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Same size for all! To
optically align all characters on a line, they cannot not have exactly
the same mathematical height. For example the triangle on this drawing
has to be higher than the rectangle. If this is not the case, the
triangle will for sure look smaller than the rectangle. While creating
a typeface, you want all the letters to have the same height.


Also round forms have to exceed the baseline to be optically the same.
If the circle would have exactly the same mathematical height as the
rectangle, it would look smaller than the square. This doesn't only
count for basic forms like triangles, circles and squares. It's
essential in type design, because they apply to every single character
in a typeface. Then it even doesn't matter if you're designing a latin,
cyrillic or greek font. It's a basic principle for any kind of shape.


Type terminology.
Communication during the design process is much easier when using basic
terminology of type. Here are a couple important ones, which will help
to bring the conversation a bit further than 'yeah, that there, that
little black thing.' The counter of the 'e' can also be called an
'eye', but there are many more terms.

Fluent shapes. Designing type
is like driving a car. If you drive a car, you always take the curve in
a natural way. If you draw a curve (of a character) on paper, this is
exactly the same. The curve starts smoothly, never out of a sudden.
While driving a car, you don't start turning the wheel when you are
already in the beginning of the curve. A while before you arrive in the
curve you anticipate by leading your car gently in the right direction.
Think about driving a car when you are sketching type on a paper.


Calligraphic origin. The
characters on the top line have a different construction than the
characters on the bottom line. They have a different calligraphic
origin. It doesn't matter if a typeface has serifs (like Times New
Roman) or not (like Arial). It's about the original way they where
constructed.


The characters in the top line are constructed with a pointed pen
(calligraphic tool). The contrast is caused by changing the pressure on
the pen, not because of the form of the pen. Bodoni is one example of
this, but also sans serif faces like Helvetica have this origin. The
thickest part will be (mostly) totally vertical. From this perspective
there is no difference between Bodoni and Helvetica. They both have the
same construction. Only the contrast varies.


The characters in the bottom line have a origin which is derived from
the broad nib. The calligraphic pen itself has a thick and a thin part.
The contrast in the type is made because of the form of the pen, not
because of the pressure. You slant the pen with an angle of 30 degrees
on the paper. In that way your thickest part of a character will not be
on a vertical direction, but will be on an angle. Also the thinnest
part will not be on the most horizontal parts. Typefaces like Garamond
and Minion have this kind of construction. But also sans serif faces
like Gill Sans have a construction which is originally derived from the
broad nib.

Spacing. Some words about
spacing type. Much more important than the shapes of the characters, is
the rhythm of the type. A typeface with beautiful characters which are
badly spaced is extremely hard to read. However, if the shapes of the
letters are not that good, but when they are all perfectly spaced, the
type will be fairly easy to read. Defining the rhythm is more important
than defining the shapes.


The white spaces inside and in between letters are defining the rhythm,
much more than the black shapes of the letters. When you manage to
create a good rhythm in your line of text, your type gets more readable
and gives a balanced end result. While creating the black shapes, you
have to take the white spaces into consideration. Because the white
spaces are more important than the black shapes. However, white cannot
exist without black. Changing a white shape, inevitable will have an
influence on the black shape. From that perspective, one colour cannot
be more important than the other.


For example, there has to be a relation between the space
inside an 'n' and the space between the 'i' and the 'n' (see drawing).
In the top row you can see the space inside the 'n' is much much bigger
than the space in between the 'n' and the 'i'. In the bottom row they
are much more equal, and in this way you'll get a much better rhythm
and more harmony in your line of text.


The same goes for the inner form of the 'a' and the 'e' for example.
There is a big relation between these two forms. If they have
(optically) the same amount of white inside the character (=counter),
your type will have a better rhythm as well.


Black vs. white. Designing
type is nothing more and nothing less than harmonizing black and white
shapes. Black can't exist without white, and white can't exist without
black. Black, the shape of a letter.
White, the space in or in between letters. The amount of white inside a
character defines the amount of white in between two characters.


