Tisa Web Pro

Posted on Jun 19, 2012 by .
tisa_web_pro

View the web font specimen sheet.

A serif font designed by Mitja Miklavčič and pub­lished by font­font.

I cat­e­go­rize Tisa Web Pro as an “Other Serif” font, because it does not fall neatly into any of the gen­eral his­toric cat­e­gories com­monly used to describe serif type. Accord­ing to Miklavčič, the intent was to “develop a softer, more dynamic ver­sion of a nineteenth-century slab serif wood type.”

Tisa’s almost-slab ser­ifs are slightly tapered, its aper­ture is open and human­ist, its bowls have an implied stress, its x-height is gen­er­ous. The font grace­fully mixes-and-matches var­i­ous his­toric approaches to font design, result­ing in a slightly “square” or “struc­tured” feel­ing font with human­ist qual­i­ties.  The bold is accept­able, but slightly too heavy for my per­sonal preference.

Tisa Web Pro works well cross browser. 4 styles are avail­able via type­kit. The full fam­ily (10 styles, includ­ing a medium weight which is slightly lighter than the bold) is avail­able for licens­ing via fontshop.

Filed under "Other Serif", 10 Styles, 4 Styles, Other Source, TypeKit |

Meta Serif Web Pro

Posted on Jun 15, 2012 by .
meta_serif_web

View the web font specimen sheet.

A serif font designed by Erik Spiek­er­mann, Chris­t­ian Schwartz, and Kris Sow­ersby. Pub­lished by FontShop.

Meta Serif (for print) was orig­i­nally designed as a com­pan­ion font to Meta. Meta Serif Web Pro is not merely a print font repack­aged for web use—it has been care­fully hinted and looks great on screen.

I clas­sify Meta Serif Web Pro has an “Other Serif” font, because it does not fall neatly into any of the gen­eral his­toric cat­e­gories com­monly used to describe serif type. Ser­ifs look more pen-formed, while ter­mi­nals on the a and f look more drawn. The con­trast between thicks and thins is mod­er­ate, and feels more old-style, but the stress is decid­edly ver­ti­cal and feels tran­si­tional. All of these ele­ments meld grace­fully together to cre­ate a serif font with a slightly “square” or “struc­tured” feel­ing. Meta Serif Web Pro’s x-height is only a hair larger than Georgia’s, but retains read­abil­ity a bit bet­ter at smaller sizes.

Meta Web Pro works cross browser. 4 styles are avail­able via type­kit. A total of 16 styles are avail­able for license directly from FontShop. It also works beau­ti­fully with its com­pan­ion font: Meta Web Pro.

Filed under "Other Serif", 16 Styles, 4 Styles, Other Source, TypeKit |

Meta Web Pro

Posted on Jun 12, 2012 by .
meta_web

View the web font spec­i­men sheet.

A human­ist sans serif font designed by Erik Spiek­er­mann and pub­lished by FontShop.

Meta was orig­i­nally a print font designed for small text. The same ele­ments that helps Meta stay read­able at small sizes in print helps Meta Web Pro stay read­able on screen: open aper­tures, a gen­er­ous x-height, gen­er­ous closed coun­ter­forms, and slightly loose let­terspac­ing. Meta Web Pro is not merely a print font repack­aged for web use—it has been care­fully hinted and looks great on screen.

Although Meta Web Pro has a decid­edly ver­ti­cal struc­ture, I cat­e­go­rize it as a human­ist sans serif due to its double-decker g, the curved stroke on the low­er­case l, and its human­ist italic.

Meta Web Pro works cross browser. 4 styles are avail­able via type­kit. A total of 16 styles are avail­able for license directly from FontShop. It also works beau­ti­fully with its com­pan­ion font: Meta Serif Web Pro.

Filed under 16 Styles, 4 Styles, Humanist Sans Serif, Other Source, TypeKit |

Just My Type

Posted on Jun 8, 2012 by .

If you’re look­ing for new ideas for pair­ing web fonts, check out Just My Type by Dan Eden.

The site rec­om­mends font pairs using fonts from TypeKit’s col­lec­tion. I can­not guar­an­tee that all web fonts shown are per­fect (I don’t know if they’ve all been tested cross browser for instance), but the pair­ings will cer­tainly inspire you. And it’s obvi­ous that Eden has a good eye for pair­ing fonts.

Filed under Web Font Resources |

Ratio

Posted on Jun 6, 2012 by .
ratio

View the web font spec­i­men sheet.

A human­ist sans serif font by psType.

Ratio has some quirky ele­ments, such as the rela­tion­ship between the dots and the strokes on the let­ters i and j. But the quirks don’t under­mine the over­all tex­ture, rhythm, or read­abil­ity of the font. This makes it stand out from oth­ers that try and fail to incor­po­rate unique ele­ments into a text font.

PsType says that Ratio shows “the best of both human­ist and geo­met­ric sans ser­ifs.” I cat­e­go­rize it as a human­ist sans because it has gen­er­ous aper­tures, a double-decker g, bowls with implied stress (on the b, d, q, p), and a lovely, human­ist italic.

Ratio’s x-height is smaller than Ver­dana, and needs to be set a bit larger to retain read­abil­ity. At the same time, the bowl is almost cir­cu­lar, mak­ing the font feel wider. Thus, I wouldn’t rec­om­mend Ratio for use in a nar­row col­umn. The bold weight is a bit heavy for my taste (the closed coun­ter­forms on the a and e start to “fill in” at text sizes). But the semi-bold is heavy enough to cre­ate a good con­trast to the reg­u­lar weight. I’ve used reg­u­lar and semi-bold in the spec­i­men sheet.

Ratio comes in 12 styles. I’ve tested the usual 4 plus the semi-bold, and they hold up beau­ti­fully cross browser. The whole fam­ily is avail­able on Type­kit.

Filed under 12 Styles, Humanist Sans Serif, TypeKit |