Mass-Driver

Hey Chribbe! Great to hear you’re still using it :)

Have you used any of our fonts in a live project?

If you’re able to share an image or two (or better yet, submit a @fontsinuse.com post!), I’d love to hear what you worked on, and potentially feature it on the next version of our website

Congrats on the release! Incredible OpenType feature names

Using a great typeface is like cheating at design because your work instantly gets so much better.

After years of mucking, we started using MD System in a prototype. Seeing what the tool *could* look like was a huge motivation to finally make it happen. Once we saw it, we couldn't wait to build it.

We’ve had one request for manual TT hinting in almost 6 years of business (though I realise that reflects user knowledge as well as actual need).

All that said, the tooling and industry knowledge are not in a strong position, and I agree that’s a bad thing for many reasons

TT instructing variable fonts is no harder than static fonts, but that doesn’t change that it’s slow, expensive, specialist work, which can double the filesize with no guarantee that it’ll actually improve visual quality (a lot of renderers nowadays ignore hints or don’t support all ‘flavours’)

If I can maybe share some insight on this from the foundry side: everything we release is PS hinted (mostly auto + some manual corrections). The TT hinting needed for these extreme cases is much more complex to implement, in no small part because there’s no way to combine auto and manual input

When you design a typeface, there’s always a feeling of “I hope someone does X with it”. For MD System, @fathom.info’s Rowboat is cooler than even my most optimistic goals:

that’s the bsky ‘Theme’ font iirc

HAL Typefaces HAL Typefaces is an independent vendor for digital fonts and bespoke typographic solutions.

Also shoutout to HAL Twins, a simultaneous (but very different!) take on the same source material :)

type.hanli.eu/twins/

@mass-driver.com has a modern revival of MICR-ish typefaces:

polychrome.mass-driver.com
#typography

“I guess you can use SF if you really insist, but we actually recommend this shitty knock-off of SF by A Tech Bro”

So your first example is correct, but if you said “the fonts will be available as of Monday” then it’s strongly suggested that Monday is when they’ll become available

There’s an implication that [date] is when the statement becomes true, but only for future dates, not past ones

“The website is online as of last week” (i.e. it’s probably still up, but last week is when I checked) doesn’t mean it went online last week, just that it *was* online last week

As long as I don’t have to kern the result

Update: it was actually *less* than one. High hopes for 2026!

Yes!

Also: we do not use AI. We have never used AI. We release about one typeface per year because craft is our highest priority, and it always will be.

I appreciate it! No obligation though of course, use what you think is best :)

MD Nichrome, a geometric sans-serif with a strong retro flavour, syncopated proportions. It’s inspired by 70s sci-fi paperback covers, and available in 16 styles (8 weights, from a very thin to a very bold, with matching obliques).

MD Polychrome, a typeface based on magnetic ink bank numbers (and the various retro-high-tech fonts they inspired in the 60s and 70s). Available in four styles, loosely corresponding to different print sizes rather than weights.

MD IO, a monospaced typeface intended for super-legible text. It’s somewhat futuristic in appearance (but not distractingly so) with strongly textured italics. Available in 16 styles, with weights from very light to very bold.

MD Lórien, a slightly ornate serif influenced by Caslon and the 18th century European typefaces which Caslon’s fonts were derived from. It’s available in five weights, with matching italics, swash caps, ligatures, etc. etc.

For any game developers* caught by the Monotype/Fontworks price hikes:
- you can use our fonts for video games
- there are no usage caps or renewal fees
- unrestricted trial fonts for in-engine testing
- smaller dev teams pay less.

mass-driver.com

*Extended Latin support, but not Japanese, sorry!

Thanks Ben! It’s been a busy end to the year, looking forward to a couple of weeks off

“I for one think it is entirely excellent that the US State Department is reverting to using a typeface designed by a committed Marxist who was imprisoned during WW1 as a conscientious objector. Bravo!” — John Hudson typedrawers.com/discussion/c...

A handful of key glyphs (lowercase a, asterisk, ampersand, capital R, superscript 1, percent sign) from MD Thermochrome, showing the visual language of the typeface. It’s a dotmatrix-style typeface made from circles and rounded horizontal lines, which grow and shrink to form the multiple weights.

A selection of icons from the typeface, highlighted in red, interspersed with words describing them (or described by them) in white.

Available now: MD Thermochrome v0.4 adds over 100 new icons to the typeface, all of which respond to weight and italic angle just like every other glyph. Legibility not guaranteed

www.futurefonts.com/mass-driver/...

This was a super interesting read, thank you so much for posting it!

As a type designer I’m acutely aware of Monotype pulling this kind of trick, but never had such a detailed look at how it works

Thanks for the kind words, and wow, what a coincidence! (It’s a great street, of course)

It wasn’t so bad! The grid is super awkward (it’s like a 7:10 aspect with strict adjacency rules), which gives it that sudoku-like flow-state level of challenge. Better than kerning, anyway

The workload, or you’re not a fan of this one?

A handful of key glyphs (lowercase a, asterisk, ampersand, capital R, superscript 1, percent sign) from MD Thermochrome, showing the visual language of the typeface. It’s a dotmatrix-style typeface made from circles and rounded horizontal lines, which grow and shrink to form the multiple weights.

A selection of icons from the typeface, highlighted in red, interspersed with words describing them (or described by them) in white.

Available now: MD Thermochrome v0.4 adds over 100 new icons to the typeface, all of which respond to weight and italic angle just like every other glyph. Legibility not guaranteed

www.futurefonts.com/mass-driver/...

A grid of 133 icons, symbols and arrows, from the upcoming V0.4 release of MD Thermochrome. Among them are icons for weather conditions, arrival/departures signs, documents, playing card suits, media controls, and common UI symbols.

The v0.4 update for MD Thermochrome is finally ready, and it’ll ship later today!

This version of the typeface includes 100+ new icons for UI design, wayfinding, and more.

There’s a few more hours to get it at the current price, with lifetime updates included:
www.futurefonts.com/mass-driver/...

I’m not complaining, it’s been a neat challenge so far. (case study on a specific set hopefully coming soon)