While designing kanji, we repeatedly gave consideration in regard to the design treatment for areas where strokes overlap.

The TP Apricot design features serif-like shapes with protrusions at the beginning and ending of brushstrokes. As there are no specific rules as to whether or not protrusions should be included into strokes at the intersection of multiple strokes, the designers consulted with each other to determine a processing policy appropriate for the TP Apricot design.

Difficult to consider in particular were the parts where the left sweeping and the vertical stroke overlap, such as the right side of “右,” and “在.” It was necessary to judge whether to extend the beginning of the vertical brushstroke outward beyond the sweeping or to include it inside the sweeping. This combination exists quite a few across the entire character set, and since the density of each character also varied, it is difficult to apply uniform rules. Therefore, we classified glyphs containing this combination into several patterns and adopted processing methods in accordance with each pattern.

The task of searching through thousands of characters to find glyphs containing this combination was quite arduous, but the designers collaborated with each other to list them one by one and proceed with review work.

The general judgment criteria for determining design processing is the amount of space to the left of the sweeping. If the space is wide, the beginning of the vertical brushstroke will protrude to fill the space, and if the space is narrow, the beginning of a brushstroke will be embedded within the sweeping to maintain sufficient white space – this is the policy.

ローコントラストとハイコントラストでは、特に太いウエイトで、筆画同士の間の空間の広さに大きな違いがあるため、どちらのデザインでも空間のバランスが綺麗に見えるよう調整を重ねました。

Apart from the behind-the-scenes story here, the development story page provides detailed information about the design process and concept behind TP Apricot. Please take a look.

(XYZ)