[HN Gopher] Shop Sans is a typeface for curved text paths
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Shop Sans is a typeface for curved text paths
Author : tobr
Score : 83 points
Date : 2025-11-12 15:40 UTC (9 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.futurefonts.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.futurefonts.com)
| dylan604 wrote:
| is this for someone that doesn't have access to proper
| typesetting software? i guess that could be cool if along side
| the font size you have a radius entry for programs that do not
| have a type-on-path tool. i'm just spoiled and have the proper
| tools so this causes me to tilt my head and ask why
| tobr wrote:
| This is about how each character adapts to the radius, not the
| path itself. Each character is tweaked so the design holds up
| as it's curved. I don't think you have tools to do that.
| CharlesW wrote:
| FWIW, people have glyph warping text (both on and off paths)
| using tools like Adobe Illustrator for as long as I can
| remember. I also don't quite get why one might want a
| capability that supports one type of glyph warping in the
| typeface itself.
| Luc wrote:
| A font is designed to have certain attributes (e.g. harmony
| between the letters). It is not clear that this harmony is
| preserved if you distort the font algorithmically. For this
| font the designer ensured that it is preserved.
| CharlesW wrote:
| I get that part (I've designed commercial typefaces), but
| as I understand it, (1) this only works for type on
| circles or circular arcs, and (2) the typeface has no
| awareness of the circle/segment it's on, so the designer
| still has to manually match the Curve property to the
| radius.
|
| I think this is really cool and interesting work by Nick
| Sherman. I just wonder if I'm correct about the limited
| applications, and what could be done to enable the kind
| of "contextual intelligence" that would enable fonts to
| better optimize themselves for a broader set of types of
| envelope deformations.
| tobr wrote:
| Because it allows the effect of the curvature to be
| customized by hand for each letter shape by a skilled
| designer. Fonts like italics, bold or condensed can also be
| approximated with simple geometric operations, but I think
| you would agree that that looks terrible.
| bobbylarrybobby wrote:
| It's not just about curving the baseline, the glyphs themselves
| curve according to the user-specified curve radius. Check out
| the second image/gif with curve optimizations on/off.
| ks2048 wrote:
| What font features enable this? (curious how it is
| implemented and which software supports it)
| jasonjmcghee wrote:
| I'm out of the loop on pricing models for fonts, but is it normal
| to base it on number of visitors to your site?
| youngtaff wrote:
| Depends on the vendor... some also prevent things like
| subsetting or rely on methods for counting usage that slow down
| pages (Typekit)
| bobbylarrybobby wrote:
| Yes
| thelogicguy wrote:
| This is consistent with photo licensing, which is often scaled
| based on the potential number of viewers for both print and
| digital.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| Yes, and this pricing is quite reasonable too.
| LimeLimestone wrote:
| I'm even more outside the loop, what happens if on my
| personal blog I don't have any analytics and don't do any
| metering so I have no idea how many visitors I get?
| acherion wrote:
| The way these kinds of fonts work is that you don't host
| the font, they do. You link the font licence you purchased
| through your HTML code (or CSS, depending on how the
| foundry recommends you to apply the font) with a specific
| font URL that they provide you, which will contain unique
| identifiers. Then they can track how often the font gets
| loaded.
|
| If your site really kicks off and you max out those visits
| per month (that they track on their end), they either start
| charging you the higher tier, cut off loading your font, or
| send you stern emails.
|
| There is no expectation that you share your analytics with
| a type foundry.
| entropie wrote:
| > You link the font licence you purchased through your
| HTML code
|
| Ugh, hard pass for me. It a nice font thought
| petercooper wrote:
| Not to take away from your fantastic explanation but I
| should note that's not universal. There are foundries
| that operate on an honor basis and let you self host the
| font too.
| tobr wrote:
| That's not true. I've bought fonts on Future Fonts and I
| received a download link to get the files. I think it's
| fundamentally an honor system.
| JasonSage wrote:
| When there's a license you're either violating the
| license agreement or you're not. That's not an honor
| system.
| tobr wrote:
| Hug of death, it seems. https://hex.xyz/news/2/ has some info
| about the font.
| TylerE wrote:
| The definition of just because you can doesn't mean you should.
|
| Giving me a migraine.
| Gualdrapo wrote:
| Not sure what you mean, and I'm not that versed in typography
| but as a graphic designer I'd bet people who actually know
| typography would appreciate something like this: laying out
| normal typefaces along a curve distort the space between
| letters and the top and bottom edges of letters won't follow
| the curvature they're being traced to until you do "manual"
| work (unless there's some auto-warping solution for fonts in
| something like Illustrator I am not aware of).
|
| Of course this is not meant for prose texts or something, but
| for logo design this is a great thing to have.
| Scribesley wrote:
| Animated GIF from article shows what a "curve variable font"
| does:
|
| https://incremental-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/slid...
|
| Very cool
| ojosilva wrote:
| Red Hot Chili Peppers!
| o11c wrote:
| The 'N' in particular is very worth watching. There are really
| no _good_ answers, but at least an intentional answer is better
| than an accidental answer.
| stevage wrote:
| Hmm I wonder how hard it would be to incorporate into maps.
| There's often a big problem laying out road labels legibly along
| windy roads.
| duderific wrote:
| Bit of an aside but that site is truly awesome. Good to see some
| real design chops out there. I could browse those fonts for
| hours.
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