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STF_DERBY - Condensed Geometric Neo-Grotesk sans.
The idea was to make a typeface design that would suit small point size body style typography.
■ Multilingual support (94 languages)
■ Partial kerning WIP (8694 Pairs and counting)
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The fontstruction is a Faux Bezier style approach, to allow the most freedom in shaping the different letterforms and curves.
Font sample is best viewed at 2x pixel size or above for a sharp result.
I hope you like it!
47 Comments
Here is a little peek under the hood :)
I added the lowercase to this font today, I'm curious what u guys think of it so far, and what might needs some extra work, all tips and suggestions are welcome, more will follow soon
cheers!
Another update made to this today!
• Many new characters and symbols added
• Adjusted many letterforms to make them look slightly better
• Kerning applied to most pairs (not completed the full font yet)
But its definitely decent enough now to make it downloadable,
I hope y'all like it. :)
Today's update:
• Ligatures added
• Additional extra punctuations added
• Started addding extended Latin string
And a little bit of the fontstruction under the hood again, in the bottom left of the image is the ring diacritic and to the right is the Ogonek.
Awesome. The last few samples (especially the ligatures) make me think of flying buttresses and cathedral walls. Will we see a font that can be used to reconstruct Notre Dame someday? :D
Well everybody, I am pleased to announce the final update for this font.
I couldn't be more happy with the final result. I really enjoyed making it.
It includes plenty of typographic features that will suit a variety of different
tasks.
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Specifications:
• Multi (Latin)-language support:
- Basic Latin
- Latin Supplement
- Latin Extended-A
• Numerous punctuations & symbols
• Typographic & stylistic ligatures
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I hope y'all like it. :)
It seems something is wrong when generating a TTF. Some of the kerning values that were applied doesn't seem to transfer to the generated TTF file.
So far I can verify the problem exists for the following characters.
F f L l R r T t
There might be more characters that are affected but I haven't found them yet. And somehow only the kerning value for the right side adjacent pairs of the character are missing/not applied. The left sides adjacent pairs all seem to function as should and still have their kerning value applied.
But, even stranger is, when I view the kerning settings in FontLab Studio, the value's do appear to be present and included in metrics table of the font. But no text editor or design software is applying this to the actual font when I use it!
See the provided image.
[Wow @ Meek] I don't know what it is that overtime got changed/fixed, but something in Fontstruct's back-end now handles the metrics tables (I think) different.
Thank you 100x for whatever you did boss, but this fixed all the previously corrupted / incomplete metrics data transport when a *.TTF file was generated for this font.
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So, 3 years ago when this was still a active WIP, I ren into some tech difficulties with the metrics data (kerning, sidebearing) not correctly transfered from the Fontstruct editor into the generated *.TTF font file.
And I did absolutely nothing to the project ever since due to this issue. But when I recently downloaded it again to use the font in a project, I noticed that the earlier issues I encountered, now magically had vanished and all seemed to look as if they had all been fixed, like nothing had ever happened to begin with. Now I can finally show the font in its true full form and glory!
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This is such a great prospect in general by the way, knowing this exact same issue manifested in a couple of other of my Fontstructions as well.
B-)
@Sed4tives: This is a stellar achievement, even in this half-finished stage. You must feel awful, as virtually nobody commented or rated this work. Well, I kept this page open until now so as to remind myself I had to write about this project. It could be bad timing: everybody is busy elsewhere in the HeavyComp frenzy.
First of all, this project is very well documented and amply supplied with samples. You've done thorough testing in different sizes and the basic Latin set checks out all the boxes. The text flows naturally, it is pleasant to read, even at 10 pt. (I think you really meant points, not pixels.) Even the sample text is very informative.
It is amazing to see how you've managed to keep the strokes even, roughly the same thickness at all angles. The "S" is a masterpiece. The chosen cap height of 34 bricks allowed you plenty of room for small adjustments. You have taken care of visual corrections/ overshoots as well. The ligatures are nice and elegant.
The special characters are adequate for the style of the alphabet. The %, ¤(currency sign), ©, ®, and § symbols are excellent. The section sign (§) should go down to the descender level. The pilcrow (¶) is rather anemic. It should be much stronger, as it marks the start of a new paragraph.
The diacritical marks are a mixed bag. They are not the right style and size to match the alphabet.
The Umlaut/diaeresis (¨) seems to be in order.
The dot above (Ċ) is the same dot as in the Umlaut, but different from the dot above the i and j. Well, they don't have to be identical, but if you chose to have square dots it is prudent to use square dots everywhere.
The ring above (å) is too small; normally it does not touch the letter.
The macron (ē): nice and big.
The breve (ă) is too small compared to the macron and the Umlaut.
The cedilla (ç) is a good size and nice shape. Some letters use a little comma below or above the letter instead of cedilla (Ģ ģ), although the glyph's name clearly says: Latin Capital Letter G With Cedilla U+0122. These letters use commas: Ģ ģ Ķ ķ Ļ ļ Ņ ņ Ŗ ŗ. These letters use cedillas: Ç ç Ş ş Ţ ţ. It is a good practice to check an established typeface (e.g. Helvetica) and follow the example.
The ogonek (Ą ą): too small and timid. In the case of your Ų ų, the connection is incorrect.
Bar, crossbar (Ŧ ŧ): they don't have to be at the same height. Usually, the bar is comfortably at halfway down the vertical stroke. The same is true for the Ł ł.
The Afrikaans ʼn (small letter n preceded by an apostrophe) is a deprecated glyph; it is no longer in use. Just simply type 'n.
