William Leverette (will.i.ૐ): FontStructions

Halfbonez i

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

22 level elliptical halftone brickz...more to come...

Djangogh 2x

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

fs Permutation IX

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

Permutation IX: octahedral totem emboss on raised text achieved through 1/4 brick stagger of similar custom composite.

>> thalamic’s description (with edit)

Permutation: The act of changing the arrangement of a given number of elements.

One font, two different brick combinations.

Picking any two bricks from the 169 available gives a total possible combinations of 14196 (169C2) different fonts. Counting a certain kinds of bricks as one--all four 45degree, for instance--gives 36 unique bricks, resulting in 630 (36C2) unique combinations or fonts.

In this font, if the bricks are swapped with each other, the result will be a different font. Hence order of the bricks matter. In which case, nCr (combinations) is not the right choice. What's needed is nPr (permutations). 169P2 gives 28392 permutations and a 36P2 gives 1260 permutations.

So, at a minimum, 1260 fonts are possible with the current implementation of FontStruct, with just this particular layout of bricks. This whole permuatation thing is so fun and easy to play around with. The original fs Permutation series worked with just the bricks that were available by default. Since then, the FontStructor has evolved, allowing for, in part, custom bricks. This new permutation was not possible before. This one is created just to show that custom bricks can be dragged and dropped on top of the existing ones replacing the standard bricks. The bricks used here are [edit:1/4 brick staggered identical custom composites] .

Clone it and play around.

Instructions
1. Select a brick from the standard bricks or create your own custom brick.

2. Click and drag it to the brick in the first position in My Bricks until that brick turns gray.

3. Release.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 for the brick in the second position in My Bricks.

Learn. Enjoy. Share your permutation.

fs Permutation VIII

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

Permutation VIII: dual weave pattern + character stroke via composite bricks, 2:2 advanced filtering.

>> thalamic’s description (with edit)

Permutation: The act of changing the arrangement of a given number of elements.

One font, two different brick combinations.

So, at a minimum, 1260 fonts are possible with the current implementation of FontStruct, with just this particular layout of bricks. This whole permuatation thing is so fun and easy to play around with. The original fs Permutation series worked with just the bricks that were available by default. Since then, the FontStructor has evolved, allowing for, in part, custom bricks. This new permutation was not possible before. This one is created just to show that custom bricks can be dragged and dropped on top of the existing ones replacing the standard bricks. The bricks used here are [edit: custom composites] .

Clone it and play around.

Instructions
1. Select a brick from the standard bricks or create your own custom brick.

2. Click and drag it to the brick in the first position in My Bricks until that brick turns gray.

3. Release.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 for the brick in the second position in My Bricks.

Learn. Enjoy. Share your permutation.

fs Permutation VII

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

Permutation VII: Half-brick horizontal staggering of P.V via composite bricks.

>> thalamic’s description (with edit)

Permutation: The act of changing the arrangement of a given number of elements.

One font, two different brick combinations.

So, at a minimum, 1260 fonts are possible with the current implementation of FontStruct, with just this particular layout of bricks. This whole permuatation thing is so fun and easy to play around with. The original fs Permutation series worked with just the bricks that were available by default. Since then, the FontStructor has evolved, allowing for, in part, custom bricks. This new permutation was not possible before. This one is created just to show that custom bricks can be dragged and dropped on top of the existing ones replacing the standard bricks. The bricks used here are [edit: the composite orthagonal diamond and its stacked inverse] .

Clone it and play around.

Instructions
1. Select a brick from the standard bricks or create your own custom brick.

2. Click and drag it to the brick in the first position in My Bricks until that brick turns gray.

3. Release.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 for the brick in the second position in My Bricks.

Learn. Enjoy. Share your permutation.

fs Rondeux

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

Version 2.0

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! :)

Ohm Run Slab

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

Here, the innovative approach I took to stroke contrast in iSlab takes a radical leap forward. The result: a technical, friendly, modern slab serif design demonstrating further potential of the stackable composite function.

Please enjoy a private clone to see how I dealt with contrast, curves, bracketing, variable letter width and the difficult-to-achieve emboldening of the capitals’ vertical strokes within a minimal fontstruct matrix (and If you like what you see, please download for personal usage and vote kindly! :)

Intaglio’s amazing recent work makes similar strides (see the excellent rounds, for example), offering a solution before me to several of these long-standing impasses of the medium.

More characters to come... :)

fs Pythagoras

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

My second entry in the fs Cognate series. Stay tuned: more characters to come...

fs Cognate

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

A simple skeleton built up of wheels and belts, or nodes and stems, this constructed sans serif packs brief extenders and a tall x-height. The resulting display typeface accommodates tight leading and customizes easily in outline mode.

