Thomas Phinney, Font Detective
Thomas Phinney
Portland, Oregon
Virtual
Thursday, March 19, 2026
3:30–4:00 p.m. Pacific — Networking
4:00–5:45 p.m. Pacific — Presentation
Yes, there really is a literal consulting font detective. Thomas Phinney, who has been consulted on typography and forensic issues by The Washington Post, BBC News, PBS television’s “History Detectives,” the US Treasury, CNN and many others presents on several of his cases:
- "The Secret of the Certificate," in which an unusual certificate supposedly dating to 1980 was the a major piece of evidence for ownership of a multi-million-dollar artwork
- "The Canadian Caper," in which a CEO used two supposed trusts to shield his assets from creditors
- "The Case of the Concealed Credits," involving Justin Timberlake, will.i.am and the FutureSex/LoveSounds album
- “The Case of the Fertilizer Empire,” wherein both parties were Russian oligarchs, and the prize at stake was not Buckingham Palace, but… well, you’ll see. (Never before presented anywhere!)
If we have time left, also “the Respected Rabbi’s Ruse,” in which a rabbi’s credentials came under fire.
Free Drawing
All attendees are eligible to participate in a free drawing. No purchase or donation is required. However, you must attend the presentation to be eligible. Prizes delivered electronically are available to anyone in the world. Physical prizes are available to anyone in the U.S. without a shipping charge. Winners from outside the U.S. who choose a physical prize must bear the cost of shipping.
Reminder: IDUG is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent that the law allows.
About the Presenter
Thomas Phinney
Thomas Phinney is a type designer, font technologist, and the world’s only practicing font forensics specialist. Known to many in the InDesign community from his previous IDUG presentations—OpenType Functionality in InDesign and The Future of Fonts in InDesign: Variable Fonts and Color Fonts—he brings a designer-focused perspective that bridges typography, software, and real-world practice.
During his eleven years at Adobe (1997–2008), Phinney helped lead the conversion of the entire Adobe Type Library to OpenType, shaping capabilities that designers now take for granted across modern layout tools. He has also worked on the business side of type as product manager for fonts at both Adobe and Extensis, and later served as CEO of FontLab.
Phinney holds four patents, an MS in Printing and Typography from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. A longtime leader in the global type community, he has served on the board of ATypI for 18 of the past 21 years, including a term as President.
His typeface designs include Hypatia Sans for Adobe (with assistance from Paul Hunt on the italic) and Science Gothic for Google (with major contributions from Vassil Kateliev and Brandon Buerkle). Today he continues to work in type design and font production while running an active consulting practice as a “font detective,” investigating typographic issues that intersect with the law—such as forged backdated documents created with fonts that did not yet exist, or failures to meet legally required point sizes. Defendants in his cases have included Zazzle, among others.
