Amplitude and Whitman, both from FontBureau, are just wonderful.

Amplitude, a sans with 'traps' used as decorative elements is very widely usable, I think, but has a fresh and unique look, fascinating to the eye.

Whitman, a serifed text face, manages to be calm, graceful and crisp at the same time. Influenced by Dwiggins, but fresh and different. I hope it will turn out to be a favorite for books.

Lingua - Process type foundry
Locator - Process type foundry

fedra sana - Peter Bilak

The rather boringly named but very beautiful and useful 'Arabic Typesetting', designed by Mamoun Sakkal and Paul Nelson for Microsoft. It isn't shipping yet, so far as I know, but it was completed this year and was one of the winners in the last TDC type design competition.



Full disclosure probably requires that I mention that I designed what I think is a competent and attractive Latin for this typeface, but it's really all about the Arabic which is not only a fine design but also an incredibly complex and clever piece of OpenType work.

Oh, I think that Optima Nova was released this year. I've always admired Optima in signage, but in small sizes I thought it suffered by its color being too grey and dull. The new version solves the problems of weight and spacing, and adds a true italic. I don't know if this counts as new, or a revival. I am happy that Zapf had the opportunity, with his collaborator, to improve this classic design for the digital age.

apex sans. so maybe it's not the best, or maybe it is, but i dig it.</font>

Of the ones mentioned so far, I think Lingua and Amplitude deserve special attention because they break new ground.

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John, some of the features (like the linkage variations) in that Arabic font system are very nice.
I'm wondering if:
1) There's some missing kerning? Like look at the big gap in "'amrihi" (4th word of 2nd line).
2) Does the font fully support the vertical floating aliph? "'aLaahi" (second word) certainly shows it, but some words (like "rahmaan" - 3rd word - and "�aalika" - penultimate word on 3rd line) are supposed to use that instead of the normal (slanted) floating aliph, because it's pronounced like a long-aliph but is not fully marked.
3) I think this setting at least is underusing the kasheeda, which when applied well can greatly amplify the airy elegance of Arabic setting.

hhp

DTL Prokyon is amazing. It is a super clean Sans that looks like it would work in many situations. I haven't tried it yet, as it's a little out of my budget, but I really enjoy the letterforms.

Jeff, can you upload a link for purchasing DTL Prokyon? Thanks!

Here you go, Dylan:

http://www.dutchtypelibrary.com/Media/DTL_Fonts/enter.html

Thanks, Jeff.

Good lord above -- that's too rich for my blood! Wish it wasn't. Guess I'll have to 'slum' around for something else.

Tell me about it. It is a beautiful family, but their prices seem a little out of whack. I have no problem spending (or billing a client) a few hundred for a new face, but $1620 US? That's a bit much. Clients who would understand that kind of purchase ($2,125.28 Cdn at today's exchange rate) are few and far between in this little city.

I agree. I've spent hundreds during emotional binges when I've seen new faces, but, uhhhhhh....

...not this time.

I haven't seen it used, but there is something about the aesthetic of Prokyon I don't like; it seems slick and emotionally cold at the same time.

Locator, while influenced by Frutiger, like tons of others, manages to have its own look while being very neutral. And it is extremely well done.

I agree with Hrant that Lingua and Amplitude are very original. I just think that Lingua is too odd looking to be very widely used, whereas Amplitude looks to be very adaptable in spite of its quite original look - quite an achievement.

Re. Arabic Typesetting in response to Hrant:

1) There's some missing kerning? Like look at the big gap in "'amrihi" (4th word of 2nd line).

Quite probably. This is the only text sample I had on hand, a PDF that was prepared by Mamoun and Paul for the TDC annual early this year, and the font was not quite finished.

2) Does the font fully support the vertical floating aliph? "'aLaahi" (second word) certainly shows it, but some words (like "rahmaan" - 3rd word - and "�aalika" - penultimate word on 3rd line) are supposed to use that instead of the normal (slanted) floating aliph, because it's pronounced like a long-aliph but is not fully marked.

I believe that's an encoding issue: the vertical alif mark used in aLaahi is a different Unicode character from the fatha. I'm not sure whether Mamoun entered this text himself, or used an existing electronic text, in which case the encoding of marks is inherited.

3) I think this setting at least is underusing the kasheeda, which when applied well can greatly amplify the airy elegance of Arabic setting.

Yes, there is very little kasheeda use in this example. There would automatically be more if the text were justified, I believe, although I agree that justification is not the only reason to use kasheedas.

Not obvious from the sample above, perhaps, are two of my favourite features of the font: contextual differentiation of similar letters by modifying tooth length, and the cursive connection feature that gradually raises preceding letters off the baseline:

>>I haven't seen it used, but there is something about the aesthetic of Prokyon I don't like; it seems slick and emotionally cold at the same time.

i agree. this may reveal my lack of sophistication and/or ignorance, but prokyon has a little too much gill sans for me. am i the only one who sees it?

arabic typesetting: nice cursive feature. the complexity (from my standpoint) of the whole thing boggles my mind.

