#82480 - 20/03/2002 15:43
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Okay, I tried it, and it worked, but didn't find an exact match in their library.
The "e" is the tricky part, the slanted-upwards middle crossbar is terribly rare. The only comparable font their database found which had the slanted-upward middle crossbar was a serif font. All the others were the usual Futura and Eras variants that I'd already tried by eye.
Still messing with it...
Although it makes me wonder if the slant in the "e" was a deliberate hand-modification to the original font. Many graphic designers will do that sort of thing in a logo...
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#82481 - 20/03/2002 15:47
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: tfabris]
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enthusiast
Registered: 14/05/2001
Posts: 279
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It's kinda similar to Futura Extra Black Italic if you rotate it counter-clockwise 15 degrees.
Tom
Attachments
80475-empeg.gif (170 downloads)
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#82482 - 20/03/2002 15:49
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: charcoalgray99]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Yes, I did already check it against Futura variants. I don't think it's a variant of Futura because of some of the other letterforms in the font.
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#82483 - 20/03/2002 23:02
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: mschrag]
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enthusiast
Registered: 14/05/2001
Posts: 279
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this poor icon is going to scale down to 32x32 on windows
If it's not too much trouble, xp supports 48x48. I use that size with my high resolution, and it works pretty good. 32x32 icons look like crap scaled up. More info on icons with xp here.
Oh, and I vote for #5.
Tom
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#82484 - 20/03/2002 23:41
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: tfabris]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 09/09/2000
Posts: 2303
Loc: Richmond, VA
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Yeah -- I think the "e", "a", and maybe "g" were modified ... The slanted crossbar doesn't match any of the other letter forms they use (reference = "empeg car"). The "g" i'm not as confident about, but the shortened "hang-down" on the g looks a little different. The line thickness around the center of the "a" is really tight -- doesn't really match the other forms (compare the circles in the "p" and "g" to that of the "a" -- looks like the circle on the "a" is moved to the right). Interestingly, the line thickness of the crossbar of the "e" is roughly equivalent to the suspect part of the "a" -- maybe further support that they were modified? I'm basing my search off an unslanted "e", the "m","p","c", and "r".
This is the closest I've found so far:
http://www.eff.co.uk/A/P/SpmLR.htm
But it's still not right -- The "g" loops too far under, the holes are too big, and the "c" doesn't curve around enough
Mike
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#82485 - 20/03/2002 23:47
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: tfabris]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 09/09/2000
Posts: 2303
Loc: Richmond, VA
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Here's another candidate:
http://www.eff.co.uk/W/P/TwmRR.htm
(look at EFF Tuwim ExtraBold)
Edited by mschrag (20/03/2002 23:48)
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#82486 - 20/03/2002 23:54
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: mschrag]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Yes, I believe a variant of that face was the one I used for the word "Unofficial" at the top of this page, and it still isn't quite right.
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#82487 - 21/03/2002 04:38
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 21/05/1999
Posts: 5335
Loc: Cambridge UK
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I seem to recall that Hugo rotated the e's in the logo by hand. I have no idea what the font was called - Hugo might remember.
Rob
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#82488 - 21/03/2002 06:58
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: mschrag]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 05/01/2001
Posts: 4903
Loc: Detroit, MI USA
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I know I'm voting twice for the same thing, but I think that the buttons look the best. Reminds me of the Quake logos...
_________________________
Brad B.
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#82489 - 23/03/2002 21:44
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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Post to one of the font newsgroups and you are sure to get a suggestion for the best match TTF/Type1/OT font. Then getting your hands on the font can be either 1. tricky or 2. easy. It all "depends"
BTW, rotating the "e" on a large number of faces will produce similar results to the example using Futura. I have a couple of Adobe font books here, but I've never bothered to look for a matching font (Rob sent me the logo eps files a long time ago, so I didn't bother finding a close-match font - and it saved me the trouble of reproducing it myself (easy but time consuming) )
Oh, I also vote for the flat empeg-button design. The other images have too many flaws. The Tux variations are monochromatic, aren't really original art and aren't very representative of the empeg. The shot of the actual unit is pretty much a scaled and rotated image from the stock product shots on the web. Won't make a very nice icon on most platforms. It would probably look pretty nice on Mac OS X though.
The buttons could have a nice J in there somewhere. Styled into the bottom button or incorporated into the background or foreground.
Bruno
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#82490 - 23/03/2002 21:55
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: charcoalgray99]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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Windows 2000 supports 48 pixel icons. So does Me and 98. I'm almost sure that even an upgraded Win95 can use them (can't remember what upgrade, it's been so long... Maybe Plus Pack and/or new IE).
If you really wanted to, you could have something even bigger than 48 (not really a standard icon) in Win2K and XP, but now you're getting into a lot more custom work/code.
I'll say it again... Don't forget to include a 128 pixel version for the Mac binary (along with a 32 pixel and 16 pixel version in the resource for OS 9)
Bruno
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#82491 - 23/03/2002 23:50
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: hybrid8]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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BTW, rotating the "e" on a large number of faces will produce similar results to the example using Futura.
Right, exactly. You could rotate the "e" on just about any sans-serif face and get similar results. I know it's not a Futura variant because the "a" in futura is single-story, but the "a" in the empeg-car logo is two-story.
Although it's really good to know that the e was originally straight, that makes searching for the font easier. Haven't tried again since learning that information, I'll play with it some more when I get a chance.
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#82492 - 24/03/2002 00:05
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: hybrid8]
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enthusiast
Registered: 14/05/2001
Posts: 279
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Windows 2000 supports 48 pixel icons. So does Me and 98.
