Via TypeToDesign

Top Typographic resources for UX Designers

Ability to render type digitally has leapfrogged. Tools, apps and typefaces have exploded. Typography is back in the spotlight. And I keep encountering a bunch of typographic questions and quandaries — some directed at me, some overheard and some my own.

This essential (and ongoing) list answers some of those ‘what? how? which?’ questions related to typography for web and mobile. And for print too. For those who love and work with Type.

And if you find more typographic interestingness/usefulness, please let me know. Bookmark this page, you and I will be updating it…

Which font is that?

• Font Ninja and WhatFont are two useful Chrome Extensions that help you identify Fonts on the Web.
• WhatTheFont’s Mobile App version (iOS only) helps identify fonts from the off/online world. WhatTheFont also has a desktop version.
• WhatFontIs on desktop features a similar flow to WhatTheFont.
• FontsInUse is for times when you know what the font is, but want to see how/where its used. Or find typographic patterns by industry or format.

Font-pairings

• Font-Flame is the Tinder of font pairing and can be addictive. And there’s a trending and curated list.
• FontPair is for GoogleFonts, they have a bunch of headline/body copy suggestions. Plus you can suggest new pairs!
• TypeGenius helps you find the right combo.
• Typ.io ‘reveals’ some of the top/trending pairings from the web.

Aggregators & stores

• Font Book is a paid iOS app to discover and drool over 730,000 from multiple designers and foundries, “intuitively spread out, searched, layered, moved, scrolled and combined like a collection of maps”.
• Fonts.com
• FontSquirrel
• MyFonts
• LostType & FontFabric have curated collection of quirky/interesting Types for free, paid and pay-what-you-want
• The League of Moveable Type & Impallari both have smaller curated selection of quirky/interesting Types
• The HungryJPG Font Bundles and 21 Fonts (from E&E) are handwriting font curations and keep getting refreshed

Usefulness

• AnyFont lets you add custom TTF, TTC and OTF to your iPad and iPhone.
• FlippingTypical lets you preview the words you type in all the typefaces on your computer.
• FontSwapper will let you swap and preview alternate fonts on a live site using webtype.
• Fontula is a quirky iPad app for creating “fonts on the go”
• TypeTester is for those who (broadly) know their types and want to compare upto three options.
• Typecast (from Monotype) lets you “check for readability, rendering and beauty” and preview across devices.

Icon Fonts

• Font Awesome
• Fontello is a useful DIY kit to pack vector images as fonts or curate from collections such as Entypo.
• IcoMoon is in someways similar to Fontello and claims to generate “crisp, pixel perfect icon fonts”
• Modern Pictograms
• Pictonic has an growing collection (including Superheroes) —both paid and free
• Typicons

What’s trending

• FontReach curates the top fonts used across the web (and you may be surprised to note that Arial still leads by a wide margin)
• TypeWolf curates the new, creates lists (top 10 ___), test drives typefaces and more…
• Typographica is “a review of typefaces and type books, with occasional commentary on fonts and typographic design”.
• Typography Served
• Typophile
• WeLoveType or WLT

Foundries

• Adobe TypeKit
  (Also see Typekit’s List of Favourite Fonts and the TypeKit Table)
• Commercial Type (Formerly Schwartz Co)
• Dalton Maag
• Emigre (thanks Jamie Myrold for the suggestion, Emigre is an old favourite)
• FontShop
• Google Fonts
  (Also see TypeWolf’s curated list of 30 Best Google Fonts)
• Hoefler & Co
• Linotype
• Monotype

Learning

• TypeInsight is an engaging iPad app with info, trivia and activities for beginners and the initiated.
• The Typography Manual is a paid iOS app and a “useful pocket reference” for all things typographic

Fun & Games

• Ampergram — Instagram meets typography, Android/iOS/Web app to create typographic compositions using type-pics.
• Type to Design is similar to Ampergram, but sleeker and simpler with a few more interesting touches to its interface. Its stock of typographic images comes via 36 Days of Type.
• Kern Type is a simple web-based game — to, well, kern type!
• Typography is an iOS app for sending messages as pics of types (via Flickr).
• The Font Game from I Love Typography is a “rapid fire” font identification game for iPhone and iPod touch.
• Fontli is a social network for “Typoholics” a place to share, comments and discuss typography (thanks Daniel Eriksson for the suggestion)

Type on Pics

• Quick and Over are nifty apps for putting type on pics, both are on Android and iOS.
• FontCandy is an iOS app that also lets you mask through Type, in addition to putting type, emojis et al on pics.
• A Beautiful Mess is another worthy contender in this category (iOS) that also allows for borders et al via type ornaments.

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You are welcome to suggest additions or ways to sort this list. Tweet to @jdallcaps or mail me: jdallcaps [at] gmail.com.

Recommendations and shares always appreciated :-)