TypeCon: Workshops

Workshops

We offer a variety of optional pre-conference workshops for everyone from beginners to professionals. Please choose your workshops when registering for TypeCon2007. Workshops will take place at two of our partner schools – Cornish College of the Arts and the School of Visual Concepts – and the Microsoft campus. Workshops locations are posted in each class description.

Microsoft Campus: Redmond, WA 98052
Cornish College of the Arts: 1000 Lenora Street, Seattle, WA 98121
School of Visual Concepts: 500 Aurora Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109

Cornish and SVC are within walking distance of the Crowne Plaza. A workshop shuttle bus will be available for TypeCon attendees staying at the Crowne Plaza. Transportation will be provided from the Crowne Plaza to Microsoft for attendees taking the Tuesday Math workshop.

Tuesday, July 31
Half-Day Session

Math Fonts and the Microsoft Math Engine
Presented by Murray Sargent and Sergey Malkin (Microsoft)
Tuesday, July 31 | 10:00 am–1:00 pm | Location: Microsoft Campus | Cost: $50

Office 2007 comes with a new Math composition engine, and the award winning Cambria Math font. The Microsoft team responsible for math support in Office will describe how the engine works, what it’s capable of, and how to make fonts that take advantage of the technology.

Wednesday, August 1
Full-Day Session

Expert Typography and InDesign Secrets
Presented by Eric Menninga, et al (Adobe and Friends)
Wednesday, August 1 | 9:00 am–5:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $100

This workshop will change your life! A handpicked group of typographic gurus share their best practices and essential tips and tricks. Learn how to make the most of InDesign CS3, from time-saving production techniques and aesthetics to advanced applications like multilingual typesetting. Our experts will also offer in-depth knowledge about how InDesign works and makes decisions so you can make it work better for you.

Topics include:

Computer typography: how to codify aesthetics
Good lines vs. bad lines, single-line vs. paragraph line-breaking

Production features: reducing manual formatting
Anchored objects, nested styles, spine-based alignments, OpenType features

Special topics: global publishing with InDesign CS3
Greek, Turkish, CJK, Vietnamese, Thai, ME languages, Tasmeem

There will be time devoted to Q and A throughout the day to address attendees’ unique concerns and workflow.

Wednesday, August 1
Half-Day Sessions – Morning

~~Beginning Font Design, Part I~~ THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL
Presented by Jimmy Gallagher (for FontLab)
Wednesday, August 1 | 9:00 am–12:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50

This is not an advanced class. All material has been designed for beginners.

Students will be introduced to the legacy of extant font families and how they continue to drive modern design. As we cover the basic components and vocabulary, we will design a font together, step by step.

The process will include planning the right font for the right project, font formats, how to tackle the positioning and metrics of a font, importing artwork, and understanding vector outlines.

Students will use this knowledge to create test fonts using Fontographer and TypeTool.

Font QA the Microsoft Way
Presented by Judy Safran-Aasen, Ali Basit, and Carolyn Parsons (Microsoft)
Wednesday, August 1 | 9:00 am–12:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50

Within Microsoft’s typography group, you’ll hear a familiar mantra: “no product ships without fonts.” But the process of taking a request from a product group like Xbox, Zune, Office, or Windows and providing a high-quality tested font is not always straightforward.

In this workshop, the Microsoft typography program management team will walk through the process of scoping, testing, and delivering fonts to the highest level of quality. The Microsoft QA (quality assurance) program will be detailed, from “eyeballing” to “automation.” The team will discuss the different approaches taken in updating existing fonts and creating new fonts for various technologies. In addition, they’ll detail the process of creating the installation packages (both system-wide and private) they hand off to Microsoft product groups. To round off the session, the team invites you, the TypeCon attendee, to bring your own font, which will be tested and packaged live, before your very eyes.