Sure, you can change your icon size to whatever you want in the display properties. That doesn't mean it is going to look good. I meant XP is the first to ship with default 48 icons, so people might actually use that size, since it won't look like crap.
Tom
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#82493 - 24/03/2002 09:18
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: charcoalgray99]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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No, I mean 2000, Me and 98 have 48 pixel icons. I'm not talking about blowing up 32 pixel originals. The exception is that not all the software comes with the larger icons and not all the icon libraries contain the larger ones. This isn't speculation... I used the feature in 98 and I just turned it on in 2000 last night while reading this thread. This showed me that even Winzip comes with 48 pixel icons (and I'm back a couple of versions).
Bruno
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#82494 - 24/03/2002 09:24
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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Let me know if any of the Adobe (and Adobe-licenced) faces are a close match.
If you're going to be looking in a manual fashion, then a few of the font vendors have online type browsers (Adobe, Letraset, ITC, etc...)
If the Acorn original was a vector format, a ttf or Type1 version should be sitting in someone's catalog.
Bruno
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#82495 - 24/03/2002 10:37
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: hybrid8]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Let me know if any of the Adobe (and Adobe-licenced) faces are a close match.
Wow, I can't find anything that matches it.
I went to a lot of trouble this morning to make an absolutely perfect image for the WhatTheFont page, based on a postscript outline of the original logo. I rotated the E back into place just for the matching algorithm. This is the image I submitted:
(The letters are out of order because I had to break apart the overlaps and rebuild the broken parts in some of the letters. So the letters ended up random in the image, no meaning should be inferred by the accidental word that was spelled here. )
WhatTheFont finds a whole bunch of CLOSE matches, but nothing quite nails it. The "a" in particular is completely wrong in every single match it found.
This is a really tough one to match!
Attachments
81415-font.gif (163 downloads)
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#82496 - 24/03/2002 10:43
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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By the way, if you want to try this image in WhatTheFont for yourself, click on this link and make sure to change the "c" to a "c" (the initial letterform pass mistakes it for an "e").
Then it will show you all the matches. You'll see how they're all CLOSE, but not exact. WhatTheFont essentially comes to the same conclusion that our graphic artist and I came to: it's not a common standard font that can be found in your average library.
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#82497 - 24/03/2002 10:58
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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We should hear from Hugo on this. It's within reason that he modified the letters a little bit. Also, you may want to "un-kern" (kern to the right) the "a" in your sample image. That may help the font algorithm thing.
[edit] Nevermind abot the "a" - I took a look at the link and it seems it was pulled properly. Damn, that's a sweet engine. too bad it wasn't around six years ago.
Bruno
Edited by hybrid8 (24/03/2002 11:04)
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#82498 - 24/03/2002 11:12
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: hybrid8]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Yes, the WhatTheFont search engine is rather sweet, it gives you a very clear picture on how it's doing the shape recognition.
As you can see, it has no trouble detecting the letterforms and giving close matches. I'm convinced, after seeing how it handled that sample, that there is no font in its database that matches the empeg font.
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#82499 - 24/03/2002 11:15
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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And by the way. I know that we've diverged here from the main topic of choosing Jemplode icons.
I don't think we need to match the typeface exactly in order to provide a good-looking "J". There are enough style cues in the existing letters that we could build a proper J that comes out looking like it would have in the original font.
But it's still an interesting exercise to try to locate a TTF or Postscript version of the empeg font. I know I would certainly like to do that.
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#82500 - 24/03/2002 16:58
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: hybrid8]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/05/1999
Posts: 3457
Loc: Palo Alto, CA
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I didn't mod the letters, but they are italicised (maybe 15 degree lean?). Wish I could remember what font it was, but this was on an acorn machine so the font name may well bear little relation to the actual font name... a lot of people converted adobe type 1 fonts, gave them new names & stuck them on acorn BBSes.
Hugo
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#82501 - 24/03/2002 20:13
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: altman]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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So it was originally a straight-up font, and the italics are a simple skewing of the letters, rather than a dedicated italic font? That will help narrow down the search, thanks.
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#82502 - 24/03/2002 21:53
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: altman]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Okay, so then...
Rotate the E back to level, de-skew the letters back to vertical, we get this:
So Hugo, is that more or less the font you started with? WhatTheFont still can't find it.
Attachments
81505-vertical.gif (165 downloads)
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#82503 - 25/03/2002 09:36
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: tfabris]
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enthusiast
Registered: 28/01/2002
Posts: 265
Loc: MI, USA
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did you notice the "e" in Souvenir Gothic Antique D Demi is written properly for a unrotated "e"?
although that's a serif font, a sans-serif version would look right with out needing to rotoate anything
_________________________
guardian__J MKIIa 20g Smoke
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#82504 - 25/03/2002 10:13
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: guardian__J]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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That's the thing. I keep finding stuff where there's, say, one character that matches exactly, but then the rest don't. Or the font is close, but it's a serif version. Or something like that.
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#82505 - 25/03/2002 10:40
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: tfabris]
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addict
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 443
Loc: Raleigh, NC
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Yea, I noticed that too.. the C is pretty distinctive since it's basicly an o with a wedge cut out of it.. When I searched for just that letter, it only found one that really matched (was the last match too..) and all of the other letters were totally off..
Maybe we should just say E from this font, M from this other font, etc...
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#82506 - 16/11/2002 15:47
Re: jEmplode candidate icons...
[Re: mschrag]
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stranger
Registered: 22/02/2002
Posts: 55
Loc: Rignt here
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I just came across this thread and thought I might add something.
I still prefer the buttons though
_________________________
:: john
(24GB Mk2)
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