Typophile - Tuscan brackets - Comments

Polar only when they are

cuttlefish — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:24:14 -0700

Polar only when they are centered directly at the top and bottom, or when they are along the axis of contrast. Medial is good for features halfway up a stroke height. We already have the word terminal for features at the end of strokes. But for there to be a terminal and medial feature, must not there also be a proximal one?

Perhaps we can try incorporating anatomical directions, like pronate and supinate to indicate something or other. I think I just twisted my brain.

If not spurs or thorns, then

cerulean — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 12:22:32 -0700

If not spurs or thorns, then perhaps barbs. Regardless, I think the best adjective is medial. And a descriptor is necessary, as some such faces have the things on the top and bottom! Those would be, I don’t know, polar?

Nipples.

John Hudson — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:22:22 -0700

Nipples.

The nutcracker font above

jasonla — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:27:08 -0700

The nutcracker font above looks familiar i was on some greek island cruises and we stopped in italy for a few days in Tuscany there was some wine bottles with similar fonts croicciani or something to that affect i think it was called really great flavor

On related note, here’s an

Nick Sherman — Mon, 4 Feb 2008 20:06:14 -0800

On related note, here’s an interesting example of a typeface with the spurs that has its own distinct feel to it: the Font Bureau’s Nutcracker

I’m not 100% sure what you

Nick Sherman — Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:46:41 -0800

I’m not 100% sure what you mean by a peeing contest, but I’m assuming it’s not good. I hope you’re not mistaking my referencing for contempt or competitiveness.

My reason for bringing up the OED bit was not to disagree with you at all, but – on the contrary – to give evidence as to why I agreed with the spur part of your vote for bilateral spur… while (much like these typographic flourishes) spurs are usually sharp and pointy things, the term can be interpreted more broadly than thorn, if need be, to include non-pointy things.

I also agree that fancy is fun; indeed, the quest for a fancy name for these things is the inspiration for this thread :)

So… lateral spur?

... I’m mostly interested

James Arboghast — Sun, 3 Feb 2008 01:21:37 -0800

... I’m mostly interested hearing if people think the presence of these spur… er… thorns… are enough to endow a face with the classification of Tuscan.

No.

j a m e s

Other than the spur you’re

James Arboghast — Sun, 3 Feb 2008 01:13:18 -0800

Other than the spur you’re referencing, spur can also mean a thing that projects or branches off from a main body [OED]

Is that a secondary meaning or principle meaning? Balance it against the meaning people typically associate with spur. The SOED reckons the first and principle meaning of spur is “A device for pricking the side of a horse in order to make it urge forward, consisting of a small or spiked wheel attached to the rider’s heel. SOED also lists spur as a verb, its principle meaning “To prick (a horse, etc)...”

Fancy is fun.

Don’t turn it into a peeing contest.

j a m e s

Other than the spur you’re

Nick Sherman — Sat, 2 Feb 2008 22:31:25 -0800

Other than the spur you’re referencing, spur can also mean a thing that projects or branches off from a main body [OED]

Since they aren’t always necessarily bilateral, I’d prefer lateral spur. Then again, that’s basically a fancy way of saying side spur.

Thorn is slightly limiting,

James Arboghast — Sat, 2 Feb 2008 11:39:52 -0800

Thorn is slightly limiting, as it implies sharpness.

Isn’t “spur” meant to be just as sharp a thing as a “thorn”? Spurs were traditionally those pointy star-shaped thingies people dug into the sides of horses for some get up and go-go. Spur and thorn are both sharp pointy things.

Okay, so “bulge” is undesirable becaws these things can be soft and rounded, or sharp and pointy. How about these:

Interlocation spur
Interposition spur
Lateral thorn
Lateral spur
Bilateral spur
Broadside thorn

I vote for Bilateral spur.

j a m e s

Rob Roy Kelly states in

Nick Sherman — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:43:57 -0800

Rob Roy Kelly states in American Wood Type:
Nicolette Gray surmises that these fishtail serifs originated with the Greeks and that their use became common in Rome during the third century… Some of the Tuscan’s best interpretations were accomplished by Italian illuminators and engravers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

He also shows an example of a stone inscription (originally pointed out by Stanley Morisson in his article Decorated Letters from Fleuron VI) by Furius Dionysios Filocalus of Rome, made circa 380 AD, which shows a pronounced Tuscan treatment of serifs.

Tuscan, Roman, Italic …

Florian Hardwig — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:23:33 -0800

Tuscan, Roman, Italic … all type seems to be Italian.

Do these come (or were they

eliason — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:26:51 -0800

Do these come (or were they thought to come) from Tuscany? Whence the name?

Thanks for the reference to

Nick Sherman — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:33:08 -0800

Thanks for the reference to the other thread Florian. Only on Typophile could I be not the only person wondering what the name for this things is!

I tend to like spur or thorn because they can exist independently from the concept of Tuscan if need be.

Thorn is slightly limiting, as it implies sharpness. Similarly, the bulge suggested in that previous thread is limiting because it implies, well, bulginess (wow, my spell check let that word pass).

It is too bad that spur is already in use for another typo-term (not that there aren’t a million typo-homographs already) … maybe I’ll add a side- prefix to it and call it a day: side-spur

I mean after all, it is vaguely similar, formally, to the other kind of spur, right? The main difference is that it happens on the side of the letter.

Check out this older thread.

Florian Hardwig — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:14:40 -0800

Check out this older thread. Proposals: ‘Tuscan flourish’, ‘decorative embellishment usually associated with old west fonts’, ‘diamond thingies’, ‘Tuscan embellishment’, ‘spurs’, ‘Tuscan Bulges’ …

Tuscan brackets

Nick Sherman — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:31:28 -0800

You know those pointy spurs or brackets that are usually seen on the sides of old Tuscan faces (see Thunderbird, Miss Scarlett, etc)? … Is there a technical term for those? I’ve looked through Rob Roy Kelly’s book, but didn’t find anything there.

Also, do side-brackets a Tuscan make? Or does there need to be at least some kind of stroke bifurcation or splaying? For instance, where do these land?:

Am I wasting my time trying to nail down concrete terminology for 19th-century ornamental typographic phenomena?