Lessons
Lesson Info
Taking the Plunge with Type
live substitution. What does that mean? Okay, it means well, I'm saying here, open type funds have a brain. What it means is open type funds have a potential to have a brain if they're programmed to do so. Okay, so if it's programmed to know certain things, it will know when to insert ligatures. Swash is beginning or end and other special characters and mawr, depending upon the fun. So let me show you some examples. This is champion script Pro. So the idea here is that there are certain beginning and ending squashes that should not be used in the middle of a word because they take up too much space. So if I type this word interpretation and I go to the open type panel and I select, I believe it's washes, I might find out in a minute. It's alternates because the funds categorize them differently. Okay, so I turned on contextual alternates. I don't have to turn on glitz substitution. I'm just telling you, that's what it is. Okay, I click on contextual alternates, so it gave me a beginnin...
g squash and unending swash automatically. Let's say I change the word and from interpretation, I make it plural. So when I just type in the S, it automatically gets rid of that swash end and gives me an s. And it doesn't seem like there was a swash s, but I don't have to think it just does that. Okay, now what if I change the beginning of the word and I add Ms so with misinterpretation, it reverts from this wash back to the standard I and gives me a swash m. So it's a really cool, exciting, fabulous feature, um that could be used in many different ways by different manufacturers. Um, House Industries did a typeface based on Ed. Ben gets one of Ben. Ben gets, uh, typefaces that he did way back in the fifties sixties for photo lettering, and they added to it, It's called Ed interlock, and this is the standard characters. But if you use some of the extra characters um, using the contextual alternates and the cliff substitution feature, you can come up with this. Now, let me show you how that works there. This is the font that has over 4000 characters. So every just about every two characters has four versions. So this H G, They have a top, you know, Top left, facing top, right, facing bottom, left facing the bottom. Right. And just about all of them. How that So what did I showed? What I showed you. How does it know what to insert? Well, by somebody spending nine months programming this font to think like a designer. So what it does is depending upon what combination came before. It has a selection of what it thinks Looks good coming next. So, for instance, this is what happens on the screen type in the A standard a type in the end with contextual alternates turned on it automatically types in that alternate I standard I I am the bottom right for the bottom left facing. See, this is the top left facing bottom, right, facing a standard a t again. We're doing the one that looks good type in the I got a three letter alternate type in the O doesn't look so good. It's a standard. Oh, but then you type in the end and you have that. So this is not to say that you can't go and change this, But you know what? This was programmed to position these intelligently in a design appropriate way. So that's cliff substitution its programming information into a fog that allows it to make your life easier. Okay, this is something p 22 just did for fun. Okay, So how many of you familiar with the with the black eight ball? They ask it a question. Okay, so this is a fraud version of that cliff substitution. Watch what happens when I type in a question mark. Can this font tell the future? Yes. Really? Yes. Can I trust what it says? Please rephrase the quick, thes air randomly popping up. I didn't type these in when I type the question mark, these air randomly appearing. Can I believe you? Conditions good. Are you sure? Maybe. Okay, I don't know that you're gonna need this fun, but the point is, is showing you the power of life substitution. Okay, so finally, we're going to talk a little bit about availability, which is almost a non conversation these days, because all major fund foundries now produce open type funds. Most major foundries have converted their entire library to open type. So what I tell everyone is, you know, take the plunge. But it's not even so much. Take the plunge. It's when you're purchasing a font. Make sure you get the open type version. Okay, Don't get the older versions unless you have a particular reason you need that four. Okay. Um, what happened? Let's say with with companies such as Adobe is, when they first started doing open type, they converted their back library toe open type. But they still sell for their old library. They still sell open type and type one and probably true type. I'm not sure, but anything that was Max manufactured after that point, I believe they only make open type. That's not true with other manufacturers. There are some manufacturers that make other versions. These days, there's Web funds. There's a lot of different things. So if you definitely take the plunge, look into your your software in your computer, sometimes you're going to see more than one version of the same you're gonna see type one, and then you're gonna see, um, open type. Try to use the open type wind possible. But my my my strongest recommendation, um, is that after you watch this session, go to your computer, look for the Open type fonts. As I said, you could either look for them in your font menu in your software if you're using a software utility. Um ah, lot of time such as font agent pros. Sasuke Extension. What's it called? Suitcase. Extensive fusion. Whatever it is. Um, line a type font explorer, and there might be some others. I'm not sure font book will do that. You can actually see the format. You can actually sort your font library by format. So you could actually drag all your open type fonts into a folder to make it easier. Because the thing is to get used to the fact that open type is preferable to have fun with it, play around with it, look for all of these features and see what you've been missing. It's very possible you could go back to your work and go. Oh, man, look what I could dio I have sent to the printer. But I'm gonna I gotta fix it. I could use a different alternate. So, um, have fun with it. Open type is absolutely amazing. Eso I hope that kind of stimulate your creativity and explains a little bit about the font technology
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