Heya all,

Orx is finally being finished: I'm dropping about a chapter worth of "extras" from it that I do not have the time to finish writing up and editing properly with my schedule, but it is going out the door within the month (and sadly, without much artwork -- I'm not a "fast" artist, and I've had only one other artist contribute a couple pieces so far).

However, I'm finding a few folks (probably rightly) complaining about the font of the text used for the body (see the sample chapter for reference), so I'm going to switch it to something else. While I am leaving the font for the headings alone, I'd like a font for the body I can use both on-screen and in-print, preferably something non-traditional but still very readable.

Note that the text will be "big", at least 12 point (mainly because I am a huge fan of the various benefits and readability of large-print books), and one column. Another consideration is that examples will be italicized. So, what am I looking for?

You'll notice that Blacksmith Delight has a slightly inconstant baseline for its letters -- the "i" and to a lesser degree the "o" (it has a small flourish that causes it to) dip below the baseline. I like that slight irregularity, it feels more "natural" and more "hurried" without being problematic or straining to the eyes.

Second, recalling I very much liked the feel of the type in the main Exalted rulebook, I examined the font. I realized the opening stories for each chapter use a different serif font than the main text, and what I liked about the differences were that the font has a very slight flourish added to some of the letters (extra serifs, such as on the "o") which give the otherwise times-like font an almost handwritten "cursive" feel, while still maintaining good readability.

For example, I want something that has the same density and feeling as Georgia, but has more of a feel like Calligraph421 (without being quite that different). So, what I believe I want is a more "organic-feeling" (ie: slightly cursive -- not italic! -- and slightly inconstant -- only one or two letters off-base, no more!) serif font than what I've been able to find on my own.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations that might match that in some respect?

I'm personally fond of [URL=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=Gentium]Gentium[/URL]. It's a little more stylish than Georgia, but definitely readable. (It was designed for readability.)

I haven't examined its baseline.

I don't think that there is a problem with the font, except maybe that its red and very big (just a personal preference, I guess). Its fine the way it is, but please dear GOD change the font on the character sheet (which is easier to do anyway).

Zephyr,

I am partial to the Blacksmith font myself, and do not find it difficult to read, but since a number of others have decried it as a foul, eye-straining monster best left to titles and section headers, I'm going to take the side of popular opinion and change the font to a foul, eye-straining...I mean kinder, gentler serif font.

The "red" (supposed to be "maroon") color of the text should be darker than it is showing up, so I need to play with the color for the final copy.

As to the font size, that isn't changing, at least not much. I'm partial to the many varied benefits of large-print books. If there is too much complaint about the size, I may reduce the size in some future version, but for the moment, it is at where it is at.

Regarding the character sheet, that is all Bob's work. I'll try to track him down and see if he still has the original saved somewhere, and if he would send it to me so I can include a high-res (more printable) version in the book (as well as make any minor changes).

Thanks for your interest in Orx!

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Selene,

Thank you for the pointer! That is a very nice font, and I appreciate what they are trying to do with it. I have downloaded it for possible use elsewhere, but for what I desired in this project it was just too traditional-looking (which wasn't a total killer, but when I put the font into the document, its density did not match with my headers (it ended up being too light in comparison -- I had the same problem with one of the pseudo-calligraphic fonts I really liked and had to reject on that basis, too)).

BTW, everyone, since I haven't found anything or heard from anyone who had a font that matched what I wanted (though I appreciate all suggestions), I went ahead and just made one. According to my captive audience at home it is as readable as Times or other standard printing fonts -- it is a serif font based on Times/Georgia and a weighted calligraphic font, but also heavily altered to meet my specifications. I will likely put it up on the Orx website after the book is released.

Raven,

According to my captive audience at home it is as readable as Times or other standard printing fonts -- it is a serif font based on Times/Georgia and a weighted calligraphic font, but also heavily altered to meet my specifications.

Okay, now I'm super curious. Will you put up a sample page with the new font?

Paul

Sorry for the delayed response, Paul, I somehow missed your post earlier. I've just put a preview page with the font up on the ORX website, in the Downloads section. Let me know what you think!

Hmm. It looks like your font isn't embedding right; when I open the preview PDF in Preview, I see a strangely-kerned sans.

Ditto.

Another data point - when it opens in Adobe Reader 6 on my work comp, it looks like Arial.

Excuse me while I got beat my head against a brick wall...I'll fix that ASAP and put up a note when I've (hopefully) finished.

EDIT: I just checked the fonts...all fonts were set to embed. However, despite the fact that I created the font in question, it claims there is a licensing issue that does not allow the font to be embedded.

Does anyone know how to fix this problem, in either Font Creator 4.5 or Fontographer 4.1? After some research I discovered that apparently this is an issue with the software, which automatically sets all fonts created to the most restrictive values possible, rather than having the user to set the level of restrictions.

Ok folks, try it now, the fonts should be embedded correctly into the document this time. Thanks!

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For those interested in the technical details, here is what I did: For some reason, fixing the embedding rights in Font Creator was not working, despite the licensing bit being stripped out, Adobe Distiller was still reading the font as restricted and thus not allowing me to embed it.

I did a quick bit of research on-line to discover alternate methods, and discovered a freeware tool (Embed) which can strip the restrictions from a font. The author wrote it after discovering the same problem as I was having, except with 60-some fonts he had created and been distributing. (Tangentially, there's a very interesting little legal note about this program located here).

Lookin good to me. Well done.

Great font, Greyorm, I love it. It's a whole load more readable than Blacksmith but it gives a similar feel.