I'm curious to hear thoughts on the idea of width reduction in sans-serif italic/oblique styles. Not so much with serif types as they are naturally reduced in width due to their root in cursive letterforms and handwriting.
I've observed in many sans-serif typefaces that the italic styles are often reduced in width. Process wise it's likely this width reduction occurs before slanting and can often be as little as 95-97%. I understand that optically, this allows the italic styles to closer match the width of the romans being that slanted letterforms are naturally elongated and wider than their roman counterparts.
My curiosity is peaked though as I believe that not all designers utilize this technique, so I've been debating the reasoning of various points of view. Understandably, I don't believe I've seen this technique utilized in any truly condensed typefaces, nor have I seen it in any monospace typefaces. Maybe it is utilized in monospace sans-serif designs that utilize a more true italic where the letteform construction varies greatly from the roman?
For condensed faces of course there is a point of no return wherein the counters are so narrow that it wouldn't be realistic to further reduce the width of the letterforms in an italic. Similarly, the non proportional sidebearing space would increase, albeit subtly, if this technique is used in a monospace face.
Since I have multiple condensed and monospace typeface designs in development, I've found myself at odds with this theory, being that it doesn't seem applicable at large.
I've observed in many sans-serif typefaces that the italic styles are often reduced in width. Process wise it's likely this width reduction occurs before slanting and can often be as little as 95-97%. I understand that optically, this allows the italic styles to closer match the width of the romans being that slanted letterforms are naturally elongated and wider than their roman counterparts.
My curiosity is peaked though as I believe that not all designers utilize this technique, so I've been debating the reasoning of various points of view. Understandably, I don't believe I've seen this technique utilized in any truly condensed typefaces, nor have I seen it in any monospace typefaces. Maybe it is utilized in monospace sans-serif designs that utilize a more true italic where the letteform construction varies greatly from the roman?
For condensed faces of course there is a point of no return wherein the counters are so narrow that it wouldn't be realistic to further reduce the width of the letterforms in an italic. Similarly, the non proportional sidebearing space would increase, albeit subtly, if this technique is used in a monospace face.
Since I have multiple condensed and monospace typeface designs in development, I've found myself at odds with this theory, being that it doesn't seem applicable at large.