People perceive thickness of letters very individually, and that’s why we are conducting Font Weight Survey to understand the regional preferences of font weight. Could we ask you for 10 min of your time? The findings will be published publicly once we have some results. tptq.com/weight

“Following Prof. Mosley’s death in August 2025, the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication is pleased to make the recordings generally available in agreement with the Mosley estate.” youtu.be/lBfDu3McE3k?...

Big thanks to @fairetype.bsky.social who just renewed their Fonts In Use sponsorship for another year. Please support them with a follow and a visit to www.fairetype.com.

@slye.bsky.social and I are bringing back our type selection workshop to @letterformarchive.org, Oct 25–26: letterformarchive.org/shop/a-crash...

Guerilla Toss “You’re Weird Now” is out today on Sub Pop! Had a blast making artwork for this one (if you can’t already tell).

Without looking it up, guess when this theater was built.

Hey, friends, do any of you know of a good reading (or instruction manual?) on reading pre-1900 (let's say 1700-1923) handwritten texts? Some of the students in my History of Reading class want to focus their final projects on older "traces of reading" and would love more specific instruction +

Fall lineup of Type Electives’ free Fall Virtual Lecture Series, all on supporting linguistic diversity. typeelectives.substack.com/p/supporting...

Just noticed the Ephemera Society of America posted my 2024 talk about our @letterformarchive.org Strikethrough exhibition. www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7bL...

You know you’re at Neon Speaks online symposium (neonspeaks.org/2025-schedule/) when…

The extra space after the “of” is because you take a long breath before saying the next word.

Happy to have been able to contribute some thoughts to @goodspeed.bsky.social’s latest piece for @its-nice-that.bsky.social. It’s great to see an article on design ethics consider type and UX, which generally don’t follow the typical client–agency model. www.itsnicethat.com/features/is-...

Thank you to Chloe Gordon Cordover at The Dieline for chatting with me about moodboarding and design multiverses! thedieline.com/how-efficien...

The ingenuity of 19th-century newspaper ads never ceases to amaze me. This is 1880: fontsinuse.com/uses/24847/w... #Typography #GraphicDesign #Victorian #1880s

Your post is a much-needed contrast to all the “design finally has a seat at the table” think pieces floating around that that completely miss the point that design DID have that seat and built amazing public goods before the admin yanked the chairs. As a former USDSer, thank you.

🦊 I wrote about the administration’s “national design studio,” and how its shoddy construction isn’t a mistake. It’s a clear signal of priorities, and ones we need to actively, urgently rebuke. ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/a-noti...

While other tourists are taking pics of the Gothic fan vaults of the Kings College chapel, I'm getting shots of these terrific keep off the grass signs. The Kings College signpainter knows what they're doing! #cambridge

Here’s Catherine Dixon’s obituary of James Mosley for Eye www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/ja...

It gives me great pleasure to reject the silly American convention of putting punctuation in quotes, regardless of whether it’s part of the quote. Just like the Oxford comma, I am all for the British quotation standard, even with American double quote marks.

James Mosley doing what he does best: a 2500-word treatise on just two numerals, those on the door of Ten Downing St http://j.mp/95K7yn

It’s been a joy trawling @letterformarchive.org with @typozon.bsky.social for this salon. See you next week in person or online. letterformarchive.org/shop/the-pas...

Welcome sign Cleveland, ND

New favorite account. Going through and faving all of the MN and ND pics; the inside of my heart looks like this part of the world.

Gladly made my annual gift to @archive.org, a service that costs nothing to use, runs no ads, and yet I depend on daily. (E.g., digitized texts are an essential source for library.typographica.org/specimen-boo... and @fontsinuse.com.) Donate now to keep it free and open to all: archive.org/donate

Do you use `-webkit-font-smoothing` in CSS? How do you feel about it? Would you miss it if it went away???

I’ve always been a big linker-outer, but this makes me want to link out even more in anything I’m involved with publishing on the internet.

TypeCon2025 happens this week in Portland, and Letterform Archive will have a table at the first-ever Volumes Market (www.instagram.com/p/DMGG9HNP2eG/) which is free and open to the public. Aug 8–9, 11am–6pm at Revolution Hall. See you there? #VintageBooks #BookFair #Books #TypeCon #Typography

There are plenty of decent typefaces on Google Fonts. There are also plenty of pretty poorly designed ones. This mix gives folks without deep type knowledge a false sense of confidence. “I’m not sure what to choose, but at least if I stick with the stuff at a big company like Google I should be ok.”

