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geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: feng on Mon, 08 June 2015, 05:40:51

Title: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: feng on Mon, 08 June 2015, 05:40:51
Our old font was not so welcome by English speakers back then, so we came up with this font for our new products. It's pretty similar to arial.

What do you guys think of it? We're also considering adding symbols on those modifier keys like enter, shift, backspace, etc. Do you prefer to have symbols+legends over only legends?

[attach=1]
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: baldgye on Mon, 08 June 2015, 05:50:02
I like it, but I think it should be a bit bolder and I'm not a huge fan of the off center mod legends.
IMO the best thing about the Cherry legends is how clear and readable they are, even on sets like Miami, you only have to glance at a R1 set next to the R2 set (which has the Cherry legends) to see what a huge difference it makes.
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: Jokrik on Mon, 08 June 2015, 06:02:41
^ that
I agreen that the font need to stand out more in a way, keycaps have lovely color though
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: isaske on Mon, 08 June 2015, 06:10:54
I personally like it very much. Dope. :thumb:
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: rowdy on Mon, 08 June 2015, 06:25:35
PUS is a bit of a turn-off.  There's not many ways of abbreviating PAUSE.
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Mon, 08 June 2015, 06:27:00
I like the typeface, but am also bothered by the different alignments. Everything should be uniform, not mix of left, center, right top and bottom.
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: MAR82 on Mon, 08 June 2015, 07:44:22
I have to agree with what everyone else has been saying about the alignment of the mod legends, and would also like to see symbols on them.
The only other thing that I would say is that I'm not a big fan of the arrows. I think I would prefer them with more of a classic look, and not just triangles
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: Joey Quinn on Mon, 08 June 2015, 11:53:07
+1 for moving the mod legends and making the font a bit bolder
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: divito on Mon, 08 June 2015, 12:39:03
I don't mind the mod keys being left-aligned on the one side and right-aligned on the right side. But the function keys being top and bigger size, and 6-key being mod size and bottom-aligned is weird to me. I also would prefer if the regular legends were the same size as the mods, rather than being bigger.
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: Findecanor on Mon, 08 June 2015, 13:43:49
The legends are too abbreviated. The keys look like they do on the CMStorm Novatouch and I really hate those.
I had to check if you were not from Cooler Master ...

If there is space enough to write the entire legend, then DO SO! It is OK to use all caps, but please do it consistently.
The Caps Lock key has the legend "CAPSLK", but if there is enough space to write "CAPS LOCK" then it should say "CAPS LOCK"! Compare that to the "Backspace" key which has "BACKSPACE", not "BACKSP".
It is better to have smaller text than abbreviated text for Scroll Lock and Pause.
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: jacobolus on Mon, 08 June 2015, 15:34:39
Leaving aside the typeface itself, which I’m not much of a fan of, but hey, that’s a personal preference...

* All the glyphs for symbols and punctuation are terrible (small, inconsistent sizes and weights, weirdly aligned). Keyboard legend glyphs can’t just be pulled from a font intended for blocks of text, but need to be redrawn for the context.

* In particular, underscore is misaligned vertically, though this seems to be relatively common on keyboard legends

* The escape key is weirdly inconsistent with everything else.

* Print screen, scroll lock, and pause keys have really weird alignment.

* Backslash centered alignment is wrong and doesn’t match anything.

* Legends in all caps are in general unreadable, but if you’re going to use them they need at least slightly wider tracking.

* As other folks have mentioned, some of the abbreviations are totally unnecessary
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: Snarfangel on Tue, 09 June 2015, 11:47:17
I have to agree with what everyone else has been saying about the alignment of the mod legends, and would also like to see symbols on them.
The only other thing that I would say is that I'm not a big fan of the arrows. I think I would prefer them with more of a classic look, and not just triangles

I have to agree with what everyone else has been saying about the alignment of the mod legends, and would also like to see symbols on them.
The only other thing that I would say is that I'm not a big fan of the arrows. I think I would prefer them with more of a classic look, and not just triangles

But triangles *are* classic!
[attach=1]
(Granted, these are filled and bright yellow.)

As a side note, when I was searching for the pic, I saw this lovely color scheme (though with *horribly* fuzzy picture quality):
(http://product-images.highwire.com/2950072/a480110c-fe38-4f9e-9b21-1569f461cbb4.jpg)

At $39.99, I am a bit tempted, since they are doubleshots. But then again, someone will want the Cherry MX Black switches...

/I want the keycaps, darn it! But I don't need another Wyse set right now.
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: MAR82 on Tue, 09 June 2015, 14:09:25
I forgot about the triangles on the Wyse boards, and think they look good there.
Maybe it's just because it's only the outline or something, but I'm just not liking them in feng's picture
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: lasttycoon on Tue, 09 June 2015, 17:56:49
I like this font. As other said it could be a bit thicker but the typeface is very nice.
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: Giorgio on Tue, 09 June 2015, 18:30:31
I really don't like the G (it seems incomplete).
Not a fan of Q and & either.
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: jacobolus on Tue, 09 June 2015, 18:54:18
I really don't like the G
Yep, G, K, and B are all especially horrible, and M and P are also pretty bad. Other letters aren’t too inspiring but are mostly okay. Punctuation and symbols pretty much all need to be tweaked and about half should be redrawn from scratch.

feng: I’d recommend you go ask for advice on the typophile.com forum, which is a hangout spot for type designers, but it seems to be down at the moment :/.
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: chaos_jockey on Thu, 18 June 2015, 17:38:20
I want these keys on my daily driver.
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: Hyde on Sat, 20 June 2015, 21:51:00
I don't mind the mod keys being left-aligned on the one side and right-aligned on the right side. But the function keys being top and bigger size, and 6-key being mod size and bottom-aligned is weird to me. I also would prefer if the regular legends were the same size as the mods, rather than being bigger.

I feel the same way, I don't mind the alignment on the mod.  However keys like Esc, F1, F2... etc and Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Pause/Break, and the 6 key under it feel a little bit weird alignment wise.

Though font wise it's good I think it's clean nothing wrong with it.

I'd imagine something along the line of this would probably work:

[attachimg=1]

So the mod are still left or right aligned and the Esc F1, F2... etc are center aligned.  Though I think in this pic they probably mixed up left window and right window key.

:P

EDIT:

Another good example of font/arrangement that I like.

[attachimg=2]
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: Puddsy on Sat, 20 June 2015, 22:13:23
i really like it
Title: Re: Do you guys like this new font?
Post by: rsbseb on Sun, 21 June 2015, 21:43:31
I kind of like the placement of the text but the font does seem to need some work as some others have commented. Some of the letters come across as an unfinished typography project or at least something a little bit to eclectic for me personally. I don't dislike the arrows but they seem out of place with everything else in text. A traditional arrow would definitely look better with this theme in my opinion.