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Capitalia

 This FontStruction was selected by FontStruct staff.This%20FontStruction%20was%20selected%20by%20FontStruct%20staff.

by shasta
see also Capitalia Rounded by shasta


Details

Description:
This is the result of my frustration of never getting capital A's with diagonals steep enough to go all the way down without getting way too wide: A tall font with 2x1 grid stretch, with - guess what - a capital A whose diagonals aren't steep enough to go all the way down without being too wide... Well, whatever! :P
Maybe somebody likes it anyway!

Alternate ampersand on 1/4.
Stats:
196 characters, 34 downloads
Created:
Sun, 19th July, 10:08 PM 2009
Last Edit:
Sat, 8th August, 12:07 PM 2009
Permalink:
http://fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/205208
Tags:
Capitals, Condensed, Tall, Stretched, Movie, Poster
Categories:
Sans Serif
Rate it:
  • Currently 7.53502
7.5Balanced%20Rating%3A%20%3Cb%20class%3D%22weighted_value%22%3E7.5%3C%2Fb%3E%3Cbr%2F%3EAverage%20Rating%3A%20%3Cb%20class%3D%22rating_value%22%3E8.0%3C%2Fb%3E%3Cbr%2F%3EClick%20for%20more%20information%20about%20this%20rating. 8 votes
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Shared:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Discussion

shasta
shasta Sat, 25th July, 2009

pretty horrible anti-alias job by illustrator...

pretty horrible anti-alias job by illustrator...
intaglio
intaglio Sat, 25th July, 2009

Yes, the phantom third angle. I've stupidly been breaking my head over it forever. But as you've shown with this one, a creative Fontstruct workaround creates its own charm.

Ah, but they can be read legally, which is what matters. Maybe they should use it for Hollywood contracts as well.

gferreira_admin
gferreira_admin Tue, 28th July, 2009

Congratulations! FontStruct Staff have deemed your FontStruction worthy of special mention. “Capitalia” is now a Top Pick.

gferreira_admin
gferreira_admin Tue, 28th July, 2009

Elegant & very usable.
How about using the lowercase slots to create alternate 'non-diagonal' capitals?

aphoria
aphoria Tue, 28th July, 2009

Your Capitalia is what inspired me to take a try at steeper diagonals with Venus Sans.

afrojet
afrojet Tue, 28th July, 2009

Nice condensed Shasta. Works really well. I think the reason for the overstretched typeface on movie poster billings has something to do with readability from different angles, (when viewing a displayed poster from above or below).

Here's a bit from a Corey Holms interview on Lettercult:

"The billing block is the very condensed type at the bottom of the poster that contains the movie credits. Since there is a very specific formula for the point size of the billing, it is invariably set in an ultra-condensed typeface like (Univers) 39, (Univers) 49, or Bee. The formula for determining the point size of the billing is to take the average height of each letter in the logo (not the cap height, or the x-height, but the physical measurement of the height), attain an average height, and the billing is typically 25 percent or 35 percent of that size."

shasta
shasta Wed, 29th July, 2009

Thanks for your comments!
I've decided to add a lowercase, they're now online. (Sorry gustavo, maybe I'll do the non-diagonals in a clone.) It was actually the Univers 39 sample in your interview extract, afrojet, that made me do them... Thought it would be a pity to miss all these beautiful lc condensed letters by just copying the uc and shrinking them... I'm pretty happy with the result, I like the proportions.

@aphoria: Wow, very nice one, your Venus... Classical example of where the new creation bests the source of inspiration. You even managed a classical, beautiful A... I'm jealous. ;)

Considering the movie credits: There's certainly some legal reason for putting the movie credits on every poster, intaglio... I've just never understood why they wouldn't vertically shrink them to a normal font ratio. I'd rather have them small than always having to look at them with a 20° angle to the poster. Can probably make you look pretty stupid if you do that in front of your cinema. ;)
But it makes sense to me that this is just some kind of long-established convention, as your interview extract proves, afrojet... Mankind anyway seems to love to put everything in formulas.

But the readabilty from different angles point reminds me of my first official "business" card. Did it when I was probably 10 or something, in the age when you still love anything encoded and mysterious that only makes sense to a initiated few... The originals are of course long lost, but here's the concept:

Thanks for your comments! <br/>I've decided to add a lowercase, they're now online. (Sorry gustavo, maybe I'll do the non-diagonals in a clone.) It was actually the Univers 39 sample in your interview extract, afrojet, that made me do them... Thought it would be a pity to miss all these beautiful lc condensed letters by just copying the uc and shrinking them... I'm pretty happy with the result, I like the proportions. <br/> <br/>@aphoria: Wow, very nice one, your Venus... Classical example of where the new creation bests the source of inspiration. You even managed a classical, beautiful A... I'm jealous. ;) <br/> <br/>Considering the movie credits: There's certainly some legal reason for <i>putting</i> the movie credits on every poster, intaglio... I've just never understood why they wouldn't vertically shrink them to a normal font ratio. I'd rather have them small than always having to look at them with a 20° angle to the poster. Can probably make you look pretty stupid if you do that in front of your cinema. ;) <br/>But it makes sense to me that this is just some kind of long-established convention, as your interview extract proves, afrojet... Mankind anyway seems to love to put everything in formulas. <br/> <br/>But the <i>readabilty from different angles</i> point reminds me of my first official "business" card. Did it when I was probably 10 or something, in the age when you still love anything encoded and mysterious that only makes sense to a initiated few... The originals are of course long lost, but here's the concept:
SquarePeg
SquarePeg Wed, 29th July, 2009

Really nice! A business card with an optical illusion. :-)

funk_king
funk_king Thu, 30th July, 2009

very sweet :)

p2pnut
p2pnut Thu, 30th July, 2009

Very elegant ... the lowercase looks good as well.

Tried to read your business card design from the correct angle, but ended up dropping the monitor on my foot ;)

geneus1
geneus1 Thu, 30th July, 2009

It's good to see more vertically scaled fontstructions. There's a lot of unexplored territory there. This one works it well. And the lowercase properly befits the upper.