I'm unsure if "no descenders" provides increased clarity. For example, lowercase q is easy to recognize because your eyes are already drawn to it being one of few characters that descend. In the case of this font, you have a small uppercase Q as the lowercase q. This feels like it accomplishes the opposite of this stated benefit.
> I'm unsure if "no descenders" provides increased clarity.
Of course not: if it did we would be doing it that way everywhere. Typeface design has thousands of years of history, there's only a few major variations in latin types and we've tried them all. Descenders exist for a reason.
This type is pretty cool for what it is meant for, the retro aesthetics. Old school digital displays (like alarm clocks) don't have descenders so it fits pretty well.
Nowhere does it promise to increase clarity. In one place it says "modern clarity", which is in my opinion and many cases worse than non-modern clarity.
Yep, I agree. Your eyes need these clues to help you read at speed. When every character looks similar, you have to slow down to look at individual characters, rather than just glancing at a whole word.
Letter spacing is not great for that 'i' indeed. Monospace fonts use a very wide serif at the bottom, or an extended arm to make the i appear equally-spaced, which this typeface seems to have ignored.
when showcasing fonts please also showcase pre-rendered font images, because some of us override website fonts for legibility (and possibly speed or memory consumption)
You’ve picked a difficult way to make your first typeface. A monoline design with a strict vector grid doesn’t leave a lot of room for the kind of optical adjustments needed for balanced and readable letter shapes. But I think even if you want to be strict about those restrictions there is a lot of room for improvement in consistency and composition of each shape.
I started to write actionable suggestions about individual letters but realized it’s probably better to drop this link, which starts at how to draw an ”A” and continues with every letter of the alphabet. https://ohnotype.co/blog/ohno-type-school-a
Aesthetically, great. But i can't help but find it harder to read this font. Probably cool for things such as a poster or album art, but not something i'd enjoy using in my code editor.
It's perfect for my use case, which is making individual square letters to print. PITA to ensure that the square are uniform when the letters are not uniform in size.
Great job! I've tried many times to design a font and failed.
That said, here's some: I'd love to see multiple weights. Not just bold, the new fonts can have multiple weights. Italic could help also but with the letters staying in the box. Also, the letters are too much to the left to my liking. Large amount of space between letters makes it even more visible.
Please add a github release with the assets (ttf, otf, etc.). I'm developing an open-source font repository+downloader and it will make it easier to write an install script for it.
It reminds me of the rather strange story of the Mormon "Deseret Alphabet" which was designed to not have descenders, in order to reduce uneven wear on the pieces of type.
The squished descenders are surprisingly not horrible. (They are horrible in some actual 80s fonts from 8-bit devices.) But I don't like the giant intrusive 'l' that looks like a ladle, it's got too much character.
Sorry, but it's hard to read for me. I have to really look at what's written to recognise the letters. That's the opposite of a good font. Good font is easy to run through. But maybe it's just me.
I'm unsure if "no descenders" provides increased clarity. For example, lowercase q is easy to recognize because your eyes are already drawn to it being one of few characters that descend. In the case of this font, you have a small uppercase Q as the lowercase q. This feels like it accomplishes the opposite of this stated benefit.
> I'm unsure if "no descenders" provides increased clarity.
Of course not: if it did we would be doing it that way everywhere. Typeface design has thousands of years of history, there's only a few major variations in latin types and we've tried them all. Descenders exist for a reason.
This type is pretty cool for what it is meant for, the retro aesthetics. Old school digital displays (like alarm clocks) don't have descenders so it fits pretty well.
> Descenders exist for a reason.
Yeah but I wouldn't just assume it's because they are the optimal solution. Look at architectural handwriting, very clear, no descenders.
Nowhere does it promise to increase clarity. In one place it says "modern clarity", which is in my opinion and many cases worse than non-modern clarity.
Modern claritu
Yes, it's surprisingly not terrible except for y->u
Yep, I agree. Your eyes need these clues to help you read at speed. When every character looks similar, you have to slow down to look at individual characters, rather than just glancing at a whole word.
The qu i ck brown f ox jumps over the lazy do 9
Letter spacing is not great for that 'i' indeed. Monospace fonts use a very wide serif at the bottom, or an extended arm to make the i appear equally-spaced, which this typeface seems to have ignored.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll give this a try.
What's the benefit of no descenders?
its popular in basic games where fonts are made from bitmap glyphs and pixels are at a premium.
In theory it allows to pack text tighter with minimal line spacing.
Aesthetics, if that's your thing.
when showcasing fonts please also showcase pre-rendered font images, because some of us override website fonts for legibility (and possibly speed or memory consumption)
Hey, this is my first font design, constructive criticism welcome! Thanks.
You’ve picked a difficult way to make your first typeface. A monoline design with a strict vector grid doesn’t leave a lot of room for the kind of optical adjustments needed for balanced and readable letter shapes. But I think even if you want to be strict about those restrictions there is a lot of room for improvement in consistency and composition of each shape.
I started to write actionable suggestions about individual letters but realized it’s probably better to drop this link, which starts at how to draw an ”A” and continues with every letter of the alphabet. https://ohnotype.co/blog/ohno-type-school-a
Aesthetically, great. But i can't help but find it harder to read this font. Probably cool for things such as a poster or album art, but not something i'd enjoy using in my code editor.
It's very nice, but why? The lack of descenders makes it slightly harder to read. More of the letters look the same.
It's perfect for my use case, which is making individual square letters to print. PITA to ensure that the square are uniform when the letters are not uniform in size.
Great job! I've tried many times to design a font and failed.
That said, here's some: I'd love to see multiple weights. Not just bold, the new fonts can have multiple weights. Italic could help also but with the letters staying in the box. Also, the letters are too much to the left to my liking. Large amount of space between letters makes it even more visible.
Please add a github release with the assets (ttf, otf, etc.). I'm developing an open-source font repository+downloader and it will make it easier to write an install script for it.
Lowercase f, l and t are crimes against humanity.
I find it legible except for y becoming u
I really like the look of the font, great job!
Did you ask Claude to make your design futuristic? I sometimes get the same layout haha.
Love how legible this is. Exactly how my brain (trained on 8-bit micros) expects a font to look!
Amazing effort for a first font. I probably won't use it, but who cares! It's cool.
Do more fonts. Do more things. I thank you.
The vertical lines look a bit thin on my ~110PPI screen. Especially the down line in lowercase 'p'.
It reminds me of the rather strange story of the Mormon "Deseret Alphabet" which was designed to not have descenders, in order to reduce uneven wear on the pieces of type.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_alphabet
The squished descenders are surprisingly not horrible. (They are horrible in some actual 80s fonts from 8-bit devices.) But I don't like the giant intrusive 'l' that looks like a ladle, it's got too much character.
zx spectrum is very offended by your remarks, and would like to have a word with you :-) I can see that g with my eyes closed.
Ha, that's the one, I knew there was one particularly egregious g.
Looks cool, I feel like lowercase g and maybe p could be a bit taller, g looks a bit out of place with its height.
Sorry, but it's hard to read for me. I have to really look at what's written to recognise the letters. That's the opposite of a good font. Good font is easy to run through. But maybe it's just me.
Cool! I love it! To really show it off you could compare yours vs a regular one with line height = 0.9 or something
Tried this on my 24" 1080p screen as a vscode font, but it is way to thin. Seeems there is no font weight support to make it "bolder"?
Ancient Latin and Ancient Greek also did just that: lowercase didn’t exist yet.
Makes me want to try and write code in uppercase only (or not).
I like the theme of the website, though!