SquarePeg: FontStructions

Braille (Basic)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

The Braille system was developed by Louis Braille in 1821.

Mew Wins' Morse Code Alphabet (International) inspired me to make a Braille FontStruction. I have only drawn the basic, or Grade 1, version of the Braille alphabet here. (There is a contracted version of Braille, known as Grade 2, and another version which uses an 8 dot grid. In addition, there are special Braille characters for accented letters, but they are not all standardized, so for now I have stayed away from them.)

Special characters: There are no capital letters in Braille. Instead, there is a symbol for "capital letter follows," which I have placed in the "at" (@) symbol. The "number follows" symbol is usually placed in the space for the "number" symbol (#), so I've followed that convention. In addition, I have copied the symbol for each letter into both the upper and lower case spaces, to make it easier to type something up (or select an existing text file) and switch the font to Braille (Basic).

International Morse Code (Stacked)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

The original Morse code was created for Samuel F.B. Morse's electric telegraph in the early 1840s, but spread to radio communications (and beyond) beginning in the 1890s. (It is now known as American Morse code, and rarely used.) International Morse code was created by Friedrich Clemens Gerke in 1848, and standardized at the International Telegraphy congress (Paris) in 1865.

Other current Morse Code FontStructions have encountered word- and letter-spacing issues, and I tried to work around this by stacking the dots and dashes vertically. The result reminds me a bit of Mayan numerals, but hey, as long as it still reads as Morse... I wonder what the ITU would say about this? One thing's for sure... it saves a lot of horizontal space.

In each character, the dots and dashes read from top to bottom rather than from left to right. Punctuation has the longest series of dots and dashes in International Morse Code (six), so this number determined my cap height. :-) The shorter characters all hang from this imaginary line.

Missing characters: Please note that the !, & and $ symbols are not defined within the ITU recommendations for International Morse code, so they are not part of this typeface. On the other hand, the @ symbol was approved for use in 2004, so I've also included the underscore sign I found at two different online sources. (The underscore symbol has not been formally approved by the ITU, but it could come in handy if you have to transmit an e-mail address using Morse code!)

Other characters: As with my two Braille FontStructions, the uppercase and lowercase versions of each character are the same. Also, the opening and closing parentheses share the same symbol, which will also show up if you type brackets instead of parentheses. Last but not least, there are a very few diacritics included (the ones I was able to verify).

Prometheus Shadow (Basic Set)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I've added a side shadow to Prometheus. The inspiration was a typeface from the French type foundry Peignot. Identified as "No. 1229" in their Lettres Fantaises of 1896, it sports a very fine side shadow, which I've attempted to re-create here. (I found the "No. 1229" sample on Hoefler & Frere-Jones' blog - fifth image from the top.)

This FontStruction is split in two to make downloading possible. The Basic Set (this half) features all of the Basic Latin and More Latin characters, while the Extended Set has all of the Extended Latin A and several Extended Latin B characters (Latin-based diacritics for the Central European, West European, Baltic, and Romanian languages, plus special characters for Croatian, Slovenian, and Livonian, among others).

Braille (Basic) Alternate

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Clone of Braille (Basic). I swapped the hollow circles for small dots.

Special characters: There are no capital letters in Braille. Instead, there is a symbol for "capital letter follows," which I have placed in the "at" (@) symbol. The "number follows" symbol is usually placed in the space for the "number" symbol (#), so I've followed that convention. In addition, I have copied the symbol for each letter into both the upper and lower case spaces, to make it easier to type something up (or select an existing text file) and switch the font to Braille (Basic) Alternate.

Ribbon Inline

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

This one began as a few doodles in my sketchbook. I've adapted them to FontStruct. It's an all-caps typeface, but A, K, V, W, X, and Z have alternate glyphs in the lowercase keys.

UPDATE: I've tried adding punctuation, but the double lines tend to make things tricky in this regard! Still working on it.

Ribbon

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Clone of Ribbon Inline. It's an all-caps typeface, but A, B, R, V, and W have alternate glyphs in the lowercase keys.

BriteLite

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

More fun with vintage technology (a.k.a. Lite-Brite). This version has complete upper case, lower case, and numerals, plus basic punctuation.

BriteLite Caps

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Clone of BriteLite, which was inspired by Lite-Brite. Caps only, to keep things simple -- no pesky ascenders or descenders!

Strata Blocks 2.0

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Clone of Strata Blocks -- and, I'm hoping, an improvement of same. I used the advanced controls to reduce the brick dimensions to 0.85 in both directions, eliminating the continuous band of black that formed at the top of Strata Blocks 1.0.

TapeWriter

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Partly inspired by those DYMO LabelWriters that were ubiquitous in the 1970s... This is not yet complete; I still have to add lots of punctuation. Diacritics might be coming, too... Stay tuned.

Blob

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

My take on a blocky, rounded face. Completed upper case and numerals: April 11, 2008. Completed lower case: April 13, 2008. Still in progress.

Prometheus Light (Basic Set)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Based on condensed Grecian typefaces by Darius Wells and William Hamilton Page. Many Grecian wood type samples lack lower case characters or numerals (or both!)... hence my sampling of different sources.

After several modifications, this FontStruction has become so big that I had to split it in two to make downloading possible! The Basic Set (this half) features all of the Basic Latin and More Latin (a.k.a. Latin-1) characters, while the Extended Set has all of the Extended Latin A and several Extended Latin B characters (Latin-based diacritics for the Central European, West European, Baltic, and Romanian languages, plus special characters for Croatian, Slovenian, and Livonian, among others).

Prometheus (Basic Set)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Clone of Prometheus Light (Basic Set), which is based on condensed Grecian typefaces by Darius Wells and William Hamilton Page. Many Grecian wood type samples lack lower case characters or numerals (or both!)... hence my sampling of different sources.

After several modifications, this FontStruction has become so big that I had to split it in two to make downloading possible! The Basic Set (this half) features all of the Basic Latin and More Latin (a.k.a. Latin-1) characters, while the Extended Set has all of the Extended Latin A and several Extended Latin B characters (Latin-based diacritics for the Central European, West European, Baltic, and Romanian languages, plus special characters for Croatian, Slovenian, and Livonian, among others).

Strata Dots

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Based on Strata Blocks; I swapped the squares for circles.

Completed Basic Latin set of characters: April 3, 2008. Began adding diacritical marks: April 5, 2008.

Bonset

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I.K. Bonset was the pseudonym that Theo van Doesburg used to publish Dada poetry in his magazine De Stijl.

This FontStruction is loosely based on van Doesburg's alphabet of 1919. I have not followed his strict grid of 25 x 25 (unlike Freda Sack and David Quay's revival, Architype Van Doesburg, or P22's De Stijl Regular) -- in other words, some of my caps and numerals deviate from van Doesburg's original design. Also, I've added a lower case and diacritics (which I am currently updating).

Chocobot White Solid

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Dear Human, this is the solid version of Chocobot White, which brings you even more tantalizing flavours. Inspected by Chocobot CBW-25.

Chocobot Milk Solid

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Dear Human, here is another tasty confection from Chocobot Labs: a solid version of Chocobot Milk. Let the consumption begin! Inspected by Chocobot CBM-47.

Chocobot Dark Solid

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Dear Human, try this solid version of our Chocobot Dark product. Caution: may make you feel full. Inspected by Chocobot CBV-36.

Strata Dots Caps

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I finally got around to upgrading Strata Dots. I wasn't very happy with the lowercase letters, which could not show a full gradation (unless they had ascenders). And I felt that many characters could be improved, too. The result is Strata Dots Caps, which boasts a full set of Basic Latin and More Latin characters.

Strata Blocks Caps

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I finally got around to upgrading Strata Blocks. I wasn't very happy with the lowercase letters, which could not show a full gradation (unless they had ascenders). And I felt that many characters could be improved, too. The result is Strata Blocks Caps, which boasts a full set of Basic Latin and More Latin characters.