What, no entries yet? :)

so it has to be from scratch?

Yeah.

what does “optimized for text” mean, specifically?

We’re looking for text faces, not display. Really, though, the final result is a paragraph so anything that will look good in a block of text is cool.

> // Complete an entire lower case optimized for text...

This isn’t Type Battle, but WW3 :)

The first salvo:

My two pennies. Actually, this should rather be for bigger sizes than 12p, but nevertheless. Time is a bit short to make it suitable for text sizes.

Jürgen Weltin

Here is mine. Monospaced though...

Christian,

Would you like to carefully clarify the rules for this week’s competition? I would like you to.

Sorry for the confusion, folks. Simply draw a lower-case from scratch and set a paragraph. As for rules, this is pretty informal; just do whatever you think will make your stuff cooler than everyone else’s.

As for the “optimized for text” thing: obviously some types are going to work better in body copy than others, but really you can interpret it any way you want. Just make the paragraph look good. (Hey, if you can make a retro log face work in body copy, go for it.)

By the way, Peiter, your f is just cool. Jürgen, your letters are looking good in text. I’m especially digging the g. Can you post a larger image of the individual characters?

Hello battlers,

I’m new at all of this, so you’ll have to forgive me. My strategy was to use the serifs to emphasize the horizontal line of text and improve reading. Of course, the inconsistencies in contrast and spacing don’t help. I’m really impressed with the work put up so far.

Well, critique away.

David

Here they come.

Jürgen

I’m new in this forum and it’s my first comment ever!
But it’s good start?

Kristian Möller

Kristian, I think you might have just taken the lead. Respect.

Kristian, yours reminds me of Ruse.

Yes! I admit, I’m a big Gerrit Noordzsij fan. But this is different…

Wow, these are gooood. Almost ashamed to post mine now. Still, I put the time in so here goes... (Please excuse the dodgy spacing - suppose I could have spent time playing with kerning but Christian did say it was about speed! Oh, but I just had to do a ’fi’ lig ’cause it really needed one):

________________________________
Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster’s stopped working.

So this is mine, done in about 12 hours.
Won’t be the winner, there are some inconsistencies and flaws, but I claim a medal of honour, as if my girlfriend finds out that I was participating in type battle 12 – WW3, instead of travelling to her a day earlier, this will be my last post on typophile for a while...

Sebastian

Ha, Sebastian, that’s funny. There should be a support group for type designers’ significant others.

Christian,

I still can’t tell whether you intended for participants to use something they already had in progress, or start from scratch when the challenge was thrown down (as Sebastian did). Not fair to Sebastian (or his girlfriend) if it’s ok to use something existing, is it?

I think that it’s against the spirit of battles in general to use previous work. I guess we should put that into the header.

To my slowly-becoming-less-untrained eye, I am, again, really impressed. I agree that Kristian’s is pretty incredible, and I really dig the little hooks on Sebastian’s. And I’m glad that dtw even took the time to do a ligature. I’m interested in how all of you went about this problem, and what your strategies were behind optimizing the letters for text setting.

Not knowing really how to start, here’s what I did: After I messed around a little yesterday with a pen, I decided that it was gorgeous out, so I went out on the deck and drew out each letter on graph paper, x-height about an inch an a quarter (3cm). Then I came inside a couple hours later, scanned that, and traced it in illustrator, doing a lot of copying and pasting of serifs and stems in the process (a quick way to establish consistency, I figured). Then, the copy and paste job in illustrator was another hour and change, spacing the letters manually (that was a mistake). My thinking behind this alphabet is that I wanted to allow for reasonably high ascenders without ridiculous leading. So I made big blocky serifs to emphasize the line of text so that I didn’t have to make the leading too generous. Of course, my submission is no battle-winner, but it’s a start (for me at least).

Is that similar/different to what you did/thought about while doing? Just curious.

Nice stuff so far and it’s only Wednesday!

Well for speed I went for draw-it-straight-in-the-computer. Lots of modular bits (verticals, horizontals, serifs), plug ’em together and tweak to fit, with occasional sideways glances at Karen Cheng’s book...

All drawn on one line in CorelDraw and then imported into TypeTool (see, a non-designer with non-designer’s software! LOL). Sidebearings as per Cheng, kerned about ¼ of the necessary pairs then thought ’stuff this, it’s taking too long’... Paragraph assembled line by line in Photoshop as I’d stuffed up the vertical metrics.

I do like Kristian’s: those serifs are far more elegant than my hobnail-boot-like ones!
__________________________
Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster’s stopped working.

drawn some glyphs on paper, about 10cm in height:
r a b n o x c q g j

Then switched to the computer as it took too long, and did a redraw (no tracing &c.)

Text optimizations: sturdy strokes, rather short ascenders and descenders (for my means...)

Anti-text: maybe too detailed yet, and there are two different designs in it at the moment. There would be so much to do, but I have to leave now, otherwise we need a support group for typedesigners hunted down by the support group for typedesigners’ significant others.

PS. I think I’ll call it “Type Battle 12 #7”

i am speechless. every single entry is brilliant.
you guy rock.

Further proof that fonts are addicting. Just a few more minutes ... Doh

1 hour? Go Randy! My post took four. Of course, an hour of that was trying to make the darn thing look good in photoshop.

No curves = mucho speedier. Curves = tweek, check, tweek, check, tweek check.
4 hours is downright miraculous given your spacing and polish. Everyone elses look great too. Nice job all!

Remarkable! Good work!

Randy, this is fantastic!

Here’s my crack-a-lack....

Randy, the concept of yours reminds me of Beowulf, which reads surprisingly well in small sizes as well.

Randy, that is gorgeous.

The one thing that I’ve gotta say about looking at your own work after a full night’s sleep... it turns out looking really different than the night before. And lots of ideas come to you about how to change it or do it differently and make it better when you’re not staring at it trying to get it done so quickly. A tricky assignment for this battle. And a good exercise.

I am really impressed with all of the stuff that was posted... even more so after my own attempt. Can’t wait for the next battle.

I think anyone who completed this battle has done an impressive job. Randy’s reminds me of Preissig.
Tim

Damn, my “job” had to pick this week to become time-consuming. Bang-up job, everybody.

Why was there such a long gap between week 11 and week 12?

Also, Dave, I like your alternate take on a “dg” monogram... It avoids encroaching on my marca registrada quite nicely.