Outsider Font Designing
Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:58 pm
In a discussion in this forum I was expressing the view that the capital I in a sans serif face can sometimes have two horizontals, though when I tried to support that view with some examples, I found that there are not as many such fonts as I had thought.
http://www.eff.co.uk/M/Ss.htm
http://www.eff.co.uk/M/P/OcaRR.htm
http://www.eff.co.uk/M/P/OcbRR.htm
http://www.eff.co.uk/M/P/SwmRR.htm
I remembered that my own Quest text, a sans serif face, has horizontals top and bottom in a capital I.
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/QUESTTXT.TTF
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/quest.PDF
I had not realized until investigating the matter how different from most other sans serif designs that feature makes it! That somewhat surprised me, because that is how one writes a capital I when filing out a form with a pen, well, I have always done so, maybe it is just me and that fed through to Quest text. I then thought that maybe this is "Outsider font designing" in the same way that there is "Outsider Art".
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibiti ... fault.shtm
Here is a link to a famous sans face where the capital I does not have horizontals.
http://www.p22.com/products/london.html
Upon later having a look at various of my fonts, most of which happen to be sans serif, I found that I have used the horizontal lines on a capital I in many fonts!
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/fonts.htm
I find this interesting, as, not having studied typographic design formally, I had ended up with a design style quite different from many famous sans serif fonts.
I am now wondering whether my fonts have any other such "outsider font designing" features which leap out when the fonts are viewed by a formally-trained typographer.
This raises an interesting line of thought. How do people who produce fonts using Font Creator decide on the letter designs?
William Overington
http://www.eff.co.uk/M/Ss.htm
http://www.eff.co.uk/M/P/OcaRR.htm
http://www.eff.co.uk/M/P/OcbRR.htm
http://www.eff.co.uk/M/P/SwmRR.htm
I remembered that my own Quest text, a sans serif face, has horizontals top and bottom in a capital I.
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/QUESTTXT.TTF
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/quest.PDF
I had not realized until investigating the matter how different from most other sans serif designs that feature makes it! That somewhat surprised me, because that is how one writes a capital I when filing out a form with a pen, well, I have always done so, maybe it is just me and that fed through to Quest text. I then thought that maybe this is "Outsider font designing" in the same way that there is "Outsider Art".
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibiti ... fault.shtm
Here is a link to a famous sans face where the capital I does not have horizontals.
http://www.p22.com/products/london.html
Upon later having a look at various of my fonts, most of which happen to be sans serif, I found that I have used the horizontal lines on a capital I in many fonts!
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/fonts.htm
I find this interesting, as, not having studied typographic design formally, I had ended up with a design style quite different from many famous sans serif fonts.
I am now wondering whether my fonts have any other such "outsider font designing" features which leap out when the fonts are viewed by a formally-trained typographer.
This raises an interesting line of thought. How do people who produce fonts using Font Creator decide on the letter designs?
William Overington