ATypI Brisbane 2024 | Muthu Nedumaran | Sketching, Shaping, and Proofing Fonts

A typeface is conceptualised, designed and developed into fonts in many different stages. Every designer devices a workflow that best suits his approach. This presentation looks at font making in three broad stages: The first is the design stage. This is when we sketch the letters, mostly on paper, to visualise the idea we have been working on in our creative minds. The second stage is the drawing stage. This is where we meticulously draw the outlines of all the required glyphs using a font creation tools. Most font tools also help us define the shaping rules to correctly render the text. Some simple rules are automated. We have to write out the others in order to complete the shaping. This is absolutely critical for typefaces designed for complex scripts used across South Asia and South East Asia. The third stage is the proofing stage. Proofing is done for visual appearance as well as the shaping and positioning. The second is often a laborious task. Some complex scripts require shaping of letters across thousands of combinations. Most font tools offer ways to inspect the rules that are defined in the font and visually present them to check that the rules are properly applied. However, we did not have tools to check the visual appearance of the character combinations that are required for a given script and language. The speaker collected all the ad hoc tools written over the years and built an app for proofing and debugging fonts. That free and open source tool is called Hibizcus. In addition to demonstrating Hibizcus, this will also showcase, for the first time, another tool in the making to address the needs of the first phase: sketching out design ideas, specifically focusing on complex script typography, spanning South and South East Asian scripts