Inter: Tweak the interrobang (U+203d) glyph

Created on 11 Sep 2018 · 16Comments · Source: rsms/inter

Wow, your font is beautiful! I recently learned about it from here.

I might switch to it as the default font on my blog!

I love interrobangs (‽). Can you please tweak its design so that the exclamation and question mark components of that unicode are not superimposed strictly vertically? (I like the fact that in the version in Inter UI, the ! is not intersecting ? -- which happens in almost all sans serif fonts.. making that glyph look like a typo!).

For example, the interrobang in Iosevka (specimens - U+203d) is creatively designed; it's distinguishable, and also doesn't look like a typewriter typo.

Thanks!

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kaushalmodi

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Finally got around to this today and made a bunch of variations, both in the style of "punch out hole in question mark" as well as the "v" shaped approach. Settled on the latter as the former degraded quickly with small sizes.

screen shot 2018-09-22 at 23 22 15

screen shot 2018-09-22 at 23 30 45

This was part of a larger set of work for v3 on both question marks and exclamation points:
screen shot 2018-09-22 at 23 10 50

cc @mwichary

rsms on 23 Sep 2018

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All 16 comments

[Reference: Interrobang of Iosevka]
screen shot 2018-09-17 at 09 18 18

rsms on 17 Sep 2018

BTW, have you seen this @kaushalmodi
https://www.netflix.com/watch/80243761

rsms on 17 Sep 2018

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@rsms Thanks for categorizing this as an enhancement.

have you seen this @kaushalmodi https://www.netflix.com/watch/80243761

I have not seen that (didn't know of that "Explained" series).. adding that to my Watch List :)

I got hooked onto interrobangs after I listened to the 99% Invisible podcast episode - Interrobangs. That led me to buy the Shady Characters book (which has the most delightful typography that I have seen in print). I am reading through it right now.

So, while I cannot do much typography stuff myself, I am really interested in it, and so will definitely watch the link you pasted :)

Right now, for the lack of a good interrobang glyph in Serif fonts, I am forced to use the Iosevka Interrobang on my blog:

kaushalmodi on 17 Sep 2018

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@rsms Thanks for linking that Explained episode. It contains more details about Interrobang history that the Shady Characters book did not cover.

Btw, another good candidate, I think, for the Interrobang glyph is the middle one in the picture below:

kaushalmodi on 18 Sep 2018

screen shot 2018-09-22 at 23 22 15

screen shot 2018-09-22 at 23 30 45

This was part of a larger set of work for v3 on both question marks and exclamation points:
screen shot 2018-09-22 at 23 10 50

cc @mwichary

rsms on 23 Sep 2018

❤1 🎉1

Here's a build with the above to test:
Inter-UI-3.0-c178ada07d.zip

rsms on 23 Sep 2018

@rsms Wow, thank you so much! That interrobang looks amazing!

kaushalmodi on 23 Sep 2018

Thanks @kaushalmodi. I’m not entirely sold on this yet though. Would be great to have this tested in some real-world scenarios. I’m a little worried that it loses the question mark shape surrounded by lots of text.

rsms on 23 Sep 2018

I’m a little worried that it loses the question mark shape surrounded by lots of text.

I'll deploy this beta version of Inter UI on my blog in the next week, and provide my feedback. Thanks again.

kaushalmodi on 24 Sep 2018

I’m a little worried that it loses the question mark shape surrounded by lots of text.

I can also kind of see that.. (non-typographically-technical lanuguage follows..)

The regular question mark has 270 degrees or roughly around that curve forming the top portion of the "?" .. and I believe the new ‽ has 180 degrees of that curve? is that the reason?

Would the Inter UI ‽ hold more of the "question mark value" if the curve is somewhere between 180 and 270 degrees i.e. make it look more like a hook than a sideaways bowl?

I really apologize for this metaphorical explanation.. I don't know how to describe it technically.

kaushalmodi on 24 Sep 2018

Here's a take that's more similar to that of Iosevka:

screen shot 2018-09-23 at 18 43 55