Twelve chapters. 374 pages. A reading room of eighteen designers. Taught by Hiroshi Tanaka at Mercury Academy, and finished, on average, in fourteen weeks.
A 3-hour 04-minute chapter on the seven rhythms a typeface settles into. Includes spacing tables for Glyphs 3 and an exercise sheet of 142 word pairs.
The book is read in order; the reading room sits with one chapter per week. These four are the chapters most students cite as the moment something cracked open.
Trace, by hand, twelve historical a-glyphs from Garamond to the present. By the end of the chapter you will know why your a is the wrong width before you draw it.
Learn the seven rhythms a typeface settles into, and the four it should never. Spacing tables provided as InDesign and Glyphs files.
Most italics are roman letters tipped over. Yours will not be. The chapter ends with a 26-letter italic companion you actually want to set in.
OpenType features, hinting, vendor codes, licensing, the boring but necessary parts. Includes a checklist of 47 things to verify before release.
A four-weight display family with a seven-weight italic companion, drawn over fourteen months and licensed at release by Klim's distribution channel. Maja kept every glyph from week one in a separate folder marked 'do not delete'.
A six-style text family for small sizes, optimised for Foundry 47's editorial work. Rafael started Chapter V having spaced fonts for nine years; he restarted everything during the second week.
A bespoke sans for the Plover Lyceum, drawn entirely during Reading Room 06 and shipped to the school in September. Inés cited Chapter VIII as the one she returned to most.
Hiroshi sent me a 600-word note on a single lowercase g. I rewrote the curve eleven times in a week and on the twelfth it finally stood up. The book gives you the anatomy; the critique gives you the eye.
Or write to hiroshi@mercury-academy.jp — he replies in three or four days, more carefully than quickly.
Eighteen designers, twelve chapters, one finished family on the other side. Applications close September 12.