FF Scala (the serif version)

What’s wrong with Whitman?

i love whitman, but the client wants me to dig deeper into my archives. ($).

So, basically something you already have?

Check out Perpetua or Electra, both of which are acknowledged influences on Whitman.

This kind of question is one of the uses for the Serif Font ID Guide. If you pick the key letters from Whitman that you want to resemble the font you may already have, and then search on those letter attributes you will see a list of fonts with similar structural characteristics. They certainly won't all look even similar, but a few might.

If you don't select letter characteristics that you don't 'need' you broaden the possibilities you can see. For example, if I ignored the 'b', 'E', 'K' and 'W' I got 13 different choices from about 6 different serif families (in addition to Whitman).

- Mike Yanega

According to Kent's Specimen PDF on Whitman It was Gill's Joanna, not Perpetua, that was the inspiration, along with Caledonia. It is a marriage of the two, but a very creative one that doesn't look like any other type—that's one reason it's so good. Buy it and enjoy :)

Thanks, William -- I knew Dwiggins and Gill were involved, but didn't dig deeply enough. I still see a bit of Perpetua in Whitman, but the sturdiness of Joanna is the more obvious antecedent.

Sorry for the delayed response, but--yes, something I already have, to answer FF's question...so, thanks for all your replies!

Mike, just thought you should know: I'm getting a warning from Chrome when visiting your website. “The website at www.bowfinprintworks.com contains elements from the site inc.lamcfoundation.com, which appears to host malware”. Otherwise, great stuff. :)

Ruben, thanks for the information. I have no idea how that would have gotten there, as only two people have access to that site. Does your information say anything about which page(s) contain the offending data?

- Mike Yanega

That's basically what it says:

“Warning: Visiting this site may harm your computer!
The website at www.bowfinprintworks.com contains elements from the site inc.lamcfoundation.com, which appears to host malware – software that can hurt your computer or otherwise operate without your consent. Just visiting a site that contains malware can infect your computer.
For detailed information about the problems with these elements, visit the Google Safe Browsing diagnostic page for inc.lamcfoundation.com.”

This appeared when I just followed the link you posted above.

Sorry for hijacking your thread, meanjean, but I guess you already have what you needed, right? If not, let us know!

Ruben, Thank you again. I had help from my friend who located 35 places where code had been inserted on the site that linked scripts to the malware site. I went in with Google web tools and ran their Malware diagnostic after he had removed all of them. They said none was found, so that warning should be removed soon.

Sorry, for diverting this thread, but this is a first time experience for me in over 10 years of running my site. For a site that I want to be a resource, I certainly do not want to be involved in spreading malware. I will need to check for this with the Google tools periodically from now on.

- Mike Yanega

It's my pleasure! :)

@meanjean

There is nothing quite like Whitman. Believe me I know—I have looked around for a "replacement" typeface for a while now (Whitman's lack of CE support was driving me insane…), and I have failed.

Both Joanna and Scala are great, yet they each possess various idiosyncrasies and exuberances that are not present in the calm and meandering Whitman. Whitman is one of those rare typefaces that can maintain neutrality without being boring. I can only hope that one day it goes "Pro".

If you do not require the extended language support, I second William's advise not to look for replacements and to get the real deal.