Talking Typography With TDF
We’re working on our latest design project and it’s time to pick that perfect typeface. Maybe we head over to one of those free font marketplaces like Fontsquirrel. Perfect, free fonts as far as the eye can see. But a trained eye will notice the kerning’s off here and a pixel’s missing there. This is a big project and we’ve got a little coin to spend, so we roll over to The Enschedé Font Foundry. There’s the beautifully crafted Lexicon No.1 Roman A. What’s the problem? We’re not quite ready to drop five grand for the complete family.
In comes Ten Dollar Fonts (TDF). TDF believes everyone should have access to amazing new fonts, while the type designers who created them should be rewarded for their hard work. The platform is a carefully curated marketplace for great, affordable fonts. We caught up with Daniel McQueen, director of New Zealand-based TDF, to discuss creating a beautiful font, rewarding great designers and the TDF mission.
Paste: So, we love that Ten Dollar Fonts (TDF) is giving everyone access to amazing new fonts while rewarding designers for the hard work they put in. Tell us a little bit about the process of creating a quality font.
Daniel: I believe it’s always important to start with a pencil in your hand, sketch out your ideas and experiment without the limitations of a computer. For me personally, once I have the basic character set designed and set the tone of the font, I’ll then move onto the computer to trace and refine. Daily I’ll print and review my type off-screen at a range of sizes. I could easy spend anywhere from a solid couple of months to a few years working on a typeface, depending on it’s complexity and number of styles/weights.
When it comes to producing the working font files, if you don’t have experience or a massive amount of time to learn programs such as FontLab or Glyphs, you’re best bet is to pay someone who knows what they are doing to produce the files for you. There are so many things to consider when developing font files. If you’re serious about designing and selling type, this is a worthwhile investment.
Paste: Clearly TDF believes that it’s important to support typographers that have been through the long process of building a font. How does font quality suffer when designers aren’t reimbursed for their work?
Daniel: If a type designer isn’t setting out to design a typeface to sell, then most likely they won’t take the full care that is required to create a product worthy of paying for. There will likely be errors, blemishes and legibility issues in the font simply because they have rushed their work or lack knowledge of type design.
Paste: Many of us don’t appreciate the detail that goes into crafting each character of a font. What should designers be looking out for in a quality font?
Daniel: Consistent well executed design features, legibility, kerning and spacing.
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