Bardax. Process GD350 ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY REFLECTION ON PRACTICE ERSAN ÇELİKTAŞ

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1 1 1. Turkish tea glass is called ince belli bardak in Turkish, which means thin waisted glass. 2. Adobe Illustrator is a computer software that enables users to design, modify and edit vector graphics images from a computer and save them as files into a number of vector graphics formats. The use of mathematical equations to generate points, lines, curves and other shapes is a difference between Adobe Illustrator and other graphics software programs on the market. This technique is known in the jargon of the industry as geometrical primitives and is the basis of vector graphics. ( 3. FontLab Studio is a professional font editor for Mac and Windows. Used by Adobe, Apple, Bitstream, IBM, Linotype, Microsoft, Monotype, Morisawa and almost every other major font foundry in the world, it is the comprehensive solution for font foundries, professional type designers, typographers and graphic design studios, allowing them to design typefaces and create or modify fonts. FontLab Studio supports all major outline font formats, including Type 1, TrueType, Multiple Master and OpenType. ( My font name is. It is a sans-serif typeface. It is based on the shape of the Turkish tea glass1. Turkish tea glass (fig.1.) is a traditional glass which has a thin waist. In my typeface, I tried to use the tea glass shape which has a curvy shape. Also, the parts of the letters have difference value in thickness so there is contrast between the letter parts. I chose this tea glass because it has a very special shape which looks kind and charming and it is a traditional tea glass. In Turkey, it has a cultural value so I want to design a typeface which is based on a Turkish traditional object. Process First, I examined the form of tea glass. Then, I determined the parts of the shape which I will use for my typeface. After that, I tried to integrate the parts of tea glass shape in the letters. How? At first, I drew some sketches (fig.2.) to analyse the effectiveness and weaknesses of this shape. Then, I noticed that there was a problem. It was very hard to apply this curvy tea glass shape to all letters completely especially lowercase letters. Next, I decided not to use all the parts of the shape completely. You can still feel this curvy tea glass shape in a way but partially. Second, I drew the letters on a vector-based computer software such as Adobe Illustrator2. While I was drawing the letters, I saved my document at least 20 times because every step is important and I didn t want to lose my typeface improvements. Also, I took several copies of my document for backup purpose. Moreover, you have to remove extra anchor points and close all outlines of your typefaces before importing to Fontlab Studio. In other words, your glyphs outline should be clean. Third, I imported the letters of my typeface in FontLab Studio3, a software designed to create and modify fonts. When I was modifying my font, I saved my font in every step. Then, I took several copies of my font in every step and named them such as _01, _02, _03, _04, _05. The benefits of these are to make a better comparison between the old versions and the new version of your font and protect your font from errors. Fourth, I printed the typeface on a paper for testing. Is it readable and legible in a small type size? Is it a display font or text font? Does it attract attention? I can answer all of these questions by printing the font on a paper and testing it whether it is working or not. Fig. 1. Turkish Tea glass Fig. 2. Sketch

2 2 4. Alessandro Segalini is a communication designer who specializes in typography. Segalini studied design at the Polytechnic of Milan and visual communication at the University of Art and Design of Helsinki. He holds a MSc in industrial design from the Polytechnic University of Milan. Currently he is a faculty member at Izmir University of Economics VCD department focusing on typographic design and design education. (new.myfonts.com) Also, I took suggestions from Alessandro Segalini4 for improving my typeface. (fig.3., 4.) Fig. 3. Sketch Fig. 4. Sketch

