Is anyone here a happy Jottacloud customer and could recommend the service? More specifically, has anyone here migrated to Jottacloud from Dropbox? Anything you’d wish you’d known before starting the process?

Over breakfast this morning, I was telling my kids how, when we were kids, you used to get literal toys stuffed inside cereal packets, or collectible holographic cards built into the box, or at the very least some tokens (“post us 5 tokens and we’ll post you a toy” etc.). Totally blew their minds.

My new book, Fine Specimens, comes out next month! My publisher said I should make a video for the book’s Amazon page, so I figured I might as well post it here, too, esp. as it took about 17 takes. Please feel free to pre-order it from wherever you buy books! Some links: geni.us/FineSpecimens

I love this thoughtful and beautifully presented piece by @terry.social.godier.me.ap.brid.gy (found via @tyfromtheinternet.com’s newsletter), on the anxiety of unread counts and the questionable evolution of app design. “Phantom obligation — the guilt you feel for something no one asked you to do.”

This morning, I gave a talk at my daughters’ primary school assembly (ages 4–11) about being a designer (for their ‘careers week’) and, oh boy, I was *not* ready for that level of audience participation. Possibly the most fun and chaotic 10 minutes of my speaking career to-date.

Delphi Tools by @delphi.rmv.fyi — resizers, converters, references, etc. “A collection of small, low stakes and low effort tools. No logins, no registration, no data collection. [...] Long live the handmade web.” Wow, what a treasure trove! Thank you for making these, Ruby.

Interesting to see that Pencil is now live. I’ve been very curious about this one. Sort of a Cursor-but-for-design.

For the first time ever, I’ve published my “2025 in review” blog post just three weeks into the new year. I fretted a lot about this one. These posts feel so self-indulgent when the world is on fire. But I’m also using it as a chance to express gratitude for everything. Thanks for reading!

Continuing some planning for a potentially semi-bonkers near-future idea, so: Folks in (or near) London, Paris, Berlin, and The Hague, do you know of any nice indie bookshops — ones that stock design books *and* host events — and would you mind sending those recommendations my way, please?

I’ve been using the free trial of GitHub Copilot Pro in VSCode for helping me code personal projects and now it’s time to pay. I was considering that vs. Cursor (which we use at work), but Cursor is 2× the price GHCP — and it still has usage limits (which GHCP does not). Am I missing something?

Finally managed to watch ‘Tripping with Nils Frahm’. What a treat!

If you’re polite to your AI agent...

Can I take a day off to read all of the email newsletters I’ve got saved in my inbox, please? Got some great ones waiting from: @documental.ly @densediscovery.bsky.social @craigmod.com @luismendo.com @fchouquet.bsky.social Kirsty McLachlan Matthew Smith Lizzy Stewart Receipt from the Bookshop

“Nobody should have a billion dollars,” writes @tomwhyman.bsky.social. “People don't have a strong intuitive sense of how much bigger 1 billion is than 1 million. 1 million seconds is about 11 days. 1 billion seconds is about 31.5 years.” (Found via this week’s @densediscovery.bsky.social)

Every single brand on earth doing a “wrapped” at the end of the year is getting a bit tiring... but some folks actually do it right. @raycast.com’s is *excellent*. I love that you can export some of the screens as images, too.

I’ve reached the “argh, all I want to do is redesign the whole thing” stage of my relationship with my personal site. However, knowing that a full redesign will take a while, I’ve been using the Christmas holidays to make a few small tweaks — like finally getting Fine Specimens on my “books” page!

Very cool foundry site for Amateur Type. I love those on-hover video specimens.

Yesterday I published my last newsletter of 2025, feat. @hoodzpahdesign.bsky.social @typeparis.com @ilovetypography.bsky.social @onpaperwings.bsky.social @frerejones.bsky.social @ghostlyint.bsky.social @jakegiltsoff.bsky.social and fonts, books, events, and more you might enjoy if you love type.

Final issue of the year going out very shortly! Here’s a little preview of what’s in this one. elliotjaystocks.com/newsletter

Lovers of type and typography! It’s the last ‘proper’ work week, which means it’s nearly time for me to send my final newsletter of the year. Fancy lending me your email as an early Christmas present? I don’t look at unsubscribe data, so it’s fine if “the very next day, you [take] it away.”

Losing myself in the wonderful dreamlike experience that is strangersbyspring.com, made by @likethecolour.red and @strange.website (found via @piccalil.li). We need more of this sort of internet.

Alright, it’s out there. Phew! I’ve just shared the full cover for my next book, Fine Specimens, with my lovely newsletter subscribers. It has details on pre-ordering, signed copies, etc. Please feel free to subscribe if you want to be kept up-to-date about the book. You can read the issue online:

My friend Viktor is offering 20% off all his font making courses and type-related templates today and tomorrow using the code BLACKFRIDAY. In this thread, I’ve got links to each. Full transparency: they’re affiliate links. BUT! I took (and paid for) the Font Making Course and thoroughly recommend.

Variable fonts are now natively supported in After Effects (in the latest beta) and this video does a fantastic job of highlighting how expressive they can be, so I’ll be sending it to my filmmaking friends (who are rarely, if ever, excited by type).

Where do folks turn to for blank canvas design inspiration these days? I’m looking for: — General *visual* design inspiration resources (not blogs) — Design as a whole, not a specific area like web design

I sent myself an email (work > personal) with a list of work-related dates and Gemini offered to add them to my calendar. *That* is where AI is actually useful: No training on copyrighted data. No putting someone out of a job. It’s just doing a tedious task that I would’ve done slower manually.

