Everybody should have received an email today which contains an upgrade-link. In case you didn’t receive this, please email us: support@underware.nl

Most notable changes of this upgrade:
• improved screen performance of webfonts
• broader language support (200+ languages)
• more OpenType features included
• all fonts come in .otf format
• webfonts are now synced with desktop fonts
• improved cross-platform compatibility

(in case you want more technical details, read Notes about the library upgrade)

Here are a couple of notes about these new font files.

Notable changes for all fonts:

• All desktop fonts come by default in .otf format. These OpenType fonts can be installed on OSX as well as Windows computers. (.ttf formats are available on request, just send us an email after you purchased/upgraded)

• This is Pro. Because of all major improvements and expansions, these fonts are so pro that their names also carry the Pro addition. So in case you’re in doubt whether you have the latest version: just look if the font file is named “Pro” or check the version number. New fonts have a version number 2+. You can see the version number in the Finder > Info [Mac] or double-click [Windows].

• Much better screen performance of all webfonts. Crack, they even look good in InternetExplorer 8 on Windows. And while we were busy with that, we also made the desktop fonts look much better on screen.

• All fonts support 200+ Latin languages, allowing you to reach an estimated 2.134.923.711 speakers worldwide. Find an overview of all 213 supported languages in the support section. (One exception: Liza is already loaded to the max, and unfortunately can’t handle more characters. Luckily she still supports 195 languages, including all Western and Central European languages)

• A bunch of new OpenType-feautures. Not only the not very often used ‘Slashed Zero’, but also some other more useful features. See the font specific overview below.

• Optimized the cross-platform compatibility between OSX and Windows. The fonts are as cross-platform as possible, but please note that there is one known technical issue with MS Office.

• Desktop-safe and web-safe metrics, as cross-app and cross-platform safe as possible. Clipping issues were already history, but contemporary metrics settings vary from 5 years old ‘best practices’. These new metrics are as safe as it can get, and are different for web than for desktop fonts.

• These new fonts are not style-linked at all anymore. Which means that in applications which use the ‘Bold’ and ‘Italic’ buttons, you need to select every style through the font menu instead of clicking [B] and [I].

• Some minor technical issues were fixed (like PDF-export problems in exotic environments).

Please note: these new fonts are not (100%) backwards compatible with their previous versions. If you replace the old version of a font with the new, updated version, be aware that text in your documents might reflow, you might experience differences in metrics (different linespacing and different width of some characters) and x-heights, and not even to mention that many glyphs have different (= improved) outlines too. This difference varies per font, per app and per platform.

Additional notable changes per family:

• Auto now has all 4 figures styles as an OpenType-feature (Tabular and Proportional & Old Style and Lining) and some other new OpenType-features. Instead of having 3 different families (Auto 1 & Auto 2 & Auto 3), these new Auto styles have been reorganized into just 1 family called “Auto Pro”. Depending on the amount of styles you have got installed, they will all appear in a nice order in the submenu of Auto Pro. And Auto now talks Anutan, Cimbrian, Hopi, Tokelauan and 200 other languages.

• Bello now has an extensive language support, and by default has the script and caps font separated. Both fonts now support real fractions as an OpenType-feature. The multi-layered glyphs in Bello Words became easy to use due to a clever OpenType-feature (Discretionary Ligatures).

• Dolly has a bunch of new ligatures (Th, fb, fh, fj, ffj, fk, ft, etc.) in the Ligatures feature & and some more fancy ligatures (eg. ch, ck, ct, sp, st, etc.) accessible through the Discretionary ligature feature, some extra ampersands, large language support, and Dolly now contains 2 figures styles (Old Style and Lining, both proportional). [note: A future version of Dolly will have more weights, styles and also more figure styles]

• Fakir didn’t change a lot. However, the complete family now supports over 200 languages and has some new OpenType-features. Some minor bugs got fixed, a couple of OpenType features added.