Composite stacks yield the smallest matrix currently possible for this charming design. Though a more refined 2-times expansion is easy enough to imagine, economy of brick and scale lead to more efficient and exciting brick substitutions.

Don’t be a cog, try a clone and create your own variants! :-)

More to come...

Geodoni Extra Black Condensed

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

filters: 2x2
x-height: 3 bricks (x2) = 6 grid spaces
cap, ascender height: 4 bricks, 8 grid spaces

Narrow and heavy, ultra bold Piano key designs once required fractional brick scaling to generate their distinctive slit-like counter forms while working with maximum curves. Composite stacks provide a more elegant and versatile solution to this old problem. In this way, they can be seen as an important milestone on the road toward individually scalable bricks...

Letterspacing is kept tight in this fontstruction, but still needs a great deal of manual kerning especially around all the character lacking serifs on one or both sides.

72+ initial downloads done during testing and troubleshooting. More characters to come. Enjoy, and please vote kindly. : )

Archly Gothic

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

When the new arc bricks were unleashed upon fontstructland, I attempted several different styles incorporating this new maximum curve. My first drafts revealed the direction I was heading. I wanted to create a flawless geometric, technical sans lowercase with a touch of calligraphic flair (there are some optical correction issues in the result, e.g. with the e). For the uppercase, I intended maximum style without sacrificing too much coherence – why lose any of the best bits?

Brush script, art deco, classic engraving, three genera of gothic (sans serif, blackletter, and ancient alphabet!), runic, hieroglyphic, and yet still some futuristic tendencies all informed me. But do they blend?

The handwritten quality of a broad-nibbed pen or skillfully wielded marker provides the binding agent. An emulsion of all these influences, it is at once all and none. Even the strict modularity begins to melt into the background. Yet so distinctly fontstruct...

fs Kronos

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

filters: 2x2
x-height: 2.5 bricks
cap height: 3.5 bricks
# of unique composites: 220+

The ultra-low resolution of this grid may be difficult to grasp without cloning. Fontstruct’s logo has a nominal x-height of 3 bricks, by comparison.

The level of detail, control, and finesse possible in a given fonstruction depended mostly on resolution prior to the recent advent of stackable composites. Did you want it better? Make it bigger!

Brute force, now meet Elegance.

Instead of building individual glyphs hundreds of bricks tall, stackable composites allow us to design rich modular schemata hundreds of bricks deep. Using curved bricks at their largest scale, linear and curvilinear elements dynamically harmonize and oppose. As well, screen fonts can be effectively hinted (aside from notable lack of kerning controls) without sacrificing the integrity of joins and intersections. And the trapping possibilities, Oh the sweet sweet trapping possibilities...

Please, vote kindly and stay tuned for more :)

Polygonal ii

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

My mother asked me to design a non-intersecting (no counters) polygonal alphabet for her to use as a teaching tool in her fourth graders’ math class. Of course, I immediately thought of fontstruct!

Here is a (somewhat refined) departure/sequel to the example design I created to help inspire their projects. :)

Alternates are included in the lowercase. Just letters for now...

Bump the zoom up a few notches in the preview widget to get proper hairline spacing. Enjoy!

W Stripes the Font

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

How about this way, Xenophilius? :^) It looks, err, rather covoluted at the default display size. Try zooming in! 8)

P.S. There’s a starting character on Í (option+shift+s for Mac). Spaces can be used to pad the wave effect and create shapes and background textures. Enjoy!

allegorica 2.0b

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

Re-fontstructed with composite bricks, finally an uppercase that works with this strange mash-up of a design. Latin-A is a mess of alternates and swashy ideas (for now). I may update them with proper diacritics, a suite of swash caps, and the rest of the characters from the original. Numerals need revising to fit the cap height. Enjoy this beta!

Sketch Bit

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

More fun with composite stacks, packing more detail into smaller grids. The crosshatching is made less regular by alternating and rotating a set of ~~three~~ four similar, yet distinct bricks. correction made on 2/15

Stampede!

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

A burly wood type design kickin’ up some dust on the old trail. This is an all caps corral – however some unicase and rough & tumble alternates seem to have stowed away in the back of them there parts.

Fat Bit

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

Clone of Frosty Bits.

MiniMallow

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

Fontstruct 2.0’s composite brick feature enables a relatively complex permutation with a simple brick substitution!

Similar to Fat Bit with friendly ballooning bits, this is the long-promised fontstruct synthesized via a rounded stroke in first sample from iChip. While the advanced filters have long been understood to allow for a range of emboldening effects, the additional pixel-blitters entailed by composite bricks allows for more possible outcomes.

Nothing nearly as programmable as the Meek fm, but an eensy bit closer. : )

Lit Bit

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

Clone of Spark Bit.