04/18/2022 Brief I plan to design a sans serif text typeface. It is rare to find text faces which feel modern yet simple, that are suitable for long paragraphs while also adding a bit of personality and something slightly different.

The intended use case is for reading on the web, on pages such as publications, personal websites, and e-commerce stores. However, it can also be used in print settings, such as magazines, packaging, and posters. The font should be versatile enough to be used for display text and titles. Although, in the future, a display version can be designed by modifying the spacing and letters.

To fit more words on a line, the font will be slightly compact. It won’t look like a condensed version of a font, but it will be less round and a little more thin. The font should feel both familiar and different. It should look refined and sophisticated, but sturdy and refreshing at the same time. To achieve this, I plan to incorporate inktraps while maintaining standard, predictable stroke weights and measurements. ​

Research It is important for the font to be readable. Thus, I observed the anatomy of popular text faces. In particular, I studied Freight Text Pro Book and Degular Text Regular. Freight Text Pro is a very pleasant looking serif with a consistent colour, and is an established text face. Degular Text is a modern looking text face with inktraps.

I first started with using similar values for capital heights, x-heights, ascenders, and descenders because I thought these characteristics coming from existing text faces would help optimize readability. Then, as I developed my font, I made tweaks based on how the letters looked visually.

I also looked at a variety of fonts with inktraps to explore different ways of incorporating this aspect into my typeface. I found that many fonts, ranging from display, monospaced, serif, and sans serif, used inktraps in interesting ways. ​

Concepts The initial concepts I drew all used quite thin strokes. I realized this would be too thin for a text face and could decrease its readability. One of the sketches had more of a monospaced flavour while another was more of a serif. I decided to try digitizing a font that more closely resembled the third sketch.

During exploration of vectors, I found that one of my initial concepts had stroke widths that were too thick. Thus, I went back and did further analysis upon stroke widths across aforementioned fonts to find a happy medium.

​ Process Early on, I iterated upon letters in a somewhat linear fashion. I would line up the baselines, overshoots and heights and compare my letters to similar fonts. However, I found this process to be quite inflexible when I wanted to try different heights, and it was hard to test what the letters would look like next to each other or inside of words.

​ I later transitioned to a system where I would keep my main letters on one page. Because I turned the background lines into a reusable component, it was easier to adjust values such as overshoots and heights. I used a separate page for studying the anatomy of other fonts and testing how letters worked together.

​ 04/20/2022 Dimple Sans Dimple Sans is a sans-serif text typeface which takes inspiration from the distinct stroke widths of traditional serif typefaces, utility of condensed type, and the slight whimsicality of inktraps, designed by Christina Chen in 2022.

Currently, Dimple Sans is in a testing phase of development. It comes in a regular weight, and is available with a limited set of characters. Future support for a larger selection of weights, characters, and languages is possible.

​ 04/22/2022

Hello, thank you for downloading my font “Dimple Sans Regular." The following is an agreement between you, the licensee, and Christina Chen. By downloading and installing the font software, you are acknowledging that you have read, understand, and agree to be bound by the terms of this End User License Agreement (the “EULA” or “License”). If you do not accept the terms of this agreement, you cannot download or use this font software. If you have any questions about your rights to use the font software, please contact me.

You are granted one license to use the font software. You are not receiving the ownership of the copyright to the design or any other part of the font software, but the right to use the font as specified in this agreement.

The version of the font you have downloaded is permitted for non-commercial use. You may not modify the font software, or commission a third party to modify the font software. You may not distribute, lend, rent, sell, give away, publicly or privately share the font software. It is prohibited to use the font software in any racist, homophobic, sexist, or in general discriminating and hateful context.

Any usage of the font software is at your own risk. Christina Chen is not responsible for any legal issues that may occur with your usage of the font software. Any breach of the terms and conditions of this agreement may terminate your license to use the font software. If you fail to cure the breach within fourteen days, the agreement will be terminated. After any termination of the agreement, within seven days, you must destroy any copies of the font software.

The font software is property of Christina Chen. Any and all rights reserved to Christina Chen.

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