Re: font survey: which clef do you prefer?

[Han-Wen Nienhuys]

2011/7/11 Janek Warchoł <address@hidden>:
> Hi all,
>
> i'm impressed by the amount of feedback i receive!
>
>> The scary thing is that personal taste can easily be influenced by
>> lesser [early computer based] publications that have appeared since the
>> 70's.
>
> I don't doubt that you've put a lot of effort in the treble clef, and
> that there are high clefs used in high quality engravings.
> I suppose that our current treble clef isn't a duplicate of any
> specific clef, but rather a mix of several different clefs (and some
> of your own touch).  I think that this style mixing is the cause of
> the imperfectness that i'm trying to fix.
>
> As an argument (not a definite one, of course) i'd like to show you
> this comparison:
> http://lilypond.googlecode.com/issues/attachment?aid=17520007002&name=comparison+with+engraved+clefs.png&token=d74ebe85a552acee340caf7dcd7d7d2d&inline=1
> Notice that:
> - all engraved clefs have smaller c (bottom crook width) than current Lily 
> clef.
> - all high clefs have nevertheless smaller top loop than current Lily
> clef (because L - bottom of the loop - is higher).
> - the first clef, which has the biggest loop (area-wise), has also the
> biggest width (w) which compensates for that.
> - virtually all high clefs have also bigger h (spiral height) than
> current Lily clef.
> Also, the thickness of the thick lines is bigger in engraved examples
> - because of this even the highest clefs don't seem too airy (unlike
> current Lily clef).

It looks like you've done a lot of homework, congraturations :-)

>From a quick (on-screen) look, I think I prefer the 3rd overall, but I
think the loop could be a little larger, and the curvature of the 2
thick diagonal parts of the loop could be more synchronized.  May be
the curve on the top left could be straighter? Also, can you double
check if the size of the below bulb is what you want?  If you make the
loop smaller, the bottom part needs some adjustment too, for balance.

As an overall comment:  each individual glyph of the font was inspired
by nice engravings, but we haven't done much coordination of the
overall font, so I agree with some of the criticism that Gonville's
creator fielded, and I don't make much claims that the font is in a
perfect state of coordination.

The G-clef IIRC was inspired by a copy of Auf dem Strom for Horn &
Piano.  I can send you a scan later, but the feta flag doesn't bear
much resemblance with the original anymore.  I think the large airy
loop was a nice gesture, but like the funny names of the .mf files,
the time may have come to let go of it.

Aside from the debatable merits of the airiness of the loop I have
never been 100% satisfied with the clef.  I tried to have the
following features:

* symmetry in the various curves (see my comment above)
* 2 lines of the loop meeting exactly on the staff-line
* a 'nice' downward stroke - this was the hardest: the downward stroke
should have the directness of a straight line, but it cannot actually
be straight, because the transitions between curved and straight would
be awkward.  In that respect, I like the original 3rd proposal a lot.

-- 
Han-Wen Nienhuys - address@hidden - http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen