Remote Sensing Tools

All concept and production notes have been moved to their own post. In this post, I’ll keep an active record of the ongoing progress as it develops. I also now anticipate that this project will be ongoing indefinitely, and as time allows.

Last Update: Tue, Jul 3, 2007, 8:45 pm

Also noted: The original grid typeface that I had designed, and was on graph-paper, was located. I’ve now digitized that typeface and will proceed to include it as a primary reference to this family — and including it with this family. I have made some minor alterations from the original, to include some of the features newly designed in the recent faces. It was sketched around eight years ago, thus continued to have some of the nuances of the dot-coms that I currently dispise.

The background behind the original sketches were a combination of the technologies available at the time — and a desire to refine the look of the pixel-type. At the time, I felt there weren’t any great pixel-types available, aside from perhaps Terminal. It later evolved to include reference to my close friends at the time at Ignition State. Ben Balvanz (Fontalicious) created the pixel-typeface called Redensek, after Ed Redensek, when Ben was employed at Ignition State — and later, when the Ignition State logo was re-designed, I especially appreciated the lower-case “i” that was used which left a lasting impression. I have contemplated calling this typeface “Smessaert”, after CJ Smessaert — and as somewhat of a play on the Redensek typeface created by Ben. Perhaps the naming would be too little, too late, but it’s been fun reminiscing on the history of the original sketches and thinking of the reasons it came into being.

Progress Updates

• Blackberry Terminal C — Sat, Jun 9, 2007, 7:30 am
  • Notes: Could use some sleep — up for ~48 hours. Now have a process down — the rest should go relatively quick, minus any finalized edits. Encoding issues worked-out and revisiting the lack of Euro Sign support in FOG 4.1 killed some time — completed version includes Euro.
  • Final QA and vision-testing completed, Sun, Jun 10, 2007, 4:00 am
• Blackberry Terminal CP — Sat, Jun 9, 2007, 2:45 pm
  • Final QA and vision-testing completed, Sun, Jun 10, 2007, 4:30 am
• Blackberry Terminal N — Sat, Jun 9, 2007, 3:15 pm
  • Final QA and vision-testing completed, Sun, Jun 10, 2007, 5:30 am
  • Noted a potential problem with f glyph. May consider re-work.
  • Notes: Now strongly considering a “Superscript” version of the entire family — noting not within the framework of reasoning and original goals of the project.
  • Re-work determined, noting D, E, F, f, J — may re-consider P, R.
  • Re-work, QA, and vision completed, Sun, Jun 10, 2007, 8:00 am
  • An enhanced coder’s version of Blackberry Terminal N is now being considered based on feedback request (heavier punctuation / identifiers, blackened end-brackets, etc).
• Blackberry Terminal NX — Sun, Jun 10, 2007, 4:00 pm
  • Coding version, with blackened left and right braces.
  • QA, vision completed, Sun Jun 10, 2007, 4:15 pm
• Blackberry Terminal NP — Sun, Jun 10, 2007, 8:30 pm
• Blackberry Terminal S — Sat, Jun 9, 2007, 3:30 pm
  • Glyphs G, J determined problematic based on results above — re-work begun.
  • Re-work, QA, and vision completed, Sun Jun 10, 2007, 9:30 am
• Blackberry Terminal SP — Sun, Jun 10, 2007, 9:30 pm
• Blackberry Terminal SC — Sat, Jun 9, 2007, 4:05 pm
  • Final QA, and vision-testing completed, Sun, Jun 10, 2007, 10:00 am
• Blackberry Terminal SCP — Sun, Jun 10, 2007, 9:00 pm
• Blackberry Terminal SX SV — Mon, Jun 11, 2007, 8:05 am
  • QA, vision completed, Mon, Jun 11, 2007, 8:30 am
  • Notes: Upon waking up, decided to create SX SV based on human visual perceptual organ’s tracking — Western language tracking motion, left to right, with right downward angle. Proves a stronger typeface in target-scanning, subtly forcing perception along and toward the baseline.
  • Also Noted: Personal obervations noting subtle impression of sounds of glyphs where emphasis-destruction has been produced — (potential cause for syllable structures appearing more readable?) Requires study.
  • Re-work, QA, vision — Mon, Jun 11, 2007, 1:00 pm
• Blackberry Terminal SXX SVX — Mon, Jun 11, 2007, 1:30 pm
• Blackberry Terminal SVO — Thu, Jun 14, 2007, 4:30 am
  • Outline version of SV, test case study
  • Noted: Interesting typeface, and useful for study. Not suitable for small size use due to obscurity. Technique may be suitable for other typeface candidates in the future.

