How to Prototype a Multi-Style Typeface

The Prototyping stage starts with expanding the digitized word into what I call my Extended Controls. Starting with a small set of characters that are quick to make allows me to experiment without the fear of having to change a ton of work that I’ve already completed. Whether starting a new project from scratch or revisiting an existing one, I always come back to this character set as a starting point.

showing the extended controls proof and the stroke relationships between glyphs.

Once I’ve digitized my lowercase n, I’ve established my vertical stroke weight for my lowercase and uppercase, the arches give me a starting point for my h m u and the right side of my a and g. Once I’ve drawn my lowercase o, I have the bowls for my p d a g e and c. I can scale my o to get a starting point for my uppercase O D and C. The last shape group I want to establish early on are my diagonals. Once I have a lowercase v, I can scale that to get my uppercase V and a starting point for my A.

showing the extended controls proof and why its important to include letters like a g and e.

I always include an a g e and sometimes an s, as they are often the first letters to fill in when exploring a heavier weight.

Extended controls 2-style proof art page where the individual letters are large and easy to mark-up.

My Extended Controls proof is around eight pages long. It includes art pages like this, where I can mark up any changes to be made to the characters. The characters are large enough to see the smaller details and I can review two or more styles at once.

Extended controls proof showing n o p and H O D to compare counter spaces.

Although I’m drawing individual letters, I’m designing how the letters look together in the text, so this next page is important to get the building blocks in place. It shows my basic control letters n o p H O D in two styles, allowing me to establish proportion and spacing. Here, I can compare the counter spaces, my word space, how my uppercase works with my lowercase, and my letter spacing.

Extended controls proof showing mixed styles

This page shows my Extended Controls in text settings. With this limited amount of characters, I can get a relatively realistic-looking paragraph of text, which allows me to asses my cap height to ascender relationship, the contrast between my two weights, and the x-height of my heavier weight which typically needs to be higher to match the optical height of my lightest weight.

Extended controls proof showing different point sizes to asses spacing.

Finally, I can view it in the range of sizes I expect it to be used in. Here, I can check that the spacing and contrast are working in the intended sizes. You can download my free Prototyping template here.

Extrapolation and Interpolation to scope out a family.

Once I’m happy with these two styles, I can interpolate and extrapolate just these few letters to scope out an entire family within a few days and get a sense of what the final project might look like.

Mock-up showing how the final typeface might look.

With this, I can now name my weights and create artwork to make it appear as a finished typeface. I call this a Font Seed or a Type Seed, and keep them filed for showing custom clients or as an option for a future retail release. Approaching this as a Font Seed removes the pressure of having to complete the project in full, and it allows me time to decide if its worth investing the time to complete it.

The next stage in my type design process is Design.