As it is impossible to create a very black character with a big (white)
counter form, a black typeface will always have smaller counters than a
light typeface. Hence it follows that there is less space in between
the characters (see drawing). A light typeface has much bigger
counters. The space in between two letters has to be in proportion. As
a consequence there is more white space in between light letters than
in between black letters.


Italic vs. cursive. A roman font can be slanted (having an angle) and a cursive font can be upright (totally vertical like a roman). Urgh!


The angle doesn't decide if a character is a 'roman' character or an
'cursive' character. This depends on the construction. To make it a bit
more clear, take a look at the four big n's. As you would expect, the
first letter is a roman character. But the second one as well. Although
it's not totally vertical, it still has the same construction as the
first 'n'. This is called a slanted roman. The third 'n' looks like an
cursive, but also this one is not a real cursive. Basicly there is no
difference between the second and third 'n', only some parts of the
serifs have been cut off.


Compare the first three letters with the last 'n'. That's a real
cursive. The big difference with the previous three is the
construction. The first three are constructed from separate pen
strokes. The last 'n' is constructed out of one pen stroke. This is the
basic difference between roman and cursive fonts. Not the angle, but
the construction.


Many different explanations can be given for the difference between a
'cursive' and 'italic' from a historical point of view. However we
consider this as the big difference: 'italic' is concerning the
function, 'cursive' is concerning the construction. Almost anything can
work as an 'italic', it doesn't even necessarily needs an angle. When
making a font family with a roman and an italic font, the italic font
can be constructed in many different ways. The third 'n' in the example
could probably function perfectly as an italic inside your family. But
don't forget, it's not always a real cursive when it's called 'italic'.








One for all What defines if
one character can fit to another character? Once you made a decision,
how to apply this to all the other characters in a font?


Starting point: 'e' (in the center of the drawing). Imagine you
sketched this 'e', you like it a lot, and now you want to design more
characters fitting to this 'e'. Where to start? Should it be a serif or
a sans serif for example?


First try: 'i' on the left. Sans serif. The black part is as thick as
the black parts of the 'e'. Same x-height. So this should work you
think.



Second try: 'i' on the right. Same thickness, the character has the same x-height, but now it has serifs.


The bowl of the 'e' is not only having a certain thickness, but the 'e'
also has contrast. The 'i' on the left has no contrast at all.
Therefore these two characters don't belong to each other. The 'i' on
the right however has the same kind of contrast as the 'e', just
because it has serifs. Just those tiny serifs make sure there are thick
and thin parts, like the 'e' has. This means that the starting point,
the 'e', already defined that the rest of the font cannot be a sans
serif typeface.


Of course, every so called rule is there to be broken. Mentioning this,
doesn't mean you can't make a font which has an 'e' combined with an
'i' like the one on the left. Everything is possible of course. But now
you realize better what you are doing, also when you don't do it. Still
get it?


Readability. The only
important aspect of a text typeface is the readability. Many decisions
can influence the readability. Which contrast you create, the length of
the ascenders and descenders, the rhythm, the blackness of a type, the
strength of the curves and the bowls, etc.


Most of those decision apply to all the characters inside a font. These
have to be defined first. For example the contrast. The characters on
the top line (see drawing) have a much bigger contrast than the
characters on the bottom line. The type on the top line will be more
suitable for display use, the type the bottom the bottom line more for
text use. Not only because of the difference in contrast, but also
because the characters on the top line are much more condensed. This
makes them less legible in small sizes, but more eye-catching and
flexible for headlines. Defining the contrast and the width are
decisions which count for every single character in a font.


But also while designing every single glyph, you can create details
which improve the readability of a font. For example, the ear of a 'g'
can make sure the reader's eye will follow the horizontal reading
direction more fluently. The 'g' on the bottom line will work much
better in a text typeface for small sizes (see drawing).


Proportions. Which x-height to
define? Which descender depth? Defining these proportions are
essential, and very strongly connected to the purpose of the type. The
proportions within a certain typeface are influencing the way your type
will work & look. For example, it's
impossible to create a space saving newspaper typeface with an
extremely wide body width.


