We announced today that FontBook is back as an iPad app and we’re sure you’ve got lots of questions. We’ll answer some of your burning ones below, but feel free to leave more in the comments.
I’ve expected a printed book … I don’t have an iPad.
We want to deliver more information than ever before with the new typeface compendium. Note that the App delivers 620,000 font specimens — 19 times more than the printed FontBook 4. With FontBook 4, in 2006, we had to make compromises to host all available typefaces in one volume. For example, we downsized the showing of FF Meta (26 fonts) from three pages in 1998′s FontBook 3 to one page, despite the fact that the family had grown to 300 weights in the meantime. We did that by squeezing the stylistic sets into four lines of sample text — not a very user-friendly compromise. FF Meta is now shown in its entirety. The app also allows you to combine and compare type specimens — completely impossible with previous editions unless you were willing to tear your book apart.
Is there an iPhone Version of the FontBook?
Not yet, but a rough test delivered promising results.
Is there an Android version of the FontBook?
Not currently. While we are watching the growth of the Android tablet market, we would first like to experience the transition from print to digital FontBook on one platform.
Can I use the downloadable Fonts on my iPad?
The iPad does not support the installation of fonts by the user. However you can download font files that have been purchased on FontShop with mobile Safari once you log into your account from a desktop computer.
Does FontBook for iPad contain the actual files of the shown fonts?
No. The FontBook app delivers raster images of typefaces that are generated and stored on a server. FontBook is an online Browser.
Can I use the FontBook app without an internet connection?
The app is primarily an online browsing application and can only display its full content when your device has live internet access through a WiFi/WLAN or 3G mobile connection. However, if you have no online access, you can temporarily switch the “Include online content” setting to “off”. This will enable the app to display a reduced pool of selected content which will work offline. Whenever you do have online access, you can switch back to the full version by switching the “Include online content” setting to “on”.
FontBook is available in the App Store. Learn more at fontbook.com.
74 Comments
There is a small typo:
“FF Meta is now show in its entirety.” should be “FF Meta is now showN in its entirety.”
Great work though, I just purchased the app.
Thanks Jord! Sorry about that – fixed now. Hope you’re enjoying the app.
how often is the database for the app updated with new releases?
No Gotham?
@miles: The FontBook app database will be updated regularly, e.g. every few months or so. This is subject to change in the near future, as we’re working on some helpful backend tools to enhance the process.
@Leslie: FontBook only displays fonts that FontShop carries, which does not include Gotham.
Knocked it out of the park with this app. So great, it’s hard to describe.
One major problem, though. No user-defined custom text specimens. Please make it happen.
Easy to use app. Wondering if there is a way to zoom in on details or scroll to see more of the sample text. Also, is there any possibility of having a description of each type family included in the app or even on the website? It seems like the app would be a great place to learn more about each of families displayed.
I was recently contacted by FontShop about the next release of the printed FontBook – as a design practioner there’s no substitute for certain analog products. Can you tell us when we can expect a re-release of the PRINT version to become available for puchase again and whether it will be any easier to buy given the interest in the digital version?
Leslie – I hear from Jürgen Siebert, the editor, that they’re considering including typefaces that aren’t available from FontShop. So H&FJ fonts are a possibility if there is a demand.
@Bill: Thank you for your feedback. Sorry for the confusion regarding print vs. e-book. At this time there are no plans to print FontBook. We do understand the needs of designers to see some fonts on the printed page. For this we offer PDF Specimens on each product page. For example: http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/singles/fontfont/ff_meta_ot_book/ – you can see the PDF Specimens bar above the sample.
@Axian: There is an option for users to define custom text in the Combine & Compare tool. Simply add fonts to Favorites, use the Compare tool, and click the floating pencil icon to input your own sample text.
@Carina: You can scroll vertically within the samples living in the specimens to see the text in different weights. You can see an “About This Font” page when you scroll to the last horizontal pane in the specimen. Thank you for your feedback on zoom and detailed descriptions – we will note that for future updates.
