Italic stem optical compensation

Sérgio Provença
Sérgio Provença Posts: 4
in Technique and Theory
Hi, Everybody, I've recently attended a 3 day typeface design workshop by Iñigo Jerez (Textaxis), where I presented one of my ongoing projects, which is a highly modulated serif text face with aldine feel. However I've just begun drawing  the italics and the ascendant stem angle compensation still puzzles me a bit. Is there a paper withadvice I could read/download out there. Or can anyone give me some basic advice? Thanks. ;b

Comments

  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 2,006
    Are you asking about how to reduce the weight of the italic so that its color matches the roman?
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    Or are you asking about tapering the ascenders?

  • Paul Miller
    Paul Miller Posts: 273
    James Puckett said:
    Are you asking about how to reduce the weight of the italic so that its color matches the roman?
    I would also be interested in this.

    Currently I have no coherent strategy, I just adjust them until I think they look correct.

    Is there a better way ?
  • Sérgio Provença
    Sérgio Provença Posts: 4
    Hi, folks, thanks for your interest. My doubts are on the different slant angles for ascenders in order to compensate the overall italics angle, which in my case is 6 degrees. Prosaic, I'm sure, if your a seasoned typedrawer, but difficult for me.
  • Sérgio Provença
    Sérgio Provença Posts: 4
    For instance, the lowercase "h" left stem has a special slant in relation to the slant of the lowercase "i" for optical compensation, so on and so forth. What I was wondering is if there's some literature/theory on the subject that I could use as reference. Thanks again!!
  • PabloImpallari
    PabloImpallari Posts: 806
    edited May 2017
    Read all this, it's pure gold: http://briem.net/2/2.3.1a/2.3.1.01.notes.htm
  • Sérgio Provença
    Sérgio Provença Posts: 4
    PabloImpallari said:
    Read all this, it's pure gold: http://briem.net/2/2.3.1a/2.3.1.01.notes.htm
    Grazie mille, Pablo,

    I'd already gone through Briem. Though I highly value his advice on the importance of visual perception, I always thought there would be some other type of logic/rationale (apart from mores maiorum) behind an informed and adequate design. 

    Thanks again to all!!! 

Categories