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A Nimbatus font! Advice required.


Ookami-sama

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I was thinking that the font of the game title looked pretty dope, and tried to make an alphabet of it. It looks terrible (some letters in particular could spell my ritual suicide were I to be a hardcore Japanese warrior), and I need some advice to make it look more Nimbatus, and in general less ugly. Keep in mind that this is very much a first draft: all characters are not even on the same level yet.

I have only done capitals and basic punctuation so far, because, well... the title is only capitals, and punctuation was rather easy. As for the rest: all in due time.

A few questions which answers could prove useful to me, and/or if you find yourself thinking "how do I word that in a way that does not sound like this person should scrap their stupid ideas already":

  • Can you read it in general, and if yes, how easily (painful, just OK, pleasant...)? Is there enough/too much/too little space in between characters?
  • Does it look in general anything like Nimbatus/sci-fi/all that jazz to you, and what could make it look more so?
  • Which characters do you like most? Taking into account that "N I M B A T U S" are pretty much copied from the game's logo. "Pretty much", because it was bothersome and I did them by hand, so if you see a difference between a character of the logo and the font, do tell which of the two you prefer.
  • Which characters do you believe need more work, at current, to be on par with the rest?

I have my ideas about each of these questions, but I am no Great Drone Overlord so I welcome any input. Harsher comments are accepted as long as they are targeted at the font and not at me.

Thanks in advance for your feedback, and see you around the galaxy.

Nimbatus.png.fc0bb12f00eb74ee1e930695d77e0c04.png

1491760028_Exampletext3.thumb.png.5f46e880f2b0e06fc31fcde82cec0df6.png

Link to a larger font size (larger resolution, in fact).

The font: Nimbatus 3.otf

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I like it.  The "Y" and "H" dissatisfy me a bit, now that I look at it critically.  Y is a bit too spindly to match.  Maybe slim the H, or distort it from a typical shape the way the stock "A" does, or frag"ment it like the "N" and "M". Aside from line thicknesses, the trianges the "K" uses are a bit on the large side.I didn't have a problem with the difference between "Q" and "O".

I think the biggest issue, though, is that this font size won't do it justice.  I think this is a font that really only shows its colors at large size.

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It's cool. What throws me off is how some letters look bold to me, and others don't. That and I wonder if the letters have too much space between them as compared to our current font. I can't identify individual words quickly enough to read smoothly. 

I particularly like the "X". It reminds me of space invaders. 

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To Lurkily: H, X, Y and Z are the four characters with which I had have the most trouble.

H is especially tricky because it is about as curvaceous as a gym mattress: it does not show a tidbit of roundness, an angle other than square, nothing to work around; also, it is symmetrical by two axes (vertical, horizontal) and half a rotation (and that sentence is probably nothing like proper English). Warping it a little makes it look like a K, or an X, or a reversed K.

As for lengths and widths, I tried to use the stock A's ratio of roughly 10:12. The K looks rather large mostly because of this, and the fact that all angles are a multiple of 45°.

To Garheardt: the stock A and N are pretty large on their own, and I was a bit torn between that, or thinner ones. Some letters being more visible than others is not something I dislike per se, but I see how it can be disturbing. For now, I updated H, K, and Y (and H looks a bit like a spaceship, too), and added some breathing space to characters and punctuation.

Holy mother of Madoka does that H look like an M now.

Edited by Ookami-sama
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O and Q are too bold, H needs a lot of work, the gap between the top and bottom half of G needs to be somewhat shortened (probably connected with a triangle), The colon is too small, and the A also a bit too bold (though not as much so as the O or Q). I do like the premise behind it, and overall it looks pretty good.

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That H is a problem in and of itself. Does anything come to your mind in regards to the way it should be changed? I like this spaceship design, myself, although I could stand its higher branches' being a little farther away from one another.

G copies the stock B in some way, and the stock A is this bold originally. I had in mind to keep as close to the original as possible, but it does seem difficult when such font was apparently not intended for writing anything but the game's name (hence the T's extending to the left for example). Notwithstanding my tastes, which do come into play, of course. I will see what I can do.

Edit: adding anything to this G blank space makes it look unbalanced, iffy, snakey. Not my cup of tea, I admit. A, Q, O are a little less heavy now, and H is broader. Also, colon is taller (spaaaace).

Edited by Ookami-sama
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  • Ookami-sama changed the title to A Nimbatus font! Advice required.

Maybe try offsetting the upper or lower legs both left or right; not enough to change the look too much, but just to damage its symmetry.

Also, find a spot or two (probably near that crossbar) to cut a triangle or two out and offset it, fragment it a bit.

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11 hours ago, Lurkily said:

Maybe try offsetting the upper or lower legs both left or right; not enough to change the look too much, but just to damage its symmetry.

