iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/08/2026

In Letterletter 6 Noordzij reviewed my 1987 epic cinematographic interpretation of the classic Greek Ikarus. Note it has dramatic direction, ups and downs in the character development, translation, groundbreaking three-dimensional wings and full digital animated […] [Original post on typo.social]

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/07/2025

@fontspectrum We should not anthropomorphize font formats, they don’t like that. The typedesigner is taking photos of some lettering in the blurry background.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/07/2025

Once I get my printer running again I will make more these tokens. Powerful stuff. Make Your Backups. Lose Nowt, Regret Nowt. Cheap Advice. #riso #makebackups #lettering #lowenowt

A coloful RISOI print with handlettered text that says “Make Your Backups. Lose Nowt, Regret Nowt. Cheap Advice.” In Small print it says “CRY CRY CRY” and “TOLD YOU SO”.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2025

Sunday morning designspace-thinking. While it is worthwhile to make each variable font source perfect, the majority of your designspace consists of mixes of these sources. How far does your perfect reach? When and how were you going to look at the actual […] [Original post on typo.social]

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/06/2025

What began as a imaginary book cover of an imagined Atlas of the World (with nice type) is now… still imaginary and very much made up. But at least Google AI thinks it is an actual book by me! So finally AI made me an author! At least the cover is real. Well. #AI #covers #verybauble #AIslop

From Google results: LettError, Atlas of the World, book by Erik van Blokland!

The actual imaginary cover, showing LTR Very Bauble in various states: Sans, Inline, Pipped. Gorgeous.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/06/2025

Oh look, Monotype scaring the senior leadership of their clients into… a zombie DSIG !? 🧟‍♂️ I bet the keys to sign your “secure fonts” can only be rented for a steep membership? Not to mention on how this would work for streaming or subset fonts. Discuss.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/06/2025

Can’t get InDesign to boot. Sequia 15.5 (24F74). Fresh Indesign install, first keeping preferences and settings. Then I tried a completely clean install. No dice, keeps crashing. Any suggestions? Is there a “safe mode” boot? A “forget everything I said before can […] [Original post on typo.social]

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/05/2025

Ready for my billion dollar merger.

My favorite dark blue espresso cup. On my desk.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/05/2025

Longboard 1.3.9. In which @arthurfontzarelli does some plumbing to make Longboard compatible with exciting upcoming buttonsin DSE2. And a new contextual menu for copying previews while exploring the designspace. That is all.

Screenshot of the contextual menu in a RoboFont glypheditor, showing the copy Preview and Show Location items. If this does not mean anything to you: do not worry. It is a small, specialised tool for typedesigners who make variable fonts and designspaces with RoboFont.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/05/2025

Dutch word of the day: "doorstroomvennootschappen". Something like shellcompanies, if I understand that correctly. Three pairs of o! Double n, double p. Throat clearing clusters rstr and tsch. Source: @volkskrant

Photo from the word "doorstroomvennootschappen" in the Volkskrant.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/05/2025

Headline from today’s @volkskrant “weggeëbd”, present perfect of the verb“wegebben”. Three e’s, double g, bd, what’s not to like. #kerning #spacing #letters

Headline from the Volkskrant newspaper. The interesting word is “weggeëbd”. Not to be confused with “weggeappt”.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/05/2025

“A little Verdana showing, from Microsoft". Early specimen for Verdana. Source.. Microsoft? 1996?

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/05/2025

"Congratulations on winning the Creative Alliance CD and 464-page catalogue as your prize at the 1997 Typo Quiz. Call Alison Doyle at Monotype about special offers from the CD! We look forward to hearing from you. with compliments" In original plastic seal […] [Original post on typo.social]

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/05/2025

New York Times Magazine, apparently. October 2000. Colorful stuff. LTR Federal #archive #clean #ad

A
Over of the New York Times
Magazine showing LTR Federal. On a separate page, a promotional poster for the same fonts. Very colorful shading effects.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/05/2025

Going through the shelves. Look at this cute analog pen and wash drawing of some sort of digital house? With centronics port and floppy bay no less. Some illustration work from 1991. #illustration #pen #ink #centronics #house #brain

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/05/2025

These served me well: classic Python books, but now they have to go. If anyone is interested in recent Pythonic history: pick up in The Hague. Otherwise these tomes will be resigned to the old paper. Box set. No shipping. #python #oreilly #reference #code #history

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/05/2025

Music themed NEWS LTR №16 for your eyes, in your mails, if you happen to subscribe the LettError News LTR. But you can always read the archives. Or sign up. It is free. buttondown.com/letterror/archive

