On A Daily Basis: The All New FontBook 2.0

Five months ago FontShop International surprised the type world by announcing that its legendary FontBook – commonly dubbed the FontShop Bible – would from now on be an iPad app. The development team has since been busy improving its performance and adding even more features, and now the first major upgrade to version 2.0 introduces the following enhancements.

250+ new and updated font familiesexpanded homepage featuring three new sections: News, Usage and Comparetwo separate bookmark categories: Favorite and Comparenew online news stream featuring daily typography news, inspirations and award-winning typefacesnew focused search for typefaces by Use-Case, Genre, Period, and morecurated lists of Super Families, Alternatives, and moreautomatic over-the-air content updates

The expanded homepage of FontBook 2.0 with the three new sections News, Usage and Compare. Notice the OTA (over the air) update indicator below the top navigation bar.

Never before has it been more fascinating to explore the world of typefaces. For the first time FontBook offers thematic lists grouped according to The FontFeed and the FontShop Blog are published under News, where type design competition winners, font charts, staff picks, and announcements of new typefaces can be found too. And the best part is that all searchable content of FontBook is continuously kept up-to-date via the newly implemented over-the-air update process.

News & Trends – Daily font portraits selected from The FontFeed and FontShop Blog, plus staff picks, font charts, award-winning typefaces, and new releases.

Many of FontBook's new typeface collections are based on the nearly 1000 FontLists that have been published on the FontShop website the last few years. The FontShop team have analysed thousands of typefaces under the editorship of Stephen Coles and Yves Peters, grouping them according to usage, similarity, genre and many other criteria. Those lists have been updated and extended for FontBook 2.0, and grouped into usable information clusters. The Usage section contains the following groups: Genre, Period, Applications, Super Families and Alternatives. Under News users can find font charts, staff picks and various recommendations.

Staff picks & font charts – It is handy to know what's new… it's even better to know what's new and notable, at your fingertips.

The essential technology that keeps the content of FontBook current is Update Over-the-Air (OTA). To import newly released typefaces, additional lists or the latest news into the app, users no longer need to download a new version or even connect the iPad to their computer: New content is automatically loaded via WiFi whenever it is available. Whenever that happens a small update indicator appears for 3 seconds below the top navigation bar.

Curated lists, constantly updated Over-the-Air – Browsing typefaces was never this easy.

One of the most popular features in FontBook is the Compare section. Previously marked typefaces can be seen side by side in three different sizes, either with default text or a custom sample word. Version 1 used the Favorite list for doing comparisons, while version 2 uses its dedicated bookmark for this type of selection.

Compare – Now it's even simpler to find the right typeface for the job. In this example the font selection was taken from theUsagelistPseudo Greek(Genre).

Additional changes and improvements in Version 2.0:

Font classes and sub-classes added to the yellow font family data-sheetNew process animation while receiving online font rendering resultsExpanded mini font sampleRaginstead ofRgInstant Compare building set update after deleting a bookmark15 noble Dutch type designers (e. g. Erik van Blokland) are now sorted by surname (not V)

Upgrading to FontBook 2.0 is free of charge. Download the new version at the iTunes App store. To get informations about news and changes follow @FontBookApp on Twitter.

Discover all the main features in FontBook 2.0 in our new 7 min video: