The League's Typelog

Music and type go together

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:30:00 -0500

Oooh, look, it’s Orbitron! With an alternate...

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:02:00 -0500

Oooh, look, it’s Orbitron! With an alternate Q!

“HQueue, the first Hulu Queue Viewer for the iPhone launched today! This is A Good Company’s first iPhone app, and I am super excited that it just showed up in the App Store! Go look. Immediately.”

The design is pretty sweet, if we do say so ourselves. Then again, yano, we made it, so we’re biased. Go check it out at http://www.hqueueapp.com

(P.S. you can try to win a free copy by commenting on this MacStories review)

Hey, we got a new super elegant typeface by Matt McInerney. Go...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:45:00 -0500

Hey, we got a new super elegant typeface by Matt McInerney. Go give it some love!

And we actually got a chance to play with it a bit. We’ve been using it for some identity work we’re doing for a client. It’s a DIY science organization, with a lot of local chapters, each needing a version of the logo. So we thought using an open-source typeface is perfect. That way each chapter can make their own version of the logo by simply changing the name of the city. And they won’t need to buy the font, since it’s open-source.

Oh yes, that is also Sniglet on there!

mattmcinerney:

I just posted Raleway on The League of Moveable Type. It’s free to download. If you find any problems with, please let me know. The font features old style and lining numerals, small caps, a pretty complete set of diacritics, and an alternate stylistic set.

Raleway

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:40:18 -0500

Raleway

Prociono

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:26:15 -0500

Prociono

The Oscars of Type, by Ellen Lupton

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:28:00 -0500

Check out Ellen Lupton’s best-of 2009 typefaces. League Gothic won for Best Free Font, we’re so honored! Thanks WebDesignLedger.com for the nomination. Here are some of the winners:

Best Actor: Mr Eaves, by Zuzana Licko, Émigré

Best Actress: Liza Pro, by Underware

Best Serif: Calluna, by Jos Buivenga

Best Free Font: League Gothic, by the League of Moveable Type

For the complete list of winners go here.

Little League. We decided to hand draw League Gothic for a side...

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:56:47 -0500

Little League.

We decided to hand draw League Gothic for a side project over here at A Good Company. Working on turning it into a font, so we can use it online. We’ll see how the final layout will look.

Did you make your own layout? I like it(: Simple and classy.

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:55:04 -0500

Why yes we did!

By night we founded The League of Moveable Type; by day we run a small design firm called A Good Company. We actually do all manner of cool stuff, from awesome client gigs, to thegoodsideof.us, to A Good Portfolio. You should check out our stuff & say hello!

Using The Open Font License for Your Typeface

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:05:46 -0500

So you’ve made a typeface, and you want to make it available for anyone to use and modify for free, but you have some concerns. Here are our best and honest answers to some of the common concerns type designers have when making their fonts open-source.

1. I want to give out my font for free, so they can use it for commercial or non-commercial things, and I don’t mind having people studying and modifying my font. But I don’t want someone to modify my font, and then re-publish it on their own website. What if someone makes some crappy changes, then people will think that I make crappy fonts. Wouldn’t that compromise the integrity of my original font?

The OFL specifically prevents people from redistributing a modified typeface under the same name as the original typeface, unless you, the creator of the original font, give your permission of course. So if someone decide to make changes to your original font that you don’t approve, they would have to call it something else, making it a totally different font than your original one.

2. If I’m giving my font away for free, will I get credited whenever it’s used?

Well, no. Acknowledgement of the font creator is not required by the OFL. You can say this is the ‘open’ part of the OFL. Not requiring people to give credit everytime the font is used/reproduce/printed makes it easier for people to actually use your font, with less headache and legal mumbo jumbo, you know? But in our experience, most people are more than happy to give credit to the font designers even when it’s not required, I guess that’s just their way of saying ‘thanks’.

3. Why OFL, what’s wrong with Creative Commons?

There’s nothing wrong with CC. Creative Commons is great for choosing what kind of restrictions you want to put when people are using your intellectual properties (attribution, attribution share-alike, etc), but since we’re talking strictly about open source fonts here, it’s simpler to go with a license that’s applies specifically to fonts and strictly open-source.

There’s only one OFL you can choose from, which basically allows people to use and modify the original font for free, and any modified versions of the font, must be released under the same OFL license.

4. I made this typeface, and I want anyone to be able to download it, use it freely anywhere, and even modify it, but I don’t want to restrict my own future work with this font to have to be open sourced. If I release the original font under the OFL, wouldn’t I be restricting any derivations of the font, whether it’s my own or someone else’s, to remain open source?

