Thomas Phinney

Fonts & typography. Type designer, expert witness and consultant. ATypI board member. Dad and spouse. He/his or they/theirs

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Last Notes

2026-09-24 19:36:47 UTC

Just because a new technology is imperfect today, does not always mean it will remain so.
Every. Single. Generation… of typesetting technology had its naysayers and critics who said it was inferior and would never replace the previous generation.
Calligraphy
Hand-set metal foundry type
Linotype, Monotype and others
Phototypesetting
“Desktop publishing”
I feel similarly about AI and type design. At the very least it is likely to improve to the point where, on a project led by a senior designer, many type design & font production tasks one would have farmed out to more junior associates… will be possible to replace with computers.
It may be a month or a year or several years away.
Yes, this can have negative consequences. But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

2026-08-17 23:54:39 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk I would ask Nat McCully about this, perhaps? He would know who to ask. (Or possibly is himself the right person.)

2026-08-11 22:50:10 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk @nprofile…g56g Yes, in terms of amount-of-change midpoint, I rather expect the midpoint of 6 to 72 point to be something in the vicinity of 11 to 16 point. Perhaps around 12?
Whenever I go home next I will grab the book so I can check more.
It seems unlikely I would be seriously working on this particular project in the current calendar year. BUT, accumulating source material will probably take a long while, so I want to do that as a distant-background task this year.

2026-08-11 04:37:30 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk @nprofile…g56g Well, my actual goal is to pick a size that would be an excellent choice for the default master.
I totally recognize that the size that represents the midpoint could be different for, say, spacing vs weight vs x-height vs expanding/condensing vs whatever.... I am actually kind of curious about each of those. But an average would be interesting too.

2026-08-11 01:23:26 UTC

Say, @nprofile…g56g I have a quick question.
For a typeface cut by ATF, available in 6 to 72 point, where would you say the approximate midpoint of optical size adjustments would be? My default assumption is 12 point, but that is based on… not enough hard data and certainly nothing specific to ATF.
Wishing I had my copy of your book here, but it is at home, and I may not be home again for a couple of days.

2026-08-10 20:01:46 UTC

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@nprofile…j074 @nprofile…uvqd @nprofile…w44f This is the company that acquired Meetup, Eventbrite, Vimeo and AOL, among others.

2026-07-26 02:40:07 UTC

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@nprofile…lel8 oops, yes I know The Iliad should be the first one.
And actually that has kinda been done (Wolfgang Peterson’s 2004 “Troy”) but that even more thoroughly left out the gods….

2026-07-26 02:33:10 UTC

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@nprofile…lel8 Yeah, I mean who wants to see the first movie if the filmmakers don’t finish the series, amiright?

2026-07-03 06:10:27 UTC

Many major graphics/publishing apps have missed the boat with their user interface choices for variable fonts. Given the ongoing steady growth of variable font usage and availability, it seems worth fixing things. The biggest problem, and the easiest one to fix, is lacking ongoing access to axis settings while working with text. Other issues include…
https://www.thomasphinney.com/2026/07/variable-font-ui-is-broken/

2026-07-03 02:16:05 UTC

Videos of talks are being posted from the ATypI global typography conference held at Stanford just a month ago: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0oMAzSh5W9rePCkp2yFW0rfjEfZ3ljJb
Many more to come!

2026-06-21 23:27:50 UTC

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@nprofile…yk7r It's the dragging around of the concrete blocks that does it!

2026-06-18 17:23:21 UTC

Big consulting firm KPMG’s report on AI usage contained many “facts” that appear to have themselves been hallucinated by AI.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/13/kpmg-pulls-report-on-ai-usage-due-to-apparent-hallucinations/

2026-06-11 00:56:46 UTC

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@nprofile…qecv @nprofile…8kyx This mention of the size of drawers of metal type reminds me that their weight is also a bit scary. A full drawer of type weighs about 35–70 pounds (16–32 kg). A piece of furniture with 20 full drawers is almost immovable.
I vaguely remember the first time I tried to pick up a type drawer, at RIT’s Cary Collection—I had no idea how heavy it was. IIRC, I might have initially simply failed to lift it, because I was unprepared for the weight.
I once estimated that a CD-ROM could hold the scalable-fonts equivalent of 100 tons of metal type. (Depending on how many sizes you take to be equivalent to a scalable font, etc.)

