Fonts In Use

> The other GUI I really like is MAGI from Evangelion - all these black screens with classic amber color accompanied by red, green and teal fit very well together - especially with the volumetric-holographic displays from new tetralogy

You will probably appreciate this site and especially this post, which is an exploration of the typography of the series.

https://fontsinuse.com/uses/28760/neon-genesis-evangelion

Previously on HN [2019] 415 points 111 comments:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21323736

Choice quote from that prior submission:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21328512

> “Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.”

> Brian…

But I've never really found a site that collects these free software licensed fonts with curated reviews and use-cases.

There's not much out there, I'm afraid. It looks like you're already aware of the sites that just list a million fonts and maybe let you try out rendering some sample text interactively. You might find sites like Typewolf[1] and Fonts In Use[2] interesting if you haven't come across them before. There's a little more curation and organisation there than on something like Google Fonts. But really, for free fonts, there's not a lot of detailed commentary in my experience. If you have specific questions or want advice about suitable fonts for a specific project, you could also ask on the Typography subreddit[3], which is fairly active and has a few people who know what they're doing around.

[1] https://www.typewolf.com/

[2] https://fontsinuse.com/

[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/typography/

Some nice type here, some not-so-nice. This site does a better job showcasing some of them than their respective Foundries/gallery pages do (Signalist, Xtreem), which is always something to consider when looking at typefaces. http://fontsinuse.com/ used to be a good resource to see different typefaces in the wild, but now it's pretty watered down with crap. You might still be able to find some gems there though.

Can't stress enough how fantastic the MyFonts email newsletters (http://www.myfonts.com/newsletters/) are if you enjoy being up to speed or collecting inspiration for later use. The FontShop ones (http://www.fontshop.com/blog/newsletters/) are also pretty good.

Just get Font-Forge[0] and a protractor. Give it a week or two and you'll be able to throw together some copycat LL Circular[1] derivative, to give the illusion of having 'own typeface' money, which might in turn look rather impressive to prospective investors.

(At least, when you say 'we', I presume you're speaking on behalf of a fledgling business. If you're just saying that you'd like more money for your family, well, I guess I'd still recommend making fonts because it's very lucrative work apparently.)

[0]: https://fontforge.github.io/en-US/

[1]: https://fontsinuse.com/uses/7192/airbnb-identity-website-app-2014-redesign

They are color palettes based on Swiss design that originated in the 1950s, and a big influence on the look of flat design now. Not so much the function; Swiss design (international typographic style) placed an emphasis on removing visual embellishments to make design an effective tool of communication. The minimalism and simplicity were a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Here is a fun example of the bright colors preferred by these designers:

http://fontsinuse.com/uses/3254/principles-of-wanner-gruppe

Traffic safety posters (!):

http://fontsinuse.com/uses/4263/campaign-posters-for-the-swiss-automobile-clu

Ohhhhh! REALLY good catch, I think you're right. Matches all of the features!

There's some really neat uses of it on Fonts In Use. [0]

Also a new-jersey based foundry specimen book, from a few years before publishing this catalog. [1] There's a non-zero chance that these samples were originally what convinced the original designer to go with this typeface, if we believe the designer also worked in Corning New York at the pyrex office.

[0] https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/4509/stymie

[1] https://archive.org/details/ATFBookOfAmericanTypes1934/page/n55/mode/2up