Eben is a type designer and type publisher living in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. His company is Sorkin Type Co.
He has been designing fonts for 4 years and has an MA degree in type design from the University of Reading in the UK.
Eben is interested in type design, types role in documents, UI/UX, and in the role that science can have in helping to improve type and document design.
Merriweather Font 
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Dear Eben Sorkin,
I was pleased to see your nice type Merriweather.
I’ve tried it on my mac. But there are some problems when i print it. Some strange phenomena’s occur. Many elements have bended details. It is unusable like this.
Can you explain and/or help me with a proper version?
De Uitbeelder, Onno van Geuns, Holland
Are you talking about the Serif or the sans? The italic or the upright? The original serif is about to be replaced with a much more printer friendly version. In theory the others are printer friendly but in general I recommend that people use the OTF version rather than the TTF version if they want to print. Let me know which ones you want and I’ll email you the OTFs.
Printing problems occur in all weights, except for the upright serif ones
I can send you a scan of the output, if you like?
And, oh yes, I really appreciate your offer to email me OTF versions.
Please use info*deuitbeelder.nl (replace the* for @)
Onno van Geuns, De Uitbeelder, Holland
Sent!
We are seeing the same issue when printing. Is the OTF version available for download somewhere?
Hi Eben,
I’m also designing a publication that follows styles from web and I have been having trouble printing all of your fonts, both the OTF and TTF versions. Can you provide any assistance?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Susannah
I can offer you either The free fonts from Font Squirrel or the better ST versions with more weights and features.
Dear Eben,
We have the same print issues and would like to test the OTF version. It must include latin extended. Is the OTF version available for download anywhere or could we have a version sent?
Best regards
The Github TTFs should not have this problem. https://github.com/EbenSorkin/Merriweather/releases But if you need OTFs instead I can build them for you or you could use Font Squirrel to convert them for you. What will you use them for?
I use Merriweather Serif here: http://caosordenado.com/
I really love the font. But don’t you think the kerning could be a little bit improved? And the “?” is too big. And when you use words-with-hyphens, they look funny, it’s not well balanced in the middle of the words.
Thank you for your amazing work!
It is great to see what you are using it for. Thanks very much!
You will be happy to know that the new “?” is a bit more restrained. Interesting that you mention the hyphens because I agree. I actually altered the hyphen and all the related characters yesterday for the new version. I felt they were to high. I like them much better now.
Great! All the sans serif versions seem to work properly.
The italic serif versions have still their problem. I’m looking forward to their replacement.
How can I thank you?
De Uitbeelder, Onno van Geuns, Holland
I know about a technical problem that occurs when printing the TTFs but I didn’t know about the OTFs. I wonder if you took the TTFs away or not. If you did not they could be causing the problem.
I will be in Amsterdam in October at the ATypI conference. Perhaps we can have a beer?
Hi,
I love Merriweather but have recently found that if I have all the TTFs installed (from Google), Merriweather Regular web font is displayed in italics on Chrome (fine on IE)… I re-downloaded, reinstalled, also tried downloading the OTFs from Fontsquirrel and the font was displayed garbled(!) The solution I found was to only install the non-italic TTFs, then Chrome displays it normally. I’d like to keep it installed so I can use it with Photoshop, etc. Do you have any suggestions for this issue?
Thanks,
Tim
What OS and version are you running? What version of the browsers? The font squirrel ones may be from the TTFs which is backwards.
Do you have multiple ways of installing fonts? e.g Are you using a font utility?
I can send you my OTFs. These should behave better for Photoshop. I need your email address though is the one I see “wordpress*nztm.net” the right one?
Apparently it is Chrome’s fault : http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=243467
You could use a previous version of chrome but there isn’t much I can do.
Thanks for coming back on this, and it’s a shame about the bug….however if I read it correctly it looks like it will be fixed for the next stable release.
If however the OTFs do behave better in Photoshop then I would appreciate a copy of them – the email address you have is correct.
By the way, you can see a little piece using Merriweather here:
Hello ,
I love Merriweather, but I’m also having some printing issues. the problem seems specific to the italic serif faces, but I would appreciate it if you could send me .otf versions for all available serif faces (Black, Bold, Bold Italic,Heavy, Heavy Italic, Italic, Light, Light Italic, Regular). Thanks for creating and making available such a great font!
Andre
I should be able to send these Thursday or Friday to the umich address. I hope you will replace the upright serif versions when the new ones arrive.
Sounds great – please send the fonts whenever you have a chance, I will definitely plan to replace the old versions. Thanks again!
Hi,
I am also having printing issues with italic serif faces. Are there any news on this? Would you be able to send me the otf versions of the serif faces?
Also, at some point you mentioned that a professional, print optimized version would be in the making. I would gladly pay for such version. Has it already been finalized?
