Serifed Runes

ahi · 10-06-2009, 10:34 AM

Are there any tastefully serifed rune fonts out there? Basically something that brings the runes close to the aesthetic level of the latin/cyrillic alphabet... including intelligent kerning, and all.

If not, has anyone else thought of doing something like that before?

And is there anyone on mobileread that has the font-making know-how to do something like that?

- Ahi

ahi · 10-06-2009, 10:58 AM

I'd also be happy with non-serifed but non-traditional fonts that strip runes from the "rough" look they generally have. Basically I do not want to imitate the crudeness of carving in wood, but want something delicate and aesthetic.

The closest that anything I know of comes to this would be the Csenge Old Hungarian (runic) font:
http://www.freeweb.hu/rovasirashonla...k/rstdcsen.zip

- Ahi

Jellby · 10-06-2009, 11:42 AM

I guess allrunes is not what you are looking for.

Something more script-like: Moon Runes, Tolkien Dwarf Runes.

ahi · 10-06-2009, 12:02 PM

Allrunes is, stylistically, definitely not what I'm looking for. The letter-shapes are too primitive/unrefined (albeit, I am sure, intentionally so).

The Moon Runes and Tolkien Dwarf Runes are nicer, but they do not seem like they would be good for body text.

- Ahi

ahi · 10-06-2009, 12:05 PM

How difficult is it to make METAFONT fonts, if you are not particularly mathematically inclined?

- Ahi

Jellby · 10-06-2009, 02:06 PM

I've never done METAFONT, sorry.

More rune fonts here.

ahi · 10-06-2009, 02:25 PM

Futhark Regular is the closest to what I'm looking for, but it still doesn't look intended for small font size body text use...

I guess it's not surprising that most runic fonts are intended primarily for decorative use.

- Ahi

Elfwreck · 10-06-2009, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahi

Futhark Regular is the closest to what I'm looking for, but it still doesn't look intended for small font size body text use...

I guess it's not surprising that most runic fonts are intended primarily for decorative use.

- Ahi

Since they predate modern typography, and were dropped as soon as writing was easier than "carve this in wood," yeah. I don't expect you to find any with good kerning options; they stopped having widespread use (if you can claim they ever had that) before typography was developed.

None of them ever worked well for body text. Even if the serifs & spacing can be worked out, there's no punctuation, no lower-case letters, no proper italic version, and so on.

Are you specifically looking for a Futhark-ish set of runes (the germanic/norse etc alphabet set), or any runes at all, as long as they've got usable typography?

ahi · 10-06-2009, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Since they predate modern typography, and were dropped as soon as writing was easier than "carve this in wood," yeah. I don't expect you to find any with good kerning options; they stopped having widespread use (if you can claim they ever had that) before typography was developed.

None of them ever worked well for body text. Even if the serifs & spacing can be worked out, there's no punctuation, no lower-case letters, no proper italic version, and so on.

Are you specifically looking for a Futhark-ish set of runes (the germanic/norse etc alphabet set), or any runes at all, as long as they've got usable typography?

You are, of course, perfectly right, Elfwreck.

I'm looking for any runes as long as they've got usable typography... including typographically aesthetic proportions, possibly not-just-shrunk-down-miniscules, et cetera. If nothing else, they'll give me some sense of what is possible with a bit of creativity, no matter how ahistorical.

Though specifically I'd be most interested in a font that covered Old Turkic or Old Hungarian.

- Ahi

ahi · 10-06-2009, 03:18 PM

I should mention that I believe Hungarian runes had use into fairly recent times by peasants (in certain parts of the country and/or what is now no longer part of the country), albeit not as tools of general literacy but rather of tally/record keeping, and even for contract-like agreements. (For that latter, the agreement would be carved onto a stick, and the stick would subsequently be split [as much as possible in the middle, so as to leave parts of the runes on both halves], one to be kept by each parties. And no, I'm not sure about the finer points of how this worked.)

- Ahi

Jellby · 10-06-2009, 03:55 PM

If you are really interested, you could start a project like this for tengwar.

ahi · 10-06-2009, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jellby

If you are really interested, you could start a project like this for tengwar.

