Questions for Font Creators Part 8: Difficult Glyphs to Design 1

The question “What is a glyph that you feel is difficult to design?” was asked to staff at the Type Project.

The answers to this question vary depending on the person. There were several answers that mentioned the number of strokes.

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Kanji and hiragana with a small number of strokes:
The simpler the structure of a character, the more difficult it is to decide well as there are fewer elements.

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It is difficult to specify, because of conditions such as design, limitations, etc. when you’re designing. However, it simply takes more time to create a character with a large number of strokes.

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Kanji glyphs with large numbers of strokes:
When adjusting the thickness of each stroke, it takes time to balance with characters with a small number of strokes to maintain a sense of unity when they are lined together.

For a glyph with a large number of strokes, it takes time and a large number of steps. On the other hand, some designers feel that design is difficult for a glyph with a small number of strokes, because balance must be maintained with a smaller number of elements.
In Japanese fonts, kana with a small number of strokes and Latin letters are mixed in with kanji with large numbers of strokes. To complete all these glyphs in the design with balance and a sense of unity, the designers create using a variety of measures, including visual adjustment and design adjustment.
Visual adjustment is introduced in detail in the “Behind the Scenes in Typeface Creation” series, so please look into these articles, if you are interested.

(XYZ)

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