Slanted Publishers has released the eighth Yearbook of Type, a 528-page survey of type design from 2024 to 2026 built around history and heritage. It presents 155 typefaces, with an index of 152 designers and 95 foundries from 29 countries, and sells for €38.
a printed reference with a historical angle is useful at a time when revivals make up a large share of new releases.
CSTM Fonts has released an early version of Niceforo on Future Fonts, a Renaissance serif by Yury Ostromentsky and Anya Danilova of Chaos Type. It revisits the first Georgian metal typeface, cut in Rome in 1629, and was drawn from the Georgian script first, with the Latin built to match. This first version includes an x-height axis, and further styles are planned.
starting from Georgian rather than bolting it onto a Latin design is the right way round, and still far too rare in multiscript work.
Synthview Type Design has published Rosamer, a display typeface by Héloïse Blume and Jan Tonellato inspired by the movement of squid tentacles. Its swash-like flourishes can be tightened or stretched along three custom variable axes, one each for upper, horizontal and lower strokes. It ships as a variable font and in static OpenType, with 52 ligatures and support for some 220 Latin-script languages.
splitting the swashes into three separate axes gives designers real control over a genre that usually offers only on or off.
Adobe has added Neokuro, an Adobe Originals typeface by Taisei Yoshida, to Adobe Fonts. It is a super-bold Japanese design with softly rounded corners and small Mincho-derived details, covering kanji, kana and Latin. Its styles let kana and Latin be compressed to half width while kanji stay square, for titles, posters and video thumbnails.
half-width kana alongside square kanji is a smart answer to cramped Japanese headlines, and the target uses, posters and video thumbnails, are well chosen.
The Type Directors Club has announced the winners of its three 2026 scholarship programmes. Maya Cisneros (SVA) receives the Adé Hogue Scholarship and Sanem Sari (University of Central Florida) the Beatrice Warde Scholarship, both $5,000 and sponsored by Monotype. Nine further students, from schools including ENSAD Nancy, the Bauhaus University Weimar and The Cooper Union, receive TDC awards of $1,000 or $500.
modest sums, but scholarships aimed at BIPOC, women and nonbinary students do more for the field's future than another trophy.
ATypI's board has issued a statement apologising for how it communicated after a July request to remove a speaker from its Sharjah conference, a request it declined on legal advice. It says critics restricted on its social channels were restored and that criticism will no longer be treated as abuse. A member consultation on participation standards and the Code of Conduct opens in November, with its process and timetable due by 30 November.
an unreserved apology is a start; the consultation's timetable, due this month, will show whether members get a real say.
On TypeDrawers, type designer Miles Newlyn published a post written in the voice of the AI agent that now runs much of his foundry: building and publishing fonts, answering enquiries, writing licences and quotes, invoicing and bookkeeping. He says it uses a standard ChatGPT subscription connected to his shop, payment and accounting tools, and asks him when a decision is not covered. Replies raised questions about human review, admin access and prompt injection.
the most candid account yet of AI in a foundry's back office; the security questions raised in the thread deserve answers before others copy it.
Netvarec Studio has unveiled Inkvar, a font editor covering drawing, masters, spacing and kerning, proofing and sharing, developed with Displaay and NC Type. It will run on Mac, Windows and Linux; early access opens to small groups from a waitlist, and pricing has not been set. Daniel Quisek presented it on TypeDrawers to gather designers' needs.
a Linux build is a rare promise among commercial editors; the open question, raised on the forum itself, is what it does that Glyphs and FontLab do not.
UK brand studio and foundry Applied Systems has released Puerile Grotesque, its first grotesque, designed by founder Alister Shapley and out on MyFonts since 12 October. The family runs in nine weights from Thin to Black and pairs with Puerile Display; stylistic sets and contextual alternates let designers swap familiar grotesque forms for more playful ones.
a grotesque that keeps its quirks optional, which is exactly what makes the play usable in real work.
Paris-based designer Antonin Bertrand has released Vallon, a humanist sans based on the lettering of the Michelin road signs seen across France since the 1930s. First drawn as capitals for a signage project at the studio Travaux-Pratiques, it now comes in Condensed, Standard and Extended widths plus a variable font, with spacing and kerning by Igino Marini.
French road-sign lettering is a rich and under-used vernacular; three widths give Vallon a real chance beyond nostalgic packaging.
Tokyo foundry Type Project has released TP Silver, a Japanese serif family that brings the sharp, stiff strokes and pronounced terminals of Song-style type into a Mincho structure. It comes in seven weights from Ultra Light to Heavy, with 9,539 characters based on Adobe-Japan1-3 and a Latin with serifs inspired by stone carving. It is available through the TP Connect subscription and as a web font via REALTYPE.
a credible alternative to the standard Mincho is rare; seven weights, from hairline display to text sizes, suggest it is built for real editorial work.
Nice To Type has published Cymbal, a sans by Linus Knappe that mixes humanist openness with the cool lines of early grotesques, using diagonal terminals for movement. It comes in six weights and as a variable font with a weight axis plus two custom 'amplitude' axes; spacing and kerning are by Igino Marini.
two custom amplitude axes are a bold bet; the real test is whether users explore them or stick to the pre-mixed styles.
DSType has released Imenso, a condensed family with fine serifs by Dino dos Santos and Pedro Leal, aimed at editorial, branding and advertising work. The system spans six related families (Imenso, Flare, Sans, Stencil, Stencil Flare and Stencil Sans), each in 12 styles from Light to Heavy Italic.
a serif, a flared and a sans on one condensed skeleton, plus a stencil of each, makes a complete headline toolkit from a single source.
The local Mac app converts between font formats, fixes family and style linking, and transfers kerning and metrics from one font to another. It is currently in beta.
Broken style linking is a daily headache in small foundries. A dedicated local tool is welcome, if the beta proves reliable.
Gallery Type's new family Dato is released in two optical sizes. Specimens and styles are on the foundry's site.
Shipping two optical sizes from day one is the sign of a family planned for real text work, not just for the specimen poster.
The Marseille foundry has added Pablo Grotesk to its catalogue. Specimens and styles are on the foundry's typeface page.
Disclosure: The Font News is published by the team behind Blaze Type. We list its releases in the feed, but we never review them.
Announced by Adam Twardoch, the new version brings an LLM-based assistant called Aidus, a Stem tool for weight and width, neural auto-spacing and kerning, and a built-in MCP server. Upgrades from FontLab 8 start at $49; a lifetime licence is listed at $499.
The built-in MCP server is the real news. Letting AI agents drive the editor will divide type designers far more than auto-kerning ever did.
ABC Dinamo added ten families on 6 November, among them Walter Alte Stahlbau, Monument Grotesk Condensed, Oracle Rounded and Repro Condensed. Three of the new cuts are monospaced: Daily Slab Mono, Daily Scotch Mono and Helveesti Mono.
Three monospaces in one drop says as much about the market as about Dinamo. The coding look has left the terminal for the brand book.
Type Project's 25th-anniversary family brings Song-style sharpness into a Mincho frame. Is it a new tool for Japanese editorial work, or a Mincho in disguise?
Gallery Type's Dato spent more than a decade in the making and arrives in two optical sizes. In a field crowded with Renaissance-rooted text serifs, does its patient approach give it a real reason to exist?
Nice To Type's new sans lets you stretch its ascenders and descenders on two extra axes. Real design tool, or party trick?