Our monthly review of movie poster typography looks at the posters for Therapy for a Vampire, Me Before You, Our Kind of Traitor, The Neon Demon, Wiener-Dog, Shelley, Carnage Park, Ghostbusters, Captain Fantastic, and Under The Sun.

Typefaces that fall into the category of geometric sans are by definition deceptively simple in appearance. But as any young designer who’s tried to construct one with a ruler and compass (or its digital equivalent) knows, it’s not so easy. Here’s a rundown of a few families that get it right.

In the spirit of summer blockbusters, I am adding a sequel to my Adventures In Space series. In the second part, about kerning, I mentioned the Optical Kerning setting in Adobe Illustrator. It can improve the spacing of amateur fonts or some typefaces in large display sizes, but – because it ignores the careful manual spacing and kerning of any typeface by a pro-level designer – the setting often creates more problems than it solves. Below are three instances where it will definitely not work. And yes, I am writing this post because I have been there too, scrutinising my screen and wracking my mind trying to figure out why the text looks off. And then go “Argh, of course! Optical kerning…”

There are a lot of abbreviations which are commonly used in the world of typography, and especially digital fonts. Some relate to glyph sets and font formats, others to design traits and foundries, and so on. Their meaning may be obvious for the seasoned type user, but I can imagine that many type novices – and even regular users – can be confused by a good number of them. Here’s a comprehensive overview.

Customary practice when drawing Latin letters is to make the stems — the vertical and diagonal strokes — heavier than those running horizontally. Then there’s reverse contrast, which does the opposite. And then there’s this, which can look like an obvious gimmick, but which also has a rather functional benefit, placing emphasis along the x-height line.