Dan Mall has my favorite post on picking a typeface. I’m no master typographer, but I know enough that I don’t want to be talked to like an absolute beginner where you teach me what a serif is. Dan gets into more realistic decision making steps, like intentionally not picking something ultra popular, admitting that you have to be around a lot of type to make good type decisions, and that ultimately choosing is akin to improvising in jazz: it’s just gotta feel right.
If you are a beginner, or really just like type, you’d do well carving out half an hour to watch the 6 parts of Practicing Typography Basics from Tim Brown who sounds like he’s at absolute zen at all times. Each of these videos only has a few thousand views which feels like a damn shame to me as they are super good and hit all the most important stuff about typography.
Now let’s have more fun and just look at some actual typefaces I’ve bookmarked lately.
MD IO
I just love this so much it’s one of those typefaces that make me want to find a project just to use it on.
Jgs
Jgs Font glyphs can be combined from one character to another, from one line to another. Thus from single characters it is possible to draw continuous lines, frames and patterns.
Nudica
The pricing atipo foundry does for their fonts (“pay what you want”) is awfully generous.
mononoki
a font for programming and code review
I’ve got this on my list of potential fonts to add to CodePen when I get to doing another round of that.
F.C. Variable
An exploration by Rob en Robin about using the axes of variable fonts to control illustrations. Wild!
Oh and kinda just for myself, I want to remember two fonts Dan mentioned. He said he doesn’t pick these as they are almost too popular, but I don’t know them well and that popularity kinda intrigues me honestly.
Two of the most popular typefaces on Typewolf are Grilli Type’s GT America and Lineto’s Circular. You can’t go wrong with those. They look great and they won’t offend anyone.