FontShop International (FSI) announced a major restructuring of its award-winning FontFont® typeface library this week. The FontFont Library Tier system splits the collection into three distinct tiers designed to save customers valuable time in selecting typefaces. Read on to learn a little more about this new set up!
Finding Faces Faster: FontShop International introduces the FontFont Library Tier system
The FontFont® brand debuted in 1990, built around one simple premise: Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody conceived of a library of innovative digital typefaces created by designers for designers. FontFont launched with a handful of types the founders commissioned from their colleagues and up and coming young talent. From those humble beginnings, the FontFont library has grown to include 750 families representing the work of more than 160 designers worldwide.
FontShop International carefully developed the FontFont library to meet the demands of type users with diverse needs. Hand picked twice yearly by the FontFont type board — helmed by Spiekermann, a self-proclaimed “typomaniac”—each typeface in the library has been chosen for aesthetic appeal, innovation, and craftsmanship. FontFonts are technically perfected and thoroughly road tested before release, ensuring that designers have the best possible experience when using these high-quality fonts in their typographic projects.
With 2,500 fonts and counting, FontFont has become one of the largest contemporary type libraries in the world. Having so many designs to choose from can be both a blessing and a curse; leisurely sifting through thousands of fonts online is pleasurable for any type lover, but it can be a daunting task at 3 a.m. when deadlines loom.
Enter the FontFont think tank: FSI’s dedicated team of type fanatics and technical gurus were determined to make font selection as easy as possible. After countless hours spent on research and in talking with type users, their mission was to minimize the
amount of time each customer had to spend on selecting fonts. To achieve this goal, they decided to split the FontFont library into three distinct tiers.
FontFont Premium Tier: The Most Popular FontFonts
FontFont’s Premium Tier includes today’s most popular FontFonts and will feature the latest releases going forward. This tier, the largest in the new system, showcases international favorites like Albert-Jan Pool’s FF DIN®, FF Scala® by Martin Majoor, FF Dax® from Hans Reichel, and Spiekermann’s FF Meta® and FF Unit®.
Premium Tier FontFonts anchor the library in three formats to address every need — OpenType, Offc, and Web.* By next summer, all fonts in the Premium Tier will feature Pro language support, including Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic in some designs. Customers are not restricted to licensing full packages in this tier, but may choose single weights from these bestselling type families.
(*Offc and Web versions of some Premium Tier FontFonts are still in development and will be available soon.)
FontFont Collection Tier: Extraordinary Pricing and Hidden Gems
The FontFont Collection Tier is a selection of economically priced typographic treasures, including Xavier Dupré’s FF Reminga™, FF Mambo® by Val Fullard, and experimental designs like the FF FUSE Classics.
The Collection Tier is offered in full-family packages only—fonts are available in OpenType with Standard language support (with a few key exceptions). All packages in this tier are affordably priced at less than 100€/$, making it easier than ever for customers to build a quality type collection.
FontFont Free Tier: Giving Something Back
As a bonus to loyal customers, FontFont now offers a variety of free typefaces, including Paul Sych’s FF Dig, Dog, Hip™, FF Peecol™ from Steffen Sauerteig and Kai Vermehr (Eboy), and Timothy Donaldson’s FF FancyWriting™. Free Tier titles contain the complete family in a single package, and are available in OpenType with Standard language support.
It Just Gets Better: New Additions to the FontFont Family
FontFont is growing again with a stellar new text design and significant extensions to five favorite families. FF Ernestine, Swiss designer Nina Stössinger’s first typeface, is a wide wedge/slab serif family developed for text setting. Solid yet feminine, FF Ernestine includes roman and italic cuts in four weights. Los Angeles-based designer Hrant Papazian contributed a complementary Armenian character set, available in the Pro version.
Fred Smeijers has revised the design of FF Quadraat® and added a much-needed demi bold weight. Two companion families—FF Quadraat® Sans and Sans Condensed — have undergone design revisions, and have been expanded with thin, extra light, and demi bold weights. All three families now include Pro versions with Latin Extended and Cyrillic character sets. Ole Søndergaard’s FF Signa™ has been extended with extra light, extra black, and ultra weights, while Spiekermann’s FF Meta® Serif now offers Cyrillic and Greek language support.
There’s a small text field in the Custom Sample Toolbar that will say “Enter sample text…” — type in your phrase or the glyphs you want to see and remember to hit Return or Enter (your sample text will not render automatically as you type). Once you’ve pressed Enter, the fonts in your search result or FontList will render:
