Quador – a squarish serif

124

Comments

  • Christian Thalmann
    Christian Thalmann Posts: 1,988
    Did you make the top of /a in the Light more angular? I would have preferred a rounder/less angular approach, as suggested by Abraham. Treatment of the terminal is now better at least. /Q also looks OK to me, at least in isolation.

    Spacing needs some more work; for instance, /g/u in Yogurt or /n/z in Garbanzo are too wide, /t/a in Nectarine strikes me as rather tight.

    The thin tapers in shoulders (e.g. /n, /p) are still inconsistent with the relatively low contrast in rounds (e.g. /o, /e). Especially the top of /e could use some more contrast.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,440
    Something still seems off about the way the rounds swell. Part of it is they get too thick at their thickest. This is easiest to see in /D/ where it seems to me the right, curved side looks much heavier than the left, straight stem. Maybe the squarishness is just a bit overdone in the counters of letters like /O/Q/o/.
  • Chris D
    Chris D Posts: 76
    edited June 2017
    The /O/o might be a touch too square, I agree. They seem to "pop out" of each sentence. It may also not be the shape, but rather the modulation of the stroke that's causing the effect. Playing with "Fit Curve" will probably get you there.

    But the Light is starting to look much nicer overall.
  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67
    Thank you, that was helpful. For a better comparison the same screens with the updated light-version:


  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67
    I come back to the alternate /g and have a question: The /g as contextual alternate does only work if this option is activated by e.g. Indesign, right? But how can I use it as a standard, by default? As .liga? Or ist there another possibility?

  • Jasper de Waard
    Jasper de Waard Posts: 641
    Have you considered making the alternate the standard? I like it better anyway.
  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67
    If there is no other way, yes. But in context with round shapes like /o, /c … it fills the white space.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,440
    Arne Freytag said:
    I come back to the alternate /g and have a question: The /g as contextual alternate does only work if this option is activated by e.g. Indesign, right? But how can I use it as a standard, by default? As .liga? Or ist there another possibility?

    I think CALTs are also enabled by default in InDesign. 
  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67

    How does the Italic look to you? (It is nearly upright, only 4° slanted.) 



    BTW is the tutorial for curve compensation on briem.net 

    http://66.147.242.192/~operinan/2/2.3.4a/2.3.4.34.curves.htm

    Is it still „state of the art“?

    I tried different terminals in a second version (below): They are more traditional, but I prefere the current version (above). I find It fits better to the concept. What do you think?



  • Christian Thalmann
    Christian Thalmann Posts: 1,988
    Nice texture! Top is much better, and more in line with the Roman. 
  • Ori Ben-Dor
    Ori Ben-Dor Posts: 386
    Nice! I too think top is much better.

    But the degree to which different letter slant looks inconsistent. /c/ looks more upright, /f/ looks more slanted, etc.

    Note that the "vertical" stems aren't supposed to be parallel to each other. Check out any professional typeface, and you'll see they make compensations in this department. For example, /f/ would almost always slant less than other letters, because the curved ends already contribute to the impression of a slanted axis.
  • Chris D
    Chris D Posts: 76
    Italics look great - the crotches might be a bit too deep but are they designed that way for trapping purposes? Maybe it's just how the antialiasing looks in your screenshot as well.
  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67

    I’m not so sure about the /Q. (current version on the left side, three variations on the right)

    As first letter of the typeface name (Quador) it is very prominent and maybe bit too boring … (?) The /Q gives typographers a chance to express themselves, but on the other side I don’t want to get too far. What’s your opinion?



  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,440
    The first alternative is easily the most attractive of the three to me. Even so, the flowy tail is counter to the squarishness of the rest of the typeface. 
  • Georg Seifert
    Georg Seifert Posts: 674
    If you bend the tail of the third example just a bit more it could works fine. As Craig said, the other two are to swashy. 
  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67
    Spacing and kerning for the regular style is finished. If you like, take a look at the proof:

  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67
    How does the Light-Italic look to you?
  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67
    What do you think how the ExtraBold-Italic is working?


  • AbrahamLee
    AbrahamLee Posts: 262
    edited July 2017
    I think it looks very nice, but I'm not sure it's heavy enough to be called ExtraBold, at least compared to the original weight. Feels more like just Bold to me.
  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67
    mmmmh … While this is a text font I didn't´t want to get too dark in the ExtraBold.
    The UltraBold should be for display and is a little bit "out of bounce" in the weight. 


    – Yes, but maybe Regular could be a little darker and Bold and ExtraBold a little bit more:

  • Mike Wenzloff
    Mike Wenzloff Posts: 106
    Or, the current bold could be a semi-bold, the current extra as is becomes the bold, then interpolate a style between the current Extra and Ultra for a new Extra-Bold...

    I personally like the light and regular. I think oft times people's regulars are too heavy, at least for common text sizes.
  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67
    Good idea, Mike. So does it look now:

  • AbrahamLee
    AbrahamLee Posts: 262
    Much, much better. Nice work!
  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    edited August 2017
    Weights need to work in pairs, more than looking pretty in a waterfall.
  • AbrahamLee
    AbrahamLee Posts: 262
    Hrant H. Papazian said:
    Weights need to work in pairs, more than looking pretty in a waterfall.
    Agreed, but are you saying that there's a pair that doesn't work together. If you look at the Light-SemiBold, Regular-Bold, SemiBold-ExtraBold, and Bold-UltraBold pairs, I think they look very nicely differentiated in all cases, but perhaps that's the wrong approach. What do you think?
  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    The most significant one to me is that the Regular and Demi are too far. I favor darker Regular weights, so that's the one I would shift.
  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67
    Thank you for your comments! While I don't like the Regular too heavy, I adjusted all weights a little. 


  • Arne Freytag
    Arne Freytag Posts: 67

    How do you handle the stem width of the currency symbols? Is e.g. /$ the same as /S and /¢ like c, or do you use the stem width of the numbers as reference?


  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    Quantitative equality backfires.

    BTW to me your vertical bars are too thin.

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