Also, find a spot or two (probably near that crossbar) to cut a triangle or two out and offset it, fragment it a bit.

Symmetry is not something I dislike. Also, most characters of this font look pretty neat and tidy, so I am torn between letting this H be and kicking it askew.

1645066502_Exampletext3.1.thumb.png.4a1ba7a2b39542ef98896e6e47f2eeb8.png

This look somehow displeases me.

By the by, how do the Y and K look to you now?

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The K Looks great.  The Y still has spindly parts; it doesn't look back, but thinner segments seem inconsistent with the original font.

I agree, that H isn't too nice.  How about making the lower left, crossbar, and upper right line up, no breaks, (Or the lower right, crossbar, and upper left) but cutting the other vertical parts loose?  The contiguous part would give it a diagonal look, even if all the parts technically line up.  Try lining up all the cut-outs along that diagonal to accentuate it.

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Also, I would suggest looking at some serif fonts to look at where classic fonts add cuts to distinguish letters and improve legibility.  For instance, 'S' often has a point extending inward from both ends, C often has a downward point from the top of the curve, and 'G' often cuts not just inward from the lower curve, but sometimes forward, or even downward, making the end of that curve look a bit like an arrow. 

I wouldn't suggest all of those adaptations, but it might give you some ideas to look at classic serifs - you might see ways to implement them in this style.  Or it might also be inappropriate to the style, that I'll leave up to you.

 

For reference, French Vanilla has quite exaggerated serifs that you can see a sample of on fonts.com.

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To Lurkily: for serifs, pointy bits here and there are the most I can manage without feeling like I am drifting a little far away from my first goal. Also, why on earth is that font called "French"? What did this marvellous country of universal culture, excellent cuisine, beautiful language do to its neighbours to merit such bloated emphasis?! Incomprehensible.

As for the Y, hmm well is it not time already for some nature-friendly design? Save the trees! (I think it is the H that took a hit in its stead: it looks ready to collapse any moment now)

933212732_Exampletext3.2.thumb.png.b9579d78c5c95c2be3eb40effc0c2098.png

Jokes aside, I like this Y, even if it looks a little out of Nimbatus' world. H is, well, strange, but perhaps not any more so than a spaceship.

To Markus: I am doing this mostly because it gives me something pleasant to focus on. Granted, peer recognition plays a part as well. Ahem! You are welcome, of course. May anyone feel free to use it however they please, but do not hold me accountable for the problems it can create when used abusively.

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I do like that Y, but I still think that skinny branch is a little eye-catching.  I do like that H; I think that you can even slim down the asymmetry a little more - I don't think it would take much to disrupt its blockiness.

 

Also . . . I notice that the stock font's capitals seem influenced by lowercase letters; the N and A particularly seem influenced by the style of lowercase letters.  Am I seeing things?  Your version of the I seems to touch on that, too.

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Last time I asked my psychologist about my psychotic episodes, they told me that it was most probably linked to asymmetrical H letters. Which, in hindsight, I understand. I might come back to the spaceship, perhaps.

395061953_Exampletext3.3.png.d55e66dc48ac42ee8ba993f0e74a1caa.png

Just kidding: I do not have a psychologist.

I added a dot to the "I" because I cannot stand a letter just being a monotonous line in a richer decor, not if I can help it. I doubt any of the characters were inspired by lowercase, but I cannot say for sure since I did not make these.

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Perhaps not, but the A and N in the stock font both seem to have taken on similarities, whether that was an influence or not. I would carve out a little more white space in the H's gaps. I like the Y more, now. 

I'd like to see more fragmenting and hooks, like you see on M and G, but it's not a dominant feature of the original, so perhaps it's out of place. How does the Z look now? I do like crossbars. Have you done numbers? 

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Z has not changed at all (yet?). As for the H, I find every iteration of this look mildly displeasing, if only because it is the sole character that looks like it could fall apart any minute. I believe I will stick to the laser gunship until another grand idea emerges.

Numbers should come online soon, I imagine.

Edit: ah, just to make sure everything is clear to newcomers (and in case it is not since I never stated it explicitly): I welcome criticism and ideas, but I also decide entirely on what I do of them. Every input here should be sent with the idea that it is volunteer work and may or may not bring the changes one would or would not like to see. This is still a personal project, and if you wish to make a font of your own, then I will be happy to reasonably help.

Edit again: inspiration is lacking these days. Boring matters to attend do that, I imagine.

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Maybe try pulling them in slightly instead of pushing them out?  That might also contribute to the diagonal-ness of it.  Maybe it'd work with no offset at all - just the zigzag and the diagonal cuts to reinforce that top-left to bottom-right diagonal theme that takes some of the brick-iness out of it.

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