2026-06-08 18:18:22 UTC

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@nprofile…uvqd @nprofile…05la @nprofile…fk9u Depends on your definition of “possible.”
Whether each device has a maximum size, and how you would even get bigger blanks to cut... some interesting questions there.

2026-06-07 18:05:44 UTC

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@nprofile…lwfy The only part of this that surprises me is that you are not comfortable offering a bigger reward.
😂

2026-06-04 04:26:05 UTC

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@nprofile…d2kf @nprofile…6p0k How about Communication Arts?

2026-05-20 21:59:51 UTC

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@nprofile…w44f I would go with Edgar’s “vertical proportions,” if I was forbidden to use “vertical metrics.”
The latter term is certainly technical, but does not have to involve digital font files. It implies actual measurement, is all. Certainly there were vertical metrics in hot metal or even foundry metal. Most notably the baseline, but others as well.... No?

2026-05-16 01:27:28 UTC

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@nprofile…qecv @nprofile…w44f It seems relatively fair for everybody. Existing libraries with a sales/licensing track record can be valued based on that, and new fonts can get royalties.

2026-05-08 21:08:51 UTC

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@nprofile…lel8 It’s true. Although blackletter is today often associated with neo-Nazis, Hitler banned it on January 3, 1941. He labeled it as Jewish as an excuse.
Real reason? People who were not used to it were finding it hard to read. Who would that be? People in newly-conquered countries/areas. But of course there it would be problematic for Hitler to abandon this symbol of German identity for that reason alone… so he labeled it as Jewish.

2026-05-05 23:02:11 UTC

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@nprofile…lel8 Does the scanner work even when it is out of ink? 😛

2026-05-01 18:43:25 UTC

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@nprofile…j074 Whoa. The Wall was one block away... in three directions!

2026-04-29 21:16:12 UTC

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@nprofile…yk7r How many email addresses do you have?
I figure I have three main ones, and one minor.

2026-04-22 00:39:40 UTC

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@nprofile…cqgf I will check it out!
I think this will appeal to tons of designers out there! More font management options are a good thing.
(Not sure it is for me, though. At least at first glance I am not seeing the interface/viewing approaches I mostly need. Too bad! But I will check it out when time permits.)

2026-04-20 21:13:32 UTC

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@nprofile…yk7r @nprofile…j074 Awesome. That’s gotta suck, though. Sorry you are dealing with this!
I actually have an ophthalmology appointment tomorrow myself. Not a fan of the process, but as Count Rugen says, “if you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.”

2026-04-20 20:20:52 UTC

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@nprofile…yk7r @nprofile…j074 Maybe see an ophthalmologist (eye doctor)?

2026-04-03 01:31:48 UTC

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@nprofile…lel8 @nprofile…j074 That really looks hand lettered to me, based on the subtle variations in some repeating letters, and expecially subtle contextual variations.

2026-03-22 03:45:23 UTC

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@nprofile…yk7r How much would it cost to buy copies in really good shape?
Also: if these are type specimen books that you want to do scans on...having the spine already busted saves you from later worry/guilt/responsibility regarding the spine when you want to make it perfectly flat for scanning! Consider this a “win”!
And/or do all your scanning up front, and only then do the re-binding!

2026-03-22 00:04:27 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk @nprofile…mrzw
If you were 12 over the baseline, then yes, BlueFuzz = 25, and 12 above the baseline.
As for this being why BlueFuzz exists... that’s exactly what I was wondering, too. But I have no actual knowledge on this point. If Miguel doesn’t know, David Lemon might.

2026-03-21 23:16:10 UTC

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@nprofile…mrzw @nprofile…8clk Yeah, I am pretty sure that setting BlueFuzz to an amount equal to the number of units you are above the baseline in that situation, is the secret in CFF/PS.
HOWEVER note that BlueFuzz is rarely set greater than one, and that it is a global setting for all blue zones! If you have BlueFuzz > 0 in a font, then the minimum distance between any two blue zones becomes 1 + (2 x BlueFuzz).

