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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
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    Default Proposal for a new group typeface intiative

    Hiya—

    MarcT had mentioned his fondness for some of the old William Morris cuts, and I've got almost complete alphabets—Q, X and Z seem not to be popular, thus no examples to be found—for Morris, Jensen, and a few other notable resources.

    They're all from the 1900 American Type Founders Cut Book, which was a catalog for printers. 112 years ago makes the contents Public Domain.

    Here are a few samples, and we mustn't forget the ornaments they used. I'm not thinking "typeface" here per se—more like a collection of decorative initials to kick off a page with a drop cap, you know?

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Click image for larger version. 

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    Let's please not jump in and discuss dates and who's going to do what, okay? This is a field trip!

    I'd just like to hear some opinions. Christine, this might fulfill (sort of) the initiative you were tossing out about a week ago.

    My Best,

    Gary

  2. #2

    Default Re: Proposal for a new group typeface intiative


  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2000
    Location
    Red Boiling Springs TN USA
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    19,208

    Default Re: Proposal for a new group typeface intiative

    Gary perhaps these Capitals could become additions to the Designs Gallery > Clipart > letters collection?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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    Soquili
    a.k.a. Bill Taylor
    Bill is no longer with us. He died on 10 Dec 2012. We remember him always.
    My TG Album
    Last XaReg update

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Sunshine Coast BC, Canada. In a beautiful part of BC's temperate rainforest
    Posts
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    Default Re: Proposal for a new group typeface intiative

    Or how about a TG Collaborative Clip art Collection that could be published in the clip art gallery? Perhaps we could have as well as a .xar format (that can easily be added to the designs gallery) .pdf or .svg formats too? Thoughts?
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    My current Xara software: Designer Pro 365 12.6

    Good Morning Sunshine.ca | Good Morning Sunshine Online(a weekly humorous publication created with XDP and exported as a web document) | Angelize Online resource shop | My Video Tutorials | My DropBox |
    Autocorrect: It can be your worst enema.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Location
    East Sussex, England
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    Default Re: Proposal for a new group typeface intiative

    Sounds good to me.

    Christine

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Proposal for a new group typeface intiative

    @Bill—

    That's handsome artwork, those ornamental caps, for sure, Bill.
    My only reservation might be: I can't get a good look, but that appears to be stippling within the characters. If so, that would be wicked hard and time-intensive to reproduce as vectors, no?

    I think it's great to provide the graphics community with ornamental caps as clipart. I suggest both XAR and PDF, because PDF is marginally easier to import into Xara, Illustrator, CorelDRAW, and possibly Inkscape, haven't checked.

    I'd like to suggest a sort of balance as we move forward with group projects.

    When something is way complicated, like one of the gylphs from the Burgeon set that has 4,000 control points, a reproduction is more appropriately created as a vector file.

    When the gylphs are reasonably simple, I suggest going the typeface distribution route is preferred, because a typeface can be shared across platforms, and because a collection of glyphs can't be separated accidentally.

    And there's no rule that the stuff we are allowed to trace has to be curve-for-curve. Here's an example of two variations on the Bradley ornamental caps I posted.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    My Best,

    Gary

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    StPeters, MO USA
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    Default Re: Proposal for a new group typeface intiative

    It all sounds good to me.
    Larry a.k.a wizard509

    Never give up. You will never fail, but you may find a lot of ways that don't work.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Montreal
    Posts
    780

    Default Re: Proposal for a new group typeface intiative

    The typefaces looks really good!

    Is it better to trace or redraw for such a project?
    I guess a combination of both would work best...


    Interesting elements to color and render also!

    Marc
    ________________________________
    Illustrations

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2000
    Location
    Red Boiling Springs TN USA
    Posts
    19,208

    Default Re: Proposal for a new group typeface intiative

    @Gary - the stipling is an artifact of the bitmaps used in the Gallery display. Not something I would recommend for us to try and duplicate.
    Soquili
    a.k.a. Bill Taylor
    Bill is no longer with us. He died on 10 Dec 2012. We remember him always.
    My TG Album
    Last XaReg update

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Liverpool, N.Y.
    Posts
    6,112

    Default Re: Proposal for a new group typeface intiative

    @MarcT—

    I'll share with you what I do to clean up a bitmap original:

    I use an auto-trace utility (specifically Vector Magic), and then lock the result on the Guides layer. By default you got snapping going on, so essentially I let Xara snap my trace close to the auto-trace.

    Then I hide the Guides layer, and clean up the trace manually.

    Believe it or not, it creates accuracy and eliminates guesswork.

    Only on rare occasions do I attempt a resurrection without any reference.

    My Best,

    Gary

 

 

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