#fontstand

Fontstand has introduced an innovative iPad app that lets users explore, filter, manage and use its extensive library of professional-quality fonts. Since iPadOS now supports custom fonts, Fontstand is expanding its MacOS and Windows font rental system, allowing a growing number of compatible iPad applications (including Apple’s own Keynote, Pages and Numbers, as well as Adobe’s Photoshop) to access 15,000+ fonts from 50 renowned independent foundries.

“There are three times as many active iPad users as there are desktop Mac users. Fontstand’s ambition has always been to introduce professional-quality typefaces to new audiences, and supporting iPadOS lets us reach many people who have never licensed fonts before,” says Fontstand co-founder Peter Biľak.

In 2015 Fontstand revolutionized font licensing by offering short-term font rentals at attractive prices. With one click, users can rent fully functional fonts for 30 days at 10% of their normal retail price. Founded by active type designers, the company aims to benefit both font foundries and end users, expanding the market for high-quality, legally licensed typefaces.

The application is free to download via the App Store. Users who rent fonts via the Fontstand desktop app for Mac or Windows will find those same fonts available on their iPads at no extra cost. Fontstand also offers a $4.99 iPad-only monthly subscription that gives access to its library of over 1600 font families supporting hundreds of languages from Abaza to Zulu. With so many fonts to choose from, users will be glad to know that the iPad app offers the same search function as its desktop counterparts, so fonts can be filtered not only by traditional categories (serif, sans serif, slab, script, display, etc.), but also by visual attributes such as width, x-height and stroke contrast, as well as OpenType feature support and language support.

Co-founder Andrej Krátky adds: “We imagine that creative professionals and design enthusiasts will take advantage of the advanced possibilities of iPad to create their presentations, documents and graphics directly on the tablet, without the need to migrate projects across platforms.”

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread and the situation evolves we have no other choice but to announce that the 2020 Fontstand Conference in Dublin is cancelled.

Fontstand’s priority is to keep the delegates, speakers, and our partners safe, and to prevent the spread of the virus we have made the decision to cancel this years’ conference. We considered postponing it to a later date in 2020, however, with no clear outlook it is not responsible to move to a date when we can’t guarantee safety of the attendants.

We will be issuing full refund of all purchased tickets in the coming weeks.

On Saturday, May 25, 2019 the second Fontstand conference took place in Porto, Portugal. Taking place one day before the European elections, it couldn’t have felt more international, more like a celebration of diversity and community. Occasionally, the type and design scene can feel quite US-centric, but not at this event. Each speaker seemed to speak a different flavor of English and some of the 200 people in the audience had traveled from as far away as Australia, Brazil or the west coast of Canada.

While the first Fontstand conference in 2018 came about as a foundry meeting first and conference second, this time the conference part was planned from the outset, largely organized by local type designer Dino de Santos (DS Type) and Fontstand’s Andrej Krátky and Peter Biľak. The theater-like Ateneu Commercial do Porto in the city center provided a charming backdrop — even winning this year’s conference-chandelier rating — and space for the packed program of 13 stage presentations and 13 interspersed “Tiny Talks” (one slide, 5 minutes).

The prevalent motif of the presentations was true “behind the scenes” insight into the work and lives of type designers and independent businesses, touching, among other things, on the discomfort of giving up design control with variable fonts, the less glorious parts of running a type business, font licensing, finding inspiration for your work amongst seemingly dead ends, developing your own tools to explore new creative directions, designing for different writing systems and matching different scripts, but all livened up by the zippy 5-minute talks in between that went as far as to propose eliminating all letters with diagonals from the alphabet.

Some may have found so many presentation on type design quite geeky; to others it was a welcomed difference to other conferences that focus more on general graphic design or on academic research. Either way, events like these — still small and casual enough — provide a rare chance for real conversations between (typo-)graphic designers, students and type makers and sellers, something we should maybe encourage and facilitate even more. Coffee and lunch breaks gave some time to chat and mingle, but were kept brief in favor of the dense program. We’re curious to hear the opinion of attendees on that: Do you prefer fewer talks and more breaks? A slightly higher ticket price to cover a simple catered lunch so we can stay together at the venue and talk more? Or maybe even a two-day event?

While the public conference part lasted for one day only, it was a multi-day event for the foundry partners. On Sunday we met to discuss foundries’ and Fontstand’s experiences of the past year, new ideas and new locations. Several more partners attended who couldn’t make it in 2018, so the event was also a great opportunity to get to know each other better and exchange views with far-flung colleagues. Where else do you otherwise see 30+ independent type foundries in one room talking to each other, and above all, in good spirits?

Too short a meeting almost, despite Dino having set up a great full-day program including a beach café lunch and port wine tasting. We hope to keep the conversation going during the months until the next event. Do let us know if you want to comment on anything regarding the conference, its location or Fontstand in general. We want it to be the most varied and friendly place to look for and hear about typefaces.

Article by Catherine Dixon

A meeting of 20 Fontstand foundries from 12 countries in Zagreb, capital city of Croatia, was the quite wonderful answer to the question of how best to find out what Fontstand’s partners and collaborators are really thinking about current industry challenges.

This more human-centred approach to business communication in turn prompted the further question of whether everyone would actually be able to come. Yet acceptance of the invitation to meet together for a weekend was so overwhelmingly positive it soon became incumbent upon the organizers to try to share the benefits of this gathering of visiting designers with the local design community.

And so grew the idea for the very first Fontstand conference. A packed and fast-moving day of 13 talks given by type designers and typographers from around the world, and followed by a panel discussion featuring Croatian design, was warmly received by more than 100 attendees from as far afield as Japan and the United States. The themes explored were substantive and included the design of custom typefaces to enhance complex typographic layout; innovations in variable fonts for editorial design; contemporary challenges to conservatism in the design of complex scripts such as Hangul and Arabic; and the possibilities for maintaining both quality and quirky invention in the stylistic minefield of corporate font design. Yet, if the content was serious, the mood was light. Newcomers to the world of fonts were drawn in as old friends made new friends, and all in conference surroundings more open and joyful than most.

The public-facing Saturday conference was then followed by a more relaxed and private Sunday for Fontstand foundry partners to talk through plans for the future, and simply enjoy each other’s company. And as if there hadn’t already been good times enough, a coach trip to the family vineyard of type designer Nikola Djurek brought with it sparkling sunshine, fine wine and the most generous of experiences one could hope to be a part of.