Update
Felt really good to put some hours into this project tonight. Here’s what I’ve been thinking about. First of all, as I said in the final paragraph of my last substantial post, I began to bring data into my Tumblr stream. That means @nicewebtype’s favorites, and my Pinboard bookmarks tagged Type. (I much prefer Pinboard to Delicious, which I had used as a stopgap after Magnolia crashed.) You can see these pieces of data accumulating now at Nice Web Type’s very default-looking tumblelog.
What I think I’ll do is start writing posts there, rather than at Nice Web Type’s self-hosted WordPress blog. But I’ll keep this tumblelog (Making Nice Web Type) separate. I’m thinking it’s kind of a side project. I’ll reference milestones from NWT proper, I’m sure. So make sure you follow Nice Web Type on Tumblr for the kind of content you’ve always found at Nice Web Type.
So I got that data going, and then started to think about type again.
I spent a good amount of time looking for body text typefaces. I started by finally making some time to survey the truly beautiful Font Bureau RE typefaces offered at Webtype. I found IbisRE to be particularly striking at 12px. I was also intrigued by ApresRE, but I couldn’t find much info about the typeface other than that it was designed as a Palm Pre system font. But in the end, though these are crisp faces and deserving of much work on the web, they didn’t feel right for the voice of my writing.
So I looked around at Typekit (which, as many of you know, is my home — I’m Type Manager for Typekit). By comparing specimens, I ended up finding a few typefaces that I am very happy with, but I’ll save explaining that decision for another post.
All the while, as I was browsing type specimens at Typekit and Webtype, I was marveling at examples of web typesetting – sites I had seen at one time and remembered as inspirational – and memory served me well. I admire them for their balance, and for the relationship between the designs’ typefaces to the sites’ content. They are The Ministry of Type, Bobulate, A Working Library, I Love Typography, and Hoefler & Frere Jones’ typeface pages. Note to self: write about each of these at Typesites.
Quite an inspirational few hours spent working on this all. I like where it’s going.
