For drawing a complete sans-serif Latin Alphabet
- Preferences > Addons > Modules > Install Modules
- Start with Regular font master
- Font Info > Masters > Metrics: Set values for each of these (or use / slightly adjust the defaults)
- Draw the Regular lowercase letters first, then draw the uppercase, numbers, punctuation, language support, ligatures, stylistic sets.
- Don't do any major kerning or hinting until you have the basic Latin alphabet done.
- Draw the Light / Bold / Heavy / Condensed / Extended versions after the Regular set is complete.
- Draw Italic versions in a seperate file.
Let's get the basic letterforms done first, and work out the height and width of common shapes.
- Draw a capital /I as a simple rectangle.
- From the /I you can create the basic /H form by duplicating the two stems and adding a third rectangular crossbar. The crossbar should be slightly thinner than the stems for visual correction.
- To draw the uppercase /O you could either start with an ellipse, or a rectangle and smooth off the corners. I like to keep the size roughly in golden mean proportions. The /O should also peak slightly above and below the x-height for visual correction.
- Take horizontal and vertical stem measurements and fill out the "H" and "O" fields in the Dimensions pallette.
- Do some basic kerning of each letter - take the vertical stem width, divide by 2, and set the sidebearings with that value. Eg. for a thickness of 70, set sidebearings to 35 each side.
- From the /I, draw a lowercase /l. If desired, scale the height a little more above the /I
- From the lowercase /l, draw a lowercase /i
- From the uppercase /O, draw a lowercase /o
- Now copy the vertical stem of the /i and a portion of the /o to create the lowercase /n
- Set basic kerning of each letter using the same method as above
- Type out a few test words - onion, lion, oil - to see how the glyphs read and tweak accordingly
- Quickly fashion a /r from a major portion of the /n.
- From the /n, create a u by rotating the glyph around. Adjust for visual correction.
- Duplicate the glyph shape for /n and form an /m. Adjust the shoulders slightly for visual correction.
- Combine the /l and /o together to form a /b and then duplicate for /d, /q, /p, correcting ascender & descender height as well as bowl shape for colour and optics. It may also be a good idea to make a component glyph out of the bowl shape, to keep this consistent across the design.
- From the /b, remove the bowl and copy the shoulder of the /n to form a /h.
- A simple /a can be constructed from duplicating the /d and shortening the ascender. However it may be best to design a special two story version depending on aesthetics.
- Duplicate the /i and extend the bottom terminal to form a /j. (For testing purposes, you may need to set negative kerning on the left sidebar to pull the letter inward)
- The /f can be formed from the /j, if the /j has a curved tail.
- The /t can then be formed from an inverted /f.
- Both letters can be crafted from the /o. The terminals of the /c stretch out slightly for visual balance, and the general body of the /e can be built from it. Take care to ensure the crossbar of the /e is of a slightly thinner stroke.
- The double story /a can be created by copy-pasting the shape of the /e, and rotating 180° counter clockwise.
- Draw two straight crossing lines to approximate an /x and use "Filter > Offset curves" to add weight to them. Reposition the outer nodes on each rectangle to align them on the baseline with the inner nodes.