Canada 150 Typeface | Hacker News Reader

Canada 150 Typeface

canada.pch.gc.ca

74 pointskeehun18 comments

The uppercase G's lack of a spur... it just seems Canadian. Something about not needing the crutch due to our northern resourcefulness. The M's pointed top strikes me immediately as a play on the triangular shapes of inuit language, a tasteful nod.

Overall it really fits and is an excellent contribution to our nation's aesthetic. Distinctly no longer British, funny in a dry way, clean like a Scandinavian without the rigidity, forever fond of Expo '67 and slowly moving past colonialism without erasing it.

It'll suit Justin Trudeau's government perfectly. A nod to his father's 60's legacy but with a "because it's 2015" modernity. It actually kind of resembles the man himself with his native tattoo* and all.

*http://i.huffpost.com/gen/3577800/thumbs/o-JUSTIN-TRUDEAU-BO...

What a uniquely Canadian take on the Putin glamour shot!

That is one complete typeface; love it. But how so government of them to impose an application process just to get the typeface! Especially when the font is supposedly free for commercial or non-commercial use.

Edit: If the implication is that the font should be used only in conjunction with referencing the logo and Canada 150 milestone, then it should be explicitly stated.

The Wired article says the font is an expansion of Mesmerize¹, so if you're writing in the Latin alphabet it's irrelevant.

¹ http://www.fontspring.com/fonts/typodermic/mesmerize

Followup (too late for me to edit): The designer, Ray Larabie, says here¹: “After Canada's 150th birthday (2017) I intend to release it as open source. There might be some revisions before then.” — and some other interesting things, like: “The idea of irking the design profession was part of the attraction to this project”.

¹ http://typedrawers.com/discussion/1267/typeface-to-accompany...

I wonder, too, if there's any hidden metadata embedded to rat out the leaker, should the font become publicly available by someone who has gone through the process.

    > But how so government of them to impose 
    > an application process just to get the typeface!
    > Especially when the font is supposedly free for 
    > commercial or non-commercial use.

It's best to keep the two definitions of "free" separate:

    * This costs no money. (It is free.)
    * This requires an approval and license per use.
      (It is not free to use when and how you want.)

Seems cool, my first thought is: I bet this makes it easy to @font-face some of these languages online finally. Oh but you need gov't permission to use the typeface.

It COULD be so useful, let's hope they separate the licensing for the logo and the typeface in the future to make the typeface easier to access and use without permission!

I'm not aware of a good-looking unified font that handles English, French, Cree/Inuktitut. It's really unfortunate that the government did not make it available as an unrestricted download.

Couldn't get OP/Google Cache to load, so here's a related article with some screenshots (thumbnails are heavily artifacted, but the regular-scale images are less so)

http://prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com/post/134143005311/cana...

Here's a mirror. https://archive.is/zxBQk

Does this font feel Canadian to Canadians?

The Dutch government also has its 'own' typeface [1,2], used on everything from the official weather reports to tax forms and road signs. Dutch people recognize anything written in it as something meant to be taken seriously.

[1] https://www.rijkshuisstijl.nl/bouwstenen/lettertype

[2] http://designworkplan.com/typography-fonts/rijksoverheid-san...

I don't think there's any typeface that Canadians would recognize as particularly Canadian. The federal government uses Helvetica.

But then, to me, ‘Dutchness’ in a typeface brings to mind the styles of the 17th century when the Dutch were at the center of printing.

Having to apply for use of the logo just to use the font is a bizarre move...

Downvoted for this? Jeez.

I'm a Canadian and I don't think I should have to register and present a justification of my use of a logo I'm not actually going to use in order to use Canada's new font.

I'm not used to the shape of the counters of this typeface on the gs, ps and qs; to my eyes they seem very opinionated.

Why did they use JPEG?

Needs emojis for all Canadian NHL teams.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com