2026-03-10 04:26:25 UTC

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@nprofile…cwa7 @nprofile…ugpy Lots of info available online. https://ieee-aess.org/post/blog/history-column-polish-cryptographers-marian-rejewski-jerzy-rozycki-and-henryk-zygalski
https://www.bl.uk/stories/blogs/posts/polish-mathematicians-and-cracking-the-enigma
https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/about/cryptologic-heritage/historical-figures-publications/publications/wwii/solving_enigma.pdf
See also: Carter, Frank, The First Breaking of Enigma: Some of the Pioneering Techniques Developed by the Polish Cipher Bureau, Report No 2, Bletchley Park Trust, 2008.
Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh, Enigma: The Battle For The Code, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001.

2026-02-09 20:01:37 UTC

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@nprofile…8clk Cool! Thanks for sharing that.
The first page comes up, but clicking on the “Listen Now” button gets me a 404 error (after a brief flash of what is clearly the right page!)

2026-02-09 19:51:05 UTC

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@nprofile…j074 Looking forward to the read!
That would be about $10 million USD today.

2026-02-06 19:32:53 UTC

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@nprofile…edye I would call it a serifed I. Because those things are serifs.
Calling these serifs “crossbars” would imply that they either connect two stems (as in A or H,) or cut across a main stroke (as in t or f). They do neither.

2026-02-02 05:00:09 UTC

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@nprofile…lwfy @nprofile…j074 Wow, that griffin is stunning!

2026-01-17 19:47:44 UTC

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@nprofile…j074
All true, and yet…
Your “hand setting” stat necessarily includes the human input part, but (presumably) the Linotype and (definitely) the CRT stats are output numbers only.
Admittedly, Linotype and later tech can better separate the input from the output, and this is incredibly useful. But the CRT is only massively faster than Linotype in *output*; input was still a bottleneck.
I know you know all this. :) Just giving you a hard time for giving short shrift to your beloved Linotype, because if you include input time, the CRT is a much more modest advance in this regard. (Although of course, tons of other advantages, to be sure. There are plenty of reasons for replacing hot metal typesetting.)

2026-01-07 01:48:44 UTC

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@nprofile…cqgf @nprofile…edye @nprofile…e9hc This is great, but absolutely does NOT require ignoring all the long-developed principles of optical scaling, when resizing it.

2026-01-03 18:52:37 UTC

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@nprofile…lel8 Yes, salt stops most of the potential Bad Things from growing in/on butter.
As noted in the quote, there are still just a couple that CAN grow on salted butter, but are not commonly encountered. The list is much longer for unsalted butter.

2026-01-03 04:27:14 UTC

Random fact: salted butter is just fine at room temperatures, indefinitely.
FDA says: “Salted butter. The product is not held hot or cold for safety. However, during commercial handling, storage, and distribution product is held at low temperatures for quality reasons. The ingredients of the product are cream and salt. The product is intended to be stored at ambient temperature. Microbiological hazard: S. aureus, L. monocytogenes. There is no history of safety problems when the consumer does not control time/temperature of commercial salted butter.”

2025-12-13 20:14:50 UTC

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@nprofile…ukmn @nprofile…qppg Oh! That is super interesting. I didn’t even know that was A Thing. A chat with Len Ronsenthol might be a good idea here.
What version of PDF are you getting with Export?
What viewer are you using when you see the bad results? Is it possible that the viewer isn’t quite dealing with a full variable font correctly, while the embedding is fine?
(And/or, I wonder if instantiated instances are embedded *in addition* to the full VFs? You could check.)

2025-12-12 19:04:55 UTC

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@nprofile…qppg @nprofile…ukmn
In a general sense, PDF *as a format* is fine with embedded variable fonts. As ever, you (should) end up with a static instance-font in the PDF. But that does not mean that every workflow is OK, or that a given workflow is ok with all fonts.
HOW exactly is the user is generating the PDF from PowerPoint? On what platform (Windows, and if so, version?). File>Export using presumably Microsoft’s PDF generation? Or something that patches the printer driver?

2025-11-21 19:41:13 UTC

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@nprofile…wgw9 Nice! Close to British Racing Green. A classic color of the time.
This discussion sparked me to post about my favorite current car color in major mainstream use: Mazda’s Deep Soul Red Metallic.

2025-11-21 18:45:05 UTC

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@nprofile…wgw9 Didn’t they also have a lovely green? Or am I misremembering?

