Unfortunately, I get an error 404. :(

Is this where it should’ve went?

http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/landing/hypatia/hypatia.html

Wow. A geometric sans with Trajanesque flavor. I can’t wait to actually use it!

Congrats, Thomas — looks great!

Sorry, I left out a “.html” there - I’ve fixed the link in the original post.

Cheers,

T

Congrats. Looks well-made.

hhp

Congratulations Thomas! You’re now officially a Typophile Rock Star :^)

> Is this where it should’ve went?
http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/landing/hypatia/hypatia.html

That one works, but I think Thomas meant this one
http://blogs.adobe.com/typblography/2007/04/hypatia_sans.html

I did mean the one to my blog - which has a link to that other main page as well. :)

Sorry I’ve been URL-challenged today. URL in original post is now fixed.

Cheers,

T

Hooray, Thomas, this looks fantastic. It’s such a welcome new voice in the category. I’m very intrigued with the feeling or evocations when it’s used at different sizes. You managed to balance all those shapes with grand proportions and you even kept the little serifs. Quite a lot of nice work. Congratulations.

Thanks for all the kind words. I should also point out that Miguel Sousa did a ton of production work, *and* did most of the kerning (with considerable help from Robert Slimbach on kerning).

Thanks, Miguel. I’m glad it’s out the door, because I was really worried about the amount of sleep you were (not) getting in those last few weeks.

Cheers,

T

Thomas, this is beautiful! I just commented on your blog, listing all of the ways that I love the design. No need for me to really repeat that here, except that I should add that I am delighted to see any light shine on Kabel, as opposed to Futura, whose legacy might well have been in the spotlight enough by now. Just great! And with so many great details and features…

Thomas, the font is very refreshing. Every day we could say everything is invented but this is another example of new air.

Dan: Yes, I’m a big fan of Kabel myself. I’ll be the first to admit that Futura is more useful, but I love the flavor of Kabel. I don’t think Hypatia Sans is terribly similar to either (except in being a geometric sans), but I wanted to have more flavor than Futura and be more versatile than Kabel. We’ll see if real world users think I succeeded at that.

Cheers,

T

I’m really looking forward to seeing this one in use. It has been great to see it take shape. It really is another great geometric sans with just enough quirkiness to make it more than just another staple for your font collection.

One of the things which makes Hypatia special, ISFAIC, are the stylistic sets. Thomas has added plenty of variations to please all of us.

Congratulations, T!

Nice job, Thomas. I had only a vague idea what you were working on—some kind of geometric sans. I wasn’t expecting something with such a period feel. Is that a one-character stylistic set I’m seeing? :-)

The font looks great Thomas! Congratulations. I can’t wait to try it. I’ve registered Design Premium from within Photoshop CS3, but haven’t received the email. It’s been 2 days. Does anyone know how long it takes to receive the link to the font? Has anyone else received their link?

Last time I heard, the e-mails were not being sent out yet.

Another thing to be aware of is that the email message may be caught by spam filters, and end up in the junk box.

Well, if you’re going to do a new geometric sans, you might as well make it gorgeous. I can see why Adobe used it as a registration incentive!

> Well, if you’re going to do a new geometric sans, you might as well make it gorgeous. I can see why Adobe used it as a registration incentive!

Because Hypatia Sans is gorgeous?!

Because Hypatia Sans is gorgeous?!

Well, yeah. I know a lot of people who never registered to get Garamond Premier Pro because it was just another Garamond. Hypatia is much, much cooler than Garamond.

Seriously, Hypatia Sans is great. Never was a fan of Futura, but I am particularly impressed by the non-seriffed ’n’ etc alternates and the round ’a’ which in combination turn Hypatia into a ’better Futura’, a clear and at the same time minutely playful geometric sans. (In German I’d speak of ’leiser humor’ — ’quiet humor’.)

Congradulations Thomas! You must be quite proud! I was particularly struck by the way the Cyrillic & Greek don’t seem* to suffer next to the Roman. They all look great together. Thanks for making a great font but also for a great example of the use of Opentype.

*I say ’seem’ because I no authority on either of them.

I believe the registration incentive emails finally started going out on the 25th. If you have registered Creative Suite 3 or any CS3 application and didn’t get one, do check your spam filter.

Thanks for all the kind words. I’m not sure I’m “proud” as yet, but I am at least reasonably sure it doesn’t suck. :)

Cheers,

T

I got mine on the 24th.

It feels a little bit like Serif Gothic, but more tasteful. I love that there are so many alternate glyphs. I think I prefer the ones that are most Futura-like, but it’s nice to have so many options. The weight range is very nicely modulated—the boldest weight looks just as balanced as the lighter weights. Really nice.