I applaud all the effort I took to design such a collection of amazing typefaces. I love you guys. Well done. However… I don’t see the point of developing such a thing. Why not focus your effort on your website? There is very little, if anything, that your iPad app could do that your site could not. I feel like you’re trying to sell me crap I don’t need. I know it’s a common business tactic bit I don’t associate it with a company such as yours. It’s especially insulting that I have to be connected to the Internet for the app to run. Again. What makes it fundamentally different than your site? I’m sorry but I feel cheated. Seems like a waste of your money and mine. Feels like designer wanking.
Do you really think it is fair to charge money for something that is essentially an advertisement for your own products? I don’t.
Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. We view FontBook primarily as a typographical research and comparison tool for designers. Please keep in mind that the print edition of FontBook cost $99. Please note that we also have made several improvements to the website recently, including an updated sample text toolbar where you can now preview OpenType features and there will be more to come.
RE: connecting offline – you can. Temporarily switch the “Include online content” setting to “off”. This will enable the app to display a reduced pool of selected content which will work offline. Whenever you do have online access, you can switch back to the full version by switching the “Include online content” setting to “on”.
We envisioned the iPad app as giving designers a new environment in which to simply and beautifully browse and compare fonts and weights. Especially as design continues to move across media from print to web to tablet.
There’s nothing unfair about it, especially if it provides value to the user. Companies often sell fine catalogs to recoup the costs of producing a fine catalog. If $5.99 is too much to pay for a fast, mobile, interactive catalog of thousands of typefaces, then maybe the FontBook app just isn’t for you.
How do designers find the right typeface for a project? I don’t know of another tool that does the job so well for such little money. If you never have to look for a typeface, then simple don’t buy the app.
I use and pay for my Faber Castell pencils, although, essentially, they are advertisement for that company. They have their logo all over them.
Would it not have made more sense to give away the FontBook App for free? It’s not about those 6 bucks. I feel a free App would expose a *much* larger audience to all those beautiful fonts in your collection and it would educate them regarding the difference between professional fonts and freebie hobby-fonts. I do believe your product is not this ‘one-time’ App, but rather all those splendid fonts the App can show you.
Erik: The pencil analogy doesn’t make sense here. You’re talking about stuff that comes branded with a logo, I’m talking about an app that is charging you to browse (and buy) the owners products.
I’m sure you’d be pissed off if H&M charged you to enter their store – even if you had a blast wandering around inside…
Come on, fellas. This isn’t the first time a company sold a high-quality catalog of their products. That fact aside, for many users (see the reviews in the app store) there is at least a few bucks worth of inherent value in the app. If you don’t find it useful to have a unique and portable way to browse thousands of typefaces, then this app just isn’t for you.
how come, that everbody wants everything for free, but charges his own work always?
think about it: you save 100 bucks by not buying the good ol’ fontbook, despite of the weight you won’t carrying around anymore, you’re all the time up2date and this fot just 5 or 6 bucks? It’s no big deal for someone who’s making money with the use of different fonts. and the ones who use anyway freefonts don’t need it .
get seriuos now pal.
like Erik said if you don’t appriciate or use it on regulary base simply don’t buy it no one is forced to do so – so what’s the fuss about?
changing case:
a) would like to see a port on android
b) would like to use it on my macbook pro ?
c) and why not making it available on desktop macs?
…good job anyway…
*thumbsup*
How do I clear my favorites on the app? That would be a useful thing if it’s not already an available feature…
@Laura – You can “unfavorite” an item individually by clicking on the star again. When you restart the app they will be out of your favorites. Thank you for the feedback on this, we will make a note for the next version.
Somehow I thought I was getting access to all those fonts which would show up as options on my iPad — color me naive!
I was happy to hear there was a way to input your own text using the Compare feature – helps this as a Type ID tool. The new displays, with pages you pull out for each font, gives a better variety of type samples than the original FontBook had room for. Also like being able to search fonts by Year – nice innovation.
