I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Two specific issues I'd like to draw your attention to:
1. I'm not in love with the vertical serif in /c/s/z. Do they bother you too? Do you think this kind of design could work with no serifs at all in these letters? Perhaps you've got another idea?
2. The four serifs in /x and one serif in k/ have one side a bit thinner (so it won't look so crowded). Does that make the serifs look out of balance, as if they're not exactly leveled? Does it make them look higher/lower than their counterparts in other letters?
Comments
From where I stand, your two points are actually the same one.
The design is kind of a hybrid between two archetypes:
On one hand, we're dealing with a thin monospaced slab-serif with little contrast.
On the other hand, there are clear traces of traditional complex forms and echoes of calligraphy.
The tension is fundamental to the concept, and is further emphasized by certain details (such as the ones you're pointing out). Do you have an issue with the concept, or just with the specifics of how it's been implemented here? (I hope this question makes sense to you as much as it does to me.)
For example, do you think the /q spur or the /g loop put us in a certain territory which is hostile to more geometric details such as flat bottoms or straight diagonals and rules them out?
I will admit, though, that I was hesitating about the /g ear. I asked myself if I didn't take it too far, disrupting the delicate balance I was trying to maintain. I even tested a more constrained version. Your feedback tells me I might have made the wrong call. I'll definitely revisit this detail.
It adds character, in my opinion, but it's more than just an artistic choice: reducing them to half their current size would make them look timid and weak at small sizes.
One thing I've learned from working on this project is there's a reason why typefaces such as Courier (monospace, slab serif, thin) tend to have dark punctuation.
Here's my font vs Courier New:
Relative to the color of the letters (which is darker in my font), is my punctuation that much darker? Maybe just a little, but not that much.
The slightly calligraphic stress, the shape of most curved parts, some details (certain serifs, tittles, etc.) - they all give a hint of a slant and movement. Diagonal letters don't need to be pushed in this direction, since they already have slanted strokes and movement built in. At least that's how I feel.
I had tried less boxy serifs, trimming the tips in /v and /w diagonally, slightly curved diagonals... I felt they were all too much.
Some examples:
Does any of these directions look promising to you?
/J has two versions at the moment, I'll probably go with the top one:
For what it's worth, I have a general strong preference for /J descending below the baseline.
I agree with Thomas, they would form a more harmonious relationship to the other glyphs if they were thinned up a bit. Their weight, I think, can be heavier than the strokes in the alpha-numeric glyphs, but not so much that they look out of place and jump out at the reader as being unnatural. Then again, you apparently see it differently.
What do you think of this kind of figures, between lining and old-style?
The overshoot seems a bit excessive right now, maybe dial it back by 1/4 or 1/3?
You mean the overshoot in 0 and 2 or in general? I haven't printed the figures yet, but when I printed sample texts at 10-12 pt, the overshoot in general didn't strike me as excessive.
Is this better?
Overall great work btw!
+ that you run into all kinds of visual balance problems.
Thanks for your encouragement! Yeah, I wasn't sure about this /2 too, I left it marked red... When /6 and /9 are simple rotations of each other, it looks like this:
Doesn't /9 look bigger to you?
@Vasil Stanev
Ideally I'd offer lowercase-size old-style figures and uppercase-size lining figures as alternatives, but neither satisfies me as default, which is why I've come up with this hybrid approach. I know it's not perfect, but nothing seems to be.
Are you sure it's dull? And I was thinking to myself programmers would probably think it has too much character... Typical coding typefaces are more geometric and have less going on.
What visual balance problems? Please elaborate.
Nope, haha. At some point it always becomes difficult to trust your eyes, because your eyes have gotten so used to certain patterns that a deviation from that looks odd. At least that's what I think 🙃