FontBook™ Typeface Compendium app for iPhone and iPad
4.4 (
7984 ratings )
Reference
Productivity
Developer:
Monotype GmbH
0.99 USD
Current version:
5.1.0, last update: 5 years ago
First release : 13 Jul 2011
App size: 53.38 Mb
Since 1989, the FontBook™ Editorial Staff has been the definitive authority on documenting and comparing commercial typefaces. In addition to researching the typographic works of past decades, the editors also keep abreast of new releases, which are now regularly added to the FontBook App in real-time via over-the-air updates, starting in 2011. The printed version of the FontBook was published in several editions from 1989 through 2006.
As winner of many prestigious awards* from around the world, FontBook App documents the libraries of 150 international type foundries who publish the works of 1805 type designers – covering 46,718 typefaces from 9479 font families (status: August 2016). The app presents the extensive content in over 600,000 typeface samples which can be intuitively spread out, searched, layered, moved, scrolled and combined like a collection of maps. While the iPad version is designed as an invitation to browse and play, its iPhone incarnation is equipped with filters, searches and lists, putting more focus on its practical use.
Five gateways invite you to delve into the world of typography visually, i.e. by Class, Foundry, Designer, Year or Name. A quick text search takes you directly to the font families, foundries or designers that you’re looking for. The app also features specially curated Font Lists which help you to search for fonts by practical and stylistic criteria, for example by use-case, genre, stylistic period, similarity or popularity.
On the iPad version only: Two types of bookmarks serve as helpful tools for compiling lists of favorite fonts and / or comparing your chosen typefaces using customizable sample texts and colored backgrounds. You can also share FontBook samples by posting them to Twitter or Facebook directly from the app, or by mailing them or saving them to your personal photo album.
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* Apple iTunes Rewind, Top App ›Reference‹ (2011), Communication Arts “Best Interactive of the Year” (2012), TDC award “Communication Design” (2012), Communication Arts “Best Typography of the Year” (2012), Red Dot Award Communication Design Grand Prix (2012).
Pros and cons of FontBook™ Typeface Compendium app for iPhone and iPad
FontBook™ Typeface Compendium app good for
Thanks so much. I had the book. The app is awesome... A must have !
Probably one of the most beautiful type-related app I ever tested. I wanted to buy the fontbook paper format as I really love "real" books but this time I think the numeric version brings much more options : search, sort, buy and even compare types...
The IA, UI, UX are just amazing...
A must have for type nerds, no doubt on that.
The app is great and performs what it have to do, but the scrolling a and the animation when zooming on fonts menus are slow, sometimes crash the app. Waiting for fix, otherwise, its awesome!
Very complete and great app! You can find everything inside, an excellent reference
With exception of the new icon I absolutely love it. This price and it being an universal App for the iPad AND iPhone - GREAT!!! I was skeptical how it would work on the iPhone due to the small screen - but they solved very nicely!!! Thumbs up, 5 Stars,12 Points!
The printed version was a true classic. Im so glad that the Fontbook is back as an iPad app!
Some bad moments
Basically the content is the same as in the web shop. Sadly the interface makes this app absolutely useless as a serious tool.
The letters "R", "A", and "G" is the preview you are provided with. Scattering everything across the screen in various sizes makes it impossible to quickly browse through.
To sum it up: Just visit the FontShop website directly, as it is free and more useful.
This app wont load if youre running iOS 5 beta, so wait before buying. Developers, please fix !
From what Ive seen so far this app is less than impressive. There is an absolute ton of content from what I can tell but its proving quite difficult to navigate. For an app that costs $5 the response time on scrolling and loading pages is annoyingly clunky and the user interface is just generally confusing to work with.
The visual layout while intriguing to look at seems to ignore usability. When you start to browse through the fonts, everything is laid out in a tile pattern with what I would guess to be around 75 fonts crammed on the screen at any given time. Some tiles are larger than others for reasons I cant imagine at the moment which only further complicates the chaos of fonts being displayed. Font samples are so tiny that you can hardly even tell what the fonts look like unless you take a chance and click in to one, being forced to endure the silly zoom animation and chunky load of the slide. At first glance things look really stylish and cool but I just dont get why they have so many different boxes of info everywhere, a distractingly intense color scheme, slider boxes that pull out overtop of the page...I remember hearing once that less is more.
Overall, things are just way more complicated than they ever need to be and the poor navigation design kills any sort of innovative edge over a typical website this app ought to provide. Coupled with the $5 price tag, that should be reason enough to ignore this app. Im hoping they put a lot of work into this and release an update because I feel pretty stupid paying for this.
It would be useful if I could specify the text/size that the font is displaying so I can see if I like it without having to go the website.
The UI lag renders this app unusable. Considering the promotion from UI nerds and design geeks, this is a sad irony.
I was excited when I first found this app but after using it for only a few moments I was left feeling less than satisfied.
The UI feels unresponsive at times and when youre scrolling through the fonts, its not at all smooth and feels quite glitchy.. even on an iPad air with the A7 processor.
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