Icelandic - acceptable eth height?

Dave Rowland

Anybody know whether or not the eth has to ascend to full ascender height? I think it looks better in this work in progress between ascender height and t-height, but I'm not Icelandic, so any advice would be gratefully received. Cheers.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

I doubt that you need to force it to the full height, especially in a display face. But I'm pinging my Nordic people now...  :-)

Andreas Stötzner

looks fine to me.
I’d rethink the gaps between base lc and tittles, though.

Thomas Phinney

There were some good eth-and-thorn talks at ATypI in Iceland a few years back.  

The eth ascender does not need to go to the full ascender height. Indeed, it would be very unusual for it to do so. (Not saying it *can’t*—but it should be dictated by the design rather than by a false assumption that this is the norm. Still, to be largely avoided, I gather.)

The bowl of the eth can be, and often is, smaller than that of other letters such as bdpq. That makes it easier to make the eth ascender shorter, as it generally should be. Your bowls are so small in this one that making the eth bowl smaller may not be reasonable in this case.

Dave Rowland

Thanks! And cheers for the tittle advice - have looked again at those.

Thomas Phinney

Addendum: you could actually afford to shorten that eth ascender even more. Make it more clearly in between x height and ascender height.