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Sooo... why are rounds larger than flats?

Gino

Premium Subscriber
tex, where's your tittle ?? Better yet..... what's your tittle ?? This isn't the 11th century, ya know.
 

FireSprint.com

Trade Only Screen & Digital Sign Printing
Yes, visually they need to extend to appear the same size. A flat character has a lot of weight at the top and bottom, if the round character doesn't go above and or below, it will appear smaller. Same thing with kerning pairs. T's A's and round characters are spaced closer together for the same reason. All these factors make the spacing and height look the same.

This is one of the reasons you measure to flat characters during an install, or the same character when using script fonts, otherwise, you end up installing them crooked.

In typographical terms, this phenomenon is called overshoot. Usually it measures 1 to 3% of the letter height, depending on the letter style.

Why does a round letter look shorter? Why the optical illusion?
Read my blog post from 2016. :)

https://signbrad.com/?s=optical+illusions

https://frerejones.com/blog/typeface-mechanics-001/

Brad

Both of these are just awesome to understand. Great for a noob (and many veterans) to understand!
 

Pewter0000

Graphic Design | Production
Sounds like the fine print on high quantity orders. Maybe I should work this into all of my proposals for letter dimensions.
"A shipment of 5% over or under the quantity will constitute a complete order and will be billed accordingly." -Stouse fine print on order of 2,000 stickers.

Mmm, I'm going to add 1 to 3% ink costs on every "o" I have to print.
 

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
I'm not sure what it its, but it doesn't sound like something you should show your customers. :eek:
 

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes

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signbrad

New Member
Sounds like the fine print on high quantity orders. Maybe I should work this into all of my proposals for letter dimensions.
"A shipment of 5% over or under the quantity will constitute a complete order and will be billed accordingly." -Stouse fine print on order of 2,000 stickers.

Yes, it's part of the "fine print." But it's not an attempt at deception. Charging for overruns has been standard practice in the printing industry for generations. My ex, who has been a creative director for 30 years, told me this a long time ago. She said, for example, an order for 10,000 Wolferman's catalogs will never be 10,000 exactly. It is not a dishonest business practice. Rather, it's the nature of the [printing] beast, as explained in the following post—

https://calendarsnow.com/2013/09/printing-overrun-underrun-policy-allowance-explained/

Brad in Kansas City
 

mjkjr

New Member
Texas_Signmaker sometimes in these situations when the customer has picked on something unreasonable it can be helpful to ask them to go around and look at literally any other signs around. It gets them to unlock the autistic focus they've put onto your sign and put that focus on the larger picture. Hopefully after doing this it will dawn on them that since all of the other signs they see are done this way...there must be a good reason. Good luck!
 

Jester1167

Premium Subscriber
Yes, it's part of the "fine print." But it's not an attempt at deception. Charging for overruns has been standard practice in the printing industry for generations. My ex, who has been a creative director for 30 years, told me this a long time ago. She said, for example, an order for 10,000 Wolferman's catalogs will never be 10,000 exactly. It is not a dishonest business practice. Rather, it's the nature of the [printing] beast, as explained in the following post—

https://calendarsnow.com/2013/09/printing-overrun-underrun-policy-allowance-explained/

Brad in Kansas City

The problem is that it's in the fine print and most people don't learn about it until their customer complains because hey needed 500, you charged them for 500 and they only received 487. Or the other scenario is that you get your bill and were charged for 538 and charged the customer for 500. Once it's understood it's no big deal.
 

signbrad

New Member
The problem is that it's in the fine print and most people don't learn about it until their customer complains because hey needed 500, you charged them for 500 and they only received 487. Or the other scenario is that you get your bill and were charged for 538 and charged the customer for 500. Once it's understood it's no big deal.

True.
 
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