Two new, very able, fonts!
The variable font format offers new typographic possibilities for type designers. Instead of creating separate static fonts, font families can be combined into a single font file for example. But this new font format has much more to offer. Type designers can also design typefaces specifically for this new format. New ideas for new technologies, instead of old ideas wrapped into those new technologies.

Our most recent font family Duos was already a technological tour de force, but is now expanded with 2 progressive variable versions.
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If you’re into type, you probably have heard the new buzzword recently: variable fonts. Everybody is talking about, some people are doing it. So are we.

But the more we get involved in making variable fonts, the more questions come to our minds. What is actually a variable font? We mean, really is? And what does it really mean? The most obvious application of the variable font technique is the weight-axis. Putting all fonts from Light to Black into 1 single variable font is something everybody can imagine, and maybe therefore also the thing everybody does. But isn’t that the same as using the marquee tag –which everybody did– in the early days of the internet? Don’t we realize by now that the internet is something else? Isn’t the Light-to-Black slider the same as the blinking marquee tag for typography in 2018?

So before we accept that this is what variable fonts are about, we should wonder what other possibilities this new font format offers. This is the moment to ask fundamental questions. Maybe this font format is actually something completely different? Maybe you can put all existing fonts into a single variable font? Maybe you don’t need all those separate glyphs, because one glyph can vary into any other glyph? Maybe you can have a legibility slider, or one from Braille to Latin? And maybe the question is not how to make variable fonts, but how to make fonts variable? And shouldn’t the interface be part of a typeface instead of depending on what an application offers or supports in its interface? Variable fonts are vari-able-fonts, so very able fonts. But what are they really capable of? Maybe the variable font format is a beginning of a new era in digital typography, where the letter is finally freed from its historical limitations? And what does it mean when information becomes dynamic at the level of the written word?

Enough questions to launch our own playground for variable fonts, which will be as much in development as the variable fonts themselves: very-able-fonts.com

Written words always exist within the three dimensions of the maker (the type designer), the user (the designer) and the consumer (the reader). But what does it mean to be a type-maker, -user or -consumer? How is language working anyway? Together with Dutch composer Jacq Palinckx and writer Kees ’t Hart, we investigated into an expanded understanding of typography. Attendees of our lecture at the TYPO Berlin conference last Saturday, could afterwards continue to observe language with the publication The Tail of the Cat.

Do we still have shared beliefs? Last Sunday we gave a lecture at the All Eyes on Type Festival in Rotterdam. What to do on this very early Sunday morning, at a time when people used to go to church? We’re happy to see that it’s still possible to bring people together on Sunday morning. People who have shared beliefs and get together, luckily that still exists. So we were all in Rotterdam that day to celebrate type. Because all attendants belief in type. In a time when hand lettering became more popular than other religions, it’s important to reflect on the craft of making letters, and think about what we are actually doing. That Sunday we wanted to share some thoughts on how to communicate. Some thoughts on making letters. This service is a story in which we worked towards the ultimate celebration of type. Towards the end, everybody, every individual, received his own sacred typographic host. Because this is the only true way to celebrate something you, us, we all believe in. It became a service which was taking of with live organ music, and ended with a sacred host in the form of a tiny printed publication: Ten Commandments of Type.

Next week all eyes will be on type in Rotterdam. A 2-day festival on calligraphy & typography will host many workshops & lectures. We’ll give a lecture on Sunday 13 May at 10:30 o’clock. But with a beefy line-up (Martin Majoor, Maria Doreuli, Luca Barcellona, Job Wouters, Bernd Volmer, Peter Winkel, Bruce Tsai-Meu-Chong, Hans Schuttenbeld, Guido & Vincent De Boer, Analphabetics, Jeroen Erosie & Just van Rossum) we had to bring in cerberus-power: for this occassion all 3 Underware heads will be present, a rare moment. Sami, Bas & Akiem will talk as a three-headed monster. And to top all pleasure: Typeradio will be present in Rotterdam as well. Type lovers know where to go next week.

Say hi to Higher Order Interpolation. Since the introduction of variable fonts in 2016, interpolation became increasingly important. During the TYPO Labs 2018 conference in Berlin we briefly reevaluated the current interpolation technique and demonstrated another way of interpolation typefaces. Until today interpolation in type design has been linear, but this limitation should belong to the past. In case you are interested in the technical side of making (variable) fonts, read the case study: Higher Order Interpolation for Variable Fonts. The basic principles of more advanced interpolation in variable fonts, explained without the complicated math.

Ladies and gentlemen, may we introduce Font Fiction, tomorrow’s fonts designed today. Visitors of the TYPO Labs 2018 conference in Berlin received a – pretty future-proof – printed copy of this manifesto. The rest of the world can read it online at fontfiction.com.

Our typeworkshop website may still be in coma at the moment, the workshops themselves have always continued and are alive as never before. Last year we gave 5 typeworkshops, from Baltimore and Detroit in the USA, to Wrocław in Poland, and São Paulo & Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. This week our first typeworkshop-stop of 2018 is at Sint Lucas in Ghent, also known as the Berlin of the Belgian type scene. We hope to make some new people enthusiastic about letters. It’s gonna be Now or never on the 5th and 6th of February.

Warning: this movie is longer than 15 seconds. Even longer than two minutes. And there is a good reason for this. Developing fonts is a tedious task, at least in our case. To give a certain clue of time: making Duos, our latest font release, took two more years than we originally planned. In case you are interested to see and hear what’s involved in making the font family Duos, just watch this presentation that Akiem and Bas held at ATypI Montreal. Thirty minutes of slow TV for a fast font.

Prefer reading instead of watching? Only want to spend a few minutes instead of half an hour? Those people who are interested in ambiguous shapes, monolinear design problems, writing speeds or coding, will also enjoy reading the story behind Duos.

We’re happy to introduce Duos, a script for illusionists.

This small family of handwritten display fonts contains enough variation & imperfections to create a natural and casual appearance for texts. The light weights can be deployed when class and elegance is required. The black weights are more mutually divergent: rough brush strokes will bring across a different mood than delicate rounded strokes for example. Duos brings you a new typographic palette.

In Duos letters break apart, strokes are suddenly being cut, they crisscross, overlap, get loose. These strokes definitely enjoy their freedom. These oddities are intentional: handwriting ain’t perfect either. Nevertheless, the overall rhythm and carefully crafted connections keep this handwriting together. Every letter has many alternates, so every word can have dozens or hundreds of different appearances. Use the one you like the most, or just use the one which Duos thinks looks best. Fancy! As a final flourish, Duos let’s you play with ambiguous lettershapes, just like real handwriting.

Duos is a small family of 10 eye-catching display fonts (4 styles, 3 weights) plus a bonus font which includes tools, icons, strokes and banners. The four different styles, caused by using different writing tools, offer distinct typographic voices. But whatever style of Duos you pick: apply this speedy monolinear handwriting font in large sizes, because it is made for catching the attention. Apply it short & big.

➽ Duos
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