Word as Image: A Typographic Charrette in Two Parts (I)
Presented by Jessica Spring and Jenny Wilkson
Wednesday, August 1 | 9:00 am–12:30 pm | Location: SVC | Cost: $50 + $5 materials fee

Drawing from an eclectic collection of lead and wood type and ornaments, participants will collaboratively design and print posters with the help of two experienced guides: Jenny Wilkson, SVC’s letterpress shop manager, and Jessica Spring of Springtide Press in Tacoma. The focus will be on achieving top-notch printing on the school’s three Vandercook cylinder presses, with a few tricky techniques thrown in along the way.

In addition to their own personal work, the morning session’s participants will also produce several partially-printed designs for the afternoon session to complete in their unique way. The guaranteed-to-be-stunning suite of prints from this inaugural TypeCon collaboration will be displayed Thursday-Sunday at the Crowne Plaza, and proceeds from their sale will benefit SOTA’s Education Fund.

This workshop is open to attendees at all levels of experience.

What’s a charrette?

Wednesday, August 1
Half-Day Sessions – Afternoon

Beginning Font Design, Part II
Presented by Jimmy Gallagher (for FontLab)
Wednesday, August 1 | 2:00–5:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50

We will build upon the basics covered in Part 1 and progress to an understanding of encoding, Unicode, special characters, embedding fonts for PDFs, logo and signature fonts, font names, and font families. The class will finish by testing and troubleshooting the font(s) we create in real-world scenarios using Fontographer and TypeTool.

Hinting with Visual TrueType, a Beginner’s Module
Presented by Mike Duggan (Microsoft)
Wednesday, August 1 | 2:00–5:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50

Microsoft hinting expert Mike Duggan will cover the basics of good hinting processes. These techniques will benefit those making fonts for display using ClearType and traditional rendering mechanisms.

Word as Image: A Typographic Charrette in Two Parts (II)
Presented by Jessica Spring and Jenny Wilkson
Wednesday, August 1 | 2:00–5:30 pm | Location: SVC | Cost: $50 + $5 materials fee

In addition to their own personal work, the afternoon session’s participants will also complete partially-printed designs from the morning session. The guaranteed-to-be-stunning suite of prints from this inaugural TypeCon collaboration will be displayed Thursday-Sunday at the Crowne Plaza, and proceeds from their sale will benefit SOTA’s Education Fund.

This workshop is open to attendees at all levels of experience.

What’s a charrette?

Back to the Drawing Board: Exploring Letterforms by Hand
Presented by Carl Crossgrove, Karl Leuthold, and Jim Wasco (Monotype Imaging)
Wednesday, August 1 | 2:00–5:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50

Forget the technological side of type design and return to the physical element of hand lettering. Discover or revisit lettering techniques like drawing, brush, broad-pen or crowquill, chalk, and ink. Free your hand and mind to explore lettering in an unstructured environment. A variety of papers, pens, brushes, and other writing implements will be provided in an inspiring environment. A rich assortment of examples will be shown to suggest directions for exploration. Bring your creativity and let loose your impulses!

Basics of Arabic Calligraphy
Presented by Mamoun Sakkal (Sakkal Design)
Wednesday, August 1 | 2:00–5:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50 + $5 materials fee

Arabic calligraphy is the most prized visual art form for millions of Muslims around the world, and a fascinating visual treat even for those who do not read or write the language. If you’ve ever wondered about the concepts behind this cursive script or wished to learn its basic principles, this workshop is for you. Internationally acclaimed calligrapher and type designer Mamoun Sakkal will include information about the origin and development of the Arabic script, a brief review of the traditional styles of calligraphy, examples of contemporary calligraphic art, and problems associated with designing Arabic typefaces. You will also learn how to write your own name in Arabic during the hands-on section of the workshop. You are welcome to bring your own reed pen if you have one.

Letterpress Postcard Printing
Presented by Dan Shafer
Wednesday, August 1 | 2:00–5:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50 + $10 materials fee

This letterpress printing workshop gives participants the chance to produce a set of postcards using the extensive collection of historic type, cuts, and ornaments in the Cornish Book Arts Studio. We will print the same back on each card, and design and print the individual designs on the front. We will edition the postcards so each participant will receive a full set, and there will be plenty of extras to send home to your friends. The complete edition will be displayed at the Crowne Plaza during the main TypeCon2007 program. This workshop is open to beginners or seasoned printers.

