Comics Dad – Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth, $23 – By Chris Ware, the most beautiful & depressing graphic novel ever.

Photography Dad – GorillaPod , $20-90 – Little portable camera tri-pods.

Typography Dad – Ampersandwich Tee, $23 – Typography t-shirt!

Reading Dad – Amazon Kindle, $114 – My sister & sister-in-law gave me one of these for my birthday, and it’s pretty cool. Great for commuters (at least the public transit kind)!

Vegan Dad – Vegan Dress Shoes, $39+ – Delicious shoes made of tofu! Mmm, comfortable!

Sporty Dad – Klipsch Earbuds, $97 – Put these in your head while you’re jogging!

Toy-Loving Dad – Parrot AR.Drone, $300 – Its a flying helicopter you control with your iPhone. Whaaa?

Cycling Dad – Chamois BUTT’r, $12 – Grease up your bottom, cause, um, things get burny after a while.

Coffee Snob Dad – Hario v60 Cone, $19 – For the true coffee engineer. Hat tip to @mic_dee for this recommendation!

DVD Dad – RipIt, $25 – Okay, also need to be a Mac dad. DVD ripping software, for putting all your DVDs on your computer.

And if all else fails, and the dad you’re shopping for is your husband, you know what to do. YOU KNOW. Wink. Nudge. Nudge. Toot. Cough.

Hello there, internet friends. You like… fonts? Me too. Spend much time nerding out with them? No? Probably for the best. I’m a little obsessed myself. I’m sure my wife finds it charming that I’m constantly pointing out fonts in the wild. That’s charming, right?

So you like the fonts, but you don’t know much about them, and you’re a little curious, but not that curious. Perfect. I’ll tell you a couple things, maybe you learn something, okay. You’ll know more than your friends, and you like to feel superior to your friends, right? That’s what friends are for. This’’ll be great!

Don’t Call it a Font

If you REALLY like to lord it over your friends, this first lesson is perfect: Don’t call it a font. Call it a typeface. Whaaat? That’s right. The proper term for what we generally call “font” is actually “typeface.”

See, back in the dark ages of physical typesetting, a typeface referred to a family of type that had a consistent design and style. A font was a specific member and size of that family. So, for example, one typeface is “Times”. This includes the roman, italic, and bold styles and all of their various sizes. A font is one specific slice of that typeface, such as Times, italic, 14 points. See the difference? Now it will always bother you when people call a typeface a font. Welcome to type nerdery! You’re probably already sorry you came. Don’t worry, that’s natural.

Display & Title Typefaces

Wow, there are literally books fulla information on type that you don’t wanna know, so let’s just break a big hunk off the top and call it a day. What about display titles? You see these all over the place, online, in print, and in the real world. You probably need to use them yourself from time to time on your blog, on that report, even on that passive aggressive note you stuck on the fridge this morning.

So what makes a good display typeface? Well the fast and dirty answer is: use a condensed sans-serif font, loosen up the tracking (spacing between letters), and make it caps. Done. Lunch time. Here’s an example:

Just to make this example a little more relevant to everyday folk, I’ve chosen some very common typefaces that usually ship standard with modern OSes. On the left, you’ve got your classic Microsoft Word typeface, Times New (roman), a staple of any Windows PC. On the right is the lovely Gill Sans MT (condensed), also a typeface that can be found in the Windows OS.

So as you can see, the left side looks like your sixth-grader whipped up a school report he cut-and-pasted out of Wikipedia (solid work, son). Meanwhile, the right side looks like it could be legit. And the only difference is typography! I swear. So what’s really different?

Well, on the left, we’re using a serif typeface. Serifs are the extra little doodads that poke out of your letters. When a font is referred to as “roman” it means it has serifs. Most folks believe the origin of serifs come from the brush strokes used to create the letters (dating back to Greek architectural titling). It is commonly believed that serif typefaces are easier to read for long periods of time, such as with textbooks and novels. This is why a lot of typographers use serif typefaces for the bulk of text in printed books (but not all!). I set it in title case, meaning the first letters are capitalized and the rest are lowercase. Tracking (space between letters) is normal (“factory default” for the typeface).