Unibody by Underware.
(Special honors go to the italic version of Unibody)

I haven't seen a more succesful pixel font this year. Not since sevenet or mini has there been such ruckus about a pixel font. And they give it away for free, how cool is that?

I probably get 2-3 e-mails a month inquiring about what the pixel font on Speak Up is.

>prokyon has a little too much gill
Gill sans is a bit agressive, but has considerable charm also. For me, Prokyon is like the chrome killer robot in Terminator II: beautiful and heartless.

I think in the right environment, Prokyon could have its uses. I love how super-simplified the letterforms are. I don't see the Gill in it though--never been a huge fan, so maybe I'm just blocking it from mind. ;)

You're right though, it does seem to be a tad bit heartless and devoid of character.

Unibody looks great! I love the Italic. It seems so abnormal to have a good italic pixel font. I'm d/ling it right now.

John, thanks for the elaboration.

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> I haven't seen a more succesful pixel font this year.

Heh heh heh.

hhp

Yeah, I'm quite curious from Chris Lowery's emails just what you've got in store Hrant...

Please let's not forget the Morisawa winners, specially Australis and Borges!
Oh, and those Greek and Cyrillic versions of Emigre (and other foundries) typefaces by Cannibal.
There's also Sebastian, from Storm...
Bitmap fonts? Miguel Hernandez at Atomic Media!
And the 'superpixel' stuff from TiD too.

(BTW, Hrant, Man� is a boring Mexican pop band.)

Mana is The Force, dude. ;-)
http://www.punawelewele.com/halepai/iulai/mana.htm
Actually my use of it comes more from "mano" (Spanish). And my next one will have a Spanish name too: Atanasia, which is an archaic term for 14 point.

Nathan, I've shown peeks of Mana now and then since '98, so it won't be a huge surprise, at least not to some people... except maybe the number of kerning pairs.

hhp

Sebastian is my favourite from this year. I was the third person to buy it, Frantisek said. Here's a sample:



Yes, it is another humanist sans, but there's nothing else like it. The italic is funky, to say the least. I've used it on my latest business card. It looks great printed by letterpress (photopolymer plate).

I just bought Mezcal from Atomic. Thanks for the tip, Eduardo.

My Favorite of 2003 ist NURI by Frank Rocholl. available over http://www.die-gestalten.com

heres the NURI PDF. FONTALICIOUS!!!

... double

A correction: the Cyrillic Emigre typefaces were developed at Paratype.

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More 'the best of 2003':
Axis, designed by Isao Suzuki and Akira Kobayashi.
FB Prensa, an Electra-esque face by Cyrus Highsmith.

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> Mana is The Force, dude. ;-)

:-)

> Actually my use of it comes more from "mano" (Spanish).

Hehe, in Portuguese 'mana' usually means 'sister'. I guess it comes from the Spanish 'hermano'/'hermana', simplified here to 'mano'/'mana'.

I just bought Fedra Serif A, and I love it!
Designed by Peter Bilak at Typotheque.

http://www.typotheque.com/fedra_serif/

Interesting. There's a similarity in concepts of Apex and Nuri - the counters in round letters are very similar. Nuri has sharper arcs in hmn, and Apex a two story g.

Another one: Letterror's Twin Cities Project.

Probably the most significant font project I worked on this year are faces of 2003 that haven't seen the light of day in the commercial market yet.

The Bitstream BTN Collection with Brian Bonislawsky and I has been a religious experience for me this year.

Some examples: http://www.bitstream.com/categories/developer/devfonts/btn/examples.html

Stuart :D

Fonts I've purchased in 2003 :

Foundry Form Sans
Pedestria
Solex
Digna
ITC Friz Quadrata
Neuland TT
Kare Five Dots
Circa

+ a copy of Building Letters containing 38 fonts

My favorite is probably Foundry Form Sans.

Jim, could you post links?

I don't know which of the fonts at the new www.ourtype.com are new, or just released this year, but I am very impressed by Sensa, which I hope becomes very popular. It is somehow happy while being restrained - more restrained than Sauna, another wonderful roman sans that uses aspects of italic.

Correction: It is Sansa, not sensa,and Sauna is a semi-sans or semi-serif roman. Both do seems to take ideas from italic and apply them to roman. Both are outstanding new faces, Sauna being last year - Sansa this year?

Anyone know how an ignorant American like me can buy from ourtype.com? They don't offer U.S. currency as an option. As I mentioned in a related thread, I'd like to get my mitts on Sansa.

How to order at OurType: on the site the amount due is calculated in Euro. When you post an order you'll be contacted by OurType (by phone) in order to complete the payment. At that time you can ask them what's the amount due in Dollar. Easy as that.

You can check the dollar/euro exchange rate here.