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improve web typography

May 30, 2018

a living list of online and offline tools we use for typography

tejas
typography learning
a living list of online and offline tools we use for typography

*Updated — 6 Feb, 2023

Over the years, we have collected a lot of bookmarks across different browsers and apps. Cataloguing them here in a central place, so they are useful to anyone who needs them to up their typography game.

Selecting typefaces

Some reading before selecting typefaces for your next work —

Typefaces

Completely Free fonts

Trial and Demo fonts

A lot of typeface stores and foundries offer trial and demo versions of their fonts. Often the free versions offer only a few weights of a typeface or are demo versions with a limited set of glyphs. In either case, they are a great way to try typefaces in your product before buying them.

Foundries

There are hundreds of type foundries. Including all of them is out of the scope of this article. Instead, the following are a few that let you download demo versions of their typefaces before you buy, which is a great feature for designers.

Subscription services

  • Monotype subscription — Monotype’s subscription allows unlimited use of their fonts. There is also a free version that lets you test-drive fonts for an hour.
  • Typekit

Type Inspiration

  • Fonts in Use — a gallery of typefaces used in all types of mediums.
  • Typewolf — has become the de-facto go-to place for type inspiration.
  • Brand New — Brand New is a branding review website. You can learn a lot of typefaces by how they are used in the context
  • Magazine Wall — looks like there are no new updates. But Magazine Wall is an awesome place for inspiration for covers or hero areas. ;-)
  • Cover Junkie — just like Magazine Wall, this is a collection of magazine covers. Can work amazingly for inspiration.
  • Trendlist — visual trends in graphic design.
  • Francesco Franchi’s Flickr feed  has not been updated in a while but is a goldmine of their old work and approach.

Courses and Reading

Typographical Rhythm

Typographical Rhythm is very important in building harmony in your design. Here are a few tools and thoughts on the typographical scale that help you create a smooth hierarchy.

Type Pairing

Tools

  • Fonts Info by Thisarmy — this is a great tool to view all Opentype features of a typeface from Google Fonts. I use this tool a lot to pick fonts with tabular figures, fractions, alternate sets, and what-not! The only problem with this tool is, the catalog of typefaces is not up-to-date with the Google fonts repository. Hopefully, the team at Thirarmy notices this and updates the app.
  • OpenType Features Demo
  • *wakamai fondue, shows opentype features from a font has.
  • *Flipping typical - online previews of fonts from your local library
  • *Fonts in the Wild - examples of fonts being used in the wild
  • *Space Type Generator - explore different dynamic type animations, and make your own!
  • *Type Trials - Try out types with opentype features from your own library or from Pangram’s cloud service

Font Managers

Type Games

Star design-author/Googler Hardik Pandya has a collection of Resource Toolkit for Product Designers. It not only has additional tools for typography but also for pretty much everything you need to be as awesome designer as he is. 😀🍻

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