I’d like to make a strong vote for expanding beyond the FontShop catalog. The FontBook included some ‘independents’ like House Industries, which increases its usefulness as a font reference, since foundries like House, H&FJ, and TheFoundry, to mention a few, are widely represented in media and therefore of interest to font users/identifiers.
I don’t own an I-Pad just yet, and do love having printed materials to flip through, but just imagine the growing catalog, the fast-growing number of users on the iPad and other digital platforms, the benefits of the Compare feature, giving affordable access to those who couldn’t afford $90 every few years after an update, and the mobility of the catalog for crying out loud… I’m really surprised at the complaints.
It just doesn’t seem reasonable to produce this in printed form when the present benefits of technology have so much potential to expand on the product in new ways. The cost of producing the printed book alone will surely must be growing as the catalog expands (more so if there is less demand for the printed version), and the audience would be so much more limited.
$6 is a small price to pay in comparison to $99, which is really hard for a lot of people to swallow, myself included. I’m on a budget just like everyone else.
Most of you probably pay at least $6 everyday for lunch, and don’t think twice about it. That meal serves it’s purpose just ONCE—and whether you end up buying loads of fonts or not through FontShop, surely the app will serve more of a purpose to you than a crappy sandwich that wasn’t very good to begin with.
Personally, browsing through fonts gives me ideas, marking styles I want to try to illustrate by hand, adding favorite fonts I want to remember to try out, inspiration for current projects, and a tool to study from and learn about type. When I can afford to buy the fonts, I buy them, when I can’t, I favorite them and file them away for later, and look for less expensive alternatives. There are days when I feel like I would pay $100 to find my way out a creative block, and if this is a tool that helps me in any out of that in any way, or helps me be more productive, it really is a small price to pay.
Behind the scenes, it takes some serious work to put things like this together, and to the few of you who think you’re simply buying something that has the sole purpose of advertising itself and encouraging you to spend more money, you need to get a little perspective.
If you can’t find the value in paying $6 to what is probably the best type reference tool that exists, you can’t be very serious about what you do. Stop whining and don’t buy it.
Excuse my typos above. Thanks.
I’m definitely buying this, just to enjoy looking at my own fonts.
I’m Canadian …eh, and when I bought my fontbook I paid nearly 150$ CAN at the time. 6$? who’s gonna cry for that? …with the exception for Kev of course. I’ve also yet to actually buy a typeface from the fontshop since I’ve never actually needed to, I always seem to use someone else’s font which I already own. The point is that my trusty yellow brick led me to the font I wanted/needed. It’s a tool before anything else. It’s like whining about the publier’s name on your school textbook. …and no one is forcing you to buy it.
Are there any plans to reprint FontBook 4?
I’m a sucker for specimens, and kind of like seeing what the effect on the printed page is, particularly at small sizes so I can evaluate those ink traps. What you’ve got here is beautiful, but until the app can faithfully reproduce paper conditions on screen, it’s not got the functionality I need…. which is a real shame because the app itself is lovely. What you’ve done with the design decisions and the sheer scope of it is impressive, especially for $6.
I’m kicking myself that I didn’t buy FontBook 4 last year – €99 is now looking like great value for something that’s now going (via used stores) for upwards of $290.
@Rob – There are not. However, have you tried printing the advanced PDF specimens off the product pages at FontShop.com?
We are happy that FontBook is back as an IPad app. We want to buy some of the fonts and I would like to read agreement. I also interested in price. Is any possibility that we can check all this before we intas/download fonts.
tnx, Majda
@Majda – You can access FontShop.com through FontBook or through your web browser. You can review the agreements and prices on their product pages. The app is primarily a typographical research & comparison tool, but you can click the “buy” button to view the font products on the site and purchase if you choose.
Great, great app. Many thanks.
I’ve got the printed book some years ago but this app makes it much more fun.