Production

All typefaces are being reworked and generated as of Tue, Jun 12, 2007, started 3:00 pm. Minor changes to common glyphs were required for final versions (ae, male ordinal, middle dot, etc). Considering final name or names for each typeface at this time.

• Noted: SX and SXX renamed to SV (Sound & Vision) and SVX (Code), respectively. SV typeface led to an off-shoot in study for a syllable enhanced type based on unexpected results. Initial study with resident Child Developmental and Learning Disabilities expert confirms hypothesis — encouraging a more elaborate, documented anaylsis toward theory.
• Initial production concluded — Tues, Jun 12, 2007, 9:50 pm
• Noted: Retracted blackened braces for NX. Concluded this was not a desired effect when many code editors can highlight these glyphs.
• Currently contemplating final names.
• Decision to re-work C and N, 5 glyph — Thu, Jun 14, 2007, 10:30 am

• Completed manual kerning metric (met) data — Wed, Jun 20, 2007, 3:30 am — kerning classes need to be established for kerning to vector.
• Noted: Over 200 kerning pairs established for each typeface.
• Fonts generated out of FOG weren’t applying the kerning table, for whatever reason. After hours of attempting to get that to work, I opted to set the kerning aside in favor of manual spacing technique.
• The manual spacing technique actually made it easier to create both the Tight and Loose versions (loose versions having an additional pixel of space for readability — not particularly needed for these fonts as they’re designed to be highly readable with 1 pixel spacing (or 125 em units).
• Noted: The loose version of the SV typeface actually made the face more unreadable as a result. I may still consider producing a loose version of all the faces, regardless of personal preference in this regard. The loose versions may still have a use, though Flash and other applications typically have spacing options that can produce a looser appearing text. (Some people are just lazy and don’t do actual typesetting — or, don’t really know how.)
  • I’ve decided not to produce the ‘loose’ versions afterall. I view this as a waste of time and energy when anyone wanting to typeset a font within Flash or Photoshop can very easy set spacing to be more ‘loose’. The loose versions also dramatically effect the design aesthetic to what I consider a negative, thus the option should be left solely with anyone using the fonts.
• I’m back to kerning again, after locating a flipped tag order in the headers. This appears to be what was causing the kerning table not to be applied in any application. (No idea why that would be.) Font Validator confirmed the flipped order with an error message, after I had looked at and noticed the order in the XML files I generated. I simply didn’t like the idea of the spacing technique I used for one pixel spacing (125 em units), because it wasn’t correct, and it created additional potentials for problems by not lining up with the left side-bearing.
• Breakthrough! Through hours of pseudo 3D and 4D experimentation with type through the weekend, I finally broke-through and realized what could be accomplished with the Q character. Why exactly this didn’t dawn on me before this morning is a mystery — but I have to credit the experimentation with various optical angles and illusionary effects to having come to this conclusion. Thus, the Q glyph appears to be no longer a typographical dilemma for me moving forward! Also noted: I’m proud to also have acheived a very unique form for the Q character — one that I haven’t seen designed by anyone, or at least that I’m aware of. I’ll be reevaluating all the typefaces in this research and decide on whether to incorporate the glyph in a similar way across all faces.

• Design rework of all typefaces completed this morning ~ 10:00 am.
• Notes: Five primary typeface styles, including “Smessaert”, with multiple sub-sets from each of the five types. Totals, without bold (to be produced for select faces), amount to 30 fonts total.
• Kerning pairs need to be mitigated for each of the 30 faces, and applied to generate the final versions.
• Perminent names must be considered.

• Additional, and hopefully final ‘tweeks’ made to various characters.