A drawing or diagram of the eye, looking at a letter S. Caption says "Disgusting Eye". Apparently the eye's interior is "soup" and "ham". I'm not entirely convinced this proper science. Must be art then.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/04/2025

Father Catich would have had one or two things to say about this inscription for pope Francis. Photo source www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pope-f…

Photo of the tomb stone of pope Francis, showing a terribly spaced FRANCISCVS.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/04/2025

A letter to the Guardian from Timothy X Atack on AI and art and it has this nice line: www.theguardian.com/technology/2025… #ai #art #guardian @guardian

Screenshot
From Guardian app. It reads: But of course creativity is not simply a matter of training on the work of others. Innovative artists make decisions towards low-probability outcomes; imitation, meanwhile, seeks high-probability outcomes.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/04/2025

PSA. Make sure you activate Find My on all your devices. Amazingly, counterintuitively, it can work. A burglar. A chase. Police. An arrest. And an iPad retrieved. Also, make backups. #findmy #ios #macos #devices #apple #burglary

Screenshot from an email sent by FindMy that the iPad was found.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/04/2025

I'm selling my copy of the Stedelijk Museum catalog 498, 1971. Ton Bruynèl, Dick Raaijmakers and Peter Struyken. Wonderful examples of early explorations of procedural and computational art and music. Complete with three 7", 33⅓ RPM flexidiscs (in good condition […] [Original post on typo.social]

Spread with generated patterns by Peter Struyken.

7", 33⅓ RPM flexidiscs (in good condition, with labeled protective sheets) with audio recordings by Bruynèl, Raaijmakers and Struyken.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/04/2025

You know you’re in Berlin when you find 3 ancient Mac fossils on the street. Grey. Silver door. PowerPC, maybe? #berlin #streetmac

3 old Mac towers, just the empty husks. On the street, at night.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/03/2025

I love the murals at Amsterdam Amstel station. Today I read about the artist Peter Alma, and you can too: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Alma #mural #trains #nederlansespoorwegen

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/03/2025

Apple Notes on iPad, writing with the pen, when it takes your handwriting and then re-inserts it every so slightly, but unnecessarily different. Definitely auto, but not refined. It can be switched off! In the tools palette, the … menu, look for the "Auto-refine […] [Original post on typo.social]

Auto-refine Handwriting switch in the iPad Notes prefs.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/03/2025

“A magnifying glass is not recommended unless the eyesight is defective.” Forking harsh words from R. John Beedham, Wood Engraving, Faber, Mcmxxxviii.

Photo of the book, image of a lens on a small adjustable stand. Some text.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/03/2025

An update for LTR Very Bauble! The original characterset was a bit sparse, so I added, oh, let's see, an asterism, at, sterling, questiondown, Eacute, Ohungarumlaut, Icircumflex, Scommaaccent, Lslash, Adieresis.alt and, let's see, about 2500 more of their […] [Original post on typo.social]

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/03/2025

How did I end up with all these homebrew entries in my .zprofile?

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/03/2025

Behold this cube with 3 axes, 8 on the corners with 10 additional masters at wild randomised locations sprinkled in the cube, Delaunay triangulates to 60 tetrahedrons. Complex but not sweat for a computer. Barycentric interpolation in each simplex guarantees […] [Original post on typo.social]

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/03/2025

@liaizon @tomjennings Pawnbroker balls might be reversed in orientation with two at the top, one at the bottom. Reference: fig. 2 Pawnbroker's shop, Islington. Barbara Jones, The Unsophisticated Arts, 1951, p 158. (And while the illustration is too good to go […] [Original post on typo.social]

Illustration from Barbara Jones, The Unsophisticated Arts, 1951, p 158. Three balls for the Pawnbroker's shop, Islington. horses head for a Saddler's shop in Liverpool, and a revolving barber's pole, East London. Black and white pen drawing.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/02/2025

Thank you @ANRT for the superbly organised and programmed Automatic Type Design 3 2025!

Screenshot of an ancient MacBook telling us that, sadly, the Ikarus M 1.2 crashed after Erreur 10.

Close up of the outline artefacts for photographic reproduction of Univers. Exhibition by Tania Raposo.

