This page contains the Workplace series of TrueType fonts. These are fonts which have been inspired by OS/2's built-in bitmap fonts, but are implemented as outline fonts.

A PDF preview document (1.1 MB) for Workplace Sans and Workplace Gothic is now available. (It may not always show the most recent releases.)

Note: I use FontLab (both TypeTool 3 and Studio 5) for development. I have created FontLab-compatible codepage files (which can be used to generate cmap tables in the compiled font) for the OS/2 Extended Universal Glyph List.

Workplace Gothic

[Workplace Gothic] Workplace Gothic is a semi-condensed sans-serif font. Like Workplace Sans (below), it is designed for user interfaces, and is loosely inspired by the WarpSans font.

Workplace Gothic has proportions similar to those of Workplace Sans, but with rounder curves, tighter spacing, and a design closer to those of ‘grotesque’ fonts like News Gothic. This gives it a more relaxed and natural appearance.

Workplace Gothic is currently available in regular and bold weights.

View additional examples:

As with my other outline fonts, Workplace Gothic has only very basic hinting, and therefore looks best on-screen when anti-aliased (smoothed).

See the release notes for installation instructions.

Supported Characters

Workplace Gothic presently supports Latin-1, plus selected additional characters.

Files

wpgoth_ttf_03.zip The latest release (version 0.3) of Workplace Gothic (all weights) in TrueType format.
wpgoth_src_03.zip Workplace Gothic source files (version 0.3) in FontLab format.

Legal Notices

Workplace Gothic is © 2009, 2016 Alexander Taylor. All rights reserved.

Workplace Gothic is licensed under the Open Font License.

Open Font License

Workplace Sans

[Workplace Sans] Workplace Sans is a semi-condensed sans-serif font, inspired by the OS/2 bitmap font "WarpSans", and intended primarily for user interfaces (menus, dialogs, and the like).

Workplace Sans is currently available in regular and bold versions.

View additional examples:

Development work on Workplace Sans is done using FontLab Studio 5. For the bitmapped versions, the bitmaps are being created and embedded using FontForge.

See the release notes for installation instructions.

Supported Characters

Workplace Sans supports Latin-1, Latin-2, Cyrillic, Hebrew, and Greek, plus a few additional characters here and there.

Background

For more information, including comparative illustrations, you can check out the design history of Workplace Sans.

Bitmaps

I provide two different builds of the Workplace Sans fonts: one which includes embedded bitmaps at 7, 8, 9, and 10 point sizes (as measured at 120 dpi); and one without. Given the lack of hinting, the bitmaps allow for much crisper and more legible text at smaller sizes, so these versions are generally recommended. As a bonus, it also makes the font more closely resemble WarpSans at comparable sizes. (Of course, this depends on a capable rasterizer such as FreeType being used – otherwise, the bitmaps will be ignored and the characters will be drawn using the standard glyphs.)

I generated the bitmaps in Workplace Sans by using FontForge to rasterize the outlines, then cleaning up the generated bitmaps by hand. The results should look virtually identical to WarpSans at the comparable sizes. (To the best of my knowledge, there are no legal problems involved with doing this, as font designs, especially bitmap fonts, are not subject to copyright law. The actual bitmap files are copyrighted, of course, but that isn't an issue since the Workplace Sans bitmaps are effectively a "clean-room" reimplementation. However, if you happen to be located in a jurisdiction with different legal conventions, you can always use the non-bitmapped versions instead.)

Files

wpsu_bit_104.zip The latest release (version 1.04) of Workplace Sans in TrueType format, with embedded bitmaps at select sizes.
wpsu_ttf_104.zip Same as the above, but without embedded bitmaps.
wpsu_src_104.zip Workplace Sans source (version 1.04) in FontLab and BDF format.

Legal Notices

Workplace Sans is © 2003–2019 Alexander Taylor. All rights reserved.

Workplace Sans v0.6 and later, and Workplace Sans bold v0.2 and later are licensed under the Open Font License. (Earlier versions were public domain software.)

Open Font License

Workplace Console

[Workplace Console] Workplace Console is an attempt at creating a monospaced font suitable for both terminals and text editors, loosely inspired by the built-in OS/2 bitmap font "System VIO".

Workplace Console is available in regular weight only. There is also a variant, Workplace Console Classic, which replaces three of the lower-case characters with versions that more closely resemble those in System VIO. (These variant glyphs are also available as stylistic alternates in the regular font, for applications that support OpenType features.)

Also available is a narrow variant called Workplace Console Condensed. This was the first version I released, and is considerably older and less polished than the normal styles. Workplace Console Condensed is intended to combine well with Workplace Sans.

Supported Characters

Workplace Console supports the Latin-1 character set, as well as IBM codepages 850, 859, 860, 861, 863, 1004 and 437. Workplace Console Condensed currently only supports Latin-1 and a few additional characters.

Files

wpcon_ttf_100.zip Workplace Console (version 1.00) in TrueType format.
wpconcl_ttf_100.zip Workplace Console Classic (version 1.00) in TrueType format.
wpcon_src_100.zip Workplace Console (version 1.00) source in FontLab format.
wpconc_ttf_001.zip Workplace Console Condensed (version 0.01) in TrueType format.

Legal Notices

Workplace Console is © 2015, 2018 Alexander Taylor. All rights reserved.

Workplace Console and Workplace Console Classic are licensed under the Open Font License.

Open Font License

Workplace Console Condensed is a preview (beta) release, licensed free for personal or academic use. Special permission is required for commercial use; contact the author if interested.