Extremely short descenders will give a strange look to a text typeface.
Even worse, they might not be visible at all anymore. But extremely
short descenders can also be a smart decision, while creating a display
or headline type. For a text typeface the ascender height should be as
big or, even better, bigger than then cap height to give a optical
pleasurable result (see drawing)

Small caps. You could guess it
already from the name, small caps are small capitals. Capitals which
have the same height as lowercase characters.


Why are small caps needed? Because of several typographical reasons.
First of all a whole word set in caps will look awful, it will drown
out the rest of the text. Second, in lots of typefaces the capitals are
not designed and spaced to work together, but to be followed by a
lowercase character. Small caps however are designed to purely work
together. They will give a more pleasurable, harmonized result.


Having said that small capitals are capitals on x-height, it's mostly
not 100% true. To optically give them the same height, the small caps
will have to be slightly bigger than lowercase characters of the same
font (see drawing).


Swash caps? Admitting that
it's not the most urgent issue to learn in typography, it's interesting
to quickly pay attention to this topic. Not every font family has a
Swash variant. Most common are swash capitals, but also swash lowercase
characters and swash-beginnings and -endings exist.


Sometimes you want to set a whole line in capitals. It's possible to do
this with roman capitals, although sometimes it's better to choose
small capitals which are designed for this purpose. Roman capitals are
not, but mostly they don't cause problems. Swash capitals however do.
Swash capitals are mostly designed to give some extra visual pleasure
to your designs. The caps are meant to be followed by lowercase
characters (number 1), or used as an initial (number 2), but not to be
combined with eachother. Only with some fonts it's possible to combine
swash capitals with normal roman caps (number 3).


x-heights. If you make a light
weight and the black weight of one typeface, you'll have to make sure
that the black weight has a bigger x-height than the light weight (top
line drawing). If this is not the case, the black weight will look
optically too small when it's combined with the light weight in a line
of text.


In display sizes this is not exactly the same. If the type is printed
in big sizes there can be a much smaller difference between the
x-height of the light and the black weight (bottom line drawing).


Bold-faced. Since the
introduction of the computer, type design has become available to a
wide audience like never shown before in history. Of course the
digitalization makes many acts easier and particularly faster. This
doesn't mean it automatically gets better, but that's another story.
For example, many font software programs have included an option to
'bolden up' your regular weight. The outlines of the perfectly designed
font get expanded, but the program is trying to fool you. That's not a
bold. It's a limousine which got quickly extended by a local
blacksmith. The contrast will probably be destroyed (see the second 'a'
in the drawing). Doing this by hand will give a much more pleasurable
result. No matter how well font software programs will improve in the
future, there is only one thing that really counts in the end: your
critical eye.


Digitizing sketches. When the
handmade sketches on paper are ready to be scanned, take care of
digitizing them in a proper way. More specifically, take care while
converting your scanned image manually with a Bezier based pen tool.
Too many points on a character, or points at the wrong position can
have a negative influence at your font.


Too many points (=nodes) can not only cause technical problems -e.g.
the printer can't print the font anymore- but it is also much harder to
control the shapes of a character. Controlling a curve between two
nodes is much easier than changing a curve with twelve nodes. Of course
it's possible, but it will not end up in a fluent form.


Having the nodes at the wrong position can cause technical problems
-e.g. it's impossible to hint the font perfectly- but also practically
it is recommendable to put nodes at extreme positions at your glyph.
For example, digitizing an 'o' would only need 8 nodes. Four at the
outer form, four at the counter form. Putting nodes at extreme
positions (most top & down, most left & right) means the BCP
(Bezier Control Point) will always be totally horizontal or vertical.
In that case they are much easier to control. In most software programs
you can use shift key to keep the BCP totally horizontal or vertical.


Copy-paste? When you have
created a few basic characters, you also want to create the rest of the
alphabet. But how? Copy and paste? Euhm, not really. Although, this can
help you on the way.


