The new format for the newsletter seems to have been well received. We're sticking
with it and will continue to increase the emphasis on original content and articles, as well as info on specials and new products.
This issue we have news on a major new font release, plus a nice article on font overexposure and all the usual stuff. Read on!
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We recently received a number of emails from different people who were looking
for a source where they could get the Morpheus font or something like it. We'd heard of Morpheus before - it's one of the most overexposed fonts around - but had never had much interest in it. In
an effort to help these customers out we looked for a source where they could purchase it, and though we were able to get some info on the font and find samples, none of the
major font resellers had it in their catalogs. We wanted to be able to get people the font, but we didn't want
to make a clone of Morpheus. The font is too overexposed, rather poorly rendered, and frankly too unattractive for us to add to our collection.
Then an idea errupted. Why not make a font that looked a bit like Morpheus, but which had more attractive, more consistent character
forms, was rendered cleanly and properly spaced and kerned? We took a look at Morpheus and decided to redo the concept from the
ground up, replacing some of the amateurish characters, adding a bit of a Celtic look and feel, developing a set of alternate characters and
making sure that the design elements were consistent from letter to letter. The result is Orpheus, a font which has the general look
and feel of Morpheus, but is a much more complete and fully realized design. Morpheus has been very popular despite its shortcomings,
but it's been so overexposed designers should really avoid it. Orpheus offers the option of using a new and different font while still getting
the general king of mystical, magical look while not actually using Morpheus. In addition, Orpheus is a fully developed font set, with not only
regular and bold versions, but with a special customized italic style and a really neat looking heavy weight rough-outlined variant.
CLICK HERE To download the demo version of Orpheus. The full Orpheus family set is available on our ordering site:
CLICK HERE
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Main Page & Newsletter Redesign
As I'm sure you've noticed by now we're in the process of a major redesign of our newsletter and main
page. The idea is to create a look and feel which was more structured and more concrete, with - at least for now - a
quasi-medieval theme. We wanted to create an impression of substance and solidity by clearly defining the vertical columns and the
live link areas in the header while adding some decorative elements at the same time. We're working on implementing this new design throughout the
website on as many pages as we can, but there are still some kinks being worked out, mainly to make the design compatible with some of the more
obscure browsers like Operaa. We're also considering major changes in the content of our home page. We've been thinking about basically making
this newsletter the home page and updating it more frequently with new articles and features to make the site more interractive. Your feeback and suggestions would be much appreciated. Any comments or
ideas can be sent to: suggestions@fontcraft.com
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Free T-Shirt Offer for Webmasters
 We know a lot of you run websites - who doesn't these days - and like everyone else we're eager to get people to put links to our site on
theirs. Unlike others who come begging, we're coming with gifts, or you might prefer to think of them as bribes. We've done something similar to this once before, but this
time we've thought of a new and perhaps more fun incentive - designer t-shirts. If you put a link to our main page on your website in a relatively easy to find position or on a links page,
we'll send you a unique and stylish all-cotton item of Scriptorium fashion wear. Assuming supplies last you even get your choice of size and design. The only restriction is
that linking websites must be findable on Google. The link should go to our main page or a major sub-page appropriate to the theme of your website. We've even got graphic banners if you want to use
one. You can find them at BANNERS. Once you've added the link, just email us about it and we'll send a t-shirt. You get to choose from two basic designs, the Boneyardfonts.com
t-shirt featuring art by Harry Clarke (see image to the right) and the Scriptorium Fonts logo shirt (see image below). If you want to take us up on this offer, just put the link on your site and send us an email
with your address, t-shirt size and design preference. We have a limited supply of shirts, so we can't guarantee the shirt you want in the size you want, but we'll do our best for you. We'll even cover the
shipping within the US. Once you've got the link up and running, just send us an email with this link or from any of our pages - offers@fontcraft.com
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Too Much of a Good Thing -
Font Overexposure
Have you ever noticed that there are some fonts that get used over and over
and over again until you start to wonder why anyone would use that font you
just saw on 3 software boxes, 4 book covers and 2 movie titles in the last week on
yet another product or ad? I'm not talking about relatively generic text fonts
which get used again and again and don't really register as being repetitive. That's
not really a problem. The problem is with very unusual title or display fonts with
a specialized look which you can't help remembering when you see them. These are
usually fonts which appeal to a particular audience or fit a particular theme. A
designer sees them and says "hey, this font is just what I need". He ought to be hearing an echo,
because a dozen other designers are saying the same thing at the same moment.
The phenomenon even feeds on itself, because a designer may have seen the font
in question on some similar product in the past and forgotten about it, but the
look lodged in the back of his mind somewhere, so when he is put to work on
something with a related theme that look and that font match his expectations
even if only subconsciously and pop right to the front of his brain when it's time
to pick a font for his project.
Morpheus is the classic example of an overused font. It and the many similar or
clone fonts which are out there appear everywhere. I was in a bookstore today and saw Morpheus or an
equivalent font on the covers of more than a dozen books, several DVDs, two calendars,
a poster and a couple of CDs. It was hard to turn around without seeing it. It has a combination of unique peculiar
looking elements which seem to create an impression of mysticism and magic, hence everyone latches onto it for
any supernatural or magical design from fantasy novels to horror movies. One of our fonts is similarly overexposed. Abaddon
has become the favorite of the heavy metal rock,, gothic and horror markets. If you go into a Hot Topic store in the mall
Abaddon assails your eyes from every angle, with its most prominent exposure as the logo font for the band Godsmack. While
this is gratifying to us as designers and font publishers, just as I'm sure the success of Morpheus is pleasing to its designer,
the level of overexposure of these fonts is also frustrating. Once a font reaches the level of overexposure you begin to see
other, better and more appropriate fonts being passed over because designers have an unconscious impetus towards
the look which has become established for the genre they work in, or they are just lazy and say "hey, this is a horror movie, let's just use
the font that was used on The Craft" or "Our goth-metal band's CD cover should use that cool font on my Godsmack T-Shirt".
