Adobe-Schriftenbibliothek Referenzhandbuch

Adobe Type Library Reference Library

Guide DE RÉfÉrence De La Typothèque Adobe

Adobe Press

Maureen Shannon, NJPCUG

Confused about typefaces? With all the fonts that are available for digital designs, Adobe Press has released this comprehensive guide to help you select the right font for the job. 

Adobe has over 2,750 high-quality fonts in the collections. It is one of the largest collections available. This guide will not only explain the particulars of type but even has a section explaining how to purchase the fonts and get technical support.

You can see that the title is in three languages. The book is written in this style. English is the second language as you read through the multi-lingual pages. I found this a little confusing at first because you have to locate the portions in English and then follow the text as it moves between the three.  I am more accustomed to seeing manual that are multi-lingual printed in sections rather than this format. Since this portion of the guide is the smallest I can understand why it was written this way. It was also make the book very large if all the information were to be repeated into three separate sections.

There is a lot of information about type in this book:

·         It explains the distinguishing characteristics of different type styles

·         Learn the “ins and outs of type innovations”

·         Excellent way to find the ideal type for your design

·         The book is organized both in alphabetical order and by the type style

·         “Shows the characters for each typeface, plus useful reference charts with standard expert character sets for Windows and Mac OS

·         Type faces from internationally renowned foundries are featured along with award winning designs

·         Quick reference is easy to use, showing what a font looks like and where it can be found

I have already stated that I love fonts. One can never have enough fonts in their collections! There are however many things that I didn’t know about fonts. I would look at a font and if I liked it, I would use it. It seemed to be a simple enough solution for my needs. But it really isn’t. When you know what particular style category fonts fall into and the particulars about them, it becomes an easier choice when you need the appropriate type for the job at hand. For example which fonts look the best in printed reading materials? Not knowing what font is best suited for this type of work could make the difference between success and failure.

The Adobe Type Library gives you this information and type examples so you can see what is being explained. Chapters cover:

·         Quick Reference

·         Adobe Type Library

·         How to Order & Technical Support

·         Adobe Originals Typefaces

·         Open Types

·         Multiple Master Typefaces

·         Languages and Character Sets Supported

·         Additional Adobe Type Products

·         Typefaces Listed by Style

·         Typefaces Listed Alphabetically

·         Type Collections

·         Additional References

I was familiar with the term “Open Typeface” but I never heard of “Multiple Masters”.  I didn’t know what Pro meant on a folder that contained fonts. I knew some printing related terms, I’ve mentioned my grandfather was a printer. That was a very long time ago and I was fascinated more by the machinery that was producing the things that were being printed in the shop than understanding what the typefaces were.  I remember printer’s measures, “Em’s and En’s”. My mother swore her initials came from printer’s measures!

The book begins looking into Adobe Originals Typefaces. It explains that they are created exclusively for Adobe by award-winning type designers. These designs include both new and revivals of classic type hundreds of years old. They are found both in individual typefaces to Expert Collections. Examples of Classical Revival typefaces are Adobe Caslon, Adobe Garamond, and Adobe Jenson. New Text and Display typefaces are Caflisch Script, Peotica, Lithos, Charlemagne, and Trajan. Typefaces from the Expert Collections often come with Adobe Original Collections. These sets are created to meet the “exacting demands of professional typesetters”.  They may include (some or all) old style figures, small capitals, f-ligatures, fractions, superior and inferior figures, and superior letters.

I have scanned type examples from this book and will place them throughout the review. I could not include all the accompanying text so while they may not give you information on what each one represents it will show you how many of the various type examples look.

OpenType Fonts are a cross-platform font file formats developed by Adobe and Microsoft. They are an extension the TrueType snft that can support PostScript font data and new typographic features. These fonts may include an expanded character set and layout features. This offers more robust linguistic support and advanced typographic cont. These Adobe OpenType fonts can be identified by the word “Pro”. This appears in the font name and in the application font menus. These fonts use a single font file for all of their outline, metric, and bitmap data. This makes file management easier. These fonts work well on both Mac and Windows computers.

Advanced Open Typography: The fonts may contain more than 65,000 glyphs. They may also include non-standard glyphs in an individual font such as oldstyle figures, true small capitals, fractions, swashes, superiors, inferiors, and more.  OpenType simplifies managing fonts by including all the required glyphs contained in one cross-platform font file instead or making you install several font files.

Multiple Master Typefaces referred to as problem solvers for the power and flexibility, such as for headline fitting and other design challenges like “unifying complex hierarchies of information in book design”. Normally a font family includes only a few weights or widths (regular, bold, condensed). If this doesn’t fit the required needs, type will often be altered by expanding it, compressing it, enlarging or reducing it. Since this is done by mathematical formula it affects the shapes and proportions of the letters resulting in poor quality type.  Adobe Multiple Masters typefaces you can create fonts that can be just about any weight, width, optical size, and style and still maintain the integrity of the type design.

There is much more information in the book regarding both the OpenType Fonts and the Multiple Masters.

The next section of the book moves into typefaces listed by their style. It talks about various styles such as Serif which has four main categories -Venetian, Garalde, Transitional, and Didone (Modern).  It includes examples of these font faces. It also covers Sans Serif, Scripts and Hand- Lettered, and Display. Plus others such as Cyrillic, Greek, Ornaments and Symbols

The final section of the book contains the type styles shown alphabetically. It shows the font family name, the font and a few lines of text in that font style.

This book will not only increase your understanding and awareness of typefaces but will also show you examples of each of these fonts. The book is available from Adobe Press (Peachpit – www.peachpit.com) and lists for $24.00 US. Please be sure to visit our web site, www.njpcug.org – (Offers section) for discount book offers from Peachpit Press.