Hello.
This is a small text typeface based (loosely) on Granjon’s Ascendonica. (As seen here: https://search.museumplantinmoretus.be/Details/collect/206965)
(I am not sure about the name yet.)
My aim is not to make a revival. I would like to make a garalde (kind of sad Granjon is not in there… Gargranjalde?) typeface fit for long text in small (6 pt?) sizes in Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek.
So — legibility is priority.
Any comments, critiques, or suggestions are welcome.
LATIN
You will notice some clear divergences from Granjon’s type in the /a and /g, as well as, albeit less drastic, in the /e, /K, /k, /Q and /Z, /z.
CYRILLIC
How would one space the cyrillic? Is there a good rule for the proportions on the letters in relation to each other? Currently, I have made п /pe-cy the same width as the /n, but with slightly increased (and symmetrical) side bearings. /n
Some exterior opinions on the design of some Cyrillic letterforms would be welcome (though not necessarily agreed with). In particular, the д /de-cy, к /ka-cy (and ж /zhe-cy), л /el-cy, ц /tse-cy (and щ /shcha-cy), and э /ereversed-cy
Cyrillic Petrine Reform: https://www.wdl.org/en/item/561/view/1/3/
д: I don’t like the square form (see л). Now, we have two triangles to choose from: leaning triangle, and normal triangle.
к and ж: I am not convinced they should copy the latin /k. I will probably add latin-style as stylistic alternates. But I can’t help to wonder why the Petrine reform к and ж could have just been copied from the latin — but no.
л: I don’t like the square form. I understand it is better for the colour of the text, but I don’t think it is sufficiently legible (or beautiful). Now, ball terminal, or not? Both make sense to me.
ц and щ: Swooshy tail? It’s pretty. But it might be too distracting for nothing. It is not important to differentiate ш and щ to understand a word.
э: Swooshy… nose?
Also, should the capitals resemble the lowercase?
GREEK
Lowercase not done yet.
I found these wonderful little capitals by aldus (I think).
Is this shape of /Xi acceptable (legible) nowadays?
I wanted to make an aldine /Psi, but I could not find an example that didn’t require an exorbitant amount of imagination to draw from. So the current one is based on Garamont’s Parangonne Capitales Grecques.
Sorry for the avalanche.
Here is a pdf sample of the typeface.
Please ignore the invisible hyphen :-)
Comments
The д stands out too much — too wide / light on the left. The л blends in more naturally.
As a rule of thumb, it’s usually better to put all sorts of “opinionated” forms to style sets and go with a more neutral as a default. Just makes it useful for a wider range of projects and leaves the options for the user.
S and s may read as a touch too light. I'd try to widen the top and bottom counters of k and x. Seen large, that reaching f (that I know is part of the style) may look like it's trying too hard, but in small running text it is working well--but figure out now what ligatures or other solutions you'll need esp. for ensuing letters with diacritics. (And you'll probably need some positive kerning between f and space.)
And even just the tiniest bit more descender length (even if it has to come at the expense of some ascender length to keep the interlinear spacing tight) would be welcome.
AFAIK Tswe and Schwe only exist as distinct letters in 19th Century Abkhaz orthography, which split the two ways of writing tse and shcha into separate characters to represent sounds found in Abkhaz but not Slavic.
I’m sure you'll find examples of these in Russian that are far more recent than the 1700s, though in recent designs they'd only be used in display faces which are attempting to be deliberately archaic.
Regarding the Abkhaz sequence in Cyrillic Extended B, the N3194R proposal includes samples from 1912 (real use) and 1964 (reference for transliteration).
In Fontesque, I used the swash-tailed forms of tse and shcha for fanciful effect.
And so that be’s brush won’t be quite so lonely.
But not a good typeface for long text at 6 pt.
Alex Visi: I agree. I am rethinking the spacing. I made the д quite a bit narrower.
Craig Eliason: I made /S /s slightly heavier. I gave /k /x /ж /к more room to breathe. I plan on making a contextual alternate f with no extrusion for the diacritics. Would that solve the issue? For the descender length, I'm not convinced. I think it best to sacrifice descenders more than ascenders for legibility. If I decrease the ascenders, I'd have to wrestle some shapes into submission a lot more (such as the /f /б and /β). And the short descender-ness is part of the charm, don't you think?
Look at the cute g!
Konrad Ritter: Thank you. I do wish to make optical sizes... but I'm nowhere near that point yet.
Igor Freiberger and others: Fascinating. I was not aware of those letters. Would that mean that, if the ц were to have a tail, you would need to cut it off as a localised form for Abkhaz? I would like give this typeface extensive Cyrillic support. Do you know of a list of languages that use Cyrillic and their respective required glyphs?
My favourite Cyrillic glyph I found so far is 'CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER YAE' (U+0518).
K Pease: I increased the size of the /y ball terminal. As for the д and л, I have seen 3 possibilities so far (in decreasing order of popularity):
Both square forms,
Both Isosceles triangle forms,
Isosceles triangle л and Right triangle (trapezoid) д.
I refit the Latin lowercase. Here is a pdf (in 12pt). Is it still too tight?
(You can also check out the new /k /s /x and /y mentioned previously.)
I did some testing, and printed at 6pt on a household inkjet printer with my new spacing. It is pretty tight, but I think it is comfortable, no? I am also worried about space economy.
It is supposed to work well at 6pt, but due to its large x-height, it is very similar in size to Garamond Premiere Pro Caption 8pt, for example.
Just a quick update, as I have finished my first draft of all the Latin and Cyrillic characters. (Except for Bulgarian and Serbian characters.)
Any opinion on the letterforms, especially the more unusual Cyrillic ones, would be nice.
Specifically, I have questions on the following:
The /kahook-cy: should the hook be rounded, similar to that of /ghemiddlehook-cy?
The Cyrillic tail: What is it supposed to look like? Where does it come from? What on Earth is it, and why is it different from the "descender"? Is this good?
The /kaverticalstroke-cy: I separated the /ka-cy in two, to decrease its colour. How do I put a stroke through a joint that does not exist? Like this?
The ударение (or наголос in Ukrainian?): I made Ligatures with the /acutecomb, in case the user's software is less cooperative. I have yet to see a font with this for Ukrainian and Belorussian. Is there a reason? With a quick google search, I found that, in Ukrainian, the stress is often marked as we would expect, with bold or a change in size. But I also found the /acutecomb, used with varying degrees of success (the і and ї are problematic). Can I use the same shape as a /dialytikatonoscomb for the ї ?
Here is the pdf Specimen.