Apple Fonts?

This may be a bit off topic, but... About the Apple fonts: What font are they using? I heard it's a version of Arial or something (sorry for the ignorance) but where can I find it? (Or it is not possible at all?)
Well... Sorry to go off topic... Or will this link lead us to these fonts?

Their current font is Myriad. The old one is Apple Garamond.

How different are these from any other fonts I can get? The description is not to in-depth.

I'd love to see Apple sell fonts. They have great taste in type.

C'mon, Apple. I'll buy. C'mon!

Dan

It kind of sad when the much biggger projects over shadown smaller ones like this.

Sure it aint hard to make a font CD but it was just overlooked.

Originally posted by chewbaccapits
How different are these from any other fonts I can get? The description is not to in-depth.

Click to expand...

Apple Garamond is a version of Garamond, which is an old, staple serif font found all over, popular namely in books, magazines, even Magic cards. It varies quite a bit sylistically from Times, but in layman's terms, it's like Times.

Apple's Garamond is a bit more narrow than the generic version, and Apple often uses a lighter weight on the font (skinnier strokes).

There was a version called Garamond Narrow that was on our Performa 6200 - not sure if it was installed as an addition from the system disc, or ClarisWorks, or yet another program. But this actually is a cheap version of the font and not quite the real mama.

I believe you can buy the same commercial font [at full price] at either Agfa-Monotype (I think they bought out ITC...) or Linotype-Hell (I get them mixed up). They don't come cheap - you usually end up paying separate for bold versions, pro versions, etc. Entire families can cost upwards of $200 or easily more.

A very popular version that is used is Adobe Garamond (surprise! - Adobe's version). Again, all of these are based (as is the way for most old fonts) on the original Garamond etch made a LONG time ago.

As for Myriad, (Apple's font they use for most the ads nowadays - "The new iMac.", etc. Visit www.apple.com and check it out) it's similar to Tahoma (free font I think - you probably already have it, if not, free from Microsoft) A better match might be Frugal, I think it's called (not 100% sure).

Somewhere - I don't know if it's ITC again (www.itc.com?) or not, there's a decent font dictionary - you can search for different fonts based on its appearance (it's kinda cool for the novice and the expert alike).

As far as buying fonts, I don't know whether this will come into fruition. You might notice that "Get Fonts..." is still available in the pop-up menu in the font panel.

However, I don't think people really buy fonts much anymore. I remember the days when you only had the default ones, namely BEFORE the internet and advanced typography tools - you could buy a whole ton of clone fonts for rather cheap ($29.99, KeyFonts for example) or those clip art packs that supposedly would come with "thousands of fonts". They were basic fonts with little thrills (usually the companies give up when they come to non-alphanumeric characters and such) but if you write a newsletter in your spare time for your church, hey, it gets the job done. And when all you've got is black and white, sometimes a snappier font will help make it all the more interesting.

Then there would be the "make your own font" where you write out the characters and send it in and get it back weeks later - the forms you'd find in airplane magazines on flights going overseas.

Nowadays, ordinary people and small upstarts businesses have produced their own fonts easily for download.

Unfortunately, downloading fonts isn't easy. Just like warez (which no one should be doing anyway... tsk-tsk) you have all these sites who compete for top 10 ratings claiming 1,000s of fonts that only redirect you to other sites that claim they have just as many or more, only to give you endless pop-ups and the same sites again...

I think the art packs still exist, but buying fonts is all but extinct, except from the actual type foundries, which I think in general are getting a little bit economically justifiable.

As for me, I have plenty to last me a long time. Many of my programs have come with fonts (AppleWorks, WordPerfect, etc.)

So getting back to the issue/question, I think the reason Apple hasn't ventured full throttle into this is because I don't think the demand is high enough. Although I love typography, when it comes down to it, I think 90% of consumers (non-industry people) feel they have enough to work with, and when writing reports, all you really need is Times, Helvetica, or Courier.

Originally posted by mproud
Apple Garamond is a version of Garamond, which is an old, staple serif font...

Click to expand...

Very informative..Thanks very much 🙂

The site at which you identify a font based on answering questions about its appearance is IdentiFont. It is an excellent service. If you answer the questions carefully (saying you don't know whenever you don't), you are almost guaranteed to get a correct match.

http://www.envestco2.com/macwhispers/archives/000052.php


Macwhisper and a little Faux pau? They have they're front page reading this:

"March 24, 2003
Apple To Start Selling Fonts Online"

...Got to love the part where it says:

"So, though it turns out to not be current news, we will leave it here with a question: "Why is this page still here, with no follow up action, after all this time?"


If macwhispers can't get this right, what makes anyone think they're a credible site....BOOOOO