Font comparison

[sigune]

Okay. So, the most commonly-heard 'complaint', if you can call it that, about my digital lettering experiment is that the font is an ordinary one. I have to confess that I like it myself because it reminds me of Jeff Smith's lettering in Bone, one of my favourite fonts in my entire comics library :). I also like it because it is not even close to Comic Sans ;).

Anyway - on my Blogspot a friend suggested that I try Ale & Wenches, a very pretty, medieval-like font. I'm posting the page with Ale & Wenches next to the previous version. My own inclination would be to use this font for captions and stick to Red State, Blue State for the speech bubbles. Oh, and any dragons can of course speak in Dragon Bones ;).

Please let me know what you think!

♥

Comments

[the-winterwitch.livejournal.com]

I like both, to be honest, and can't really decide... dragonbones for the dragons would be extremely cool, though. I don't know how good the emphasis is visible with ale&wenches, though; at least the italic looks a bit weird.

[vanityfair00.livejournal.com]

I liked the last one better. This one is pretty but the original font was easier to read imo.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I agree. It is a nice and a clear font, but a bit too much for the speech bubbles. And readability is absolutely the main issue.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I was also confused by the exclamation mark, at first.

No. Pretty, but not ideal.

I have to confess that so far I haven't got any dragons coming up. But it's good to know that if one presents itself, I'll be bale to give it a decent font ;-).

[the-winterwitch.livejournal.com]

Oh, pity! I thought from your comment that you had planned dragon. I got even more dragon-addicted lately since "How to tame your dragon" *g*.

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

i like the original font, the Bones font, better--the second one here. I think an ordinary font that looks like regular old hand-lettering is easiest to read and doesn't distract.

[todayiamadaisy]

I prefer the bottom one (yesterday's font), I think. The new one is lovely and would work well for titles and things, but I'm not sure about it in speech bubbles. Decorative fonts in speech bubbles just don't look right to me; I see that coming from their mouths and think 'gosh, that must be hard to say'. If that makes sense.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it yet, but I'd love to do so :).

What can I say? Gawain is more the type who meets lost of women, not dragons... :P

[branquignole.livejournal.com]

I am totally with you on using the new font for captions and the like- I can totally imagine it working really well that way. But it doesn't really look like a talking font, if you get my meaning. When reading comics, I think it's important that the font looks somewhat like talk, which is really hard to explain, but I think that a font with clear lines that also looks a bit like hand-writing, looks most as if it would come out of a mouth, you know. Am I being coherent at all? :D

Anyway, I'd stick to the old font, but the new one would be extremely nice for giving the comic a kind of medieval touch in the captions and such. :)

EDIT: Oh, I just realised that what I called the "old" font was in truth a digital lettering experiment as well (not really up-to-date, sorry!). Well, I've always loved your lettering before, but I guess if you want a more professional and clean look, then the second version is great, and closest to what you did before. My advice is pretty much, "go with it", always bearing in mind that readers are important, as well as their opinion and the legibility, but you have to be happy with the font and the feel of the comic as well!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree that it's good for the font not to draw too much attention to itself. Ale & Wenches in the captions will set a theme, but in the speech bubbles it is a bit too much.

Thanks! :)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

LOL! branquignole is saying the same thing. It's funny! I never look at fonts that way. To me they mostly suggest special voices - like, a talking dragon won't be lettered in the same font as a human, and a demon I expect to be lettered in shaky horror-y letters :). You may remember that I gave Snape his own font in my comic - that was also a voice thing, though I'm not sure it worked for anyone except me.

That said, I feel that a font should above all be readable, and preferably also look reasonably nice. Red State, Blue State is crisp and well-spaced; I like it :). I'll put the fancy one to other uses.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I always prefer simpler fonts...just a personal preference...so I'd have to go with the second set. It distracts less from the story.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! I have to confess that I have no idea what 'a font that looks like talk' is supposed to look like, but todayiamadaisy clearly does :). I never think about fonts that way myself - but I do think that it's best to avoid fancy fonts in speech bubbles unless they serve a particular purpose, like giving information about a voice or a language or something.

I have pretty much settled for Red State, Blue State. I tried a few others before presenting the first digitally-lettered page, but I thought they were not as easy to read as this one.

Digital lettering is kind of convenient. You can centre it automatically, go back to correct mistakes, and everything is always neatly aligned :). I like hand-lettering, but digital is the more practical option (and more obviously practical than colouring digitally - lettering in Photoshop is a breeze, even for me!).

[sigune.livejournal.com]

This time, everyone agrees. :)

At last, something that is easily decided!

[ex-neke.livejournal.com]

I like the second one better. :)

[branquignole.livejournal.com]

You're right! She kind of voices the thoughts I'm not really able to put in a nutshell. Anyway, a crisp clear font looks more like a talking font than something fancy. (Fancy things should be used sparingly in my eyes anyway.) That's not to say that you can't use something fancy for a purpose; I'm all for seeing you try things!

A huge yay for digital lettering. It sounds like it will spare you a lot of work, and I hope that means that you will be able to concentrate on the drawing of the comic even more. :)

[veradee.livejournal.com]

The second one. :)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Noted!

Thanks for voting :).

♥

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Okidoki :).

Thanks!