Frequently Asked Questions

What do you mean by ‘Independent Typography’?

Independent Type is made from the businesses, foundries, and individuals that self-publish, self-promote, and create with more complete ownership of their product. Our requirements are simple: first, the foundry/individual must sell fonts online with their own point of sale. And second, the foundry/individual must have at least one font for sale for more than $0.01. The shared values of all who meet these two requirements are control of their practice, a drive to compete in the marketplace, and a desire to share new ideas. In another word, independence.

Is Proof&Co. only focused on latin type?

Our data does only include Latin type. It is a frustrating, but necessary, limitation on our research at this time. We would love to include all fonts in all languages and writing systems, but that's beyond our current abilities. If you’re interested in becoming a fellow Proof&Co. researcher to help us expand our coverage into CJK, Hebrew, Thai, Arabic, Indic Scripts, or other non-latin scripts, get in touch!

How do you go about classifying type?

Genre classification is a fascinating and wide-ranging topic worthy of many doctoral dissertations. For our purposes, we err on the side of whatever the foundries list as a genre for any of their releases. If that is not listed, we make an educated assignment. That said, our master list of genres is evolving all the time, and we love to discover a new design that doesn't quite fit in any previously established genre system. We are in full support of discovering (maybe even coining?) new classifications.

How do you decide what fonts to feature in your Concierge Lists?

To be honest, it’s not an academic practice. We often field requests to curate lists of typography to help designers, studios, or shoppers narrow down their field. Our public Concierge Lists are informed by this dialogue, but also by what we’re generally seeing out there in the marketplace. We ultimately want our lists to be a helpful resource for anyone to find great type that they may not have been exposed to otherwise.

I have a foundry, can I send you updates of my releases?

Of course! And please do! We do our very best to keep an eye on all the new independent releases, but it is a wide world and we are but two people. It is a huge help to us and ensures we don't miss a minute of your work. On top of that, we just love talking type! So we'd love to hear from you: hello@proofco.xyz.