Another 2x2 doodle. :^)

Original size: 15pt

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A font which has a spurless, sans-serif, pixelated polygonal look which is reminescent of VHS technology.

A lot of applied science has gone and continues to go into this design. It's designed to remain legible on all platforms in all use conditions, provided that one uses the original size or larger. Numerous technologies and mediums are being employed to realize this objective.

"Diaspora" is now being tested and refined for use with/on/against:
     • CRT, LCD & e-Ink screens
     • image formats & compressed imagery (GIF, JPG)
     • printers (inkjet, bubble jet, laserjet, & thermal)
     • analog video & multi-generational copies (VHS, Super 8)
     • digital video (AVI, MP4, MPEG, WEBM, WMV)
     • 3D models (Blender, MagicaVoxel, POV-Ray)
     • dynamic scaling hardware (game consoles and capture devices)
     • imagery plugins & filters, including image degraders
     • image scaling/interpolation hardware & software
     • image recognition hardware & software

These all have traits which degrade, distort, compress, glitch, or otherwise alter imagery in various ways. This design aims to minimize the loss of legibility from these effects and to attain the best scores possible in various forms of imagery analysis. So far, this has proved extremely useful, as it can remain fully legible even when extreme JPG or video compression are applied to it thousands of times.

A piece software I helped write, called the Marinan Imagery Deconstruction AI System (MIDAS), is being used on captured images of this font. The end objective is to realize the design which has the best all-around Marinan Interpretability Value (MIV) for all the tested platforms - the design which is considered by MIDAS to be the most legible in the most media under the broadest range of use conditions and quality levels.

MIDAS uses a set of considerations made with both humans and computers in mind, so a high MIV does not necessarily equal a better font - it just means one that the system thinks is easier to visually interpret. Note the use of the phrase "visually interpret" as opposed to "read". MIDAS tries to determine how well people and computers can tell what shapes are, not how much enjoyment they'll get from reading or how much strain they might undergo while doing it.

This same font was tried in a high-res format, but didn't perform nearly as well. This design is made with the medium of its creation in mind and a high-res version would need to make many changes to compete.

If I had a budget, I'd build a website and make a competition out of these ideas... still, if you make fonts that are designed to perform like this, I'd love to talk about them.

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VERSION HISTORY:

1.0.0 - initial release.

1.0.1 - More Latin support added.

1.0.2 - First batch of tests run.

1.0.3 - gjy5&ßẞ were improved, some glyphs added.

1.0.4 - Second batch of tests run. Space width reduced.

1.0.5 - Experimentally converted to a rounded spurless design, then converted back to a plain spurless after testing. A few new ligatures were added.

1.0.6 - Cyrillic and Greek enter development. Many of these letters must be altered to be distinct from their Latin counterparts...

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See also: AMFA, a font built with similar considerations in mind

Experimental cyberpunk robot mosaic thing.

It gives me a strong "system font" feeling and seems like something that might be included with the OS of some futuristic tech deck. If the Fairlight Excalibur from Shadowrun Returns had its own font, this could be it!

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Original size: 21pt (use multiples of this size for pixel perfection)

A typeface that got struck by synchrotron radiation.

A chimera (fusion) made from art deco, barcode, and circuitry elements. It only employs angles where they are needed to differentiate glyphs.

Experimental 24-segment display or massive monochrome Mondrian matrix. Pixel compatible!

The thinking behind this one was that with incongruously sized segments arranged in the proper way, I would create a design which was effectively 5x5, but which accomodated more glyphs than 5x5 usually does. Negative space is incorporated into the structure of many glyphs, though not enough to classify this as an IVO design.

"Qualtron" is the name of an imaginary entity that a friend believed in - a being meant to represent the result of "a mathematical equation that can rule the universe". I didn't inquire further about it... :D

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Design Rules:

1. Segments can have interior length/width of 2 or 5.

2. The central 2x2 square must always remain open.

3. Square bricks and 90-degree angles only.

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Original size: 20.75pt (use multiples of this value for pixel perfection)

A single line is bent on itself to trace letterforms in 5x5.

This is part of my "IVO" series (Inline Versus Outline) wherein inline and outline elements are split, merged, and altered to make them ambiguous and to allow new styles to emerge. They may look like maze fonts, but they have a different design methodology altogether.

Reticular octagonal inline vs. outline thing. Made using an additive method in which no template bricks were removed - though many were replaced with square bricks. The original form is on ",".

A 7x7 outline design which is made to form solid-looking masses from the glyphs while still allowing the outer perimeters of words to take on some unique shapes.

Original size: 5.25pt (use multiples of this value for pixel perfection)

Typeface design inspired by brand logo of British consumer electronics company "Sinclair Research Ltd."

