The Future of Fonts

We ran across a really neat start-up project by the Athens, Greece design firm høly—a font that adjusts its letters as you type.

According to its Indiegogo fundraising campaign, “Futuracha Pro is an Open Type Font, which magically adjusts and readjusts as you write. Its quirkiness and eccentricity are the two main features that made it one of the most beloved fonts in the whole world. Until today, nobody was able to just sit down and type with it. Featuring various combinations of letters and plenty of playful ligatures, Futuracha Pro gives creative people the opportunity to actually type and create, making their ideas extraordinary and unique!”

We couldn’t agree more—this font is intriguing and beautiful.

The ability for fonts to change by application is an upcoming feature that is taking hold on a larger scale. Last fall Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe introduce “variable fonts”. These are in a sense a scalable fonts weights in one font package.

Its a designer’s dream come true to no longer have to buy and manage multiple fonts and still not have the best weight or size for your application. But, according to writer John Hudson, its about space. “Like so much else driving change in the font business, a big part of the answer is webfonts, and the need for more compact and faster ways to deliver dynamic fonts for the Web.”

This application could be very helpful on the end-user side, tool. Consumers would likely be able to indicate heavier font options on their smartphones to improve legibility. On the flip-side, it might expand the designer’s conundrum of control of the end-product image. Regardless, there’s exciting changes afoot in the world of fonts.

Photo and animation by høly.