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.

I know referral links can be a bit gross, but for services I genuinely use and love, why not, eh? I use Plum for micro-investments and can thoroughly recommend it. It also has auto-savings features, which I don’t use — but probably should. friends.withplum.com/r/hj4E8Tv6E1

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?

Crikey. Just realised that #inktober2025 is just around the corner. I loved doing it last year and was pleased with myself that I managed to draw most of the days, but good lord, it added the need to find about an extra hour every day, and that was *hard*. Need to find a better process this year.

Sooooo excited to be speaking at The Kernference this Friday! And feeling very honoured to be part of such a stellar lineup. The whole thing’s online and kicks off on Wednesday. So, if you haven’t got your ticket yet...

Just sent out the latest issue of my newsletter, coming to you this time from New York. Lots and lots of type and typography links — including to the Type Design Class courses that close enrolment... today!

The Browser Company of New York is being acquired by Atlassian.

This is old — 14 years old, in fact, which is pretty ancient in web terms — but it’s the first I’d seen of it (via @whitep4nth3r.com’s newsletter) and still holds up nicely: “a tediously accurate map of the solar system” made by @misterjworth.bsky.social. Great for grokking those big ol’ distances.

This video, despite its oversimplified title, offers an excellent and concise summary of everything that’s wrong with algorithm-driven social media right now. (via @fchouquet.bsky.social)

Starting my day with a decaf from Wimp, the coffee company run by my mate Matthew Smith (AKA ‘Whale’ — why isn’t he on Bluesky?). Yes, I’m biased (and yes, I’d buy it just for the branding), but Wimp’s Hachiko beans are honestly better than anything other decaf I’ve ever had. wimpdecaf.com

“I don’t write these posts for VC-funded LLMs to come along and gobble up and produce some shitty facsimile, or summarise what I’m saying with none of the nuance or context on someone else’s website.” Nodding along to this wonderful post by @localghost.dev.

I’ve been playing around with Blip to send / receive files and it’s seriously impressive. (Yet another great link from @densediscovery.bsky.social.)

Just returned from a couple of weeks away in Greece, where I took a lo-res printed proof of my next book, Fine Specimens, in order to hunt down those final final *final* typos. The good news / bad news (I’m not sure which one) is that I found quite a lot, so back to InDesign we go!

So amazing to see @billie-marten.bsky.social play an acoustic set at @roughtraderecords.bsky.social and then get to meet her afterwards! It was our daughters’ first ‘proper’ gig and little Gwen even gave her a portrait she’d drawn this afternoon.

New issue of my #typography newsletter heading to inboxes... now! Lots of good folks doing amazing work in this one (@typetogether.bsky.social, @jamfactory.bsky.social, @pimpmytype.bsky.social), plus the first look inside my next book, Fine Specimens, which will be published by Quarto next March!

It’s that time again: you know, where I post a video scroll-through of my next newsletter draft and ask you to sign up if you haven’t already. This one features (as you can see) the first reveal of spreads from my next book, Fine Specimens! Going out this Thursday. elliotjaystocks.com/newsletter

I’m so honoured to be in the lineup for Good Type’s wonderful online event The Kernference this September, where I’ll be talking about typography in design systems. If you register before midnight tonight you’ll get $100 off the full ticket, a free mockup bundle, and a workshop pass for $70.

So much to love about Wondermake’s website. (via @piccalil.li)