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View Full Version : Great font page: Periodic table of Typefaces! It's wikid.




eclipse
Mar 11, 2009, 08:38 PM
For some reason I love this...

:)

http://www.squidspot.com/Periodic_Table_of_Typefaces/Periodic_Table_of_Typefaces_large.jpg



camomac
Mar 11, 2009, 10:37 PM
WOW, i really like that too. thanks for sharing.

marbles
Mar 11, 2009, 10:39 PM
good man yourself

NoSmokingBandit
Mar 11, 2009, 11:20 PM
Perhaps the nerd in me is making itself known, but i would like it much more if it were a correct table instead of Hydrogen being the only correct element i saw in a quick scan.

lucidmedia
Mar 12, 2009, 12:00 AM
I was a bit disappointed to be honest. Its a fun idea, but I don't think it was taken very far.

Seems this is based upon popularity only. The rest of the order seems quite random.

It doesn't have a key, so perhaps I am missing the point, but there are so many opportunities in a chart like this to create relationships between type classifications, time, etc, etc, etc.

PkennethV
Mar 12, 2009, 12:03 AM
wow...no Arial?:eek:

notjustjay
Mar 12, 2009, 12:22 AM
But where's Comic Sans? ;)

likeavaliant
Mar 12, 2009, 12:29 AM
i like it. i don't see why some people are being so hard on it.

covisio
Mar 12, 2009, 04:18 AM
I realise it's only a bit of fun, and as such it's a nice idea. But if you're going to have them numerically arranged, then Akzindenz Grotesk should come before Helvetica, as Helvetica was designed after and was heavily influenced by it.

MisterMe
Mar 12, 2009, 09:31 AM
... But if you're going to have them numerically arranged, ....That's just it. The table looked nice for about a minute. But then, I began to read it. The fonts are not arranged in rank order. This table is supposed to mimic the Periodic Table of the Elements, but it does not. The placement of Futura stands out lack a sore thumb. The table is supposed to encapsulate The 100 Best Fonts of All Time. However, two fonts on that list are clearly missing.

Bottomline: What is the point?

notjustjay
Mar 12, 2009, 12:29 PM
Yeah, it's pretty, but not very functional. For those that are not familiar with it, the Periodic Table is useful not just because it lists all the known elements, but also groups them. You can infer a lot about an element just by its placement in the table.

It would be nice if a chart like this did the same, for example grouping the font families by function, weight, family, present them in some kind of order (not necessarily alphabetical, either), etc.

SamNeeds
Mar 12, 2009, 02:47 PM
That's pretty neat!

bbeers
Mar 12, 2009, 05:25 PM
I took a quick minute to add color to the different font types, and you should be able to see better now that it was organized by families.
Font Table with Color (http://blurredsight.com/upload/font-table-color.jpg)

After seeing it this way, I can see it being much more useful.

hope this helps.

Brendan

notjustjay
Mar 12, 2009, 06:03 PM
Nice. That makes a HUGE difference!

bbeers
Mar 12, 2009, 06:35 PM
Nice. That makes a HUGE difference!

I just used random colors, and the more I think about it I want to redo it so that the color help out a little more.

MisterMe
Mar 12, 2009, 08:29 PM
Nice. That makes a HUGE difference!or not.

notjustjay
Mar 13, 2009, 12:58 PM
or not.

It certainly makes it much easier to see how the original author of the poster grouped their fonts. I had to study the fine print of the original to see that there even WERE groups.

Could they have been grouped differently, better? Of course.

NoSmokingBandit
Mar 13, 2009, 02:15 PM
Good idea, terrible execution.

wongulous
Mar 13, 2009, 03:26 PM
I agree on the execution leaving something to be desired. This should have been a PDF and colorized to begin with, and some of the face choices are not what I'd expect for a table of elements... something meant to express the absolute differences out there... I just see too many I've never come across and (while completely nice) cannot see much use for. They could have swapped some out for some additional entertainingly bad/overused/misused fonts, maybe with a category of their own. I have no idea how this could have been made without Comic Sans, Papyrus, or Brush Script (though I suppose Mistral is in there).