Peter
The printing issues probably have to do with the special windows hinting we give the fonts for Google. It is more efficient for downloading but seems to create problem for printing sometimes. The newest version of this is supposed to fix that but I am not 100% sure. The fastest cure for now would be to get the OTF files probably from Font Squirrel. There is an advanced print version of the font that is in production now along with the revised version that is going to Google. The advanced print version has kerning 9 kinds of numbers, automatic fractions, and my favorite – contextual features that adjust letter shapes to make the text more even looking and clearer. I will note here on the blog and elsewhere when the ‘pro’ version is ready to be licensed. I am expecting the whole family ( upright roman + italic ) to be ready in 2 more weeks or possible longer. Kerning is time intensive but I also decided I had to add more code to the italic versions to make them really optimal.
Hi Eben
Merriweather’s a nice font, thank you very much. We took your advice above and used the OpenType, which solved our printing problems.
Unfortunately, Word isn’t showing up the Heavy and Light variants because they share the OpenType Font Name ‘Merriweather’ with the main variant.
Do you think you could fix this?
Thanks a lot
Will
(and colleagues at Full Fact, we’re hoping to use it on our new site)
I can send you the new version for use on your local computers although it won’t go live for another 2 weeks or more at Google Fonts. In web terms you could also host the font locally until it does go live. The improvements are huge especially for Windows rendering – but also for menus. How does either of those ideas sound? Are you at team@fullfact.org?
Hi. I’ve implemented LaTeX support for Merriweather and Merriweather Sans. I’ve recently had a request for updated versions of at least the Sans for use in printing a dissertation. I’d be grateful if you could e-mail me the latest versions ASAP.
Bob Tennent
I have begun work on it. I wasn’t sure if you needed both the serif and the sans. Or if you needed the italics as well. The Serif is ready in both upright and italics. The Sans Italics will be ready on Sunday.
The request I received mentioned problems with the Sans (hyphens, question marks) but I don’t know if the serifed or the italics are used. I’m sure Sunday will be fine. Thanks.
Is there any possibility of creating an italic version of your superb Trykker font in the future?
Yes, there are plans for that as well as improvments for the upright or roman. It isn’t clear if that will end up being for Google or as a rentable web font. Do you want it for http://ndmusicedition.wordpress.com?
Actually, I am an independent music publisher and Trykker works quiet well in a music setting. But it is limited without the italic version.
That makes sense. I suspect that it is a year away now unless it gets comissioned. I am very fond of Trykker. It would be lovely to see what you have done with it so far.
Dear Eben Sorkin,
Thanks for the beautiful Merriweather font which I use on my blog (la-cascade.ghost.io). The only thing I would like to change is quotation marks, the ones that appear are really “straight” but actually I could see that there are different ones. How can I change them ?
All the very best,
Pierre
Both kinds of quotes exist in Merriweather. Many keyboards default to the straight variety e.g. ‘single’ and “double” . But you want to have these ‘single’ ‟double”. It is also possible that you want others like ‹single› or «double» or ›single‹ «double». In any event this is not a font issue it is an issue of your keyboard and/or your text editor be that in wordpress or Microsoft Word or TextEdit or where ever it is that you do your writing. If you have an editor that supports what are called “smart quotes” or automatically curling of the quotes then that may be things easier. Sometimes the smartness isn’t enough and you have to over-ride what the program chooses but in general it is a good option to look for. I hope this helps!
Hello Mr. Sorkin,
I am having the same exact problems with the .ttf version printing properly that Onno had. Would you be so kind to send me the .otf version of the font as well. I would very much like to use it for a large project I am working on.
I Am not sure but it looks like I may have missed this message. I am sorry it took so long if that’s the case. I have just emailed you.
Hi Eben.
Thanks for a great font. Absolutely love it. However, I have noticed an interesting bug I thought you should be aware of. When I print a document using Merriweather on my mac, it spaces the characters. You can see an example of this here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bymixtojjgaxsdm/Merriweather.pdf?dl=0
It does this both if you physically print the document, but also if you preview it too.
Very strange. Never seen anything like it before.
Now that is strange. It looks like it is a combination of Yosemite and your font that is the issue. You need both to reproduce the problem. Very weird.
Wow! I am gobsmacked.
I don’t have Yosemite yet. I’ll have to see if I can get to the bottom it it ASAP. Do you mind if I send you a test font to check in Yosemite?
Yeah I was somewhat amazed to discover it was only your font that created the problem. I have tried reinstalling it from Google and this site all with the same effect. Perhaps it is just a glitch with my version of Yosemite. Who knows!
Anyway, if you wish to send me test fonts I am happy to try them out. My email is paul@boagworld.com.
Love the font, we use it on all our presentations. However, it seems as if Keynote 6.5 won’t export Merriweather without breaking it.
There’s a topic on the Apple boards here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6641562
I have 6.2 to test with but I’ll have to get this version to test and fix with. I’ll post as soon as this is fixed. BTW – is this in Yosemite or another version of OS X?
Hello,
Is there a way to get the OTF versions of this font since I am having issues when I print?
There will be paid version fairly soon. However if you want to you could take the TTF files from Google to a font converter like Font Squirrel and do the conversion there.
Dear Eben Sorkin,
I am a student of graphic design in Seeway, Barcelona. I have to do a final project about typographic specimen and I have chosen Merriweather font, so I need more information about it than the info I have found on the web.