Unexpected Calypso in metal, in the letterpress workshop at ENSAD, Nancy.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/02/2025

Have a look at these tiny books. L.J.C. Boucher, publisher and bookseller at the Noordeinde in The Hague, published a series of small books, nice binding, nice illustrations and lettering. Cover designs and cute lettering by J.H. Kuiper. Left: J,. Greshof, Cum […] [Original post on typo.social]

Two bookcovers by JH Kuiper who did the illustrations and lettering. The photo shows a Bic ballpoint pen for scale. The books are rather small.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/02/2025

I'm heading towards the Automatic Type Design ANRT conference in Nancy for 1, maybe 2 talks. #1: See Also: using Cosine Similarity in type design. #2: Simplexspaces: an exploration of alternative interpolation designspaces. @ANRT #typedesign #interpolation #mathemathics

Talk 1: See Also: how to use Cosine Similarity math in typedesign. Short, fun and hopefully useful.

Talk 2: Simplexpspaces: alternative interpolation spaces for type design.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/01/2025

No nasty algorithms or tracking here on Mastodon. No billionaire bullies or shady investors. No AI training on your posts. Just you & your friends. You know all this, you're here already, well done! LTR Limited Grotesque. A warm, human, low contrast sans typeface. More weight, less baggage. #ad

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/01/2025

If you're out and about in NL, Thursday January 30, Demo Festival on 📱📱📱 screens in Dutch train stations and some other big screen locations across the country. This is the programme: demofestival.com/programme/exhibiti… Hey see if you can spot our […] [Original post on typo.social]

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/01/2025

Paul Troppmair drew this poster and the lettering and there’s even a bit of LTR Principia on it. 💀🩸 #Skull #mörderinnen

White type and lettering on a black background. Poster. Blood splatters. Says: Maskierte Mörder*innen.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/01/2025

(This is the entire marketing plan for LettError Type in one compact image / catalog and logo.)

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/01/2025

Last December, TypeToday's @ruderman asked me lots of thoughtful questions and I did my best to reply. But there are drawings and some excellent letters drawn in imaginative and novel styles. So there's that! @typetodaynews

You think these things are easy until you actually try to figure out the math. And when the bits fall on the floor and you step on them.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/01/2025

Who designs the They Might Be Giants graphics at the moment? Because eye heart. #EamesCenturyModernStencil #theymightbegiants #TMBG #THEYONTOUR

Tour image for They Might Be Giants, using House Industries' Eames Century Modern.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/01/2025

If you're on MacOS Sequoia, and you're used to clicking on the Desktop to get hold of the Finder, check SysPrefs / Desktop & Dock / Desktop & Stage Manager / Show Items: ☑️ On Desktop. #apple #macos #sequoia #systempreferences #desktop #finder

Screenshot of the MacOS System Preferences window. Particulary the Dekstop & Dock tab and the "On Desktop" checkbox.

Maybe you already knew about this. I needed to look it up.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/01/2025

A 10 second animation made by Lars van Blokland and me is part of the DEMO festival on January 30th. On all 9:16 screens in The Netherlands! demofestival.com/designers/lars-2b-… Locations: demofestival.com/location #demofestival […] [Original post on typo.social]

Still from the 10 second video "Shiny Unground". It looks like a tube station, but very shiny, and wobbly. It is probably for the best that public transport does not move in this way.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/01/2025

Some typographic news to read on this Friday afternoon while we ease into a weekend? NEWS LTR №13: This & That is in your mailbox, and also right here: buttondown.com/letterror/archive/ne… #mailinglist #newsletter #typography #POTS

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/01/2025

Typo.social has no fact checkers on contract, but I know you will call out bullshit when you see it. This is an invite to sign up to the LTR Newsletter if you haven't already. Commercial motives clearly on the table, this is an #ad. If you like seeing my work […] [Original post on typo.social]

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/01/2025

Teletekst screen circa 2006 for Service provider XS4ALL. “Due to a disruption, we can’t show disruptions on teletekst. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.” Someone had a sense of humor. #teletekst #xs4all

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/01/2025

Regarding neon verses LED. I don’t know when this Dutch department store sign was upgraded to LED, but it had to be fairly recent. This is a fancy, expensive store. Individual blocks burned out. Neon can last for decades. @stewf #bijenkorf #thehague #led #lettering #burnout #neon

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/12/2024

Sad to hear that Cargoroo, the service that provided rental electric cargobikes in cities around NL, is going out of business. I was a frequent and happy user of these vehicles and I hope a similar service will return to The Hague. Here's me moving an old […] [Original post on typo.social]

The hull of an old washing machine, loaded in an electric cargo bike, on its way to the recycling. It was a sunny day.

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Erik @letterror.typo.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/12/2024

This implies a Lego espresso machine.

Three Lego parts. Two resembling porta filters. And a single stud round part that looks like a portion of coffee.

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