Before I started drawing this serif family last week, I had the idea that if it was going to be based on a pointed rather than a flat nib it could support some great copperplate script looking swashes. I tried it out tonight and I like what I see so far. And let's be honest, everybody loves swashes.

Here are some rough sketches for a display serif I've been working on since Friday. If you wanted to be nice you could say that it's neutral, but really it's just boring. I need to think of some ways to add some flavor here.

If you have ever tried to design an italic serif, you'll know that obliquing a roman with some tails added just doesn't work. While I was doing some italic work today, I did a little study with some common italics. I slanted the italics back to where the lower case 'l' is upright. The results are pretty enlightening.

When writing software, there is a big difference between the human readable code, and the compiled machine readable code. The human readable code is easy to edit, while the machine readable code can only be read by complete psycos, and even there with lots of effort. In order to get from human to computer readable, there is a step called compiling.

I've found this to be a useful paradigm with type design as well. The source files are my FontLab files. There are a lot of things that need to happen between my easy to edit source files and the finished exported fonts. For one thing, I use interpolation for some of the weights. All of the interpolated weights must be created, then renamed with have the proper "Font Info" applied. Also, I often like to use separate contours and sometimes even components for different strokes (see fig. 1). For example, it's much easier to adjust the weight and correct italic distortions in the "A" if the crossbar isn't welded on to the frame. These all need to be decomposed with overlaps removed. When I started making fonts, it would take forever if I needed to make a tweak and re-export final files.

Doublewide is starting to become a useful family. Here's some work on a saucy italic to go with the jovial roman. If anyone sees any problems, or is interested in becoming a beta tester of the complete family let me know.

I'm sure that the readership of this blog is a subset of the Typophile readership, but if you haven't seen Typophile in a while, check out the newest refresh. This is what I've been spending most of my time on lately.

I've been working on adding a set of extended weights to Pill Gothic, as well as a black weight. I've adjusted a couple other things that have been bothering me as well, including a slightly larger x-height across all weights. Here is a sneak peek:

I've seen quite a few really great display romans lately. I really like the sharp connections and exaggerated contrast. Here is my insomniac lower case sketch from earlier this week.

I've added more characters to the Ubuntu title font. I'm still working out some of the rounded terminals.