Turns out people don't know what g looks like

Comments

  • Chris LozosChris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    Makes perfect sense to me.  Perhaps if they were asked to "draw" this g instead of write it, they have changed the outcome,
  • Interesting. I'd like to see that study continued by showing participants four words each with a different g variation. I'd be curious if the detection rate increases.

    Also, it shows how far removed from handwriting the looped g is to the writers of this day and age.
  • Mark SimonsonMark Simonson Posts: 1,652
    Normal people don't look at letters or think much about their shapes, as long as they can read it. I think in the case of the two-story g, the presence of the double bowl is the important part for recognizing it, the other details don't really matter. I know of at least one typeface where it consists only of the two bowls (I don't recall its name) and it works.
  • Some typefaces vary the topology of /g rather liberally, and there's pretty much a continuum of shapes between the mono- and binocular paradigms. The Koch /g and Lato's italic /g come to mind.

    As for «just two bowls», Quinoa's variants come close:


  • Kent LewKent Lew Posts: 905
    I wonder whether if you showed a group of people four cropped photos of noses only and asked them to pick out the one that belonged to their best friend, you might get similar results.

    And I wonder whether they’d do any better if they’d been taught how to sculpt portraits of their friends out of clay when they were growing up.
  • Ori Ben-DorOri Ben-Dor Posts: 383
    I haven't noticed Lato italic's /g before. Its ear faces the right direction, but the loop is  mirrored. Interesting. Personally I don't like it, but it doesn't look completely wrong, probably because it's not far from a single story g.

    It's also worth mentioning Benguiat's /g, which reconstructs the single story g from non-standard strokes.
  • The same effect can be observed when you ask people to draw well-known logos from memory: https://www.signs.com/branded-in-memory/
  • John HudsonJohn Hudson Posts: 2,955
    Or common objects such as bicycles.
  • Or common objects such as bicycles.
    Indeed. Though some of these look pretty cool. https://www.wired.com/2016/04/can-draw-bikes-memory-definitely-cant/

    With regards to the g, I wonder how odd g's influence legibility. 
  • Craig EliasonCraig Eliason Posts: 1,397
  • Kent LewKent Lew Posts: 905
    Wow, Craig, that vintage sure has some legs. ;-)
  • I know of at least one typeface where it consists only of the two bowls (I don't recall its name) and it works.
    Maybe you’re thinking of Ladislav?
  • Chris LozosChris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    Here is my Dez Petranian:
  • Mark SimonsonMark Simonson Posts: 1,652
    edited April 2018
    I think it was Vero:


    Not exactly a classic. Don't think I've ever seen it anywhere but in a type catalog. I suspect there may have been many more weights and styles. (And look: Tall instead of Condensed!)
  • AbiRasheedAbiRasheed Posts: 238
    @Craig Eliason Sorry man but holy smokes that g looks horrible specially for that sort of raised UV printing. 
  • Nick ShinnNick Shinn Posts: 2,131
    Teaching type design to graphic design students, in University, I found that many of them instinctively placed the crossbar of /f low, as in Antique Olive.
  • Nick ShinnNick Shinn Posts: 2,131
    edited April 2018
    Always impressed with Poor Richard’s /g (and other characters!)
  • It wasn’t until trying to design a /k that I realised I had *absolutely no idea* how they worked.
  • Adam JagoszAdam Jagosz Posts: 689
    I wouldn't say Lato's g is flipped, the stroke connecting the bowls is curved the same direction as in regular g's. I'd say it was rather translated to the right by a decent distance.
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