Steven Heller writes for the NYT about amateur typographers and the widespread use of their typefaces due to easy distribution on the Net.
Back then a novice could not produce a viable typeface without having a type foundry or type shop make and sell it. Type design was the province of skilled artisans who were expert at achieving the finer points of legibility through graphic subtleties invisible to the reader's eye but crucial to a good reading experience.
Now, for well over a decade, computer programs like FontLab and Fontographer have allowed neophytes, as well as veterans, to create a new generation of digital type. During the ensuing digital typographic revolution of the 90's, a slew of designers and illustrators who had never designed an alphabet before flooded Internet sites with bizarrely named, peculiarly styled and sometimes illegible faces. Typeface design became something of an expressive art.
However, as Jason Kottke notes:
Odd examples in the slideshow though...where's Chank, Joe Gillespie, or Ray Larabie? They're the real amateurs.
