The forum for all suggestions and ideas for the future of FontStruct.
This is a clone of fm FontStruct SuggestionsWhat began nearly 8 years ago as an experiment in multi-stage, multi-resolution pixel serif type drafting (starting smallish then manually upscaling x4), took on the robust character you see here after countless edits and some tricky lessons learned along the way.
The initial weight was on the light side (cloned privately for posterity), so I took a leap into this bookish weight by fattening each glyph copy-pasted 1 pixel shifted both up and to the right. A rudimentary technique, by no means novel, yet almost wholly effective. I saw fit from here to only make a handful of corrections, keeping the slightly rounded and slanted serif shape that resulted as well as the subtle reenforcing of a pen-nib construction.
More intriguing is the 1-bit “anti-aliasing” scheme I found myself progressively guided toward while finding the lines of these curves developing the initial light weight. Implied diagonals and said curves – as well as refinement of contrast – are substantially more granular and specific than had I taken a black-and-white posterized, or stairstepped approach.
At half-resolution, the resulting smoothness is acceptible. This type of hinting will be useful in developing a substitution rule set consisting of subpixel slanted or curved bricks to produce a “vectorized” version.
Indeed, such a process could be purely automated by a proficient developer or properly trained neural network (this would be a really interesting future feature for fontstruct pro – rather than hinting a font after painstaking vector construction, why not reverse the process by way of en vogue ai-assisted upscaling?).
Basic accented charaters and numerals are being added as I churn through the extended character set...
A winning, small-matrix rendition of this super-elliptical monoline sans. If you’d like, please enjoy a private clone to tour the brand-spankin’ new interiors.
I embraced innovation at the expense of imperfection with faux-curve composite stacks. These custom bricks are used to resolve the most glaring proportion issues besetting version 1 (and 2’s) capitals. I risk intermittent aliasing as well as potential inconsistencies in both curvature and stroke contrast. Yet these composite-stack discontinuities (A,C,D,G,J,O,Q,S,U,V) marry unexpectedly well with the extensively used macaroni bricks and remain themselves smooth up to an impressive 72pt.
Manual kerning leaves a lot of room for improvement. The alternates are included mostly for curiosity’s sake. Another work in progress with samples to follow. Feedback is always very appreciated; thanks in advance for it! :)
This is a clone