One thing I would love to see in an update is a way to really zoom into a selected character, so I can enjoy and compare the details.
Can we see this happen in the future?
Best,
Jaap
Where is House Industries? Their fonts are sold at FontShop but are not included in the FontBook app.
@Jaap
Thanks for the input. We’re always open to suggestions on potential features that would benefit our customers. I’ll put your request in with our development team.
@Sascha
Unfortunately House Industries only allows FontShop Germany to sell their fonts, so their typefaces could not be included within the App.
Quick comment – to the haters – this app is aimed at people who use fonts to create other products that they sell to customers (designs), for me, the $6 cost is trivial compared to what I charge my customers. Plus by paying that small amount, I feel I have the right to complain, bitch, moan etc about features missing or other issues, because, I have paid for the app and in that am contributing to the cost of development. The app is not perfect, but it is only $6.
Now, to a feature request, I could find a way to alter the point size for the custom test settings int he compare page, am I missing something?
Thanks for making this app, I’ve already used it more than I did the last printed FontBook
I am very frustrated with the lack of a printed version of the FontBook I want my students to have access to a wide variety of fonts in printed form so that they can reference them. My college simply cannot afford an iPad to run the app and in any case this is not useful to students. There is NO substitute for the ability to quickly flick back and forth in a physical book!
What lack of a printed version? You can still buy the printed FontBook and happily flick back and forth in its pages. But you cannot force FontShop to invest hundreds of thousands in a book that only a handful of people will buy. The true price of a printed FontBook with a few thousand pages today would be more than that of an iPad.
Love the app! It’s really worth the money. If you live in Indonesia where you might have to pay $200 for the print edition, 6 bucks is such a bargain to get the full research benefits of the fontbook. But I just upgraded my ipad software to iOS 5 today, and it just stopped functioning. Can anyone on the fontbook team help me with this?
@Okie
We’ll have our FontBook team look into it. Thanks for the heads up!
Yes, the app doesn’t work with iOS5. I upgraded last night.
@erik You can’t buy the book if they have stop printing it. the best you could do is buy from someone else, but it’s now 2 or 3 times the official price.
Me, I’ve hated the app. If I’m going to use the fonts in print, seing them on an iPad does nothing for me. It’s like looking at pictures of sample paper.
And there is no way I’m going to download and print a PDF file of every font I get interested in.
The book, it was a brilliant reference. The app, it’s just advertising.
@luisa – i see your point, but as an avid printed specimen collector i can say that 80% of the time i select fonts for projects from seeing on-screen samples on websites. why? because they let me test strings of text, look over the whole character set, and numerous other features. also from experience most specimen books are not using the same stock i will be for a project, so even though it’s printed, it’s not the same. just like with colour management, often just jumping in and doing testing yourself will yield best results. i learn from each job i get printed about what works and what doesn’t. The book was also just advertising. useful, maybe, but still just a tool to get us to buy more fonts
@simon but I bet you do print several test pages with the fonts you have pre-selected. the website is great, but printing is printing.
for me, is like pantone. there is a free app that lets you see the colors, but that is just for inspiration. the book is expensive, but it’s a reference. it’s worth it, even though is the same type of advertisement.
imagine if pantone decided to stop printing the color guides and lauch an ipad app instead! same thing.
Awesome app, I’ve tried it out on a friend’s iPad. What I’d like to know is why this hasn’t been ported to Android or Blackberry tablets yet! There’s a huge market out there guys. What language/tools did you use to create FontBook? Often, it’s as simple as changing a few lines of code, repackaging, and you’re done. Check out BlackBerry’s new developer tools and frameworks. Would love to get my hands on this
It’s very annoying that this app doesn’t work with IOS 5! I just bought the app and a few days ago I upgraded. So, now it’s not working anymore. As far as I know there’s no way to downgrade to IOS 4. Please tell me you are working on it…I really could use it now!
