Atkinson Hyperlegible

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Atkinson Hyperlegible
Atkinson Hyperlegible characters.svg
Category Sans-serif
Classification Grotesque
Designer(s) Applied Design Works
Foundry Braille Institute
Date created2019
Website brailleinstitute.org/freefont

Atkinson Hyperlegible is a freely available typeface built around a grotesque sans-serif core, intended to be optimally legible for readers who are partially visually impaired, with all characters maximally distinguishable from one another. It was developed by the Braille Institute of America in collaboration with Applied Design Works and is available under the SIL Open Font License. It won Fast Company 's Innovation by Design Award for Graphic Design in 2019 and was shortlisted for a graphic design award by Dezeen in 2020.

Contents

History

The font's normal appearance above, and a blur effect simulating how the same letters might appear to someone with a low-vision condition below Atkinson Hyperlegible blur.webp
The font's normal appearance above, and a blur effect simulating how the same letters might appear to someone with a low-vision condition below

The project began as part of a visual rebranding at the Braille Institute, [1] which contracted the studio Applied Design Works to work with a specialist in low-vision conditions from the Braille Institute and a panel of people with such conditions. [2] Most students that the Braille Institute works with are not fully blind and do not use braille, the tactile writing system with which the institute shares its name. [3] Applied Design Works looked for a typeface that would suit the Braille Institute's needs but were unable to find one. [3] Experimenting with both serif and sans-serif fonts including Times New Roman and Frutiger, they found that distinguishing among homoglyphs, and even among some characters that do not appear very similar to fully sighted people, was difficult for partially visually impaired people because of these fonts' focus on uniformity. Thus the project shifted to creating a typeface that would be as legible as possible for the community the Braille Institute serves. [1]

Applied Design Works' creative director, Craig Dobie, put Elliott Scott in charge of designing the typeface. [1] Building around a grotesque sans-serif core, [4] the Applied Designs Works team worked to make sure that none of the typeface's glyphs could be mistaken for any other, consulting with clients of the Braille Institute and familiarizing themselves with research into legibility. [3] The Braille Institute named the finished product after the institute's founder, J. Robert Atkinson, [5] and released it on its website through a custom license; [6] in 2021, they made it available through Google Fonts under the SIL Open Font License. [7] [8]

In 2019, Atkinson Hyperlegible won Fast Company 's Innovation by Design Award for Graphic Design. [1] The next year, it was shortlisted for a graphic design award by Dezeen , [9] losing to a series of heat-reactive stamps that illustrate climate change. [10]

Design

Atkinson Hyperlegible uses many circles, in a nod to braille. Atkinson Hyperlegible circles.png
Atkinson Hyperlegible uses many circles, in a nod to braille.

Atkinson Hyperlegible contains four styles, each of 335 glyphs: regular, bold, italics, and italics bold. It supports diacritics in 27 languages. [4]

Elliott Scott of Applied Design Works and studio creative director Craig Dobie made the decision "to break a lot of rules that a lot of designers will care about", [1] for instance adding serifs to the uppercase i but not the uppercase tee [2] and giving the uppercase ef a significantly longer tie (middle bar) than the uppercase e. [1] Mark Wilson of Fast Company writes: [1]

Stare too long at its quirks, and Atkinson Hyperlegible almost feels like it has an identity crisis, as if a dozen fonts were smashed together to make one. But typed out on a page, it's been treated with careful kerning that the average eye just kind of accepts, as if it was any other typeface.

Other efforts to make letters distinct include exaggerating letters' shapes and angling their spurs. There are many circles in Atkinson Hyperlegible, a nod to braille dots and the Braille Institute. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line spacing, letter spacing, and spaces between pairs of letters. The term typography is also applied to the style, arrangement, and appearance of the letters, numbers, and symbols created by the process. Type design is a closely related craft, sometimes considered part of typography; most typographers do not design typefaces, and some type designers do not consider themselves typographers. Typography also may be used as an ornamental and decorative device, unrelated to the communication of information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Type design</span> Art of designing typefaces and fonts

Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below.

In typography, a serif is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface, and a typeface that does not include them is sans-serif. Some typography sources refer to sans-serif typefaces as "grotesque" or "Gothic" and serif typefaces as "roman".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typeface</span> Set of characters that share common design features

A typeface is a design of letters, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size, weight, slope, width, and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frutiger (typeface)</span> Humanist sans-serif typeface

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockwell (typeface)</span> Slab-serif font

Rockwell is a slab serif typeface designed by the Monotype Corporation and released in 1934. The project was supervised by Monotype's engineering manager Frank Hinman Pierpont. This typeface is distinguished by a serif at the apex of the uppercase A, while the lowercase a has two storeys. Because of its monoweighted stroke, Rockwell is used primarily for display or at small sizes rather than as a body text. Rockwell is based on an earlier, more condensed slab serif design cast by the Inland Type Foundry called Litho Antique.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrian Frutiger</span> Swiss typeface designer (1928–2015)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Braille Institute of America</span> Nonprofit organization

The Braille Institute of America (BIA) is a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Los Angeles providing programs, seminars and one-on-one instruction for the visually impaired community in Southern California. Funded almost entirely by private donations, all of the institute's services are provided completely free of charge. The organization has seven regional centers: Anaheim, Coachella Valley, Laguna Hills, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego and Santa Barbara, as well as outreach programs at more than 200 locations throughout Southern California. It is a member of the Braille Authority of North America.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montserrat (typeface)</span> Geometric sans-serif font

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Wilson, Mark (19 September 2019). "This typeface hides a secret in plain sight. And that's the point". Innovation by Design. Fast Company . New York City. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Crook, Lizzie (11 September 2020). "Atkinson Hyperlegible typeface is designed for visually impaired readers". Dezeen . London. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 Mangan, Tom (9 June 2022) [8 November 2019]. "New Typeface Boosts Legibility for Low Vision Readers". All About Vision. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  4. 1 2 Budrick, Callie (14 October 2020). "The Hyperlegible Typeface Changing How We See Print". Design Inspiration. Print . Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  5. ↑ Marsden, Rhodri (23 August 2021). "What's in a font? How typography can help us read better". The National . Abu Dhabi, UAE. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  6. ↑ "Download the Atkinson Hyperlegible Font". Braille Institute of America . Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  7. ↑ "Braille Institute's Atkinson Hyperlegible Typeface Now Available on Google Fonts" (Press release). Braille Institute of America. 5 August 2021. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  8. ↑ "Atkinson Hyperlegible". Google Fonts . Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  9. ↑ "Shortlists". Dezeen Awards 2020. Dezeen . London. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  10. ↑ "Climate Change Stamps | Winner". Dezeen Awards 2020. Dezeen . London. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
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