Why don't you start with your own top 10 of all-time favorite fonts?
Pieter

try contacting fontshop and see if they'll swing you a deal.

The best and cheapest way: Buy FontShop’s »Top 100 Fonts Edition«. Sales started yesterday with CD 1 Neue Helvetica OT (8 weights) for just 99,– Euro introductory offer (regular price 199 Euro). The edition will offer 25 of the Top 100 families within 20 Volumes.
See also: http://www.100besteschriften.de/0_Aktuelles.html#a0

I'm sure Stephen Coles could give you a list like that. What makes you stick with just Fontshop? Why not put together a nice list of typefaces from various foundries and then work your way throught bit by bit... I agree FontShop is a good start but they don't have ALL the goodies.

Cheers

The deal that hitext mentions is currently only available from FontShop Germany. Drop us a line and we can talk about which collections available in the U.S. contain the fonts you need.

Can you post a link to the Helvetica for $99 special?

Thanks,

Sharon

Stewf, can I send you a ticket for a week's golfing in Hawaii?
How about putting a few Shinntypes in the Best 100?

Sharon - I'm sorry to say, for now, you can't get that deal outside of Germany.

Sure, Nick. But it would have to be in the upcoming Stewf's Best 100 Typefaces.

Sorry Stephen, "Stewf" isn't (yet) quite as authoratative a prefix as "Fontshop", so you'll have to make do with this for now :-)

I just saw that fontshop Germany deal today, perfect timing, however I'm imperfectly a US citizen. I agree that putting together my own top 10 list in an excellent idea, the only thing I'm afraid of is buying 10 or 20 fonts separately when I could of purchased 50 for the same price as some kind of bundled collection.

Why start your font library with Helvetica when there are so many uncommon alternatives?

Other discussions on building a type library:

http://typophile.com/node/31659

http://typophile.com/node/29400

http://typophile.com/node/15418

Jeff I think I understand the economy that you're trying to achieve, but if you buy a bundle of 50 fonts, of which you end up using only 5 because the rest are all rubbish, then it's a false economy right?

IMHO, bundled collections always contain deadwood and also-rans. How else to get rid of the inventory? Far better that you build the library of what you think is truly terrific, one face at a time if need be.

(shameless plug) Fontshops version is a good one, but is not the only list of top 100 typefaces.

I think we'd be collectively much more interested to hear what your few more esoteric choices are...

I love swashy typefaces with elements that can be de-constructed and incorporated into my illustrations. Like:

Zanzibar, Tourette, Miserichordia, Incognito, Pendulum

However, I NEED the ol' standbys for corporate work and for situations where I need to collaborate with other designers.

"How else to get rid of the inventory?"

I know...those bits and bytes take up massive amounts of warehouse space these days. ;0)

(I do agree with the deadwood...I just thought the inventory comment was humurous)

That said, in my opinion, all a good designer needs is a full set of Univers. ;o)

Now Darrel THAT is funny...

I would have thought that almost all the ol’ standbys for corporate work are provided free with the CS2 and the OSX these days. But yes, a truly full set of something (Univers, Helv, Garamond or Times or whatever takes your fancy) invariably helps.