The IJ ligature/digraph in the Dutch language: in most cases better served by typing separate I and J with proper kerning.
There are minor things left I don't really see the point of mentioning. You'll see them as you learn. Keep up the good work. 10/10
Excellent work! I love all the samples. I especially appreciate the outline samples that show the architecture...seeing how others build their fonts has always been so beneficial to my work.
@Aphoria: Thanks mate, yeah sharing some of its inner-architecture wouldn't harm.
@Frodo: Wooahh that is a lot to digest. First of all thanks for such an elaborate comment.
About the diacritical marks, I understand what you mean by "mixed bag". And in fact I think there basically isn't a single one truly justifiable. Thanks once more for going in depth with such detail, this absolutely will be helpful.. I will revisit the diacritics soon while following your advice!
Cheers
I'm with the boys.
@Frodo:
I made some significant changes in regard to your comment earlier. I think I adressed most, if not everything you pointed out. Apart from one or two minor things I could find myself pretty much in line with everything you said. And I think together with the help of your guidance I managed to make things a whole lot better already.
- I will do a 'step-by-step' in depth explaination for al your criteria bellow.
Thanks a lot mate !!
:-)
@Sed4tives: Thank you for your detailed account of the recent changes to STF_DERBY. As I said before this project is well-documented. The Comments section serves as a logbook for all the changes you make to this font. It has great value in helping your future fontstructing endeavors. You've got the stamina and attention to detail necessary in this art/craft.
I would like to respond to a few points.
The IJ, and ij ligatures: since Dutch is your mother tongue you are much more competent in these matters than I. Yes, your country has a very rich tradition in typography. As a type designer yourself you ought to protect and nurture this tradition.
The ogonek: it should not exceed the right side of the basic letter. For further details see Polish Diacritics how to?
The cedilla: the two lists I gave you are not carved in stone. It is a gray area. Please, learn more about it here: Typedrawers comments.
For reference, I leave you a character map I often use: Helvetica Neue Roman
Have a nice day.
Making improvements to this font ATM, also planning on the continuation of extending the character set and language support. For now I'm still in the process of making improvements to the font geometric properties, optical corrections and overall fine-tuning the visual qualities of the work.
[Update] Full monotonic Greek included, support for 93 languages in total at this point.
8067 stored kerning pairs included up to this point (will be resumed next time), but I need an urgent brake for now, both my hand and wrist feel quite sore after a couple of thousand kerned pairs.
Manual kerning will always be tedious until "AI smart kern" is developed, pal. But more than 8000 pairs and counting... Courage!
@Elmoyenique:
I don't think a truly and fully fool-proof "smart kerning AI" will ever see the light of day.
Especially considering large typefaces with extended multi-lingual character sets and extensive Open Type-features. Multi-lingual typefaces that include multiple scripts and non-lingual characters increase the level of complexity in the underlying operating environment significantly, and simply create far too many variables.
There are numerous situations where preferably a secondary sets of rules would apply and overrule previously made calculations. But likely there will be a lot more of other conflicting criteria. So it simply would not be very practical to build a reliable analysis model for a simplified "one-stop" auto-kern function.
And my guess as to the prime reason and whole point of developing such a function in the first place is; to take away much of that tedious labor that is usually involved in this task. So one of it's key attributes should be a smart and intuitive front-end development that has both a clever and highly simplified UI that relies on a powerful auto-processing on it's back-end part. To even remotely realize such diagnostic technology would require serious numbers of individual data points that have to get analyzed in order to calculate proper kerning models for a typeface.
Analysis and processing times will be longer as increased levels of complexity are fed into the system. In return this generally speaking requires a greater deal of computing power as well.
All of which in one way or the other is taking it's toll on one of both ends of the spectrum in terms of it's functional qualities, and just stacks up.
I think that when for a system to function properly it would require this certain critical but minimum amount of large-bulk-data, there eventually is this point at which the level of complexity is going to outweigh functionality, and the whole idea becomes more and more obsolete. Basically turning it into a choice between bad and worse, that either is going to affect the UI simplicity and autonomous behavior, or on the other end of the spectrum, have a significant effect on output quality and actual reliability.
And as far as machine learning technology goes I don't really know what the potential could be or what the future might hold. It's something I don't really know a lot about. What I do know about it, which sparks some hope in the end after all is; being a 'die-hard' audiophile and overall music tech/gear geek, I have seen quite a few spectacular innovative and clever new developments and technology in recent years which involved machine learning.
Nonetheless a very interresting idea and concept that many before us have already fried their brains on.
Congratulations, pal! Personally, I think you could reduce the space between words a little bit.
Thanks a lot for the TP boss, somewhere I was hoping this FontStruct would eventually reach this status! 😎
Happy to announce that I'm still actively working on this project as we speak.
Today I included another additional 694 new kerning pairs to the font.
—But thats only half of todays story
I eventually could not resist the lure and got reeled into the glyph canvas. So I also spend quite some time sculpting, adjusting and improving several things—such as; overall glyph geometry, curve quality, optical adjustments. So many letters had seen improvements in some way or another. Last but not least I somehow even managed to end up having squeezed in 80 some-odd additional new glyphs as well, mids all the other activity that was going on. I knew that I had done a couple, but 80 something came as a total surprise. Can't recall to have had that much of an expressionism burst. Seems that it wasn't an 'all technical and expanding kerning table'- update axionz this time.
Cheers
Font downloading unavailable, server returns a "504 gateway time-out".
Here is a hi-res version of the sample image posted above:
HI-RES VERSION OF SAMPLE IMAGE
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