Font Fizz

Are you a kerning pro? Put your typographic knowledge to the test with KernType, a fontastic online game created by interaction designer Mark MacKay. Your goal: to achieve pleasant and readable text by distributing the space between letters. When you're done nudging, your solution is compared to the "typographer’s solution" and rated on a scale of 1 to 100. Once you've mastered KernType using clicks (of the arrow keys or a mouse), grab an iPad and try your hand at finger-kerning.

Whether you love to hate it or simply hate it, Comic Sans is here to stay. Now the famously tragic font has a Tumblr defending its honor. "We fear no fonts and we will make the whole world Comic Sans," state Thomas Blanc and Florian Amoneau, the French designers behind the Comic Sans Project. "Because Helvetica is sooo 2011." Their fight against Comic Sans discrimination entails showcasing famous logos, from the iconic crossed C's of Chanel to the glowing green mark of Xbox, that have been given a Comic Sans makeover. Visit the site (ideally on an empty stomach) to see Comic Sans-ified versions of iconic brands such as FedEx, MTV, NASA and Microsoft, for which Vincent Connare created the font nearly two decades ago.

Avería doesn't look average, but that's just what it is: a kind of multi-font mashup created by novice typographer Dan Sayers. Inspired to combine all of the fonts on his computer into a new typeface that wasn't a blurry mess, he embarked on an ambitious project that involved splitting each letter perimeter into hundreds of equally-spaced points. After a month of letter- and number-crunching, he had "Avería," named for a Spanish term related to the word average. "It actually means mechanical breakdown or damage," explains Sayers. "This seemed curiously fitting, and I was assured by a Spanish friend of a friend that 'Avería is an incredibly beautiful word regardless of its meaning.' So that's nice."

Get your 2012 off to an organized and creative start with Dutch type foundry and publisher Typotheque's slim calendar/sketchbook. "Every year we make a small edition of this simple pocket diary combined with the sketchbook," designer Peter Bilak tells us. "And every year there are small improvements in binding and inside of the book." The 2012 limited-edition thing of beauty includes a year overview, week overviews on double pages and a dozen different pre-printed sketchbook grids, while a listing of international holidays and design events ensures you won't miss Walpurgis Night (April 30) or the HOW Conference (June 20). A bonus we particularly liked: the book is specially bound so that it lies flat when opened.

Font fans will delight in Codex, a new journal-magazine hybrid "for people seriously in love with type." Founded by writer, designer and publisher John Boardley, the visually entrancing periodical celebrates and analyzes "the people, tools, and type associated with this craft, from the man carving beautiful cherubim into wood blocks in the 1400s to brilliantly formed modern interpretations and departures." The first issue features contributions by the likes of Paul Shaw, Stephen Coles and Erik Spiekermann. And, since we know you're wondering, Codex is designed by Vancouver-based Working Format and set in Lyon Text and Display from Commerical Type, Knockout from H&FJ and Akkurat Mono from Lineto.

When Ludvig Bruneau Rossow discovered an old model train set in his grandmother's basement, he did the obvious thing: made letters out of it. The Norwegian designer's "self-initiated typography experiment" resulted in Train Set, a zippy typeface dotted with tiny houses and the odd caboose. Rossow photographed his font and laid it out with a choo-choo twist, replacing the usual fox-jumping dog with another pangram: "The quick brown supertrain travels from Oslo to Grua." All aboard!