Tom 7 Radar: NEW: Hockey is Lif

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NEW: Hockey is Lif (14 Jan 2005 at 19:29)

Thanks to fontforge (Fontographer does not run on my computer any more because I have too much memory) I made my first font in three and a half years. It's called Hockey is Lif. (Also, I have restarted the Divide By Zero mailing list from scratch, so if you want to be on it, go there and sign up!)

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jcreed (wittgenstein.wv.cc.cmu.edu) – 01.15.05 18:14:36

Extremely nice!

Since livejournal is still down, and I am addicted to posting small images, please strive to enjoy
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~jcreed/font/newlesonlif-demo1.png

Much like Evanston was a fun experiment in "warming up" chicago, I thought I'd try "cooling down" "Hockey is Lif" to see what came out. There is a lot of charm to the entropyful quality of hand-drawn fonts, but I also love the basic architecture of a lot of the letters in HiL, and I derive enjoyment from the exercise of trying to reinvent wheels I like.

The way the a tilts is surprising and cool, the huge lowercase k I like, and the unusual connection positions of the capital K, (or is it that unusual? I'm used to the upper diagonal connecting to the stem, and then the lower diagonal connecting to the upper diagonal - yours is obviously the converse) the leaning-back-to-the-left of the c and e, the low waistline on the H, the sharp swash of the q, and hard-to-articulate nicenesses about the G, R, N, S.

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Tom 7 (h-67-101-137-80.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 01.16.05 00:47:45

Actually, I thought of doing that (but I wouldn't, because I like new!new!new!) too. I like the way it looks when it's straightified.

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jcreed (pool-151-201-54-246.pitt.east.verizon.net) – 01.16.05 01:18:56

Yeah, it's a tough call. I like the results when I take a long time to work very carefully on making something live up to more demanding standards (like ineffable notions of "balance" or "consistency" or "cleanliness" or something) but it takes SO FREAKING LONG and the looseness of the hand-drawn original is very charming in itself. I'll probably get as far as one or both cases of letters and get tired. Your numbers and ampersand are exceptionally nice, though.

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Tom 7 (h-67-100-132-18.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 01.16.05 18:59:17

Well, thanks!

Yeah, I have no patience for ineffable notions. Keep at it while you've got the energy. ;) (I really like Kenosha, BTW)

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jcreed (pool-141-158-127-180.pitt.east.verizon.net) – 01.16.05 23:01:54

I eff the ineffable!

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beef (resnetplp1.seattleu.edu) – 01.24.05 00:03:03

Is this the return of dividing by zero? And does it herald a new shirt?

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Tom 7 (h-67-101-138-100.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 01.24.05 00:27:26

It is a return of sorts, though I can't say how often I will be able to make fonts, since I am caught up in lots of other projects. But at least it is now possible.

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Max (ce-web2.wesleyan.edu) – 01.25.05 13:36:25

By the way, fonts.tom7.com isn't working for me...

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Tom 7 (gs82.sp.cs.cmu.edu) – 01.25.05 13:39:38

Yeah, it is down right now.

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Tom 7 (gs82.sp.cs.cmu.edu) – 01.25.05 13:40:44

Oops, back up!

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Tom 7 (gs82.sp.cs.cmu.edu) – 01.25.05 13:51:09

This was my fault for not changing the DNS. Those guys have been hosting the site for me for free out of the goodness of their hearts for ages, and it's been so reliable I haven't even been checking on my mail or anything.

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Max (ce-web2.wesleyan.edu) – 01.27.05 10:15:31

Yes, access.

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