That would be a fun game Casper - I would gladly play a round with you! They really can be so different. A typeface family that comes to mind right away is Gill Sans. That Ultra Bold is so different from the regular weight
@@casperdewith Well, I think that Impact Ultra Light would certainly by quite different in regards to weight from Impact, as it would be similar to other condensed Grotesque type families and their system of weights. I think that the huge contrast in style between Gill Sans regular and Ultra Bold is stark, partially because of the design construction (humanist sans model). When the humanist forms in Gill Sans get extrapolated to the ultra, a lot of adjustment is required to retain the curves and counter shape construction. Condensed Grotesques like Impact allow for a more systematic distribution of weight as a result of general stroke and counter shape patterns being more regular. Actually, it's a nice idea to have type families that are not so systematic, and that change across the weights, as long as they retain a sense of the total system.
Hello Kevin your videos are great and so well explained! Thanks so much for sharing such a valuable knowledge! I have never design a font. I can see now how important is the structure or skeleton of a font to create the masters and different width variations, but I don't really understand if when you start with the sketch and idea of the font style that you want to create you should start from the skeleton or not. Meaning by that what comes first the design/glyph or the skeleton of the font?
Hello Laura, I'm glad you find the videos helpful, and thank you for your question. I think it is a matter of what you feel comfortable with, in regards to where you start first. Hypothetically, any given font design has a set of patterns that are shared across any of the styles in the font. I personally begin with the *regular* text weight, and then get the other styles from this source. Even if I will only have a 2 master setup, I still begin with the regular to establish the atmosphere of the design
thankyou for your video! i don't get if there's an opportunity to just copy the regular master and generate an extended master just by change the width. or do i have to copy every letter and make it manually? hope you can help me, love your videos! greetings vom germany
Hello, glad you find the videos helpful. If you are building the second master, you do likely have to draw each letter manually, however, if you have two masters already (regular + bold, or, narrow + wide, for example) you can generate an instance in between these masters and then copy it into your current source file as a master.
I may have missed it but, is there a way to start with a basic font and adjust some of them for what i need or do i have to build every glyph from scratch?
You will have to build your first font from scratch, drawing every glyph, however, the great thing about this is that once you get your first font, you can begin new font designs off of this data, without having to draw each glyph from scratch.
@@kevinking74 i may be goofing up somewhere but i opened some font file on windows and then saved it, looks like i can edit it. maybe i am messing up somewhere though
@@tinermw This sounds right, you can indeed open up any font in Glyphs App on any OS, but this is not a legal or ethical practice to make fonts unless the license for the font allows for modification and redistribution. This is only possible with open source fonts, but is rare. If you open an existing font file and manipulate the data (outlines, spacing, kerning) and use or sell that font, you are infringing on the copyright of that font, because you are using someone else's data to begin the font. Please begin designing fonts from scratch - my videos breakdown how to build letters from scratch. Then - once you have built your own data - you can always use it to build other fonts in the future.
17:36 This just gives me an idea for a game: _Match the Typefaces by Their Ultra Light and Black Weights._ They really look so different!
That would be a fun game Casper - I would gladly play a round with you! They really can be so different. A typeface family that comes to mind right away is Gill Sans. That Ultra Bold is so different from the regular weight
@@kevinking74 Just another idea: how bad (or at least different) of a font would Impact Ultra Light be?
@@casperdewith Well, I think that Impact Ultra Light would certainly by quite different in regards to weight from Impact, as it would be similar to other condensed Grotesque type families and their system of weights. I think that the huge contrast in style between Gill Sans regular and Ultra Bold is stark, partially because of the design construction (humanist sans model). When the humanist forms in Gill Sans get extrapolated to the ultra, a lot of adjustment is required to retain the curves and counter shape construction. Condensed Grotesques like Impact allow for a more systematic distribution of weight as a result of general stroke and counter shape patterns being more regular. Actually, it's a nice idea to have type families that are not so systematic, and that change across the weights, as long as they retain a sense of the total system.
Hello Kevin your videos are great and so well explained! Thanks so much for sharing such a valuable knowledge! I have never design a font. I can see now how important is the structure or skeleton of a font to create the masters and different width variations, but I don't really understand if when you start with the sketch and idea of the font style that you want to create you should start from the skeleton or not. Meaning by that what comes first the design/glyph or the skeleton of the font?
Hello Laura, I'm glad you find the videos helpful, and thank you for your question. I think it is a matter of what you feel comfortable with, in regards to where you start first. Hypothetically, any given font design has a set of patterns that are shared across any of the styles in the font. I personally begin with the *regular* text weight, and then get the other styles from this source. Even if I will only have a 2 master setup, I still begin with the regular to establish the atmosphere of the design
@@kevinking74 Thanks so much Kevin!
thankyou for your video! i don't get if there's an opportunity to just copy the regular master and generate an extended master just by change the width. or do i have to copy every letter and make it manually? hope you can help me, love your videos! greetings vom germany
Hello, glad you find the videos helpful. If you are building the second master, you do likely have to draw each letter manually, however, if you have two masters already (regular + bold, or, narrow + wide, for example) you can generate an instance in between these masters and then copy it into your current source file as a master.
I may have missed it but, is there a way to start with a basic font and adjust some of them for what i need or do i have to build every glyph from scratch?
You will have to build your first font from scratch, drawing every glyph, however, the great thing about this is that once you get your first font, you can begin new font designs off of this data, without having to draw each glyph from scratch.
@@kevinking74 i may be goofing up somewhere but i opened some font file on windows and then saved it, looks like i can edit it. maybe i am messing up somewhere though
@@tinermw This sounds right, you can indeed open up any font in Glyphs App on any OS, but this is not a legal or ethical practice to make fonts unless the license for the font allows for modification and redistribution. This is only possible with open source fonts, but is rare. If you open an existing font file and manipulate the data (outlines, spacing, kerning) and use or sell that font, you are infringing on the copyright of that font, because you are using someone else's data to begin the font. Please begin designing fonts from scratch - my videos breakdown how to build letters from scratch. Then - once you have built your own data - you can always use it to build other fonts in the future.
@@kevinking74 thanks after a lot of reading i figured that out. how to i get to your class from the beginning part?