I created a mitred corner algorithm for my build scripts to subtly mitre any extra sharp corners that are created when I remove overlaps. For more information on why it's a good idea to not flatten your glyphs until right before you export, see this post on using build scripts to author the final font files.

Click "Read More" for the script

Grant Avenue is inspired by the inscriptional lettering from the beginning of the last century in downtown San Francisco. I've just taken a first pass at a bold weight.

Sometimes just one little element changes the whole flavor of a font. The other night I stumbled across this solution for the uppercase E [of my most recent serif] that brings some flavor to the sauce. The large E's are Display Bold, and the rest is Display Light. The new E is on the left.

After completing the brackets on one of several hundred characters in serif beta, I realized that it was going to take days to adjust each little handle to get the curves just right. I figured it was a good time to finish a rounded corner python script for FontLab that I had started a couple years back.

Here is the result. It doesn't always do the right thing, but for the most part, if you are rounding a corner from reasonably straight lines, it does just fine. (If you try to round a corner that is already round, it will look a little weird).

What the script does not do: If you want a script that you can run on your font and magically come up with an amazing new design, this isn't the script for you.

What the script does do: It provides fine control over which points get rounded, and which ones don't, as well as specific control over the x and y axis and the length of the bezier handles. It happens to be perfect for adding brackets to serifs. To use, just select the corners you want to see rounded and push the play button.

Click read more for the script

I branched my version control repository last night to try putting brackets on the serif beta. Here are the results. The characters look like they have a little more polish, and the contrast between the unbracketed top and bracketed bottom serifs on the lower case is interesting. It does make the font look less digital (and perhaps less contemporary?)

I wonder with the brackets whether the serifs should have the hollowed out bottoms. It looks like they might do better being flat.

Here is a release candidate for the Ubuntu titling font. I've included the "source" FontLab (not open source, sorry) file along with the build script I use to author the OTF and TTF files. This version not only includes many more diacritics, but includes OpenType features such as small caps, small cap numerals as well as some alternate characters. I have also polished the spacing and added kerning, which was missing from previous versions.

I've also nudged some of the letter shapes to be a little more squarish. The rounded forms conform to the Ubuntu ideal of a human and approachable operating system, but in previous cuts some of the characters were starting to appear childish, where the logotype does not. The best example of this is the lower case 'a'.

[ Update: Due to all of the drama around licensing/trademarks and source code, I'm posting an update with a link to the LGPL in there somewhere (see if you can find it) and and updated trademark table specifically noting that Ubuntu is a trademark of Canonical. I also updated the build script to remove an erroneous include. ]

I'm attaching a beta of my yet to be named serif family here. All of the usual caveats apply (wonky spacing, incomplete characters, etc). Feel free to use it wherever you want, just don't redistribute or try to sell it, and let me know if you have any feedback.

Included in the set are Regular,Italic,Bold,Bold Italic for optical sizes 72, 12 and 6. Size 72 also includes italic swash characters and Black weights.

Glyph math is a concept used by Robofab where you take every point in a glyph and perform a mathmatical operation on each point. So if you were to multiply the glyph 'a' by 10, it would take each point, and multiply it by 10, essentially scaling the glyph 10 times. It becomes really interesting when you start doing operations on point compatible glyphs. So for example, if you were to take that same 'a' and add it to a bold version, then divide by two, you would have an average of the two glyphs (in this case a medium).

Another useful concept, though a little harder to grasp, is the idea of differences. If you subtract one glyph from another, you typically end up with some random looking squiggles. But when you apply those differences to a third glyph, things get interesting. Take for example the optical weights shown above. If you subtract the display 'a' from the caption 'a', then add those differences back on a bold display, you get a pretty good looking optical bold.

So how does it work? Let's look at just one control point to see what happens. In this case, let's look at the point on the underside of the arm of the lower case 'a'. If we take the difference of (subtract) point1 and point2 we get -20 units. If we then add these 20 units to the bold 'a', the point moves down 20 points, which is just where we want it for an caption size 'a'. Glyph math simply repeats this step for every point in the glyph.

Once you start playing with the optical sizes, it's hard not to print after every tweak. Another side effect of optical tuning: the caption size is often more interesting for display sizes than the display version.

I've been a little nuts this week on this font. I have been drawing on it at night, and on the train to and from work. On Friday night I went to bed at 2:00, and I woke up at 6am Saturday morning because I was couldn't stop thinking about it. So far I've drawn a Roman, Bold (interpolated), Black, Italic, Bold Italic (interpolated), Black Italic with Small Caps, OSF, all with at least a Mac Roman character set. I've also started swashes and optical sizes for text weights.

Here's another interesting piece of trivia: so far I've drawn it completely, 100 percent on the trackpad on my Powerbook. My tendons are starting to pinch a little by my thumb. I need to get a better place to sit where I can use a stylus. Mostly I sit in the big La-z-Boy recliner in my living room, which is great for my back, but bad for the tendons in my hand.