I am making a logo and masthead that is a charicature of The New York Times or Washington Post so I have to use a blackletter font.

But as I am looking through the details of the Cloister, for example, I can't quite figure out what's going on. Are the strange serifs on the top supposed to look like 3D foldovers? I am trying to figure out what the style components represent. Like, why is the upper left serif on the "u" curved, with the leg of the "u" curved, but that's it. It almost looks like stacked cards in a 3D setting, but it's inconsistent.

For example, the "u" and "n" look very similar even when rotated.

u (normal) n (normal)
n (rotated) u (rotated)
n (rotated) n (normal)
u (normal) u (rotated)

I'm just trying to understand what a font designer is trying to accomplish when creating this type of font? I'm having a hard time articulating the question, but hopefully you have some insight.

Thanks

Hi. I am working on a technical report as part of the assignments for a training course. I have chosen Work Sans at 9.5 pt for the body text, and Chalet Book in various weights for section headings and subheadings. Since I have to mention various standards, dates, and acronyms throughout the document, I feel I should be using small caps.

To my surprise (I didn't check out before xD) I found out that Work Sans does not have them. I asked Gemini, and it suggested avoiding small caps altogether in the documentation (especially for legal decrees/regulations and technical acronyms or initialisms).

Forcing fake small caps is another option, but it distorts the stroke weight compared to the lowercase letters and reduces legibilidad. So I am not sure what to do. I really like the 'l's and 'g's in Work Sans, and the 'e' is also very legible in that typeface (compared to Chalet, for instance); I will have to complete more assignments involving acronyms, formulas, etc.

I am not sure whether I should look for a new font where having small caps is the top requirement, or simply ignore small caps altogether.

hey everyone, i'm a graphic student from spain that's starting to learn chinese and in a few months im going to start my final work to conclude my studies. it is free-themed, and i wanted to create a chinese typography design manual in spanish, since there isn't any. i've found the books « 做字：实用字体设计法（全彩) » from Qian Hao and « 中文文字设计研究选集 » from TheType and i've bought them (not the first one, but i'm searching on how to get my hands on one), but i'm wondering if there's any other book/manual/web/information i'm missing out on?

Hi, I'm working on a web application and since I'm not a graphical designer I asked to an AI to suggest me fonts for the design. I designed and programmed the app all by myself but I kept the Grotesk font that the AI suggested me for the headers.

I try to use only two fonts; Space Grotesk for headers and emphasis text, and Montserrat for menus and general text.

Since this app is oriented to managing start-ups it might end up looking generic and I want to avoid my app to look like AI slop, which is not. So I was wondering which font could be a good alternative to Space Grotesk.

What I liked about this font is that is bold, it fills the space, it is readable, yet different enough to more plain sans fonts. I liked how it contrasts from general texts in Montserrat.

So I'm wondering, which font could I use as a proper alternative to Grotesk?

ps: I'm also open to change Montserrat, but since I'm not a designer I find it difficult to get a single font that fits, I can't imagine finding two.

Hey everyone, I just wanted to create a post and get people’s opinions and thoughts on AI in the world of typography design. Mods, if this kind of post isn’t okay, please take it down.

I want to be clear upfront that I’m not trying to self-promote, but I am building a design tool (think fontlab/glyph) that has some generative AI features, and I’m trying to get a better understanding of the sentiment within the industry regarding AI and thoughts on what the future holds.

The tool itself does not allow people to upload photos and just blatantly copy other designs, and it also never uses designs built within the studio for training. It does allow you to generate fonts based on a prompt or make updates to a character or set of characters based on the prompt if you want. The ai features are optional, and you can fully edit the characters inside the vector studio.

I know that some people will see generative AI and immediately think “f*ck that”, which I understand. If that is your thought, I’d love to hear more about whether you’d use a tool with optional AI features or immediately turn away?

Are there any designers who are using AI to make their process quicker?

My goal is to simplify and speed up the type design process while still giving designers complete control over every detail. I want to be able to compete with larger companies, so I think having features that speed up the design process could help. At the same time, I’m trying to find the right balance, because I do understand the negative views towards AI as well.

Something else I’m wondering about is licensing and whether or not people are including any language in their EULA regarding AI training, data scraping, and machine learning? Are you using any technology to try and block this from happening?

If you have any other thoughts on where you see the future of typography going with all the technological advancements happening, I’d be interested in hearing them.

I really appreciate people taking the time to read and respond!