• Taking a break from kerning metrics (in text/XML and in FOG), and working on the outlines for the bold versions.
• I had also gone back through some of the typefaces that I designed a few years ago inspired by hand-painted signs, which was kind of a period I was going through at the time — collecting and cataloguing as much ‘kiche’ as I would see in everyday life. These faces were all meticulously traced and enhanced in Illustrator, and would simply require import and positioning in FOG. I’m not sure if I’ll complete these anytime soon — they were fun to look at again and consider their use in various design projects (some of them remaining to look extremely interesting and useful). They’re also not full Western-1252 encoded sets, so they hold only a minimal amount of value toward design and titling. Before releasing those, I would consider creating a full 1252 page, at least.

• I’ve been taking a step back from the basic idea of the overall project, and coming back to it every so often to see if anything appears for me that requires an alteration. So far, that’s resulted in a good amount of objectivity and satisfaction toward what I’ve produced.
• In the course, I managed to create an additional set of typefaces, some related and may be able to fit within this compilation — others are completely unique from the compilation. Either way, I’m currently at a total of 42 fonts having been produced.
• A name has been thought of, and with a proper metaphoric and esoteric representation — a synopsis of the metaphor has been established as well, however, I’m still not certain whether this will become the final name for the compilation. It seems to be sticking in my mind so far, regardless.

Demonstration Page

View the production versions here (on another personal server).

Production Version Demonstrations now offline. (Located someone who appears to be ripping my designs after viewing my site.) Typical stuff people do who aren’t original.

Re-work Progress

All typefaces are in the process of being reworked and finalized. In the course of the re-work, a new subset was established — which extends the lower-case b, d, h, and l glyphs one pixel above cap-height. This was due to noticing the conflict between the upper-case I and lower-case l. The lower-case f will remain extended as-is, because the original design intended to have a distinct emphasis on the glyph — a direct conflict with most post-modern types, and borrowing from typefaces centuries past. I was not willing to compromise the upper-case I to include cross-arms along the cap-height and baseline, for favor of the geometric post-modern aesthetic. The lower-case l has been modified in the more rounded faces, thus was not a major issue — but the secondary subset will be created for all faces to provide all options possible and complete the family.

Bold versions of all typefaces will be the secondary production phase. Currently, the Windows 98 system is proving to be a useful testing system to see how these typefaces look by creating OS themes. Some of the alterations that have occured over the course of the project were a direct result of making this a final environmental procedure.

Q vs. O

I’m currently debating the direction that I took with the Q glyph, in relation to the O. I’ve made the Q wider due to spatial subtraction within that geometry — thus producing an interesting typographic dilemma. Q and O’s geometry are typically set nearly identicle in modern typefaces, but in referencing the Baroque, I’ve found it to be acceptable to produce a unique glyph for the Q character.

Another interesting aspect of this — and in relation to the grid, is that by distinguishing the Q character as its own, it becomes more easily differentiated. Testing two versions of each in various environments appear to favor the extended Q over the more ‘typographically correct’ Q form.

I also created versions with the stroke below the Q, instead of crossing over the corner — which produces a different effect and always calls for the geometry to remain the same with the O character.

I’ll have to give this some thought and continue to reference a couple centuries back to see where some of these changes had occurred, or when they become appropriate. For now, I believe that it visually works and I’m incredibly reluctant to change it. I would also be reluctant to over-think what is already an intuative gut feeling that what I’ve created is right for these typefaces. But — I would certainly hate to break the ‘rules’ without at least an explanation.

Q vs. O — A Little Research Goes a Long Way

The past couple days I’ve been researching the typographical dilemma that I found myself in, by looking at the etymology of the letter-forms Q and O, as well as a couple others, such as U and 0 (zero). I was encouraged by one of the friendly voices over at the Typophile forums to concentrate more on the relationship between the Q and U characters as opposed to the O — which helped to give me a shot of confidence, though I continued on searching for a more notable reason.

Stumbling across various articles and the history of the forms, ultimately caused me to conclude that in fact the O itself is an incredibly modern glyph. In some ways, from proper English, one might be able to consider it somewhat having a ‘bastardized’ association with various pronounciations. In other words — this particular character is being represented in a very recent way for the North American and English speaking languages (and in many cases, Latin derived languages).

It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience to dig as far back as I did. If I hadn’t felt the need to do so, and simply went ahead doing what I thought was more ‘typographically correct’, then perhaps I would have done myself and my work on this project an injustice. New ways of thinking sometimes present themselves from the past. And this case appears to be no exception.