That's not a terribly creative process when there are so many other great fonts which could be used instead of the obvious
choices. Good fonts get neglected and fonts of questionable quality get entrenched and become tediously overused.
As a designer you ought to be conscious not just of fitting in with an established genre but also of the value of
creating a unique original look for your product. It doesn't take that much effort to go out and find a font which produces the same kind of
impression as an overused font, but which has its own personality. We font designers are working all the time to produce new fonts which meet
the same needs as other popular fonts but have their own unique look. Take advantage of our efforts and put these alternative fonts to work. In
many cases newer fonts designed to fill the same niche as popular fonts are really better designs. Morpheus has a number of technical flaws and
aesthetic inconsistencies which may be fixed in an alternative font like our Orpheus. Even Abaddon has shortcomings. It's one of our early
designs and rather crude, with small caps instead of lower case characters and other shortcomings. Someone out there took advantage of this to
produce a clone font with a rather nice lower case character set, and we've even made several similar fonts which are more interesting in several
ways like Gehenna and Gehenna Extreme. By looking a little further afield you can come up with intriguing alternatives to the obvious font
choices and the result is that you may get a better made, more attractive font, plus people will be less likely to pigeonhole or make assumptions
about your product because of the association with the products which made an overexposed font famous. Using Abaddon for your band logo says
"we're a Godsmack clone". Using Gehenna says "we're sort of like Godsmack, but cool and original too".
There are an awful lot of fonts out there - something for every taste and whim. When designing a logo
or the cover for a product try not to be seduced by obvious choices and overexposed fonts. Do a bit more work and explore your options. You're likely
to find an even better font which you can make your own. Then when your design or your product becomes a huge hit, you can start
the process of overxposing that new font and see everyone else using it in imitation of you, trying to grab onto a little of your success.
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Edmund Dulac Package Update
As you know, we're always working to expand and improve our collections of both fonts and art. Among our recent acquisitions werer several books
of illustration by Edmund Dulac which we had not previously had access to, or even been aware of. Most notably, a customer pointed out to us that our collection of Dulac's illustrations fo
The Tempest was not complete. It turned out our copy was a second edition which had fewer than half the illustrations found in the original printing. Embarassed by this oversight we went
looking for a copy of that first printing and found one languishing in Australia. It, along with a seto illustrations from Household Tales of the Brothers Grimm make up the main additions to
a new version of our Dulac art collection. The Tempest illustrations are particularly nice, but for those who haven't yet seen this package, my favorites remain the exceptional illustrations from
Edgar Allen Poe's The Bells. The illustration by the table of contents at the head of this page is from The Tempest and the illustration immediately to the right of this section is from
The Bells. You can check out the Dulac package with a full set of samples of all the illos at fontcraft.com/scriptorium/images/dulac
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Art Nouveau Package Updated
We've just updated our popular Art Nouveau font colleciton with
the addition of several new fonts - Boetia, Belgravia and Jugenstil
Kinsthand - plus the inclusion of a selection of nice Art Nouveau
style frames and borders. The info page for the package has been
redesigned to go with the new additions. And of course, there's
a special offer to upgrade to the new version if you have the earlier
release of the package. You can check the page out
and see all the details at
ART NOUVEAU
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Summer Specials
We've just updated our specials section on our ordering site with new offers for the Summer. The emphasis
this time is on multiple CD combo packages including a special offer for our new Colonial/MapMaker package. A few other neat items are thrown in there as well. This is a great chance to get some of our best packages at extraordinary prices since
these combos are normally already discounted, but we've marked them down even lower for the Summer. You can find out what's on special by
going to
SPECIALS
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Discounted Packages on Ebay
Our offerings of selected packages through ebay has had a lot of
value as a method of advertising our larger product line and bringing
people to the website. As a result we've added some more items to the
listings and are rotating the selection from week to week. The benefit of this for you and for some of those who discover us on
Ebay get some of our best packages at substantial discounts. Plus the
competition of bidding for a good product is kind of fun. To see what we
currently have up for auction on Ebay take a look at:
EBAY AUCTIONS
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Projects in Development
We have two main projects in development right now, both nearing
completion. The first is our compilation of the new edition of our Complete Fonts Collection, which
features over 30 new fonts, over 80 substantially revised fonts and a format change which we hope
will make it easier to work with. When the collection is released we'll also be offering discounted
updates to those who have earlier editions, as well as a special collection of all the new fonts from
the last year. You can pre-order the new release of the complete fonts or an update from an earlier version from:
COMPLETE FONTS.
Our major new package for the summer is going to be a collection of art and fonts
based on the work of Walter Crane. This package will be heavy on art and borders, but there
will also be a small set of fonts based on interesting samples of hand lettering. The centerpiece of the
collection will be his three classic childrens books The Baby's Opera, and
The Baby's Aesop. These are the main source for an enormous collection of frames, borders
and decorations, plus some nice illustrations. They will also be included in the package in their
complete, original printed format as PDF format e-books for reference and for your enjoyment. The
Crane material has a wonderful Arts and Crafts look and is a lot of fun both visually and for the
text content. Our next newsletter ought to feature a link to download a free PDF copy of one of
Crane's books.
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Hope you are enjoying the newsletter in the new format. Look for another issue soon with a new font and an article on
Desktop Publishing software and how to tell it from MS Word. If you have any
ideas or suggestions, don't hesitate to let me know. ---- Dave Nalle, The Scriptorium
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