Typophile

don't know much about italics

popluhv

*couldn’t find anything doing a search, so I thought I’d ask*

My design prof taught me that creating a italic and bild faces is simply a matter of skewing the shape or using a heavier outline on my vector shapes. But after doing some reading on my own, i’ve learned that this is completely WRONG!

I understand that italics were used in printing to conserve on space, and should therefor be narrower. But what makes a good italic set? Why are the ’a’s usually completely different within the same family, if choosing between italic and regular (roman?)?

Thanks,

Nate

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Italic characters are rooted in the handwriting of fifteenth-century Italian scribes, who wrote in a style developed by manuscript scribes to save space and paper. Try tracking down a copy of Kathryn Akins Masters of the Italic Letter for more details.

As for your design teacher, is your school hiring people who never went to design school or something?

Nick Shinn

to save space and paper

A myth.
They wrote like that because it looked good.

Chris Lozos

“My design prof taught me that creating a italic and bold faces is simply a matter of skewing the shape or using a heavier outline on my vector shapes”

Don’t believe a word of it! I wish it were so simple! It takes me twice as long to design the italic cut of a typeface than it does to do the upright roman. Even slanted roman fonts require considerable clean up to be reasonable. True i

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