What if I repost my last images, plus - yet another clue - to a new thread? Like Randy mentioned, I think that part of the reason there's no action in the Quiz, is because no-one knows it's at the bottom of list...

Alright, this may well prove unpopular amongst you true experts and
entirely off base (so just rebut me!), but, without meaning to point
fingers at any Quiz offering in particular ... could it be that it had gotten
way too arcane and difficult?.

I mean, I was waiting for a combination of: A tiny portion of a rarely used
ligature from a non-latin font that hadn't actually been released yet to be
posted! The number of you on this forum who are able and care to hunt
up such an animal can probably be counted on one hand.

The number of active, non-lurking participants in this forum are relatively
few already. Therefore, in my humble opinion, would it not, perhaps, be
better to involve more participants by offering more accessible fonts/glyphs
in the quiz?

The answer could still be made tricky with choice of letter/number, size of
sample image, crafty clues, etc. And if somebody guesses it the same day?
Fine. Next offering. Would a quicker turnover be so bad?

Just my single cent worth.

Hear! Hear! I completely agree with Mike on this. This is the reason I have not participated in this game. It's one thing to sharpen ID skills, but this kind of obscure character showing off is not worth my time. I like it if I learn about new fonts, or underappreciated or rare ones, but learning about unused characters in fonts has almost no value to me.

I know, that means I shouldn't participate in the Quiz, right? Something for everybody, I guess.

I must agree with Mike(s) too...

Ditto...

Idem.

OTOH: I think "obscure" typefaces should always be
more than welcome, but then, of course, more (or, a
lot more) hints are necessary...

One hint that should alway be included is weither the font has been digitalized or not. Another thought is as the hours pass the poster shows more of the example, lets say 1 hour, 3 hours, 5 hours, it might be more fun.

That may not always be something one would know, even as the poster. You could say whether you used a digital font as the source, or a scan from a printed source. You can certainly state it if you know it exists in digital form.

Another thing I would ask is that characters used should be ones that do not require multiple/combination keystrokes to produce (so A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and common keyboard symbols).

Good Idea Mike, it sounds like we're trying to make it fair and fun, rather than obscure.

Alright, I just want to get the quiz up and running again. I officially forfeit the last (obscure) round and motion that we start anew.

Who gets first crack at it, then?

By the by, the previous quiz stumper was MT Fournier Italic.

agreeing with the previous posts ... Grant, maybe
toss it back to the Father of the Type ID thread, Chesh?

Grant,
   I want to put my opinion above in context. You are correct. Until I followed
your link two posts above this one (thanks!), I, for one, didn't know that there
were any posts in the ID Quiz thread after mid-October. I thought it just
languished sans posts and that was why it was at the bottom of the list
(I don't have e-mail notification. By choice).

For what it's worth, I think that your choice of MT Fournier was a splendid
choice for an ID challenge and in no way too obscure (which, nevertheless,
doesn't alter my opinion about the tack the thread had taken with plenty
of prior posts).

>You are correct. Until I followed your link two
>posts above this one (thanks!), I, for one, didn't
>know that there were any posts in the ID Quiz
>thread after mid-October.

That was certainly part of the problem. But I can also relate to the partial character samples and tiny historical trivialities being a bit daunting for a many people. Personally, I really enjoyed when things got a bit tougher, because it made my dig a bit deeper. However, it also ate up a lot more of my time trying to ID things.

Maybe at some point we could diverge into 'beginner' and 'übergeek' type quiz levels to keep as wide a range of participants interested as possible? Just a thought.

>For what it's worth, I think that your choice of MT Fournier
>was a splendid choice for an ID challenge

Thanks. I just love that swinging 'z'.

Disclaimer: This is not the official beginning of the *new* Type ID popquiz. It is only a warmup. Had this been an real quiz...

The following should be pretty easy, it�s an allstar cast. Keep in mind, I had to make it legible, so i couldn't crop in too tight. If there were two levels to the new pop quiz, this would be noviceville. But perhaps this will whet the whistle a wee bit.

Maybe limit yourself to only tackling one letter, leave some for others. Afterwards, somebody start up a new thread with proper rules.

T:?
Y:?
P:?
O:?
P:?
H:?
I:?
L:?
E:?



� Randy

One letter per customer, each correct letter gets a copy of Tenement (mac, PS1 incomplete :-)

Cheers,
Randy

The 'h' is from the italics of a font with plenty of names -- Albatross, Cochin, Cocktail. It's my all-time favorite serif, so I had to ID that one, but I'll leave the rest for others.

Question: Was it you, then, who made this shirt for the Typo Tee Two? Or are you just recycling it from there? Either way, I voted for it each time, and I'd love to wear it -- at any price.

T Y P O P (x) I L E

Step right up!

(Uh, yeah, that was my tee design. Thanks for the votes. Came up just one shy :-) Maybe someday it will see the light of day!)

BTW I will email the font to your profile email once all the letters are closed down.

Now you've made it all too easy, Yves
But I'll have to say anyways, it was named after Peter Matthias Noordzij's wife.

Is the "i" Stymie Black?

T Y (x) O P (x) I L E

Big winnah, big winnah! Step right up!
BTW from here on, also include the designer�s name :-)

Yves, what are you giving away for your mini quiz? He he.

