When it comes to type vendors, FontShop easily wins the title of Most Adventurous and Playful—a bit by default, given the lack of fresh thinking in the field. But that's not to detract from one of its latest initiatives, which provides both a community-driven typographic experience, as well as serving as a sly way to market its own commercial fonts. FontStruct is a free, Flash-based web service that lets visitors use its tools to construct simple fonts, which they can then download in Mac or PC TrueType format (what, no OpenType?). They also have the option of posting them on the site, with visitors then being able to comment on them and download them free of charge.

Creating a font is a simple process of dragging the differently-shaped character building blocks—"bricks," as they're called—into place. You can then employ a handful of tools to make global changes and tune the results. Don't expect to be able to create the next Bodoni. But despite the inevitably severe design restrictions, some ingenious fonts have already been posted. It's worth pointing out that the service has been optimized for the creation of pixel fonts, which makes perfect sense given its grid-driven approach. Below is BlocParty, currently the most popular pixel font, displayed at the point size for which it was designed.

Nice touches are sprinkled liberally throughout the site, which is the work of Rob Meek, who last year startled the typographic world with his eccentric Meek FM Typographic Synthesizer. So hats off to FontShop for its involvement in the FontStruct project; it's a company that obviously understands how important it is to deepen its relationship with customers beyond simply making its products available for sale on the web.