For the youngins like me in the group, can we see examples of lettering with broad nib pens? I'd like to try at least a few characters if I could get headed in the right direction. When you say 72pt, is that measured by the cap height? ie x height would then be ~36-40 pt? (I figured I would design it at that size)

> For the youngins like me in the group, can we see examples of lettering with broad nib pens?

1. Hermann Zapf - you know?

2. http://www.waterslettering.com/

3. http://www.linotype.com/31-12683/fillingthepen.html

Hi David,
before you start filling your pen make sure it's not a broad nib pen but a pointed pen, as it says above.

Pointed pens produce something similar to this, although these are extreme examples. You could also have a look at Bodoni italic for an example of the style that is asked for.

Are y'all just going to let Christian win??

i fear this task is a bit oversized...
Call it blasphemy, but my preference at the moment is sitting at the lake. Drawing five @-alternates is okay – designing a pointed nip pen italic, that's too much at the moment.

on topic: I love the "g" in Christians font: it's like a sniffing dog. And the ff-lig... ffortissimo pianissimo ;-)

Here's my first post on typophile:

Nice work you 2 lone battlers. Great "first post" Raina.

very nice! Is there anyway we can have like the next three battles listed in advance so people can start on them early if they wish to compete? And a showcase for past battles? (lemme know if i can help out in anyway).

Jesse: LOL! You'll be lucky! Besides, I suspect they don't think ’em up that far in advance.

Zara: Yup. I agree with Sebastian; a challenge like this is too much for me in this weather (even my mouse is sluggish; don't feel like adding heat to the house by turning the PC on when I get home of an evening!)

___________________________________
Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster's stopped working.

Quick question from a Typophile.com newbie:

When entering these battles does one create his work into a font program like Fontlab or are the images posted simply mock-up type settings produced in a Illustrator (or similar)?

I would love to enter some ideas in future battles but have yet to stepped up to full on Fontlab skills.

Sorry if this information is posted elswere. In love with this site.

I would say it doesn't matter how you do it. What counts is how the final rasterized png-file looks like, rather than how it was created.

I prefer fontlab from scratch for this task, because I like the vector-tools better than the ones of Illustrator for font-works.

Outlook: How you produce the the designs is up to you, unless the rules of a particular battle suggest you do otherwise. As Sebastian mentioned, what is important is that you upload the design as a PNG.

I'd guess most people are working in Illustrator (or an equivalent), or maybe a combination of AI and Fontlab (that is, if you are like Christian, master battler, and building functional fonts every time). Drawing entirely by hand and using a scanner is also an acceptable method.

Great, thanks for the information, Just wanted to clear that up before I entered. Hopefully I will post something in the next battle.

Cheers.

This is about as far as I got:

Not the best challenge to start on...

I guess I missed the boat here.

No missed boats... that's nice. Liking the contrast and the flavor.