This post is about fonts. It’s for you if you care about the nitty-gritty details of how letters are lined out. If not, it’s probably not worth your time.

Secretly, I’ve always wanted to be a designer. It’s not that secret because I’ll tell anyone. The truth is that technology is not helpful unless it is easy to use.

To that end, I’m a font nerd. I’m currently reading Comic Sans, a book about a font people love to hate. I’m also a member of the Secret Type Club, run by the famous Dan Cederholm of SimpleBits.

Today, I want to talk about three different font things:

Back Slant

I’m redesigning my resume. A new one is coming. I want to reverse the italic text for one of the parts of the resume. The image I pasted was:

Backslant font

People in the STC chat came to the rescue and sent me links to things called backslant. With links to the following examples of fonts that have back slant options:

I’m not sure if it is “back slant” or “back slant.” It’s a new vocabulary word for the win.

New Website and Font From Jason Santa Maria

Jason Santa Maria is at the same level of fame as Dan Cederholm. Both wrote foundation books when I was learning web design. I have referenced him before:

In addition to the links above, JSM was part of the team that launched A Book Apart. I’ve read many of the titles, including the one he wrote.

After taking a break, JSM is back online and posting again. His site is awesome. He also does this amazing thing where he keeps old versions of his site alive. The Cheesesteaks link still works.

Citywide is in the shop section of his site. I’ve seen a preview of this font before in an STC meeting, but I’m super excited to have access to it now and use it in a couple of projects. Check it out.

Font Awesome 7

Misophonia Warning: The video on this page has trigger sounds of people eating. Don’t let the footage prevent you from seeing the font.

Symbol fonts have been around for a bit, but the one I’ve used at the past couple of startups I’ve been with has been Font Awesome. It’s a font that effectively allows you to find images for a specific type of noun or verb and put them on your site with a simple <i> tag or svg.

They have recently released news about the upcoming version 7 of their font. You can pre-order today for 20% off. The new version has three main pieces:

  • Updated style for all fonts
  • Faster delivery of fonts with improved technology
  • Custom style packs with 200 standard icons.

And your purchase today means you will get 20% off on renewals.