Glyphs thickness

mauro sacchetto

While fixing an old font (a Simoncini), I'm having a lot of doubts about how to establish a harmonious proportion in the small caps between the lateral thickness of the curved glyphs (|O|, but also |D| or |P|) and that of the oblique strokes with different angles (|N|, |V|, |W|).

Which ones do you find too discontinuous in this test?

Already here, the thick right diagonal stroke of |M| appears much thinner than that of |N|.

Is the only final criterion the eye (because, moreover, when printing a .pdf, the appearance changes a bit depending on the zoom...)?

Thanks

m

Yves Michel

You should read Karen Cheng's "Designing Type". This 'invaluable book' as the editor qualifies it (and he's absolutely right) will answer your questions and many others.
And, as you mention, don't base your design only on calculations but trust your eyes.

mauro sacchetto

Thanks for the tip; I’ll be sure to get hold of that text.

In the meantime, what are the most obvious flaws that your expert eyes spot?

Nick Shinn

As this is small caps, I suggest you examine it at small cap size, in text settings combined with capitals, lower case, and numerals. Especially italic lower case.

In other words, you won’t know how well the automobile will perform unless you take it out of the garage.

jeremy tribby

Is the only final criterion the eye

yes. true of everything in type design  but there are principles to explain this.. when you slant a vertical stroke, its horizontal width stays the same, but the shortest distance between its edges gets smaller, so you need to compensate for that. as yves suggests, going mechanically by the cosine of the slant angle won't always look right, though - you need to use your eye and consider the broader context. the diagonal of the N stroke might become a bit heavier because it's uncrowded in a field of white, for example, while W might be lighter due to its density. also agree with nick! since small caps can set a little wide, you might make different choices, it will be helpful to look at a few pages set the way you imagine the letters being used

Craig Eliason

To my eyes, second stroke of /M, first stroke of /W, thick stroke of /X, and tail of /R feel a little thin. Big rounds /C/G/O/Q might get a touch too dark.

Yves Michel

@mauro sacchetto
Another good reference for your library: "Type Tricks" by Sophie Beier. (www.bispublishers.com)

Craig Eliason

For the printing inconsistency issue, you could consider printing the font at a larger size (so rasterization is less apt to cause distortion) and viewing it from farther away. (Nick Sherman's Size Calculator can even calculate how to reproduce a conventional text-font perceived size at different distances!)

mauro sacchetto

Thanks for the bibliographic references.

Cheng's text can be downloaded from the Internet, but it is the first edition.

I have ordered the more comprehensive second edition and Beier's text.

This is a second draft with some corrections: