Every now and again we take a look around, select “fresh” high-quality free fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually the time you should be investing in your current projects. We search for them and we find them, so you don’t have to.

This month we are glad to present you the updated Anivers, Gentium family and Fresco Semi Bold. Please read the license agreements carefully — they can change from time to time.

• Free Fonts Of May features Freebooter Script, Cora Basic Regular, Walkway and Karabine.
• You can find over 80 more free fonts in our section Fonts.

Free Fonts Of The Month

Anivers Regular
Jos Buivenga has released an update for Anivers, a font which was originally designed to celebrate the first anniversary of Smashing Magazine. Now the new improved Anivers has been expanded and Anivers Regular undergone a major update. Changes: extended language support, improved glyph shapes and improved metrics and kerning.

Jos Buivenga has extended Anivers to the Anivers family which now comes in regular, italic, bold and small caps and has some nice OpenType features. However, only Anivers regular is free. To download the free Regular you have to register at MyFonts.com. The rest of the family can be purchased on MyFonts.

Gentium (specimen) and Gentium Basic
SIL International which has released Gentium few years ago, now released a modification of Gentium which is called Gentium Basic. Gentium is a typeface family designed to enable the diverse ethnic groups around the world who use the Latin and Greek scripts to produce readable, high-quality publications. It supports a wide range of Latin-based alphabets and includes glyphs that correspond to all the Latin ranges of Unicode.

Gentium Basic and Gentium Book Basic are font families based on the original Gentium design, but with additional weights. The “Book” family is slightly heavier. Both families come with a complete regular, bold, italic and bold italic set of fonts. The supported character set, however, is much smaller than for the main Gentium fonts. These “Basic” fonts support only the Basic Latin and Latin-1 Supplement Unicode ranges, plus a selection of the more commonly used extended Latin characters, with miscellaneous diacritical marks, symbols and punctuation. Designed by Victor Gaultney.

Reminder

We have already written about Fresco Semi Bold. However, in this post we would like to remind some of you who haven’t downloaded the font yet that Fresco Semi Bold is still available for free download. Fresco Semi Bold is just one member of a large and flexible type family by Dutch design legend Fred Smeijers. OpenType. Registration is required.

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• <1 Joey deVilla: Great Free Fonts via Smashing Magazine: Anivers, Fresco and Gentium

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• .png .png .jpg .jpg 1> <1 Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz: Free Fonts Of The Month: Freebooter Script, Cora Basic
• .jpg .jpg .jpg .png .jpg .jpg .jpg .jpg .jpg .jpg .png 3> <5 Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz: Friday Freebies: Font, Icons, Wallpapers and Screensaver

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• .jpg .jpg .jpg .jpg .jpg .jpg <1 Garr: Typography: Going back to the future

Art Deco style typeface by Mark Simonson. Caught my eye in the latest Veer catalog.

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• <3 jnack: Urban typography & more

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• .jpg <3 Anarchaia: 20

I came across some really interesting items while Propelling today, which I wanted to share, because I can:

Farmers Put 220 Acres Under Glass to Create Vast Artificial Environment

On the chilly Isle of Thanet in Kent, England, farmers are placing 220 acres of land under glass so they can grow vegetables all year round. The greenhouse, when completed, will house 1.3 million plants and increase the UK's crop of green vegetables by 15%. Called Thanet Earth, the project will be a series of 7 connected grenhouses with a relatively small carbon footprint. And nothing grown inside Thanet Earth will ever touch soil.

This interests me a great deal because I'm considering some hydroponic gardening in addition to my regular gardening here, as we attempt to reduce our carbon footprint and become more self-sufficient. Climate change played an important part in the worldbuilding of the novella I'm working on, so I've spent a lot of time researching the future of agriculture; it's interesting to me to see people experimenting with different techniques in the present.

A Professional Gambler's Take on the Tim Donaghy Scandal

Haralabos Voulgaris leads a rare life.

He's one of very few people -- Voulgaris estimates there may be as few as four or five -- who have achieved a high level of success betting full-time on the NBA.

And he does very well at it. "In the last eight years," he explains, "the 2004-2005 season was the only year where I didn't turn a nice profit, and I lost very small."

His approach is intensively evidence-based. He has his own massive database that would be the envy of any stat geek. For instance: Given two line-ups of players on the floor, his database does, he says, a good job of predicting which players will guard each other. The database also tracks the tendencies of individual referees, and factors all that and much more into forecasts. Voulgaris also watches close to 1,000 games a year.

He designed the database as a tool to outwit oddsmakers, and it works for that.

But it's also a fine-tuned machine for researching the claims and career of Tim Donaghy. And having used this database, and his contacts in the sports betting world, Voulgaris says that his confidence in the integrity of the NBA has been shaken, to the point that, despite his big income, he's looking for ways to stop betting altogether.

"The league has made a big mistake," he says.

I sort of knew Haralabos back in my poker-playing days, and really liked him because he was one of the first players who was really kind to me, even though he had no reason to be. I knew he bet on sports, but I had no idea he was as serious as he appears to be. His perspective on this whole scandal was fascinating to me, especially how his data and analysis support Donaghy's claims. He says the NBA has done a great job of sweeping the whole thing under the rug. Unfortunately, I agree with him.

The Watchmen Motion Comic

Warner Bros. plans on releasing about a dozen 22 to 26 minute webisodes to help make the complex story of Watchmen easier for the uninitiated to digest. Recently, WatchmenComicMovie was shown a teaser trailer for these webisodes by an anonymous source. From what we saw these webisodes are going to be really well done.

The series of webisodes, which will be titled Watchmen: A Digital Graphic Novel, will be less like a slide show of original comic panels and more of the comic book “brought to life” with rudimentary animation techniques.

The teaser is simply a conglomeration of different scenes from the comic book given motion and set to dramatic orchestral music. In order to animate the comic, the production team has apparently dissected the elements from each panel that they wanted to move — such as a cloud or a character — and animated it in front of a restored or “filled in” background.

For example — they animated the iconic comic panel that shows The Comedian’s funeral from above to not only have falling rain and lightning, but wind that realistically blows the coats and clothing of the mourners surrounding the open grave. In another, Ozymandias sits in front of his monitor bank — each commercial and T.V. program on the screens in motion — scratching the back of his pet Bubastis’ head. For lack of a better way to describe the trailer, it’s like you’re watching an episode of Watchmen: The Animated Series.

DUDE! Even though living in a post-Phantom Menace world has made my default position on all these thing "apprehensively optimistic" I can't wait to watch these. It seems like everyone involved in Watchmen truly gets it, so it's becoming increasingly difficult to keep my hopes nice and low . . . they want to go up and up and up.

This last story isn't my submission, but that's just because my fellow scout Keith beat me to it:

The Prisoner remake: details emerge?

The Prisoner Appreciation Society (Six of One) is reporting that this classic, surreal sci-fi/adventure series is set to return for a six-episode miniseries run. The announcement coincides with The Prisoner's 40th anniversary.

Reports have Jim Caviezel playing the heroic Number Six -- actor with a penchant for playing long-suffering characters (Bobby Jones, Jesus). Sir Ian McKellen would play arch-nemesis Number Two, while cementing his status alongside Christopher Lee as the greatest nerd project actors of their generation. Between the two of them, they'd own Star Wars, James Bond, Lord of the Rings, Dracula, Frankenstein and X-Men).

The Prisone r is my all-time favorite TV show, ever. EVER! After watching marathon after marathon of The Prisoner, I grokked what makes people become Trekkies or Browncoats. It did more than entertain me, it inspired me . I know that's weird to say about something that's so Orwellian, but it's true. The Prisoner spoke to me when I was a teenager. I bought the GURPS book , bought all the video tapes, and picked up every fan-made book and map of The Village I could find. I bought rub-on transfer letters in the Albertus font so I could make my own signs for my dressing room, and I painstakingly drew my own Number Six badge to wear on my jackets. I read and re-read the graphic Novel Shattered Visage fruitlessly looking for clues about . . . stuff. Again, living in a post-Phantom Menace world makes me a little nervous, and we've been talking about this remake almost as long as we were talking about a Watchmen movie, so I don't even know if this is as reliable as it seems. Regardless, I'm hopeful that there's someone out there who can treat it right. And a six episode mini-series would be freaking brilliant.

Okay, one last bonus link before I go: years ago, I did an episode of The Outer Limits called The Light Brigade. I was watching The Time Tunnel last night on Hulu , and saw that The Light Brigade is there , as well. It's useless for non-US visitors (can you use a proxy to fool Hulu? I haven't tried) but if you're in the US and want to spend 44 minutes watching me . . . um . . . act, I guess is the word I'm looking for . . . now you can.

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• 64> <17 idevlabs: New site by nbc and fox

Yes, I have pointed to presentations by Stanford professor Larry Lessig many times before. And here is yet another. Below is Lessig's last presentation that he plans to ever give on "Free Culture." He gave this talk January 31, 2008 at Stanford University. Watch the video from Open Source Cinema.

