Weight name conundrum

Nick Shinn
Nick Shinn Posts: 2,207
in Technique and Theory
I originally produced Figgins Sans in only three weights, daunted from further development by the large number of glyphs per font, that I had committed to.
Now that I have added more weights, I don’t know what to name the new weight between Bold and Extra Bold.
Any suggestions?


Comments

  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    Heavy?
  • Christian Thalmann
    Christian Thalmann Posts: 1,983
    Call Bold Semibold and Bolder? Bold?
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    Look at Neue Haas Unica Pro, they use "Heavy"
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,207
    “Heavy” makes sense to me, however, its number is 900, which is higher than Extra Bold’s.

    Is this a problem?

    **

    I’d rather not re-name the existing fonts, as it would require contacting all my distributors and have them restock, and me to edit existing promotional material and specimens (and Ima not going to reprint the Modern Suite books!), and also create confusion amongst existing licensees.
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    edited June 2016
    I would say, do not rename existing fonts, this would just cause trouble for your current users.  I would rename your "Bolder?" to "Heavy" and make its number something between your current bold and your current Xtrabold (750).
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,207
    Thanks for your help, everybody!
    I’ve settled on Heavy, and given it the value of 750.

    **

    As an aside, when I was an art director, I was quite fond of Futura Heavy as a display face—and that’s Lighter than the Bold (at least, in the Linotype cut).

  • Alex Michael
    Alex Michael Posts: 23
    edited June 2016
    I actually like "Bolder?", as-is, with the question mark and everything. I'm tired of font weights always being so damn sure of themselves. Humility is refreshing.
  • Simon Cozens
    Simon Cozens Posts: 741
    edited June 2016
    Remember that most users will be choosing font weights from a drop-down menu.

    Light
    Regular
    Medium
    Bold
    Bolder than ↑ but not as bold as ↓
    Extra Bold
    Black
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,207
    Layout applications vary how they display the weight names in menus.
    In InDesign, it is based on the “hundred” numbers, so Heavy, at 750, will show between Bold and Extra Bold.
    Other applications that don’t derive the menu order from the numbers often show the weight name in that style. 
    So it will be obvious to typographers what “Heavy” means.
  • Dave Crossland
    Dave Crossland Posts: 1,429
    I agree with Frode, I would have 2 styles between Regular (400) and Bold (700) that have values 500 and 600, and I suggest naming them Medium (or Book) and SemiBold
  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    BTW is there a reason beyond personal preference/style to prefer "Semi" over "Demi"?
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,207
    I don’t think there is enough difference between Regular and Bold, in this face, to accomodate two other weights.

    Regular - Medium - Bold is how I usually configure my designs, because I like that distinction in typographic usage, and because Medium and Semibold have always struck me as the same thing (as with Book and Regular), so I have never been able to figure out which should be the heavier. Besides, semantically, “medium” means bang in the middle, so it doesn’t make sense to weight it towards either Regular or Bold!
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    IMO your “Bolder” is neither different, nor close, enough to the other weights to warrant releasing it.
    I think that weights in that area are useful, either as candidates for caption sizes or for signage. You are not always looking for a nice looking progression of weights presented together on a specimen sheet but for uses that are often underrepresented.
  • Richard Fink
    Richard Fink Posts: 165
    +1 to Dave Crossland and Frode's suggestions.  Fits with today's trends.

    Dave Crossland said:
    I agree with Frode, I would have 2 styles between Regular (400) and Bold (700) that have values 500 and 600, and I suggest naming them Medium (or Book) and SemiBold
  • Igor Freiberger
    Igor Freiberger Posts: 273
    edited June 2016
    Hrant: it is a matter of preference as semi- and demi- have the same meaning. Some fonts with German names also use halb- for these weights. Both demi- and semi- exist in Latin and come from Greek hēmi-.
  • Russell McGorman
    Russell McGorman Posts: 262

    Light
    Book
    Regular
    Medium
    Bold
    Tabloid Regular
    Extra Bold
    Black
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    I like the way you are Dodging the question, James ;-)

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