bugFree UCS Outline Fonts - Bugs: bug #52538, Inconsistent musical letter...

 
 

bug #52538: Inconsistent musical letter symbols in FreeSerif

Submitter:  David Corbett <dscorbett>
Submitted:  Mon 27 Nov 2017 08:43:46 PM UTC
   
 
Category:  individual character(s) Severity:  3 - Normal
Item Group:  glyph(s) ugly Status:  Postponed
Privacy:  Public Assigned to:  Stevan_White
Open/Closed:  Open Release:  * development
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Tue 28 Nov 2017 09:20:30 PM UTC, comment #4: 

A couple of points:

The letter symbols in Music remind me a lot of the "math italic" style.  They're a little wider, their italic serifs have a little more flourish.  But the mathematical italic range in FreeSerif is just FreeSerifItalic, so far.  When/if somebody designs us a Math Italic range for the font, it might be nice to use those in the Music range too.

Also, remember this range is intended for use in musical text, not for musical scores.  It's paramount that it fit the surrounding text.

I don't know so much about musical typesetting, but I can say that many of us older coots bemoan the awful uniformity of style that TeX fonts gave us.  There used to be a big variety, and some books are laid out gorgeously in styles that I've never seen in TeX fonts.

Unless it looks awful to the point of being unusable, let's leave this for the time being.

Steve White <Stevan_White>
Group administrator
Tue 28 Nov 2017 06:18:25 PM UTC, comment #3: 

After looking at some more sheet music, I admit you are right about the weights.

I know how you feel about copying specific fonts. I meant the usual style, not any particular font; specifically, the top left of letters like “m” and “p”. In FreeSerif, it is a serif whereas most sheet music makes it a downwards curl. This is based on a brief survey of a dozen pre-computer pieces of sheet music on archive.org in various languages.

David Corbett <dscorbett>
Tue 28 Nov 2017 04:07:07 PM UTC, comment #2: 

What are they inconsistent with?  In the code charts, U+1D18C through U+1D18E, and U+1D196 appear to my eye to be a regular-weight italic, while U+1D18F through U+1D191 appear relatively bold.  From what I can recall of printed music, this seems right.  So the letters themselves should not all be of the same weight, and  regarding the use of two weighs, they are consistent with the code charts.

We are certainly not in the business copying the "usual font used for these symbols", if such a thing exists.

This is very decidedly a stylistic judgment.  Research would be required to determine the limits of styles and weights in current use.

Steve White <Stevan_White>
Group administrator
Mon 27 Nov 2017 08:48:43 PM UTC, comment #1: 

I forgot that Savane has certain frustrating limitations. Let’s try this again.

The musical letters U+1D18C through U+1D191 and U+1D196 have inconsistent weights in FreeSerif: all but piano and forte should be bolder. Also, I note that the current glyphs are copied from FreeSerif Italic and FreeSerif Bold Italic, which have noticeably different serifs than the usual font used for these symbols.

David Corbett <dscorbett>
Mon 27 Nov 2017 08:43:46 PM UTC, original submission:  

The musical letters ⟨

David Corbett <dscorbett>

 

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    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2017-11-28 Stevan_White StatusNeed info Postponed
    2017-11-28 Stevan_White StatusNone Need info
        Assigned toNone Stevan_White

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