MyFonts.com Newsletter is a real Treat

Somewhere along the line, I got myself subscribed to the MyFonts.com newsletter. I think I was going to buy a font, and then didn't. When it arrived (the newsletter, not the font), I couldn't have been more surprised and delighted. Because the MyFonts.com newsletter is a real treat.

Mind you, most of us in the Web industry probably spend an inordinate amount of time thinking and working with code, standards, optimization, copywriting and … all the stuff we deal with. And we don't have much choice with respect to fonts (unless we're dealing with images), because browsers can only display fonts that are already installed on the user's computer. (Well, there have been, and likely will be, alternative methods, but they haven't seemed to have panned out to anything useful to most of us.) So we're deep into the technicalities of what we do.

On the other hand, people who are "into" fonts … make that typography … are a whole other breed. This is Art, capital "A", with all that that implies. And that's what the MyFonts.com newsletter brings you. Introductions to various fonts. In ravishing colors. Histories. Art. The MyFonts.com newsletter reflects all that, but not in some boring, obtuse more-than-I-ever-wanted-to-know manner. Rather, it's a breath of fresh air kind of art, and receiving it in my inbox always seems to lift my day.

As an example (and while I've been meaning to write about this in my miniscule amounts of free time, but the latest issue just prodded me to do it, it's so good), the latest issue contains an interview with Jim Parkinson (who designed the Rolling Stone magazine logo) in which he talks about what it was like to work for the Stone back in the day and now. Of associating with folk such as world-class icon-maker photographer Annie Leibovitz — one stellar photograph from Ms. Leibovitz could boost a musician's career almost like nothing else. (I believe she photographed the Queen of England recently.)

So, yes, us web folk need to focus on the technicalities of what we do. No way around that.

But sometimes it's just time to stop and smell the art. Thought you might enjoy.