Seeking parties available for technical reviews

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Daniel Yacob
Daniel Yacob Posts: 16
in Lettering Critiques
Greetings All,

I've been fortunate to have had the opportunity to interact with a number of young, up-and-coming, graphic artists who have created some fantastic typefaces for the Ethiopic script.  They are self-taught in using font tools and while they are great artists, they may be unaware of technical aspects that impact the visual quality of the typeface on various platforms and devices (awareness that I also lack).

Is there a type design organization or interested individuals that I could direct them to, who could offer a technical review of their fonts and advise them on areas to address? 

In some cases, the fonts are a commercial product, and a small review fee could be offered.  In other cases, the font is an OFL offering, a labour of love, and the review would have to be on a volunteer basis.

thanks!
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Comments

  • Dave Crossland
    Dave Crossland Posts: 1,476
    Google Fonts can do this for OFL fonts that meet the other gf requirements. http://googlefonts.github.io/gf-guide provides all the information, and if you ask them to post here their "add font" issue link, I'll be sure to prioritize reviewing it :)
  • Jasper de Waard
    Jasper de Waard Posts: 642
    edited 9:33AM
    If they are graphic designers and not type designers then I doubt the only required feedback is technical. For a start, why don't you post the works here for feedback?
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 3,017
    The dividing line between “design feedback” and “technical feedback” may be a bit fuzzy. Probably even more so, to those who are not experienced with type design!   :tongue:
  • Kent Lew
    Kent Lew Posts: 1,001
    But note that Daniel is talking about fonts for Ethiopic script. So the set of those qualified in the intersection of both design feedback and technical feedback is going to be small. I suspect that’s why he is emphasizing the need primarily for technical feedback, as these designers are likely to have much more experience with their script than most of the rest of us professionals.
  • Daniel Yacob
    Daniel Yacob Posts: 16
    Thank you for the responses.  @Kent Lew has expressed well the way that I was thinking about the topic.  My thought was largely on the very many properties that can be set for metrics, dimensions, hinting, and other internal parameters whose consequences may not always be obvious (particularly across platforms). 

    An inexperienced designer may opt to stay with the defaults that a tool offers. Feedback on optimizing contours would also be welcomed, and anything else a reviewer has time for (internal parameters being the priority). The designers are based in Ethiopia where there can be some cultural shyness to have a review made in public view. But not always, I'll direct some designers here.

    The Google Font guide looks promising, thanks @Dave Crossland for pointing it out  :)

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