BitBox has just released another free TrueType font called Fusty Saddle (fusty means “Old fashioned in attitude or style). It’s a rustic, western-style font similar in style to the old Adobe favorite, Mesquite. Fusty Saddle makes for a great display font, to be used in headlines only. The only problem I have with the font is that there are no punctuation characters such as period, comma, quote or exclamation point. These characters are still important in headlines. That being said, it’s still a beautiful font. You can download Fusty Saddle here.
Tagged: font
Free font: Advent Pro
A gentleman who goes by the name of inde-graphics has made available, free for download, an excellent font called Advent. The download includes 7 font weights for Advent in TrueType Format, and a handy type specimen sheet in PDF format.
PDF font subsetting explained
I’m often asked about Font Subsetting when exporting and creating PDF files using Distiller or directly from InDesign, so I thought I would post this explanation of what Font Subsetting is. When generating a PDF, it is possible to include only those characters in a font that were used in the document. This partial font is called a “Font Subset”. You adjust font subsetting in either the Acrobat Distiller job options or InDesign’s export dialog under “Subset fonts below X%”. The percent represents how much of the font is used in your document before it gets embedded in the PDF file. So a setting of 100% would mean that the entire font would be subsetted in the PDF file, while a setting of 5% would mean that you would have to use nearly all the characters available before the font would be subsetted. The primary advantages of subsetting fonts are that it not only reduces the PDF file size, but RIP’s (raster image processors) are forced to use the subset font even if the system has the full font available. Your PDF is slightly larger than other PDF files, but is also less likely to have problems with substituted fonts when output. Disadvantages of font subsetting are that it prevents your output provider from making edits to the PDF file if necessary, while still maintaining font integrity.
Huge collection of grunge fonts available for download
If you read my article at Macworld about Bulking up your font collection, you’ve hopefully visited some of the great font sites available out there and found a few gems. One of the hardest type of fonts to find to your liking is really good grunge fonts. Many times they’re either overdone and too hard to read, or not “grungy” enough. Enter daFont member named Gyom Séguin (a.k.a. Last Soundtrack). This talented font designer has a collection of grunge fonts like none I’ve come across. Virtually every one of his over 30 grunge fonts is well-crafted and ready to use in your design, including the superb Bleeding Cowboys font seen in the sample above. Check out Gyom’s collection of grunge fonts here.
Free font: Dead Letter Office
One of my favorite sites to visit is One Digital Life. It’s not really a “design” site, but it’s just fun to read and every once in a while he posts a real gem. About a week ago, I came across such a gem in a post titled Dead Letter Office Font. While the font is quite a unique font and not for everyday use, I actually was looking for something like it just when I came across the post.
InDesign font selection shortcut
Getting control of the Font menu can be a daunting task if you have a lot of fonts activated. Adobe has made their apps somewhat easy in that they group fonts by family, but it can still be a long list to scroll through. When you’re working in Adobe InDesign, you can click in the font field in either the Character palette or Control bar and type a letter of the font you’re looking for, which will automatically select the first font using that letter. So if you type the letter “T” you will most likely end up at a font named Tahoma. Once you have the first font by that letter in the menu, you can click the font popup menu and select the actual font you want. Another way is to simply start typing the font you are looking for and InDesign will select the font as you type.
Free TV/Movie fonts at TypeNow
TypeNow offers fonts from your favorite TV shows, movies, music bands, video games, brand products and more. Remember, these font designs are **probably** trademarked, and should only be used for personal projects.
Changing the default font in Illustrator CS
When you have a client that always uses the same font, do you ever get tired of having to always change the font when you start typing in Illustrator? Fortunately, you can change Illustrator’s default font. Before changing the default font in Illustrator CS, you need to create a custom startup file by editing the Normal Character Style in Illustrator’s startup files. To change the default font: 1. Quit Illustrator. 2. In the Adobe Illustrator CS/Plug-ins folder, copy the current default startup file – Adobe Illustrator Startup_CMYK or Adobe Illustrator Startup_RGB – and save it with a different name. (This creates a copy of the original startup file in case you need it again.) 3. Open one of the default startup files (Adobe Illustrator Startup_CMYK or Adobe Illustrator Startup_RGB, depending on which type of document you intend to use). 4. Choose Window > Type > Character Styles. 5. Select the Normal Character Style and choose Character Style Options from the palette pop-up menu. 6. Select Basic Character Formats and choose the desired font from the Font Family pop-up menu. 7. Click OK, and save the new file as Adobe Illustrator Startup _CMYK or Adobe Illustrator Startup_RGB in the Plug-ins folder. 8. Restart Illustrator.