Designing Type Karen Cheng Yale University PressDesign Process There is no single, ‘corte methodologies of incvigua the designs the In some ways, the most difficult pat ofthe design process is finding the initial inspiration to make a font. The vast number of ‘existing typefaces last estimated at §0-60,000 in 1996) can be intimidating, especialy for the novice designer. Sti, the ongoing Proliferation of type shows no sign of abatament; if anything, he ‘complexity of the madern world encourages continued growth, Many of the new fonts issued today ate commissioned by cients process for crating a typetsce. The signers areas unique and varied as ive boon custom for speck ize to sppea to readers of every possible demographic: conser vatives, liberals, children, teans, the elder, sports fans, fashion followers, environmental activists and technological enthusiasts, to1name a few. Additionally from 2 more functional standpoint, fonts have baen designed to ovarcome a pletnors of problematic viewing cone types for apn signage; for low= resolution computer sceens, Flashenabled websites: textoooks and government forms, Of course, new type designs are not driven exclusively by marketing, technology or functional concoms, The urge to create can be quite personal the imp ofa historical, intellectual or cultural inquiry, For example, Ken! Lew, the designer of the typeface Whitman, notes: ‘For me, ideas scenarios. What it Joanna hag been designed by W. A. Dwigains, instead of by Erie Gil? Wht i ‘Mozart had been a punchcutter ~ rather than s composer? In some cases, the inspiration betind a naw font is purely visual. The delight of sing and using new, welhexecuted designs ized avdionces. For example, for ons: there right evan be an extension ‘generally come from “what i is, for the typographer, equal o the 1 the conductor or composer. A typetecs isthe formal manifos- tation of an author's woe. Type adds subtiebut important nan right typeface, in combination with to textual communication. layout and typography, results in documents that are precisely talored, aesthetically and conceptually, to 2 single purpose, In any case, regardless ofthe motivation behind the dk ‘once an initial idea has germinated, the next logical step isto deline spectc typographic parameters, Most designers begin by sketching a fow key leters that set the ality of @ font. (These teers vary from f the lower case 9, ¢, 9, and are goed stating points ions and person 2 to face, but generally, Once the selected letters have been roughly outlined, Word or series of words can be tested. One frequently selected term is "harburgefontsiv, since it includes many of the most ‘commonly occuring lower case letors, Alternatively, @ sentence or simple text pessage can be an effective test, The first lator sketches can be created manually or digitally, Digital programs include both vector drawing applications (such {8s Adobe ltustrator or Mecromedie Freehand) as well as special ized font design sofware (such as FontLa, Fontographer, or DIL FontMaston ing, nevice designers are better off drawing type charectets by hand, Organic curves (such a8 those on thes, a and g, for example) ae dificult te render with points and line segments; the hand and eye are usually moce taraceful and more accurate in a physical environment witha fixed scale, Additional, free sketching encourages creativity inthe eatiy stages of design, Unfortunately, the constrains of dita technology still cstit certain visual options, (Once the besic design idea fora font has been determine, the full set of characters (eters, numbers, punctuation, symbols and ciacities) must be fleshed out, Analogue deawings must be scennad and traced to create digital character outines. inthis, process, digital utlitis (such as Adobe Streamline, Pyrus Stan Font or DTL TaceMsster) can be of assistance. However, full ‘automatic translation isnot yet possile. in mest programs, the 12n ere necessary for autotrace process includes mate points hambur (Phmanist Sane Ser gedesirable) inthe final charactarautines, Adtionally, the type of i's ~ 85 well as their placement and direction - may not be ‘optimized forthe best final appearance or function Atte all gta type outlines ae refined, characters must be imported into specialized font software (such as FontLab, F ‘Grapher, RoboFog or OTL. FontMaster to complete the fina stages of production: spacing, kerning end hinting. Currently, FortLab isthe industry standard; however, Fontographer may soon regain its lost popularity, since it was finally updeted in 200 nine yeer gap ater its acquisition from Macromeata to Pyrus Ltd (now FontLab Lic), OTL Font Master i less well-known, since it ‘was developed for the internal production needs of DTL (Dutch Type Libeary) and URW: cathar than for widespread commercial Use. Many designers believe the capabilities of Font Master are limited than those of FontLab, Additionally, some designers Find the OTL interface more dificult to leacn, However, FontMaster 's known to produce weltmade and reliable cigital fonts. In any of these progrems, tha inital spacing of a font is set by determining the let and right sidebeerings of each character {the sidebeering is the distance betweon the lettertorn and sides of an imaginary bouncing box). Setting the sidebesrings would be simple fell characters had the sarno width (a in a monospaced typewniter font or the same basic ample, diagonal round or square). However, most fonts contain laters, numbers, symbols and punctuation with vasty diferent withs and shepes, ‘Theretore, each character requires customized sidebesrngs that ‘are appropiate to their unique form, width and dansity Unfortunately, even spacing cannot be accomplished solely ‘through the setting of later sidebearings. Characters with open 6r diagonal sides the A,J.LP TV, WY, 4,7. fi. 4 v, wand yl cause problems, since their structures must extend into the soace ‘of adjacent leters to prevent unsighty gaps. The process af finding {and adjusting these awkward letter pais is cah ir. Bath spacing and kerning can be set automatically in the previously discussed font design softwares. The defeut values (onerated, however, should be used as an inital guide rather than 2 final result, Spacing is en arduous procass that requires substan 2 should be tial testing and fine-tuning, Tae overall set of typefac ‘opticaly even so that text blocks are a uniform shade of grey, ‘Ackitionall, the sot of type should be ‘nermal = nether 100 tight they create or 100 loose. Tight settings impr legibility sir confusing leter combinations (fr example, the letter parr’ may look ike an“. Loose settings are also undesirable, since gans make i iffcult to group letters into words and sentences, Hinting is the lat stage in the production of a professional font, On lowesolution digital sereens, the vector outlines of simall size type are, by necessity, dramaticaly raduced to @ tiny ‘number of pixels. The mathematical rounding thet results from «coarse bitmapped grid makes on-screen type unattractive and even llega, Hinting addresses this problem by equaling specific design elements, For examplo, hinting can fore al woe tical and horizontal stems to render sta specific numberof rive, {can also ensure consistent vertca alignment within certain zones (for example, atthe baseline, capital height and xheight In some cases, hinting can also improve the appesrance of dlagonal stiokes and elements that would otherwise look jaggy ‘and ‘stiesteppes Because hinting is a highly technical procedure tat varies according tothe font format being gonerated (Postscript. Tue “Type oF Open Type), most designers rely heavy on the automatic hinting provided in font design software. Altemstivaly ony the ‘mast problematic characters are adjusted manually. The specific process for hinting is too technical and complex to describe here, but a number of hinting resources ean be found online inthe User forums of sofware manufacturers, and in the brosder forums fonts iV123Serif Capitals To facitate their design, serif capitals should frst be organized into large subgroups with eimilar shapes: clculr, tlangulae Cr square, OF course, some of the upper case letters requ definition of more complex combination groups, For example, the D, B, Pand F are circlarsquare, wiile the M,N, K and are he iagonal-square. Making these fan other fine distinctions is helpful as an intl step in tne creative process, since letters with 85 related forms. similar structures can and should be design Trroughout the following section, reference is made to ‘wo upner cese proportional systems classic (also called oldstyel and modern, Classic proportions are historical in origin; they are based on Roman inscriptional models. For both aesthetic and square practical reasons, the anciens used dvsions of @ geomet for the widths ofthe capital letters, In theory the dimensions are as follows: fourteen letters (A, C, D, G, H, K,N, 0, O,1.V,% Y and 2 re the width ofa full square and seven letters (B,E, F-L.P Rand S) are the width of a half square. There area few exceptional letters with odd widths: the ! is narrow, while tha M is wide. (The letters U, J and W were later adkitons tothe original Fomen alphabet and therefore have no inscrptional model.) In practice, many typefaces that ara described as having Classic proportions do not stitly conform to this theoretical model They have wider and narrower leterforms, but the widths are not exact divisions of @ square. Although the true proportions of oacGs BPRDJU EFLHIT “The upper case letters can VAWX be organized into groups with simisr design characteristics, MNKZY Roman capitals se beautiful and graceful they are also somewha impractical, since thay sult in wide letters that character spscing, Adcitionally, rue classic proportions produce capitals with unaven colout~ the natrow letters are darker than the expanded forms, Final, cassie proportions are net possible for axpanded or condensed typetaces, because these characters cannot be drawn with square progertions The disadvantages ofthe das of the new, ‘modern’ system atthe time of Transitional and Didone development. Modern proportions are based on an oj vaving even colour; each leters designed to contain the fe space. For example, the His slighty ratrawer than the O, since its square counters are physically large. Without the constraint