STF_BODIDONE - Classic Didone style display serif.
Ahh sadly due to repeatedly running into a corrupted font when I save newly made changes to it, it eventually catched up with me and tested the limit of my patience.
I have had to painstakingly restore the font 5 times already since I started it.
So I stopped including new characters as well as making new changes to its existing character set. (At least for now)
Too bad because I wouldve loved to see this truly getting finalized.
So at this stage there are still a number of characters that remain in rough condition, and had yet to be further optimized.
The main A-Z alphabet luckily already was close to how I invisioned it, but especially the numerals, symbols and accents still have some rough edges.
Now, forgetting all that, I still think it is not a bad font at all. Everything is there for most common Western-European languages, somewhat still making this a usable font that I shouldn't be keeping in private!
I hope that despite my bad luck this time, y'all still like it.
================================================
About this Font:
The idea was to make a classic Didone style display serif that is meant for making clean headline text similar to those often seen in older magazines or newspapers. I set out trying to design a semi-bold & slight expanded looking letterform with thin hairline serifs and strokes. I choose a large grid scale for the extra freedom in custom shaping this provides.
================================================
Technique I used in this design:
This font in particular I have experimented with working within a "(asymmetrical-) Grid Scale ratio" ( 1,5:1 ), so, changing only the value for the Horizontal grid scale. (This distorts the grid aspect ratio, and is a great way to discover and experiment with getting new forms and shapes).
The 1,5 : 1 ratio was specifically choosen to keep maths simple, in order to rebuild certain required bricks that build specific slope angles , such as a 45° (which is no longer possible to make from the FS default brick set when using asymmetric scale ratios, unless making composites).
But what this also does is opening up a totally new approach to making shapes, and..becoming quite a surprisingly easy shortcut to get unusual shapes or make variations on these, even with as little as just the rotation of the bricks/selection. (thanks to the distorted aspect ratio) :-).
This is a must try for those who are into large grid designs, fake curves or interrested in experimenting around a little.
Enjoy!
====[ EDUCATIVE INTRO ]====
At a time when making books was a very time-consuming and labor-intensive process, an increasingly literate 12th-century Europe required more and more books. To keep up with the increasing demand for the spread of literature was a ongoing struggle. Writing materials such as inks, dyes and parchment were very expensive. And it wasn't until the 15th century, when parchment was largely replaced by paper, along with the arrival of the printing press, for it to gradually became cheaper, faster and less labor-intensive.
So it made perfect sense to find other ways to help with this process.
Simplifying a script and cutting back on the decorative calligraphy was the most effective way of doing this.
This led to the development of simplified variations to pre-existing bookhand scripts. One of such forms is littera textualis, categorizing within the Textualis/Textura or simply Gothic bookhand scripts group.
Littera textualis is the simplest and least calligraphic form of textualis. It was developed with just two main goals in mind, to save time and costs. The simplified letterforms could be written much quicker than the more calligraphic and luxurious variations. It offered a more cost effective and faster version to the script. It was often used for less important literary works and academic papers.
It functioned as the standard bookhand script in the Netherlands during the 14th & 15th centuries.
====[ ABOUT THIS FONT ]====
TEXTUALIS BATAVICUM - A calligraphic inspired Blackletter/Gothic bookhand script. Essentially a Textualis/Textura inspired work.
The design mainly follows the concept for a traditional form of littera textualis bookhand script as was described in the intro written above.
It remains a work in progress and I will add update info for this font in the comment section bellow.
Some character still need slight adjustments, but so far I am very pleased with the result. As you can probably notice, the uppercase characters have slight more weight than the lowercase has.
More characters follow soon.
I hope y'all like it