Usefulness of the below type of fancy fonts and hybrid glyphs

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Aman
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2018 10:51 pm

Usefulness of the below type of fancy fonts and hybrid glyphs

Post by Aman »

We wanted to know if there is any usefulness to generate custom fonts whose glyphs are a combination of bold and italic typeface. We call these glyphs “Hybrid Glyphs”. So, to say, each glyph is segmented into regions and each region may have a different typeface replicated .

samples.png
samples.png (155.23 KiB) Viewed 9601 times

In terms of workflow, the user selects the font, say regular, and defines the segment marks in terms of how low it is from the font ascender line. Let say he marks two points at 20% and 50% above from the fonts descender (total font height=ascender-descender). This will generate three segments. For each segment he then may choose a different typeface to be replicated. For example, he may choose Bold-Italic-Bold. This will even be possible if the designer does not have the bold and italic typefaces of the font. In such cases, it will replicate a false bold in the first segment, a false italic in the middle segment and a false bold in the third segment. In case the user has the required typefaces of the font family, then that portion of the glyph will be taken from the corresponding font. The user may choose any typeface like semi-bold, semi-italic, condensed etc

Some key aspects:

1. Glyphs can be partitioned into any number of segments

2. There is no convert to outline. Text remains live and editable

3. User can control the thickness of the bold and slant angle of the italics.. something like variable fonts
We primarily want to know…

Will this “feature” be useful to designers?
How often will you use this capability?
Under which scenarios and product will this most likely be useful? (maybe for Logos in AI? and titles in InDesign?)
Do you see any missing aspects to this which can increase its usage?
In light of the latest typography advancements (SVG fonts, variable fonts) how do you place this capability?
PJMiller
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Re: Usefulness of the below type of fancy fonts and hybrid glyphs

Post by PJMiller »

There are three types of font commonly used. Serif, Sans Serif and Fancy. The serifed fonts are mostly used for long passages of text where comfort of reading is it's primary purpose.

Sans serif fonts are mainly used for short passages of text where instant recognition is important. Although these are not hard and fast rules.

Fancy text is used in signage and advertising where it's primary purpose is to attract attention to the sign rather than to be legible.

I don't think this feature of being able to segment fonts to create a 'hybrid' would get much usage and I certainly don't think anyone would be willing to pay for such a feature.

There are already thousands of fancy fonts out there for free download. Having to select fonts for the mash up would add extra time to the process and to what end ?

To my eyes the end results you have presented are not that attractive and the same thing could be achieved in a graphic design program quite easily if such an efect was desired.

I don't think many people will be interested in this software if it ever gets produced.

Sorry.
MikeW
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Re: Usefulness of the below type of fancy fonts and hybrid glyphs

Post by MikeW »

Aman is from Adobe...Welcome, Aman!

Aman, you'll get pretty much the same answer wherever you post this (and have).

It is simply not a useful concept. Please have the ID team (and the other teams) concentrate on bug fixes versus solutions awaiting a problem. Alternatively to pure bug fixes, run through and implement the User Voice issues & suggestions.
Aman
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2018 10:51 pm

Re: Usefulness of the below type of fancy fonts and hybrid glyphs

Post by Aman »

This is part of an experimental work I am involved in and wanted to know if this is something in any form be useful for typographers like you and many others in the industry.

Also I have created a small demo video to showcase a glimpse of how this is implemented in InDesign CC. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/aDGYcCs3wfg
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Usefulness of the below type of fancy fonts and hybrid glyphs

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

This topic is a duplicate of the same discussion on TypeDrawers and on the Adobe Forums

Please provide a link when cross-posting, to avoid duplication of effort.
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