<h4>Introduction</h4>
-<p>Bitcount is a family of styles, where the core shape of letters has been reduced to the minimal number of pixels possible. We need at least 5 vertical pixels of x-height to draw “a” and “e”. Adding the minumum of 1 pixel as ascender and 1 pixel as descender, the mininum grid is 5 pixels wide and 7 pixel high. Here the <em>Bitcount Single Regular</em> is shown.</p>
+<p>Bitcount is a family of styles, where the core shape of letters has been reduced to the minimal number of pixels possible. We need at least 5 vertical pixels of x-height to draw “a” and “e”. Adding the minimum of 1 pixel as ascender and 1 pixel as descender, the minimum grid is 5 pixels wide and 7 pixel high. Here the <em>Bitcount Single Regular</em> is shown.</p>
<img src="image1.png">
-<p>The large number of styles in the Bitcount family come from the virtually infinite amount of variations that are possible, even with this small amount of 35+ pixels. The styles vary is articulation of accent shapes, one or two pixel stems, roman or slanted, normal or condensed. And all of this with a range of pixels shapes, such as large/small circles and large/small squares. Here showing respectively <em>Bitcount Single Regular Circle, Bitcount Double Regular Circle and Bitcount Single Regular Square.</em></p>
+<p>The large number of styles in the Bitcount family come from the virtually infinite amount of variations that are possible, even with this small amount of 35+ pixels. The styles vary in articulation of accent shapes, one or two pixel stems, roman or slanted, normal or condensed. And all of this with a range of pixels shapes, such as large/small circles and large/small squares. Here showing respectively <em>Bitcount Single Regular Circle, Bitcount Double Regular Circle and Bitcount Single Regular Square.</em></p>
<img src="image2.png">
<p>Multiple layers of Bitcount generate an infinite amount of pixels shape combinations.</p>
-<p>The animated examples give fast overview of possible combination, in plain or transparant colors.</p>
+<p>The animated examples give fast overview of possible combination, in plain or transparent colors.</p>
<img src="image4.png">
<h4>Spacing</h4>
-<p>There are three spacing variants in the Bitcount family: Grid, Mono and Prop. The variants Grid and Mono are “monospaced”, all letters have the same width of 6 pixels. Since letters as “l” and “i” normally need less spacing, the fixed width is bridged by adding serifs where necessary, althought the basics of Bitcount is sans-serif. In the Prop variant all letters have their own widths, dependent on the space they need, but all widths are rounded to whole pixels distances.</p>
+<p>There are three spacing variants in the Bitcount family: Grid, Mono and Prop. The variants Grid and Mono are “monospaced”, all letters have the same width of 6 pixels. Since letters as “l” and “i” normally need less spacing, the fixed width is bridged by adding serifs where necessary, although the basics of Bitcount is sans-serif. In the Prop variant all letters have their own widths, dependent on the space they need, but all widths are rounded to whole pixels distances.</p>
<img src="image12.png">
<h4>Tracking</h4>
-<p>The internal measures of the font is defined in a way that it is easy to measure. Each pixel has a distance of 100 units of the total 1000 units of the Em-square. This means that the width of a pixel (and thus of the spacing) if 1/10 of the font size. This way tracking can be calculated. For each extra pixel to the spacing of letters, Adobe InDesign needs a tracking of 10.</p>
+<p>The internal measures of the font is defined in a way that it is easy to measure. Each pixel has a distance of 100 units of the total 1000 units of the Em-square. This means that the width of a pixel (and thus of the spacing) is 1/10 of the font size. This way tracking can be calculated. For each extra pixel to the spacing of letters, Adobe InDesign needs a tracking of 10.</p>
<img src="image13.png">
<h4>Kerning</h4>
-<p>Since the Grid and Mono are monospaced variants, by definition they cannot have any kerning. All letters in all combinations have a width of 6 pixels. That is different in the Prop variant. Letter combination have their own kerning value, to optimize their spacing. In the design of Bitcount Prop all capital-capital combination have two pixels spacing, where capital-lowercase have a spacing of one pixel. This difference is solved by kerning.</p>
+<p>Since the Grid and Mono are monospaced variants, by definition they cannot have any kerning. All letters in all combinations have a width of 6 pixels. That is different in the Prop variant. Letter combinations have their own kerning value, to optimize their spacing. In the design of Bitcount Prop all capital-capital combination have two pixels spacing, where capital-lowercase have a spacing of one pixel. This difference is solved by kerning.</p>
<img src="image14.png">
<img src="image21.png">
-<p>In the OT_Feature Condensed selection, the extra contrast pixel is not available, due to the restriction of space.</p>
+<p>In the OT Feature Condensed selection, the extra contrast pixel is not available, due to the restriction of space.</p>
<h4>Size and shape of pixels</h4>
-<p>The base package of Bitcount includes four sizes/weight for each unique pixel shape. There are five sizes of Circles (Light, Book, Regular, Medium and Bold) and there are five corresponding sizes of Square and Plus pixels. The Regular weight is by definintion the size of pixels that exactly fit the grid of 100 units. Future releases of Bitcount packages will include more weights and shapes.</p>
+<p>The base package of Bitcount includes four sizes/weight for each unique pixel shape. There are five sizes of Circles (Light, Book, Regular, Medium and Bold) and there are five corresponding sizes of Square and Plus pixels. The Regular weight is by definition the size of pixels that exactly fit the grid of 100 units. Future releases of Bitcount packages will include more weights and shapes.</p>