My book, Universal Principles of Typography, now has a Spanish edition! Principios universales de tipografía is available in Spanish-speaking countries worldwide. Huge thanks to the Quarto team for negotiating foreign rights, Blume for publishing this edition, and Panta Rhei Madrid for this photo.

Do I send out the next newsletter with the cover reveal of my next book in the next day or so, or will it just get lost in the chaos of early Black Friday emails?

I would never usually recommend buying my book — or any books — from Amazon, but I’ve just noticed that they’re currently (in the UK at least) selling it for £12 (RRP £30), so if you’ve been holding off, or you want to grab it for a gift, I wouldn’t hold it against you! amzn.to/47MOtNP

Started my week off by getting my workspace sorted. Adobe furnished me with a lovely MacBook Pro, but swapping my Studio Display between that and my personal Mac Mini was a pain — until I got a switcher! Combine that with a stick-on mount for the Mac Mini (and cable tidies) and it’s now very zen.

I owe an apology to Tidal: there was a weird browser caching issue which meant that I was signed into a different Tidal account while transferring music from Spotify via TuneMyMusic. All fixed now. And it’s a nicer interface than Apple Music and YouTube Music.

My publisher is doing a giveaway where you can win different bundles of books in the ‘Universal Principles of…’ series, including mine! There are some crackers in there. The UX and Architecture books are my personal faves. www.quarto.com/campaign/Roc...

Decided to try Tidal (in my continued efforts to find Spotify alternatives) and it failed at the first hurdle: saved artists, albums, playlists, etc. are visible in the web player, but not the apps. (WTF?) YT Music too full of non-music cruft. Apple Music still a total mess (on desktop). Help.

While I was attending @beyondtellerrand.com in Berlin, I snuck backstage to see my talented friend Norman Posselt (normanposselt.com), who very generously offered to take my photo. Norman can make even my wild fisherman vibe appear vaguely presentable! Thank you, mate.

Berlin! Who’s in town for @beyondtellerrand.com?

Earlier this week, I sent out the latest issue of my #typography newsletter. This little video scroll-through hopefully gives you a taste, but feel free to head over to elliotjaystocks.com/newsletter/h... to read it in your browser.

I’m so happy to see the new beyondtellerrand.com live! Partly because it’s beautiful, partly because it’s a collab between 3 of my friends (@mikekus.bsky.social, @bastianallgeier.com, @marcthiele.com), but mainly because it now accurately captures the vibe of actually being *at* Marc’s event.

Over the weekend, I finished writing the next issue of my #typography newsletter and I’ll be sending it out tomorrow. If you like hearing about new fonts, new foundries, interviews with designers, and the progress of my type specimen book, lend me your address to get it in your inbox tomorrow!

I’m very happy to announce that today is my first day as Senior Staff Designer on the Adobe Fonts team — and, in fact, the first day I’ve been an employee of *anywhere* in 18.5 years! I wrote a bit about it on the blog:

@ahumanfuture.co @scott.is @bell.bz @strange.website @whitep4nth3r.com @robbowen.digital @lurkmoophy.bsky.social @alexolder.com @loftio.co.uk @bryn.codes @darn.es @oliverlindberg.com @orangetronic.bsky.social Had to run an errand, but see you in the King St Brew House for a quick pint before home!

So lovely of @scott.is to include my book in his talk at @webdevconf.com! Thank you, mate! Oh, if anyone wants to follow Scott’s advice… elliotjaystocks.com/books

En route to @webdevconf.com. Frustratingly, it looks like I’m going to arrive about halfway into @strange.website’s talk. Yep, I’m going to be *that* guy. Looking forward to seeing everyone, though!

Any Dia users out there finding Okta Verify no longer works? It’s crazy that such a tedious, practical, day-to-day issue is what’s forced my hand to switch from Dia as my default browser. Well, that and the lack of sync. And its weird detachment from Arc. So, what‘s everyone using these days?

This is going to be super interesting.

It’s day 1 of #inktober ’25! I wasn’t planning on following the prompts, but when I saw that today’s was ‘moustache’, I couldn’t resist drawing Bill Skarsgård’s moustachioed Nosferatu. (Why *did* they do that? Such a strange decision.)

Next Thursday (9th), I’ll be having an informal and candid chat to Katy Cowan at @creativeboom.com about the power of Grayskull — I mean *side projects*. It’s online and free to attend — just sign up to The Studio (again, for free). community.creativeboom.com/events/ellio...

Very much enjoying Hindsight — an RSS reader for iOS by Scott Robbin. This is exactly the level of simplicity I’m looking for in an RSS reader. (Found via @densediscovery.bsky.social)

Well, guess who just bought himself a ticket for next Friday’s @webdevconf.com? I spoke there many, many moons ago and this year’s event (in particular) looks like a great chance to see a bunch of internet pals in real life, and probably a few web design OGs, too. Who’s going?!?

From the first glimpse of red (top left) to today’s incredible colours (bottom right) — the Virginia Creeper outside my little garden studio really knows how to autumn.

Once again toying with the idea of moving from Spotify to Apple Music. Once again dipping my toe via a 1-month free trial. Once again wondering how the Apple Music macOS app is still so... um... challenging? I know there are some third-party Apple Music clients out there. Any personal recs?