There are some things which you can do, and some which you cannot do
while copy-pasting. Some forms can be just the same. The ascender of
the 'l' and 'h' for example. But maybe the bowl of the 'd' and 'q' as
well. Once you created a 'd', this could work fine as a starting point
for a 'b' and a 'p', by rotating the 'd' 180 degrees.


Copy-paste should not change the contrast in your typeface. When you
make a typeface based on the broad nip, horizontal and vertical
flipping will disturb the angle of your contrast, and will destroy your
shape. However, by rotating a (part of a) character 180 degrees, the
contrast remains perfect and untouched.


But copy-paste doesn't bring you all the way there. It can work as a
starting point, but manual adjustments will be mostly necessary. For
example, if you have a 'n', you can quite quickly make a 'm' and a 'h',
but also a 'u' (see drawing). Copy, paste and rotate the 'n'. Then cut
some serifs, and... not ready yet! If you cut away the serifs, also on
the inner side of the 'u', the white space inside the 'u' will get
bigger then the white space inside the 'n'. This has to be optically
corrected.


One solution for this could be to make the 'u' a bit more narrow, or
maybe another solution could be to make the serif on the top a bit
longer (which also makes the innerform smaller of course). Whatever way
you do it, make sure the inner forms have (optically) the same amount
of white space. Only in that way you'll get a harmonious rhythm in your
type.


Balance shapes. If you make
both of the inner forms (counters) of the 'B' exactly the same, the top
counter will optically look bigger. Your character will look plumby,
like it's falling down. If you make the top counter smaller than the
bottom one, your character looks much more balanced.


The counter of the 'B' doesn't have to be exactly the same as the
counter of the 'P' for example. If you would make them exactly the
same, the right sidebearing of the P would be much too big. So you have
to balance the black and white spaces in every character separately.
However, there must be a relationship between the amount of white space
inside a 'B' and inside a 'P'.


About making a lowercase 'r': it's not an 'n' with an amputated leg.
Your 'r' can get very weak and soft in that way. You can make it much
stronger if you let the ending of the 'r' follow the horizontal reading
direction. In that way, the space on the right side of the 'r' will be
more open, and more balanced. It will not disturb the rhythm of your
type because the right sidebearing can be much smaller. The whole
letter can be made more narrow as well. As a consequence the white
space in the top of the 'r' could be has to be changed. In case you
change that form, optically you'll not confuse the 'r' so quickly with
the 'n' as well.


Kerning. Knowledge about
kerning will give a deeper understanding of type. However, forget about
kerning for now, spend your time on other things. It's much more
important to properly space your characters.


A kerning pair is a technical issue for optical reasons. Simply said:
when one certain character is followed by another character you can
define a different space in between these two characters. This space
can vary from the the normal spacing (right sidebearing of the first
character + left sidebearing of the second character). The difference
can be positive or negative; you can add more space for a certain
combination or you can reduce the space. A kerning pair can technically
be implemented in a digital font file.


In some cases kerning is inevitable and necessary. When a capital 'A'
is followed by a lowercase 'v', a big white space will appear which
cannot be solved by adapting the spacing of the characters. Changing
the spacing would mess it up when they would be combined with other
characters again. For this occasion a kerning pair is needed (see
drawing). In the sketch you only see some examples where the kerning
pair is negative; reducing space. But you can also imagine a positive
kerning pair when a 'f' is followed by a bracket for example; "f)".
More space has to be added to avoid those characters overlapping
eachother.


Ligatures. In a very few cases
they are essential. Some well known ligatures are 'fi' and 'fl'. The
inevitable need for a ligature is depending on the design of a font.
Not every typeface will need a ligature for a 'fi' combination. But in
some cases the dot of the 'i' is interfering with the 'f'. Get rid of
all that annoying row but making a ligature, one glyph which represents
two (or more) characters. Next to a functional aspect, there is an
aesthetic aspect of ligatures. You could create a ligature for a 'st'
combination, or maybe for 'nky' or 'ism'. Anything is possible.
Admitting that also this is not the most urgent issue in type design,
it's another obstacle on the road to perfection!