No. Since you’re the original creator and the copyright holder of your font, you will retain all the rights to your creation. You are only releasing a portion of your font for use in a specific way. For example, you may choose to release a ‘basic’ version of the font under the OFL, but sell a restricted ‘enhanced’ version. Only you, the copyright holder, can do this.

5. Okay, I like what you’re saying, but I want to read this OFL for myself, where can I find the actual license text?

The official text of the OFL can be found here. To download the OFL.txt file to include it with your font, click here.

6. More questions?

If you have questions about using an OFL font and wondering what the restrictions are, there is a really helpful FAQ page that will likely answer most of your questions. If you can’t find the answer there, just shoot them an email, they’re super friendly and timely.

Tumblr Tuesday

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:27:38 -0500

staff:

Every Tuesday, we’re showcasing five Tumblr blogs that you recommended for the Tumblr Directory. Add your favorite blog to the directory right here!

The League’s Typelog
The League of Moveable Type brings you the best free fonts, and their Tumblelog aims to collect ideas, provide inspiration, and spark collaborations.

Doctors Without Borders
Doctors Without Borders is an international medical humanitarian organization working in more than 60 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe.

I Color the News
The author of this Tumblelog uses a noteworthy headline from the day’s news as inspiration for crayon drawings that my nonexistent children could have made.

Celebrate With Cake
This is your virtual bake book, where you’ll find daily recipes blogged from trusted sources. Also, I mean, there are photos of delicious cake.

F Yeah Lost
As the premiere of the final season of LOST is airing tonight, I’d be remiss not to mention it here. That, and well over 100 of you recommended this blog last week. Power to the people!

Hit the Tumblr Directory for more awesome Tumblrs!

Oh, what a lovely surprise! Thanks everyone! Special thanks to the Tumblr staff, for making such an awesome blogging software. :-)

Hey y’all, a new and expanded Junction is here! Now with a...

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:22:29 -0500

Hey y’all, a new and expanded Junction is here! Now with a Latin 1 Western character set, ligatures & lining figures. Spread the word around, okay?

If you have the old version, go get the new one here! So you can use Junction in languages other than English :-D

When will Raleway come out?

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:14:54 -0500

Soon! Matt is still polishing it, making sure it’s perfect and awesome!

Well that’s a nice surprise. We love 300&65 Ampersands...

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:56:00 -0500

Well that’s a nice surprise. We love 300&65 Ampersands and Jessica Hische. Not to mention fellow League Member Matt McInerney. Thanks, Tumblr!

P.S. We have since added in a description. Silly!

Have a question? Ask us anything!

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:54:47 -0500

Have a question? Ask us anything!

League Gothic in action!

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:18:32 -0500

We’ve gotten a lot of tweets from people using League Gothic on their site. Here are a few of the awesome sites that features the font.

The Doug Hahn Publications

The Pilcrow

Dustin Curtis’s blog entry

Sami Niemelä

Darcie and Sean’s wedding

Beat Train Sound System

Do you have one you want to share too? Just let us know, we love seeing our fonts in action.

300&65 Ampersands, one for each day

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:45:31 -0500

300&65 Ampersands, one for each day

This one is not ours, and it’s unclear what the EULA is,...

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:56:14 -0500

This one is not ours, and it’s unclear what the EULA is, but it’s pretty awesome looking. Go check it out: Franchise Bold Font, available for free.

The typewriter ampersand symbol (&) was invented by Marcus Tullius Tiro around 60 BCE as a part of a system of shorthand that allowed him to write down the orations of Cicero. The symbol was a combination of the letters 'e' and 't' from the Latin word 'et' meaning 'and.'

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:41:33 -0500

tarynhiroshima:

awesome.

via ohyeahfacts

Type for you ~ ANTREPO4.COM OUTPUT REPORT a beautiful font from...

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 10:49:21 -0500

Type for you ~ ANTREPO4.COM OUTPUT REPORT

a beautiful font from Antrepo, Public Gothic. it’s too bad their licensing restricts them from being embedded. at least they say you can use it commercially, though their license is a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo, that makes me more scared & confused than anything else.

in any case, it’s great work, & you should check ‘em out.

Ligature, Loop, & Stem. Beautiful type posters, by an even...

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:01:40 -0500

Ligature, Loop, & Stem. Beautiful type posters, by an even more beautiful online store.