I cannot believe this video is real 😂 @adobe.com #typography #fontfeed

Quick, fun read about the font used on the instrument cluster of this Volvo radio command vehicle.

New on the blog: The arcane alphabets of Black Sabbath To commemorate Ozzy Osbourne, we took a deep dive into the obscure typefaces used on Black Sabbath’s first four album covers. fontsinuse.com/uses/35835/t... (Buckle up, it’s a long one.)

The closing tag of the link makes the algorithm think the s is the beginning of a new word and changes the apostrophe into an opening single quote. As with all text styles (italics, bold, links, etc.) it is important to include punctuation at the end. It’s been best practice in typesetting forever.

Rotated apostrophes are increasingly common. Maybe the fault of malfunctioning text editors? On this Rolling Stone page it only happens after links. Anyone know what’s going on? (Remember: if your apostrophe is shaped like a 6, it’s probably an opening single quote. smartquotesforsmartpeople.com)

Steven Heller at his best: explaining design’s role in society. www.printmag.com/daily-heller...

Birbday card from @laureola.bsky.social. #umlaut

Here is my list of suggested books on Bookshop.org: bookshop.org/shop/stewf

Fonts In Use is not active on Instagram. We’ve abandoned problematic platforms, embraced ethical alternatives, and survived to talk about it. More here: fontsinuse.com/uses/63903/f...

Bluesky is a good alternative to X for the general public and some specific topics, especially politics. But for many communities and fields, a critical mass remains exclusively on Mastodon. Type designers and fans, for instance, have their own server with 679 active users: typo.social/directory.

Hello! We're kicking off an AMA with Pooja a.k.a. @matratype.bsky.social (typeface designer extraordinaire and the woman behind the forthcoming book INDIA STREET LETTERING) & Rakesh @blaftrakesh.bsky.social (Blaft editor & co-founder). So... what do you want to know?

Friends, do me a favor and walk around the block wherever you live. Do you see any contractor stamps in the concrete sidewalk or driveways? How many? I’m wondering if #Oakland has more of these than anywhere else, or if it’s just my proximity bias.

Bit random. From the archives, a 7.5 cm die in Hopton Wood limestone.

See the thread under this post. Two guys who recently made something inspired by Caslon. This kind of mutual respect and lack of territorialism is the best of the type design community.

“It must be said that drawing a letter, refining it to its final shape, is a captivating task punctuated by moments of anguish.” Jose Mendoza describing his five years working with Excoffon at Fonderie Olive in the 1950s. www.persee.fr/doc/colan_03... #JoseMendozaYAlmeida #JoseMendoza #TypeDesign

Christian Schwartz’s Amplitude comes home to his own foundry @commercialtype.bsky.social with Font Bureau’s closure. And finally updated with italics! vault.commercialtype.com/vault/amplit... One of my favorite typefaces, often recommended to folks who want a versatile fam with deep ink traps.

Cover detail Fortune Magazine November 1937 Maurice Freed (1911-1981), pastel mauricefreed.com

Our drive began with a trip up the Hudson. The first stone we saw at this churchyard in Garrison, NY must be a Benson (www.johnstevensshop.com), no? It’s just too good to be any other shop. flic.kr/p/2reX8fZ #Gravestones #Inscriptional #StoneCutting

You gotta admire a amall business owner who takes the time to shingle their roof with a sign in mind. From our road trip this week. through the small towns of the Catskills and New England. flic.kr/p/2reUu6K #Signs #Connecticut #TollandConnecticut

We were on a little anniversary vacay with limited gallery hours but we are back at it with regular hours starting today. With all the atrocities going on in our country it’s really hard to go on. Running a small business, especially a brick and mortar takes a lot of dedication…

Jim was as good a storyteller as he was a letterer. At the TYPO SF 2012 conference he was in top yarn-spinning form. We’re proud to preserve the TYPO Talks archive, including this recording: vimeo.com/1098216690

@laureola.bsky.social spotted the New York location of #SpanjerBros right next to our hotel! 189 Chrystie St in Soho. Now the site of a The Box, a cocktail bar. #Signs #PrefabLetters