3 3 5. Adobe InDesign software provides precise control over typography and built-in creative tools for designing, preflighting, and publishing documents for print, online, or to mobile devices. Include interactivity, animation, video, and sound in page layouts to fully engage readers. ( Learning In Advanced Typography lesson, I learned many things which are very useful in my design life. First, I learned how to use FontLab Software and also, created my own font with it. Now, I can create and edit fonts in a professional way. Second, I learned what specimen is. A type specimen is a publication(such as a book or poster) that shows the available glyphs in a typeface, including variations (www. wikipedia.org). Third, I learned the difference between font and typeface. If font is a guitar, typeface is the song. You need instruments for playing a song. Briefly, fonts are the digital representations of typefaces and typefaces are printed version of fonts. Fourth, I learned a feature of Adobe InDesign5 software. You can make fonts available in Adobe InDesign by copying the font files into the Fonts folder inside the Adobe InDesign folder on your hard drive. On the other hand, fonts in this Fonts folder are available only to InDesign. The benefit of this feature is to test your typeface without installing it. Fifth, I learned the format of that is called MIME which stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. Sixth, our instructor brought us some of his books about typography which were very useful for us. Two of them were very impressive. One of them was the one written with blood and other was the 3d letters book. I didn t saw books like these ones before. Both of them were really fascinating. Fontlab Studio Fontlab Studio is a very powerful font editor that allows us to create and modify fonts. In Advanced Typography course, I learned the basics of this software. Now, I can use this software and create my own typeface. Also, I can modify fonts, even I can design a logo by using this software. What did I learn from Advanced Typography course about Fontlab Studio? First, using font window (fig.5.) which is used for displaying entire font. Second, generating OpenType & TrueType fonts. Third, adjusting kerning and metrics. Fourth, using tools such as free transform, scale and pen tool. Fifth, optimizing outline and cleaning it. Sixth, copying outline to mask which is used for helping glyph editing. Seventh, modifying fonts by using nodes. Eighth, merging contours which is used for combining contours with each other. Ninth, choosing encoding. Tenth, creating special characters such as ş, ö, ç, ü. Eleventh, using shortcuts such as z and x key for zoom in and zoom out, delete key for cleaning outlines, Ctrl + E for optimizing and Ctrl + Shift + P keys for outline preview. (for windows). Twelfth, using font info box which is used for entering font information including: names and copyright; version and identification; encoding and unicode; font note. Thirteenth, using actions dialog box which is used for is used for editing a glyph or entire font automatically such as scaling, rotating, applying an effect, adjusting metrics. Fourteenth, using glyph window (fig.6.) which is used for editing individual glyphs and it provides extensive set of tools and options for creative and precise design of the glyph outline. Fifteenth, using metrics windows which is used for editing the metrics and kerning information. Sixteenth, marking color to glyphs which is used for making differentiation between other glyphs such as red color for unfinished glyphs, blue color for finished glyphs. Seventeenth, adding a component which is used for helping to create and edit glyphs easily such as cutting a part of an glyph and adding it to an another glyph. Eighteenth, adding note to glyphs which can use as a reminder or a description. These are the basics of Fontlab Studio software. It is a very useful and professional software that allows us to create our own fonts which is fascinating.

4 4 Fig. 5. A screenshot from Fontlab Studio, Font Window Fig. 6. A screenshot from Fontlab Studio, Glyph Window

5 5 5. Sans serif typeface is one that does not have the small features called serifs at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning without. In print, sans-serif fonts are more typically used for headlines than for body text. The conventional wisdom holds that serifs help guide the eye along the lines in large blocks of text. (en.wikipedia.org) ABCÇDEFGĞHIİJKLMNOÖPQ RSTUÜVWXYZ ABCÇDEFGĞHIİJKLMNOÖPQRSTUÜVWXYZ 25 pt. 15 pt. ABCÇDEFGĞHIİJKLMNOÖPQRSTUÜVWXYZ 8 pt. Fig. 7. typeface samples Example of a text for testing typeface My font name is. It is a sans serif shape. Turkish tea glass is a traditional glass which has a thin waist. Example of a text for testing typeface in a smaller point size for continuous reading. My font name is. It is a sans serif typeface. It is based on Turkish tea glass shape. Turkish tea glass is a traditional glass which has a thin waist. Example of a text for testing typeface in a smaller point size for continuous reading. My font name is. It is a sans serif typeface. It is based on Turkish tea glass shape. Turkish tea glass is a traditional glass which has a thin waist. Example of a text for testing typeface My font name is. It is a sans serif shape. waist. Example of a text for testing typeface My font name is. It is a sans serif shape. Turkish tea glass is a traditional glass which has a thin waist. Fig. 8. typeface text samples with a smaller point size. (8 pt.) Conclusion typeface (fig.7., 8.) is a legible and readable sans-serif typeface5 in a large point size but not in small point size because of the complexity of the shape. In other words, if you are using it for a headline, a title or a slogan, it is effective. On the other hand, if you want to use it for text (such as in books), it is not effective because of its distinctive shape that became harder to recognize in certain reading conditions. Shortly, this is a typeface for headlines, titles and slogans.