Sans Heading

View the web font spec­i­men sheet.

vera sans example A sans serif font trade­marked by Bit­stream, Inc.

Vera Sans has a large x-height and gen­er­ous aper­a­tures, and should retain read­abil­ity at smaller sizes. But I find the bold low­er­case a  tends to “fill in” and become dif­fi­cult to read at 14px and smaller on Win­dows browsers (Safari, IE, Chrome, and Fire­fox) when tested on crossbrowsertesting.com. Thus, while text is com­fort­able to read at 14px, I rec­om­mend using Vera Sans bold at 15px and larger.

Vera Sans comes in reg­u­lar, bold, italic, and bold italic. It is avail­able for free down­load at fontsquirrel.com. It is also avail­able via typekit.com.

Filed under 4 Styles, FontSquirrel, Sans Serif, TypeKit |

Myndraine

Posted on Feb 22, 2012 by .
myndraine

View the web font spec­i­men sheet.

myndraine exampleA sans serif font by Christo­pher Miller, I cat­e­go­rize Myn­draine as a “hand­writ­ing” font, because it feels more hand­writ­ten than most other fonts.

Find­ing a casual, per­sonal, not-too-quirky font like Myn­draine is not easy. So while there are some issues — minor let­terspac­ing prob­lems on Win­dows XP (Safari 5, IE8, IE7) at 12px and smaller, and tops of let­ters get­ting “chopped off” when set at 16px and 11px (cross browser) — I still rec­om­mend this font. If you work within these spe­cific prob­lems, this font could serve you well.

Myn­draine has a large x-height, but due to quirky bowls and shoul­ders is more lively and leg­i­ble at 14px and larger. It’s avail­able for free down­load at fontsquirrel.com.

Filed under "Handwriting", 1 Style, FontSquirrel |

Droid Serif

Posted on Feb 22, 2012 by .
droid_serif

View the web font spec­i­men sheet.

droid serif exampleDesigned by Steve Mat­te­son, Type Direc­tor of Ascen­der Corp.

Droid Serif is a tran­si­tional font; it feels more “ide­al­ized” than “writ­ten.” It has a slightly con­densed, “square-feeling” bowl, con­trast between thick and thin strokes, a ver­ti­cal stress, and ter­mi­nals and ser­ifs that don’t look pen-formed. It has a sig­nif­i­cantly larger x-height than Georgia.

Accord­ing to Ascen­der Corp., Droid Serif “fea­tures slightly con­densed let­ter­forms to max­i­mize the amount of text dis­played on small screens. Ver­ti­cal stress, sturdy ser­ifs and open forms con­tribute to the read­abil­ity of Droid Serif while its pro­por­tion and over­all design com­ple­ment its com­pan­ion Droid Sans.”

Droid Serif comes in reg­u­lar, italic, bold, and bold italic. It is avail­able for free down­load at fontsquirrel.com. It is also avail­able for font-linking at google web­fonts.

Filed under 4 Styles, FontSquirrel, Google Fonts, Transitional (Serif) |

Droid Sans

Posted on Feb 22, 2012 by .
droid_sans

View the web font spec­i­men sheet.

droid sans exampleDesigned by Steve Mat­te­son, Type Direc­tor of Ascen­der Corp.

Droid Sans is a human­ist sans serif font. Ascen­der describes it as hav­ing “an upright stress, open forms and a neu­tral, yet friendly appear­ance.” Its open aper­a­tures, slightly tapered spurs, and a double-decker g all make Droid Sans feel slightly more hand-written than manufactured. It has a slightly nar­row bowl and an x-height that’s only a hair shorter than Verdana’s. Droid Sans also has a gen­er­ous let­ter spac­ing, which makes it eas­ier to read at small sizes, but can make the let­ters feel a lit­tle “loose” when used for headlines.

Droid Sans comes in reg­u­lar and bold. It is avail­able for free down­load at fontsquirrel.com. It is also avail­able for font-linking at google web­fonts.

Filed under 2 Styles, FontSquirrel, Google Fonts, Humanist Sans Serif |

PT Sans Regular

Posted on Feb 14, 2012 by .
pt_sans

View the web font spec­i­men sheet.

pt sans exampleDesigned by Alexan­dra Korolkova, Olga Umpel­eva and Vladimir Yefi­mov. Released by ParaType in 2009.

PT Sans is a mod­ern human­ist sans serif font. Imper­fect bowls, slightly tapered spurs, a tear-drop shaped coun­ter­form on the g, and a soft foot ter­mi­nal on the l all make PT Sans feel slightly more hand-written than man­u­fac­tured. It has a slightly nar­row bowl and a smaller x-height than Verdana.

PT Sans comes in reg­u­lar, bold, italic, and bold italic. It is avail­able for free down­load at fontsquirrel.com and at ParaType. It is also avail­able for font-linking at google web­fonts.

Filed under 4 Styles, FontSquirrel, Google Fonts, Humanist Sans Serif, Other Source |

Serif 6 Beta

Posted on Feb 13, 2012 by .
serif6_beta

View the web font spec­i­men sheet.

serif 6 beta exampleA font by Chris­t­ian Robert­son (Betatype). Serif 6 Beta is part of a larger fam­ily of fonts called Serif Beta.

Serif 6 Beta has slightly heav­ier strokes than the rest of the fam­ily. Though it is heav­ier than most tran­si­tional fonts, and has rel­a­tively small closed coun­ter­forms on the a and e, its ter­mi­nals, ser­ifs, stress, and bowls feel more tran­si­tional than old style. Serif 6 Beta feels more “ide­al­ized” than “writ­ten.” It has a slightly larger x-height than Georgia.

Serif 6 beta comes in reg­u­lar, italic, bold, and bold italic. It tests well across browsers, though there are some let­terspac­ing issues in Safari on Win­dows XP. The whole fam­ily is avail­able for free down­load at Betatype.

Filed under 4 Styles, Other Source, Transitional (Serif) |

DejaVu Serif

Posted on Feb 13, 2012 by .
dejavu_serif

View the web font spec­i­men sheet.

deja vu serif exampleA slab serif font by Tavmjong Bah, based on the Vera fonts. Unlike tra­di­tional slab serif fonts, DejaVu has con­trast between thick and thin strokes. The bowls are slightly square, and the large x-height means it remains read­able at smaller sizes.

DejaVu tests well across browsers, though there are some let­terspac­ing issues in Safari on Win­dows XP.

The DejaVu Serif fam­ily con­sists of 8 fonts (var­i­ous weights and styles). All are avail­able for free down­load at fontsquirrel.com.

Filed under 8 Styles, FontSquirrel, Slab Serif |

Calluna Regular

Posted on Feb 13, 2012 by .
calluna

View the web font spec­i­men sheet.

A font that almost made it. An old-style serif font by Jos Buiv­enga (exljbris.com), Cal­luna has a smaller x-height than Geor­gia, and works best at a gen­er­ous font-size. Cal­luna feels like an “old” font; it has pen-formed ser­ifs and ter­mi­nals. The ris­ing cross­bar of the low­er­case e is rem­i­nis­cent of early Renais­sance (Venetian/Humanist) letterforms.

calluna exampleUnfor­tu­nately, the font does not hold up across browsers. On Win­dows (XP, 7, Vista) the strokes on the let­ter­forms get very light (thin). The pen-formed head ser­ifs on let­ters such as h, b, d, u, and so on become too promi­nent, and the ris­ing cross­bar on the e becomes jagged and breaks.

The over­all struc­ture, spac­ing, and sys­tem of the font is beau­ti­ful. I had to include it in my col­lec­tion any­way. If you are cre­at­ing a site pri­mar­ily for mac users, Cal­luna will serve you well.

The Cal­luna fam­ily con­sists of 8 fonts (styles, weights). Cal­luna Reg­u­lar is avail­able for free down­load at fontspring. The full fam­ily is avail­able for license at fontspring and for font-linking via type­kit.

Filed under 8 Styles, Fonts That Almost Made It, FontSpring, Old Style (Serif), TypeKit |

Museo Sans 500

Posted on Feb 11, 2012 by .
museo_sans

View the Museo Sans 500 font spec­i­men sheet.

museo sans exampleA sans serif font by Jos Buiv­enga (exljbris.com). With its per­fectly round o and almost cir­cu­lar bowls, Museo Sans has some geo­met­ric ele­ments. On the other hand, its double-decker g and soft foot ter­mi­nal on the l feel human­ist. I cat­e­go­rize it as a geo­met­ric sans serif font, because when text set in Museo Sans 500 is com­pared to a range of sans serif fonts it feels more geo­met­ric than humanist. Museo Sans 500 has a slightly smaller x-height than Verdana.

The Museo Sans fam­ily has 10 fonts (var­i­ous styles, weights). All are avail­able for web licens­ing at fontspring.com. In the font spec­i­men sheet, I show only Museo Sans 500 and Museo Sans 500 italic, which are free fonts. I com­bine them with Museo 700, a bold font from a dif­fer­ent fam­ily, but a fam­ily with a sim­i­lar structure.

Filed under 10 Styles, FontSpring, Geometric Sans Serif |

Museo Slab 500

Posted on Feb 10, 2012 by .
museo_slab

View the Museo Slab 500 font spec­i­men sheet.

museo slab exampleA slab serif font by Jos Buiv­enga (exljbris.com). Museo Slab 500 has an x-height sim­i­lar to Geor­gia. It also has heav­ier, more uni­form strokes which makes let­ters like a and e a bit harder to read. Thus, Museo Slab works best with a gen­er­ous font-size.

The Museo Slab fam­ily has 12 fonts (var­i­ous styles, weights). All are avail­able for web licens­ing at fontspring.com. In the font spec­i­men sheet, I show only Museo Slab 500 and Museo Slab 500 italic, which are free fonts. I com­bine them with Museo 700, a bold font from a dif­fer­ent fam­ily, but a fam­ily with a sim­i­lar structure.

Filed under 12 Styles, FontSpring, Slab Serif |