draft and proof revisited
serifless cell width and 1x spacing
after extensive reading with the pencil font with its ascending lower case l and descending capital I, further cell width tightening for these single stroke serifless glyphs is possible without diminishing the overall monospaced visual cadence of the font—the extended lengths of the glyphs providing a distinctive visual separation from adjacent characters.
This in turn, allows a return—after several years!—to 1x cell width spacing while still preserving adequate word spacing—no doubt, my immersion with the pencil font cultivating a visual comfort with this spacing.
double storey “a”
prior to returning to the geometric roots of the pencil font, adrift had been my default ereading font for several months for its high legibility. Replacing the hooky lower case l with the new ascending l glyph transforms the font visually with minimal loss of legibility—the ascending glyph standing out “just enough” whilst also, heightening the new glyph set’s serifless flair.
As much as i gravitate towards the simple open geometric glyph shapes of Futura like fonts, there is no doubt about the increased ease of readability that is achieved with the double storey lower case a. With the new font cell width tunings and heightened legibility, the (revised) proof font has instantly become my current default ereader font, finding that balance between stroke simplicity, flare and readability..
The draft font with its serifed capital I and standard height/descending fonts remains untouched save for the refined cell width adjustments and is reserved as a complement for page headers and footers..
As always, YMMV.
repos
These fonts may be found on OneDrive.
life list
birders are a broad community, captivated by the flight and fancy of feathered creatures and enchanted by their complex song. The number of bird varieties is endless yet we rarely are aware of their presence and beauty in the city. And often take them for granted in the countryside.
I have come to birding late—which is probably not all that uncommon given my superficial observation of the average age of the demographic. It differs greatly from the temptation to capture images of these winged apparitions on digital film. Instead, you are called to observe this family of creatures and observe their nuanced behaviour and features. It challenges the power of observation.
Sometimes you can observe the intimate parenting of juveniles or the love shared between lifelong mates. Sometimes, it is a fleeting glance of a silhouette passing out of view.
Here is my local backyard list—both literally and the surrounding area which includes jaunts to the local parks in the city with Kali, mere kilometres from our home. Save for the waterfowl, most of the birds listed were feeding, perching or spotted from my backyard which has been groomed to be as bird-friendly as possible. Started arbitrarily but a reminder of the wonder of wonders that awaits us, if we take the time..
tuesday, 20 february 2024
monday, 12 june 2023
- Double-crested_Cormorant (juvenile)
thursday, 16 june 2022
tuesday, 10 may 2022
wednesday, 01 december 2021
- Cooper’s Hawk (juvenile)
thursday, 07 january 2021
- Turkey Vulture (feeding in field)
tuesday, 05 january 2021
- Peregrine Falcon (backyard perch)
monday, 24 august 2020
thursday, 23 july 2020
thursday, 20 june 2019
saturday, 25 may 2019
- Wilson’s Warbler (migration)
friday, 26 april 2019
wednesday, 3 october 2018
wednesday, 21 june 2017
tuesday, 11 october 2016
saturday, 1 october 2016
- White-throated Sparrow (migration)
sunday, 17 april 2016
- Fox Sparrow (migration)
thursday, 7 april 2016
- Common Redpoll (migration)
sunday, 30 august 2015
thursday, 4 june 2015
friday, 8 may 2015
wednesday, 6 may 2015
- White-crowned Sparrow (migration)
wednesday, 15 april 2015
- Broad-winged Hawk (juvenile)
thursday, 19 march 2015
monday, 8 december 2014
wednesday, 22 october 2014
monday, 20 october 2014
tuesday, 14 october 2014
tuesday, 7 october 2014
friday, 3 october 2014
thursday, 2 october 2014
sunday, 28 september 2014
friday, 26 september 2014
thursday, 25 september 2014
wednesday, 24 september 2014
thursday, 11 september 2014
wednesday, 10 september 2014
tuesday, 9 september 2014
monday, 8 september 2014
- Blue Jay (calling)
sunday, 7 september 2014
saturday, 30 august 2014
- Turkey Vulture (feeding on road kill)
sunday, 17 august 2014
saturday, 9 august 2014
friday, 8 august 2014
tuesday, 5 august 2014
monday, 4 august 2014
saturday, 2 august 2014
- Canada Goose (classic V flight formation)
wednesday, 30 july 2014
- Common Raven (calling)
friday, 25 july 2014
- Barred Owl (calling)
wednesday, 23 july 2014
thursday, 17 july 2014
monday, 14 july 2014
friday, 11 july 2014
sunday, 6 july 2014
thursday, 3 july 2014
- Rock Dove
- Red-winged Blackbird (singing)
monday, 30 june 2014
sunday, 29 june 2014
saturday, 28 june 2014
friday, 27 june 2014
- Black-capped Chickadee
- House Sparrow
- Chipping Sparrow
- Song Sparrow (singing)
- European Starling
- Northern Cardinal (singing)
thursday, 26 june 2014
- Northern Cardinal (juvenile)
- American Goldfinch
- Downy Woodpecker
wednesday, 25 june 2014
- House Finch
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Great Blue Heron (in flight)
- American Robin (juvenile)
monday, 23 june 2014
sunday, 22 june 2014
- Red-tailed Hawk (soaring)
saturday, 21 june 2014
- Northern Cardinal
- American Kestrel (feeding on perch)
- Song Sparrow
chalk and pencil
fonts. drift and adrift had been my goto fonts for several months. Highly legible, its glyph set even influencing my source code fonts.
