{"id":8243,"date":"2022-03-23T17:17:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T14:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/typetype.org\/fr\/?p=8243"},"modified":"2026-05-15T10:18:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:18:46","slug":"change-faces-while-maintaining-the-layout-revealing-the-secrets-of-creating-the-uniwidth-font-tt-fellows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/typetype.org\/fr\/blog\/change-faces-while-maintaining-the-layout-revealing-the-secrets-of-creating-the-uniwidth-font-tt-fellows\/","title":{"rendered":"Change faces while maintaining the layout\u2014revealing the secrets of creating the uniwidth font TT Fellows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In January 2022, a new TypeType font TT Fellows<\/a> was released on sales platforms. Almost immediately, it attracted the attention of designers from all over the world, which is not surprising, because this versatile, concise, and functional typeface is suitable for most modern projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a font that will not ruin the layout if you want to change the thickness in the process. It\u2019s graphically friendly and intuitive to use. Using TT Fellows is safe and enjoyable. There is nothing superfluous in the character composition, and it has extensive support for languages, which are enough for wide use in a variety of tasks. There are useful features and functional ligatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite its neutral nature, depending on the purpose, the font family can show a completely different mood: it can be soft and calm, as well as bright or even brutal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add to this the fact that TT Fellows is the first uniwidth typeface in the TypeType collection, and it becomes clear that such a font had no chance of going unnoticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you intrigued? Let\u2019s talk about the new font in more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uniwidth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When the new font was at the idea stage, we only knew one thing: the TypeType collection of typefaces needed another neutral sans serif. It should be like TT Norms\u00ae<\/sup> Pro<\/a>, TT Commons\u2122 Pro<\/a> or TT Hoves<\/a>, that is, functional and covering the broadest application scope. Such fonts are popular and convenient, modern and practical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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However, embarking on a project to create a font similar to already released ones seemed not the most interesting task. All of the above typefaces are geometric sans serifs, so we decided to change the style of the new typeface. Geometry is still in demand and aesthetic, we thought, but we had practically no humanist fonts<\/a> in our arsenal, which means it was time to fix it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, geometric and humanist sans serifs are similar in their neutrality and universality of use. The difference is that geometric sans serifs do not usually have a noticeable spirit, the shapes of characters in these fonts consist of simple geometric shapes. Usually these are low-contrast fonts with different widths, while humanist fonts are high-contrast fonts with different widths. In humanist sans serifs, the characters acquire softness, and references to serifs emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u00a0is\u00a0difficult to\u00a0call TT\u00a0Fellows<\/a> completely humanist: it\u00a0has soft features, but at\u00a0the same time it\u00a0has mechanistic motifs, and in\u00a0regular weights the font can be\u00a0compared to\u00a0neo-grotesques. It\u00a0turned out to\u00a0be\u00a0something in\u00a0between, because from each style we\u00a0took the features that seemed attractive to\u00a0us within the framework of\u00a0the new project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To create a neutral sans serif that would not be like the main bestsellers<\/a> of the studio, but that at the same time would be able to keep them company in the user\u2019s arsenal\u2014this is, approximately, how one can formulate our first thoughts on the font family. Of course, we also did not want to limit the scope of the font, rather, on the contrary, there was a desire to make it almost limitless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uniwidth fonts are a rather interesting and attractive, but not the most common category in the font world. In such typefaces, the em square does not change its width from style to style, that is, even with an increase in boldness, the font does not become wider, but remains in the same place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In classic font families<\/a>, it works like this: the thicker the style, the wider the font becomes. This is logical, because bold styles require more space, but this can create difficulties for the user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s say a designer is typing a text in a layout and wants to change the style as they go. Alas, after such manipulations, the layout will have to be changed and adjusted to the new width, because the set will inevitably be corrupted. This also applies to working in web design. Websites often use buttons that, when hovered over, change the font style, becoming bolder. This is how the site visitor understands that they hover over a certain button, but in the design you have to adjust the button container to the new text width.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With a uniwidth font, there will be no such problems. The font stays the same even if you change the weight from the thinnest to the boldest. The text will be within its limits and will not change its location, and the designer can easily change the style right in the layout, and the web designer can set the necessary style parameters for any buttons without worrying about the size of the container.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For designers and typesetters, a uniwidth font is a lifesaver and a godsend, but in type design, such a typeface creates certain problems that require compromise solutions. We will talk about them later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, the concept of the future font has been formed: a uniwidth sans serif, universal and neutral. By the way, TT Fellows became the first uniwidth font for the team, so the project became a point of professional growth. We challenged ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We were in no hurry to dive into the development, because before plunging into the new area, you need to research the topic in detail. The uniwidth font idea was no longer an idea, so we had to study the peculiarities in detail before designing the font.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our research, we selected modern uniwidth fonts by various font foundries that exist on the market. It turned out that there are not too many of them out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way, in type design, there is such a category as monospace fonts<\/a>, in which all glyphs are placed in one point size. Because of this, letters have to be heavily modified when developing a font, and, for example, an i will become quite wide, and an m\u2014narrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A uniwidth font is different in that within the same style, letters can still be located on different em squares, so the font looks familiar and not as specific as in monospace fonts. With proper development, the user will not notice anything unusual in the shape of characters, while within different styles, identical letters will remain within the same em sqaure. Thus, a uniwidth font is a cross between a monospace and a classic font.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our research was to show the future challenges to be faced and graphical solutions to compensate for the limitations of uniwidth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wanted to immediately outline the graphical patterns of uniwidth fonts and capture the visual solutions for certain glyphs. After studying various examples, we have identified the main points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n