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Brick by brick: News about FontStruct

FontShop confirms support for FontStruct in 2013

News | | January 8th, 2013

Thank you FontShop

Thanks FontShop

Happy new year everyone! Some great news to begin the new year is confirmation of the continuing sponsorshop of FontStruct by FontShop, the original independent font retailer. This means that server costs, and the ongoing support and development of new features on FontStruct are already guaranteed right through 2013.

FontShop launched FontStruct in 2008 and their generous funding of this free design service demonstrates their special relationship with the global community of designers and typographers. With over 600.000 genuine registrations and a similar number of FontStructions in the database (about 23.000 are publicly shared) FontStruct has established itself as a unique resource for modular, grid-based type. We’re particularly pleased to see it being used in schools, universities and art colleges around the world as an introductory teaching tool. FontStructions are also in common use in all kinds of design projects around the world.

Thanks to all FontStructors for sharing your creative energy, and helping to build the incredible typographic assemblage we see growing each day in our gallery. And thanks to FontShop, we can look forward to more wondrous creations in 2013.

Web Font bug fixed

Many FontStruct users have expressed a wish to try and use FontStructions as “web fonts” (typefaces used to display part of a specific website). The most convenient way to do this for FontStructions is to use a free online tool such as Font Squirrel to prepare the fonts in the appropriate formats. Unfortunately, until recently, this conversion process was not working.

Now, thanks to repeated prodding by FontStruct users and the kind help of the guys at Font Squirrel, we have identified and fixed a significant bug in the FontStruct font generator the “Font Mortar”. FontStructions should now work with the free-to-use “@font-face generator” from Font Squirrel to produce working web fonts. Their generator is an extremely well thought-out and useful tool which I would highly recommend.

Ideas for the next Competition?

The last competition was so incredible, I’d like to launch the next one soon. If you’d like to suggest a concept or theme for a FontStruct competition please let us know in the comments to this post.

Thanks and Happy FontStructing!

 

 

 


22 Comments

  1. four

    That is great news; thanks FontShop and thanks Meek! How about Blackletter or Modern Blackletter for the next competition?

    Comment by four — January 8, 2013 #

  2. elmoyenique

    Congrats, FS!

    Comment by elmoyenique — January 8, 2013 #

  3. architaraz

    Great news!
    I don’t know how soon you’re planning on launching the comp, but isn’t there a Valentine’s Day coming on February 14th? That would be an interesting theme.

    Comment by architaraz — January 8, 2013 #

  4. thalamic

    Unbelievable…yet awesome.
    Go FontShop!
    Go Rob Meek!

    Thank you, both.

    Comment by thalamic — January 8, 2013 #

  5. laynecom

    Hi Rob!

    The font squirrel thing is extremely good news. I wonder whether the fonts are working as webfonts because I understand that hinting is quite a complicated process which is essential for a font that works well on displays. Do you know anything about that? I will try and use font squirrel’s generator and see what comes out of it…

    As a competition topic I’d like to suggest “One Brick challenge” or “Italics”.

    All the best, Alex

    Comment by laynecom — January 8, 2013 #

  6. beate

    Yes ! I am with thalamic…
    Great job Mr. Meek. Chapeau !
    And laynecom: Italics would be interesting. Sans or Serif.

    db

    Comment by beate — January 8, 2013 #

  7. fugitiveglue

    Congrats and THANK YOU! I am one of those who teaches college level graphic design, and FS is indeed a wonderful tool for my introductory classes that explore modular form-making. Keep up the great work.

    Suggestion for next competition… how about “invented language”?

    Comment by fugitiveglue — January 8, 2013 #

  8. demonics

    Thanks Rob!!

    What about a Fatcomp or a Slabcomp? I like the Italicomp idea :-)

    Comment by demonics — January 8, 2013 #

  9. Umbreon126

    Yay :)
    For a competition, how about minimalist?

    Comment by Umbreon126 — January 8, 2013 #

  10. winty5

    Yay!!!!

    How about Legiblecomp or 3Dcomp? Possibly Crazycomp?

    Comment by winty5 — January 8, 2013 #

  11. SquarePeg

    This is great news for FontStruct and all of its users; congrats Rob and the entire FontStruct team! Thank you for all of your hard work behind the scenes!

    Comment by SquarePeg — January 8, 2013 #

  12. FontBlast

    Great! For a theme maybe @four Blackletter or @laynecom Sans. All sounds really good to me.

    Comment by FontBlast — January 9, 2013 #

  13. regular_one

    Thanks FontShop & Mr. Meek!

    Comment by regular_one — January 9, 2013 #

  14. p2pnut

    Fantastic news!! A big thank you to FontShop and a massive thank you to Rob and the team at FontStruct.

    Here’s to another successful year with our favourite corner of the www :)

    Comment by p2pnut — January 9, 2013 #

  15. Wolf Lambert

    Fantastic! I really like FontStruct.
    For the comp: i suggest
    • Slabcomp
    • Geometric Comp
    • FontStruct Logo Font Comp
    Thanks!

    Comment by Wolf Lambert — January 9, 2013 #

  16. Frodo7

    Great tidings! Thank you Rob.

    Ideas for the next competition: Sci Fi, Retro, Blackletter.

    It is also important to have enough time to prepare for the competition. Most of us have other commitments (family, daily job) before fontstructing, hence 4 weeks seems reasonable. It is one week more than it was last time, and the extra week will give us more freedom to create and submit works of the expected high standards. Thank you.

    Comment by Frodo7 — January 9, 2013 #

  17. jayiscool

    I agree with Wolf Lambert on the FontStruct logo font comp. That would be fun to play with…

    Thank you FontShop!!! FontStruct is the best tool I have found for making fonts (for free, anyway :). This is great news that it will continue through 2013 and hopefully far beyond…

    Also, I think Italics Sans Serif would be good for a font comp. ;)

    Comment by jayiscool — January 9, 2013 #

  18. ETHproductions

    Thanks, FontShop! I’m really grateful for FontStruct, because it’s the only font-making software that’s fun, free and easy to use.

    I have some ideas for a competition: Electronic or Gadget or something like that; Italic, or Small Grid. And the Fontstruct Logo Comp sounds fun, too. I joined FontStruct right after the StencilComp ended, so I’m itching to join a competition. :)

    Comment by ETHproductions — January 10, 2013 #

  19. cablecomputer

    Great!! Thanks FontShop and thanks Rob :)

    For the comp, I agree with anyone here who suggest to make:
    -Minimalcomp
    -Geometricomp
    -Logocomp

    Comment by cablecomputer — January 11, 2013 #

  20. FontBlast

    Handwrittencomp?

    Comment by FontBlast — January 12, 2013 #

  21. winty5

    How about Pixelcomp or Westerncomp?

    Comment by winty5 — January 12, 2013 #

  22. mpdr

    Definantly do a most courlorful font competittion where temporairly yu\ou can courlor you fonts, and the best coulored font wins! I would really like to see this happening so please consider it.

    -Thanx!, mpdr

    Comment by mpdr — January 15, 2013 #