• Liza is basically a technical update, no visual consequences for desktop fonts. Liza was already loaded to the max, additions were not possible. However, a modified GSUB code was necessary to make our über-intelligent Liza also look rather smart in a browser due to technical restrictions of browsers. This modified, little bit simplified code is only included in the webfonts. The desktop font have the original, super intelligent version. But remember: in the best cases the webfonts will still look different than the desktop fonts because of this different OpenType-code.

• Sauna, oh oh Sauna, the swashy ligatures (ch, cl, fb, kk, sh, zz, etc, etc.) are inserted by default because they are now build into the Ligatures feature of all Sauna Swash-fonts (an OpenType-feature which is activated by default). Sauna speaks Abenaki till Zulu, and 200 other languages in between. The multi-layered glyphs in Sauna Dingbats became easy to use, due to a clever OpenType-feature (Discretionary Ligatures).

• Unibody, our oldskool-pixel-classic, now supports over 200 languages but nevertheless remains as free as it used to be.

So long. Enjoy these new versions.

There are still some tickets available, so last chance to combine type with nice weather.

Coming Monday, 18 Feb, at Lux in Nijmegen (NL). #ietsmetletters. Presentations by Martin Majoor, Job Wouters & Gijs Frieling and Underware. Eclectic evening. Something about type. Or not. Well… let’s see. Anyhow, we’ll bring a mystery guest. Doors open 19:30.

http://www.nijmeegsontwerpplatform.nl/

• You can study the type-basics on typeworkshop.com. You can read this pdf and try to gain knowledge.
• You can learn from tons of online resources these days, lucky bastards.
• You can read dozens of good books on type.
• But the most precious treat is time for practicing. Quit the internet, shut down your computer, switch off your phone, put your books back to the shelf. Silence and concentration. Get paper and some tools (pencils, pens, whatever), and start sketching, drawing, writing. It’s the best way to learn and discover your own direction. Do it.

Above is our short and simple advice for aspiring students, which is included in The Briem Report 2012. This book, edited by Gunnlaugur SE Briem, is a snapshot of its time on calligraphy, type design, lettering and handwriting by bringing together 200+ people which are poles apart. We haven’t seen a compilation like this before. This book (as well as many other interesting books on handwriting, calligraphy and letterforms) are offered for free download at Operina.

Hand drawn envelope in our inbox today. Emails should be send with the same dedication.

Because different elevator models are usually made by many different parties and departments, they quickly loose harmony. Recently we created some custom typefaces for Kone, who wanted to match their different models of elevators and escalators.

This was a fascinating project for us. Not only is there a bunch of typographic laws (those lawyers!) on elevator typography, each part of this project also had very specific requirements and applications. Creating segments which can display every number as well every capital, is a challenging assignment for example. A puzzle with so many limitations your head starts spinning.

See more of this project: Kone, elevator typography

We spend a reasonable amount of time with useless activities. Playing around, sketching, doodling, building things, making impossible letters, searching beyond the extremes, just to keep our brains fresh. In first instance these activities don’t have any goal. Mostly they fail anyway. Just sometimes there is a catch, our eyes sparkle with joy followed by a soundless ‘yeaaaaah’. Sometimes such an idea ends up in our work, mostly not. Playing around with letters in any kind of way is just such a pleasure that the end result doesn’t matter. Enjoying the beauty of letters is enough LSD you need during a day.

Mozart would not only spell his name backwards, he also composed some songs which could be played backwards, ending up with exactly the same song. Think about that. Or more recently, Paul Hindernith composed Ludus Tonalis (1942), a cycle of fugues which is introduced by a praeludium and concluded by a postludium. That last part is formed by turning the praeludium upside down and therefore reading it backwards. These are two examples of crazy retrograde inversion exercises, solving problems they posed themselves. Almost a graphic approach, introducing not only symmetry but also optical illusions in music. Useless? Yes. Fun? Sure. Amazing? Definitely. LSD proxy.
 
