iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 29/05/2026

The final act of the blackletter mystery — with, additionally, some unpublished work that I couldn’t help but share 🙂 hflr.io/eginvy5

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 26/04/2026

On the relationship between ethics and the AI business: a cogent and thoughtful perspective from the always-great Paul Ford. My gift link, to share on your own channels: www.nytimes.com/2026/04/26/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | This Is How We Get Moral A.I. Companies

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 01/04/2026

Aha! @korystamper.bsky.social’s new book arrived today, and the week ahead is suddenly immeasurably brighter!

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 30/03/2026

What else belongs on this list? 1. “Schrödinger's Cat:” invented as a send-up of Bohr and Heisenberg, now invoked as a demonstration of quantum mechanics →

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 05/03/2026

Today I learned that Cambridge University has published high resolution photographs of their collection of Baskerville punches. Cue the revivals!

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 27/02/2026

One of the great logos, achieving everything that we hope for: it’s meaningful, recognizable, relevant, practical, reproducible, memorable, and fun. RIP, Jean Widmer. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/a...

nytimes.com

Jean Widmer, Designer of Celebrated French Graphics, Dies at 96

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 26/02/2026

In December, I casually sent a vacation photo to Paul Lukas, a friend and fellow obsessive, because it had an inverted “H” that I knew would give him a giggle, or vex him, or both. Two months later, amazingly, these 2,000 words: www.inconspicuous.info/p/h-bomb-a-f...

inconspicuous.info

H-Bomb: A Frank Lloyd Wright Typographic Mystery

The famed architect made a surprising error on one of his most notable buildings — or did he? A deep dive to uncover the truth.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 17/02/2026

HOW have I never known the word “logodaedaly”?

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 16/02/2026

Say what you will about AI, but it's the only technology that’s ever managed to effectively combine mansplaining with the ritual apology

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 13/02/2026

A great piece of information visualization by Prof. Christina Pagel — and maybe the first time I’ve ever seen a toggle between “Classic UI” and “New UI” that shows two equally great interfaces. Bookmark and share!

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Reposted by Jonathan Hoefler

Cato Institute @cato.org · 03/02/2026

The US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government every year from 1994 to 2023. The Cato study provides the first-ever 30-year analysis of the fiscal effects of immigration on government budgets. ow.ly/jy8a50Y8kM3

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 15/01/2026

While the pasty incels who work the federal agencies continue to churn out feeble, bloodless AI pastiches of Axis propaganda, here’s how a living breathing artist powerfully invokes design history. This is by illustrator Emily K in South Philly, a free poster-sized download on her website: →

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 07/01/2026

Achievement unlocked! Next stop: NYT Crossword fill.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 24/11/2025

New poll finds an encouraging 34% of Americans unwilling to volunteer a glib binary answer about a complex and multivalent phenomenon

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 06/11/2025

I’m hopeful that New York’s terrific new First Lady, Rama Duwaji, can finally heal the divide between people who say “ceramist” and people who say “ceramicist”

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 30/10/2025

Journalists, when you write that someone is “her generation’s Elphaba” or whatever, please know that I want to smack you just as hard as I did twenty years ago when you wrote that someone was “their generation’s Dumbledore” or whatever.

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Commercial Type @commercialtype.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

James Mosely's series of lectures on the history of letterforms were delivered every year to students in the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. These were recorded in 2020-21, and are now available for everyone to watch: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

youtube.com

James Mosley's History of Letterforms - YouTube

James Mosley’s lectures on the history of letterforms were delivered in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication over many years. They represent ...

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 26/09/2025

There’s going to be a printed 12th Edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary! Even if you’re living that digital life, you should order one, for the splendid and thought-provoking delight of opening to a random page and seeing something unexpected. → hflr.io/mw12

A page from the 12th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, charmingly including a little tableau of BIRD HEADS.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 11/08/2025

Reposting, because: 1. CLANKER 2. words generally 3. H&Co fonts on the website!

