Typographica
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Typographica
@typographica.org
2K followers 160 following 7.8K posts
A review of #lettering and #typography. Since 2002. Posts by editor @stewf.com. Primarily on Mastodon with many from the type community: https://typo.social/@typographica
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Bluesky is a good alternative to X for the general public and some specific topics, especially politics. But for many communities and fields, a critical mass remains exclusively on Mastodon. Type designers and fans, for instance, have their own server with 679 active users: typo.social/directory.
typo.social
Welcome to Typo.social! This is a Mastodon instance open to any typo and type enthusiastic. We are offering this service out of sheer courtesy without being held responsible for any disadvantages.
typo.social
Can’t believe the name hadn’t been taken yet. Congrats!
Reposted by Typographica
Wrote about the complex process of building a 7-color print from metal type & ornament. www.starshaped.com/blog/2025/11...
“producer and writer Stephen Cannell’s signature end-credit logo—shown here and familiar to anyone who watched TV during the 1980s—depicted Cannell typing on his Selectric. Cannell was the creator of popular ’80s shows like The Rockford Files and The A-Team.” web.archive.org/web/20121003...
IBM100 - The Selectric Typewriter
web.archive.org
IBM Selectric typewriters have appeared in countless movies and TV shows, but no individual machine will ever be seen as many times as Stephen J. Cannell’s. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV3s...
All of the Stephen J Cannell Logos
YouTube video by OjoCrítico.com
www.youtube.com
It’s Matthew Carter’s typeface, Shelley (fontsinuse.com/typefaces/27...), but like much Word Art it’s been artificially bolded.

But the White House has a Chief Calligrapher (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...), so why not have her do something proper? (Unless she’s been laid off like everyone else.)
“One thing I love about Flickr is how many people use it to save things that only they personally think are worth saving”.

Amen! It’s not just about professional photographers taking photos of people and places, which is I hope the Flickr corp (who I truly admire) is coming to understand.
Reposted by Typographica
Thank you to the folks at the @flickrfdn.bsky.social for asking me some truly fantastic questions about archiving, the ephemeral nature of digital archiving, and what I've learned from working with Brits. (As ever, Flickr remains the best website on the internet!!!) www.flickr.org/a-chat-with-...
A chat with Elizabeth Goodspeed, Casual Archivst - Flickr Foundation
www.flickr.org
but the Script – a cursive/italic hybrid – is what makes this design special. The only thing kinda like it is Commercial Type’s Control Cursive (commercialtype.com/catalog/cont...), which was inspired by Van Dijk (fontsinuse.com/typefaces/35...).
Erik Marinovich & Lucas Sharp’s new Rotina is very fun. www.sharptype.co/typefaces/ro... I like how Erik brings his lettering instincts into his type design.

The Swash, a refined improvement on 1970s Helvetica & Univers Flairs (fontsinuse.com/typefaces/16...), is what the promos feature most,
Reposted by Typographica
Secretly here — as I've got only a few followers so far :)
Wrote it in preparation for a talk.
Warning — it is slow, real time.

#calligraphy #demo #intersections #home #brushlettering #veraevstafieva #unique #cmyk
I will personally pay for you to unabandon your Flickr.
Tweeted in 2011. Let's make it true in 2026!
Two unique buttons in every browser:
1. Read (using user's CSS prefs, a la Readability)
2. Pay (to publisher from user's personal fund)
Right-wing typography seems to be lining up behind Instrument Serif. First the White House, now tech dystopia.
"Introducing Doublespeed, an [Andreessen Horowitz backed] startup operating a phone farm to flood social media with AI-generated slop on behalf of its clients.

Doublespeed clients can expect to pay anywhere between $1,500 and $7,500 a month for access to its phone farm."
AI "Phone Farm" Startup Gets Funding from Marc Andreessen to Flood Social Media With Spam
Andreessen Horowitz has injected $1 million into Doublespeed, a startup meant to flood social media with gobs of for-profit spam.
futurism.com
Reposted by Typographica
I got to spend a couple hours today with the family and friends of the late, great Jim Parkinson at his house in the Oakland hills. These melancholy occasions are always redeemed by the chance to reminisce and reflect on life.
I’d love to see tech pundits be as critical about the industry’s abdication to Trump as they are about UX or business decisions. Tim Cook funds the Fealty Ballroom and hardly a peep out of the Apple writers.
A great talk packed with type nerdery and ending on a heartwarming note. Skin & Bones was fairly successful for VGC fontsinuse.com/typefaces/31..., but earned Douglas F. Jones only $240 over a decade. Mark’s 2024 restoration will bring Jones double that amount within its first two years.
My preference is that, going forward, you credit the images you use. But I can’t make you do the right thing.
Another view of ITC Zapf Dingbats in U&lc, vol. 5, no. 2, 1978. Layout probably by Herb Lubalin.

archive.org/details/ulc-...
Image: detail from ITC Zapf Dingbats specimen booklet via @nicksherman.bsky.social flic.kr/p/fvHrm7

BTW, Nick and Grießhammer gave a great talk about Zapf Dingbats at TypeCon2016 in Seattle. Here’s the view from JP’s control booth.
❣️ (Heart Exclamation) has become a go-to emoji for me. Strangely, I never stopped to think of its origin. Hermann Zapf, of course! It was among dozens of his 1978 Dingbats adopted into Unicode 1.0 in 1991. The block was even initially named after the typeface! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingbat...
I can’t wait for proportional typefaces to be in fashion again.