Hello typographers
I am a hobbyist dabbling into illustration and graphic design and I am trying now for the first time to design a typeface. I'm doing a slab serif roughly inspired by the Proteus Project. I started out with setting Saracen in a low res at small point size, then manually added and removed pixels, then went into illustrator and did some 3d-filters. With that as a basis I am now building my typeface, mostly looking at Acropolis for guidance.
However, I am not at all pleased with how it's looking now. Before I go on to make the rest of the letters (IF I even go on) I would very much appreciate some honest feedback, and some tips maybe on how to get this thing better looking. It doesn't have to become a world class font, I only want the average graphic designer not to see that I made it myself. Thanks in advance for anyone willing to spew some critique!
A technical question also: I am working in Illustrator for now (then copy pasting to fontlab 7), but if I want to change the overall ratios of my letters (let's say make all stems a bit thicker), that is a lot of work (especially since Illustrator won't snap properly and I have to zoom all the time). Is it worth learning fontlab for this? Or is it an equal amount of work in that program?
Also: I am working with an 8 degree angle. But if I copy the letters into Fontlab some angles are 8.1 some are 7.9, and some are even more off. Is this something you worry about? Or do I ignore it? (I guess I know the answer...)
Thank you and all best
JM
![]( "Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/kq/5cq1wtlmgybx.jpg")
![]( "Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/k4/mju2qm97wzvn.png")
I am a hobbyist dabbling into illustration and graphic design and I am trying now for the first time to design a typeface. I'm doing a slab serif roughly inspired by the Proteus Project. I started out with setting Saracen in a low res at small point size, then manually added and removed pixels, then went into illustrator and did some 3d-filters. With that as a basis I am now building my typeface, mostly looking at Acropolis for guidance.
However, I am not at all pleased with how it's looking now. Before I go on to make the rest of the letters (IF I even go on) I would very much appreciate some honest feedback, and some tips maybe on how to get this thing better looking. It doesn't have to become a world class font, I only want the average graphic designer not to see that I made it myself. Thanks in advance for anyone willing to spew some critique!
A technical question also: I am working in Illustrator for now (then copy pasting to fontlab 7), but if I want to change the overall ratios of my letters (let's say make all stems a bit thicker), that is a lot of work (especially since Illustrator won't snap properly and I have to zoom all the time). Is it worth learning fontlab for this? Or is it an equal amount of work in that program?
Also: I am working with an 8 degree angle. But if I copy the letters into Fontlab some angles are 8.1 some are 7.9, and some are even more off. Is this something you worry about? Or do I ignore it? (I guess I know the answer...)
Thank you and all best
JM
