SOLOPEDIA

The Solotype Catalog of 4,147 Display Typefaces


 
Book cover of The Solotype Catalog of 4,147 Display Typefaces by Dan X. Solo
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The Solopedia (previously known as the Solotype Catalog spreadsheet) attempts to document the digital versions of typefaces featured in the Solotype Catalog of 4,147 Display Typefaces by Dan X. Solo (Dover Publications, Inc., 1992.) The Solopedia also covers the various alphabet books authored by Dan X. solo, the digital fonts from the CDs that came with the alphabet books, and commercial fonts digitized by Dan X. Solo from his collection of metal types.

Fontana started the Solopedia and posted it in Excel spreadsheet (XLS) format at annexcafe.fonts. Additional entries or matches were suggested by patrons of the newsgroup. Character brought the spreadsheet to alt.binaries.fonts which generated interest among those who frequent the newsgroup. The Solopedia is being updated in both annexcafe.fonts and alt.binaries.fonts. The term Solopedia was first used by La Vie Dansante to refer to the spreadsheet and is now used to refer to the Solotype Catalog spreadsheet.

You will notice that some entries are truncated. This is because Fontana maintains her list in a Lotus Approach database and the export to Excel spreadsheet format was not perfect. The spreadsheet requires manual editing but Fontana has not made the corrections as yet.

This web site is the on-line version of the last updated version of the Solopedia. (New and modified entries have colored background.) To make the web pages load faster, the Solopedia was broken into sections based on the Table of Contents (page 5) of the Solotype Catalog of 4,147 Display Typefaces, as follows:

Condensed Styles 6 -  8Scripts 94 - 107Square Serifs146 - 152
Victorians 9 - 26Blackletter108 - 111Thick-and-Thin153 - 157
Old Wood Types27 - 40Calligraphic112 - 113Sans Serifs158 - 177
Art Nouveau41 - 47Classic Initials114Sports Types170 - 171
Art Deco48 - 57Uncials, Monograms115Outline/Shadow178 - 188
Theme, Topical58 - 78Stencil Types116 - 119Ornaments189
Rustic Types80 - 85Latins120 - 121Miscellaneous Types190 - 202
Brush, Freestyle86 - 93Romans, Italics122 - 145

However, if you prefer an alphabetically arranged listing of fonts, as suggested by Character in alt.binaries.fonts, this is also available. Choose the letter where you want to start - would it be A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y or Z?

Also included in the Solopedia are fonts by Dan X. Solo that came with the 24-font alphabet books with CD published by Dover Publications, and commercial fonts digitized by Dan X. Solo published by Solotype. This section of the Solopedia is in the Additional page.

Two lists of fonts for 24 Dan X. Solo's 100-font alphabet books were posted at alt.binaries.fonts. Although the 100-font alphabet books are not yet included in the Solopedia, the lists are available here in the Dan X. Solo Alphabet Books Fonts page.

And to help you understand some of the terminologies used in the Solopedia, these are explained in the Solopedia Notes page.

Feel free to post a message at alt.binaries.fonts and/or annexcafe.fonts if you find a matching commercial or free fonts to typefaces in the Solotype Catalog that have no known digital versions, or additional finds to those with known digital versions. Include Solopedia in the subject line so that those who are interested in this project will give your message their prompt attention.

This website will be updated once a new revision of the Solopedia is posted at alt.binaries.fonts or annexcafe.fonts.

 
SITE UPDATE:
5 June 2013: The May 2013 Solopedia update posted on May 31, 2013 is now online.
5 April 2013: The March 2013 Solopedia update posted on March 29, 2013 is now online.
7 March 2013: The February 2013 Solopedia update posted on March 6, 2013 is now online.
10 February 2013: The January 2013 Solopedia update posted on February 1, 2013 is now online.
7 January 2013: The December 2012 Solopedia update posted on January 4, 2013 is now online.
6 December 2012: The November 2012 Solopedia update posted on November 30, 2012 is now online.
7 November 2012: The October 2012 Solopedia update posted on October 31, 2012 is now online.
10 October 2012: The September 2012 Solopedia update posted on October 8, 2012 is now online.
5 September 2012: The August 2012 Solopedia update posted on August 31, 2012 is now online.
3 August 2012: The July 2012 Solopedia update posted on July 31, 2012 is now online.
3 July 2012: The June 2012 Solopedia update posted on June 30, 2012 is now online.
Updated the Solotype fonts list.

This web site is based on the March 2015 and May 2015 Solopedia updates posted by David Smith at alt.binaries.fonts
This web site is maintained by abfonts - alt.binaries.fonts
Site updated on May 27, 2015
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