ofa specific shape, modem proportions are quite flexible and can be used for normal, expanded or cory ‘densed types. Adcitionaly, with its emphasis on even colou, the ‘modern system promotes readability random changes in letter colour create lighter and darkor ‘spots’ in uncing text that fat system led to the creation the reader. In general, as one might expect, classic proportions are used for Venetian and Garalde typefaces. tensions typofaces vary; in some, the proportions are more uniform, but others, the clasle ‘widths are clearly apparent, Didone and Stab Ser types almost ‘always have modem proportions, Found forms Pounc-square forms Square forms Diagonal forms Diagonatsquare forms EFHBPRSKXY LTXKZJ mw rr) Double-story laters Letters with open sides Exewide leners Exvenarrow litersBEFLPRS JJ UHT MW CDGOQ_AVNYZK — ( y | SK OL VANE BEFLPRSIJUHTMWCDGOQAVN rr | EONASX Bauer Bodoni (2idone)Serif Capital O ‘The dasign of the © has varied greatly overtime, In early seit typefaces (such es Venetian and Gavale} the O is almost a perfect circle, with low contrast and angular stress, These attibutes stern direct from the early typographic models that were created sorbes, Sorbes used cali by professional writers, known ther ‘T=phic ink pens,with nibs that had broad and narrow tlt sides: when these pens were held ia the right hand at 830-45 degree angle, they produced thickthin strokes with oblique emphasis, In later serif typefaces (Transitional, Didone and Slab Seri) the O becomes more oval and upright, with both higher and lower contrasts, The reasons for these changes are comelex. ype design advances and philo has been forced to respond to technolo sophical movements; these developments have changed the objoc tives and applications of type and typography over the course of seversl canturies. The full development of modein sei typefaces, is too complex to summarize here, but itis sufficient to say that {ype design stowly moved away from calligraphic writing to become 28 that ace drawn and designed, 2 system of sho Designing a capital O today involves both objective and sub he capital Qin a serif typeface gular, square, diarnond, jective ules. Fest and foremost should always be cular or val, twangulr or free! O forms are not legible, since eaders ofthe Forman alphabet have long been conkitioned to recognize an O by ts symmetry and roundness. ‘An itegular 0 is sso lass desicable from a view, The design of the O impacts all other round letters; 2 square ( logically leads toa square C. G, 0, ete. Such a typeface willbe severely lited byt vil contrast: curves ageinst angles and uprights. Furthermore, significant issues for example, stems point of sence of basic and e with character recogrition ere aso likely to arise square O is easily confused with the straight-sded D, OF igid with the design principle of Consistency. A font coud have @ square O, but around S, However, arbitrary letter constuction diminishes unity in a design system, Individual and random exceptions otten become focal points that undermine legibility and readabilty we can bale } J ‘he oa for looks physically smaller. C = To mate he rectngutr for, the O must be expanded in eight and with, Narrow 0 fore need more ssjstment than vase forms, Venetian 128 lowemedium ‘tong alraphie inf Gale vast (-2) Lace enter During the crorclgicl evelopment ofthese fve typestyle, the srs of th © advaly becomes vera Centeur \ ye i 1} Gusta Geramond BemboNow Baskerville ranstioned ‘ansitonal artical or nea ve High cones 6:1) New Baskerville Jpper hal: 49% Z Eaands 2% above capline anc below basaiia Didone Slab Son Vorical ais, very high conta -7 Verio, low contrast (2:1) Detats, upright oval form Bol, squarin form Bauer Bodoni Clarendon SertaOblique Stress ting the axis of the inner form ofthe O isthe kay to creating ‘oblique stress - the outer form should remain upright, In general Venetian faces are the most dramatcally angled; Gara f ‘are only moderately tited and Transitional The inner fern of the O isnot 1ces ae almost upright. iy @ true elise, The tom to aveid creating @ Like shape, Siler, the outer form of the O is pointed, cis not abways a tre circle, There is often a subtle exaggeration at the unger right and lower lft - a vestige ofthe orginal two-stoke ic constuction. In all of the round letters, but parvcularly the O, loose but ‘orate freehand drawing oreates the best shape, Overt reliance (on drafting tools (such as rulers, compasses and French curve cam result in @ mecnanical form lacking in personality. calc PantinThe Didone and Slab Serif O he Q is somawnat square or rectangular in Didone and Slob Serif ig08 of te forms of the © ate mare often sight rounded aight. This avoids an optical effect know as the 3, 28, Hot the inner and than perfectly 3 ‘one eect’ (in which vertical ses appear to lex ine Despite this problem, upright edges can stl be included ir 4 Didone or Slab Sarit capital 0. The bone effect can be mini by softening the tansiton between straight and curved contour. save form and removes: ‘A mote gradual change emphasizes the ‘any conspicvous co ces and a recteng has been stoned \ Notice bore at ones and hare ronson pin. ial hate