What makes a good typeface?
Here are some answers.

1. What makes a good typeface is decided by the users, not the designer.

2. Most good typefaces have been designed for one purpose, they do not come from a designer’s whim. Bodoni designed all his faces for specific books, Times was
designed for the newspaper, Frutiger for signage at Charles de Gaulle airport, Helvetica to appeal to certain graphic designers, Bell Gothic for the American telephone books, Gill for a shopfront, Century for a magazine, Meta for the German post office.

3. there are certain laws of perception as well as cultural traditions which a typeface has to adhere to.

4. it has to look almost like all the others, but…

5. just be a little different