Typeface Foundries and Designers
With so many typefaces, how can you find the ones you want? Here you'll find a list of the major font designers and how to contact them, but the easiest way is to first contact one of the following four major font retailers. Together, these three represent almost all the type sources you'll need. The exception are a few type designers who sell their type only through their web sites (and I've provided links to them here). See another list of type links.
Linotype FontExplorer
This remarkable applet helps you choose type based on a number of different settings, including classification, time in history, usage, name, style, weight/width/x-height,and serif type. It's useful, it's fun, and it's very clever. Make sure to note the little VCR-like buttons near the bottom of the right window--these show you more fonts based on your selections. Don't miss this!
Precision Type
47 Mall Dr., Commack,
NY 11725; 800/248-3668, 516/864-0167
Precision Type has, not only one of the most definitive type catalogs in print, they also have
perhaps the single most definitive collection of typographic samples on the web. They carry more
typefaces from more foundries than anyone else, and their simplet yet brilliant site lets you see any
font they carry in the words of your choice--there's no better way to see if a face is going to work for you. Their comprehensive printed catalog costs $39 and is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to
know which typeface is which. If you know the name of a
typeface, chances are Precision Type can sell it to you. If you don't know the name but can fax
them a sample, they can find it and get it for you. They handle both the large foundries and many individual
designers.
MyFonts
MyFonts offers fonts from many foundries and small designers. It also has some useful type-finding feature. The most unique is the "What The Font" system. Upload a GIF or JPG showing a font sample (the bigger, the better) and the system does it's best to tell you want font it is. I've tried it and it actually works if you have a clean sample. It's an all around interesting and useful site. 415-398-7677,
888-333-6687 (or FF-FONTS) FontShop's impressively
huge and complete type catalog is a terrific resource for
typophiles, including FontShop's own cutting edge line
called “FontFont.” The 650-page, 2-volume set
features 10,000 fonts from 40 librairies. No
self-respecting typehound will want to be without
FontShop's “FontBook.” 14605 Sturtevant
Road, Silver Spring, MD 20905, 800-424-2977. Phil's
Fonts has been around for years. They were formerly one
of the country's premier phototype houses, and then they
moved into the world of digital font sales, starting
trends like fonts on CD. Now they carry the newest faces
from designers around the world, as well as the libraries
of all the major foundries. They also have a great
web site-check it out. 1375 Kings Highway
East, Fairfield, CT 06430; 800-942-9110, 203/846-3087 If you're looking for
the latest faces from a wide range of talented
independent designers, checkout Flashline.com. The great
thing about this service is that it lets small, creative
designers easily sell their fonts on the web. They set
their own prices and they take home most of the money, so
you're really supporting the designers directly. Fonts
are easy to find, well arranged by category or designer.
Prices start at as little as $1.50. 47 W. Polk Street,
#100-310, Chicago, IL 60605; 800-TYPE-USA, fax:
312-360-1997 The following are
foundries or individual type designers: Adobe has one of the
largest libraries of fonts available, and all can be
viewed in the Type Browser section of their web site. 1585 Charleston Rd., Box
7900, Mountain View, CA 94039; 800/83-fonts,
415/961-4400. ArtParts: Joe
& Ron, Box 2926, Orange, CA 92669-0926; 714-771-6754.
ArtParts product some of
the most whimsical (and useful) clipart you could ever
wish for, along with "Regular Joe" an
increasingly popular hand-written font. Write for their
hilarious catalog, then buy all of this you can afford.
You can see and buy their collection on the FontHaus web site. Bitstream was the first
all-digital type foundry, and with people like Matthew
Carter building their library, still has some of the
best, most authentic digitizations you can find. They
also have amazing prices on their top-quality font-CDs.
Their 500-font CD sells for only $49.95. Their TypeShop
CD contains their entire library, including all ITC and
licensed fonts in their collection. Both these CDs are a
great way to build a type library with all the classic
faces, modern classics, and many originals. You
can now purchase fonts directly from this site. 800-522-FONT. 215 First
St., Cambridge, MA 02142; 800/522-FONT, 617/497-6222. Carter and Cone Type,
Inc. Matthew Carter is, of course, one of the
pre-eminent type designers of our time. He designed ITC
Galliard, Bell Centennial (what you read in phone books),
Snell Roundhand, as well as building type libraries for
Linotype and being one of the founders of Bitstream. With
Cherie Cone, his partner, Carter & Cone, has
released some wonderful original faces, including
Mantinia and Sophia. He also created the definitive
expert-set of Galliard. His latest work has been
typefaces for the screen, which can be downloaded for
free at the Microsoft TrueType site 2155 Massachusetts Ave.,
Cambridge, MA 02140; 800/952-2129, 617/576-0398. E-mail Jason Castle has a fine
hand at revivals, and originals. He did a superb and
sensitive job on Jensen Arabique (one of my favorites. 1306 Lincoln Ave., San Rafael,
CA 94901-2105; 415-459-6495 E-mail Known for their
cutting-edge designs, Emigre fonts are only available
from Emigre. You can purchase fonts directly from
this site. Emigre: 4475
"D" St., Sacramento, CA 95819; 800-944-9021;
916-451-4344; fax 916-451-4351; AOL: Emigre Very interesting designs
that tend towards grunge, but intelligently. P.O. Box 48611 Bentall
Center, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V7X 1A3; e-mail:
lloydspr@typeart.com FontBureau is the source
many magazines go to when they want custom typefaces. But
they also have a large, sophisticated library of their
own designs you can buy "off the rack." 175 Newbury St., Boston,
MA 02116; 617-423-8770, e-mail. Interesting,
unconventional typefaces of all shapes and sizes. Ethan Dunham 2731
Blairstone Rd. #184, Tallahassee, FL 32301-5913;
ethan@kidd.com, (904)877-8442 (previously known as Epiphany
Design Studio), If you want beautiful
architectural typefaces, this is the place to look. The
designs go from Glasgow to Scribble, and they're
all charming and useful. You can now order these fonts
on-line from our StoreRoom. To do so, click
here. The Galapagos Design
group consists of both type designers, and some of the
world's foremost type technologists that work for large
foundries and companies wanting custom type work. As well
as a selection of original typefaces (including Maiandra,
a soft, friendly, elegant face that's one of my
favorites), Galapagos offers custom type design, on-site
consulting and font format conversion services. They
offer a free download of "Web-o-Mints," an
attractive ornament typeface for PC and Mac. by Jonathan Macagba has some wonderful original
designs, from Poster Solid and Inline (the main typeface
on this site), to his fun 'FrankenFont' where you can
pose little people depending on the letters you choose.