Type in Motion
Presented by Apple Computer
Wednesday, August 1 | 2:00–5:30 pm | Location: SVC | Cost: $50

Join Apple for a hands-on workshop on type technologies as they relate to video, multimedia, and motion graphics. Learn how to apply your knowledge of typographic design to the world of motion graphics by exploring core technologies in Mac OS X and how they integrate into creative applications such as LiveType, Final Cut Pro, and Motion.

This class is geared toward attendees at all levels. No previous experience with motion techniques or software is required. The workshop will advance from beginning through intermediate topics over the course of the afternoon.

Thursday, August 2
Full-Day Sessions

~~Letterpress Type Sampler Book~~ THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL
Presented by Amy Redmond
Thursday, August 2 | 9:00 am–5:30 pm | Location: SVC | Cost: $100 + $10 materials fee

There’s no better way to get intimate with type than through letterpress printing. Designer and SVC letterpress instructor Amy Redmond will guide you through the hands-on process of composing and printing a type sampler book using metal type from SVC’s collection. Each workshop attendee will create one page of the book, and, in the process, learn the basic steps of setting type in a stick, composing a form, and printing a small edition on a platen press. We’ll work as a group to assemble the pages into books. At the end of the day, you’ll walk away with a beautiful type specimen book of your very own. A word of caution: taking this workshop will get your hands inky and make you the envy of all your peers.

This workshop is open to attendees at all levels of experience.

Linocut Image-Making on the Iron Handpress
Presented by Carl Montford
Thursday, August 2 | 9:00 am–5:30 pm | Location: SVC | Cost: $100 + $10 materials fee

Join master wood engraver and local iron handpress guru Carl Montford for a creative day of linoleum block image-making. Carl will share examples of his own work, discuss the finer points of linoleum carving technique, and assist attendees in carving and printing their blocks on SVC’s newly restored 19th-century iron handpress. Fans of letterpress take note: this is a rare opportunity to roll up your sleeves and print an edition on one of the only functioning iron handpresses in the region. Tools, paper, and inspiration are provided, no experience is necessary, and all will come away with an edition of prints to swap with their fellow classmates.

This workshop is open to attendees at all levels of experience.

Thursday, August 2
Half-Day Sessions – Morning

Beginning Font Design, Part I (Repeat of Wed. am session) THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL
Presented by Jimmy Gallagher (for FontLab)
Thursday, August 2 | 9:00 am–12:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50

This is not an advanced class. All material has been designed for beginners.

The process will include planning the right font for the right project, font formats, how to tackle the positioning and metrics of a font, importing artwork, and understanding vector outlines.

Students will use this knowledge to create test fonts using Fontographer and TypeTool.

~~Letter Heaven: Design Typefaces Using FontLab Studio~~ THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL
Presented by Adam Twardoch (FontLab)
Thursday, August 2 | 9:00 am–12:30 pm | Location: SVC | Cost: $50

This intensive font design and production workshop includes the following topics:

Introduction: FontLab Studio User Interface and Working Environment
In this session, we will walk the audience through the Font Window, give best practices about the organization of a type design project, and explain principles of glyph naming and encoding. We will also discuss the various special folder locations of FontLab Studio and explain where to put macros, encodings, and other essential data files.

Glyph Design I: Overview of Tools and Techniques for Designing Glyphs in FontLab Studio
We will discuss importing EPS, autotracing, drawing using Bezier curves, Paint tools, Smart shapes, node types, contour types and directions.

Glyph Design II: Advanced Tools and Techniques for Designing Glyphs in FontLab Studio
We will discuss shape groups, neighbors, composites, anchors, blending, Multiple Master, changing weight, and geometric transformations.

