Elemaints - A Serif Family with Optical Sizes

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  • @"Jānis Kalaus"  Thanks for this interesting resource, I will use it for the design of the italic cyrillic glyphs!

    @Christian Thalmann Indeed, my display face had some letters that were too compressed (e.g. the /O ). When changing the widths, I have changed some designs too, among them /p /b /q /d. The widths of the display face are now more vivid.

    So here is the updated cyrillic:

  • Might the new display half-moon bowls, especially in /q/ and /b/ where they're not tempered by an incision, a bit too large?
    The PDF shows some inverted overlaps in /A/, /fita-cy/, and /Fita-cy/.
  • "Книга про буквы от Аа до Яя", Юрий Гордон
    Or try asking the author of the book >> https://yurigordon.com/
    This book is great, even if you don't speak Russian. For non-Russian speakers, you can use your smartphone camera and an app like Google Translate to get a rough translation of the text. It's not perfect, but close enough to get the ideas across.
  • @Christian Thalmann Yes, the /q and the /b were a bit too wide in the display face; I have made them narrower.

    Additionally, I have overhauled my interpolation system entirely:
    • The tiny faces are no longer extrapolated from the caption and display faces, but the caption faces are interpolated from the tiny and display faces
    • The order of finetuning is now: interpolate, unlink reference, add extrema, remove overlap, simplify contours, round, auto-hint
    • In order to get better tangency in the interpolated faces, the base faces now contain non-integral coordinates for tangent handles and have the extrema removed from contours that have tangent handles attached.
    This change is quite time consuming. A preview of the current state:


  • A short status report: I have done the repolishing of the Tiny and the Display face. Hence, all shapes of the regular faces are done thanks to interpolation. Here is an example with small caps (do not mind the spacing yet):
    Here are the steps that were necessary in FontForge to achieve a smooth interpolation for diagonal serifs:
    1. make the handles attached to tangent points really tangential with non-integer coordinates (just move the control point one unit up and down)
    2. remove the non-necessary extrema (conserving area)
    3. balance the handles (conserving area)
    4. resist to round the corresponding control points to integers (leave them non-integer)



  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 156
    edited February 8
    A short status report: All glyphs of Tiny, Regular and BoldTiny are completed (up to spacing and kerning). Here is the BoldTiny:

    I will start with spacing and kerning after I have repolished the numerals «2» and «3». I am not happy with their current state (upper row) and I am thinking of switching to teardrop terminals (lower row). What do you think? Do they fit the other numerals? (The new «2» and «3» are influenced by Charter, Source Serif and Utopia.)

  • Christian ThalmannChristian Thalmann Posts: 1,836
    edited February 9
    Absolutely gorgeous typeface! The only thing I stumble on is the sloped roof of /σ/τ/, particularly in the combination /στ/. The roofs feel misaligned there.
    As for the figures, I much prefer the more humanist ones on top.
    Oh, and /молекули/ needs kerning. /Wasser/ looks overkerned to me.
  • Linus RomerLinus Romer Posts: 156
    @Christian Thalmann You are right about /σ/τ/, their roofs were misaligned, indeed! This is solved now (BoldDisplay was extrapolated and will be refined later):
    About kerning: My English is not very good. With "up to spacing and kerning" I have meant "except spacing and kerning" (I guess I should use this expression only with mathematical texts). I already fear the kerning of the Cyrillic glyphs...

    Here is the complete overview for the new numerals for «2» and «3» (BoldDisplay was extrapolated and will be refined later). The typeface is intended for scientific texts. In this context the new numerals fit better, I think. 

  • Craig EliasonCraig Eliason Posts: 1,317
    I agree that new forms of two and three are fitting. To my eye your bold figures are a bit uneven in color (e.g. six and four look darker than five and two). 
  • Thomas PhinneyThomas Phinney Posts: 2,467
    Wow, this is very nice. Lovely work!

    On the lowercase alpha, the thin stroke looks like it offsets a bit while crossing the thicker one. That is, it appears visually as if the top tail shifts left—despite the fact that measurement would say otherwise. This is the same optical illusion that often afflicts the latin X/x, and is generally resolved by offsetting the thinner stroke, in this case moving it a bit right. Try about 1% of the em to start, see how that looks.
  • About kerning: My English is not very good.
    No, that was just sloppy reading on my side, sorry...
  • @Thomas Phinney: Indeed, the offset strokes in the crossing look more natural:


    @""Craig Eliason" You are right, here are the improved numerals for BoldTiny:

  • Thomas PhinneyThomas Phinney Posts: 2,467
    edited February 15
    I think that the crossover on the alpha is definitely much improved!  :smiley:
    Perhaps the stroke offset on the alpha could be a very little bit more? Certainly it is most of the way to an excellent amount.
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