Behind the Scenes in Typeface Creation: Checking Font with Red Pencil 01: “Check for Rookies, W- and W+”

At Type Project, checking with red pencil and correction are repeated many times to improve the quality of font. In this new series, I would like to pick out some checking with red pencil from documents at the time of creating the TP Sky family, and introduce the instruction content.

The above photographs indicate checking with red pencil made by a senior colleague for kanji created by me in my first year at the company. The writing indicates: The space between hen and tsukuri is narrow in “紕,” so create more space by narrowing the width of ito-hen. For “稱,” narrow the top and widen the bottom of the counter of “冉.” As these are examples of checking with red pencil for rookies, the careful instruction includes guidance for basic creation method. As we get used to it, the simplified checking with red pencil increases.

“W-” and “W+” appear frequently, for example. “W” means weight, and “W-” means “make the strokes thinner,” and “W+” means “make the strokes thicker.” In this case, the instruction indicates: “make only the ‘車’ of ‘運’ thinner, and make only the “⺓” of “幼” thicker.”

As hundreds and thousands of characters may be checked at once, the writing is simplified to speed up checking with red pencil.

（担当T）