February 09, 2004
Mana-16
Here’s a super bitmap font designed for people who actually read, ie: not designers.
Mana-16, at 16 pixels tall, might seem too large for Flash bodytext. But it is incredibly crisp and readable. And when monitor resolutions go through the roof, too you might find that it is a font ahead of its time.
The name Mana, derived from the Spanish word “mano” meaning hand, alludes to the fact that the grayscale pixels are hand-placed.
A lighter Mana-13 is on the way. I’ll be looking forward to that for sure.
US$25 for family of bold and regular, US$15 for regular.
See also Bitmap Fonts.
Posted by Karen at February 9, 2004 06:32 PM in typographyNice. Any special package for Snog readers? :)
Posted by: jimmy at February 16, 2004 11:47 PMPackage?
Hmmm, OK: Buy Mana-16 (Regular & Bold) now and I’ll give you an extra US$5 off Mana-13 (which is due in March).
hhp
More coverage on Mana-16: I didn’t know there was a six-year development period!
Posted by: Karen at February 17, 2004 09:52 PMBut it’s not like I’ve been actively working on it that long! :-)
I did a prototype of the lc back in early ‘98, and even managed to “deliver” it via a funky CGI script that took the tiny GIFs of the letters are put together long strings. And then maybe 2-3 years ago I did the UC and numerals. But that whole time there was no robust way of putting out a font of it. BitFonter kinda worked, but not good enough, and then MacOS started dissin’ “true” (stand-alone but even TT-embedded) bitmap fonts more and more, so I almost gave up.
But then the Truth in Design boys extended the now-classic b&w pixelfont techniques to grayscale, and suddenly it all became possible. That’s actually when I went into high gear and finished the whole charset, the bold, the kerning, etc.
hhp
So do i buy it off ultrafonts or do you have another preferred website?
Posted by: jimmy at February 22, 2004 06:52 PMYou can only buy it from the Ultrafonts site.
The $5 would come from me directly: once you buy both the 16 and 13 families, let me know and I’ll Paypal (or snailmail) it to you. So basically you’ll be getting both for $45.
hhp
OK, Mana-13 is released! See also Mana-16.
And here’s a specimen page for the 13:
BTW:
-The $5 bundle discount for buying both the 13 & 16 families still applies.
-An 11 is in the works…
hhp
Yay! Way to go, Hrant.
Posted by: Karen at April 28, 2004 08:09 PMKaren bought mana13 today!
Posted by: jimmy at May 3, 2004 11:54 PM