> I’m not sure I’m “proud” as yet

Yet? Pride in one’s font invariably goes down over time, not up...
But I’m betting you’re plenty proud - as you should be!

hhp

“it doesn’t suck”

Thomas, stop saying this. It’s beneath you and not at all appropriate for your accomplishment.

Congrats Thomas, nice work, and a lot of ideas about what constitutes a font/typeface., exploring the OT format.
It’ll be interesting to see how the OT features get picked up.
Nothing wrong with modesty. And if not pride, I bet you get a kick out of seeing it in use.

Here’s one of Hypatia Sans’ features: Stylistic Set 12 replaces Ä, Ï, Ö and Ü by “display” versions where the umlaut/dieresis diacritics are positioned at the cap height. The coolest aspect of this feature, IMO, is the solution that Thomas used for the Udieresis on the Black weight, which has historical precedents, as he told me.
Although this feature is most suitable for when setting Germany texts, the feature was implemented in a way that does not restrict its usage to the German language.

It would be useful for such a stylistic set to also sub in non-descending versions of “J” and “Q”, since saving on linespacing is really the main point of lowering accents.

hhp

Hypatia could look lovely on a retro travel poster!

> “it doesn’t suck”
Thomas, stop saying this. It’s beneath you and not at all appropriate for your accomplishment.

Yes Thomas, it’s better you stop saying that, because that phrase is registered by Bare Bones Software: http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/

Oh Miguel! You made me chuckle...

> It would be useful for such a stylistic set to also sub in non-descending versions of “J” and “Q”, since saving on linespacing is really the main point of lowering accents.

You can get the non-descending ’J’ by activating Stylistic Set #9.
There is no non-descending version of ’Q’; Stylistic Set #10 replaces the default form by another one with a longer and lower tail.

Cool. Shame about the “Q” though.
But pretty clever adding a serif on the non-descending “J”.

BTW, is there a way to link sets? What I mean is activate “Tight
Lines Mode” or something and have sets 9 and 10 both kick in?

hhp

BTW, is there a way to link sets?

if i’m not mistaken, you can do this with style sheets in InDesign.

Yes, you can do that. Now do the math and you’ll see how many potential combinations you can have. That is the genius, as I see it, in using stylistic sets. You can really allow the typographer to fine tune the type.

Man, I’m late to the party! Congratulations Thomas, looks great!

can Hypatia be purchased separately from CS3? I’m browsing the Adobe site, and can’t seem to find any links to actually purchase the typeface.

available now as a registration incentive

A classy alternative to bundling, changing perceptions of value.
Take note, Microsoft and Apple.

Paul: Currently, we intend to wait until the Hypatia Sans italics are done before making the typeface available as a regular retail item. Don’t hold your breath, as I haven’t started in on the italics seriously yet. Too much other pre-CS4 planning going on right now, and the echoes of CS3 still going on.

Mark: I’ll confess to a secret liking for Serif Gothic, ever since I first noticed it as the titling typeface for the boardgame “Empires of the Middle Ages” back in high school.

Miguel: I am about 3/4 sure the idea for the vertical dots on the black Udieresis.alt was somebody else’s suggestion. Darned if I can remember whose, though. Robert, or maybe one of our beta testers or somebody I showed the typeface to? I gather from your comment it wasn’t your idea. :)

Carl, Miguel: Okay, I’ll stop saying “it doesn’t suck.” Jim Felici was bugging me about that one, too. Be warned that you might see that phrase crop up in an interview I already did months ago for CreativePro.com, though.

Wait a minute, if “it doesn’t suck” “isn’t at all appropriate for [my] accomplishment,” are you saying it *does* suck? Darn, that’s disappointing.... :)

Cheers,

T

I have this vague memory of either Paul H, Dan R or Adam T pointing out (or at least discussing with others) “creative” umlauts on caps, including the internal vertical configuration. Even more vaguely I remember examples by either Kapr or Reiner with such accents. In any case you can be pretty sure that some German(s) had the idea decades ago.

hhp

http://typophile.com/node/9373

I registered here at typophile just to say I’m very excited for Hypatia to be available independent of CS3.

Nick, that’s a cool thread, but doesn’t show the vertical umlaut for the U. But I’m the first to say that I don’t think I came up with the idea independently.

Cheers,

T

the vertical umlaut for the U

Hi Thomas,
here’s one example. And: Hypatia really is a blast. Congratulations!

Why no italics?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewf/18634518/

hhp

Because doing them takes some time.

’struth. They are increasingly close to done, and I am working on them some this week, but they suffer from two problems:

1) I’m working on too many other things.

2) Zeno’s Arrow

Cheers,

T

Hypatia Sans italics? Now that would be a hot titling face.

And Zeno’s arrow is the best excuse EVER. I’m saving that one.