Making all the charts

by David Sudweeks

FF Chartwell, the font that makes charts out of simple text strings, let you create 13 different chart styles.

[link not found] [link not found] FF Chartwell isn’t like other faces in that its letters and figures aren’t intended to be displayed; They only serve as placeholders for chart and graph elements. When the discretionary ligatures OpenType feature is enabled, simple strings of numbers are transformed, snapping into place as chart elements. Because it’s type, FF Chartwell’s styles give the typographer very close, familiar control over the elements of each chart. Quickly generate visuals out of data with a few keystrokes. Let it flow naturally from column to column. Easily specify color from the same swatch palette as the source document, either manually or using nested styles. And should the design require “going manual,” convert the chart to outlines for more specific control.

The FF Chartwell story began with a graph-heavy print project produced in InDesign, and the question ‘Couldn’t some of this be automated?’ Inspired by fonts like FF PicLig, which for example substitutes a picture of a car when you type in ‘car,’ designer Travis Kochel started with a simple pie chart font just to see if he could get it working.

Buy FF Chartwell now

FF Chartwell’s styles include Pies, Areas, Vertical Bars, Horizontal Bars, Rose, Rings, and Radar charts. This latest release adds Bubbles, Scatter, Lines, Floating Bars, Floating Areas, and Floating Rings. In addition to print, these styles are also available in a special webfont format that allows for new possibilities, like using dynamic text to make chart animations.

At TypeCon I interviewed graphic/type designer Travis Kochel on creating this amazing set of fonts, FF Chartwell, how he started, and what’s come of it since.

Getting started with FF Chartwell is easy. The user manual tells you everything you need to know with a concise paragraph per style and examples of each in use.

FontFont also created a screencast guide that walks you through it, step by step.