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A note on platform and fonts.
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Interesting type on shop front. Spotted in Antwerp. 

This site has been in continuous operation since 2003. It has moved platforms several times.

Current platform

This site is currently built on the Ghost platform using the Tuuli theme from Biron themes. I mostly inherit typographic and layout design choices from the theme, although I have customized it, uninformed by any very well-developed design knowledge.

However, I have certainly enjoyed swapping fonts in and out and I have become more interested in fonts and font choices – in a very non-initiate way – since moving to Ghost (see my discussion of Ghost and of fonts). Of course, I am not doing anything very elaborate with them, as I am staying within the design canvas of the reasonably simple blog structure.

Current fonts

I talk about the fonts industry and ecosystem in a longish blog post, Font choices, values and ecosystem, with some national library examples. While I was working at the University of Washington iSchool I qualified for educational discounts on fonts which are offered by some foundries. I would note especially the very generous deals offered by Nan and ABC Dinamo. I also benefited from the site license to Adobe Fonts. I have sometimes licensed fonts on Future Fonts, the interesting platform where works in progress are made available at pre-commercial prices. I am interested that more foundries don't have license prices geared towards the solo non-commercial user. Perhaps it is not a big enough market, and the cost per customer might be too high? Seems like a small miss, though.

I have adapted the theme to more easily cycle through different font combinations, and tend to change them frequently.

Platform history

This blog began in 2003 on Typepad. It was eventually moved to an internal instance of WordPress at OCLC where I worked, and then to a hosted WordPress at Libchalk. It now has over 1900 entries together with associated material. With the heroic assistance of Brian Pichman of Libchalk, I moved it to Ghost in 2021. There are occasional glitches in older entries, with some images, and unfortunately we lost the comments.

Coda

I write about the font ecosystem with some example references to choices made by National Libraries here:

Font choices, value and ecosystem. National Library examples
Typefaces and fonts are functional. However they also contribute in other ways - to brand, to atmosphere, to feeling. This is a brief introduction to aspects of the typeface ecosystem. I combine this with some commentary about how typefaces are used in national libraries to provide context.
LorcanDempsey.netLorcan

Here is a rather long and ponderous review of Ghost written a while after I moved to it. I should do another, now that I have more experience.

Working with the Ghost blogging platform: a review
This site is built with Ghost and the Krabi template. I use it for blogging and as a professional home on the web. Why Ghost? Here are some initial thoughts. Ask me again in a year’s time .
LorcanDempsey.netLorcan

Updated: 19 November 2025.

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