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double/single story lowercase /a/ and /g/
Just wondering if there is any technical protocol for creating a double or single story of each character? I initially thought sans serif leaned towards single story characters and vice versa (serif typefaces were typically two story) but I see this isn't mandatory.
According to the ever-correct Wikipedia, there is no technical right or wrong.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G
&
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A
Does anyone have any recommendations or preferences when you create these letters in a new typeface?
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5 Dec 2010 — 6:39pm
Well, in a text font, such as you'd use for a book, you typically use the two-story variants of both letters. This helps people distinguish between a, q, and g. In italics, the a normally goes to one story, but the g more often than not keeps both stories. (But there are some text fonts with a one-story g.)
In any other kind of font, though, there aren't really rules. I'd say (non-italic) fonts with a two-story g probably almost always have a two-story a, but the reverse isn't true—tons of sans serif fonts have a two-story a and a one-story g.
5 Dec 2010 — 7:47pm
Since single story versions have fewer horizontal strokes to stack up, they are often attractive alternatives for fonts with relatively thick horizontals, such as monoline or low-contrast sans faces. (Especially true for /g/.) Note that Gill Sans Ultra (to name one example) switches over to the single-story form.
6 Dec 2010 — 5:18am
thanks for the answers guys. I knew it was simple enough.
cheers
10 Dec 2010 — 11:08am
I've heard it said that the lc italic /g/ used when setting mathematical equations should be single-story, but have not yet heard a convincing rationale for why this should be true. I've seen it done both ways, and it doesn't seem to make a difference in legibility to my eyes. If anything, making /q/ and /g/ distinct is a very good reason to use a double-story /g/. I've seen one book that skimped on the typography and blindly adhered to the single-story rule and ended up using a very sans-looking single-story lc italic /g/ with Times italic to very poor effect.