Is the "i" Stymie Black?
Twighlite:Thanks for playing. I'm afraid not.

Is the 'i' Serifa Black (by Adrian Frutiger) then?

The "i" looks like it's Memphis Extra Bold

And get rid of Quavering Quiz Qualms Quickly Quit? :-)
Whatever you think. I thought this was only a warmup.

Is the 'i' Serifa Black (by Adrian Frutiger) then?
Ding Ding!

T Y (x) O P (x) (x) L E

The "y" looks like it's Poetica

OK, let's see if I can embarrass myself twice within one day!! Is the "L" Edwardian Script Alternate Bold (Edward Benquiat)?

Sorry for the quick double post...I'll wait to see if the poetica is right.

The �E� has a Monotype News Gothic Bold look about it. (Originally by Morris Fuller Benton)

Alexander is a winner. Poetica by?
T (x) (x) O P (x) (x) L E

Twilight, there�s an alternate bold? No embarrasing guesses. Especially when they make you a winner.

T (x) (x) O P (x) (x) (x) E

Edwardian Script (by Mr. Benguiat)

Grant, nope!

Yeehaw! (As I used to say when I lived in Texas ... or at least, as I used to hear others say.) This is a blast! Thanks for doing it. I would love it if there were a regular novice-level quiz like this. Have learned a lot already (like, look more closely at the difference between Serifa and Stymie!). Anyway, I'm enjoying following all the links and am finding it quite educational.

I do have a question: the "L" matches the version of Edwardian Script I have that came with who-knows-what (probably Word), but when I looked up Edwardian Script on MyFonts, it has a different L, and your L only matches the Alternate. So, is this L really Edwardian Script, or Edwardian Script Alternate? (Probably a very novice question from a real novice!)

The o and the t, both itc mendoza bold?

>Grant, nope!

Dang!

Interstate Bold by Tobias Frere-Jones?

>Poetica by?

Poetica by Robert Slimbach

<font class="dontLookLikeCrap">

the "L" looka like it could be "Not Caslon" by Emigre
Typedesign Mark Andresen

{edit} sorry i did not see that you had found Edwards' L
i was wrong the L in Not Caslon loox different... but i think i got the type designers name write</font>

The 'y'... I'm going to guess Mrs Eaves Italic, by Zuzana Licko?

the "t" could be FontBureaus Hermes.. but is there an italic version of it?

and the designer is Matthew Butterick


the "o" seems to be a Clarendoish o
how about FB Belizio by David Berlow

(x) (x) (x) O P (x) (x) (E)
T: Mendoza Bold italic. by Mr. Jos� Mendoza y Almeida. This alphabet is positively awesome. Check it out! BJ is a winner.

(x) (x) (x) O P (x) (x) (x) (x)

E: Interstate Bold, by TFJ. Grant is a winner.

Sorry folks,
O: FB Belizio - Nope
The others were ID'd earlier.

It's O or P ya'll. Giddyup.

Randy

>E: Interstate Bold, by TFJ. Grant is a winner.

Whoop! Whoop!

Hey Randy...

An observation: rthe image for this type quiz would have made a great entry in the Typophile tee contest...

That p is difficult -- it hasn't seemed to match any of the Bodonis I've looked at, nor does it match Storm's Walbaum Text (which I love) or Emigre's Filosofia (which is also very nice).

I hope I'm not missing something obvious...

To BJ: thanks for the nod. In the words of Fred Durst, I'm in agreeance with the vast majority of views expressed above that some of the individual quizzes were a tad too obscure (though not Grant's last one -- that was just inability on all of our parts). I'm sort of against splitting into two quiz areas, however -- though I am happy to see some new faces responding here, I think a better solution would be to require a quiz poster to put up a sample that can be found digitally. That doesn't mean it can't be obscure, just that everyone has an equal chance of finding it online. I like Daniel's suggestion of a sped-up process of adding new hints or showing more of the glyph.

For the folks who have classic old specimens they were culling from to stump the hell out of us, maybe someone can start a thread called "Typefaces that were never digitized but should be."

And to Grant: uh...

And to Grant and Randy (and anyone else who, like me, is sitting in front of their computer on a Saturday night): something is seriously wrong with us. Let's go get a beer or something.

The p is quite similar to Joanna, but I can't get a perfect weight match.

>And to Grant: uh...

What Chesh? Was it something I said?

>Let's go get a beer or something.

Hey, if we're ever in the same town on the same night, you're on. I'll buy the first round.

Hello everyone.

P: Not Joanna, Not Storm Walbaum, Not Philosophia

I figured these two letters would be the last to go. But in the spirit of the new, faster-paced pop quiz, here are some clues:

One is from US shores, the other, European. Both are available digitally. Both are bold weights.

P: This is not a bodoni. This is not a revival.
O: This is not a clarendon. It is however, a revival.

Grant, 24.012

� Randy

Randy, oh. Gah!

Is that 'p' from Scala? [erm, bold that is]

(x) (x) (x) O (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

P: FF Scala by Martin Majoor
Nice Nathan!

O: since it offers the least visual clues, here is the whole glyph in two weights (Holy weird weighting scheme Batman! That looks like two different fonts!) You know this one :-)


Randy

optima?

optima?
Nope. Zapf would never draw something like this font :-)
The o's do have a little optima though!

BTW: those are lower case

clarendon?