If you could send me an email with this information, I would be very thankful. Please contact me if you need to know anything else.
This is my e-mail, feel free to contact me at any time.
navarro_icd@hotmail.com
Thank you very much,
Iván Zafra
I’ll write to you.
When I install the latest from GitHub on my Mac, I get two font families:
See:
I check and fix this ASAP.
Hey!
I want to use this amazing font in photoshop, but i cant see the font in regular, only italic. Why? I have installed the font like im usually do. Windows 7, PS 14.1.1
I cant use it on my site because i cant make a design using PS =(
Did you get the fonts from Font Squirrel?
Merriweather, I love Merriweather. The problem I have (had) is that when I save as pdf from word (docx), the font goes from normal to italics.
So I reinstalled from FontSquirrel to get the latest and now normal is italics in Word (docx). Normal doesn’t even work. I think it has to do with the metadata (general info on the font), but I can’t sort it out with FontForge.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
I want to help fix this but it may be be a bit complex. What OS and what version did you install it on? Did you use a font manager? Some OS’ have multiple places that fonts can go. Did you wipe out the old copies or just install the new ones over the top? Thanks!
Eben/Merriweather, I was able to fix it with the open source software FontForge. It was time consuming and difficult.
I changed font family names and style names to work with Microsft Word. And I deleted all of the panose[dot]com information.
I think it was the deletion of the panose information that worked. I think Word was reading family and style info and adobe pdf was reading panose information.
Does this make sense to you? Do you want me to send you my repaired versions? I know few people use Merriweather outside of the web, but I use it on my documents.
Sure! I would love to have the new versions and test them vs the ones I have. I am keen to have trouble free fonts.
Is the otf-font free? Where can I download it?
Why OTF? What do you wnat to be able to do that TTF doesn’t?
Hi Eben,
First of all, thanks so much for providing an awesome font, absolutely love the letterforms 🙂
When printing (tried both Fontsquirrel and Google versions) all glyphs are warped/distorted. I read in the earlier posts using the OTF files fixes that problem. Could you send me those files?
Thanks!
Tom
tom/at/ikwilvanille.nl
I’ll try sending you a recent version to test to see if it fixes the problem.
Dear Mr. Sorkin,
I’ve been using your Merriweather font on my WordPress site, http://www.adozennothing.com, which is a poetry journal. The Merriweather font is great–highly readable and beautiful. I was using it at its lightest weight. However, with the recent update, which made the font heavier (apparently across its weight range), it has altered the layout of some of the more complexly arranged poems. As the font has become heavier overall, could you please add a new lighter weight to the font, equivalent to the previously lightest weight available? (If 300 is the current lightest weight, could you create a 200 version?)
Thanks for your attention. And, thanks for your great work on this font!
Best,
Jeff Sirkin
We have heard from a few different people who have similar issues. I am discussing what to do with Google. Ia m not 100% sure what they will want to do but I will bring them your example like the others I have heard from. Thanks for letting me know!
Thank you!
I think it should be fixed now. Do you see that or is the problem still going on for you?
Unfortunately, the problem is still going on. The font weight is still heavier than before, though the settings are unchanged.
Hi Eben
We love Merriweather, having been introduced to it by our web designer. However, when we save Word docs as PDF, we either lose Bold or the whole document is in Bold.
Is there a fix for this?
Kind regards
Dermot
Please try this newest edition and let me know if the problem persists.
https://github.com/EbenSorkin/Merriweather/releases
Hi Eben, thanks for your nice font Merriweather, I love it. But I would like to use it for web AND print (magazine) what do you think about that? I have been trying to find something similar that is more suitable for print, but always end up with thinking Merriweather still is better than anything else that I find. Kind regards Zoffan
Thanks for your kind words. This winter I plan to begin to make a print specific version of Merriweather that has a lower x height and feel amore comfortable in print and ultimately on very high resolution devices. Merriweather was designer before very high resolution ( retina etc ) screens arrived for phones and laptops. I will need to discuss with Google if they want to add this or if it will only be a licensable design. It would be very useful to me to see what sort of documents you are using it in and to hear what you like and dislike about the way it works for you. If it is OK with you I’ll reply privately via your email and request PDFs as well.
Thank you for your quick reply! You are most welcome to reply via my e-mail, it is sofie.batmastar(a)gmail.com . Looking forward to hearing from you!
There is a bug in the font Merriweather: In theCyrillic Capital Letter Yeru “Ы” (U+042B) – IT IS DEPLOYED ON THE OTHER SIDE!
Dear Eben,
Thank you a lot for such a beautiful font. I enjoy it very much but I think your guillemets are quite massive. While working with text they draw too much attention visially and kind of fall apart (especially when you have a text full of them). For example: «Word one two three», «Phrase seven eight nine», «Sentence five four one». They just don’t fit the line and take too much space (compared to the elegant “word” [«word»]). They are mostly used in continental European languages so you probably encountered less with them as an English-speaker and therefore they look so odd.
I hope my feedback was helpful and you’ll find time to make them more elegant and less catchy. Once again thank you for your work!
Kind regards,
Stefan Vanli
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