Spacing and Kerning: Overview of Letterfitting Tools and Techniques
We will discuss tools and techniques for automatic and manual spacing and kerning, including class kerning.

Hinting for OpenType CFF
Miguel Sousa (Adobe)
Thursday, August 2 | 9:00 am–12:30 pm | Location: SVC | Cost: $50

Hinting is almost a secret craft. While not as challenging as TrueType hinting, OpenType CFF hinting still requires a great deal of knowledge and expertise to successfully orchestrate all the settings required to achieve well-rasterized outlines. In this presentation, Miguel Sousa will demonstrate how any font developer armed with the Adobe Font Development Kit for OpenType (AFDKO) can produce well-hinted OpenType CFF fonts.

Topics covered will include Font Level Hints (hints that apply across all the characters in the font), Flex hints, and counter hints. The first half of the workshop will include a presentation that will cover theory and feature visual samples and a live demonstration of the tools in use. The remaining time will be spent in hands-on work. Each attendee should bring at least one font of her/his to work with. Miguel will provide sample files for those that don’t bring their own font designs.

An intermediate knowledge of FontLab is required. The workshop will be conducted in a Macintosh lab, but attendees are welcome to bring their own laptops (please have the AFDKO pre-installed before class begins).

Fonts and Typography in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
Presented by Christine Ahonen, Chris Han, Mikhail Leonov, and Mike Duggan (Microsoft)
Thursday, August 2 | 9:00 am–12:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50

You may have seen the New York Times Reader and other typographically rich internet applications. Come learn about Windows Presentation Foundation, the new Microsoft platform that powers many of these applications. Get your hands dirty with WPF – our hands-on labs will walk you through using WPF’s font, typographic, and layout features in several samples, including learning to replicate a Robert Bringhurst layout. WPF enables application developers to embed fonts within their applications. Come learn and discuss what this implies as a font or application developer.

Gothic and Copperplate Calligraphy
Presented by Gabriel Martínez Meave (Kimera Type)
Thursday, August 2 | 9:00 am–12:30 pm | Location: SVC | Cost: $50 + $10 materials fee

This hands-on overview of Gothic, Blackletter, and Copperplate/Anglaise calligraphy features both traditional and innovative techniques and tricks for mastering these lively lettershapes. The workshop also offers a historical perspective on its principal variants and practitioners, including some little-known facts about Gothic and Anglaise letters in the Americas. Attendees will practice with broad-nib pens, pointed pens, and other less-common and experimental devices for producing letterforms. At the end, attendees will have a solid knowledge of the basic principles of Gothic styles and a hint of their special flair, ready for use in contemporary contexts and as a foundation for designing type.

Copyright Protection for Graphic Designers and Font Foundries: Myth and Reality
Presented by Frank Martinez (The Martinez Group)
Thursday, August 2 | 9:00 am–12:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50

This workshop will offer attendees a rare opportunity to learn about important legal and business issues faced by type designers and other creatives. Frank Martinez, a New York-based attorney specializing in intellectual property law, will offer practical advice and real-world examples and answer questions posed by attendees. Topics include the ins and outs of copyright protection for creatives, how to prepare and file an application to register a copyright on font software, and how the EULA can be a solid business tool for designers and end users alike.

Thursday, August 2
Half-Day Sessions – Afternoon

Beginning Font Design, Part II (Repeat of Wed. pm session)
Presented by Jimmy Gallagher (for FontLab)
Thursday, August 2 | 2:00–5:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50

Intro to Python Scripting in FontLab
Presented by Aida Sakkal (Sakkal Design)
Thursday, August 2 | 2:00–5:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50

Have you ever wanted to conduct searches with more criteria than FontLab offers? Needed to move every base component to the origin but were reluctant to do it by hand? This workshop will introduce you to scripting simple tools using the Python language through FontLab. You will learn some basics of programming, how to think technically, and how to identify the types of things that can be automated through scripts. We will cover some specific examples that can be taken home, as well as instructions on how to set up your FontLab for scripting use. No prior programming experience is necessary, but you MUST be familiar and comfortable with FontLab, as well as have design experience.