chalk and pencil bring a return to my geometric/Univers Grotesk leanings expressed in earlier font sets, notably with the lower case extended f, single-storey a and (newly introduced) ascending l, and descending glyphs unique to the fonts created on in this site.
chalk
is used by me for the header/footers of KOReader—my ereading app of choice. Without the descending caps, chapter headings and book titles register in a familiar way—noticeably, Roman Numerals—compared to the pencil font.
pencil
however, is my current favourite font for text. This is not a font for the visually impaired (like drift and adrift), the single-storey lower case a being less legible than its double-storey counterpart and the ascending serifless lower case l differentiating itself from the descending capital I only by its cap height or stroke length—a nod to the Futura font.
There is a slight feathering between lines—this font is meant to be used with adequate “proofing” line spacing for readability—with the extra descending and ascending glyphs but this is more than mitigated by the increased openness of the font with its serifless capital I and lower case l, and single-storey a. Lines of text look visually less dense, particularly noticeable with the ea bigrams—this combination is arguably more legible, especially at small font sizes.
The extended lower case f, ascending l and, descending capitals I J and T, add a flair to the font set, with the descending capital I and T glyphs adding a unique emphasis to the printed narrative.
Despite violating the “non-mirrored glyphs” design of fonts on this site for readability purposes—with the serifless capital I and lower case l—pencil’s geometric/Univers Grotesk influences render an exceptionally clean typeface. As always, YMMV.
comparison
| upper case | drift | adrift | chalk | pencil |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (eye) I | serifless | descending- serifless |
serifed | descending- serifless |
| J | flat-hook | flat-hook | flat-hook | descending- flat-hook |
| T | serifless | serifless | serifless | descending- serifless |
| lower case | drift | adrift | chalk | pencil |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | double-storey | double-storey | single-storey | single-storey |
| f | serifless | serifless | serifless | extended- serifless |
| (el) l | hooky | hooky | serifless | ascending- serifless |
| (tee) t | *reversed* hookless- asymmetric |
*reversed* hookless- asymmetric |
*reversed* hookless- asymmetric |
*reversed* hookless- asymmetric |
wheras, adift merely adds the descending capital I to the drift font, pencil adds descending and extended glyphs to the chalk font rendering it the most unique of this font group.
The reversed asymmetric lower case t remains (uniquely) common to these fonts—this and the descending capital I as signature glyphs.
ascending l
when the exploration for a more geometric font face began (with a return to the single storey a), the standard cap height serifless lower case l was an obvious glyph choice. This required the use of the serifed capital I (despite my serifless bias) for the header/footer typeface to distinguish itself from the serifless glyph but can be considered a positive trade-off, especially for Roman Numeral chapter headings and the confinement to headers and footers—some may prefer it as an all-around font with all the benefits of its non-mirrored glyphs for readability minus the less familiar descender glyph shapes.
While the serifless l definitely yielded the cleaner typeface sought, it felt less effecive in the text body (to these eyes). It imparts a more “static” feel to the text (IMO)—hence, its suitability for headers and footers—due, in part, to its lack of visual distinctiveness (from the descending capital I, lessening readability).
Enter the ascending serifless lower case l. Like the descending capital I, its stroke length adds significant visual distinctiveness to the glyph to increase readability on the page and be suitably distinguishable from the descending capital I. And further adds a touch of flair to the typeface and, importantly, adjacent letter combinations.
As always, YMMV.
repos
These fonts may be found on OneDrive.