Crimson; 36 Days Of Type; Font Finder

We’ll start off the 2024 round of Typography Tuesdays with an unusual inclusion of a serif font, a new-to-me typeface challenge, and a browser extension some folks might find useful.

TL;DR

This is an AI-generated summary of today’s Drop.

Perplexity had a hard time pulling out links, so you’ll have to hit the sections to tap them.

• The blog post begins with a discussion on the serif font, Crimson, which was first released under the name Crimson Text in 2010 by designer Sebastian Kosch. It is an open-source font inspired by old-style typefaces and is particularly influenced by the work of Jan Tschichold, Robert Slimbach, and Jonathan Hoefler. The font shares similarities with Garalde typefaces and is designed to serve as a workhorse for book production, capturing the beauty of traditional oldstyle typefaces while being suitable for modern digital use. The font has undergone several revisions since its initial release, with the latest version, Crimson Pro, offering a more refined and comprehensive set of features for contemporary typography needs.
• The second section introduces the “36 Days of Type” challenge, created in 2014 by graphic designers Nina Sans and Rafa Goicoechea. The challenge involves creating something new every day around typography and graphic design. The “36” in the name corresponds to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet (A–Z), plus ten single-digit numerals (0–9). The blog post provides links to various resources that offer insights into the challenge and its past entries.
• The final section of the blog post discusses the browser extension, Font Finder. This tool allows users to analyze the font information of any element on a web page and copy any part of that information. It provides detailed information about the font color, font family, font size, line height, vertical alignment, letter and word spacing, font weight, style, and much more. It also allows users to adjust any piece of the font’s options, such as color, size, or family, inline, enabling them to experiment with different font settings directly on the web page.

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Crimson

Readers may have noticed these TT Drops showcase monospace and sans-serif fonts quite a bit. This likely makes the serif fonts feel a bit left out. So, I thought we could (briefly) explore a workhorse of a serif font with a mildly interesting history.

Crimson is a serif typeface that was first released under the name Crimson Text in 2010 by designer Sebastian Kosch. It is an open-source font released under the Open Font License, which — just in case you’re new, here — means it can be freely used and modified. The typeface is inspired by the old-style typefaces and is particularly influenced by the work of Jan Tschichold (Sabon), Robert Slimbach (Arno, Minion), and Jonathan Hoefler (Hoefler Text). It shares similarities with Garalde typefaces, a style that includes the designs of Claude Garamond among others.

The significance of Crimson lies in its design intention to serve — as noted in the intro — as a workhorse for book production, capturing the beauty of traditional oldstyle typefaces while being suitable for modern digital use. It was designed with the niceties of Garamond-inspired types in mind, such as oldstyle figures, small caps, and fleurons (typographic elements, or glyphs, used either as a punctuation mark or as an ornament for typographic compositions). The typeface includes a variety of weights and styles, making it versatile for both print and digital media.

Crimson has undergone several revisions since its initial release. In 2012, it was re-released, with improvements made to issues such as inconsistent spacing. Later, it was redrawn as Crimson Prime, and a revision named Crimson Pro was released by Jacques Le Bailly in 2019, which included a range of eight weights and a variable font option.

Crimson Text, as it is available on Google Fonts, is considered outdated by its designer, and the newer versions, such as Crimson Pro, offer a more refined and comprehensive set of features for contemporary typography needs. The typeface is recommended for longer applications like books, pamphlets, or newspapers due to its focus on readability.

We’re planning on a “super old-school styled” report at work in Q2, and I’m seriously considering punting this as the base font for it.

36 Days Of Type

I’m somewhat “burnt out” of the “X days of Y” thing, but had no idea there was one for typography nerds (in retrospect ofc there is).

In their own words, 36 Days of Type was created in 2014 as a personal project by Nina Sans and Rafa Goicoechea, both graphic designers from Barcelona. Back then they decided to challenge themselves to create something new everyday, as a way to experiment new things by creating personal daily design challenges around typography and graphic design.

If you’re wondering “why 36”, the “36” in the name corresponds to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet (A–Z), plus ten single-digit numerals (0–9).

Charlotte Beach, of PRINT, has a great breakdown of part of the 2023 36DoT; Angelynn Grant has some reflections on an “old”(er) challenge year; Reflektor Digital has a BONKERS COOL site dedicated to their 2019 entries.

You can search Mastodon, Instagram, Behance, and other places for #36DaysOfType to see previous years and monitor this year’s (when the challenge starts).

Oh, and, 100% by chance, PRINT also has a Type Tuesday feature where they focus on a single typography topic/resources.

Font Finder

While I’m fully comfortable digging into Developer Tools to inspect font information on a given site, the UX in there is kinda horrible, and it can be slow-going, at times. And, I’m usually loathe to suggest browser extensions, but Font Finder can be a big help (you don’t have to keep extensions enabled or even installed forever) if you have to assess the make-up of many sites in a row.

This tool allows you to analyze the font information of any element on a web page and copy any part of that information. It’s as simple as selecting the text with the font you’re interested in, and Font Finder will do the rest. It provides detailed information about the font color (both RGB and HEX), background color, font family (including the actual rendered font), font size, line height, vertical alignment, letter and word spacing, font weight, style, and much more.

It also lets you adjust any piece of the font’s options, such as color, size, or family, inline. This means you can experiment with different font settings right there on the web page, without having to copy the text and paste it into a separate design tool. It’s a great way to see how different font settings would look in the context of the actual web page.

An example of the interface is in the section header.

FIN

Stay warm out there, U.S. folks. This looks to be a crazy weather week.

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