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From: David Smith <cl@bber.com>
Date: Fri, 1 May 2015 14:30:33 -0400
Subject: Solopedia-2015 May Update
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.fonts Attached is a new version of the Solopedia Excel file. Close to 100 updates this time. I'm jumping the gun a little by including fonts from The Type Heritage Project. Their revivals are supposed to be available for sale "soon". -Dave
From: David Smith <cl@bber.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2015 12:07:42 -0400
Subject: Solopedia-2015 March update
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.fonts Hi all, I'm attaching an updated version of the Solopedia XLS file. It contains quite a few additions from me and one or two that I saw posted on alt.binaries.fonts over the last two years. -Dave
| General Information | The Dover CD/Book column indicates a 24-font CD and Dover Book combination where the specified font can be found. Fonts from these books are generally NOT available elsewhere. The typefaces with page number 900 are fonts by Dan Solo that don't have counterparts in the catalog. Some entries from his many books of 100 alphabets also appear. Many of the catalog faces that are outlined, shaded, shadowed, or obliqued were probably not created from metal type, but formed optically with photocompositors. When no digitization has been found, many of these can be created with special effects in a font program such as FontLab or with a graphic design package. Fonts that are in the Dover/Solo CD/Books of 24 fonts are generally NOT available separately, either from MyFonts or other sources. |
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| Foundry Names and Designers | Over the course of time, font makers and marketers change their names, get bought and sold, etc. The same fonts can be found with different internal identifiers. A font may be found under alternate suppliers, sometimes the same font renamed. Here are a few combinations: Novel/FontBank, Agfa/Miles/Monotype, Brendel/B&PGraphics/Softmaker, SSI/SSK/SouthernSoftware., Imageline/EnStep, HPLHS - HP Lovecraft Historical Society Fonts with DXS in their names were created by Dick Pape. The DXS identifies their inspiration. |
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| Cambridge Fontworks | Fonts by 'Cambridge' or 'Cambridge Fontworks' are identifiable as clones of other fonts. For convenience, both the originals and the Cambridge clones are included here. If you can find any other version, the Cambridge versions should NOT be used. They are often miscoded and have other errors. |
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| Fonts that appear on more than one Solocat page | Where a font appears on more than one page of the catalog, we have tried to duplicate the information, but have probably missed quite a few. Please refer to where the font appears on BOTH pages for relevant data. |
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| Opti/Castcraft foundry | There are a number of fonts referenced here by the Opti foundry (also known as Castcraft). While they produced many copies and clones, some of their fonts were unique. Unfortunately, they are no longer in business and most of their fonts cannot be found. They are the only source shown for some of the typefaces in the Solotype Catalog. |
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| Softmaker | Softmaker/Brendel/ has copied many fonts and done some original digitizing. They have also sub-licensed many URW fonts. Their extended families tend to be artificial, mechanical creations, arbitrarily extending, bolding, squeezing, outlining, etc. |
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| Vertisoft/Soft Horizons and TypeRevivals | Vertisoft/SoftHorizons fonts are generally renamed copies or clones of Type Revivals fonts and one or two others. They have more limited character sets and were distributed with Windows Symbol encoding. Some may be originals. |
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If you know of a digital font that matches a typeface featured in the Solotype Catalog, please feel free to post a message to alt.binaries.fonts or annexcafe.fonts with your addition. Indicate the name of the typeface and the page where it is found in the Solotype Catalog; the name of the digital font, regardless of whether it is free or commercial font; and, other info about the digital font, like designer, foundry, etc. Make sure that Solopedia is included in the subject line of your message. If you do not have posting access to alt.binaries.fonts, go to the abfonts Contact Us page (Extra tab -> Contact Us) where you will find ways to post messages to alt.binaries.fonts for free. You can also email us your addition and we will post it to alt.binaries.fonts on your behalf.
Glossary and January 9, 2011 Revision Notes
These notes are an attempt to clarify some of the material in the Solopedia spreadsheet. The content in the spreadsheet varies widely; it's a loosely edited combination of input from a large number of people, each of whom has their own style.
Just to keep things consistent, this compendium will itself be somewhat random and INconsistent.
The Solotype Catalog font names are listed with the page on which they appear. In some cases the font is shown in the catalog with an alternate name, in the form
Fontname (alternate name)
The spreadsheet often includes the alternate name as a primary name, leading to two entries for the same font. Hopefully they are clearly cross-referenced, But not always.
The notation 'NIC' indicates either a font that's in the catalog but not in its index, or one that's in the index, but not in the catalog.
In the "Alias Analysis" column are listed available fonts that match the corresponding Solotype Catalog font.
These listings may appear starting with a word in parentheses. That means that a font with the same name as that in the catalog has been produced by the companies or persons named in the parentheses. Subsequent digitizations take the form fontname(creator).
They may also take the form 'Creator FontName'. or "Creator's fontname". Some of these may be confusing because it's not immediately obvious which is the creator name and which is the font name (For example, Ajax Acme).
Or there may be a descriptive unformatted text block.
Some of the descriptions refer to "work-alikes" or "Look-alikes". These are fonts that have similarities and may invoke the same general look and feel, but are NOT digitizations.
The column labeled "Dover Pack" refers to a series of Book/CD combinations published by Dover. Each contained 24 font images and a CD with each of the 24 digitized fonts, all by Dan Solo. Not all books in the catalog appear in the Book/CD's and not all of the fonts in the Book/CD's appear in the catalog. Moreover, some of the fonts that appear in both appear with different names, and different editions sometimes had a different selection of fonts!
The Book/CDs listed are:
| ADC | | Art Deco Display Fonts |
| ANV | Art Nouveau Display Fonts |
| BOS | Bold Script Display Fonts |
| CAL | Calligraphic Display Fonts |
| CEL | Celtic Display Fonts |
| CIR | Circus Display Fonts |
| GOT | Gothic Display Fonts |
| GRU | Grunge Display Fonts |
| MOD | Moderne Display Fonts |
| OUT | Outline Display Fonts |
| SCR | Script and Cursive Display Fonts |
| SPFX | Special Effects Display Fonts |
| VIC | Victorian Fonts |
An early version of the spreadsheet was converted from one form to another, resulting in the truncation of some entries. Some have been fixed, others just stop short, ending with something like 'and'.
Some fonts indicate the vendor where they can be purchased, such as "MyFonts". There's also a lot of redundancy, such as an entry that says that the font is available in a given Dover/CD book, while it also appears with the Book's symbol in the DoverPack column.
Font providers are usually spelled out, but some abbreviations are also used. BT is Bitstream, SG might be Silver Graphics or Spiece Graphics. Some other abbreviations include:
A&L - Arts and Letters/Computer Support Corp.
E&F - Elsner and Flake
LHF - LetterheadFonts
ML - MicroLogic
WSI - Weatherly Systems Inc
SSI/SSK - Southern Software
In some cases, a package that included the font is named either instead of or in addition to the font's originator. So you may see "Included with Microsoft Publisher". Such references are slowly being corrected or clarified.
Fonts whose names include 'DXS' were actually created by Dick Pape without any further identification. This is also the source for fonts whose source is indicated as "Pepin", which was a book that included printed copies of the face.
I'm trying a different way to mark changes between editions. When I post the latest version, cells that have been changed will be highlighted in a different color. As soon as I post a new version, I'll save a new copy without the color, ready for the next round of updates.
Anybody and everybody is welcome to provide input, either through the website or via alt.binaries.fonts.
- Character
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