{"id":9075,"date":"2022-06-09T13:20:21","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T10:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/typetype.org\/fr\/?p=9075"},"modified":"2026-05-15T10:18:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:18:42","slug":"creation-of-tt-commons-from-the-foundrys-corporate-typeface-to-a-bestseller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/typetype.org\/fr\/blog\/creation-of-tt-commons-from-the-foundrys-corporate-typeface-to-a-bestseller\/","title":{"rendered":"Creation of TT Commons\u2122: From the foundry’s corporate typeface to a bestseller"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The TT Commons\u2122 Pro<\/a> font family needs no introduction as it has been TypeType\u2019s best-seller for many years now. These are not just words\u2014since 2018, the font family has been a bestseller for 93% of the time it has been on the sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TT Commons\u2122 has a fascinating history, because it was created in 2016, and back then it was not supposed to be released as a commercial font at all. Despite this, the TT Commons\u2122 family in its classic version has had 2 versions, and in 2021 it experienced a global revision receiving its new name TT Commons\u2122 Pro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In honor of the release of the new TT Commons\u2122 Pro Mono subfamily, we decided to let designers behind the scenes of font making and share the story of how initially a corporate typeface created for TypeType\u2019s internal use became one of the studio\u2019s main driving forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First sketches and development<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of 2016, Pavel Emelyanov, the author of TT Commons\u2122, came up with the idea to create a corporate font for the TypeType studio. Upon creation, we wanted to see an interesting and memorable family that at the same time would be concise and minimalistic. After all, our corporate identity had a neutral character, and the font had to become part of this style. We planned to design our logo and the new website, client agreements and internal documentation using the developed typeface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wanted the font to be expressive, but at the same time neutral and simple. With this in mind, the first sketches\u2014options for the logo and some letters\u2014were created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then we expanded the character composition, working on just one face, the middle one between Medium and DemiBold. In about two weeks, the studio\u2019s specialists finalized the font, and it was put to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The font was named TT Commons\u2122, as in common. As planned, we designed the entire corporate identity using the new typeface. We created an aesthetic font that graphic designers liked visually, and colleagues working with documents liked it for its simplicity and ease of use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A distinctive feature of the font was that the size of TT Commons\u2122 was 11% smaller than standard fonts. Typically, the height of capitals is 700 font units, and the size of capitals in TT Commons\u2122 is 630. This feature came out naturally, and for internal use, such parameters did not hinder the work with the font at all, and we did not plan to release TT Commons\u2122 on the sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Creating a commercial typeface<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immediately after the release of TT Commons\u2122 as a corporate font<\/a>, we began to receive a lot of questions about the new typeface. Users saw the font they liked, they could also see the name TT Commons\u2122 hidden in the page code. There was a dissonance: there was an aesthetic font that people would like to purchase, but the font itself did not exist neither on the font sites nor on the corporate site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the size of the audience interested in TT Commons\u2122 grew, we realized that we needed to start developing a complete font family for commercial use. We expanded the character composition, added support for languages, and increased the number of font styles. We didn\u2019t change the parameters of the font, nor its visual character. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Black face was ready by the summer of 2017, later the Thin typeface was drawn, and then we proceeded to intermediate fonts. In the fall, all straight faces were ready: Thin, ExtraLight, Light, Regular, Medium, DemiBold, Bold, ExtraBold, Black. While the technical department was hinting these weights, the type designers were working on creating italics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In early 2018, the font was released to marketplaces. The first commercial version of TT Commons\u2122 had 18 styles and 771 glyphs. The release took place in March 2018, and almost immediately the font became the studio\u2019s bestseller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technical progress of the TypeType studio, as well as the professional growth of the graphics department, directly influenced the development of TT Commons\u2122. We wanted to make this font family better, apply new internal technologies, and expand the character composition. This is how additional versions 2, 2.1, 2.110 appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We improved the font technically, changed encoding, and added new glyphs. In the 2.0 version, there were still 18 faces, but the character composition consisted of 1230 glyphs. The 2.1 version was supplemented with new faces, and their total was now 24. The character composition also changed: instead of 1230 glyphs, there were now 1434.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were constantly improving the font, and each version was a natural step in the evolution of the project. Despite significant changes, the font retained all of its features that designers all over the world liked so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The last version of the classic TT Commons\u2122 was released in 2019, but after the release, we began to prepare a new, global and significant upgrade for the project. The best-selling typeface was on the verge of a new birth and an almost complete redrawing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audience contributions to TT Commons\u2122 and customizations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our studio, there is an unspoken rule: always listen to the opinion of the audience. It is the comments of users about our fonts that allow us to develop our projects, improve them and make them more beautiful. Of course, it is not only that: our team is always striving to become more professional and better. And yet, without feedback, it is more difficult to understand whether we are going in the right direction or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the TT Commons\u2122 story, user comments are the reason why the font is now available for purchase for your project. However, audience feedback continued to influence the development of TT Commons throughout its development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the release of the font on the platforms, we have received many comments and questions about it. These were mainly TT Commons\u2122 customization projects that later influenced the creation of TT Commons\u2122 Pro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customization<\/a> is a usual service for TypeType, in which we modify a font for a specific project, partially changing it from a technical, visual or other side. For example, the most common requests are adding a logo to the font\u2019s character composition, reducing the number of languages to lighten the weight of the font, and renaming the font for the client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the above customizations also happened with TT Commons\u2122, but some of the requests were unique to the font.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might recall that TT Commons\u2122 was created with custom sizes reduced by 11%? The initial feature of the font was not very convenient for many customers, so the most common request for customization of TT Commons\u2122 was to increase the font sizes to the standard ones found in most popular typefaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, such Customization was requested by Vidmob, MATTR, Ripple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the next chapter, we will explain how such requests influenced the creation of TT Commons\u2122 Pro, and for now we will move on to another common type of customization made for TT Commons\u2122. With these requests, we were more often approached by designers working in interface programs. The font has such a thing as a mean line, that is, a conditional line along which the font will be aligned, for example, in buttons. For words to look harmonious, they should be centered, but many designers had difficulty working with TT Commons\u2122, because the mean line was slightly shifted. We changed the level of the mean line for many projects, and subsequently became more attentive to this parameter in all of our fonts. By the way, designers working in interface programs will feel comfortable with TT Commons\u2122 Pro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were, of course, more global customizations. For instance, we are talking about graphic changes in glyphs that companies requested so that the font would match the corporate identity of the project or the client\u2019s requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did the largest customization for Ripple, and in the course of work, we made the following changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n