LinoLetter 2006/12

Celebrating the Holiday Season and Our 120th Anniversary

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Introduction:

Like presents tucked away under a tree, this month’s LinoLetter has a number of surprises in store for readers. First the fonts: This December, we are pleased to introduce a brand new type system! Called Generis, this system’s typefaces take on a rather generic appearance, allowing them to fit almost any design brief. Second, we’d like to call your attention once more to Pirouette. We first featured this copperplate script face in 2004. Now two years later, we’ve upgraded it further so that it includes contextual features, making it easier than for Pirouette to look like handwriting. In terms of information, we have three treats set aside: Linotype.com now has a Font Feature page devoted to holiday fonts and type ornaments. Additionally, we’ve brought out another edition of our typographic advice column, “Akira Says …” And last but not least, 2006 represents Linotype’s 120th Anniversary! We’ve decided to celebrate by printing a book that is both humorous and full of historical tidbits. You can find more information about this book and all of December’s surprises below.
Don’t forget: Customers who purchase an OpenType Bundle before the end of 2006 will receive a Mac mini – absolutely free!


Have fonts of fun!

Last minute holiday inspiration – Linotype.com’s X-Mas Font Feature page

Linotype Xmas Fonts
Still searching for the perfect font or ornament for this year’s Christmas cards or holiday party invitations? Allow us to come to the rescue! Before you give up hope, make sure to visit our new X-Mas Font Feature page. Here we’ve collected images showing great ways to use a number of appropriate text, headline, and symbol fonts. We are sure to have the style you are looking for!
Holiday font shopping is just a click away.

The Generis type system – It fits in everywhere

Generis Type System
Imagine a system of four compatible typeface families, each variant drawn in a different generic style, perfectly suitable for almost any design application. Erik Faulhaber delivers this toolkit for designers with Generis. Faulhaber was one of the designers involved with Linotype’s Compatil type system – the first typefaces ever designed exclusively for annual reports. Like Compatil, Generis’s typefaces can be interchanged to create the perfect mix within a project. Choose from Generis Serif, Generis Sans, Generis Slab, and Generis Simple – all available in a number of weights, with all the technical and typographic features you have come to expect!
Discover Generis’s intricacies and lend a new face to your image!

Pirouette upgraded – Now with contextual features

Pirouette upgraded
The award-winning Pirouette, by the Japanese designer Ryuichi Tateno, is one of the most graceful copperplate scripts ever designed. Now available as an updated OpenType font, this single Pirouette font file is so content-rich that its character set used to require six separate fonts! With Abobe InDesign CS2, users can now automatically set contextual alternatives and ligatures. Two-color, overlapping letters can also be set manually via the help of OpenType magic and automated negative kerning. All of these features come together to create a more handwriting-like appearance, with an approach that is easier than ever to use!
Update your script with the noble Pirouette.

120 years of Linotype – Celebrate with a good read

Book
In 1886, the publisher of the New York Herald exclaimed to Ottmar Mergenthaler, “Ottmar, you have cast a line of type!” Thus, the Linotype machine and company were born. Fast-forward 120 years: Linotype remains on the forefront of global communication, providing tools that make the lives of designers and computer users easier every day. We’ve decided that it is time to celebrate! In a new book titled “A Line of Type: 120 Years of Typographic History,” Alessio Leonardi and Jan Middendorp explain the tumultuous and exciting history of our company through a series of brilliant black and white comic book illustrations and captions. With 112 pages (at 148 x 210 mm), this paperback book is a bargain at the price of 19 USD/EUR.
Dive into the pages of this entertaining reference! Order your copy today.

Are you using real small caps? Find out in this month’s “Akira Says …”

Akira Says
Small caps have been used in typography for centuries. They are a great tool to use when emphasizing bits of text or creating a more sophisticated hierarchy of information. Thanks to the automatic small caps generation buttons found in many applications, we are seeing more small caps now than ever before. Unfortunately, if a font does not have small caps in it, many computer software programs will auto-generate fake small caps for you. You might not even know whether your text is using real of fake small caps at all—but your readers will. Linotype’s Type Director Akira Kobayashi regularly tackles typographic issues for our customers. This month, he explains the different between real and fake small caps, and why real small caps look better.
Improve your typography by the newest “Akira Says…” column at Linotype.com.

Buy an OpenType Bundle and Get a Free Mac Mini!

Linotype OpenType Collections 2006 Special
Until December 31st, all customers who purchase one of Linotype’s four OpenType Collections will receive a free gift. And we have an extra-special present in store for customers who purchase a complete bundle (all four Collections together): a free Mac mini! Whether you use the gift for yourself or to give to someone special, licensing a font collection has never been sweeter. But hurry! You only have until the end of the year.
Christmas is the season to give and to receive; learn more about our OpenType Collection sale.

One OpenType format - different kinds

OpenType Com Fonts Overview
There are many OpenType character sets to choose from: Std, Pro, and Com, for instance. How are customers to know which glyphs are included in each one? Linotype’s Com fonts help cut through this confusion! All Linotype Com fonts include at least 384 glyphs. This ensures that they will be able to set a minimum of 48 Latin-based European languages, including almost all of the those spoken in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe.
Learn more about the different kinds of OpenType and see the variety of OpenType fonts at Linotype.com
We hope you found this issue of the LinoLetter informative and useful. We highly appreciate your feedback at info@linotype.com

The next issue of this newsletter will be published and dropped in your mailbox at the beginning of January.

Your Linotype Online Team
This newsletter may contain forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements about the product, strategic or business plans of Linotype GmbH. Various important risks and uncertainties may cause our actual results to differ materially from the results indicated by these forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, the implementation of product changes, the adoption of our products by the marketplace, or our ability to obtain and enforce intellectual property protection. For
a further list and description of the risks and uncertainties we face, please refer to the the filings made by our parent company, Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements; whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise and such statements are current only as of the date they are made.