Thesis grew out of dissatisfaction with the availability
of good typefaces for corporate identities. “With faces like Universe,
you never know what you get. Every font manufacturer has their own interpretation.
The Linotype Universe is very different from the Berthold version, though
they both claim to have the genuine version.”
Thesis is based on Luc(as’) design theories,
not on an existing type face. It has a low contrast, with only small
differences between the thin and thick strokes. However, it is still
clearly based on writing with a broad-nib pen.
The roman letterforms tend to have some characteristics of italic construction. The eight weights of Thesis have been carefully chosen with the help of Lucas’ interpolation theory. The optical difference between two following weights is constant within the whole range of weights. To distinguish weights in normal situations, two steps are advised. For example, use Bold(7) and Light(3) in combination with normal (5), but not SemiBold (6) or SemiLight (4). In three specific situations the one step difference is very useful. When negative text should have the same appearance as positive text, use one step lighter. When backlit positive text should have the same appearance as positive text that reflects light, go one step heavier, and with negative text go one step heavier to compensate for light overflow. When small text (e.g. footnotes) should have the same ‘color’ as the main text, go one step heavier.
Thesis was designed to be the definitive font
for every aspect of a corporate identity campaign. The font is so carefully
drawn, that it maintains its’ form in sizes ranging from business
card text to lettering on the side of a building. The italic forms are
one of the most distinct aspects of the Thesis family. The study of
other low-contrast typeface designs reveals that they are often little
more than sloped versions of the roman forms. Thesis italic forms have
been individually designed, and stand on their own as letterforms, while
perfectly complimenting the roman forms. Thesis (Classic) uses old-style
numerals in the basic face. Lining numerals are found in Thesis Basic
and Thesis Office, and tabular numerals in the expert sets.
TheMix has a previously unknown serif placement; the
caps are all without serifs, and some lower case characters have some
serifs. TheMix became instantly well known when a special edition of
Wired was set completely in TheMix in October 1995.
Signage arrows are available in 8 weights and 8 directions. They are
designed to automatically fit in with the text. Dotted arrows and the
exit sign are available in 8 weights and 4 directions. Horizontal and
vertical arrows can be extended with horizontal and vertical lines and
dotted lines.
The horizontal lines; quarter em, en dash, the quarter
em and the em dash are on the same height as several other arrows, all
in 8 weights.
The ‘g’ has been a problem for a long very time, I didn’t
have the double eyed ‘g’ at first. Initially I had a ‘g’
which looked like the ‘a’ with an Italic construction. After
trying many versions, finally I was more satisfied with the double eyed
‘g’. The other g was in the font as well, on the place of
the currency sign. In the Italic fonts there is only one ‘g’.
There you find an alternative ‘y’. In the LucasFonts release
of Thesis(classic) this is the only thing that had to be changed; this
position in the font is now occupied with the Euro. The alternative
g can still be used, because it is the normal "g" in TheMix families.
LF TheSans Basic
LF TheMix Basic
LF TheSerif Basic
At first sight these three packages seem to be the
old Thesis with the numbers from the expert set. A package like this
was often requested by font users. However, the fonts are more than
that in many regards.
The numbers in the basic fonts have identical character widths, and
can be used to set tables. The numbers have the same heights, and are
slightly smaller than the capitals. Several number-like glyphs have
the same characteristics, for example, mathematic symbols and currency
signs for the dollar, sterling, florin, yen, cent and of course the
euro.
These three font packages are not only an artistic extension to the
existing Thesis family, but also a tech-friendly and practical solution
with all kinds of enhancements, like optimized kerning tables, better
screen display, new accents for capitals and lowercase, subtle smaller
numbers and new letterforms. Surprisingly, no update has been necessary
to the huge Thesis family and no big mistakes have come to light since
it was introduced in 1994. This is a long time in software land.
Of course I kept on spotting small things to be improved which led to
these fonts having a strong amount of small aesthetic enhancements,
especially the in the non-alphabetic glyphs.
The original Thesis had some technical inconveniences. It was aimed
at designers and typographers, not at a more general use. Files using
those fonts can not be taken easily from one computer platform to the
other, and the fonts did not have any standard encoding. Some recent
software packages like Adobe PhotoShop 5 and Adobe Illustrator 8 have
their own font machinery. In these programs the font menu looks kind
of strange with the original Thesis. Wherever it was possible these
things are now addressed. “Actually, I did not want to make an
update to the Thesis before the new font technology "OpenType" is introduced.
We are on the breaking-point of several technologies. With the introduction
of the Euro, very old and vital parts (the so called encoding tables)
of desktop computing have to change. This has been fixed with temporary
solutions or not yet at all, and it gives font designers a lot of trouble.
Future computer systems will work with Unicode and OpenType, two important
improvements to the font world, but in practice it will take a few years
to be implemented everywhere. My fonts are prepared
for the new technologies but do not depend on them.”
TheSans Monospaced
TheSans Monospaced started out as a better alternative to print program code. It also functions very well for regular correspondence, giving printed letters a personal touch. Optimal screen display for crisp reading pleasure is achieved with hand-edited bitmaps and special hand-made hinting instructions. The letter-widths of all weights are exactly 60% of the point size, thus 12pt letters are 7.2pt wide (10-pitch font). TheSansMono is a fine fixed pitch font for web browsers. With its similar character widths, it makes an elegant alternative to Courier.
TheMonospace introduces a completely new breed of figures. Not the old style figures that look lowercase, nor tabular figures that mimic capital letters, they are something fresh that straddle both categories. The numerals are clearly distinguishable, as well. For example, the zero is bigger than the lower case o, but smaller than the capital O, and all of the numerals are distinguishable from similar letters. This is especially important for computer code and alpha-numeric systems (for example the British postal code system) where the distinction between letters and numbers is crucial. They are the figures of the future!
LF TheSans Mono + Condensed is an offshoot of LF TheSans. This new variation came to life as a favor for Thomas Merz, the wizard of PostScript programming. In his book The PostScript and PDF Bible TheSans Mono was first used. The idea was simple, to give all the letters the same width, but its execution was a challenge. In LF TheSansMono Condensed, character widths are 50% of the chosen type size (12-pitch). In all, it took over nine months to complete the project.
LF TheSans Typewriter™ The typewriter variation of TheSans Mono is designed to be used on high-resolution laser printers. A letter printed at 600 dpi looks less crisp and formal with TheSans Typewriter. It looks as though it were printed with an older printer, or with an actual typewriter. In this way it is possible to print a complete letter on a good printer: the design elements (address and logo) are sharp and professional while the content is softer and more personal. Because of manual hinting even TheTypewriter is optimally readable on screen.
LF Nebulae™ One, Two, Three, Four, ThreeD
These four fonts with similar metrics can be layered in different colors
LF JesusLovesYouAll™ JesusLovesYou, JesusLovesYourSister and JesusLovesYourBrother, from Lucas 23, verse 44Ñ46
Already, LF Thesis is providing scope for derivative designs: LF Nebulae, LF JesusLovesYouAll and LF Bolletje Wol were based on Thesis, and some distorted faces have found their way to international publications.