Education — Typography

Typography is a critical skill in any designers toolbox. We have compiled some resources below to help you negotiate the often daunting world of type. The video above is by New Zealand type foundry Klim.

Learning

Flawless Typography Checklist
My own typography course that was over a year in the making. Used by the internal design team of a large social media company, in the design curriculum of a major university and by designers all over the world

Professional Web Typography
A free online book (although you should donate if you find it useful) that covers the fundamentals of web typography.

The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web
A summary of Robert Bringhurst’s typography-bible The Elements of Typographic Style and how it applies to the web.

Fontology
A complete curriculum on the typographic arts structured as a workbook.

History of Western Typography
A Wikipedia article about the origins of Western typography. Highly recommended reading for all designers.

Typoguide
A nice overview of everyday typographic challenges.

Typeface Anatomy & Glossary
A glossary of common typography terminology.

The History of Typography Animation
A complete history of typography in a 5 minute paper-letter animation.

Typography in Ireland

Typography Ireland
Typography Ireland organises events and meetups to discuss all things type. Follow their twitter account for the latest updates.

Signal Type Foundry
Signal Type is a Dublin based type foundry specialising in type design, lettering, and typographic branding, run by New Yorker Max Philips.

Bobby Tannam
Bobby Tannam is a Dublin based type designer and educator. Check out his amazing specimen blog here.

Typography Blogs

Font Review Journal
The Font Review Journal is home to reviews and analysis of typeface designs both new and old.

Typographica
A review of new typefaces and commentary on typographic design.

I Love Typography
A blog about all things typography related that’s been around since 2007.

Type Worship
The blog of 8 Faces magazine curated by Jamie Clarke and Elliot Jay Stocks.

FontShop Blog
FontShop’s blog featuring font recommendations, typography techniques and inspiration.

Typography Inspiration

Typewolf
Typography inspiration for the modern web.

Fonts in Use
An archive of fonts in use in the real world.

Typeverything
Hand lettering inspiration.

Friends of Type
Another excellent inspiration site featuring mostly hand lettering.

Font Identification

WhatTheFont
Upload an image and it magically tells you the name of the font—works surprisingly well.

Font Matcherator
Font Squirrel’s new font identification tool—features a slick and smooth interface, however, the font library it pulls from is somewhat limited.

Fontface Ninja
A browser extension available for Chrome, Safari and Firefox that lets you identify, try, buy and bookmark fonts on a webpage.

Type Sample
Install this bookmarklet to identify and save samples of web fonts.

Identifont
Identify a font by answering a series of questions.