Typography Gets Scientific

Hydrogen... Helium... Lithium... Gotham? Students have diligently analyzed the periodic table of elements hanging in classrooms for years, and design-wise the table has served as what is actually a long-lasting example of information design. Why not present a history of typefaces the same way? Like elements, typefaces also have specific properties, compositions, ways that they can be grouped (families etc.), and can produce "reactions" of sorts when used together. While I don't expect this Periodic Table of Typefaces to be hanging in mac labs anytime soon, the table lists 100 of the most popular, influential, and notorious typefaces today. The typefaces are grouped first by families and then by classes of typefaces (sans-serif, serif, script, display, geometric, humanist, slab-serif...). Each typeface cell has a logical symbol and also the designer, year designed, and a ranking of 1 through 100. Rankings were based on combining lists and opinions from a few other sites. A larger image of the entire periodic table is available here.