A curated list of digital specimens
of the highest quality. Updated daily.
Movement
A simple type tester specimen frames the real content – a video and description of the origin of the typeface.
Kinetic
Refreshing design for Kinetic – light, duotone – all bolstered by stylish photography and a video. Interestingly, Kinetic has a companion iOS app – Kinetic Notes – that allows you to create simple text notes.
League Mono
Described as 'Five weights of monospace fun', the specimen for League Mono is a patchwork of subtle rainbow gradients with content describing the features of the font.
EXCELSIORAMA
This is a fun specimen for a fun typeface. 'A typeface made by graphic designers living and working in "Upstate" (not NYC) New York.' each designer creating an individual glyph. Coloured panelled typesetters allow the user to explore the typeface further.
Rebond Grotesque
Another detailed (and delightful) specimen from Extraset. It strikes exactly the right balance between inspiration, design, functionality, and technical features. The type tester is particularly good with toggles for all the font's features.
CoFo Robert
A unique specimen design with a vertical 50/50 split of the the screen showing stacked type testers on one side, and explanatory text on the other. An efficient use of screen real-estate.
MONAAKO FLOW
MONAAKO FLOW is an interesting typeface designed to create animated typographic compositions on After Effects, using Animography plugins. A constant scrolling animation is the primary design pattern with a downloadable PDF with more information.
Principal
A mosaic of typetesters (often with individual words) are punctuated with wireframe illustrations of geometric forms. A conventional, but with enough unique touches, from TightType.
Gerstner Programm
This is a cool interface. Two panels of content: the typeface displaying weights in a fairly conventional manner, and the other a long form article explaining the design rationale in detail. The specimen page retains it's clean interface by progressively disclosing more detailed information.
Damien Display
What's notable about this specimen for Damien Display is the controls for the type tester. Subtle, well designed controls in a control panel. But the notable thing is a 'buy now' button displayed in context.
Sombra
The specimen for Sombra is templated but efficient. Stacked typetesters greet the user before displaying some in-context designs in striking orange and black duotone.
Elfreth
Everybody loves a good Blackletter. And this is a good one! The specimen reads as an article punctuated with images of inspiration and typeface development.
Highgate
Dalton Maag's Highgate typeface specimen has the right balance of aesthetics, history and context, and font features. The animation displaying the variable font animation is particularly good, highlighting the different glyph shapes when traversing the weight axis. The changes to the little leaf glyph are particularly revealing as to the considerations of the type designer.
Beatrice
This is a great specimen focussing on the technical details and features of Beatrice. Following a template for all of Sharptype's specimens, Beatrice is presented amongst plenty of information about the process and examples of usage.
Migra
The standout of this specimen are the stacked images of example usage. The illustrations documenting the ligatures and typesetting are particularly outstanding.
Fabbrica
This is fantastic. A specimen that is, in fact, just an article documenting the conception and influence for Fabbrica's creation.
Tongari
Leading with a typetester, the specimen for Tongari quickly moves into panle after panel of usage examples. The design sketches are a welcome addition to any specimen. These show the level of craft the designer puts into every single letterform.
Goldman Sans
Interesting slideshow for Goldman Sans. Sort of a specimen, sort of marketing to an internal audience, the website does a good job at explaining accessbility features to a lay audience. The section on number was especially good.