Category Archives: FontSquirrel

PT Serif

Posted on Jun 22, 2012 by .
pt_serif

View the web font specimen sheet.

A serif font designed by Alexan­dra Korolkova, Olga Umpel­eva, and Vladimir Yefi­mov and released by ParaType in 2010.

PT Serif is pri­mar­ily a Tran­si­tional font; it feels more “ide­al­ized” than “writ­ten.” It has more con­trast between thick and thin strokes than you’ll see in an Old Style font, and it has a ver­ti­cal stress. Ter­mi­nals and ser­ifs feel more styl­ized than pen-formed.

PT Serif has a slightly larger x-height than Geor­gia, and holds up well at smaller sizes. It also pairs beau­ti­fully with its com­pan­ion font, PT Sans.

PT Serif holds up beau­ti­fully across browsers. It has the usual four styles and weights, and is avail­able via Google Web­fonts, Type­kit, and FontSquir­rel.

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

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 aper­tures, 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 |