Now
This site is built on the Ghost platform using the Tuuli theme from Biron themes. I mostly inherit typographic design choices from the theme, although I do make some changes 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. Of course, I am not doing anything very elaborate with them, as I am staying within the reasonably simple blog structure.
I have been using fonts from Future Fonts, the interesting collection of work in progress.
I have been alternating two fonts for body text. One is Messer, by Inga Plönnigs. I love how it combines spikiness in larger sizes with energetic legibility. The other is Nan Tragedy, by Jean-Baptiste Morizot. This has now graduated from Future Fonts. The headings, blockquotes, callouts, and some other elements are in Phantom by Phantom Foundry, the independent vehicle of Morizot. It is a modern geometric sans with some nice features, including the lower case 't'. The monospace captions are in Token Mono, also by Phantom Foundry.
This combination replaced NaN Holo, also from the NaN foundry, which I had been using for a while, although I didn't have all its features. I was very lucky to receive this as a 'prize' when I supported the always interesting Pimp My Type on Patreon. I will use it again. I notice Jean-Baptiste Morizot was also a contributor to its design.
Platform history
This blog began in 2004 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, and unfortunately we lost the comments.
Previous font choices
When I first transitioned to this platform, I used the well-known and elegant Adelle through Adobe Fonts. It is created by TypeTogether.
Later I did quite a bit of experimenting with different options. I settled on Piazzolla available from its creator, Huerta Tipográfica, and from Google Fonts. I occasionally also used a combination of Rowan and Plein, available from Fontshare by the Indian Type Foundry (both designed by Inga Plönnigs). I loved how Piazzolla and Rowan both work so well for text, and then display a stronger personality in bigger sizes. Although a very different typeface, Nan Holo also showed this characteristic nicely with its rounded tops.
I also experimented for a while with Recursive the intriguing multi-dimensional variable font.
Updated: 4 June 2023.