@Christoph
We are currently working on a fix for the pp in IOS 5. In the meantime please try launching the app while holding your iPad in portrait mode. The app should start and work normally.
Ah…ok, you’re right. This way it works. Thanks!
The font book app looks quite useful, but Is there an Mac version of the FontBook? or only for iPad?
Right now there is only the iPad version. Thank you for your feedback!
What font is been used in the FontBook APP?
FF Good.
I’d like a version for Android.
Why no Adobe typefaces in this sovereign app?
@Bernie (Adobe typefaces): Most of Adobe’s typefaces are part of the huge Linotype library (e. g. Warnock, Minion, Myriad, …)
@Jacob (Android): Although the iPad version sells fine … we do not have the financial power to start another app development for a second mobile platform. But be happy: HTML-version is in the works and will be published in 2012 … for all browsers (incl. Android) and for free, of course.
I tried using the Compare section of the app, but it behaved a bit erratically. First, it took me a moment to discover that I need to mark fonts to be compared. Not such a big deal. But it did take me a while to find out that I need to drill down a family to a specific font, until I could actually drag it. My bad ? Maybe, silly me. Next, the Customize text didn’t work. It worked on the first font in comparison, but just now and then on others. Finally, if a family extends the height of the screen, the list doesn’t scroll !
Oh well, it’s nevertheless a great app.
Looking forward to the 2.01, 2.1 and 3.0 !
Many thanks for your input, Peter. You are right: the test laboratory is a tricky (but powerful) zone. I’ve prepared a new 3 min tutorial movie for FontBook 2.0 that shows in 40 sec how to compare font weights, how to change the sample word and how you even van add different colors. Go to http://vimeo.com/34971832 and notice the 40 seconds that follow the 1:50 min mark. Have fun
No plans for making this available for regular desktop or mobile macs? What a bummer!
Why should we Alex, when our HTML version will soon serve ALL platforms, incl. Windows, Linux, and all mobile devices … for free.
Bought the app and think it’s useful and kind of fun. Can’t wait for the HTML version.
Two wishes:
1) Like to see more consistent sample sizes among large collections. Some of it is very small.
2) Would love to see HF&J included here.
Otherwise, great job. I’ve recommended it to friends.
Hi, may I ask what is the different between Hadriano Std Complete Pack and Hadriano Pro Complete Pack? Thanks
@Christy
The Pro version of the typeface has additional characters that provide support for Central European languages that the Std version does not. I’d be happy to email you a list of those languages if you’d like to see the which languages are supported.
@Theresa
Yes please. It would be very great if you can email me a list of those languages are supported. Thanks.
@Christy
Done. Let me know if you need anything else.
Are there any plans for making this available for non-Mac users? I would gladly pay even more than 5 bucks to have the ability to have this application on Android device, or my PC, or something else non-Mac.
Dear Marko: We are planning an HTML version of the app, usable on any plattform with any browser. Maybe in Summer
Well, I can’t describe how happy that made me.
It’s just comforting to know that you are planing to broaden the FontBook compatibility.
Thank you for your reply.
Do you plan an update for the retina display on new ipads?
Stay tuned!
As someone who has worked with Type for nearly 40 years, yes, started with Hand Composing now on Macs, couldn’t you have made this a Mac App?
oldAlbert
I’ve been trying to decide what tablet to get (Android/Apple) and this app is one that has been skewing the decision towards iPad…
But now I hear about an HTML version for all platforms… I’m interested. Sign me up. I want it!
Will there be an annoucement in the newsletter or should I just keep checking back here?
Thanks!
@UOP
FontBook 2.1 is now available and supports the new iPad’s Retina display.
http://blog.fontshop.com/2012/04/05/fontbook-2-1-at-full-resolution-on-retina-display/
Is there a filter to see only the web fonts for us web designers?
Dear Kerry, there is no filter, but a comfortable list of web fonts. Please go to: Us=USAGE then Us=USA CASE then WEBDESIGN