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Many lines from Professor Lessig's talk stood out to me. Here's one of them from early in the talk.

"The problems we are attacking are often problems that aren't really constitutional problems, they're political problems. They're problems about an understanding. And it's the understanding not of... seven justices on the Supreme Court, it's the understanding of ordinary people. There's not enough that we do to frame these issues in terms that ordinary people can get. And in the end that is our biggest weakness: We're great at framing the issue in a way that a Supreme Court brief understands, but awful at framing the issue in a way that makes it understandable to the public."

                                                — Lawrence Lessig

Communication — especially when you're trying to change things in a big way — is certainly not only about preparation and delivery, it's also about strategy. This line by Lessig reminds me that we have to be clear, structured, and logical, but we also have to be talking to the right people (and at the right time). The best argument in the world is for naught if we're targeting the wrong audience (or if we have the right audience but are not speaking — really speaking — to them.)

On the "Lessig Method"
Many people like Lessig's unique presentation style which blends a sort of professorial narrative in sync with quickly changing images and short bursts of text. But many are surprised that I can admire Lessig's style. But I look at my job as pointing you to successful people who present in many different ways. I never say that you should do it the way I do, or Steve Jobs does, or Larry Lessig does, or Al Gore, does, and on and on. No one approach or method is perfect, but we can learn by observing the new and the different as well as the traditional. For Professor Lessig, his style and his approach is his own and it works for him. Yes, it could be better (as we all could be). For example, I think it may be better if Professor Lessig used a more robust typeface (and at a larger size). In this presentation the use of the Disney font was fun (or ironic) but it was difficult to read at times. The use of a red text against this particular background (dark grey with gradation) was also not optimal. But overall, Lessig's style augments his content and his ability to connect with his particular audience. Overall, Lessig's method is remarkable, albeit different. I do not suggest you copy his style, but observe it with an open mind and see what bits of his method may (or may not) work for you and your unique needs.

Another Lessig slide presentation in Keynote
Also, watch this short Keynote slide presentation by Professor Lessig. This demonstrates how easy it is for someone to make a presentation with slides in sync with their narration and upload it to the net. The tool is very simple. (Link to the video on Lessig's blog).

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• 11> Lessig: On why I am not running

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• .mov http://blip.tv/file/get/Esfwork-LawrenceLessigJanuary31st2008StanfordUniversity175.mov
• .jpg http://www.presentationzen.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/03/02/lessig_stanford08_2.jpg
• .jpg http://www.presentationzen.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/03/02/lessig_1.jpg

Roger says: "Here's a review of an extremely weird vintage bicycle safety film from 1962 in which a group of kids show us the dangers of disobeying bicycle safety rules - all while wearing some of the creepiest monkey masks you'll ever see."

The typeface used in the title is excellent.

Link | Link to YouTube video

How did Woody Allen chose this typeface? In a previous iteration of this post, the mystery of Woody Allen’s typeface of choice was solved by this amazing story posted by Randy J. Hunt in the comments (thank you, Randy):

"I’m currently taking a typeface design course with Ed Benguiat, and just last night he described a time when he would have breakfast at the same New Jersey diner every morning. Among the other that would dine there was Woody Allen. On one occasion [between 1975 and 1977], referring to Benguiat as a 'printer,' Allen asked him what a good typeface was. Benguiat had an affinity for WINDSOR and suggested it to him that morning. He’s used it in every film since."

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• 5> Daring Fireball: The story behind Woody Allen's signature typeface

1. talk through a vocoder, so maybe people will infer you’re a mean robot
2. as you address your audience, consider stroking a cat or cleaning your mom’s rifle
3. display tabular information about your perceived enemies in a large, readable typeface
4. avoid contractions, so you’ll sound more like Vincent Price
5. work the cravat

One thing I’m impressed with about Apple’s new system GUI in Leopard is the “inset effect” on the text in combination with the new window chrome. Several people asked me about my opinion on Leopards GUI and I thought I combine this with another question I received on how to create this “inset effect” on text.
So I’ve decided to investigate this subtle effect further via Photoshop layer effects as well as Illustrator’s effects.

