FontBook™ Typeface Compendium
| Category | Price | Seller | Device |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference | $0.99 | Monotype GmbH | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
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).
Reviews
Not for getting fonts...
Nester13_75
The app description clearly states you won't be able to use the font shown. This app is for designers, etc that want to explore fonts to use for a project. Someone designs these fonts, and to think you will get access to the hundreds of fonts shown is simply naive. If you are a graphic designer like me, then ignore the ignorant comments for this app. It is well worth the $6!
Useful, but NEEDS an update
mcarlso1
This app is great for looking up typefaces as inspiration for lettering projects. However, they NEED to update it with retina graphics, most of the small type looks HORRIBLE on the new iPad.
Great way to find fonts and be inspired
nealien
Great update that supports the retina screen. This app is great for browsing and searching fonts for design projects. The different ways of navigating through all the fonts really help to search for exactly what you are looking for, or browse for inspiration.
just great!
BurntRocket
I wanted to wait to review until they upgraded to retina. Now that it is full resolution this app is great! Beautifully designed. let's you seamlessly explore and discover Font families. The only thing I wish it had was the ability to easily view the entire glyph set and up close. Otherwise this app is a must for the designer!
Great content difficult presentation
aaron-nyc11
This app is rich in content and organized well, however the "box" display (as unique and visual as it is) hinders the font browsing experience. It can become taxing trying to view each font family in their tiny box and easy to overlook others. It would be great if you could choose between the box display and a list display, so you can get a better look at each specimen before you click.
Truly spectacular
rr&s
If you like or use type at all, you have to buy this app. The search and compare features alone made a recent task of creating ten type palettes far easier than it would have been anywhere else. I had the previous printed FontBook, which I rarely used. This I use many times a week. The Retina upgrade is the icing on the cake.
Do Not Hesitate to Buy
Procrasturbator
Me being a natural typophiliac, I did not need any further convincing to buy this type-based app. Little did I know, this app would be too good to be true! I was so impressed i was actually compelled to express my excitement through writing my first ever rating/review. Fontbook is well worth whatever price it's set. Its classification of type from genre, to time period, to foundry is unparalleled by any type resource I've encountered. A must buy for graphic designers and typographic enthusiast!
I love this app.
jordanshilkoff
I am a typophile and the fact that an app like this exists just makes me so happy. However, I am quite disappointed that fonts from my favorite font foundry is not listed in this app. Please add the Hoefler and Frere Jones foundry to this app as well as the Lost Type font foundry.
Mislead
Jerzee57
I did not realize I was paying $6 for an App to purchase the fonts!!! I thought I was purchasing fonts not a book to buy the fonts....I REGRET making this purchase!!! I had to rate this app a star to submit this review, otherwise, I wouldn't have given it any stars.
Don't Upgrade to 3.0
TeeVee Guy
Previous versions of FontBook were sensational. This latest version 3.0 is full of bugs. Text samples don't display properly. Motion is steppy and full of jaggies. The last edition warranted 5 stars. 3.0 -- in its current form -- is a dud.
