Silly me, pressed "save changes" instead of "submit message". Doh.

Thanks for your suggestions, Kix. I'll try both. I'm keener on your "f" suggestion than the "z" one but it can't hurt to try it, can it? I'll paste the amendments into one of the "can't-be-bothered" slots like the % and + so I can try them in a sentence.

I realize the z" in both cases looks too formal compared with all the other glyphs. If your suggestion doesn't pan out I could try something off-the-wall. It's a bit of a vice I have, off the wall. Don't want to screw this font up, it's one I care about a bit more tha some of my more gruesome creations.

The semi-sans. After all the effort I threw at the serifed original, it was a rueful realization that unceremoniously lopping off the serifs improved it...

What an obstinato I am. An echo of the l/c y in the "f" forms a too-rakish angle to my mind. The second one goes the other way. But I still prefer the original.

As for the z: the 45-deg angled crossbar works, but it would be the only character with one. Does that matter? Typographically the z is an oddball letter anyway...