Techniques & Strategies for creating Italic glyphs

Alex Kaczun

Mark, I also had a hard time parting with my mouse. We are all creatures of habit. And I can understand the pain associated with using a pen stylus. I too am getting pain in my fingers from arthritis. Maybe a wide bodied grip would be helpful.
https://www.wacom.com:443/store/pages/product?product=ACK30002&crumb={A8DA06FA-349A-4FF4-A998-DF0429E676DF}

Mark Simonson

I think it's the large-bodied stylus that gives me problems. I just ordered one of the "classic" (narrower) styluses. We'll see how that works.

I think it's telling that the old puck digitizers are not used so much anymore. It makes sense when you're transferring existing drawings or copying proofs of existing typefaces to use a tool like that, but I bet most of those who create new typeface designs do most of the designing and drawing directly on the computer. I know I do. I rarely even scan in drawings, unless it's something tricky that's easier to draw by hand, and even then only as a starting point. For example, this ampersand I designed for Diane Script (which, amazingly, didn't have one):





I worked out the basic design roughly in pencil, scanned it in and refined and finished it in FontLab. It would have been a lot more work and time to do a finish on paper and then just trace it on the computer as a last step.

Mark Simonson

The "classic" Wacom stylus arrived today. So far, I like it a lot better than the old standard (fat) stylus. Let's see if I actually use it more.

Alex Kaczun

It's really hard to get used to working in a different manner. Habits are hard to break. But, if you give it a chance it will become second nature. Good luck. Let us know in a few weeks if it works out. Best.

Max Phillips

Actually, Maurice Sendak has a pretty good description of making italic glyphs, which I ran across last night while reading In the Night Kitchen to my son:

He kneaded and punched it
and pounded and pulled
till it looked okay.