Greek support

[larsenwork]

Feedback very much wanted.

Status:

• draw all characters
• correct width
• correct spacing
• correct kerning

[sebkkom]

Hello @AndreasLarsen, I just discovered Gidole on today's issue of Versioning (http://www.sitepoint.com/versioning/) and would be very happy if I could somehow help, however I am not a designer. If all you need is a supervisor, you just found yourself a prospective one so let me know! :)

[larsenwork]

@sebkomianos great, the screenshot above is a bit outdated and I need to update a couple of characters before I'll get back to you with some questions 👍

[larsenwork]

Still missing some lowercase characters but wanted to share it. What I'm aiming for is a rather minimal/geometric typeface but it should still be easily readable - just like the rest of Gidole.

Uppercase: Most unsure about phi, psi and omega - how do they look compared to the rest of the uppercase letters?

Lowercase: I have tried to draw the letters with the curve at the end on e.g. alpha, lambda, pi, tau and iota - is that too minimal or ok?
Epsilon and omega currently have to different styles - is that ok or do you think an omega more in the style of epsilon would look better? And if I make the omega more like the epsilon then the upsilon should be altered too, or?

[sebkkom]

All uppercase look rather fine and nothing is wrong, the only remarks I would make are based on taste:

• Ε, Ξ and Ψ could have shorter middle lines in order to avoid this "monotonous" symmetry and add more personality. (again, that's just taste, maybe someone else finds that symmetry better)
• I would "raise" Omega's "bottom" a bit so that the lines going left and right have a bigger vertical distance to the rest. I think this would also make it more readable at the same time.

As for the lowercase:

• α and μ could do with a small curve on their bottom right ends, especially μ.
• to make λ more readable you could either make the top longer or move the left side to the bottom.
• x is wrong, the correct form is χ (= longer "tails").
• omega would look better in the style of epsilon, true. upsilon doesn't need to change, looks good.
• pi, tau and iota are fine!

[inferno986return]

I am not Greek, but I agree that the alpha could do with a tail on the base of the stem to differentiate it from a Latin single storey "a".

[larsenwork]

Uppercase:
Updated Ε + Ξ (Ψ untouched)

Lowercase:
α + μ: added the curve
λ: was the old version by error, added the new one - better or still some suggestions?
χ: funny, many fonts just use x - but added the correct version
omega: new version
also updated: beta (more rounded), tau (narrower)

[sebkkom]

Very nice, I love the new "β" in particular!

It's true that a lot of fonts use "x" but it's a mistake.

There is also "ς" that should be added (it's the lowercase version of "Σ" when in the end of words).

I was thinking maybe I should download the font and use it to write some greek text to see how the letters look in real life cases (how they combine with each other, size, spacing, etc etc).

[larsenwork]

Thank you :) and thanks for the feedback!

I will upload as soon as I have the complete character set - lowercase delta, zeta, xi, final sigma, phi, psi are missing, no?

I haven't done any spacing yet either - trying to get the shape and with of the characters correct first 😄

[sebkkom]

Yes, they are missing, I meant after you add them. :)

Thank you for giving me the chance to "participate" on your project!

[larsenwork]

I think this is it for the night - phi and psi still missing. Any opinions on delta, zeta, zi and sigma?

[larsenwork]

Some changes and phi and psi

[larsenwork]

Latest upload (2.0.3b) has the greek characters in it.

Still most interested in the shape and width of the characters - spacing and kerning later

[larsenwork]

I've seen some fonts use a lowercase zeta that is only as tall as the x-height - is that more common?

[sebkkom]

What's the "x-height"? You mean like the latin one (z)? No, the correct version is "ζ".

(it's a similar case with the "χ", "x" is wrongly used)

[larsenwork]

ok

[larsenwork]

ok, I'll just leave it then - if you have the time please look through the greek letters and see if any of the should look different, by wider/narrower and other things. I will then try to space and kern it afterwards.

[sebkkom]

Hello @AndreasLarsen, just wanted to say that I was/am on holidays and that's the reason you haven't heard from me yet. I am however using the fonts on my writings and will get back to you in a couple of days with my findings and comments. :)

[larsenwork]

cheers, no stress - just glad I'm not forgotten and enjoy your holidays!

[larsenwork]

@sebkomianos hey, time flies 😄 any feedback would still be much appreciated

[larsenwork]

Current status:

I plan on adding some curve to λ and some of the others

[sebkkom]

@larsenwork First of all apologies for the incredible delay, I got first-hand experience of what they say about humans making plans and God laughing.

You can have a look at a greek text using your really beautiful font here: http://about.sebkkom.info/messi-es-un-perro.html I really like how it looks and reads and can't find anything that has to be changed. But I am in the process of writing more texts and I am going to use Gidole almost exclusively so I'll let you know if I find something.