<img src="image22.png">
<img src="image26.png">
-<p>The line width and the size of all Plus pixels is adjust to the size of the Line pixels. This gives the option to “cut” a cross from the other pixels, such as Line Circle and Square in multipe layers. Visualized in this animations of layers:</p>
+<p>The line width and the size of all Plus pixels is adjusted to the size of the Line pixels. This gives the option to “cut” a cross from the other pixels, such as Line Circle and Square in multiple layers. Visualized in this animation of layers:</p>
<h4>Width</h4>
<img src="image42.png">
-<p>Prop Single with OT-Feature Fraction enabled on proportional width. The use of fractions is limited in this low resolution of 2x4 pixels (where the only possible design option for the zero is two horizontal lines), but for completeness it is good to have the full characters set available in fonts like this. Also the readabiltiy of fractional figures is very much dependent on the context, the shape and size of the pixels. It is up to the designer to decide if usage is appropriate in a given situation.</p>
+<p>Prop Single with OT-Feature Fraction enabled on proportional width. The use of fractions is limited in this low resolution of 2x4 pixels (where the only possible design option for the zero is two horizontal lines), but for completeness it is good to have the full characters set available in fonts like this. Also the readability of fractional figures is very much dependent on the context, the shape and size of the pixels. It is up to the designer to decide if usage is appropriate in a given situation.</p>
<img src="image43.png">
<img src="image48.png">
-<p>In all variant styles there are alternate slashed zero’s available as OT-Feature zero.</p>
+<p>In all variant styles there are alternate slashed zeros available as OT-Feature zero.</p>
<img src="image49.png">
<h4>Matrix</h4>
-<p>In case the full set of pixels is need (e.g. as a background layer with LED’s that are on/off), there are several matrices available when the OT feature Ligaure is turned on. The availability if the matrix depends on the variant. In the illustration respectively are shown /matrix57, /matrix58, /matrix68, /matrix610. Also the TYPETR logo is available /typetr.</p>
+<p>In case the full set of pixels is need (e.g. as a background layer with LED’s that are on/off), there are several matrices available when the OT feature Ligature is turned on. The availability of the matrix depends on the variant. In the illustration respectively are shown /matrix57, /matrix58, /matrix68, /matrix610. Also the TYPETR logo is available /typetr.</p>
<img src="image50.png">
<img src="image51.png">
-<p>In the seventies, ditigal typefaces for printing where hidden deep inside commercial typesetting machines (starting as scanned photo negatives, not even as digital outline information). Or they were stored as bitmap in terminal screens. Resolution and speed were costly resources, so the bitmap was hardcoded into the screen electronics, often just for one size.</p>
+<p>In the seventies, digital typefaces for printing were hidden deep inside commercial typesetting machines (starting as scanned photo negatives, not even as digital outline information). Or they were stored as bitmap in terminal screens. Resolution and speed were costly resources, so the bitmap was hardcoded into the screen electronics, often just for one size.</p>
<p>It was the general convention at that time, that for Latin, at least 9 pixels where necessary to make a clear distinction between ascenders (7), capitals (6), lowercase (5), and descenders (2). Furthermore, all letters
-needed to be monospaced, because there was no way pixels could be stored as in modern graphic screens. The shapes where generated by hardware during the sweep of scan-lines of the television screen. Proportional spacing would have added a lot more costly hardware.</p>
+needed to be monospaced, because there was no way pixels could be stored as in modern graphic screens. The shapes were generated by hardware during the sweep of scan-lines of the television screen. Proportional spacing would have added a lot more costly hardware.</p>
<p>The design of these pixel grids was exclusively the domain of engineering: Take a matrix and add pixels until it can be recognized as an “n”. The problem with this approach is that “contrast” seems like luxury, not worth considering (if such a thing was considered at all). The stems of such an “n” have a width of one pixel, vertical and horizontal equally spaced. But simple mathematics shows that if the horizontal distance between pixels is 1, the diagonal distance between points is 1.41, showing as a lighter area in the letter. The problem is in the resulting contrast in the diagonals.</p>
<img src="image53.png">
-<p>Early sketches of the 5 x 7 pixel grid show that even in a small design space of 35 pixels, the number of different options is enourmous. Note the various alternatives for the “m”, to make it fit in the impossible width of 5 pixels. It is common understanding in design, that what first seems to be an extreme reduction of design options, in reality still needs a design process to find the best choice. Or to create alternative solutions that work just as well or better.</p>
+<p>Early sketches of the 5 x 7 pixel grid show that even in a small design space of 35 pixels, the number of different options is enormous. Note the various alternatives for the “m”, to make it fit in the impossible width of 5 pixels. It is common understanding in design, that what first seems to be an extreme reduction of design options, in reality still needs a design process to find the best choice. Or to create alternative solutions that work just as well or better.</p>
projects / thirdparty / google / fonts.git / commitdiff
