The forum for all suggestions and ideas for the future of FontStruct.
This is a clone of fm FontStruct SuggestionsThe 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 :)
This is a cloneNarrow 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. : )
This is a clonePlease 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... :)
This is a cloneA 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! :)
This is a cloneRay Meadow’s gorgeous take on uncial script is one of the best large-scale fontstructions ever released. The font has character, wit, and charm to spare and surely deserves all the attention and adulation awarded it by fontstructors and paying customers alike. Like any great work, it compels us to look closely and savour the details.
Inspecting Ray’s work, I sensed a range of mostly minor refinements and exacting adjustments that might make this gem shine all the more brightly. So, in the spirit of camaraderie, I requested permission to apply myself to a clone of his work in order to bring forth and share some of these suggestions. Approached in stages, the task of polishing this stone to my liking spread out over more than half a year.
My main goal was to smooth the modular geometry out as much as possible, address some stroke weight and contrast issues throughout, and rebalance specific forms. In many cases, I use custom composite and advanced stacking tricks to fine tune the curves of these letterforms. Upon studious inspection, a wealth of tweaks are revealed. I suspect that setting basic words and sentences is now an even greater joy with this version, and pray it will be of benefit and inspiration to make Ray’s great work even better.
The total effect strikes a greater unity between the uppercase and the lowercase. A few letters are significant departures from their starting points (K, k R, W) and offered both as suggestions for the mains and ideas for alternates. After so many hours of exploratory modulation, I am pleased to share this technical feedback with Ray and the fontstruct community*.
*For now cloning is off until I can communicate with Ray about the best approach to take with this. Hopefully we can find a way to share this without attracting a torrent of rip-offs.
This is a clone of RMWL UncialicA serif font made of dots. Suggestions are welcome.
UPDATES:
07/06/13-07/07/13 I went over the font and tidied it up. Adjusted spacing on letters like V and q, added or erased dots to letters such as a and f, made the tittles and such bigger, and refined letters like O and g. V1.2.0
10/01/13 More refining, more refining... Each time I come back, I see things that need improving. V1.3.0
12/19/13 My biggest update yet (literally). I've increased the circles' size from two to four units, making overshoots and much more possible. Every character has been reworked to fit the new size, and the font is now generally more condensed. V2.0
05/14/14 Tweaked many shapes with the nudge tool, and adjusted the 4 to have serifs and a lower crossbar. V2.1
05/17/14 Big edit today. A large portion of the lowercase, as well as some of the uppercase, has been narrowed to match the rest of the font.
05/21/14 M, N and accents updated a bit more.
09/27/18 Fixed the acute on ý (it was previously a grave).
All credit to Buro Destruct for their original bitmap design. Except for the &, that one’s mine.
I originally released this in 2008 as an exploration of the optical effect possible using different modules in a simple, gridded bitmap design. Buro Destruct iconic design was an inviting point of departure.
I have recreated/republished this at the request of four who took the inspiration and ran with it.
This is a clone of Med SplodeSmilies! :)
A = angry
B = bandit
C = cool
D = looking down
E = huge eyelashes
G = grumpy
H = happy
I = ignorant
L = large pupils
M = miner
N = neutral
O = something...
P = pirate
S = sad
U = looking up
W = winking
X = something else...
Y = cyclops
Z = cyclops
c = cool
d = devil
i = Iron Man
m = mexican
n = ninja
s = surprised