Can anyone help me identify the font used on Filofax generic refills, please? If this has changed over the years, any advice concerning fonts used 'as at' different dates would be of interest. Many thanks!
David, I'm not a font/typography expert if there is such a thing. But picking up my Winchester which stores my diary inserts from 1987-1990 and looking at the font used for 1988. I think it is very close to 'Times New Roman' I went in to Word and typed Monday Tuesday March April etc. Then looking at the screen and comparing the two I would say that they are very close in characteristics. The Philofaxy inserts tend towards a san-serif font because it scales well although you can change the fonts easily enough.
Thanks Steve, that's really helpful.......trust all is well with you.
My lovely wife is a *huge* 'font geek', and has been known to randomly identify fonts used on billboards etc when we are driving around - so they do exist!
Though I would not call myself an expert, I am very familiar with fonts, as I play with them daily -- I am a self-taught graphic designer (meaning, I would never use that title to describe what I do, but that's basically what I do on a very scaled down level). I can't recall what the FF insert font looks like at the moment, but I will take a look and see if I can decipher it.
Times New Roman is the standard printer's font apparently for newspapers, books etc. When I learned calligraphy we all started out by learning Roman Hand. It was a great course, but harder than it looks at first sight to get your letters even. xxxx
from my humble point of view, the type used in my Personal week on two pages seems to be a Normande-Style typeface for the names of the months. The days appear to be a Century-style typeface, maybe Century Schoolbook or similiar.
I hope this could elp any further, best regards, Thomas
FF use a typeface that is almost indistinguishable from Elephant for headings on a lot of their inserts, e.g. Month/year headings on diary pages. It seems to be a distinctive part of the look of FF inserts. Elephant is supplied with MS Windows: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/family.aspx?FID=94 I use it on my DIY inserts to keep something of the look.
Yes, I found that, too. After looking closely, I came to the same conclusion, that the bold font for the month is very similar to Elephant, as well as a font called Long Island (which is ironic since that's where I'm from, LI, New York). There are some very small differences, so it could be FF's own font based on either on of these.
The regular font is very close to Times New Roman, but again there are some differences there as well, so not an exact match. That's the best I could come up with without spending oodles of time researching it.
Can anyone help me identify the font used on Filofax generic refills, please? If this has changed over the years, any advice concerning fonts used 'as at' different dates would be of interest. Many thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe old "BCM/Filofax" leaves used a different font, and I think it changed in 1980 to the one we are most familiar with David.
DeleteThank you.....it's actually the font *names* I am after if anyone can help...........
DeleteDavid, I'm not a font/typography expert if there is such a thing. But picking up my Winchester which stores my diary inserts from 1987-1990 and looking at the font used for 1988. I think it is very close to 'Times New Roman' I went in to Word and typed Monday Tuesday March April etc.
DeleteThen looking at the screen and comparing the two I would say that they are very close in characteristics.
The Philofaxy inserts tend towards a san-serif font because it scales well although you can change the fonts easily enough.
Thanks Steve, that's really helpful.......trust all is well with you.
DeleteMy lovely wife is a *huge* 'font geek', and has been known to randomly identify fonts used on billboards etc when we are driving around - so they do exist!
Thanks again....
*raises hand*
DeleteThough I would not call myself an expert, I am very familiar with fonts, as I play with them daily -- I am a self-taught graphic designer (meaning, I would never use that title to describe what I do, but that's basically what I do on a very scaled down level). I can't recall what the FF insert font looks like at the moment, but I will take a look and see if I can decipher it.
Looks like Gill Sans is the font that was used pre-1980.
DeleteYou could ask Michael at Books on the Nightstand (it's a book blog ;) ). He is into fonts and typography and might be able to help.
DeleteTimes New Roman is the standard printer's font apparently for newspapers, books etc. When I learned calligraphy we all started out by learning Roman Hand. It was a great course, but harder than it looks at first sight to get your letters even. xxxx
ReplyDeleteHi David,
ReplyDeletefrom my humble point of view, the type used in my Personal week on two pages seems to be a Normande-Style typeface for the names of the months. The days appear to be a Century-style typeface, maybe Century Schoolbook or similiar.
I hope this could elp any further, best regards, Thomas
btw, these types have been in use since 1996 (in my archived diaries) for German, English, and multi-language...
DeleteAnd it's a Humanist Sans Serif in the Mini on cotton cream paper...
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFF use a typeface that is almost indistinguishable from Elephant for headings on a lot of their inserts, e.g. Month/year headings on diary pages. It seems to be a distinctive part of the look of FF inserts.
ReplyDeleteElephant is supplied with MS Windows:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/family.aspx?FID=94
I use it on my DIY inserts to keep something of the look.
Dave.
Yes, I found that, too. After looking closely, I came to the same conclusion, that the bold font for the month is very similar to Elephant, as well as a font called Long Island (which is ironic since that's where I'm from, LI, New York). There are some very small differences, so it could be FF's own font based on either on of these.
DeleteThe regular font is very close to Times New Roman, but again there are some differences there as well, so not an exact match. That's the best I could come up with without spending oodles of time researching it.
Fonts can be precisely identified online, too: http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
ReplyDeleteOr search for "how to identify fonts"
The best font match I've found is ITC Century.
ReplyDeleteITC Century Ultra for the page header and ITC Century Book for all other text.
By the way, the sans serif font used on the Cotton Cream pages is Stone Sans.
ReplyDeleteSo that's me outed as a font nerd ;-)
Thank you! Another lessons learnt :-)
DeleteIt actually is the Avenir font, at least now. Either the 55 Roman, 35 light or 45 Book - it fits in every detail :-)
Delete