2025-10-29 20:24:34 UTC

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@nprofile…l8pm Depends how much kerning they have in common, and how many exceptions.
I don’t keep lowercase-with-diacritics in the same groups as their un-accented companions, because of the number of exceptions needed with caps. BUT I will keep most (for example) accented e’s and c’s and o’s in a single group.
Except (nowadays) the grave-accented ones, because they will all need to be kerned way differently after certain caps....

2025-10-27 20:43:57 UTC

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@nprofile…plsf Neither the study nor the scientists’ comments offer any information about current typical viewing distances and screen sizes. They did not study this, nor reference it.
The one comment that mentions a size which might not benefit from more resolution, mentions 44”… which was the median TV size in about 2007—considerably smaller than the typical 55” & 65” screens that are the most popular sizes being purchased today.

2025-10-27 20:10:46 UTC

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. @nprofile…q3a5
I hate bad science coverage. Nothing in the full text of the study, nor any of the specific quotes in the article, back up the Guardian article’s title, subtitle, and opening sentence.
https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/10/27/1821210/4k-or-8k-tvs-offer-no-distinguishable-benefit-over-similarly-sized-2k-screen-in-average-living-room-scientists-say

2025-10-08 23:49:09 UTC

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@nprofile…jlpt @nprofile…eeu8 Ohhh.
Were they, like, completely out of the allowable range for CFF? Like exceeding the +/-4096 or whatever that limit is?
I think I saw something like that just once, aeons ago.

2025-10-06 18:19:34 UTC

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@nprofile…jlpt Yeah, I just came back to correct that!
The printer manual has “PostScript® emulation” buried deep in the text, but the spec sheet says “Adobe Genuine PostScript ® 3™”! I went looking into it more this morning, because it seemed weird to me, too. Xerox used Adobe PostScript “forever,” right?
I trust the spec sheet as it is considerably more prominent (hence more likely to get fixed if wrong), and also consistent with long-term Xerox practice.

2025-10-06 18:06:49 UTC

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@nprofile…eeu8 @nprofile…jlpt Urm. I haven’t launched Discord in years. However, logging in... I don’t see anything.
Anyhow, I can bow out... or maybe Google Chat?
My general-purpose email is thomas.phinney at the really common email service.

2025-10-06 08:07:43 UTC

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@nprofile…jlpt @nprofile…eeu8 Interesting. A little checking shows that it is a PostScript emulation, rather than Adobe’s version.
I would love to see the PDF as well if you are so inclined.

2025-10-06 04:55:27 UTC

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@nprofile…jlpt @nprofile…eeu8 How are you printing a font from Preview? Is it in a PDF at that point, and the same PDF that fails from Acrobat?
From the error and stack, I take it this is a PostScript printer driver and printer it is going to? Model? Adobe PostScript or a clone? PostScript 3?
Feel free to reply in email as well. And of course Frank is a good bet as he is currently at Adobe and there are multiple Adobe technologies involved. I am just super curious.

2025-06-12 21:03:09 UTC

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@nprofile…qx50 Oh wow! That is super cool. I would be happy to make use of it.

2025-06-11 21:04:57 UTC

What are some (more) good variable fonts for demo purposes? Obvious candidates include Roboto Flex, Amstelvar, Decovar, DJR’s Fit. Besides Google Fonts I have Adobe Fonts through Creative Cloud, and am open to licensing (or contacting the designer).
Context: Thursday June 19, I will be doing a variable fonts talk and demo for the LA InDesign User Group — but online, not in person). https://www.laidug.com/events/entry/the-state-of-variable-fonts-in-indesign

2025-06-05 04:52:10 UTC

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@nprofile…jlpt
I think you are about to make one!
Of course it is a moving target; many of the entries will be things like “App XYZ prior to version 7”
If there a cutoff? Like, you only care about apps that were current within the past X years, for some value of X?
I ask because, if you go back far enough, it would be virtually all apps.

2025-05-23 17:39:53 UTC

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@nprofile…rnt9 @nprofile…mjt5 Oops, apologies Luke, my question was aimed at John/Tiro. He is in Canada, but most of his clients are in the USA.
For you, “the web” is not a legal jurisdiction. But you are based in the USA, right? As are most of your clients.
The status of font copyright in the USA is arguably one of the subjects of current litigation (Laatz v Zazzle). But in the USA, design patents are also a thing, albeit limited duration and not free.