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 12/07/2025

How ever to define a color in the dictionary? This is the topic of @korystamper.bsky.social’s long-awaited new book, now available for pre-order. As a huge fan of her splendid “Word by Word,” I am absolutely tickled in a color as of coral or salmon! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555914...

penguinrandomhouse.com

True Color by Kory Stamper: 9781524733032 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

A kaleidoscopic journey through the secret history of hues—and the story of the obsessive genius behind the definitions of colors we use today, from the beloved author of Word by Word begonia...

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Just going to consult this reference book, “The Consequences of Pursuing Godlike Power,” by The Entire Canon of World Literature

In Pursuit of Godlike Technology, Mark Zuckerberg Amps Up the A.I. Race
Unhappy with his company’s artificial intelligence efforts, Meta’s C.E.O. is on a spending spree as he reconsiders his strategy in the contest to invent a hypothetical “superintelligence.”

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 08/06/2025

The greatest gift I have ever received has been the introduction to the *millions* of people around the world who’ve sharpened their love of letterforms through my episode of “Abstract” on Netflix. This morning, a lovely email from a complete stranger in Krefeld, Germany — thanks, Melissa!

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 25/05/2025

By “the industry,” are we talking about the one that has enriched civilization since the stone age, or the one run by a small handful of tech titans

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 07/05/2025

To the Honorable Judge @darthbluesky.bsky.social: Budino has discovered that his longtime favorite, the slipper, sometimes has (when worn) a hard crunchy center (the human toe.) The literature advises that I’m supposed to discourage this, but I am weak to deny him this apex happiness. Advise?

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 01/05/2025

It really might be time to let all the tech CEOs fulfill their ambition of building an extra-territorial tax haven island where they can all go and live together, allowing the rest of us some peace and quiet, or at least the ability to take them out with a single naval bombardment

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 01/05/2025

I don’t know what chance or fate led me tonight to rewatch The West Wing S05 E16, “Eppur Si Muove,” but my god did it hit like a ton of bricks. American scientists, 2025. The scientists.

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 17/04/2025

okay, pretty great ad www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTv3...

youtube.com

Our All American Movement

YouTube video by Abdul El-Sayed

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 07/04/2025

You know, I look around at this world — its economic turmoil, civil unrest, environmental collapse — and I keep coming back to the thought that what we most need right now are some giant wolves

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 07/04/2025

I HIGHLY recommend subscribing to “Your Local Epidemiologist” on Substack. This morning, a shrewd analysis of the disinformation campaign being waged around measles in Texas. An invaluable read: yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com

yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com

Your Local Epidemiologist | Katelyn Jetelina | Substack

Providing a direct line of "translated" public health science to you. Click to read Your Local Epidemiologist, a Substack publication with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 01/04/2025

Concept of the day: “Hamming Distance.” Interesting, useful; jolly name. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamming...

en.wikipedia.org

Hamming distance - Wikipedia

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 26/03/2025

I don't think we'll ever know why scientists act like that.

A charmingly ambiguous headline from NPR: "These scientists are building a cat database to understand why they act like that"

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Sarah Archer @sarcher.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that “eating alone” might not be the whole picture.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 13/03/2025

Woefully incomplete! At the very least, missing are: (vi) those belonging to the Emperor (vii) embalmed ones (viii) fabled ones (ix) stray dogs (x) those included in this classification (xi) innumerable ones (xii) those that have just broken the vase (xiii) those that from afar look like flies

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 13/03/2025

I don't know about you, but I'm heading into the kitchen to mix myself the granddaddy of all negronis

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 03/03/2025

What do we think “half mast” looks like at McDonalds? Are both flags run down? Just the Stars and Stripes? Do they move the McDonalds flag to half mast if Mayor McCheese dies?

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Mark Lerner @ragandboneshop.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Readying an old old album for digital distribution, and I remembered this pretty funny album-credits-as-type-specimen that was included in the CD.

Album credits typeset in the style of a metal type specimen for a typeface called Rosine Oldstyle, with sample phrases beginning with each song title, & the type distribution scheme (how many upper-case A's, how many lower-case a's are included with each point size), and the musicians listed as "Characters in Complete Font"

Text reads:

Rosine Oldstyle
36 Point
4A 8a
WHEEL AND COME
Again is our first dance
30 Point
5A 10a
UNDER THE WILLOW?
We adore a moldy old-time
24 Point
6A 11a
SLIPPERY THREAD OBSERVE the cunningly named "Faux-Bro" in fierce musical battle with an organ
18 Point
9A 18a
WHEN FIRST UNTO THIS COUNTRY AND
Nancy folded into one another like egg whites into the waffle batter on Sunday morning when
16 Point
10A 22a
RAIN BOY COMPOSER one mystery we have yet to unravel fully at Rag
14 Point
13A 25a
THE ONE I LOVE IS GONE
Masking tape and beer bottles make us fine drum substitutes
12 Point
16A 32a
THE WORLD THROUGH MY
Window, more peppy sad ditties so beloved by the young folks of
10 Point
18A 36a
STANDING ABOVE THE STARS AND
Standing Dub wherein we discover the honeyed dulcet tones of the lovely and spunky gal of the North country where the cows are all kings and the kings are
8 Point
24A 46a
CRY EVERY NIGHT ON STAGE? MISTER
Ray's secrets revealed at last as music historians unearth tales of dressing room shenanigans with supply of minced onions hidden in showgirl's red
6 Point
24A 50a
A NEW BROOM SWEEPS CLEAN, BUT AN OLD BROOM Knows Every Corner; dust bunnies are gathered for examination by floor care fanatics, typographers, and assorted sorcerer's apprentices seeking hidden meanings tucked inside cryptic nuggets of consumer

Characters in Complete Font

Mark Lerner
Nancy Lynn Howell
Jonathan Feinberg
Mark Donato
Reuben Radding
Philippa Thompson
David Goldfarb
Lianne Smith
Tom Laverack
Josh Neretin
Kurt Hoffman
Brian Dewan
Al Houghton
Diane Stockwell
Bob Beimer
John Frisch
Chris Washburne

(16 Point carried in stock only at Foundry)

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 28/02/2025

Apple Intelligence has truly achieved the caliber of insane gibberish unseen since the days of the Newton MessagePad. Below, my phone's alarming summary of a voicemail, which in fact dealt with scheduling a time to meet with an electrician to compare halogen and LED light fixtures.

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 27/02/2025

When next you need a break from all the doomscrolling, may I suggest a few minutes with CutAndPasteMovies: www.instagram.com/cutandpastem...

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Helpful illustration by Dr. Hardeep Singh on how federal health & safety agencies protect us.

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

A fun Black History Month footnote to this is that the motif of the anthropomorphic legislative bill—known to most of us from Schoolhouse Rock—has roots in the Black press of the 1930s, as in these two editorial cartoons by Bill Chase & Romare Bearden, both highlighting anti-lynching legislation

Cartoon, A Gentle Reminder, showing anthropomorphic anti-lynching bill saying to member of Congress "Hey you! Don't forget I'm still out here!"

Anthropomorphic legislative bill labeled "Costigan Wagner bill," referencing anti-lynching legislation

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 20/02/2025

Currently paused at the grocery store, listening to a soothing Bob Marley song, and contemplating whether the answer to all our problems might just be eating an entire ball of mozzarella and going to bed

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 08/02/2025

Really worth the two minutes. And the additional related phenomena that @kottke.org pulled together are illuminating!

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 27/01/2025

Making the rounds is this *wonderful* sequence by Questlove, which is so joyful and energizing. Not just “worth the seven and a half minutes,” but the 22-1/2 in which you’ll be unable not to immediately watch it three times in a row. Ingenious and beautiful and inspiring. youtu.be/vDxYQd51Xuk?...

youtu.be

Ladies & Gentlemen...50 Years of SNL Music | Official Preview | Peacock Original - SNL Fanatic

YouTube video by SNL Fanatic

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Jonathan Hoefler @jonathanhoefler.com · 25/01/2025

Reposting this because it’s topical for me, but personally I’m more interested in the gent at lower right who appears to be watching a murder mystery on a black-and-white TV:

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