Chris Dickman (bio)

Gestalten
When I think of Gestalten and its small collection of fonts, what comes to mind are some of its more radical typographic offerings. However, the recent release of EngelNewSerif, shown below, is a reminder that it also provides fonts suitable for day to day use. EngelNewSerif is the serif version of what is apparently one of Gestalten's best-selling fonts, Engel, by Sofie Beier. The project began with Beier wanting to extend the character set of Engel and to freshen it up for the OpenType format, in the process coming up with a complely redesigned EngelNewSans, which lead to the creation of the new serif version.

Linotype
Available until July 15 is a collection of five fonts from type designer Hannes von Döhren. You can snag ITC Chino Display Thin, Klint Extended, Opal Script, Quench Bold and Snoogle Regular for the modest price of 19 euros.

FontFonts
Web fonts are all the rage, as a way of using "real" fonts on web sites. FontFonts sat on the fence for some time before finally getting on the web fonts train but it's not evident whether sales have met their expectations. You can draw your own conclusions, but until July 15 FontFonts is offering a 30% discount on web fonts for those who have already purchased the desktop version or those who purchase desktop and web fonts on the same order. Not sure about this web font thang? You can currently download a free version of FF Nuvo Web Medium and give it a spin. Let us know what you think, are web fonts the future of type on the web?

P22
P22 has this to say about Foxtrot: "The design of P22 Foxtrot is inspired by the lively ballroom dance of the same name. Foxtrot is a transitional antiqua with rounded serifs that features ligatures, smallcaps, oldstyle numerals and full Central European support for those with applications that support OpenType features. The companion, Foxtrot Sans, is a sans serif version with a little more jazzy expression. Both fonts are great for text and display." Regularly priced at $129.95, the Foxtrot Family is on sale for $99.95 until June 30. P22 is also also offering special pricing during June to commemorate Frank Lloyd Wright, with discounts on the purchase of a selection of Frank Lloyd Wright font styles, singles and sets, as well as a special price for the entire collection.

Insider Software
FontAgent Pro provides a vast array of font management capabilities, including a font integrity engine that diagnoses font problems before fonts can be used; auto-activation plugins for Adobe CS2 through CS5 that find, match and activate fonts as users open InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop documents; the printing of hardcopy and creation of PDF sample books for any group of fonts; the display of fonts in cascading point sizes; font archiving that automatically backs up font files; startup fonts and sets; and design tools. Strengths include multiple font libraries, a customizable user interface, live font search, WYSIWYG font viewing, and a Font Player that delivers interactive font selection. Using FontAgent Pro, administrators can also prohibit unauthorized modifications to font libraries and sets, define multiple startup sets to boost usability, and enable font activation without launching FontAgent Pro itself.

Now Insider Software has released TeamServer, which delivers a comprehensive font-management solution for five- or ten-person workgroups, allowing local users as well as remote users to receive and upload fonts. It includes server and client software that can access a centralized library of fonts. TeamServer installs, updates and collects fonts on user workstations automatically, as well as providing and enforcing consistent font usage across all users and projects.

FontAgent Pro TeamServer requires a Mac to run, but both Mac and Windows clients are available to users. The version for five-person workgroups is priced at $895, with the ten-user version set at $1295. More information and a trial version is available on the Insider Software site.

FontLab
Once thought to have died a natural death, this veteran font editing application has finally received a much-needed overhaul. So what's new in version 5? FontLab claims "This release is specifically designed for busy desktop publishers who need fast, efficient solutions to font problems." Not to worry, the popular drawing tools have been retained but long-standing feature requests such as a larger zoom level and outline antialiasing have been added. Setting technical font parameters such as font naming or linespacing in Fontographer used to be cumbersome so these have been redesigned to make them as easy to use as the rest of the product. Fontographer 5 can now read and generate OpenType fonts in both PostScript (.otf) and TrueType (.ttf) flavors. It also now provides greatly improved Unicode compatibility.

Also new is a redesigned and updated Font Info dialog for editing the relevant technical parameters for all font formats; a Spotlight-like glyph search feature that allows users to quickly highlight or select glyphs based on the Unicode codepoint, glyph name or Unicode character name; support for manual editing of Type 1 hints; high screen font quality due to an integrated Adobe PostScript autohinter and the FontLab TrueType autohinter; and quite a bit more. In fact, FontLab claims that "This is the release that the font software community has been waiting for more than a decade!" and it's hard to argue with that. Fontographer 5 can be purchased for $399 on the FontLab site, with a demo version available for download.

FontGear
The FontXChange Mac utility provides batch processing for converting entire font libraries and includes a font inspection window with preview, and is said to provide support for many font encodings, including Adobe Standard, Unicode, Mac Roman, and Windows ANSI, and European. The big news for version 2.5 is the ability to convert fonts to the emerging WOFF format. Developed last year, WOFF has a good chance of being standardized as the recommended web font format by the World Wide Web Consortium Web Fonts Working Group. It's currently supported by Firefox and Webkit-based browsers as well as the upcoming Internet Explorer 9. It will be interesting to see how many designers convert their existing fonts for use on websites, rather than purchase new ones specifically created or tweaked for that use. Also new is an upgrade to Unicode 5.2, as well as number of interface improvements. FontXChange 2.5 for Mac can be purchased on the FontGear site for $99.99. A trial version is also available for download.

Chris Dickman
Follow Graphics.com