Looking good!
But the x-height of u,v,w,x & y seems lower than the other characters. Don’t know if this is intentional or just my eyes going bad ;-)
Also, the ox might need some extra kerning, it’s a little too tight now in my opinion.

Thanks. x-heights are consistent - print it and see.

Yeah, maybe ox is slightly tight.

Nick Cooke

I should’ve known better than to try and judge this with the naked eye... THIS is why I should wear glasses when working on the computer ;-)

I like this a lot. I wasn’t familiar with Houschka in its original incarnation, but i prefer it rounded, and in the light weight and would more likely use the NON rounded shape A and W’s.

I’m seeing some glitches (white knockouts?) in Adobe Reader as certain zoom levels...

left stem of the m
left stem of the n (less so than the m)
AE combo overlap
g where the bowl enters the stem
G where the curve enters the stem

I guess you’re probably aware of this if it’s work in progress, but just though i’d better mention it.

I noticed the same thing, wormwood. It disappears if you zoom in close enough.

Thanks for mentioning this, and I did know about it - it’s the only may to blend certain characters between the two weight extremes, and will be rectified for the finished typefaces. You’re right – this is a work in progress.

I actually prefer the round style to the original Houschka, plus I have improved the shapes in some characters.

The good thing about OpenType is that you can choose between the different styles of A and W’s.

Nick Cooke

The “P” seems overpowering, when looking at the word “Pack.” Is it just me? This has a very nice feel to it.

This would make a great addition to the surprisingly hit and miss category of rounded fonts.

the p, q, b have the same corner treatment where the strokes moves from straight to curve, yet the d is a right angle, I rather enjoy the treatment of the p, q, b. you might even make the angle begin early in the vertical stroke.

also, the rounds in the lowercase seem a bit inconsistent, the o, c, e seem to be based on a perfect circle while the g, p, d, b, q, have more robust curves. I feel perfect circles tend to have points on the upper and outermost extremes.

I dig it!

Yes Chris, the P is rather overpowering, but that is how it is in the original Houschka and I didn’t want the rounded on to be too far away from that.

Aaron, I have done another rounded family; Chevin. It has been adopted as the corporate type for Royal Mail in the UK.

http://www.veer.com/

The type ’WE ARE...etc’ is set in it.

Nick Cooke

You’d better ignore that link (It was for Somos when I went there), although ’Women of the World’ is also one of mine, as is PhotoAlto, as is PHOTOS THAT PERFORM (for Fancy) which also happens to be the original Houschka.

Nick Cooke

Well, it’s been a while, but here is a 6 page pdf showing the various weights of the finished family.

Houschka Rounded is pretty comprehensive with over 830 characters. It covers East and Central European, Turkish and Cyrillic. It has a standard character set, contextual and stylistic alternates, lining and old-style numbers, both proportional and tabular, small caps, and 3 extra stylistic sets (as shown on the pdf). The top example is the standard set (with small caps).
Set 1 is modernish, set 2 is Art Decoish and set 3 has unicase characters.

Please see new: HRtest2.pdf

Nick Cooke

Houschka Rounded guide.pdf gives a better idea of the finished family and the characters in each stylistic set, and language coverage in each of the six weights.

The Thin style may be the thinnest rounded (terminals) font ever! Magnify the pdf and have a look.

Nick Cooke