And talking about putting things upside down, flipped or reversed: sometimes it becomes confusing what things really are. Artist Jeroen Offermans learned himself how to sing Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven backwards. He recorded his execution in front of St. Paul’s cathedral in London, which must have sounded like a stoned Ursonate. That recording was again reversed, turning the song back to its original order. But everything else in the movie has the opposite direction, therefore you’ll see people walking backwards. The idea of singing the song backwards was primed by rumours in the 60s and 70s that rock songs would influence your inner space if they were played backwards. Some songs would then contain secret messages, the myth went. Stairway to heaven would encourage demonic sentiments.

Instead of thinking of a good but predictable solution while solving a problem, what if all problem-solvers would only start with this instead: ‘Just imagine…’ And then see what comes to your mind. Probably not a bird for an airline logo. How to discover something new, something personal if you only walk paved ways? Maybe it’s very human to prefer the paved ways. As soon as some ways are paved, most people prefer to walk there. Only while walking in a desert, every single person will walk his own way. But as nobody lives in a desert, it’s hard to walk around pretending there are no paved ways.

One of the consequences of walking unpaved ways is simple: failure. Where failure is often considered ‘scary’ or ‘bad’, it’s actually the opposite. Failure is essential. Every failure is one step closer to an original, innovative solution. Think how the world would look today without any failures. Better? Mmm. Different? Sure. A nice example that failing is useful are Post-Its. In 1968 chemist Spencer Silver was experimenting with various adhesives together with two of his colleagues. Accidentally they created a glue with a low-grade stickiness. As they were trying to make a stronger adhesive, they couldn’t think of a use for it and rejected this glue. It would have never been part of history if his colleague Arthur Fry wouldn’t have realized a couple of years later that this accidental, failed invention was exactly what he needed for a perfect bookmark in his hymnal. The rest is history.

What does this all have to do with type design? Maybe not that much. Imagination is unfortunately not that important in every new typeface. But a little bit more imagination isn’t too much asked, is it? Sometimes we combine our fascination for letters with our love for ambigrams. Inspired by the brilliant New Man logo, designed by Raymond Loewy in 1968, we went ahead and did it all over again with our own name. Is that possible? Probably not, but it’s definitely irresistible to try.

Underware ambigram 2D

Click to turn 180°

The ambigram we’re sketching here is somehow similar to what Mozart created with his Duet fur Zwei Violinen. A duet where the music lays on a table, every violin player on each side of the table. One player starts to play right-side-up, while the other musician plays upside down simultaneously. The sheet is playable from two sides. If you turn the paper 180°, the music stays exactly the same. Useless? Probably. Crazy? Yes, yes, LSD proxy.

Didn’t we just say that it’s good to start every project by completing the sentence ‘Just imagine…’? Right. Also with ambigrams. Just imagine an ambigram which contains an optical illusion. Or just imagine an ambigram which is 3D. Or both. As we also have a lifelong fascination for 3D drawings, we tried to raise the bar for ourselves by adding a third as well as a fourth element: not only an ambigram build with sharp, strong shapes, but also 3D and also including at least one optical illusion. All combined in one single drawing. An impossible quartet? Likely. Irresistible? Yes.

Underware ambigram 3D with optical illusion

Click to turn 180°

After showing this sketch to some strangers, and asking them what they thought the text read, most people answered something like: “Euhm, the first letter is… probably an ‘a’, the second letter… euhm… ‘s’, then comes a ‘q’, euhm”. Well, it became quickly clear that we totally failed. Or maybe it’s just not possible to have our own name as a 3D ambigram? We’re not the kind of types who give up quickly, so here is one of many other attempts.

Click to turn 180°

Unreadable? Pretty much. Because it looks more like a bunch of festoons after a party, this lettering remains an insider-only. So okay, we failed. So what? Although we of course secretly hope for a Post-It scenario in the future, we still offered ourselves a nice treat: time for creating useless things, enjoying the beauty of letterforms and firing up our imagination. Imagination is for free. It doesn’t cost anything, and it will improve so many things. Or maybe this is just the beginning? Shouldn’t we actually try making an ambigram which changes meaning once it’s turned 90° as well as 270°? With other words: once you think you’re there, you realize the journey has just started. If people ask us what design is, we will never answer ‘solving problems’. Because design ≠ solving problems. Design = looking for new problems.