~~Font Hell: Prepare Fonts for Shipping Using FontLab Studio~~ THIS WORKSHOP IS FULL

Presented by Adam Twardoch (FontLab)
Thursday, August 2 | 2:00–5:30 pm | Location: SVC | Cost: $50

This intensive font design and production workshop includes the following topics:

Pretty Features: Best Practices in Defining and Implementing OpenType Layout Features for European Fonts
The OpenType font format specification lists a large number of OpenType Layout features. Some of them are currently implemented in mainstream applications by Adobe, Microsoft, and Apple, so it does make sense to put them into fonts. Some features will most likely never be implemented, so placing them in fonts is at least questionable. We will give a brief overview of the current status of OpenType support on systems and applications. We will also give recommendations on which features should be included in European fonts (that support Western, Central European, Cyrillic, and/or Greek letters). Finally, we will give specific recommendations about the technical implementations of some of the most popular features, such as ordinals, superscripts and subscripts, small caps, and ligatures – taking into account recent advances made by Adobe, Microsoft, and other vendors.

Family Problems: Making Fonts Work as a Family
When developing a font family in OpenType format, a number of font parameters needs to be synchronized between the fonts so that applications can “see” the final product as a coherent family. We will discuss several different strategies for approaching the family and style naming and linking inside a family. We will also discuss the importance of vertical metrics in a family and cover synchronizing them across styles. We’ll talk about other Font Info parameters that designers should take care of when preparing fonts for shipping.

Crystal Clear: Tuning Your Fonts for Screen
Even though screen resolutions become bigger and font rasterizers more sophisticated, the need to optimize font screen quality does not go away entirely. FontLab Studio 5 offers various general font screen quality parameters – such as alignment zones and standard stems – which can be automatically or manually edited to achieve best results. In addition to the PostScript autohinter built into FontLab Studio 5, there is now the new Adobe autohinter available as part of the Adobe FDK for OpenType (AFDKO) package. This autohinter integrates into FLS as a macro (more native integration is planned for a future release of FLS). Finally, the manual tools for working with hinting in FLS5 are virtually unchallenged. We will explain how to combine both automatic and manual hinting to quickly achieve best results.

Quality Challenge: Using FontLab Studio and Other Tools to Test Fonts
When developing fonts, a number of different tools and applications can be integrated into the workflow. FontLab Studio 5 can be the centerpiece of your font development environment, but there are a number of other Mac tools (as well as some Windows tools) that can be pulled into the equation (especially for the purposes of font quality assurance). Many of those tools are free and many are cross-platform: Python, RoboFab, FontTools/TTX, FontQA, AFDKO, Apple Font Tools for OS X, and Microsoft Font Validator. In this session, we will show how to set up your FontLab Studio 5 working environment, install additional third-party font development tools, link them together, and make them available in FLS.

Bezier Curves for Cowards
Presented by Leslie Cabarga (FlashFonts)
Thursday, August 2 | 2:00–5:30 pm | Location: SVC | Cost: $50

In this workshop, taught by the author of the Logo, Font & Lettering Bible and Learn FontLab Fast, you’ll learn to use the pen tools in Adobe Illustrator and FontLab, and will be able to practice drawing letters from scratch and modifying existing character contours. This is an intermediate-level class, so attendees must at least be familiar with the use of Illustrator’s pen tool. All participants are encouraged to bring a disk with one or two samples of his or her work for (gentle) criticism, which will be instructive for all.

Fonts for New Technologies
Steve Matteson (Ascender) and Microsoft TBD
Thursday, August 2 | 2:00–5:30 pm | Location: Cornish | Cost: $50

Steve Matteson from Ascender and speakers from various Microsoft product groups will talk about the latest approaches to making fonts for emerging technologies, including Xbox 360 and Windows games, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), HD DVD, Windows CE-based device UIs, and maybe even CCTV, E-Paper, and jumbotrons.