The entire typeface was build exclusively around the already existing eight letters that make up their logo.

I have no clue on wether a complete typeface ever was made, or that someone has tried this before. So far I have never stumbled upon one yet , not even in their official product ads and brochures.

Enjoy!

Experimental 49-segment display.

In making and studying other segmented displays, I noticed they tended to have strong-looking right angled lines but weak-looking diagonals. This is my attempt to make a design where both styles of lines look more appealing and join together more solidly.

Another 5x5 pixel design. This one splits one line or intersection per letter for most letters, leading to a tech/sci-fi look.

Only the comma is allowed to go below the line; all other glyphs fit onto the 5x5 grid. Because this font is quantized to the grid, diacritic accents won't be possible. Feel free to move the comma above the line to suit your global matrix.

Original size: 3.75pt (use multiples of this value for pixel perfection)

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See also: Byzantine Exasperation

Based on the lettering by Dutch graphic designer "Jurriaan Schrofer".

Letters based on the brand logo of CalpamSMD Olie B.V. a Dutch oil company.

Enjoy!

Letters based on the brand logo of CalpamSMD Olie B.V. a Dutch oil company. Original logo type was designed by Benno Wissing.

Enjoy!

I made a blocky, industrial sort of style, then added art deco-style line width variation. Then, a couple of tech lines here, a couple of details there, and SHAZAM! We get these 1950's-era raygun-toting space race zippity zap letters. It's a font Marvin the Martian might use...

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Original size: 7px (use multiples of this value for pixel perfection)

DISTANT SHORE is a decorated bold geometric display typeface.

The lettershapes have that typical modern and digital style. Whereas the stripes in the bottom give it that 80's/90's retro feeling!

Style variation in the SEMIOTICA type family.

A type family based on the lettering seen on the book cover of "Semiotica - Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies" published by Mouton. The letters and book cover were originally designed by "Jurriaan Schrofer".

As usual I completed the alphabet plus numerics and added numerous punctuations.

Style variation in the SEMIOTICA type family.

A type family based on the lettering seen on the book cover of "Semiotica - Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies" published by Mouton. The letters and book cover were originally designed by "Jurriaan Schrofer".

As usual I completed the alphabet plus numerics and added numerous punctuations.

FABRICON-CAST is another style variation within the FABRICON family.

This style was inspired by metal casting and apart from some minor varriations I made to the punctuations it's very similar to the other styles in this family. Except that unlike the other styles this one will not combine seemlessly with the rest.

Modernism alphabet

A multi-line design which is slightly reminescent of mazes/fingerprints. It's not designed to create functional mazes, but it is somewhat capable!

"Absinthelyric Print" is an anagram for "Labyrinthine Script".

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Original size: 11.25pt. Use multiples of this value for pixel perfection. (If you use antialiasing, it will look perfect at most any size.)

Design rules:

1. Square bricks and 90-degree angles only.

2. Alphabetic glyphs must have open terminals; numerals and symbols must have closed terminals. Letters which do not terminate (D,O, etc.) must be broken so that they terminate.

3. Glyphs must fill the 15x15 grid.

4. Ligatures and combinatorial glyphs must fit into one letter's space.

5. Draw from the outside in.

A little constructivism stencil typeface.

Modernism alphabet

It's been a while since I last revisited the works of "Jurriaan Schrofer".

So here is another one by the late great Dutch graphical designer.

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Style variation in the SEMIOTICA type family.

A type family based on the lettering seen on the book cover of "Semiotica - Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies" published by Mouton. The letters and book cover were originally designed by "Jurriaan Schrofer".

As usual I completed the alphabet plus numerics and added numerous punctuations.

It's been a while since I last revisited the works of "Jurriaan Schrofer".

So here is another one by the late great Dutch graphical designer.

======================================

Style variation in the SEMIOTICA type family.

A type family based on the lettering seen on the book cover of "Semiotica - Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies" published by Mouton. The letters and book cover were originally designed by "Jurriaan Schrofer".

As usual I completed the alphabet plus numerics and added numerous punctuations.

It's been a while since I last revisited the works of "Jurriaan Schrofer".

So here is another one by the late great Dutch graphical designer.

======================================

Style variation in the SEMIOTICA type family.

A type family based on the lettering seen on the book cover of "Semiotica - Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies" published by Mouton. The letters and book cover were originally designed by "Jurriaan Schrofer".

As usual I completed the alphabet plus numerics and added numerous punctuations.

Another Maze design!

Modernism alphabet

Modernism alphabet

Line 'm up!

A piece of constructivism inspired by Dutch artistic movement "De Stijl".