Celebrating the love of type since 2007: Learn about the history of typography & books, about the art of type design, read interviews with creatives, learn the fundamentals with Typography 101, and get help choosing fonts with Expert Lists, Steven Heller’s Font of the Month, Fonts in Focus, and Font Inspiration. You can also shop quality curated fonts from the ILT Font Store.
Featured posts
Steven Heller’s Font of the Month
Each month Steven Heller, legendary designer, art director, educator, and author of more than 100 books, shares his Font of the Month — a delicious typographic main course invariably served with a side of his inimitable charm, humor and erudition.
Fundamentals: Type 101
Basic typographic principles, an intro to type classification and various kinds of serif, and a brief history of type.
Type People: Interviews
What makes them tick? Interviews with typographers, designers, creative directors and type designers to better understand the creative process.
Long-Form: Articles
Immersive, deep-dives into the history of typography, books, typographic firsts and type and graphic design.
Readers love:
A History of Drop-caps
A fascinating history of the initial or drop-cap, from its origins in ancient manuscripts to its appearance in print and on screen. Discover how they came to be, their place in typographic hierarchy, and why they remain popular to this day.
Hot New Fonts: New releases
More hot new fonts, including the speedy Velocity, Gieo Text for immersive reading, an authentic handwriting typeface called Angus Hand, a contrasted sans, Stornoway, with a chonky weight!, Arsen, a high-contrast beauty, and Experimo, a hypermodern sans for this and the next century. Grab them in the ILT Font Store.
Fonts on Things
Font inspiration and the opportunity to see fonts on things like sardine tins, cassette tapes (remember those?) and more. A fun and thematic way to discover your new favorite fonts.
Best-selling sans serif fonts
Explore some of the hot new sans serif classic fonts, including modern-day classics like the best-selling Proxima Nova, Museo Sans, and Brandon Grotesque.
Koning is a gorgeous & stately typeface that works well in uppercase and for place names.
— Nadine
Branding Fonts
“Silent ambassadors” — that’s how legendary designer Paul Rand described branding. Effective branding is not a cosmetic veneer or afterthought. When it’s done well, branding sets the right tone and can say much about your brand, mission, and even your values.
Visual Font Categories
Do you sometimes struggle to tell the difference between neo-grotesques and grotesques, or old style from transitional typefaces? You’re not alone! And don’t worry, because we’ve got you covered: you can now browse font categories visually.
Alternatively, you can still browse by traditional named categories.
Expert Lists
With so many fonts to choose from, finding the right one for your project can be challenging. That’s why we invited experts to curate font lists for specific applications, from fonts for making books to great fonts for UI and UX design, branding and more.
Fonts for Books
The printed book has been the supreme discipline of typography ever since moveable type was invented. Today, more text is read on screens than on paper, yet books continue to provide great opportunities for typographers to showcase their skills.
Fonts for UI/UX Design
How important are fonts in user interface and user experience design? We have the answers in this monster edition of Expert Lists authored by typography expert Johannes López Ayala. Johannes shares 16 font families that he recommends for use in UI/UX design.
Fonts for Culture Branding
Museums, galleries, theaters, concert halls, artists, … the culture ‘industry’ is full of opportunities to design the world at large. And it’s more than entertainment — it’s an essential aspect of many people’s lives. There are two main approaches to Culture Branding…
Seb Lester’s Fav Fonts
The famed Seb Lester, lettering artist, calligrapher, type designer, and educator, selects some of his favorite calligraphy inspired typefaces.
Fonts for the Metaverse
As we’ve seen with cryptocurrencies, each new wave of tech buzz is largely self-referential. A typographic treatment in this field should be applied accordingly.
Typography 101: Fundamentals
A good place to start. Here we cover the basics from a brief history of type, a 5-part series on type terminology, and various articles on font classification, different kinds of serifs, type of numeral and more. Our font games are another way to learn typographic fundamentals too — and they’re fun.
Featured Font Families
Fenland
from Jeremy Tankard
Fenland is a beautifully crafted modern-day classic. A lot to unpack in the details: perhaps most notably its distinctive counter shapes and the tension generated by internal and external curves.
Bion
from Type Forward
Bion has some of the crispness and precision of a geometric sans, but the warmth of a humanist sans. Ideal for UI design, wayfinding, and as a solid workhorse sans for branding.
Schotis Display
from MTM
The dreamy Schotis Display is a high contrast serif with charm and class. Ideally suited to modern editorial design, as web fonts (we use it here on the blog), and more.
Archive Matrix
from GarageFonts
Pixel fonts turn heads. Use Archive Matrix for: 1. Video Games / 2. Web design & digital / 3. Editorial Design – about high-tech, gaming, future.
Type 101: White space
Scroll and learn: Typographic fundamentals in a carousel.
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Type Design: Making Fonts
How are typefaces designed and fonts made? Meet the designers and engineers behind the fonts. Learn about the science and craft of type design, and discover crucial tips & tricks for designing your own.
Font Voices: Type sets the tone
Every typeface has its own voice: discover yours in the ILT Font Store.
You’ve no doubt seen the videos & memes where the tone of iconic movie scenes is entirely transformed by changing only the music. Similarly, in graphic design, fonts — our typographic soundtrack — set the tone & tempo, thus informing our emotional response. Which voice do you need?
Font Inspiration
Featured Newsletters
Stay up-to-date, be the first to hear about deals, new fonts, and special offers, discounts, and even free fonts and merch!
5 Hot New Font Families
Perfect Packaging Fonts
Font News & Inspiration
Find Your Font Voice
Fonts for Packaging
“Good packaging protects your product. Great packaging protects your brand.”
Featured articles: Type & Book History
Typographic Firsts
The invention of moveable type changed the world ushering in an era of global mass communication. Discover the origins of the first italic type, the first female typographer, the first illustrated books, the first books printed in the Americas, read about the most dangerous book in the world, and many other typographic firsts.
How the Poster was Invented
When, where and why was the poster invented? How did it evolve, and why does it remain a crucial typographic and informational tool to this day? Read on for the answers!
Roadtrips & the Invention of Print
Printing with movable type was invented in China by 畢昇 (Bi Sheng) in the mid-eleventh century. It was reinvented in Europe in the mid-fifteenth century. Learn how a Mainz entrepreneur brought printing to Europe and changed the face of the world forever.
Who Invented the Newspaper?
Tracing the history of news from cave-wall graffiti to modern printed news in the early modern period. A fascinating and compelling informational and typographic tale.
