Typophile

Custom Font Request for Very Simple Alternate Alphabet

vegetablerock

Im looking for someone willing to help me out by creating a font for the alphabet I designed for a work of fiction I am creating. The alphabet, tenatively titled "Deca," is numeral based; meaning that there is one "letter"corresponding to each number 0-9. Attached is the layout.

I need a font version of this alphabet so that I can insert the characters into the graphic novel I am creating; the font only needs these characters replacing the numerals, no accompanying custom letters necessary. If anyone is interested in helping me do this I'd be grateful. I can provide vector files for the characters.

Thank you.

You haven’t considered an alphabet with a more logical evolution? Take for example the logic behind the arabian numerals we use today. You could have the diagonal sides echo the corresponding number, fx.

Waitaminute! Isn’t snopes all about debunking myths? Have I been taken in by one? I’m sure I originally got it from a credible source.

Interesting one, Frode, even if it seems completely spurious to me ;-)
(come on, 9 has 3 more angles than 6? and 0 has no angles because is the only one they draw using curves instead of segments? and they choose their preferred way to write 1 and 7, for example)

People always try to find logic and meaning post facto and it’s a good thing, in general, but it has it’s limits:
http://typophile.com/node/80680#comment-458107

Yeah, but I think I remember reading this on Typophile at some point. Anyway: it would be cool for Vincent’s alphabet!

@riccard0 - Thanks so much, that was quite speedy!

@frode - my intent was to create a highly condensed set of characters that would be very quicky distinguishable when compacted into a block or string; it is used as the basis for coding a digital world that overlays physical reality, a sort of protege to the internet in the world i am creating. In essence it is less related to the linguistic alphabet than it is to binary code.
The shapes were more an aesthetic choice, however that is an interesting point about the geometric logic; I hadnt run into that theory regarding arabic numerals before.

This is exactly what i needed. One small thing: it seems that the "0" character offsets for some reason. Is the kerning off? (im definitely not a font-smith so i wouldn't know)

That’s strange.
I haven’t time now to investigate. I have monospaced it now, please try downloading it again to see if this resolve the problem.

no, it still seems to do the same, such that the character will hide underneath the one following it:
(highlighted in red)

Logic or no, inventing stuff rules.

hhp

Vincent, unfortunately I’m unable to reproduce the bug. What kind of app and OS are you using? Fontstruct’s font creation engine is a bit, shall we say, rough. Maybe it needs certain glyphs in the font to work properly. Could you download any other font from it to see if the zero behaves the same way?
I can also make the font “clonable”, so you can fiddle with it yourself.

Frode, you’re right. It reminds me of the challenge to come up with an extended set of notation marks:
http://typophile.com/node/65861

(a thread started, unsurprisingly, by Hrant ;-)

Im using adobe suite on mac osx. ive tried re-downloading from the link you posted in your first response but im not sure that it had any effect. I also downloaded another font and the problem didn show up. hmm... :/

Okay, that was weird. Anyway, I just copied the same glyphs in the A-J slots and, lo and behold, now 0 behaves.
Please uninstall the old version and try the new one.

Captured from web.archive.org on 9 Jul 2011. view this capture