

Frustro: The Impossible Typeface - michaelkscott
http://www.jeanniejeannie.com/2012/03/16/frustro-the-impossible-typeface/

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adnam
Top comment is prize-worthy:

 _Elijah Madden: I hope there's a fixed-width version so I can use it for
coding._

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adnam
Ahhhhh HN; anti-apple comments: down-voted, karma-whoring: upvoted.

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verbosus
A similar idea, but executed in an even more interesting way can be found in
the typeface Priori Acute, designed by Jonathan Barnbrook and released by
Emigré in 2010. I urge you to check it out:
<http://www.virusfonts.com/fonts/priori-acute>

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Garbage
Just for the information, the project page[1] mentions that this is under
"Attribution - No Derivatives"[2]

[1]<http://www.behance.net/gallery/FRUSTRO-typeface/2525513>

[2]<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/>

~~~
ars
And for additional information, he does not have the ability to make that
restriction (in the US).

Typefaces can not be copyrighted. (The actual font file can be, but not the
shape of the letters.)

This is a slightly edge case since the letters have considerably more art to
them than the typical letter, but they are still letters, and he has no legal
ability to restrict what people do with how they look.

If calligraphy can not be copyrighted (and it can not), then this can't be
either. So his license does not have any force of law behind it.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protectio...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protection_of_typefaces)

His page mentions that he is from Hungary, and this restriction may have the
force of law there, I don't know.

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jcrites
What does this mean about fonts like Helvetica? Are they typically protected
by design patents? If not, could someone take a bitmap screenshot of
Helvetica, product a font from it, and distribute that font?

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almost
You can trace the outlines and produce an exact or almost exact copy, and
that's what Ariel actually is.

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Drbble
How is tracing a published work not considered copying?

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ars
Because it's letters of the alphabet, and you can't copyright them or their
shape.

The small modification you make to the shape are not considered enough to give
you copyright.

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jianshen
The designer's own personal emblem is an impossible letter. :)
<http://www.behance.net/martzihegedus>

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colonel_panic
I think that one could be interpreted as merely warped.

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sodiumphosphate
Correct. The shaded version makes it very clear; it's merely an H with a
twist.

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hartror
It ever so subtly hurts my brain.

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forgottenpaswrd
It hurts mine really hard. I can't look at it for more than some seconds
without feeling really bad.

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malkia
If dyslexie (the font) helps people with dyslexia, this one does the exact
opposite.

Cool stuff!

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hesselink
Link to the dyslexie font: <http://www.studiostudio.nl/project-dyslexie/en/>

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tomelders
um.... I have a very strong feeling that I saw this in a font book back when I
was in Art College, in the late 90's.

I should clarify, I'm not implying it's a copy, or an unoriginal idea. I'm
just saying out loud that I "think" I've seen this before.

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unjinxable
Even the 'I' looks wrong. Well done.

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dchest
Is it? (Looks again.) Oh, I see what you mean, but is it "impossible"? It
looks like a falling tall skyscrapper from the ground point perspective.

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talmand
To me, many of them are not what I would call impossible. Looking them over I
think I could recreate many of them in a 3D program easily enough. The only
ones that fit that name seem to be the ones with a horizontal element
connecting two vertical elements. Even then many of those where the horizontal
is on the bottom or top, like T, U, V, W, seem to work. I wouldn't call this a
collection of "impossible" letters but a nice typeface inspired by an
impossible object, just like it says next to the name.

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jordhy
It looks very nice, where can we buy/download?

~~~
blendergasket
I was wondering the exact same thing. I'd love to use it for the name of
<http://impossiblethoughts.com/>

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guelo
I have a feeling that if it was an actual font it would be an unreadable mess
below 30pt or so.

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InclinedPlane
On an iPad3 a 12pt font would be about 44 pixels high or so.

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moondev
so cool. how can I buy this.

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Codhisattva
Beautiful and brilliant!

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bromagosa
My brain hurts now

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bleevo
Kill it with fire.

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davedx
Frustro, sounds like a lot of the fonts on blogs and websites designed by
people who only test on Macbooks these days. I wish people focused less on how
pretty their custom font was and more on its readability.

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awolf
First: it's not a font, it's a typeface.

Second: This typeface is a creative expression. Readability is but one of many
goals that a new typeface can have.

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c1sc0
Right on! ... Quote: The man who invented the Macintosh and misnamed what
should be the “typefaces” menu the “fonts” menu. He never forgave himself for
his incorrect usage of English. ~ Aza Rasking (source:
<http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/my-father-final-gift/>)

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narkee
I don't understand that distinction.

In selecting a typeface, you're also necessarily selecting the font, so why
make the distinction?

From an artistic and technical point of view I get it, but from a user
perspective the two are not separable quantities.

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ars
> In selecting a typeface, you're also necessarily selecting the font

No, the reverse of that. A typeface of the overall look, a font specifies the
size and things like bold, italic.

So what is commonly called the font is really the typeface, and what is called
the size is actually the font.

Back when fonts of a specific size were physical thing this mattered a lot -
you only had a limited number of fonts for each typeface.

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Drbble
Typeface plus size plus bold/italic/etc is the font.