His faces are all stylish and unique. Box 14013,
Philadelphia, PA 19123; 215-634-0634 Image Club has one of
the most interesting and useful mail order catalogs for
type and graphics products. Their web site is educational
as well. They release new typefaces and clip art
collections on a monthly basis. 800-661-9410;
403-262-8008; fax: 4032617013; CompuServe:
72560,2323; America Online: imageclub, ITC is the IBM of ABC's.
Many of the most popular typefaces in use come from ITC,
a company started to help type designers license designs
to major manufacturers. ITC releases many new fonts on a
quarterly basis. Their new site provides a service that
lets you see your words in their typefaces, and this is
handy, indeed. 212 949-8072; fax: 212
949-8485. 228 East 45th Street, NYC 10017 Judith Sutcliff, The
Electric Typographer, 50 First Ave. Audubon, IA
50025-0224, Phone/Fax 712-563-3799 Judith's typefaces are
wonderful unique pieces that lend an elegant, handmade
look to a page. From leaves to Leonardo Da Vinci, from
Greene and Greene to Old Style Chewed (by ants), from
Hibiscus to Kiilani, her fonts, picture fonts and
petroglyphs are always exceptionally warm and expressive.
Judith's fonts are available
for sale on this site. Long known for their
wonderful "press-on" type, Letraset has a major
library of great display and script faces-along with some
beautiful, subtle body text faces. ITC has taken over Letraset's line,
but you can still view their site and download their
"free font of the month." Letraset, 40 Eisenhower
Dr., Paramus NJ 07653; 800-343-TYPE. Garrett Boge's faces
always have personality and charm that makes them the
life of the page. His new Legacy of Letters
collection uses classic, sometimes ancient type as a
starting point for new digital fonts. 6606 Soundview Dr.,
Gig Harbor, WA 98355; 206-851-5158. Microsoft released a
number of TrueType faces for Windows 3.1 and sold more of
them than any fonts in history. But those font packages
are now history, and Microsoft is concentrating on fonts
designed for the screen. Their site offers many fonts for
free download, and Matthew Carter's specially
comissioned "Georgia" is arguably the
easiest-to-read serif face ever designed for the screen.
His really remarkable "Verdana," the on-screen
sans serif face, is also clear and easy-to-read, and both
are well worth the download. Microsoft, One Microsoft
Way, Redmond, WA 98052; 800/426-9400. Monotype is one of the
original type foudries and the foundry that created some
of the most popular and beautiful typefaces of our time.
Times New Roman was their design in the 20's and it's
popular and practical. Gill Sans is also a Monotype
design, a modern classic sans serif. Monotype also
re-sells fonts from the Adobe library at a discount, so
as strange as it may seem, you may get a better deal on
Adobe font from Monotype than Adobe. You can now
purchase fonts on-line from this site. 685 Busse Road, Elk
Grove Village, IL 60007-2400 USA, 800/MONOTYPE,
847-718-0400, fax 847-718-0500 Silver Graphics, Box
485, 307 W. Morgan Ave., Pennington Gap, VA 24277;
800-888-1550, 703-546-3800 P22 is a foundry known
for their museum-quality revival faces (often developed
in conjunction with museum exhibitions). They feature a
wide variety of historical styles and are always very
well done. Bill's faces take the
past and put it on you page. His dingbats, Decobat and
his wonderful "Fistory" (the pointing finger on
my site is from Bill's Fistory) are fun and stylish. His
typefaces have a period feel that's authentic and
attractive. 270 Farmington Ave.,
Hartford, CT 06105; 800/945-3468, fax: 203-278-3003
FontShop
FontShop one of the world's largest type vendors
with offices around the world. Their web site is a
treasure trove of information. Make sure to try the links
to the German FontShop site where you can view and
print samples from every FontFont, in the words of your
choice!
Phil's Fonts
FontHaus
While FontHaus doesn't represent lines as Precision
or FontShop, it tends to focus on "designer"
typefaces that are new and sold only through them. You'll
find great new type by Mark VanBronkhorst, Rodrigo Xavier
Cavasos's, and careful revivals by Jim Spiece, Jason
Castle, and David Farey. Call and request a copy of their
magazine x-height which combines interesting
editorial with selections from their current catalog. E-mail
Makambo
1-800-TYPE-USA
A type reseller that handles many fonts from large
and small foundries. Their web site is coming soon.
Foundries
Adobe Systems
Bitstream
Castle Systems
Emigre
DigitEyes Mutlimedia
FontBureau
FontHead
Font Forest
Galapagos Design
Handcraftedfonts
Image Club Graphics
ITC (International Typeface
Corporation)
Letraset
LetterPerfect
Microsoft
Monotype
P22
U-Design Foundry