Thanks! This is great, actually!

Maybe I need to refresh on my algebra and try to get into metafont...

- Ahi

ahi · 10-09-2009, 11:14 AM

Lookee here...

Timoleon · 10-09-2009, 07:17 PM

Holy Smokes --- Nice!!!

Where did you get these? Or did you make them?

ahi · 10-09-2009, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timoleon

Holy Smokes --- Nice!!!

Where did you get these? Or did you make them?

Nope. I cannot claim it.

I found it here:

http://naeddyr.deviantart.com/art/Se...font-111220894

10-06-2009, 10:34 AM	#1
ahi Wizard Posts: 1,790 Karma: 507333 Join Date: May 2009 Device: none	Serifed Runes Are there any tastefully serifed rune fonts out there? Basically something that brings the runes close to the aesthetic level of the latin/cyrillic alphabet... including intelligent kerning, and all. If not, has anyone else thought of doing something like that before? And is there anyone on mobileread that has the font-making know-how to do something like that? - Ahi

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10-06-2009, 10:58 AM	#2
ahi Wizard Posts: 1,790 Karma: 507333 Join Date: May 2009 Device: none	I'd also be happy with non-serifed but non-traditional fonts that strip runes from the "rough" look they generally have. Basically I do not want to imitate the crudeness of carving in wood, but want something delicate and aesthetic. The closest that anything I know of comes to this would be the Csenge Old Hungarian (runic) font: http://www.freeweb.hu/rovasirashonla...k/rstdcsen.zip - Ahi

10-06-2009, 11:42 AM	#3
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,570 Karma: 20150435 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	I guess allrunes is not what you are looking for. Something more script-like: Moon Runes, Tolkien Dwarf Runes.

10-06-2009, 12:02 PM	#4
ahi Wizard Posts: 1,790 Karma: 507333 Join Date: May 2009 Device: none	Allrunes is, stylistically, definitely not what I'm looking for. The letter-shapes are too primitive/unrefined (albeit, I am sure, intentionally so). The Moon Runes and Tolkien Dwarf Runes are nicer, but they do not seem like they would be good for body text. - Ahi

10-06-2009, 12:05 PM	#5
ahi Wizard Posts: 1,790 Karma: 507333 Join Date: May 2009 Device: none	How difficult is it to make METAFONT fonts, if you are not particularly mathematically inclined? - Ahi

10-06-2009, 02:06 PM	#6
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,570 Karma: 20150435 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	I've never done METAFONT, sorry. More rune fonts here.

10-06-2009, 02:25 PM	#7
ahi Wizard Posts: 1,790 Karma: 507333 Join Date: May 2009 Device: none	Futhark Regular is the closest to what I'm looking for, but it still doesn't look intended for small font size body text use... I guess it's not surprising that most runic fonts are intended primarily for decorative use. - Ahi

10-06-2009, 03:18 PM	#10
ahi Wizard Posts: 1,790 Karma: 507333 Join Date: May 2009 Device: none	I should mention that I believe Hungarian runes had use into fairly recent times by peasants (in certain parts of the country and/or what is now no longer part of the country), albeit not as tools of general literacy but rather of tally/record keeping, and even for contract-like agreements. (For that latter, the agreement would be carved onto a stick, and the stick would subsequently be split [as much as possible in the middle, so as to leave parts of the runes on both halves], one to be kept by each parties. And no, I'm not sure about the finer points of how this worked.) - Ahi

10-06-2009, 03:55 PM	#11
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,570 Karma: 20150435 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	If you are really interested, you could start a project like this for tengwar.

10-09-2009, 11:14 AM	#13
ahi Wizard Posts: 1,790 Karma: 507333 Join Date: May 2009 Device: none	Lookee here...

10-09-2009, 07:17 PM	#14
Timoleon Time Enough at Last Posts: 387 Karma: 1151316 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: New England Device: iPad 3, iPhone 5, Kindle 3, Fire, Sony PRS-350	Holy Smokes --- Nice!!! Where did you get these? Or did you make them?