On the right we’ve got a sans serif font (sans = “without”) that is condensed. Sans serif fonts don’t have serifs, which make them sparer and more modern looking (when a typeface is called “gothic” or “grotesk” it means it is sans serif). Condensed means that the set-widths are narrower than its non-Condensed brethren — essentially, it is a lean and tall font. If I were a font, I’d be Condensed. Condensed is obviously useful for squeezing in lots of text in small spaces (much in the same way that I can squeeze in between the washer and the dryer when necessary), but you’ll also find that Condensed faces are a staple for display and titling. There’s just something very professional and stylish about a good Condensed font. I’ve set this in all caps, which is what you want to do with a Condensed face, and I’ve widened the tracking, which means I’ve spaced the letters further away from each other. Looser letter spacing helps with legibility when using all caps and narrow faces. Because tracking is not a common adjustment lay folk make, I’ll show you how. To adjust letter spacing in Word (if you’re unfortunate enough to be dealing with typography in that program, my apologies):

Highlight your text. Go up to your Font menu and click the tiny arrow in the lower right hand corner. You’ll get a dialog box that pops up, and click on the 2nd tab called “Character Spacing”.

Drop down the “Spacing” box and choose “Expanded”. Then, to the right of that box, you’ll see another box called “By:”. Increase the point value of “By:” to space your letters further apart. You should see a live preview at the bottom of the dialog pop-up.

Now in Photoshop (also not the best place to work with typography, but common, and certainly better than Word!) click your Character icon (its the little A in your right-hand menus) or, if you can’t find the icon, go up to the menu, click on Window, and choose Character. You’ll see some more icons, none of them very intuitive, but look for the “A V” with the arrow underneath. That’s your tracking.

Bigger numbers mean more space between letters, zero is “normal”, and negative numbers mean closer together. Make sure your text layer or the actual text is selected before changing your tracking, or nothing will happen (I do this all the time).

What’s the Difference?

So what’s up? Why does the title on the right look so much more professional than the one on the left? They’re just letters, right? Well, if you’re REALLY interested in the answer, you might be a closet typography nerd. Ha! Get yourself some books. But the practical answer is, professional designers do it this way. Serif typefaces set in title case or sentence case with normal tracking (our left side example) are typically used for blocks of text at smaller sizes. This is what the text in your paperback copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo looks like. But the cover title looks more like our example on the right. Now obviously, this isn’t the only way to set your display titles. But it is a common method used by the pros, and it is a quick and easy way to class up your own projects!

Condensed Font Suggestions

Loving the stretchy tallness of the Condensed font? Want some of your own? Here are a few of my favorites:

• Tungsten from Hoefler & Frere-Jones
• Trade Gothic Bold #20 Condensed from Linotype
• Champion Gothic from Hoefler & Frere-Jones
• Knockout from Hoefler & Frere-Jones
• Refrigerator Deluxe from Mark Simonson
• Promixa Nova ExtraCond from Mark Simonson
• Berliner Grotesk BQ from Berthold

On the actual day of his birthday, we both skipped work and Eleanor was home from school. We started the day with a little hike. You’ve seen some of the photos already in Josh’s birthday post, but I’ve added a few you didn’t see.

We found a caterpillar on our way home and helped it to get across the street and into some bushes.

Then we headed to lunch and a movie (Rio was great, we recommend it, Eleanor loved it). After the movie we stopped at the Apple store to pick up Josh’s birthday present. I didn’t want to buy him the wrong thing so I let him pick it out. He got that fancy Magic Mouse. Which was greatly needed since his mouse just died on him.

After shopping we came home for a nap for Eleanor and some light cleaning for us. I know, cleaning on the poor man’s birthday! Terrible! But his dad and step-mom were coming over to babysit and I just think it’s rude to have a messy house when you have guests.

We went out to a nice little dinner at a local Italian place where we had wine and lasagna and decided it was finally time to start trying for baby number two. We sobered up (we are such lightweights these days) across the street over coffee and desserts at Starbucks. Then brought a mini cupcake home to share with Eleanor.

