About this reference: what it covers, and the standard it holds

What the reference covers

Five subjects, one section each. Type and typefaces is the largest: how faces are classified, how they are paired, what their licences permit, and what the parts of a letterform are called. Logo design covers what a mark has to survive and how it is built, presented and delivered. Branding covers the layer above the mark and the distinction between a brand and an identity. Tutorials covers the vector technique underneath all of it. Fundamentals covers the elements and principles the other four assume.

The scope is deliberately narrow. There is no coverage of motion, no coverage of user-interface patterns, and no coverage of the business of design. Those are real subjects and this is not a reference on them.

The editorial standard

One rule, and it is short: state the measurement, and state the conditions.

Where a figure appears on this site (the x-height of a face, a contrast ratio, the size of a font file, the number of downloads a catalogue lists) the entry says where the number came from and under what conditions it holds. The metrics quoted on the anatomy entry are read out of the font binary this site serves, at a stated pixel size, by a script kept with the build. The contrast ratios are computed rather than judged. The catalogue figures are given as what was shown on the day the entry was revised, because they move.

One consequence follows and is best said outright: it makes the reference shorter than it could be. Several claims that are commonly repeated in design writing are absent here, not because they are wrong but because they could not be checked.

How entries are written and revised

Entries are revised in place rather than republished. A guide to font licensing written once and left alone becomes a guide to font licensing as it used to be, and the terms move. So the date printed on each entry is the date it was last revised, and the reference index on the home page is sorted by it.

Where a figure is drawn here (the annotated letterform, the six class skeletons) the construction is stated in the caption. Where a figure would have contradicted its own caption, it was redrawn rather than relabelled: the six type classes here are drawn to their defining ratios rather than typeset in faces that do not belong to those classes.

The twelve display releases

One part of this reference is a record rather than a guide. A working designer released a family of twelve free display typefaces between 2008 and 2013, distributed through the free-font catalogues rather than through a foundry storefront. Five of those catalogue entries are still live and still carry the files; seven no longer resolve at the address the others use.

Those releases are recorded and credited, with the terms on each one stated and with links to the catalogue listings rather than copies of the files. Eleven of the twelve were released free for personal use only, which is a separation that matters a great deal in commercial work and which is covered end to end on the licensing entry.

The reference does not offer design services, does not take commissions, and sells nothing. It is editorial, and the only thing it asks a reader to do is check the measurement.

Corrections

Every measurement published here is reproducible by the reader without asking anyone: the font files are hosted here, the sizes are stated, and the method is described in the entry that uses it. An entry found to be inaccurate is corrected in place and the revision date moves. Checking an entry gives the route by which each class of figure here can be verified independently.