WHAT IS OPEN-FACED TYPE?

sansser
25.Jul.2005 7.26am
sansser's picture

Sorry,

I am new at this typography thing...

http://www.myfonts.com/search?search%5Btext%5D=open+face

It has the appearance of the core of the letters being removed (to simplify). The above link shows some examples of the style.
Tim


I think its type without the top layer of bread on it. I could be wrong though. ;)


Thanks for your response.

So, is it like what they call “outlined”? Is open-faced supposed to be a more professional way to describe the outlined style?


Not entirely, open face is more like an engravers style, it has thicks and thins and gives an impression of depth or being carved, while outlined is a literal outline of a face (imagine you had cut out a letter from a piece of card and then traced around it onto a piece of paper) which looks like this. To further confuse matters there is another effect called inline which looks like this.
I hope this hasn't confused you too much.
Tim


I often hear people refer to OpenType as "open face". It drives me nuts.


i always thought the "Recut" on Mona Lisa was confusing. why are there so many terms for such similar effects?


>why are there so many terms for such similar effects?

I think it perpetuates itself. For instance, I wasn't aware there was only one correct way to name a face with a little bit of negative work done on it, so when I did such a face, I named it in a similar manner to one that had a similar effect. Hence Walburn Hand Tooled, after Goudy Handtooled. I was also aware that a number of ITC faces had that designation (Cheltenham, Garamond), so figured it was a reasonable precedent.

The main Open Face I knew was Bodoni, which has a different effect from the ITC fonts.