2025-05-23 16:57:44 UTC

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@nprofile…rnt9 @nprofile…mjt5 Lawyers for what jurisdiction? USA?
And what is the framing for this discussion? Are you consulting them? They consulting you? Is there a specific case at stake?

2025-05-22 20:59:37 UTC

So, I have been trying out Duck Duck Go as a search engine, but on really current news it can be absolutely useless.
(No doubt it will get better when the news is not quite so immediate, but this is very bad.)
Duck Duck Go vs Google, half an hour ago:
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/553/487/606/728/191/original/f85ee0899b5bd807.png

2025-04-04 01:08:27 UTC

150 × as fast!
https://github.com/fonttools/fontspector
For those of us using fontbakery for font testing, it is worth noting that fontspector is nearly ready. Basically the same app, ported from Python to Rust by @nprofile…cnga In my first rough test it is ~ 150 × as fast; a small font set that took about 15 minutes to run fontbakery on, now takes under 6 seconds for fontspector with the same tests.

2025-03-29 18:14:56 UTC

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@nprofile…3hvv @nprofile…gfl2 @nprofile…qz4x
Ah, somebody who knows their art history (or propaganda history!).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_the_Whites_with_the_Red_Wedge

2025-02-01 23:43:39 UTC

The Chrome browser on Android, Linux and ChromeOS now does all its web font processing using a Rust-based library (Skrifa) instead of its old C++ library (FreeType).
This is part of a general trend. If you look at open jobs by programming language required, Rust is now #7 (up from #10 last time I looked). C++ and C# are declining drastically, Python, SQL, Java, and JavaScript/TypeScript are the top 5 and all growing rapidly. (Golang is #6, and also growing similarly to Rust.)

2024-12-23 22:55:15 UTC

Also, Quora Lies
About a month and a half ago, I explained a bunch of reasons I was migrating my own content off of Quora, the knowledge-sharing site. I failed to mention one of the most egregious issues: Quora has its own AI assistant bot that provides “helpful” but often (usually?) false answers to questions, and inserts them ahead of real answers created by humans.
https://www.thomasphinney.com/2024/12/also-quora-lies/

2024-12-23 03:33:22 UTC

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@nprofile…5nyj I am seriously curious about the cause of your problem. Do post when you figure it out!

2024-12-22 23:17:52 UTC

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@nprofile…5nyj LOL. Not having THAT particular issue, but I literally just updated from 14.6.x to 15.2 an hour ago and still dealing with… things.
(I like to wait for the holidays to do major upgrades. This way when I break something I have more time to sort it out without critical deadlines.)

2024-12-21 06:52:23 UTC

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@nprofile…5nyj Why, who could have bought that last imperfect copy? Hmmm. :)

2024-12-17 20:31:34 UTC

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@nprofile…mjt5 Thanks! I did not remember that was you, but you are now appropriately credited (and quoted!) in the blog post. :)

2024-12-17 15:00:09 UTC

About .notdef:the symbol (not emoji!) that is often an “X” inside a tall rectangle
I have fielded many versions of this question: “What does the emoji with an X in a large rectangle mean?” or “When texting, what is the meaning of the symbol with an “X” inside a tall rectangle?” The frame-with-an-x is called a “.notdef”—it is not an emoji, but you can get it instead of an emoji or other unusual character. It is an indicator for a “missing character,” which stands in for…
https://www.thomasphinney.com/2024/12/notdef-emoji-symbol-x-rectangle/

2024-11-17 16:53:54 UTC

Dang, another stunning typeface I am tempted to buy despite really having no need at the moment: Stornoway from Alanna Munro. https://www.alannamunro.com/fonts/stornoway
https://typo.social/system/media_attachments/files/113/499/332/691/172/531/original/02c8eb30cdf0e22b.png

2024-09-03 22:55:58 UTC

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@npub1hvd…9sq9 Random typo, you wrote “rings” when you meant “gems” maybe? When discssing the
Silmarils

2024-08-19 01:18:23 UTC

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@npub1urz…39sc Yes. Well, only people IN the car, is my understanding. Windows closed = outside folks won’t hear it.

2024-07-19 21:14:39 UTC

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@npub1xed…yg9w Any tips for how to scan a specific website for goo.gl links?