Ink Bleed Simulation - Worth it?

Evie S.
Evie S. Posts: 74
in Technique and Theory
Title explains it, but I'll go into a bit more depth here. Is it worth it to design ink bleed in typefaces like Caslon or Garamond, or anything printed? What I mean by ink bleed is not really Papyrus with finer segments, rather FF Blur, maybe with a little less blur. I can answer it myself, but I want the community's opinions. (I know it's popular, but is it really worth it?)
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Comments

  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,883
    FF Blur seems more a simulation of the effects of overexposed phototypesetting, not so much ink bleed.

    Obviously doing special effects on the typeface is a bunch of work, regardless of which one you are doing. What are you hoping to achieve? What's the point for you?

    In the world at large, such blurred fonts are not all that popular. I'm sure they must be in some particular communities or subcultures, though.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 1,992
    In the world at large, such blurred fonts are not all that popular. I'm sure they must be in some particular communities or subcultures, though.

    Print effect old style fonts get used a lot in anything related to sci-fi and fantasy. They also get a lot of use in restaurants selling organic/natural foods. But at least half the time I see this stuff the designers are just using Caslon Antique, so selling to these people means you have to beat the old standard.
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,207
    edited November 2015
    It’s what you have to do when reviving a metal-era type design, because the accommodation of ink gain was, tacitly, part of the original design.

    The thing is, it’s not just “blur”, because metal type was, in places, a higher resolution than is possible with offset—but the amount of ink gain varied according to the kind of letter detail. It’s complicated by the fact that such type designs have to both show ink gain, and also pre-empt it!

    Benton’s Cloister (Jenson revival) was a classic example of representing the trace of an older metal font, for higher resolution metal typography.

    There are many different ways of overtly stylizing ink gain, and I would say that Clarendon was the first such effort. The Golden Type. Much of Goudy’s work. Poliphilus, of course, was the first to use photography verbatim. 

    Some aim to produce a facsimile, others use the representation of ink gain as a stylistic device.



     




  • María Ramos
    María Ramos Posts: 100
    I know it's popular, but is it really worth it?
    Well, all depends on what you want to get. If you are looking for representing the texture of the printed letters with metal type, creating irregular contours can help. However, I agree with Nick.
    The thing is, it’s not just “blur”, because metal type was, in places, a higher resolution than is possible with offset—but the amount of ink gain varied according to the kind of letter detail. 
    I have thought about  FF Trixie by Erik van Blokland, a good example of a typeface that tries to capture the essence of printed letters, in this case the typewritten text.
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,207

    Handsome Rough simulates ballpoint bleed on uncoated paper, at around 14 pt. size.
    I made it by applying an Illustrator filter to the basic Handsome.
    Not much use as a font, it transpires, but WTF. 

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