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Eric Posted…

My first thought was, "Hurray!" My second thought was, "Wait a minute. How are fonts going to be classified?" Some designers use basic terms or titles and some use more detailed ones.

I know that some sort of classification system would be very helpful for myself. I have spent the past couple of days looking for the right font for a logo design I am working on. I would love to have some way of narrowing it down to a few fonts instead of dumping all of them into Extensis Suitcase and viewing them in the preview pane.

Most designers I know, including myself, are pack rats when it comes to fonts. It would be nice to spend as little time as possible wading through thousands of fonts.

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divya Posted…

Its time we did something about organizing fonts. I think all Operating Systems must support font organization according to User's tastes and preferences. This might make the organization of fonts independent of any application, making the lives of ppl using powerpoint to people using photoshop and illustrator easier.

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Chris Posted…

Eric -- Your dilemma is exactly what this new font classification system is designed to solve. If you have a minute to check out our description of the system on the Type-Expertise site and post a comment or question on the forum there, that would be great. Chris

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denis ravizza Posted…

Please put your comments in paragraph tags, no auto-line-breaking anymore.

The first question that comes to mind: does this system have some way to filter for the thousands of crap fonts floating out there? And more generally, will uber-classification really help what is ultimately a subjective process? To answer your question about filtering crap fonts: This will be done in two ways. 1/ The Team Type-Expertise wich includes International Graphic designers is working on keywording, classifying fonts that are up to professional standards. The main database will only contain classifications of fonts that are fully designed with kerning tables, full characters and so forth, they will not go for classifying free fonts that do not match quality standards. Thsis classification is being done by pro type users meaning that as graphic designers we do not or rarely use crap fonts. 2/ Type-Expertise users will have the freedom to upload in a specific User database accessible to all, keyworded Fonts that they consider interesting, usefull even if it is a crap font. Type -Expertise is a universal classification system wich aims to classify quality of course but does not want to be restrictive, it must serve the users, and as we all know users are in every level of the communication process. As for you second question: will uber-classification really help what is ultimately a subjective process? What Type-Expertise does actually is that it classifies also the subjective aspects of fonts. I have claimed that there is not one classification system that can work for all but that each individual is a classification in itself. The Type-Expertise Team will provide an objective classification of fonts with keywords that best represent the fonts. But if a Type-Expertise user wishes to modify any of the keywords that we have proposed he will be able to do so by creating his own Type-Expertise database on the web site and on his computer. Then he will have the possibility to upload his own subjective classification to share it with other users. The great advantage of this system is that for example, a japanese graphic designer will be able to access a font choice made by an american designer who used the same keyword(s). Crosscultural font search in other words. Denis Ravizza

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Jesse Posted…

Do it yeah yeah!

I just downloaded 50 bajillion fonts and it completely screwed up my computer. So then I had to buy a font manager but even that doesn't help me actually figure out which fonts should go into what catagories and what those catagories should be called! Iyeeeeee! This is going to be a long day of headscratching