Which font licence do you need?
Most licence questions come down to what you are making and where it will go. Here is how the four options map onto real projects.
Drawing Pelham: three years of curves
Pelham Didone took three years and 12 styles. Most of that time went into the joins, the spacing and the behaviour of thin strokes in print.
Pairing a serif with a grotesk
A serif and a grotesk can share a page without competing. The work is in the contrast, the spacing and deciding which one leads.
Variable fonts, in plain English
A variable font is one file with a range of weights instead of a folder of separate files. Here is what that changes in practice.
A week at the studio on Kelham Island
Five people, eight families and a specimen book in progress. An ordinary week in a former cutlery works in Sheffield.
Printing the specimen book
Volume two is 248 pages on uncoated paper, sewn and bound in cloth. Here is what goes into making a book about type before it reaches a shelf.