XKCD on Papyrus »

I swear I had already pulled out my XKCD t-shirt to wear yesterday, just minutes before I saw this comic.

Microsoft Office 2010 adds OpenType goodness »

The Office 2010 technical preview is due out in July, and one can sign up to test with it. However, copies of Office 2010 have apparently already leaked, and some enterprising souls have posted screen shots of the new support for OpenType typographic features for western fonts.
This is a “technical preview” only, so it is quite possible there will be some changes of features, functionality or user interface prior to release. However, it should be pretty close to the final version overall (except in performance and bugs).
That being said, you may be wondering exactly what is supported. Here’s what the UI posting shows:

• Ligatures (appears to support multiple levels or types)
• Number spacing (presumably proportional and tabular)
• Number forms (presumably oldstyle and lining)
• Stylistic Sets
• Contextual Alternates (this one is a checkbox; all the others are dropdown menus)

None of this stuff is on by default (not even standard ligatures), but then again, neither is kerning. Sigh. So, it’s not perfect, but a huge advance over the status quo. Having this stuff in Word will finally bring some more elements of good typography to the masses….

Typographic soap »

For those who want to clean up all the dirty words in the world, try this typographic soap!

I can’t wait to actually buy it.

Thanks to Kathleen Tinkel at the Desktop Publishing Forums and Typo-L for the tip.

Speaking at InDesign User Group Seattle, May 12th »

I’m only a week back from Vancouver BC and the “Justified West” conference, where I spoke on forensic typography (detecting forged documents by means of fonts and print tech). I’ve also just finished moving from Seattle to Portland (everything is still in boxes), but I thought I’d drop a quick note on the blog.

On the evening of Tuesday May 12th, I’ll be speaking at the InDesign User Group here in Seattle, right at Adobe Seattle HQ (where I worked for many years) in the Fremont neighborhood. It will be a somewhat multi-faceted talk, more of a set of talks really, covering various things group members requested. Admission is free (but registration required or at least strongly desired), and there’s free food, too! So come on out, or let your Seattle-area designer friends, clients and colleagues know, okay?

IDUG meeting details link for registration, directions and such.

SCHEDULE

6.30-6.45 Meet, greet, and eat (usually they have pizza)

6.45-7.30 Part I of my talk

7.45-8.30 Part II of my talk

8.30 Raffle, Wrap-up, and Au Revoirs

Here’s what I’ll be talking about (subject to minor modifications):


PART I
6.45-7.30

• A brief rant on legibility in design (15 min)
  • including choosing fonts for print and screen
• How fonts are made (10 min)
• Tips and Tricks (15 min, list subject to change)
  • How to know if a font is corrupt (with two tools you shouldn’t use and why)
  • Recognizing system fonts
  • Which system fonts you can remove and why
  • Windows Type 1 fonts on Mac OS
  • Fonts vs transparency in InDesign
  • Character styles
• Font management (5 min)

PART II
7.45-8.30

• A Brief History of Type (20 minutes)
• OpenType demo (20 minutes)