Maybe I need to make a category on this blog for Regrets. Here’s one: I always wished we had more room in the book for two of the most important ways to examine a typeface: its text setting and its family (weights, widths, italics and other variants).
If we had the space to illustrate weights, something to show would be the compensations that type designers make to their design as they add weight. Even the most geometric typefaces are adjusted to preserve counters, maintain overall balance among glyphs, and allow fonts to function at a greater range of sizes. Here we can see some examples of these adjustments, such as larger bowls (P), lower crossbars (A), wider shapes, and more contrast (difference betaween thin and thick strokes). Even Platform, with its intentionally extreme proportions, is adjusted.
One way to determine a quality, professional font family from an amateur or rushed product is to check all the weights and be sure the appropriate adjustments were made.
Typefaces shown: Platform, Futura ND, Battling (based on Elegant-Grotesk)