TG font collaboration #2 Roundhead

[Gare]

fake.



Seriously, I don't see a big value-added, except for word processing people. You skew your line of text 12 degrees, you got italic.

-g-

[Barbara B]

It would be of use, fake or not as a webfont.

Would it be possible to let FontLab do the skew thing and then tweak some characters to make is more like a true italic?

[mwenz]

heh. lazy...yes. fake? nah.

obviously the italic caps in most/many sans fonts are actually oblique. hard part comes in making the lowercase look right if one wants a true italic.

if someone wants me to, i can work on a set of lc italics. but punctuation, numerals, uc etc., can simply be oblique. well, that's my thought anyway.

mike

[Gare]

Here are the balls you want to juggle, Barb:

•Individual interest wanes the longer it takes to finish a project.
• Conversely, if you rush this thing, you're putting garbage out there.
•There exists no good example of an italic version of RoundHead to copy. And I've look through fonts I have that exhibit this transverse endcap that makes the font unusual, and nope, other fonts are single family display fonts.
•It lends itself to a headline font, not a text font, so why on Earth would anyone need an italic version?

To do a version in italic that wouldn't get tg laughed out of professional circles, you'd have to create a lowercase a and g, at very least. These are the guys that typographers sweat when making a true italic version.

If we take a good hard look at RoundHead, it's really no deserving of the tapestry work we're pondering. It's a good font, I say just get it done in a timely fashion, don't beat our collective heads against he wall trying to make something out of it that it isn't, and get on to other fun stuff on the forum.

-g-

[Gare]

@Mike—

Your take and your theory are sound.
If you have the time, I'm sure no one would begrudge this effort. It could be a fascinating thing to do and internally rewarding.

I vote=go for it.

Moreover, I recommend a font such as Helvetica Narrow as a very loose guide to separate the italic from the oblique.

-g-

[angelize]

I have some real life work today, but I'll take a look at the last files Bill posted and let you know later what I think and if I find anything.

I think that the 3 versions that Bill has done would be a great package.

Gary: you mentioned a version you were working on is that still in the works or perhaps saved for another time? This leads me to an idea! How about a release of Round Head regular, heavy, and semi condensed first, and then maybe If you guys want to do italics (and was it a small caps version you were working on Gary? ) at a later date it could be marketed as an expansion pack? This way you guys can take your time and maybe a bit of a break, and we can get the Roundhead font out in a timely fashion.

[Gare]

I put an outline version together, in hopes of rounding out and rounding off the set.

Attachment 89321

[Soquili]

The Semi-condensed version has many flaws that need to be corrected before it will be ready for prime time, so I will pull it from release until some time in the future.

I was thinking FontLab would produce a true italic, but as Gary said it would be simply a slanted version of the existing fonts so we can scratch that off our list.

The attached zip file from Gary has the best three versions that are ready for release. Would one of the moderators please delete the previous zip file?

[mwenz]

OK. I tried several sans faces and the results are as shown in the image below. In the image, I simply used the last font I compared which is Helvetica Condensed.

I think a simple skew of 12° is fine. The horizontals remain perpendicular to the baseline. In the end, though, this is something that a designer can do easily enough. As Gary mentioned, this font isn't going to be used for body copy which would make an oblique version a nicety.

Take care, Mike

[wizard509]

I think the Capital L still looks like a G.