symbol font >traffic accident symbols for GIS mapping

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KL
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Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2004 1:45 am

symbol font >traffic accident symbols for GIS mapping

Post by KL »

The complete set of traffic accident symbols will consist of 165 glyphs. I have done 45 for review. How do I get them in here? I don't have any server space to post them. Thanks for your time. KL
Erwin Denissen
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Post by Erwin Denissen »

You could send the file to me and I'll upload it to postedfiles/
Erwin Denissen
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KL
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more details re:traffic accident fonts

Post by KL »

hi, thanks for accepting my font-making efforts for review. I will not be using this set of fonts for typing on a keyboard in the usual manner. Instead, they will be accessed via ESRI ARCview GIS mapping software. The GIS team will use this set of 165 symbols to create a "MARKER palette". They have a relational database with all the traffic accidents of each particular type, in this county. They want to drop a symbol on the map, for a particular pre-defined street, to represent the accidents which occur there. They need to be able to resize this map and not lose symbol "integrity" (if that's the right word) when it is greatly resized in any direction. It is not unusual to have maps which are 3' x 4' or even 8' x 8'.

I realize my first efforts are likely quite buggy, but hey, I just found this software last week!

Thanks for your time in review. KL
Last edited by KL on Thu Mar 04, 2004 11:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Erwin Denissen
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Post by Erwin Denissen »

I've uploaded the font.

trafficaccidentsymbols.ttf
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Dick Pape
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Post by Dick Pape »

I'm always amazed when someone asks for an opinion on a subject I know very little! Much of what I'm suggesting may be extraneous to your task.

1. Since you apparently have a finite number of elements, maybe you could base your design on a "composite" approach such as the (O between two arrows) and then supplement that with short or long "legs" which are straight or angled to form the horizontal or vertical extensions.

It would standardize your design and make it a whole lot easier to develop characters. If the final application can't deal with composites the conversion to simple IS simple.

2. Maybe the orientation of each of the main elements (O between two arrows) should be on the same coordinates so two adjacent symbols line up. Again, this depends on the how it's to be used. That, of course, changes the "Properties" values as suddenly you will have extreme highs and extreme lows.

3. Since I assume the font is not to be monospaced, and the size of each character varies so dramatically, you might want to tighten up and/or standardize the NSEW dimensions to minimize extraneous dimensions.

I assume each glyph will be considered a character with the same height and depth - pc standard. Format Settings, Win Ascent and Win Descent (my favorites), could be 3000 and 0 respectively as nothing extends below the line here.

You could standardize how much white space is needed (I guess it could be 0 on the left AND the right, if these are to be individually placed and not in words or sentences.)

4. Has a character/name been defined for each of the symbols? You might want to predefine each, even without a curve, to show the eventual structure and extent of the character set.

Since your specifications are 165 glyphs, you might only define that number so the final structure gets laid in and font size is minimized (from 16kb to 15kb!).


My thoughts: from simple to sublime (good word: 2 [French sublimer, from Latin sublimare] a (1) : to elevate or exalt especially in dignity or honor (2) : to render finer (as in purity or excellence) b : to convert (something inferior) into something of higher worth. Yo!, "Purity", Yo!, "Higher Worth"! ... )

Good work to you too.
KL
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Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2004 1:45 am

traffic accidents font

Post by KL »

Thanks for your reply, Dick, it encouraged me to take a careful look at the WinAscent setting, which I was convinced I had set at 3000, as you suggested. I had mistakenly set a different value at 3000! One with a similar label.
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