National Park Typeface (2019) | Hacker News Reader

National Park Typeface (2019)

nationalparktypeface.com

203 pointsluke2m31 comments

For anyone who is interested in fonts that are literally intended to be used with router bits, there is an old font format called SHX (not the GIS thing) for this. I had been looking for such a thing for some time, and then I stumbled upon this post: https://forum.lightburnsoftware.com/t/shx-font-collection/25.... It's useful for CNC tasks where you really want to minimize the total path length of a given string.

This National Park typeface is kind of funny to me, because it originates from a similar practical constraint, but adapting it to the finite-width OTF format eliminates the practical aspect of it. Not that there's anything wrong with that; I realize it's still useful.

Took me several moments and a visit to the article to realize that this was not talking about a font that was somehow more efficient to be routed around network paths but was instead about a router tool and the bit on a router that makes impressions in wood.

I never realized the overlap in terminology before, that's quite interesting. "Router bits" and "shortest path".

I believe the etymology of 'router' (sending network packets along a route) and 'router' (cutting wood) are different. They are pronounced differently in British English, at least.

Rout, via Old English 'wrotan'

https://www.etymonline.com/word/router

Route, via Old French 'rute'

https://www.etymonline.com/word/route

Logically, one cannot create routes without a router and correspondingly, a router bit ;)

Also 'router table' vs 'routing table'.

See also: vector / stroke fonts for use with pen plotters. Often stored in SVG font format. The big difference a typical computer font like OpenType draws the shape of the outline of the character, whereas a router font draws the shape of the centerline.

As an ex CNC router operator & engraver in the signage industry I used all types of fonts. Anything that wasn't vector based had to be converted and/or scanned and vectorized. And yes, bit size, offset (for routing, not engraving), nesting (for routing), path & kerning are all important aspects that have to be considered when setting up a job. When I started in 1990 all of that was a lot harder because we were using DOS on a Commodore but those things can be easily manipulated using today's software.

And yes, to a comment below about kerning. From a signage perspective that is definitely an engraving font and it has serious kerning issues. Fortunately that can be adjusted with signage software.

> "not the GIS thing"

And now I'm imagining tons of people searching for "shx" and going "Well, a shapefile sounds like something that could be a font... How do I convert this?"

Wish they had named the font Pantograph.

I love the look, but the kerning seems to be a little off, especially for initial caps. Try typing “Testing” into the test box. Although I guess you’d mostly use all caps anyways if you wanted the full “park sign” effect.

It seems to be okay in the Regular weight, but are definitely off for the other 3. It's these kinds of things that drive me bonkers. I recently went through months of trying out fonts for a brand, and the font ultimately chosen has a very similar issue. The font contains so many ligatures that get replaced automatically when certain character combinations are used, yet the basic spacing between letters is odd.

To me, the kerning issues are fine if you remember that this is meant to mimic a wooden sign carved with a router. For a typeface on a screen, it's all wrong but it does reflect the original use quite well.

There’s kerning issues in the capitals too, try “WAVE” or “HILLTOP”

> Editing your Cargo site is not yet supported for this browser; please use a recent version of Chrome or Safari.

Yes, that certainly was surprising.

You are right, the space between the T and e definitely look off. And I typed in "Testing" without recalling what kerning meant.

One of my favorites: https://webonastick.com/fonts/routed-gothic/

I don’t really respond to typefaces like other do. Someone will point out Roboto or some other typeface and talk about how they like it , and I probably couldn’t tell it from any other.

But typefaces with associations like this one actually get a response from me. Almost like there is something subliminal.

I feel the same with Helvetica and NYC subway signs.

Discussed at the time:

National Park Typeface - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20096120 - June 2019 (84 comments)

I don’t know anything about fonts. (Aside from irl routing…) Why do people use fonts with which you can’t tell I from l (and sometimes 1!)?

If chosen well, it doesn't matter because context clues usually will eliminate confusion. You're likely to know that the lake path isn't I.4 miles long and that there's no 1 in 'Ranger Station'. In cases where there likely is to be confusion, spelling numbers out can make the intention known.

But of course not everyone is so careful. There was a computer magazine back in the 80s that used a typeface for program listings that used the exact same glyph for 1 and l, which often could not be determined which one was correct strictly by context. Those were frustrating to try to debug.

Because they're designed for use cases where that is never a problem.

Look at the photos on the page to see actual usage in the real world--it's primarily on wooden trail markers in parks. You see them pointing the way and sometimes distance along a trail. You never see paragraphs of text or exposition.

Well for certain cultures 1 and I were literally the same.

That same culture also I believe didn't have lower case. Some brief searching brings me to some articles that show Latin lowercase came from monks/scholars under early French King Charlemagne.

I guess if you're a monk manually recopying texts, simpler forms are better, even if some forms look like other forms.

And it's definitely simpler/quicker to rout out a single stroke for I rather than give it the top and bottom lines.

(2019)

https://www.theparkcatalog.com/blog/national-park-typeface-f...

Year added above. Thanks!

I want to ask "does this really need its own domain" but can't figure out which of my multiple personalities is behind it.

Yeah fairplay, it's actually a trend in recent years for typeface launches to have little marketing one off sites rather than have everything buried in catalog pages etc I suppose, demo on a larger/sharable scale etc.

Semi-related: IIRC, Hershey vector fonts were used in HP Basic, as for HP plotters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hershey_fonts

(2019)

Any reason for the share?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com