In Photoshop

Creating the chrome bar

As shown in the image below, I've started by drawing a rectangle using the Rectangle Tool. I've filled it with a mid grey (but  actually, it doesn't matter which fill you give it, since we'll add a gradient fill Style over the top of this box). In the Layers palette, double-click on the right side of this layer to activate the Styles on this layer (or click on the dark circle-ƒ at the bottom of the panel). Select the Gradient Overlay options. Set the Angle to 90º and click once in the gradient that is shown as Gradient option to change its values. Click the left slider swatch once and click in the color swatch below to change this value. Enter #949494. Do the same for the right swatch and change it to #d1d1d1. Click OK to accept the Gradient Overlay setting. With the Effect options still open, click the Drop Shadow option. Enter black (or #000000) as color, 20% Opacity, 90º as Angle, 1 for Distance and 0 for Spread and Size. Click OK to accept the Style options.

Now as you can see on the 2nd picture, I've zoomed in on the rectangle box. To achieve the exact effect you need to make sure that the path of the bottom of the rectangle is right in between a pixel so you have this 1 pixel blurry effect and the exact same drop shadow effect (as the main navigation bar on Apple's website).

Creating the inset text

Select the Type tool and type the text that you want. Select Left align in the Toolbar, Myriad Pro Regular as typeface and #383838 as color. Now double-click to the right of this text layer in the Layers palette to activate the Styles on this layer and click the Drop Shadow option. Select 'Normal' from the Blend Mode dropdown and choose white as color. Enter 50% opacity, set the Angle to 90º, 1 for Distance and 0 for Spread and Size. Click OK to accept the Style options. That's it :)

In Illustrator

Creating the chrome bar

If you're a vector designer, this method is just as simple. Select the Rectangle tool and draw a rectangle. Objects have a white fill and a black border by default. Click the border color at the bottom of the Toolbox and select the 'None' swatch below (white square with red diagonal line). Now select the Fill swatch and go to the Gradient palette. If the palette is not on your screen go to the Window menu and choose Gradient (or hit command/control + F9). Double click the left color swatch, the Color palette will show up with white as color and Grayscale as color mode. Enter 20% as grayscale value. Now click the swatch on the right of the gradient and enter 55% as grayscale value. Go back to the Gradient palette and change the angle of the gradient to 270º.

With the rectangle selected go to the Effects menu and choose Drop Shadow from the Stylize submenu. Enter 20% as Opacity, 0 pt for X Offset, 2 pt for Y Offset and 1 pt for Blur. Leave the black color and 'Multiply' option unchanged and click OK. If you go to the Appearance palette you'll see that there is an Effect added. Double clicking this effect will open the Drop Shadow options again where you can change these settings. So it's very flexible. Effects are modifiable and therefore very flexible. Filters on the other hand are not. If you've ever wondered what the difference was between Filters and Effects in Illustrator when trying to achieve the same result, then you'll realize that this is a big difference. Once Filters are applied they can't be changed. So keep this in mind.

Creating the inset text

Select the Type tool from the toolbox, click on the canvas in the bar you've just created and type your text. Choose Left align text from the Paragraph palette and Myriad Pro Regular from the Character palette (go to the Window menu if the palettes are not visible). Now go to the Effects menu and choose Drop Shadow from the Stylize submenu. Choose 'Normal' from the Mode dropdown menu, enter 50% as Opacity, 0 pt for X Offset, 1 pt for Y Offset and 0 pt for Blur. Change the black color to white and click OK. Deselect your text, double click the Zoom Tool in the toolbox to go back to 100% (or hit command/control+0). There you have it.

What I think of the GUI of Leopard

In general I do like what I've seen so far of the Leopard GUI. I do like the new chrome bar and the fact that there will be far less Aqua. Though, I would get rid of the Aqua scrollbars. I wonder if these will be dropped in the shipping version of Leopard, especially since the latest version of iTunes doesn't have them and I prefer those. I've had it with the Aqua scrollbars... In fact, let's get rid of Aqua entirely. I think a new interface style is overdue. No? Isn't it been 7 years already since Aqua debuted?

I like the updated Finder windows, but I'm not sure about the folder icons. Their front-facing position is fine. I do like that. Perhaps it's just the shape of the tab that bothers me a bit and maybe the fact that I miss a bit more color on the special folders icons.  I understand the reason why the icons only have this inset effect, but I  know how my brain works. When I scan with my eyes, it reacts to color first, but perhaps that's just some error in my brain :) That's why I didn't object to Adobe's recent application icons and their idea to work with colors in such a prominent way. Since the new CS3 set was released, I've never made a mistake by selecting the wrong application.

How I see the Leopard folder

I didn't take the time to apply the paper structure in my version. I wouldn't change that. It's just the shape of the tab that I would adjust a bit.

In a next article I'll explain in detail how I created this folder. Stay tuned ;)