I think it was a lovely way to spend a 30th birthday.

We did end up with a few cracked eggs, but no spilled dye!

And I think our eggs turned out quite lovely!

Tip: If you use brown eggs you’ll get jewel tones instead of pastels!

because of all the work you do for me with minimal complaining,

because you make me laugh and make me smile all day long,

because you’re good at everything you try,

because you’re smarter, funnier, a better writer, and more artistic than me but love me anyway,

because this little girl thinks you are the best daddy in the whole world, and because she’s right.

I love you more than ice cream! Happy birthday baby!

While in Westwood I remember that we had been meaning to check out the La Brea Tar Pits. It’s just a few miles from Westwood and we get in free with our Natural History Museum membership. So, after lunch and cookies, we headed down Wilshire to the Tar Pits.

The museum was okay. It’s much smaller than I thought, so there wasn’t as much for Eleanor to run around and look at, like there is at the Natural History Museum. I think we would have enjoyed it more if we could have followed along on the tour and got to hear more information about the Ice Age Mega-Fauna and Mega-Flora in SoCal. But unfortunately, Eleanor just isn’t old enough to sit through that. Maybe we’ll go back in a few years and try again.

The Gentle Barn is open to visitors every Sunday from 10am-2pm and they also run programs for at-risk teens, special needs kids, and schools. They also have a lot of volunteering opportunities if you are interested in spending time with some super cute farm animals!

I have to say this was one of our most fun outings yet! We were able to get up-close to all the animals, and pet and feed most of them! I can’t wait to go back!

Eleanor was a little wary of the turkeys. This one kept gobbling and flapping his wings around, I would have kept my distance too!

She got a little braver when the volunteer showed her how to feed the turkeys. And then she wanted to feed every animal!

We even got to give the cows a brush and hugs! Everyone who hugs a cow gets a free bracelet that says, “I hugged a cow!” Pretty sweet!

And, just for Andrew, here’s a bonus beard shot:

It’s coming along pretty nicely!

Go visit The Gentle Barn SoCal readers! It’s such a nice way to spend a Sunday morning!

Well, now that it’s getting to be Spring timey and the weather is getting a little warmer, we decided to try to get out of the house and do something fun every weekend. We started with our trip to the Santa Barbara Zoo with Kristy, Andrew & Audrey. The weekend after that we took the train to downtown LA to the Chinese American Museum’s Lantern Festival to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Eleanor was so excited about the train ride!

I always love to get to visit Union Station, it’s one of my favorite places in Los Angeles.

The Festival itself was fun. There were traditional dancers, booths with a number a crafts for the kids: paper cutting, Chinese lettering, face painting, and kite making among others,  some yummy food trucks, and all of the lovely lanterns.

And the street in front of the museum is the perfect place for portraits. I need to bring some clients back there!

As such, I’ve made some quick revisions to my list to bring me a little more in line with my goals (note: original list written at age 16).

1. Learn to play guitar Acquire brother-in-law who plays guitar
2. Write a book Marry someone who plans to write a book
3. Write a movie script Spend 15 years thinking about writing a movie script
4. Get into UCLA film school Often buy snacks from the vending machine outside UCLA film school
5. Write a comic book Become estranged from friend I heard wrote a comic book
6. Work in television Work at Starbucks making coffee for assholes who work in television
7. Befriend awesome intelligent artistic people at college Graduate college a year early cause “I’m so sick of this shit”
8. Get rich Get paid enough to really appreciate the idea of getting rich
9. Leave SCV, become a recluse, spend all time engaged in artistic endeavors Settle down in SCV, get married, spend 45 mins. a week engaged in artistic endeavors
10. Live in Spain Make flight arrangements for someone who frequently visits Spain
11. Learn to speak Spanish Have child who watches a lot of Dora the Explorer

And there you go. Through the power of creative editing, I win at life. Top that, wife!

I think it’s a little adorable. And it has gray and blonde hairs in it! Pretty cute!

Isn’t my husband handsome?!

Happy Friday friends! Hope you’ve enjoyed my husband’s ruggedly masculine new look!