Fonts: Need buyers advice

[CSUNdude]

Hello everyone,

Right off the bat, I'm a newb at everything graphic arts related, so please be patient. My father, however, is a graphic designer with TONS of talent (see http://www.palmdalewater.org/ http://www.anatomorphex.com/ or http://www.jtmedia.com for examples) and I'd like to get him something graphics related for christmas.

For some reason I was thinking fonts. He has not updated his fonts since switching over to OS X and thus I feel it may be time to get him up to snuff in this area. However, I have no clue what to get, or even how to go about finding something to purchase. Would I be better of looking for a fonts package, or is OS X sufficient? Should I look into a font creator program, or is that a bit of overkill? Any basic knowledge I should have before searching? Are font purchases even a rage anymore, or am I really out of the loop? If not, got any other christmas present suggestions?

Any form of guidance would be greatly appreciated!

 

[EricNau]

First off; your dad seems very good at graphic design.

As for your question:
I knew it was possible to buy fonts, but to be honest, I don't know anybody who has bought any. And from what I've seen, for what you get they are expensive (for the good ones). And OS X comes with a lot of good fonts.

Did you dad switch over to Mac OS X from windows? Did he get a new Mac that he might need hardware for?

 

[Blue Velvet]

Well, to avoid duplicating anything that he might already have you may want to check his current library because it would have made the transition to OSX.

If he's an experienced designer, then he will probably have considerable resources of his own and it would be a shame to go ahead and purchase something that he may already have.

Useful fonts are usually purchased these days online with a credit/debit card and then downloaded. They can also be quite expensive especially when purchasing an entire family (i.e. a set of weights and variants).

Maybe a font creator program (although the decent ones are expensive... US$350-600) or a font utility like Suitcase or Font Reserve might be a better idea if he doesn't have own installed on his Mac.

Choosing fonts for other people for someone else can be a time-consuming and highly subjective process... if he needs a useful and classic family then that's easier, but if its display fonts then they can be quite specialised and often remain unused until that one specific job that needs them.

Furthermore, it can depend on the work being done. A book designer's font requirements will be different from someone who specialises in packaging or advertising.

So, if you're still keen on this idea you need to find out what he does have in his current collection... or take a guess.

And also, before we go much further with gift suggestions, it would be helpful to know what your budget is.

Anyway, http://www.fontshop.com/ can be quite useful for slightly off-beat collections that are less likely to be in his own library.

Here's a short personal list to compare against what he might have already.

Suggested seriffed text fonts (common workhorses for book work):
• Aldus
• Baskerville
• Bembo
• Bodoni
• Caslon
• Clarendon
• Galliard
• Minion
• Officina
• Palatino
• Sabon
• Stone Serif
• Veljovic

Suggested Sans text fonts:
• Frutiger
• Gill Sans
• Goudy Sans
• Laudatio (slightly seriffed)
• Lucida Sans
• Myriad
• Optima (slightly seriffed)
• Stone Sans
• Syntax