Home› Type Design Critiques

Funtauna (rectangular slab serif)

Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
in Type Design Critiques
Funtauna is a still unfinished slab serif with rectangular joints:

      

There are no kerning tables yet, but I consider the general spacing as more or less done.
Later, I will add also a light face and oblique faces. The x-height and the average gray value fit Palatino.
Any suggestions (except kerning) are welcome (glyph shapes, proportions, rhythm, details, spacing, accents, ...).
Tagged:
«1

Comments

  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան PapazianHrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    edited September 2017
    If you intend this to carry a lot of text, make the descenders shorter than the ascenders (which you might here ideally do by increasing the latter). This is because in actual text descenders are quite rare, so it's better to allocate more vertical space to more important parts.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    @Hrant H. Papazian Thank you for your suggestion. I have made the descenders slightly shorter and the ascenders longer:


    Would you increase the ascender length even more?
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    @James Montalbano I already know City, thanks. (And there exist other similar fonts, e.g. Algol by Adrian Frutiger: http://www.tug.dk/FontCatalogue/algolrevived/)
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    I have shortened the serifs (mainly for uppercase) and made the spacing a bit wider:


    Kerning and spacing are nearly finished now:

  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    The 4 faces regular, bold, oblique and bold oblique are attached as otf.
  • Thomas PhinneyThomas Phinney Posts: 2,585
    That's generous of you to share. You might want to be clear about what the license terms are, and also fix your copyright notice. It should either use the word copyright, or the copyright symbol ©
  • Simon CozensSimon Cozens Posts: 699
    This would make a lovely mono.
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    @Thomas Phinney You are right: I forgot to complete the copyright information. In an official release I will add a copyright notice including a libre license.

  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    @Simon Cozens I considered adding a Mono when I started the project. Back then I decided to drop it. However, your comment has made me curious how a Mono would look:



    To me it looks okay but not yet convincing. There are a couple of glyphs that are difficult, like the "t" or the "f". Combinations like "lt" or "ji" have too big gaps inbetween.




  • Simon CozensSimon Cozens Posts: 699
    Well, /i/l/j are always the tricky parts of doing a mono! Are they optically centered? They look like they need to be pushed to the right by ten units or so.

    Are you really doing this in METAFONT? Impressive if so.
  • Thomas PhinneyThomas Phinney Posts: 2,585
    Lowercase m is just too crowded. Maybe drop at least the interior serifs? Consider thinning middle vertical or all verticals?
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    @Simon Cozens Yes, the typeface is being developped in METAFONT. Considering the simple rules that make up the font, METAFONT is probably a good choice.
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    I have changed many vertical serif terminals to arc terminals (look at a,c,C,G, etc.) and did some other refinements (including the numbers):



    The monospace has progressed, too (look at the m,i,j,J,t):



    Floating text in monospace:


  • Arne FreytagArne Freytag Posts: 66
    Is the word-spacing not is too wide ?
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    @Arne Freytag Yes, thank you! I have now reduced the normal space from 360 units to 250 units:



    Ragged right:


  • Arne FreytagArne Freytag Posts: 66
    Looks better! I have a little problem with the /r, especially in combination /re /rs /ra, looks collidated …
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    @Arne Freytag Would it help, if the r were wider, like here?


  • Arne FreytagArne Freytag Posts: 66
    I think the opposite is better, not too wide. And maybe the terminal ist too deep and still too dark in text. Of course it is your design and your choice what is more important: readability and many individual adjustments or following a basic grid?
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    edited December 2017
    @Arne Freytag The reduction to basic elements is important, but I am not bound to a grid. Upon your suggestions I have reduced the width of the r and the depth of the terminal (but not the width of the terminal stem). I also increased the right side bearing:


  • Arne FreytagArne Freytag Posts: 66
    … so this is a display font, right? /r looks better, /s is not wide enough, /d/b/p/q/g are a bit too wide, at my opinion. I like your /R
  • Beau WilliamsonBeau Williamson Posts: 80
    I have to say I have a soft spot for mono that this lights up. Typewriter with style! I do get the impression of clipping along the baseline though. The regular seems to do well on screen. The counters of 'ß' look a bit too open.
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    @Arne Freytag The intended purpose of Funtauna is the use as a proportional programming typeface in print (for code snippets)



    (as an accompaniment to a traditional body text typeface such as Palatino).



    Source codes may include short commentary paragraphs. Therefore, my tests with Funtauna always include a test as body text font (but personally I would not use Funtauna in a book as body text font). So Funtauna is neither a display font nor a body font. However, I will provide some faces, that are intended as display fonts:



    And:



    I have increased the width of the s and decreased the widths of p, q, d, g:
     
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    @Beau Williamson I am not sure, what you mean with the counters of the ß being a bit too open. Did you mean a correction from "old" to "new3" in the following image (or did you mean to close the gap as in new1 and new2)?




    Which glpyhs of the mono look clipped along the baseline? The round ones (like o)?
  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան PapazianHrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    Linus Romer said:
    I am not bound to a grid.
    Good for you.
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 43
    Hrant H. Papazian said:
    Linus Romer said:
    I am not bound to a grid.
    Good for you.
    And neither is the font ;-)
  • Arne FreytagArne Freytag Posts: 66

    I find the round corners too bold and unbalanced. Maybe you can solve the problem, if you draw the corner connections more round. Difficult for me to explain, so I made a quick sketch.

    It's not perfectly and a bit over the top, but I hope it shows you what I mean.

  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան PapazianHrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    The curve quality could indeed be improved, but another Eurostile we do not need.
  • Christian ThalmannChristian Thalmann Posts: 1,880
    edited December 2017
    If it's meant for code, among other things, I would make the hyphen much longer so it can pull its weight as a minus alongside +.

    For the ß, I would suggest clipping the right serif of the left stem to allow the gap in the bottom to be more prominent. I also think the bottom-heavy distribution of counters is favorable.

    BTW, I'm assuming the name is Rumantsch, so it should be pronounced [fun'tɛ:mɐ]?
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 170
    @Arne Freytag For the outer arcs, I have moved the tangent points off the corner point, which gives a rounder impression (the inner arcs were not touched). Here is  picture, but the appended pdf will probably show it better:




    I cannot increase the global roundness, because otherwise letters like h or n would look a bit vertically skewed in small sizes (due to the rectangular join).

    Should I make the round corner parts even thinner?
Sign In or Register to comment.