![]() In the WebINK webfont service I run as my day job, nine of the top ten typefaces for 2013 are not only sans serif, but also monoline-where the strokes are of even weight, whether horizontal, vertical or curved.Or are they? It turns out that our eyes fool us here as well, and to achieve the appearance of a monoline typeface, the designer needs to create optical compensations. Sans serif typefaces are more popular than ever right now. In Myriad Pro Regular, the capital O measures 93 on the vertical and 71 on the horizontal, while the corresponding lowercase measurements are 89 and 66. Pointy elements like the sharp apex of an A only look like they are the right height when they are about 3% taller. This allows it to appear to be the same size-if it was drawn mathematically correctly, it would look too small. In a well-crafted font, you’ll see that the O generally exceeds the cap height and baseline of an H by about 1–2%. OVERSHOOT Overshoot is the amount by which a round letter needs to exceed the height or depth of a flat letter of the “same” size in order to look the same. Here are some guidelines for how letters need to be drawn in order to look right.Ĥ. In numerous ways, simply drawing something that is mathematically correct yields results that look wrong. Now we get into the shapes of the letters themselves. Vast amounts of kerning are not always a necessity for a well-made font, but if there is no kerning, or if it does not deal with common situations like “LT” and “To”. Kerning is a set of adjustments to the default letter spacing of troublesome pairs that, without intervention, will be set too far apart (as with “AV”) or too closely (for example, in “f)” when the top terminal of the f collides with the parenthesis). ![]() KERNINGIt’s critical that the basic spacing is done well, but the font can also contain built-in kerning for particularly difficult letter combinations. The table indicates the size of each glyph, its total advance width and sidebearings.ģ. Lowercase letters are generally spaced slightly closer than their cap brethren.īad spacing above passable spacing below. Something like a T or a V might have sidebearings at or close to zero. In a typical sans serif font, a letter like O only needs 50–60% as much in the way of sidebearings as an H. So the left sidebearings of OCGQ and the right sidebearing of D are all usually either the same or very close.ĭesigning even spacing is about keeping a relatively consistent amount of white space between letters. Decent spacing considers shapes and is consistent, meaning the “same” elements are given the same space across different glyphs, and similar elements are spaced similarly. But many junk fonts don’t even get the basics right, and that is easily detected. The total horizontal space allocated to a glyph is its “advance width.” The distances between the furthest extent of each side of the glyph and the ends of the allocated space are the “sidebearings”-which can even be negative numbers, if part of a glyph sticks into a neighboring space.Īt the high end of type design, spacing is an especially complex art and craft. SPACING In fonts, each glyph is placed in a slot with a certain amount of space allocated to it, which generally includes white space on either side. Some errors are subtle to detect, such as the topmost and leftmost points.Ģ. Left is correct on the right, red arrows point to the actual extremes, where there should be an on-curve point. This “rule” isn’t necessary to make the font work, but it is needed for optimal rendering on screen. Any related off-curve points must line up perpendicularly to these on-curve points to create a smooth curve at these extremes. The details are a little different between TrueType and PostScript outlines, but these features are shared between them.Īlso shared between outline formats is the idea that every time a major curve changes direction relative to the X or Y axis, known as the local “extreme” of the curve, it should be described by an on-curve point. The lines are described by points on the grid, and curved lines are additionally described by points around the curve that define its shape. ![]() Don’t worry if you don’t know what that means-there won’t be a quiz later. ![]() POINTS, POINT PLACEMENT AND EXTREMA Fonts are designed as vector outlines in a Cartesian grid space. Here are twelve things to look for to help you judge font quality, so you can avoid choosing-or creating-fonts that suck, even though they might look interesting at first blush.ġ. But how can you tell? Crack it open with a font editor and take a closer look. Sometimes, though, even if the concept of a typeface is perfect, the execution is off. Evaluating type is often a matter of taste and opinion, but there is an art and science to picking typefaces whose design is well-suited to a given project.
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