Reviews – Crazy Diamond Design

Review source (click to see full review)	Products reviewed (click to see product pages)
SnitchSeeker (Harry Potter fan site), November 2002	Wizardings
The Review Zone, June 2002	Wizardings
Computer Arts Magazine, July 2000	A New Newe Booke of Copies
The Medieval Religions List, 12/4/1999	A New Newe Booke of Copies
The Daily Telegraph, 11/3/1999	Formal Text Hand

SnitchSeeker.com (top Harry Potter fan site)

November 2002.
See www.snitchseeker.com.

“What is Wizardings?
An amazing package of Wizard Fonts, Parchment, a Spell Book and Accessories!
What can I use it for?
Tons of cool stuff!
Print your own Spells!
It even comes with a beautiful and really cool spell book to keep them in. You can roll them up in to a scroll and seal them with one of the included ribbons and a seal sticker that looks just like stamped wax like they did in old days!

The Fonts!
From a Designer perspective, the Fonts are by far the most incredible of the set. Nobody makes better Wizard fonts than these. Those HP fonts you can pick up around the web are really nothing compared to the proffesionalism and care put into making these historical fonts…
The fonts are SO fantastic that Warner Brothers has used them in the Harry Potter films! They alone are worth the price of the whole package.
For example, the ticket for the Hogwarts Express which Harry studies on the platform was made with the Parchment Print font. Wizard Hand and Black Cat Letter were used for some props throughout the film (such as posters in Olivander’s Wand Shop, etc.).

The Parchment!
The parchment it includes looks just like pages from Riddles Diary in the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie. Or it could be the same type that was used for any of the letters sent by owl in either of the Harry Potter films. It also looks like they style that was used for Harry’s train ticket or Hogwarts invitation in the Philosopher’s Stone movie.

We recommend it VERY highly! :)”

The Review Zone

June 2002.
See full review on The Review Zone.

“Wizardings is spell-binding perfect with its wizardly typefaces, interesting stickers and finest spell parchment. It includes a green “dragon hide” spell book to safely keep your spells in, along with red ribbons to tie the spells up with and special parchment paper and stickers to make them authentic…

“Sample spells are included on the software, as well as a couple of curses and charms to start off your book of magic spells. The Curses includes a description of the curse, the incantation, and the wand action needed to pull it off. Hermione, Ron, and Harry would all be proud of your kids for creating these spells! Surely, there must be a spell to magically clean up the house or winning the lottery! Use your imagination to have creative fun with this software.

“In fact, if you’re thinking about planning a children’s party, this software would be ideal for the birthday child and his/her guests. Between the stickers, the parchment paper, the ribbons, and your imagination, there’s no stopping the zany fun as you make up spells and practice them by reading them in your impressive green Spells book. And Halloween is approaching…

“You’ll also find some educational notes on the historical background of the many typefaces created.

” Highly recommended by The Review Zone.com! Two wand’s up!”

Computer Arts magazine

July 2000.
See http://www.computerarts.co.uk/

“A New Newe Booke of Copies

“As printing killed off their trade, medieval penmen turned their attentions to the teaching of writing which, by the middle of the 16th century, had spread to the middle classes in the form of the secretary and humanist italic hands. Every writing master would own a collection of examples for common hands for teaching purposes, and the original A Newe Booke of Copies is one such collection, collated and published by Thomas Vautroullier in 1574.

“Crazy Diamond’s impressive debut release features hand-draughted and digitised versions of six fonts in the book: The Formal Text Hand, The Chancery Hand, The Italic Hand, The Bastard Secretary Hand, The Secretary Hand and the Hand of the Court of the Common Pleas. Each typeface is provided in two forms: a ‘modern’ font which conforms to the standard character-set for Mac or PC, and an ancient set, which contains an exhaustive range of characters germane to the period. These special characters include the long-s and related ligatures (sl, sh, st, ss), runes (yogh, wynne, thorn, abbreviated thorn and others), ligatures (ffi, ffl, ct, et and so on), and a range of abbreviation marks. All together, each font averages around 400 characters.

“Both Macintosh TrueType and Postscript, and Windows TrueType versions are provided, and the whole thing ships rather lovingly packaged in a leather-effect slip case (carefully crafted for that authentic mud-and-wattle feel of yesteryear). It also comes complete with a book which provides extensive historical notes for each of the fonts, plus detailed notes on usage (including a potted history of medieval writing).”

The Medieval Religions List

23/4/1999
See the medieval religions list

“A New Newe Booke of Copies.
Font package prepared by Crazy Diamond Design.

“I have been asked to review, for the benefit of our list’s members, a series of fonts, and I must confess to having been apprehensive at the prospect. However, fear dissolved into pleasure, which I am happy to share briefly with you.

“First of all, this font package arrives not with some poorly printed loose-leaf instructions, but a distinctive faux-leather booklet. Indeed, the booklet bears the notice: ‘This package meets the ‘Coffee Table Standard’of software and documentation. It means that it will look ‘as good on your desktop as it will on your coffee table and can act as a focus for those all-important post-dinner conversations’. How true! Containing clear instructions and descriptions, the booklet also has some hilarious illustrations, certain to grace many office doors. But what is the package REALLY about?

“This collection of fonts takes its inspiration from the 1574 book by Thomas Vautroullier, *A Newe Booke of Copies*. In it were ‘divers sortes of sundry hands, as the English and French Secretarie, and Bastard Secretarie, Italian, Roman, Chancery and Court hands … set forth by the most Excellent Wryters of the sayd hands for the instruction of the vnskilfull’. Not only are several of these very attractive fonts presented (in Macintosh and Windows versions) but they are also remarkably easy to install. Most significantly, many abbreviations, superscript characters, ligatures and variant forms are included. These features make this product, in my opinion, the most authentic and useful of font packages available to medievalists today. These fonts are at once distinctive, attractive, accurate and easy to use, and I recommend them to you highly.”

The Daily Telegraph (UK)

11/3/1999
See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

In its Connected section on 11th. March, 1999, the Daily Telegraph awarded us four stars (out of five) and a garish yellow picture of our Formal Text Hand font. At the time of the review, only the Formal Text Hand was available.

Mark Ward, the reviewer, wrote:

“THE title given to this small software package isn’t a typo. Tiny British software company Crazy Diamond has produced a facsimile of a 16th-century writing master’s book to go with its ancient fonts. The original was called A Newe Booke of Copies and this is a new version of that. The original copy book held a variety of hands, including Chancery and Court hands, and even one called Bastard Secretarie. Sadly, what exactly that one looked like is not explained.

“Using these fonts may not improve your written hand but it will make any documents you produce with it very impressive. Forging a degree certificate would be a doddle using these fonts. However, all the curlicues, flourishes and serifs adorning each letter make a page full of ancient text look as though a drunken spider with muddy feet has stumbled across the page – that or an exercise in ornate ironwork. The downside is that the point size of the letters has to be increased radically to make a page comprehensible. How anyone used this longhand is beyond me. The software comes in a leather-effect slipcase; accompanying this is a facsimile of the original copy book. It’s fascinating to browse through the little book and see which letters, particularly Anglo-Saxon Runic ones, have passed into disuse since the 16th century – such letters as “yogh”, “thorn” and “wynne”. It also tells you why using “ye” to mean “the” is wrong, and why “you” has replaced “thou”. The software comes with reference sheets so you can have fun finding and producing all the lost letters.”

Pros: Easy to install and familiar to use.
Cons: You might not be able to read any documents you write.
Overall: * * * *